Homily: 11th Week of Ordinary Time - Thursday - The Lord's Prayer

Only when we truly learn to pray will we truly learn to live.  Prayer is integral to the life of the Christian.  The Church is constantly at prayer.  By her public prayer life, Mass is celebrated at every hour of the day around the world, and the liturgy of the hours sanctifies the hours of the day.

By our private prayer we pray we engage in our devotional life: the rosary, stations of the cross, the chaplet of divine mercy, prayers handed down by the saints, our meditation upon the word of God, adoration of the blessed Sacrament, and contemplation.

Jesus’ mind and heart are perpetually directed to the Will of his Father.  He is constantly seeking and surrendering to His Father’s Will, that the work for which his Father sent Him might be accomplished on earth, that is, our salvation.  We are to imitate the Lord precisely in this, his surrender to the Father. 

Surrender to the Divine Will of the Father is at the heart of the Lord’s prayer which Jesus teaches his disciples.  “Thy Will be Done”. 

Pope Benedict wrote, by transforming his [life and] death into an act of prayer, an act of love, and thus by making himself communicable, Jesus has made it possible for us to participate in his most intimate and personal act of being, i.e. his dialogue with the Father.

A priest once told me, in order to pray always, we must pray sometimes.  The whole day cannot be sanctified, unless there is that portion of the day totally dedicated to prayer.  Then and only then can ones whole day, and hopefully, one’s whole life become a prayer.

So Jesus teaches his followers the Lord’s prayer, for his followers are to be in constant dialogue with God.  And by praying the Lord’s prayer, not mindlessly, but with greater and greater understanding throughout the course of our Christian life, we begin to participate in the mind and heart of Jesus. 

Only when we truly learn to pray will we truly learn to live. 

So perhaps today we should spend some extra time allowing the Lord to teach us the Lord’s Prayer as if it were the first time, reflecting on the words, allowing the meaning to seep into our bones, to change us, to conform us to Jesus, that our day and our life may be a prayerful offering to the Father, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.