THE WORD
Is 55,10-11 / Mt 6,7-15
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 in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
‘Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.’
“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.”
IN OTHER WORDS
Prayer has been described as wasting time with God. But prayer is more an act of participating in the plan of God.
In the light of today’s reading from Isaiah, we note the cosmic dimension of our prayer –God’s word, his creative Spirit, which he bestows on us, fulfills his purpose in the prayer that we return to him. Thomas Greene called his first book on prayer Opening to God, and the Irish American storyteller, Megan McKenna, describes prayers as “invitations, commands even, to alter reality radically, . . . doors left wide open so that the Divine can slip in at any time, move the furniture around, or empty out the house so that there is space inside us for God.”
In this prayer that Jesus taught us we relate to the Father, first recognizing our creatureliness, having come from him, then immediately afterwards, we acknowledge our part in the continuing process of creation: “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.”
Many think of prayer as asking God to provide for physical needs/wishes that cannot be satisfied through our own eff orts. However, in the Our Father it is only following our appreciation of our dependence on God that we ask to be given our daily bread.
We end by completely accepting our weakness and dependency on God, and asking not for things but for support in our lives. Bishop Ruperto Santos wrote, “In sum, what we really pray here is for strength, for his mediation and for his blessing for the rest of our life.”
Finally, Jesus commanded us to pray this, making it important. To be true human beings, we must pray the Our Father properly. All prayer, particularly the Our Father, is highly relevant to our lives.
- Fr. Alan Meechan, SVD | Naujan, Or. Mindoro
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
