Praying the Our father
Jul
25
Written by:
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Praying the Our Father
Pastor’s Column
17th Sunday Ordinary Time
July 25, 2010
When you pray, say:
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 11:1-4
Luke’s version of the Our Father is a bit different than Matthew’s. Jesus must have taught this prayer many times as he travelled about, perhaps using slightly different words in different places. How deeply we can meditate on this simple and yet profound prayer! I only wish to highlight a few of the words of this prayer, and invite you to meditate on the rest of it yourself. We get so used to the words that we can sometimes hardly think about them, and yet our Lord teaches us so very much with them.
“Our.” The first thing our Lord teaches us is that we are in relationship with each other: the “our” teaches us that we are all part of a human family—we approach the Lord together! It is not possible to really be a Christian in a community of one! Whom will we serve? Who will challenge us to growth? Who will we worship with? God is not just “my” Father. Those we are in relationship to will reveal how well we live the gospel in our lives. Our Catholic parish community is the “our” that we worship with and support each other in.
“Father.” We are not approaching some pagan deity that needs to be bribed, or some indifferent god who really could care less about us. The God we pray to is our parent. This implies a great deal indeed. A good and caring father or mother will want what is best for their child, although their answer may not always be to the child’s liking! Such parents love to hear from their children, and are anxious for their welfare. We are praying to someone we are related to, who can be trusted (no matter how it looks sometimes!), and who always acts in our best interests when we pray to him.
“Hallowed be your name.” Before we begin asking for things, Our Lord teaches us that we are to “hallow” or reverence the name of God. We praise and thank him, wishing that our lives and our prayers will glorify him. First things first: we acknowledge our relationship to each other, that God is my parent who loves me, and that I wish to glorify his name by my words and deeds. Only then am I ready to begin to ask for what I need!
Father Gary