The Our Father: a “How To” prayer guide from Jesus

At first glance, our Lenten call seems very “do-able”, doesn’t it? Fasting – choose something to abstain from to help you stay focused on the Lord. Almsgiving – give to or do something for those less fortunate than you. These two actions were very easy from me to understand even as a young Catholic. The third Lenten call, however, was always (and sometimes still is) a lot harder for me. Prayer was not something that I was explicitly taught how to do in my youth, and I often found the process of speaking from my heart to God overwhelming. When you think about it, prayer can be intimidating. How am I supposed to communicate directly with God in words that are worthy of His greatness? I mean, I’m a simple person and have trouble getting the right words out to other human beings. How can I string words together that would be worthy of God? Surely, I’m going to mess this up, right?! I’m going to sound like one of the “babbling pagans” that Jesus refers to in today’s reading!

If you’re like me and prayer doesn’t always come naturally, look no further than the Our Father – Jesus’ how-to guide to prayer, outlined for us in today’s reading. There are so many things that Jesus did for us in His time on earth, so much that He gave to us. In my opinion one of the greatest things that He did was to open our connection to God the Father and make it possible for us to tell Him directly, with the perfect words, “thank you” for all that He has done for us. The Our Father outlines for us exactly what we need to express to God how thankful we are for Him, how sorry we are when we do wrong by Him, and how we need His support in all our actions now and into the future. If you are struggling with where to start in your prayer life, the Our Father is exactly where you can begin. Say the Our Father every day and meditate on the words that Jesus gave us. When you’re ready to say more, an Our Father added with ten Hail Marys can quickly grow into a decade of a rosary, which will call in Our Mother to intercede for you. Ready to try more? Speak to God from the heart with your own words. Use the Our Father’s framework to help you incorporate praise, gratitude and requests for forgiveness with your petitions directly to God.

God wants us to enter a relationship with Him; it’s what He wants from us most of all! The best way we can build that relationship is through prayer. Although it may seem intimidating at first, trust me when I say that we can’t mess it up. And remember, if you’re feeling lost for words or don’t know where to start, you can always turn to Jesus’ perfect words and pray…

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Amen.

Author: Erin Evans, Mathematics Department