By Colleen O’Sullivan
Jesus was
praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said
to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” 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
11:1-4)
Piety
Lord,
when I pray, may my words come from the depths of my heart.
Study
More than
once, my spiritual director has made the comment that we are much better at
saying prayers than we are at actually praying.
As Catholics, we do have a large repertoire of prayers handed down over
the centuries – the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Memorare, the Anima Christi
and Suscipe prayers, to name a few. I
would have to admit that I know them all well enough to be able to recite the
words and think about something else at the same time. However, I sincerely doubt that’s what Jesus
had in mind when he answered the disciples’ request that he teach them to pray.
Let’s be
truthful. When we think about what we’re
saying or praying, doesn’t it make us wonder how honest we are? Jesus tells us to pray that God’s Kingdom
come. We say the words, but to really
desire that, we have to be willing to give up the ways of the world. In God’s Kingdom, our expectations are turned
upside down. Everything that’s been
deeply engrained in us about the American dream, about acquiring wealth and
property and prestige goes out the window.
In God’s realm, the powerful and the rich turn out to be the least; the
poor and the marginalized are the greatest.
In God’s Kingdom, the Savior of the world is born in wretched poverty
and dies the death of a common criminal on a Cross.
Jesus
tells his friends to pray each day for daily bread. Only ask for what we need. But many of us have lost sight of the
distinction between what we need and what we want. I only have to look in my closets to know
that’s true. A couple of surveys I saw
the other day on what Americans pray for showed that we pray for future
prosperity, to win the lottery, not to
get a speeding ticket, or for our favorite sports team to win, among other
things that aren’t exactly about having just what we need (http://www.religionnews.com/2014/10/01/americans-pray-maybe-sports-team).
The
toughest thing to pray with integrity is for forgiveness for our sins, “for we
ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us…”
There’s more than one person in my life still waiting for my
forgiveness. In the same article
mentioned above, some of us are even praying for God to wreak vengeance on
those who’ve wronged us. That is not at
all what Jesus recommended to the disciples.
Praying
vs. reciting prayers is a difficult business indeed.
Action
What do
you find the most difficult to pray with integrity in the words our Savior gave
us?
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