Today we learn how to pray. One does not need to use many words because God “knows what you need before you ask.” So then what does Jesus mean for us to do? It is interesting to note that the word for ‘prayer’ in Aramaic literally means “to set a trap for,” which is an idiom for “becoming the space for,” or “become in tune with.” In other words Jesus is telling us to become a space where the Love of God is “trapped” or “captured.”
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus gives us the five categories that need attention in order to become the space of Love on earth.
Worship/praise of God and God’s council, wisdom and love (God’s kingdom).
Appreciation/thanksgiving for strength and nourishment that feeds our bodies and our souls daily.
God’s forgiveness when we fall out of harmony with God’s love.
Our forgiveness of our self, others, and even of God which heals and preserves the space of Love in us.
Receptivity to God’s presence and light which keeps us separate from the darkness of fear, anger, envy and jealousy.
The Lord’s Prayer is a practical “how to” of living in Love. This Love, who is God, is continually poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. If we remain receptive to Love and let it permeate our being it will radiate out from us and overflow to others. Then this Love who is God can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. The essence of all of Jesus’ teaching and how he asks us to pray is to be receivers and transmitters of Love.
The Church gives us the season of Lent for us to set aside a time, a space if you will, as individuals and as a community to become the space of Love, to put special focus on capturing God’s love so that it will not return to God “void, but will achieve the end for which God intended.”
Member of Creighton University Community
Since its inception in 1997, Online Ministries has been blessed to have myriad members of the Creighton University community offer their personal reflections on the daily scripture readings.
