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Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one
of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John
taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1
In today’s Gospel we are given three teachings on prayer. First,
Jesus teaches His disciples what has come to be called “The Lord’s
Prayer.” Second, He teaches about the importance of persistence in
prayer. Third, He teaches about the fruit that comes from correct
and persistent prayer.
The Church Father Tertullian said that The Lord’s Prayer “is truly
the summary of the whole Gospel.” Saint Augustine said, “Run
through all the words of the holy prayers [in Scripture], and I do
not think that you will find anything in them that is not contained
and included in the Lord's Prayer.” Saint Thomas Aquinas said, “The
Lord's Prayer is the most perfect of prayers.... In it we ask, not
only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the
sequence that they should be desired” (See the Catechism of the
Catholic Church #2761–2763).
It’s amazing to consider what these great teachers of the faith
have said about this short prayer. Perhaps because of our
familiarity with this prayer we can easily gloss over the depth of
its meaning. We can fail to use it as a foundation and model for
all of our prayer. One way to correct this tendency is to use The
Lord’s Prayer for an extended period of time by prayerfully
pondering every word slowly and meditatively. Doing so will help
open us up to these perfect “instructions” on how we should
pray.
Immediately after Jesus taught this short prayer, He taught a
lesson about persistence in prayer. He taught that we must not
simply say a few prayers and leave it at that, giving up if they do
not appear to be answered. Instead, we must continuously beg God
for His grace until it is bestowed in its fullness.
What will we receive from persistent prayer? This is an important
point. We ought not go to God with our own wants and desires. We
ought not beg Him for things that do not fall within His perfect
will. Instead, when our prayer is modeled on the Lord’s Prayer, and
when it is persistent and grounded in faith, then our prayer will
be for what the Father bestows upon us, that is His will alone. We
must pray that His Kingdom will come. We must trust that He will
provide for our needs. We must seek His forgiveness for our sins,
and we must pray that He will protect us from the evil one.
Reflect, today, upon that perfect prayer, The Lord’s Prayer. Spend
time studying it, thinking about each petition, the order in which
Jesus laid it out, its simplicity and its clarity. Acknowledge that
because we pray The Lord’s Prayer so often, we can sometimes miss
its true meaning and beauty. Our Lord gave us this prayer for a
reason. Make sure that you do all you can to discover its meaning
and practice its teaching.
Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom
come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this
day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive
those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil. Amen. Jesus, I trust in You.
Image: James Tissot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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