When You Pray...

This Sunday, we tackle the Lord’s Prayer. In Christian life, it is ubiquitous. It is the

prayer that all Christian denominations say, even though we might heartily disagree with

one another on other things. In a nursing-home setting filled with people who might not

even remember their own family members’ names, all you have to do is start with, “Our

Father, who art in heaven...” and faces snap to attention, eyes focus and lips start

moving. It may be the one thing that non-church people remember from their childhood

Sunday-school days...

In fact, the Lord’s Prayer is such a common part of our faith life that we might not listen

to the words closely anymore. The rhythm of the words themselves bring comfort

without even pondering the words themselves. The Jesus scholar John Dominic Crossan,

however, wonders in his book The Greatest Prayer, if the Lord’s Prayer is nothing short of “a radical manifesto and a hymn of hope for all humanity in language addressed to all

the earth.” Well, that’s something, isn’t it...

So, this Sunday, we’ll look at what Jesus said when one of his disciples said, “Lord,

teach us to pray.”

To prepare, read Luke 11:1-13, and ponder the following:

1. How often do you say the Lord’s Prayer? Do you hear the individual lines? Do

   they have meaning for you, or is it more the familiarity and cadence?

2. If someone asked you to teach them to pray, what would you say or do?

Josep Maria Subirachs, Eucharist Door with Lord's Prayer, detail, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.