Focus on the “Our Father” prayer
From the Desk of Father David
Dear Friends in Christ,
The Disciples noticed that after Jesus prayed, He was strengthen, peaceful and different in a wonderful way. Desiring this way of praying, they asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Do you desire a prayer life that will strengthen you, give you peace and bring you closer to God and others? Sunday’s Gospel, Luke 11:1-13, gives great insights into this way of praying. It is not about the words but your relationship with God and the way you pray. The whole passage is important, but I will focus on the Our Father. The Our Father is a prayer and a method on how to pray. The method is that we address God as a loving parent. Then trusting in that love, we ask for His will to be done and then add our own petitions. Jesus’ prayer in the garden, the night before He died, had these three elements. He addressed God as the loving Father He believed Him to be, then asked that He wouldn’t have to die, and ended with Your will be done. The Scriptures remind us that this prayer took three hours. When you pray place your life in Jesus’ hands and have a heart to heart conversation.
The Our Father as a prayer has many challenging parts. First, to see God as one who loves you intimately as well as loves others. Second, to desire God’s will to be done, more than our will. Third, we are called to action to build God’s Kingdom. Fourth, we ask for only what we need for today, so we will be always dependent on God. Fifth, we tell God to only forgive us as much as we forgive others. Do we really mean this? Finally we ask for the greatest blessing to be saved from all evil.
I want to ask this blessing for you.
As You go on your way,
May God go with you.
May He go before you
To show you the way:
May He go behind you
to encourage you;
Beside you to befriend you;
Above you to watch over you;
And within you to give you peace.
** taken from a tape people hear at the Chapel in the Hills, the Norwegian Stave Church, Rapid City, S.D.
In Christ’s love,
Fr. David
