Le Pater Noster by James Tissot
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 11:1-4
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." He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test."
REFLECTION: "Lord, teach us to pray..."
In the Our Father, Jesus shows us that when we speak to God we should speak as a child to his father with intimacy and love. And what do we talk about?
All prayer flows in knowing that we are able to call God our Father. It begins with our weakness as a child and continues in the perseverance of a child.
We speak of our joys and sorrows, what we did and did not do, our victories and losses, our dreams and failures, our needs and wants and the desire to be in the presence of our Father whom we know loves us and that we too love Him. We try to follow and imitate the person we most admire and respect.
And what do we learn from the Our Father? Jesus, being the only Son of God, invites us to speak to God as our Father. God treats us with mercy and grace sparing us what we deserve. He is kind and just expecting us to treat our neighbor the same with grace, mercy and loving kindness.
God wants us to be free of anger, resentment, envy and hatred. We, in turn, ask God to judge us accordingly to how we have treated others.
Let us experience the tenderness of our Father's love.
God Bless
