The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray and he shared with them the prayer we know as the “Our Father” or “The Lord’s Prayer”. This version from Luke is a bit different than the version from Matthew that we are used to. Praying with different words can help us to be more attentive and mindful. We also need to be careful when we pray to resist the temptation to only say words and forget that the words we are praying are directed to a Person, in this case, Our Father.
This very prayer was given to the Apostles, who passed it on, and it has continued to be prayed and passed on generation after generation such that we have received the “Our Father” again in this moment!
God’s word is alive. It touches our hearts and minds, and reaches each of us in our own unique moments of sorrow, challenges, and desolations, as well as our successes, joys, and consolations. Another good point to remember when approaching prayer is to resist the temptation to change God. Instead, let us allow him to transform us by his loving embrace.
The Lord’s Prayer is wonderful on its own when we meditate upon each of the words. While at the same time it is also a model of prayer. In the very opening line, Jesus invites us to begin each prayer in praise and thanksgiving. Beginning any prayer in gratitude leads us to experience joy and communion with our Father. When we are grateful, we are less apt to dwell on what we don’t have.
Each of the following lines are lines of petition and intercession. We are asking God for our needs, physical as well as spiritual. The daily bread points back to how our Father took care of the Hebrews in the desert with bread from heaven, the manna. And points forward to the institution of the Eucharist. The most powerful petition we can pray, and the most transformative and healing petition is to ask for and offer forgiveness.
Having been forgiven and making time to savor being forgiven, we will be hopefully, more apt to forgive others. Through the lens of forgiveness, we can then also see better what our lives look like with God and without him. We can then more clearly decide to give our lives to God more fully and resist temptations more consistently by asking for his help. Just as God protected Jesus in the desert from the temptation of Satan, so he will protect us when we to nourish ourselves daily by reading, studying, meditating and praying with his sacred word.
I invite you to give yourself some time now to slowly and prayerfully pray this prayer again. Pay attention to each word, meditate upon them, direct them to, and spend some quiet time with our Father.
“Father, hallowed be your name,
your Kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test” (Luke 11:2-4).
Photo: Let us resist the Kentucky Derby version of the recitation of the Rosary and instead, slowly recite and ponder upon the wonderful prayers and Mysteries on this feast day of our Lady of the Rosary. Painting by Charles B. Chambers.
