This is how you are to pray...
Thursday of Week 11 in
Ordinary Time
Matthew 6:7-15
Our Father
who art in heaven
Let’s start with
affirming
our relatedness to God.
He’s Father but not just
any father…
the heavenly one…
the one we can call to as
‘Abba’
…used three times in the
NT
always joined by the Greek translation: abba, pater
Hallowed be
thy name
THY is the important
word.
We hallow God first.
And made in God’s image
we are hallowed
by the clarity of that
image in us.
We are doomed if we think
we can make hallow with
power, riches, beauty or
might.
Thy kingdom
come
Again…not mine.
Not my ever-changing
vision
of what makes a good
kingdom.
Jesus asks us to pray
this invitation
that God’s way of being
human,
perfected in Jesus, is
our constant aim.
Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven
Thine again;)
Earth = the human heart
Heaven = within the heart
of God
Give us
this day our daily bread
What can this mean in a
fast food, bulk-buying, pre-packaged world?
Just enough for me?
So that there will be
enough for others?
Tough, tough, petition…
I may have to skip it
next time I pray.
And forgive
us our trespasses
as we
forgive those who trespass against us
No relationship can
survive without forgiveness.
We are
always trespassing…stepping on peoples’ toes.
And we probably keep
careful count of all those who have stepped on ours.
Love might bring us
together
but grace sustains.
Reconciliation as a way
of life
Is well worth cultivating
Deliver us
from evil
Not me but us. This translation is tricky.
It isn’t about avoidance
But more a sense of
drawing close to God
Drawing close is how to
go about
being delivered.
Self reliance doesn’t
appear to be
a virtue in Scripture;)
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