Our Father

Today we read the "Our Father" at mass.

The disciples come to Jesus and catch him praying. They are moved by what they see and they want what Jesus has. So they ask him to "teach" them how to pray.

Upon this request JEsus gives them the "Our Father."

Jesus invites us to enter into his intimate dialogue with the Father; he wants us to enter in that spce where love is exchanged, perfect love is expressed.

In the gift of the prayer, we are shown from heaven how we can and should be.

We are invited to speak to the Father with the very words of the Father spoken to us in and through Christ. We pray to God with the words of God.

We hsould not take these words lightly. they are the measure for us of how to live and the direction we need in life.

"Lord, teach us to pray."

He has done this. In praying we learn to live. The words of the pray form and shape the life we live. In the OUr Father we are trained to embrace the inner attitude of Jesus himself.

As Pope Benedict tells us, "without a lif eof prayer, we can not radiate Christ."

The pray to the Father forms us to be like the son, and thus the light is truly ignited and fanned into a burning flame.



The "Our Father" invites us to a lif eof mysticism, intimate union with the Father and the Son. We are taken up int o the eternal exchange of love. Pray not rashly but truly listen to the words you pray.