By Shanborlang Mawrie, CSC –
Readings: Jon 4:1-11; Lk 11:1-4
St Andre says, “When you say the Our Father God’s ear is next to your lips.” This is the beauty of the prayer Our Father in which God himself bend down to listen to our prayers. It is an expression of our intimate relationship with God. Out of his love for us Jesus taught us this prayer to have a communication with his Father who transforms and raises our hearts to himself. No relationship can ever survive without communication whether in our friendships or family life.
In the same way, with God the Father we need to have good communication. In the prayer that Jesus himself taught us, we are not only praising God for his holy name, but we ask for our daily needs, we ask forgiveness for our sins and protection from all the trespasses which block our relationship with God. Prayer invites each one of us to a deeper relationship by throwing ourselves into the hands of God with complete trust. Prayer does not change God but it does change us by purifying and sanctifying our hearts.
Many of us do not have time to sit and spend the time with the Lord because of the demands of the ministries which we take for granted to be the works of the Lord. But in reality it is ruining our spiritual life and the work becomes for ourselves, not for God. Blessed Moreau says that the more we come, through prayer, to relish what is right, the better we shall work in our mission. A prayer is a tool which Jesus himself gives us to transform and raise our hearts to God.