The Lord’s Prayer is so very familiar to us that we sometimes drift off to other thoughts when we hear it. We all know it by heart, but do we pray it from the depth of our heart?
Conscious that prayer is one of the 3 focuses of Lent that help us on our conversion journey, I would invite you to reflect on this beautiful prayer again… this time as a way to examine our hearts.
What follows is adapted from “The Holy Longing” by Fr. Ron Rolheiser:
| Our Father..
who always stands with the weak, the powerless, the poor, the abandoned, the sick, the aged, the very young, the unborn, and those who by victim of circumstance, bear the heat of the day. Who art in heaven… where everything will be reversed, where the first will be last and the last will be first, Hallowed by Thy Name.. May we always acknowledge Your holiness, knowing that your ways are not our ways, your standards are not our standards. Your kingdom come… Help us to create a world where, beyond our own needs and hurts, we will do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you and our neighbors. Teach us our own poverty. Your will be done… May we radiate your equal love for all and your special love for the poor. Teach us to partner with you as you renew and redeem creation. Give us this day… Teach us to receive Your life so that we may in turn give it away, not just to our own but to everyone, including those who are very different than the narrow "us." Do not let us push things off into some distant future. Our daily bread… So that each person in the world may have what they need, enough food, clean water and air, adequate health care, and access to education. So that we may learn how simple are our true needs, and may work for a sustainable world. And forgive us our trespasses… Forgive us our blindness toward our neighbor, and our racism. As we forgive those who trespass against us… Help us to forgive those who take advantage of us. Help us to forgive others, impersonal corporations and the systems that wounded them and us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen |
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