“Ask, and it will be given to you…”  - Matthew 7:7‍

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Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord,

As our children enter a new school year, we also enter into a new ecclesiastical year. Each year, we ask our children to take a look at what tools they will need for their classes upon beginning and what would be best to focus on in their development. As their teachers say, each year brings its own opportunities for struggle, reflection, and personal growth.

Like a new school year, as Orthodox Christians we are called to reflect on our spiritual lives as well, and a good place to start is where everything in the Christian life begins, in prayer. In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord offers beautiful instructions on how to live one’s life and our relationship with God. With regards to prayer, Jesus tells His followers to go into their room and shut the door (Matthew 6:6) in order to have quiet time with our heavenly Father. Having done so, He says the following:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)

This incredible invitation to talk to God is fundamental to the Christian life, in that we believe God wants to spend time with us and hear us! “What man is there among you who,” Jesus affirms, “if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?... If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” It starts with an ask, and to trust that the Lord is there to listen to us.

Let us remember this promise of our Lord as we continue this year in our prayer life, toward our spiritual growth.

With Love in Christ,

Fr. Niko Bekris
Parish Priest