The Lord’s Prayer - Day 1

"Lord teach us to pray…"

From St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 6
"When you pray, go into your room and when you have shut the door, 
pray to your Father who is in the secret place."
"Your Father knows what things you need before you ask him."
"In this manner, therefore pray:"

"Our Father who art in Heaven"     

With these six words, Jesus makes clear the relevance of the Incarnation to us, of God made flesh, of the Son of God dwelling amongst us, God’s other children. It is sometimes said of Christianity that it is as much a relationship as a religion. In instructing us to pray to our Father who is God, Jesus defines that relationship.

God sees us, loves us, helps us and provides for us as a Father who looks after his children. God’s Son, Jesus Christ, is our Lord and our Brother. Everyone on Earth is our Brother or our Sister. It is in loving, helping and providing for them that we share in the work of God, our Father. In helping the least of these, we meet our Brother, Jesus Christ face to face.

Heaven is the spiritual dimension, in which we live and move and have our being. By trying to follow God’s will and Jesus’ example, we create our own Heaven, here on Earth. The poem below by Francis Thompson wonderfully illustrates this concept of Heaven.

Meditations:
 Think or say "Our Father which art in Heaven" slowly to yourself several times, thinking of the meanings and messages it conveys to you

Then ask yourself:
 Can I think of myself as a son or daughter of God? Can I really look on everyone, throughout the world, as a brother or sister?

What do these relationships mean for me? For the life I live? For the way I treat all members of my family? How I use my assets?

How well have I helped my brothers and sisters with my time and with my resources?… Even a smile can be of help.

How much have I hurt anyone? ..the careless remark,..the forgotten thanks,.. the averted eyes?

How dearly have I tried to love and understand those on the margins of our society … beggars, refugees, homeless people, those living in fear of violence in ‘bad’ housing estates; the person who steals my car radio to get money for drugs?

Read the poem that follows and consider your own conception of Heaven, immanent and transcendent.

The Kingdom of God
O world invisible, we view thee,
O world intangible, we touch thee,
O world unknowable, we know thee,
Inapprehensible, we clutch thee.

Does the fish soar to find the ocean?
The Eagle plunge to find the air?
That we ask of the stars in motion
If they have rumour of thee there?

Not where the wheeling systems darken,
And our benumbed conceiving soars!
-The drift of pinions, would we harken,
Beats at our own clay shuttered doors.

The Angels keep their ancient places;
-Turn but a stone and start a wing!
‘Tis ye, 'tis your estrangèd faces,
That miss the many-splendoured thing.

But (when so sad thou canst no sadder)
Cry ; - and upon thy so sore loss
Shall shine the traffic on Jacob's ladder
Pitched between Heaven and Charing Cross.

Yea in the night, my soul, my daughter,
Cry; - clinging Heaven by the hems;
And lo, Christ walking on the water,
Not of Genesareth, but Thames!
Francis Thompson .

Who left this poem unpublished and unknown when he died at the age of forty eight,
succumbing to the long illness which had dogged all his days.

  

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