Tess Koning, a member of our Parish Pastoral Council and Principal of St Peter’s Primary school reads from the Gospel of Luke (11: 5-13) in which Jesus says ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you’. In today’s Gospel, Tess notes, Jesus uses two parables to demonstrate to his disciples that prayer is a continuous and persistent pleading with God for our physical and spiritual needs. God’s greatest gift to us is his Holy Spirit. Persistent prayer is not a way for God to make us wait, but to give us greater clarity and depth in our petitions. We need to learn to direct our needs to the realisation of God’s kingdom. For true disciples, prayers of petition are not about focussing on ourselves, but are about having God as the central focus. In closing, Tess says let’s ask God to help us when we pray to be persistent, focussing on those things that help us realise his kingdom here on earth.