Santhiya Philomone csc –
Readings: Is 55: 10-11; Mt 6: 7-15
Jesus calls his disciples to pray and teaches them how to pray. Prayer is not a magical formula but a trusting relationship between God and oneself. Our God invites us to be simple and sincere in heart. It has an attitude of complete dependence on God. Jesus says that prayer is not about informing God about something God is not aware of but to grow in a loving relationship with God. There is no need for many words, he says, because your father knows what you need before you ask him.
Our prayer does not inform God of anything. Rather, our prayer forms us. In praying we acknowledge who God is and who we are in God’s presence. In doing so we grow in our relationship with God and become more fully the persons God calls us to be. The prayer that Jesus gives us, the Lord’s Prayer, has two parts to it.
In the first part, we acknowledge who God is, and in the second part, we are before God. In those opening petitions, we acknowledge the priority and importance of God’s name, kingdom, and will. In a sense, we invite God to be God. In the following petitions, we acknowledge who we are before God, dependent on God for our fundamental needs, our physical needs symbolized by bread and our spiritual needs, and our need for forgiveness and for strength in times of temptation by evil.
This very short prayer is both a prayer and a teaching on prayer. It is a prayer that shows us what is at the heart of all prayers.