Have you ever wondered how beautiful the prayer “ Our Father” is ? It is one of the most complete and substantial prayer, yet simple and easy to remember. Millions of catholics, and Christians around the world know this prayer by heart, not to mention others who are not Christians, but have often heard this prayer in the mass media . Well here is my simple reflection on this prayer. I have been thinking about it, and something keeps telling me to post this online.
The Opening - Calling upon God as our father, giving Him Glory and reverence. A simple yet elegant greeting to our God
Our Father
Who are in Heaven
Holy be your name
The Surrender – To remember that it is His will to be done, and not ours. Often we forget our focus on God and why we’re here on this earth, but rather prefer to pursue our own worldly pleasure. Here we remind ourselves and we offer to God, that His will , not ours be done
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done
On earth, as it is in heaven
The Request – A simple request, not an elaborate one asking for worldly pleasures, but to ask Him not only for our daily sustenance off what we need, but also our spiritual food. The graces to carry with our lives, through His mercy, we ask him to not only feed our physical being but also spiritual being. Bread in the Catholic Church means many things, including the normal bread made of Wheat, the bread of life ( Eucharist) and some refers to the bible as the Daily bread.
Give us today our daily bread
The Repentance – Here we humbly ask God for his forgiveness for our failings and our sins. But the important thing to remember is that we must not only seek for God’s forgiveness, but we have to forgive those who have done us wrong. Holding a grudge is a very unhealthy thing, and it eats away at your soul. In Matthew 18 : 21 – 35, Jesus says that in order to receive the God’s grace of forgiveness, we have to first forgive those who has wronged us. This in reality is really a difficult thing to do , as all of us know, but I guess, this part of the prayer, constantly reminds us, that not only do we receive the grace of God’s Mercy, but we too should be like Him and forgive others.
Forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sinned against us
The Protection – Finally asking God for his guidance and protection, in everything we do. Here we submit to God , as his children, asking Him not only to protect us from physical dangers, but also to ask Him to help us to avoid sin, as well as to seek His guidance and wisdom in our daily challenges and problems. We acknowledge here that we are sinful beings, and that we need His help to live our life here on earth, so that it may be pleasing to him. We’re also telling God that he is in control of our lives, and that we come to Him, not only with our joys but also our trouble, very much like how a child will approach his father for help. This is also a simple yet very powerful statement, asking God for protection against all spiritual evils i.e A prayer for exorcism, in 2 simple sentence.
Do not bring us to the test
But deliver us from evil
The prayer “Our Father” is a very simple yet powerful prayer. It takes about 1 minute to recite, yet covers everything that we possibly need. It covers our needs both spiritually and physically, yet it is a prayer that is often underestimated. Worst still many recite the prayer, without reflecting on the beauty of this prayer, hence not realising the power of this particular prayer. The “Our Father” is often a prayer many people take for granted.
If you are in a state of mind where you do not know what to pray, or just simply too busy to pray, saying the Our Father would be sufficient to ask God for everything that we want.
