It’s almost ironic that Jesus would begin his teaching on prayer in today’s Gospel by instructing us to not “babble like the pagans,” and then go on to teach us the perfect prayer, which so many of us will babble off at any time without giving it any thought.
Of course, this isn’t Jesus’ fault but ours. Very few of us pursue prayer in the way God intends it, as a means to deepen our communion with him, but use it only “as necessary.”
In his book Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI said that yes, we need to pray from the heart, to present to him our specific needs, joys, sufferings, shame and gratitude. But, he said, we need prayers like the Our Father – prayers that “express in words the encounter with God experienced both by the Church as a whole and by individual members of the Church. For without these aids to prayer, our own praying and our image of God become subjective and end up reflecting ourselves more than the living God” (p. 130). In other words, this prayer helps us stay in touch with God’s will.
But the Our Father isn’t just any prayer: It’s a prayer using the very words of God himself. In teaching us the Our Father, Jesus grants us entry into his communion with the Father through the Holy Spirit.
Pope St John Paul II said, “Everything that can and must be said to the Father is contained in those seven requests which we all know by heart. There is such a simplicity in them that even a child can learn them, but at the same time such a depth that a whole life can be spent meditating on their meaning.”
It might do us all some good to reflect more deeply on this prayer, and then to truly pray it. For those of us who want pray more, but don’t “know how,” I think this is a good way to start learning.
Anna Mitchell is the host and producer of the Son Rise Morning Show on EWTN Radio. Listen online or download their app at www.sonrisemorningshow.com.
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God Bless Thank You i learn something new all the time
Praise be to God