My dear Parishioners,
Peace! There are nineteen (19) In Brief articles in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which treat the Lord’s Prayer or “Our Father.” The following reflection considers CCC, 2800.
Three benefits come from praying the Lord’s Prayer. We long to be more like God in whose image we are made, our hearts are humbled, and our hearts are given confidence. We should consider these individually.
The Lord’s Prayer is a family prayer, proper to the family of God our heavenly Father. By grace and faith and especially Baptism we belong to God as adopted children. There is a certain family resemblance in God’s family, even if some of us are tall and others are short, some are fit and others not, even various complexions cannot obscure the family resemblance which is primarily spiritual. I can remember praying the Lord’s Prayer with people from other countries in a monastery in the South of France, at the Gesu Church in Rome, and at World Youth day in Toronto, people I had never seen before (or since) and yet there was a very real, palpable connection. This is because we allowed the power of the Lord’s Prayer to impact us, that we were all longing for the coming of His Kingdom and His will. Even if physically we look different our common desire and longing for God, for Heaven, gives us a common resemblance. Our resemblance to God, being made in His image and likeness, is primarily spiritual because God is Spirit and in the Lord’s Prayer we worship Him in spirit and truth (cf. Genesis 1:26, 27).
The Lord’s Prayer, calling upon God our heavenly Father, helps us to be humble. We are not entirely self-sufficient. We did not bring ourselves into this world. While our human parents have everything to do with our coming into being, Saint Paul reminds us and those who heard him first at the Areopagus that it is in God that “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). When in the Lord’s Prayer we ask for “our daily bread” we humble ourselves before Him, trusting in His Providence. When in the Lord’s Prayer we ask God our Father to “forgive us our trespasses” we humble ourselves before Him, trusting in His mercy. All prayer to God is an act of humility, where we acknowledge our finitude and God’s infinity. Our heavenly Father is present everywhere, all powerful, all knowing, we are not.
The Lord’s Prayer, calling upon God our heavenly Father, should give us confident hearts, trusting in God’s love and providence for us. While this is clear from the text of the Lord’s Prayer itself, Jesus also provides another reason for our confidence in Matthew 7:9-11. Our Father in Heaven wants to give “what is good to those who ask Him” as we do in the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer should play a prominent role in our humble, confident, daily devotional lives.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr