Exploring the depth of our prayers
How do I know when I’m doing God’s will?
It’s not a flippant question. Every time I say the Lord’s Prayer, I’m asking for God’s will to be done.
I could just hang out and try not to get in the way while God does His thing, but I don’t think that’s the way it works. WE need to do His will. Including ME.
I’ve been doing an interesting little experiment lately.
I try changing the prayers from talking about us/we/our to instead talk about I/me/my. It’s just an experiment, to help me see how it feels.
There’s a fascinating result: It feels like I’m taking more ownership and accountability for my relationship with God, Jesus, and Mary.
Today we begin our Holy Triduum, the time when God and humanity intersect in the Glory of Jesus, our Christ.
I’m thinking about how we ask God to give us this day our daily bread. Why bread? I can go days without having bread, if I have other food to replace it with. And I can survive much longer without food than I can water.
Where have I heard about bread before? Hmm… maybe I’ll head off to Mass and think about it.
Continue reading “Our bread”
We’re asking our Father forgiveness – for our trespasses, our sins. But then we ask this is as we forgive those who trespass against us.
This means a lot of things.
We’re asking forgiveness to the same degree as we forgive others. Maybe we should think that there’s some kind of accounting: if I haven’t forgiven five times today, then maybe I’m not worthy to receive God’s grace the five times I need it.
I have to get to forgiving!
Growing up, I learned the version of the Lord’s Prayer that you see to the right. When I joined the Catholic Church in 1985, I first learned the Hail Mary and many other prayers based on the traditional language.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
I guess I just assumed that this was my “church language”, kind of like dressing up for Mass.
It seemed respectful and appropriate. Formal.
God gave Adam and Eve a powerful task: to name the animals. By doing so, they were to to have power – “dominion” – over them.
In past times, names weren’t so separate from the people or objects they described. That’s why it was so important that “you shall name him Emmanuel” – God is with us.