Matthew 6:7-15 (today's gospel)
7 In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
8 Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 "This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread;
12 and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
13 and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.
14 If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.
15 But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.
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Like yesterday, this is mostly a rip-off from Msgr. Callahan's homily this morning.
- V7 - we should consider this as we recite memorized prayer. Memorized prayers are outstanding, but so often we as individuals can hit a point where we're just reciting words without "buying in" to the meaning of the word.
- V8 - our Father knows what we need before we ask him. We should concentrate on placing ourselves in his presence so that our souls can speak freely to him. Two specific methods for this were discussed at the Men's Day of Recollection.
- V9 - "Our" Father - this is extremely significant, both to Christ's audience at the time, and to us today. Christ has revealed the Father to us, we can come directly to Him in confidence.
- V10 - check out paragraph 2818 of the Catechism sometime. Do you realize that when you say "thy kingdom come", you are praying first and foremost for Christ's return, and the beginning of the final reign of God? Are you ready to walk into that scene?
- Verses 14 and 15. Note that forgiveness of our own sins is directly related to our ability to forgive others for their sins. This is a beautiful and perfect concept that can be extremely difficult to live out. Are we called to forgive those who do not repent? Something to think about.
There is so much more to say. The catechism breaks down the Lord's Prayer very nicely in paragraphs 2759 - 2865. I highly recommend spending some time studying it this Lent. You can find it online at this link: http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p4s2.htm . The discussion is on a series of five web pages. Read the first page, then click the forward arrow to get to the next one. It will really make you think.
