"Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11: 1)
The prayer that Jesus taught is the compendium of all prayer. If we pray it not just with out lips, but with our lives, we will speed along the way of love.
The disciples saw the way Jesus prayed. They were especially struck by his way of addressing God: he called him "Father" (Matt. 11: 25-6; Mark 14: 36; Luke 10: 21; 22:42; John 17:1-25).
Other people before Jesus had called God by this name, but on his lips that word expressed an intimate, mutual relationship with the Father that was new and unique, a love and life that bound them together in an unparallelled unity.
The disciples would have liked to experience the same intense and profound relationship with God that they saw in their Teacher. They wanted to pray as he prayed; and so they asked him:
"Lord, teach us to pray"
Jesus had spoken to his disciples about the Father on a number of occasions, but now, in answer to their question, he revealed that his Father is also our Father. We, too, through the Holy Spirit, can call God "Father" as Jesus does.
In teaching us to say "Father", Jesus reveals to us that we are children of God and he helps us to realise that we are all brothers and sisters. Jesus, our brother, is at our side, bringing us into his own personal relationship with God, orienting our lives towards him, bringing us into the heart of the Trinity, and making us more and more one among ourselves.
"Lord, teach us to pray"
Jesus not only teaches us to address the Father, but also what we should ask him: that his name be kept holy and his kingdom come; that he let himself be known and loved by us and by all; that he enter definitively into our history and take possession of what already belongs to him; that his plan of love for humankind be fully achieved. In this way Jesus teaches us to have his own attitudes, and to conform our will to God's will.
He also teaches us to trust the Father. We can ask the Father (who feeds the birds of the air) for our daily bread; we can ask the Father (who welcomes with open arms the son that was lost) to forgive our sins; we can ask him (who even counts the hairs of our head) to defend us from every temptation.
These are requests that God will definitely respond to. We can use different words, as Augustine of Hippo says, but we cannot ask for different things.1
"Lord, teach us to pray"
I remember when the Lord helped me too, to see in a very new way that I had a Father. I was 23 years old and I was still teaching. A priest visiting the town I was in wished to have a word with me. He asked me to offer an hour of my day to God for his intentions.
I answered: "Why not the whole day?"
Struck by such youthful generosity, he told me: "Remember that God loves you immensely."
It was a blinding light. "God loves me immensely. God loves me immensely." I said it over and over again; I repeated it to my companions: "God loves you immensely. God loves us immensely."
From that moment on I saw God present always and everywhere with his love. And he explained things to me. What did he explain? That everything is love - all I am and all that happens to me, all we are and all that regards us; that I am his child and he is my Father.
From that moment on, even my prayers changed: more than addressing them to Jesus, I put myself at the side of Jesus, our Brother, and turn to the Father. When I pray to the Father with the words that Jesus taught us, I feel that I am not alone in working for his kingdom: there are two of us, the Almighty and myself.
I also acknowledge God as Father on behalf of those who do not know him as such. I ask that his holiness envelop and fill the whole earth. I ask for bread for everyone, for forgiveness and deliverance from evil for all those who are going through trials.
When events alarm or upset me, I cast all my worry on to the Father, sure that he will look after things. And I can bear witness that I cannot recall any worry cast into his heart that he did not sort out. If we believe in the Father's love, he always intervenes, in little things and in big things.
During this month, let's try to say the 'Our Father', the prayer Jesus taught us, with new awareness: God is our Father and he looks after us. Let's say it in the name of the whole human race, strengthening universal brotherhood. May it be our prayer par excellence, in the knowledge that we are asking God for what he has most at heart. He will grant all our requests and fill us with his gifts. In this way, made free from every worry, we will be able to speed along the way of love.
1. Letter 130, ed. B. Ramsey, Letters 100-155 (II/2), New City Press, New York, 2003.