In a conversation with God, Abraham explores the range of God’s mercy. When have I been surprised by the extent that God extends mercy to me, choosing to forgive me and welcoming me back to the fold?

The telemarketers keep calling despite local and national legislation, exempt listings, and the continual abuse of phone operators by irate would-be customers, those calls come every day, starting earlier and going later every season. And so does the “spam” of email or messaging.

One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”

As he laid in bed one evening, my father felt a strange lump in his abdominal area. I don’t know how long he was aware of that mass before he called a doctor, but it is safe to say that he considered the tumor advanced given that he could detect it from external touch.

A young man I was on a retreat with once told this story of prayer: “I was so angry at God because I had asked and asked him to help me stop doing drugs. And then before long I was getting high again.

What a beautiful image of God we are given in today’s readings: merciful, compassionate, generous, forgiving, sacrificing for our sakes, willing to listen to our pleas endlessly, able to answer our prayers even before we ask.

We turn in prayer to the one who teaches us to pray.

If . . . a laborer [in Jesus’ time] did not find work for several days, his family was destitute. In such circumstances the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer (“Give us today our bread for this day”) takes on a poignancy many of us no longer experience. It is a prayer for survival.