Saturday in the Thirty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time

“Pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man” (Lk 21:34-36).

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, he taught them a prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, the “Our Father.”   We learn how to pray by beginning with memorized prayers, like the Hail Mary and the Our Father and the Sign of the Cross. 

Here, at the end of the liturgical year and near the end of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us another prayer, but how many of us know it by heart, how many pray it every day? Yet, it’s a prayer that comes from Jesus. He tells us, “Pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.” It’s really a prayer for final perseverance.  I repeat it every day when I make the Stations of the Cross, with a few additional words: “O Lord, may I have the strength to endure and escape all that is to come and to stand before you with joy when you appear.”