The "Our Father"

 In today's Gospel, Luke 11: 1-4, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, just as John taught his disciples of pray.  Jesus teaches them to address God as Father, Abba, Daddy!  He wants them to go to God as they would go to their Abba/Daddy and to respect God, saying "Hallowed be your name"  and to desire that God's  Kingdom come upon the earth--a Kingdom of love and justice, a Kingdom of peace and safety, a Kingdom of glory and honor.  Jesus also wants us to ask for what we need on a daily basis: "Give us this day our daily bread"--realizing that, as small children depend upon their Abbbas/their Daddys,  for daily food, so, too, do we depend upon God for such.   Furthermore, Jesus says, ask for God's forgiveness, saying, "Abba, Father, Daddy God, "forgive us our sins," just as "we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us." And finally, "Abba, Father, Daddy God, spare us the  final test--keep us from the evil on who will do anything to keep us from entering Your Kingdom. Don't let us be tested by the Evil one's final efforts to keep us from You, as we would not be able on our own to withstand Satan (my interpretation of that "final test").

Hear,  in Jesus' teaching the disciples how to pray,  His intimacy with His Father.  Jesus wants us to be as intimate with God as He is, as trusting of God as He is. God, for Jesus,  is an  Abba, Daddy God, a loving, caring, protective  Father,  a "wanna-be-with-You Abba, Daddy God.

May you and I approach God as a child approaches a loving, protective, caring, compassionate, understanding, affectionate father; in short, a father who has everything we need to become a loving, caring, forgiving person who reflects God's image!