Jesus' Instructions on How to Pray

In today’s Gospel, Mt 6: 7-15, Jesus  teaches His disciples, that is us, how to pray, directing us not to babble on in prayer with lots and lots of words.  I might do that in the hope that I will truly be heard.  In other words, knowingly or unknowingly, I am attempting to manipulate God to do as I say. However, Jesus says to us: Don’t multiply words in prayer; there is no need to do that.  Why? Because “Your Father knows what you need before you ask.” How, then, should you and I be praying?  Jesus then teaches us the Our Father.

“Our Father”—I am acknowledging God as my father, my abba, my daddy in heaven!
“Hallowed be thy name”—a phrase of reverence,  a statement of praise. This is God. I am only a human being created by God, who willed His creation of me to carry on a specific purpose of His here on earth.
“Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done”—I am acknowledging God’s Kingdom as a reign He wants to happen here on earth in accordance to His will and as it exists in heaven.

So, in the first part of the “Our Father” I address God and acknowledge what belongs to God: reverence and  praise and that God is Ruler/King of heaven and earth with a perfect plan to be brought about on earth as in heaven: heaven is a place of joy, peace, order, serenity, justice, where there are no slaves, no inequalities, no lording it over one another, no divisiveness. That is His will for us on earth as well but He needs us to carry out that will.

 In the second half of the Our Father,  Jesus instructs us to pray for ourselves.  We ask for our daily bread (like the Israelites in the desert where God fed them one day at a time). We also ask forgiveness for the ways in which we do not live the first part of the Our Father. And finally, we pray that we will  not be led into temptation that Satan throws at us. We ask that God deliver us from the evil Satan wills for us, that is, separation from God for all eternity, beginning here on earth.

The Lord's Prayer and Ours

In today’s Gospel, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray as John taught his disciples to pray.  Jesus tells them to say “our Father, who art in heaven”.  He is asking us to go to God in prayer as a child would go to a loving, caring, understanding parent, one’s dad, or, in some cases, a surrogate father.  For some children that is a teacher, a coach, a counselor one regards with great trust.    “My Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.”  As a child proudly speaks the name of his/her loving, caring, compassionate and wise father, or surrogate father, so, too, Jesus asks us to address God as a Father whom we highly respect, whose judgment and wisdom, love and concern, we highly revere.   “Your Kingdom come; your will be done on earth as in heaven.”  Jesus encourages us to approach God desiring that things happen in our lives according to the way God plans them to be. In Jeremiah 29:11, God says to us through the prophet: “For I know the plans I have for you.  They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”  From that faith, we pray: “Your will be done on earth as in heaven.”

In the second half of the Our Father, Jesus turns our attention to relationships with others and to our own need for our “daily bread,”  forgiveness, not being led into “temptation”  and deliverance  from evil. For what more can we ask! And we know that God is eager to answer this prayer, as eager as any parent is to protect his/her children from evil, to ward off temptation that will lead a child onto the wrong path—a path that will lead to misery, suffering and pain—and to provide the child his/her daily bread for the day, that is, all that the child needs to realize his/her potential, his/her greatness, his/her ability to make a difference in the lives of others, to bring peace, justice, love and forgiveness to the world that day, one person at a time, including oneself.