Friends,
the Gospel for today is of great significance, for in it the Son of God
teaches us to pray. We hear from not just a guru, a spiritual teacher,
or a religious genius, but from the very Son of God. This is why the Our
Father, the Lord’s Prayer, is the model of all prayer.
The
Lord’s Prayer is the prayer for the Christian journey which has been
offered up consistently for the past two thousand years. Think for a
moment how this prayer links us to all of the great figures in Christian
history, from Peter and Paul to Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Francis of
Assisi, John Henry Newman, G.K. Chesterton, John Paul II, and right up
to the present day.
Keep
in mind that prayer is not designed so much to change God’s mind or to
tell God something he
doesn’t know. God isn’t like a big city boss or a reluctant pasha whom
we have to persuade. Rather, he is the one who wants nothing other than
to give us good things—though they might not always be the things we
want.
Jesus said to his disciples:
"In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
"This is how you are to pray:
'Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.'
"If you forgive others their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions."
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