Prayer is helplessness casting itself on Power, infirmity leaning
on Strength, misery reaching to Mercy, and a prisoner clamouring for Relief.
Fulton J Sheen Life is Worth Living, 1954:
213
‘Lord teach us to pray’ the disciples ask Jesus in this
morning’s Gospel. Their words are our words, we want to know how to pray, what
to say to God, how to have a conversation – one that is meaningful and has
value. They ask the Lord, and he shows them what to do and what to say.
The prayer starts with the word Father, it defines our relationship,
our connection. It presupposes love, as a parent has for a child. It continues
with the petition that the name of God, Our Father, may be hallowed, kept holy.
It is the loving response of a child to a parent. In stressing holiness it puts
God in his proper place, it ensures that things are done properly. Then the
prayer looks forward, ‘your kingdom come’ it looks for the coming of God’s
kingdom, which goes hand in hand with ‘your will be done’ God’s kingdom is tied
up with doing God’s will, the responsibility is ours to do it. We then pray
that we may be fed, that we may be nourished, that we may have bread for the
journey of faith. This feeding goes with
the petition that our sins may be forgiven, in the same way that we forgive
those who sin against us. The two are linked – feeding and forgiveness, and so
they should be in our lives. As people who are forgiven and forgiving we pray
that we may not be led into temptation, that we may continue as forgiven and
forgiving people.
It is a model of what to say to God, what to ask for, and
how to ask for it. It is concise and profound, it is not lengthy or wordy; it
does not ramble or drone on for ages. It says what needs to be said, it defines
our relationship with God and each other, it defines our spiritual life as one
where we are fed and forgiven. It characterises what we are doing here today,
to seek God’s forgiveness and forgive others, and to be fed by Word and
Sacrament, to do God’s will and bring about God’s Kingdom, a kingdom of love
and forgiveness, which looks radically different from what might be if humanity
were left to its own devices – it calls us forward to something greater,
something more wonderful, than we can imagine. And yet it is a reality – God forgives
our sins , giving his life for us, nailing our sins to the Cross, suffering in
his flesh so that we who have died with Christ in our baptism may also share His
risen life, fed by Him, fed with Him, with His Body and Blood, transformed by
the sacrifice of Calvary, loved redeemed and nourished, forgiven and forgiving,
to transform the world so that it may be conformed to God’s will, that His name
may be Holy, so that all creation may sing His praise. So that the Church,
which is Christ’s body, may bring about God’s kingdom and do God’s will.
It is a generous response to a generous and loving God, it
takes people who know their need of God, and shows how those needs are
satisfied at the deepest possible level. We ask God to teach us how to pray,
and he shows us in a way which both defines and transforms our spiritual life
and all of creation, conforming them to the will of God, helping to bring about
the Kingdom of love and forgiveness which is shown to us in the person,
teaching, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the giving of His
Holy Spirit, to nourish us and transform us and all the world, so that it may
believe and be transformed to sing God’s praise and give glory to God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed as is most right and
just all might, majesty, glory, dominion, and power, now and forever.
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