Meditation on Our Father

Meditation on:  OUR FATHER / THE LORD’S PRAYER:

#1.  I cannot say OUR, if my religion has no room for others and their needs.

#2.  I cannot say FATHER, if I do not demonstrate this relationship in daily living.

#3. I cannot say WHO IS IN HEAVEN, if all my interests and pursuits are in earthly things.

#4.  I cannot say HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME, if I, who is called by His name, am not holy. 

#5.  I cannot say YOUR KINGDOM COME, if I am unwilling to give up my own sovereignty and accept the righteous reign of God. 

#6.  I cannot say YOUR WILL BE DONE, if I am unwilling or resentful of having it in my life. [Embrace Your gracious and mysterious will in everything, always and everywhere.] 

#7.  I cannot say ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN, unless I am truly ready to give myself to His service here and now.  [SeekFirst the Kingdom: Matthew 6: 33]. 

#8.  I cannot say GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD, without expending an honest effort for it or by ignoring the genuine needs of those around me. 

#9.  I cannot say FORGIVE ME MY SINS AS I FORGIVE THOSE THAT SIN AGAINST ME, if I continue to harbor a grudge against anyone. 

#10.  I cannot say LEAD ME NOT INTO TEMPTATION, if I deliberately choose to remain in a situation where I am likely to be tempted. 

#11.  I cannot say DELIVER US FROM EVIL, if I am not prepared to fight in the spiritual realm with the weapon of prayer. 

#12.  I cannot say YOURS IS THE KINGDOM, if I do not give the King the disciplined obedience of a royal subject. 

#13. I cannot say YOURS IS THE POWER, if I fear what my friends and neighbors might say, think, or do. 

#14.  I cannot say FOREVER, if I am too anxious about each day's affairs. 

#15.  I cannot say AMEN, unless I honestly say "Cost what it may, this is my prayer!" 

(Adapted from the OUR FATHER from Father Paul, OFM.) 

COLLECT PRAYER:

O God, from whom all good things come, grant that we, who call on you in our need,

may at your prompting discern what is right, and by your guidance do it.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

🙏🙏🙏

A letter to Proba by St Augustine: On the Lord's Prayer 

We need to use words so that we may remind ourselves to consider carefully what we are asking, not so that we may think we can instruct the Lord or prevail on him.

    Thus, when we say: Hallowed be your name, we are reminding ourselves to desire that his name, which in fact is always holy, should also be considered holy among men. I mean that it should not be held in contempt. But this is a help for men, not for God.

    And as for our saying: Your kingdom come, it will surely come whether we will it or not. But we are stirring up our desires for the kingdom so that it can come to us and we can deserve to reign there.

    When we say: Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are asking him to make us obedient so that his will may be done in us as it is done in heaven by his angels.

    When we say: Give us this day our daily bread, in saying this day we mean “in this world.” Here we ask for a sufficiency by specifying the most important part of it; that is, we use the word “bread” to stand for everything. Or else we are asking for the sacrament of the faithful, which is necessary in this world, not to gain temporal happiness but to gain the happiness that is everlasting.

    When we say: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, we are reminding ourselves of what we must ask and what we must do in order to be worthy in turn to receive.

    When we say: Lead us not into temptation, we are reminding ourselves to ask that his help may not depart from us; otherwise we could be seduced and consent to some temptation, or despair and yield to it.

    When we say: Deliver us from evil, we are reminding ourselves to reflect on the fact that we do not yet enjoy the state of blessedness in which we shall suffer no evil. This is the final petition contained in the Lord’s Prayer, and it has a wide application. In this petition the Christian can utter his cries of sorrow, in it he can shed his tears, and through it he can begin, continue and conclude his prayer, whatever the distress in which he finds himself. Yes, it was very appropriate that all these truths should be entrusted to us to remember in these very words.

    Whatever be the other words we may prefer to say (words which the one praying chooses so that his disposition may become clearer to himself or which he simply adopts so that his disposition may be intensified), we say nothing that is not contained in the Lord’s Prayer, provided of course we are praying in a correct and proper way. But if anyone says something which is incompatible with this prayer of the Gospel, he is praying in the flesh, even if he is not praying sinfully. And yet I do not know how this could be termed anything but sinful, since those who are born again through the Spirit ought to pray only in the Spirit.

🙏🙏🙏

A letter to Proba by St Augustine 2

Let us exercise our desire in prayer:

Why in our fear of not praying as we should, do we turn to so many things, to find what we should pray for? Why do we not say instead, in the words of the psalm: I have asked one thing from the Lord, this is what I will seek: to dwell in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, to see the graciousness of the Lord, and to visit his temple? There, the days do not come and go in succession, and the beginning of one day does not mean the end of another; all days are one, simultaneously and without end, and the life lived out in these days has itself no end.

    So that we might obtain this life of happiness, he who is true life itself taught us to pray, not in many words as though speaking longer could gain us a hearing. After all, we pray to one who, as the Lord himself tells us, knows what we need before we ask for it.

    Why he should ask us to pray, when he knows what we need before we ask him, may perplex us if we do not realise that our Lord and God does not want to know what we want (for he cannot fail to know it), but wants us rather to exercise our desire through our prayers, so that we may be able to receive what he is preparing to give us. His gift is very great indeed, but our capacity is too small and limited to receive it. That is why we are told: Enlarge your desires, do not bear the yoke with unbelievers.

    The deeper our faith, the stronger our hope, the greater our desire, the larger will be our capacity to receive that gift, which is very great indeed. No eye has seen it; it has no colour. No ear has heard it; it has no sound. It has not entered man’s heart; man’s heart must enter into it.

    In this faith, hope and love we pray always with unwearied desire. However, at set times and seasons we also pray to God in words, so that by these signs we may instruct ourselves and mark the progress we have made in our desire, and spur ourselves on to deepen it. The more fervent the desire, the more worthy will be its fruit. When the Apostle tells us: Pray without ceasing, he means this: Desire unceasingly that life of happiness which is nothing if not eternal, and ask it of him who alone is able to give it.

🙏🙏🙏

Responsory 1

℟. When you seek me, you shall find me – if you search with all your heart.* If you pray to me, I will listen to you.

℣. I know the plans I have in mind for you – plans for peace, not disaster, reserving a future full of hope for you.* If you pray to me, I will listen to you.

🙏🙏🙏

Responsory 2

℟. Ask and you will receive;* for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

℣. The Lord is near to all who call upon him, who call upon him from their hearts;* for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

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