When St. Luke reports that Jesus tells us to “ask, seek, knock” in prayer he concludes with the Lord saying, “If you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?” When St. Matthew reports this scene Jesus says that the Father will give “good things” to those who ask. The gospels are written in Greek and Jesus spoke in Aramaic so the evangelists were translating the words of Jesus. St. Luke took the tradition and made it understandable to his audience — that when we are pray we are not trying to change God’s mind but to change our minds, change them to greater unity to the will of God.
