The model of Prayer
Perhaps the most popular prayer that there is in the Christian world is the Lord's Prayer. Almost everyone, from little children playing in the streets to old women selling in the market, knows the Lord's Prayer. Jesus taught His disciples this prayer when they saw Him praying and asked Him, “Master, teach us how to pray.”
Jesus' life was a life of prayer. Prayer should be brief because it is for our good, not for the good of God since He already knows what we need. The Lord's Prayer is a simple prayer and despite its brevity, one of the Fathers of the Church called the Lord's Prayer “truly a summary of the whole Gospel” — the expression of our chief beliefs that serve as an “Identification Prayer,” like a distinctive badge that bind believers together.
When Jesus gave to His disciples the Lord's Prayer, He intended to give it to them not as the only prayer but rather as the model of prayer. It is the model prayer since we will be able to see in it the four elements of prayer that we have been taught of, which Catholic tradition remembers as the ACTS (Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving and Supplication). In it, we ask not only for the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired. Speaking with God is an intensely personal event.
In this season of Lent, let us never forget to call on God our Father as Jesus had taught us. We have a right to call God our Father if we treat other people as our brothers and sisters, especially those who are closest to us and those who are most in need. Now is a good time to improve our prayer life and our relationship with God as we observe the season of Lent.
Fr. Joel O. Jason
Reflection Question:
Do I treat other people as my brothers and sisters? Have I lived out the words that I always say whenever I recite the Lord's Prayer?
Heavenly Father, teach me to pray. May You always be with me and guide me as I live out this journey of life. May I truly understand the words that Your son Jesus Christ had taught us and to live out the words that I utter as I recite the Lord's Prayer.
Blessed Katherine Drexel, pray for us.
