The Lord’s Prayer during this Lenten Season

The Lord’s Prayer during this Lenten Season

By Father Thomas Njue OSB

There are seven petitions of the Our Father. The Lord's Prayer is the prayer that Jesus himself taught us, and it is just a compendium of our Christian life. It is the most complete prayer for all Christians. 

He did not teach us a quantity of petitions but that these seven, be repeated often, and with fervor and care. It includes all our spiritual and temporal necessities. Each time we say the Lord's Prayer we let the Father to take us by the hand and we ask him what we need every day to become a better sons of God.

A story is told of a young man who nearly drowned when a canoe capsized near a waterfall. As the raging river pulled him down relentlessly toward the falls, the words of the Lord’s Prayer unexpectedly flashed into his mind. With them came a burst of energy and the feeling of a presence greater than himself. The young man battled the river with new strength.

When we have no words to say to God, just say the Our Father. It really contains all that we need to say to Him.

We will not be good Christians if we do not pray, as the son who does not usually talk to his parents cannot be a good son either.

Our Lord warns us: «When you pray, do not use a lot of words» (Mt 6:7). Because when they talk to their parents, sons do not resort to complicate reasoning, nor to using a lot of words, but they simply ask for what they need. Jesus tells us here not to babble endless prayers as if somehow by so doing we can bring God round to our way of thinking. Some people like to talk. They demand to be listened to, but they don't have the same interest in listening. However, we usually cannot listen if we are not used to silence. Jesus wants us to understand that prayer is more about listening than about talking.

Why then do we need to pray at all? The praying is not for God’s sake but for our own. It is important for us to become deeply aware of our needs and of our basic helplessness and total dependence on God. We also need to learn just what God wants of us so that we can do what he wants. And that is what the Lord’s Prayer is about. Strictly speaking, it is not a prayer to be recited. It is a way of praying; it is a list of the things we need to pray about. It is a very challenging and, in a way, a very dangerous and daring prayer to make.

Here is my analysis of the Lord’s Prayer:

i)                    Our Father:

God is the source of all our life and all we have and are. We say ‘our’ and that ‘our’ includes every single person. And, if God is the Father/Mother of every single person then each one of them, without even one exception, is my brother or sister.

ii) Holy be your name,

Our prayer, even of desperate cry, should begin with a prayer of praise. Obviously, in one sense we cannot make God’s name more holy than it is. But we do need to respect that awesome holiness and that is more for our sake than God’s. We want God to be loved and respected and worshipped by all - not in some future life but here and now, on earth.

iii) Your Kingdom come, 

We want the loving and compassionate Reign of God to be fully accepted by people everywhere as part of their lives.

iv) Your will be done on earth as in heaven:

We want God’s will for this world to be also the will of people everywhere.

Clearly, all this has to begin with ourselves. The coming of the Kingdom is not just the work of God alone; it is the result of us cooperating with him in the work. What am I doing in my life now for the realisation of that Kingdom?

v) Give us this day our daily bread:

A prayer that our needs be satisfied for today. A prayer that rules out excessive anxiety about the future. A beggar asks you for alms but you, too, are God’s beggar, for when we pray we are all beggars of God.

vi) Forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us:

the First Letter of John reminds us, we are all sinners. This is the only petition which is spelled out more clearly at the end of this passage. “If you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.”We are sinners, constantly in need of God's mercy and forgiveness, but we can expect to receive it only to the extent that we are generous in giving it.

In a society like ours, where injustice, violence and hatred abound, we can find peace only through the power of forgiveness. A family, community or society can enjoy peace and well-being only if its members are ready to forgive self and others not seven times but seventy times seven. If we fail to forgive, bitterness can grow to the point of making us mentally and physically ill. If we forgive we experience freedom, joy, peace and happiness. Why not begin now with your spouse, child, colleague, neighbour ...? We grasp the true meaning of mercy when we forgive others. If Jesus has forgiven us, even though we don't deserve it, how can we dare not to forgive others?

v. Do not put us to the test, but save us from the evil one: 

A final plea that we will not fail but that God’s help will be with us all the way. It is an admission of our basic impotence to set things right in our own lives and in the world.

Lenten Action: 

Say a kind word to someone you find difficult to relate to.

Conclusion:-

If this prayer were to really enter our heart and minds, we would become deeply transformed people. So let us stop babbling it as we often do and really pray it, phrase by phrase - and live it.

Fr T. Njue is the Parish Priest at St Benedict’s Parish – Nairobi.

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