Gospel Reflection - 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time


Luke 11:1-13

The Lord's Prayer, given by Jesus in today's Gospel, is one of the first prayers we learn as children. When all four of my children were babies, I prayed it aloud while rocking them to sleep at night. As they got older, they learned to pray it by repeating each line until they could recite it along with us, & eventually being able to pray it alone. Olivia told me, while I was writing this, that she can't remember a time when she didn't know The Our Father!

There is a downside to our familiarity with this prayer, though. We often become complacent, mechanically saying the words, but not focusing on their meaning. By doing so, we miss the rich conversation between us & God. Each line is full of beauty & depth. Let's take a look...

~Our Father, Who art in Heaven - our opening, drawing us into communion with God (& each other when prayed with others) & acknowledging His existence

~Hallowed be Thy Name - God's Name IS Holy & to be revered

~Thy Kingdom come - reference to Christ's 2nd coming, ushering us into God's Heavenly Kingdom

~Thy Will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven - we seek God's Will during our earthly lives, to be fulfilled in Heaven

~Give us this day, our daily bread - God knows our needs & provides for us. He also knows our capabilities & will never give us more than we can handle without His aid.

~And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us - I heard Fr. John Riccardo put this one in a tough perspective...ask yourself how you've forgiven (or not forgiven) those who have wronged you. Do you want God forgiving you that same way?

~And lead is not into temptation, but deliver us from evil - God does not tempt us! This is asking for His protection in keeping us from temptations that Satan places in our path.

~Amen - our affirmation that we agree with the words we've just prayed

This is just a brief summary of the lines of The Our Father. I recently discovered that The Catechism of the Catholic Church devotes over 1/3 of Part Four - Christian Prayer to The Our Father. No other prayer is discussed is such detail in the Catechism. So, it must be a pretty important prayer...don't you think?

What are your earliest memories of praying this beautiful prayer?

How will this line by line interpretation help you pray The Our Father?

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