Feb 15, 2005

Our Father Feb 15, 2005 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 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.

"If you forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions."

Forgiveness is from God but if I do not give it to others, I will not receive it from God. It is an attitude of prayer. It is a letting go of the bad feelings toward another person. Forgiveness is in itself a deliverance from evil. This beautiful prayer accepts God's will and just asks for the most basic of the day's needs: bread and forgiveness. It is easy to become more complicated in everything. Jesus is teaching here to be simple and not go on and on in prayer. Amen!!!

I had a beautiful experience the Easter of 1998. I was making home nursing visits and there was an elderly women who had a chronic wound who had had a recent lapse of memory for several weeks after her last hospitalization. Things were coming back to her a little at a time. I started saying the Lord's prayer with her on visits because she had requested a chaplin and prayers. On Easter for the first time, she remembered and led the prayer with myself on one side of her bed and the woman who was her live in home health companion on the other side. She was so touched that she remembered the prayer. It was a beautiful moment of grace. A woman who could not remember anything remembered the Lord's prayer and led us in it.