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Mt 6:7-15
[Jesus said to his disciples,] 7“In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9“This is how you are to pray:/ Our Father in heaven,/ hallowed be your name,/ 10your kingdom come,/ your will be done,/ on earth as in heaven./ 11Give us today our daily bread;/ 12and forgive us our debts,/ as we forgive our debtors;/ 13and do not subject us to the final test,/ but deliver us from the evil one./ 14If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
Reflection:
This is how you are to pray.
Jesus gives the disciples what is now called the Lord’s Prayer. Besides
giving, Jesus prays it with us and for us. A communal prayer, it
highlights our relationship with God and with our fellow men and women.
We give to God what is due to him. And then we plead for our basic needs
in this life.
Jesus says we are to call God “Abba,
Father!” In Aramaic, this address is an act of filial affection and
familiarity. God who is in heaven is our Father whom we acknowledge as
the source of our life and the gracious provider of what we need in
life.
God’s name is holy. His name demands our
respect and reverence. We pray that God’s will be done for us as we
surrender ourselves to God’s ways.
The second half of the prayerspeaks of
our needs and how we must deal with our fellow men and women. This means
that before we petition for our needs, we must first and foremost turn
and return to God the glory, honor, and obedience due to God. We are to
pray not only for our needs but also for those of others, for their
well-being, and for what we can do for them.
“You received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:15-16).
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