We could say there are three parts to today's Gospel.
The first part is the introduction to the Our Father, the second part is the Our Father,
and the third part is our Lord's conclusion.
And in the introduction, Our Lord corrects the errors of the pagans, said there's a bad
way of praying.
And then he goes on in the Our Father in the second part to show the proper way of praying.
And he concludes by explaining, in a sense, why it's the proper way of praying.
So the thing that he corrects, of course, is the habit of the pagans.
The habit of the pagans is to rattle on with the idea that if they just keep rattling on
and multiply their words, that somehow they will be heard.
In fact, there were litanies in the pagan world that are much different from our litanies,
for example, to the Blessed Virgin.
Their litanies had this idea of if we just find the right name for God, that that will
do the trick.
That somehow we've got to dance in the name of God.
That's the idea.
That's the idea.
That if we dance in front of God or the gods, we have got to do some kind of gymnastics
in order to get them to do what we want.
So for some, it was a manner of manipulation of God.
If they just wore him out with words or the gods, wore the gods out with words or with
the right kind of words that the gods would do what they wanted.
Our litanies, of course, are not like that at all.
Our litanies are litanies of praise that someone has reflected on.
For example, on the Blessed Virgin and come to love her and to understand the truth about
her and has seen all of the ways in which Sacred Scripture speaks about her and uses
all these various ways in praising her goodness and the multifaceted beauty of our Blessed
Lady.
And in so doing, invokes her intercession, her presence.
Yes.
And her motherly care upon those who pray the litany.
So while there may be certain material similarities between some things that were not Christian
and some things that are new, it doesn't mean that the Christian things came from those
that were pagan or in fact are the same thing at all.
In fact, they're not.
So our Lord condemns this idea of just trying to manipulate God by babbling.
Yes.
By just talking and talking and talking until the person who's praying gets what they're
looking for.
Our Lord rather teaches a very simple prayer and it's the spirit behind the Our Father
which is so important because in the Our Father is embedded and exemplified all the dispositions
that we need to pray.
When we pray and we say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
We are trying to praise God and to acknowledge his majesty, to acknowledge his presence in
the world and that somehow we want to be present to him and we want the world in which we live
to be like his kingdom above.
And that's our purpose here on earth, to serve and worship God and to find our holiness in
him.
It's putting, of course, first things first.
Yes.
We are looking to worship God, we are looking to worship to please him and ultimately to
get to heaven.
And as our Lord says elsewhere in the gospel, if we do that, then all things will be added
unto us.
If we seek first the kingdom of God and we pray in the Our Father, thy kingdom come,
if we seek first the kingdom of God, then everything else will be added unto us.
And that's a fundamental act of faith.
That's the Christian faith.
That's the Christian regard for the world in which we live and the problems that we
have to deal with.
We should know before anything else that if we strive to do the will of God, that all
the other things that we worry about, God will in fact take care of.
He is our Father.
He sees our needs.
We are better than the birds of the sky or the lilies of the field that he takes care
of.
He takes care of them.
He will take care of us.
He will take care of us.
He will take care of us as well.
Give us this day, we go on, give us this day our daily bread.
That's really the only prayer of petition that has to do with the temporal goods of
this world.
It's the only petition in the Our Father that has to do with asking for the things that
we need, temporal things that we need in this world.
And it expresses the need for the essentials.
Our daily bread is the essentials.
It doesn't mean that we can't pray for other things or that we should not pray for other
things, but it has a relative importance.
It's situated after we seek the kingdom of God, and to a large extent, we just need to
trust that God knows what he's doing and will take care of us.
But that doesn't mean that those things aren't important, but they're relatively important.
It's only one petition.
The rest of it is about obtaining forgiveness.
And forgiveness is the only thing that we can do.
It's the only thing that we can do.
It's the only thing that we can do.
It's giving others and being delivered from temptation.
So again, it returns back to the service of God.
We want to obtain mercy from the Lord, and we recognize that in order to do so, that
we have to treat others with mercy, and we ask that the Lord deliver us from the evil
one and from his wiles, so that his will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So it's really all about the service of God.
And the rest of it is placed within that context, but the overarching tone and purpose of prayer
ultimately is to be one with him and to serve him and to be happy with him in heaven.
And if we do that, then when we pray to him for other things, he will hear our prayer
and give us the answer that we need to have.
And then there's prayer.
Prayer.
That was the conclusion to the Our Father that our Lord gives.
If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your transgressions.
And that is where heaven and earth come together, because that's what we talk about in the Our
Father.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
That's how we make earth like heaven.
we recognize that God has poured his mercy out upon us so that we so that then we who live in
the world ought to have that same mercy for others and that is that that's the true disposition
of prayer that that is a prayer for prayer for heart somebody who is open to give to others
is prepared to receive from God someone who is grateful for the gifts that God has given them
is going to be willing to be generous with others and and those dispositions are really at the heart
of art of prayer if we have those dispositions then God will bless us and hear us it's not a
matter of multiplying words it's not a matter of figuring how figuring how to manipulate God
of making deals with God if I do this you know I'll promise to do this if you give me what I
want people have made vows before
but unless those vows in order to get something but unless those vows can be situated within the
our father it's just another way of behaving like a pagan today is the in the in the traditional
right today is the feast of Saint Ephraim the Syrian I'd like to read a little reflection by
Saint Ephraim on prayer and the dispositions that we need to do today
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l because we do fail to짝 aj
depicted Sage
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is
not
so
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far
far
whose prayer is answered if two people approach the good good one one in need and the other with
a debt to pay he will give to the one and forgive the other thus both walk away from the giver's
door with gifts the one in need receives delivery from necessity and the debtor receives forgiveness
of his debt in every possible way god shows that he is a merciful giver of gifts he bestows upon
us his love and shows us his kindness and this is why he will not answer even one inappropriate
prayer if its fulfillment would bring us death and ruin even in this case however when he refuses
to grant what we ask for he does not leave us without a most useful gift for he removes from
us harm
you
you
and opens the door of his compassion.
Therefore, be sure that every prayer that is not fulfilled is certainly harmful,
but a prayer that is answered is beneficial.
The giver of gifts is just and good,
and will not leave your prayers unanswered,
for in his goodness there is no malice,
and in his truth there is no envy.
And so when we find ourselves sometimes feeling like we've been left in the lurch by God
because he doesn't seem to answer our prayer,
perhaps the thing that we need to do is make an act of faith in his divine providence
and believe in what we say when we pray the Our Father,
that he is our Father and that he does take care of us,
that he provides for all our needs.
Amen.
Amen.