As He Taught Us to Pray

Yesterday we spoke about the Lord’s Prayer as a beautiful resource. But we have to be careful, don’t we? Because, I don’t know about you, but with something I’m very familiar with, I can sometimes say the words without ever even thinking about them, They never hit here inside.  In fact, sometimes we can say the words and still be thinking about a million other things.

Years ago, a spiritual director invited me to look at the Lord’s Prayer from a slightly different angle, and to use it as a pattern or a model for my own prayers, praying it one phrase at a time, amplifying it as I go along. Both CS Lewis and Saint Francis used this same method.

Over the next few days, I want to look at just a few lines of this prayer with you and reflect on how we might expand on them as a resource for our own prayer lives.  

Jesus begins: When you pray, say, Our Father…

Now this would have been a huge shift for the early disciples, who would not have thought about God in these intimate terms.  And really, it is pretty amazing to think that Jesus is telling us we can stand before a holy and awesome God, like a child standing before a loving father.

I know that some people who didn’t have a good relationship with their own fathers – they struggle with this metaphor. For some people, it’s hard to put loving and father in the same sentence.  I also know some people who will pray to God as our Mother. And, there are in fact images of God as a mother in the Bible. 

In any case, the idea here is that God is like a loving parent in the very best sense of that word. And, that we can have this relationship with God in the way that a child would be with a loving parent. Trusting… trusting… 

Let us pray: O God, like a good Father, you are loving, compassionate, and just. And like a good Mother, you are fierce and strong, and faithful.  Help us to ever rest in your strong and gracious arms; through Jesus Christ. Amen.