Praise the Lord, All You Nations!

October 8, 2008

Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

By Melanie Rigney

Praise the LORD, all you nations! Give glory, all you peoples! The LORD'S love for us is strong; the LORD is faithful forever. (Psalms 117:1-2)

He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test." (Luke 11:2-4)

Piety
Jesus, thank you for giving us the Lord’s Prayer. We join together to say: Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Study

The shortest song and the perfect prayer. Daily readings don’t come much better than that.

The beauty of the Lord’s Prayer has long been admired. According to OurCatholicPrayers.com:

• St. John Chrysostom (347-407) wrote, “What prayer could be more true before God the Father than that which his Son, Who is Truth, uttered with His Own lips?”

• St. Augustine wrote in 412: “If we pray rightly, and as becomes our wants, we say nothing but what is already contained in the Lord’s Prayer.”

• St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that “in the Lord’s Prayer not only do we ask for all that we may rightly desire, but also in the order wherein we ought to desire them, so that this prayer not only teaches us to ask, but also directs all our affections.”

• St. Thérèse of Lisieux wrote that “Sometimes when I am in such a state of spiritual dryness that not a single good thought occurs to me, I say very slowly the ‘Our Father,’ or the ‘Hail Mary,’ and these prayers suffice to take me out of myself and wonderfully refresh me.”

Adoration, supplication, and thanksgiving … it’s all there in just fifty-five words in the Lord’s Prayer. Psalm 117 is just twenty-three words of robust, explosive faith and joy. While God never tires of hearing from us, these two prayers show the true delight of focus. Praise the Lord!

Action

Today’s first reading is from Galatians, in which Paul discusses the question whether Gentiles had to first become Jews through circumcision and observance of Mosaic law if they were to become Christians. Yom Kippur begins at sunset tonight. Create a faith bridge by discussing with a Jewish friend the similarities and differences between Yom Kippur and Good Friday.