One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
— Luke 11:1
Following the Call—Chap. 29: Teach Us to Pray
Prayer highlights. Lord form us! Your turn.
The words of the Our Father [Lord’s Prayer] are signposts to interior prayer, they provide a basic direction for our being, and they aim to configure us to the image of the Son. The meaning of the Our Father goes much further than the mere provision of a prayer text. It aims to form our being, to train us in the inner attitude of Jesus.
— Pope Benedict XVI
Prayer Highlights
In his classic, The Lord’s Prayer, Joachim Jeremias wrote that the Lord’s Prayer “is the clearest and, in spite of its terseness, the richest summary of Jesus’ proclamation which we possess.” It is no accident that it lies at the very center of the Sermon on the Mount. Interestingly, Jesus himself prays the essence of this prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, addressing God as “Father,” and praying that God’s will would be done.
Jesus says to “pray like this,” which suggests that this prayer is a model to guide us rather than a formula to be repeated. Whether recited from memory or not, Jesus helps us to prioritize what should concern us most. “Jesus has not left us to our own devices in our relationship to God,” write William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas. “We need not flail around, trying to think up something to say to God” (Lord, Teach Us).
There are several things worth noting regarding the Lord’s Prayer itself. First, it is short. Unlike those consumed with self-interest, this prayer is simple. We can come to the Father directly, without commotion outwardly or inwardly. This doesn’t mean that our time in prayer has to be short. In Luke’s Gospel we read, “Jesus spent the night praying to God” (Luke 6:12). Extended periods of time alone before God are not only natural but necessary for anyone who wants to do the Father’s will.
Second, this prayer is the church’s prayer. It is a communal prayer. And so we include one another in it, asking God to give to others what we ourselves desire from him. There is an interesting Rabbinic prayer: “Let not the prayer of wayfarers find entrance, O Lord, before thee.” William Barclay notes that behind this prayer is the idea that though the wayfarer naturally asks for good weather, he forgets that the country is actually in need of rain. Jesus thus stresses the need of praying in and with and for the community. “We may well remember,” William Barclay says, “that the words I, me, my, and mine never appear in the Lord’s Prayer” (The Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer).
Third, the Lord’s Prayer falls into two halves, corresponding roughly to the first and second sections of the Ten Commandments. God first and neighbor second. We begin with God and his kingdom and then trust in God’s provision for humankind, the common mercies of daily bread, forgiveness, guidance, protection in conflict, and final deliverance. The two halves make a whole, but the order is important. God and his purposes must be at the center.
Lastly, the Lord’s Prayer stretches across time; it covers the past (“Forgive us our debts”), the present (“Give us this day our daily bread”), and the future (“Your kingdom come”). All our needs are in principle covered here— our need for material things, for spiritual nourishment, for guidance and help. God is concerned with our whole lives because his kingdom encompasses the whole of life.
Lord Form Us!
According to Luke, Jesus’ disciples ask him to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1). What Jesus tells them springs from his life and from his own life of prayer: Jesus’ “food” is to do the will of the Father; he demonstrates the power of God’s kingdom as he heals both body and soul; he relies on God for his daily bread; he resists and overcomes temptation, escaping the schemes of the evil one; and he forgives: “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
The Lord’s Prayer, then, makes us more like Jesus; it forms us into the kind of people God intends us to be. God makes his own name holy, but does so when we make his name known by the holiness of our lives. God brings his kingdom to earth, but we bear witness to this fact as we manifest its presence in our life together. It is God’s will we want done, so we commit ourselves to obeying his commands. God provides for our daily bread, and in response we work so that others’ needs are supplied. God forgives us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. As we strive to live lives committed to righteousness, God will not test us beyond our strength.
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, therefore, we are not just uttering vague petitions. We are actually committing ourselves to living out what we are praying for. Tolstoy writes that prayer must “be expressed through prolonged actions of the arms and legs. (Isn’t the journeying of pilgrims prayer by legs?) If I go and work a whole day or a week for widow, is this not prayer?”
I am weak, I am sinful, I have a vice (this is not an illustration but the truth; I have a terrible vice), which I am struggling against. I want to pray and do so in words. But isn’t it better for me to broaden my understand of prayer; isn’t it better for me to seek the cause of this vice and find a divine activity, not of an hour’s duration, but of days and months, a “prayerful” activity that could overcome this vice?... Isn’t it better for me to change my godless life, serve others, and cast away all the various means I use to satisfy my fleshly desires? If I do this, my whole life will become a prayer, and this prayer will surely be granted. (Leo Tolstoy: Spiritual Writings)
The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer for our whole lives, a prayer that both empowers and commits us to live as Jesus did. It is, as Pope Benedict says, God’s means of configuring us into his image. In praying the Lord’s Prayer, let us ask God to help us become an answer to the petitions we pray.
Your Turn
How has the Lord’s Prayer helped to form you? Just reply to this email to leave a comment.