“Lord, teach us to pray”
We are taught so that we may do. Jesus asks of us acts of faith, hope, and charity. He asks us to love God and have no other gods before Him. He asks us to be obedient. How will we accomplish all that we are asked? We can only accomplish these tasks through prayer, and thus Jesus not only teaches us to prayer, but He prays for us, and invites us to pray with Him.
“The acts of faith, hope, and charity enjoined by the first commandment are accomplished in prayer. Lifting up the mind toward God is an expression of our adoration of God: prayer of praise and thanksgiving, intercession and petition. Prayer is an indispensable condition for being able to obey God’s commandments. ‘[We] ought always to pray and not lose heart.’”[i]
Prayer then enables us to living out the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love, which were given to us at our Baptism. Prayer enables us to keep the first commandment (love of God), and we obey out of love for God commands this of us. There are of course many ways to pray and many types of prayers, but all our summed up in the Our Father. “The Our Father is the ‘summary of the whole Gospel’ (Tertullian), ‘the perfect prayer’ (Saint Thomas Aquinas). Found in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), it presents in the form of prayer the essential content of the Gospel.”[ii]
Why did Jesus have to pray to God the Father if He was God? “Prayer to the Father was the life breath of his earthly existence. He came to dwell in our midst but Jesus did not leave the house of the Father because he kept communion with him in prayer. On the other hand, however, this filial intimacy became a merciful and saving closeness for his brothers right up to the supreme sacrifice of the cross.”[iii] God is the first person of the Trinity and is a divine person. Jesus is the second person of the Trinity and is a divine person. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and is a divine person. The Blessed Trinity is a perfect trinity, this means that are persons whom are perfect. The Blessed Trinity is a perfect unity, this means that the three persons are so united that they are one. Three in One, One in Three. Jesus reveals to us His communion with the father through prayer. Since prayer is the means of communion between the Incarnate Word (Jesus) and the Heavenly Father (God), then it is no wonder that Jesus teaches us to pray “Our Father”. It is the desire of Jesus to invite us into this communion. It is through prayer that we are then invited to share in the eternal exchange of love, which is the Blessed Trinity. “By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.” When we see prayer in this way, a means of communion with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, why would we not want to pray? Why would we not desire communion with Love itself? On the other hand if we cease to pray we are not in communion with the Blessed Trinity.
Since prayer is a means of communion with the Blessed Trinity, it is important to see how the Our Father and all pray which flows from the Our Father is present in the liturgy where we are must in communion with God. In the liturgy we pray with Jesus. Jesus continues to pray in the liturgy and thus He does not remain distant from His teaching. He is not a teacher that commands and then leaves, He is a teacher that shows us how to prayer, by praying Himself and by inviting us to enter into that prayer. “The prayer of Jesus continues still today (cf. Hebrews 7:25). In the Eucharistic liturgy, Christ the High Priest offers to the Father his redeeming sacrifice. He offers it in communion with his body which is the Church. Every prayer of ours is raised to the Father ‘through Christ our Lord.’ It is the prayer of Christ which sustains all our prayers, those spoken and those in the heart. When the Church prays it, it is the Son who embraces the knees of the Father. The prayer of the sons ascends to the Father through the voice of the First Born. The arms raised up in invocation, praise, and supplication are millions but he voice is one alone, that of the Son.”[iv]
Why is the Our Father in the Mass? “St. Gregory the Great placed this prayer [Our Father] after the Canon as its completion. In the ancient Church it was considered the only preparation worthy of Holy Communion.”[v]
ACTIVITY – F.A.T.H.E.R.
Use the letters from the word “F.A.T.H.E.R.” to make a Thanksgiving after you receive Holy Communion. F is for acts of Faith; A is for acts of Adoration; T is for acts of Thanksgiving; H is for acts of Humility; E is for Entreaty (asking for something); R is for Resolutions (making promises to Jesus).[vi]
Faith – make a mental list of the truths that the holy Catholic Church teaches, and that Jesus Christ has revealed. We are thankful for these truths, which defend us against the relativism of our time and assist us in discerning the will of God.
Adoration – we can tell Jesus why we love Him.
Thanksgiving – we can tell Jesus what we are thankful for.
Humility – be silent in the presence of Jesus, making our self small in His magnificent presence. We can also pray the Litany of Humility.
Entreaty – we can ask Jesus for what are heart desires, always desiring that His will, not our will be done.
Resolutions – What promises do we make to Jesus? What changes, conversions need to take place in our life? We must also beg Jesus the strength necessary to follow through with our resolutions.
How does the “F.A.T.H.E.R.” Activity make us ready to practice obedience to God? In the last two parts, entreaty and resolutions, we tell Jesus what we would like to (entreaty), but ultimately submit to His holy will; what He would like for us to do (resolutions). We know that we are sinful and weak. We express our humility so that with Saint Paul we can say, “I can do all things in Him who strengthened me.”[vii] Our obedience is motivated by thanksgiving; we desire to give back to the one who has given us everything. Our obedience is motivated by love, for we willingly follow and obey the one whom we love. Since “God is love”[viii] we know that what is asked of us out of obedience is good. Our obedience is motivated by trust, for we have faith in all that Jesus reveals and what the Church teaches, we know that what is asked of us out of obedience is true.
[i] Catechism of the Catholic Church - 2098
[ii] Compendium – Catechism of the Catholic Church - 579
[iii] Compendium – Section two The Lord’s Prayer “Our Father”
[iv] Ibid.
[v] Roman Catholic Daily Missal (1962); The Pater Noster
[vi] Roman Catholic Daily Missal (1962); Thanksgiving after Mass
[vii] Philippians 4:13
[viii] 1 John 4:8