Wednesday Adoration Homily - Lord Teach us to Pray -

The Gospel of Luke has been called the Gospel of prayer
Over and over again Jesus is found praying in Luke’s Gospel
Before major events
Before he enters a town
and often after he leaves one

The Disciples simply ask
Lord teach us to pray
Not Lord teach us a prayer

In the Our Father we find not only a wonderful prayer
but Jesus also teaches us about God and what should be part of every prayer

By calling God Father:
Jesus is teaching us that
that God is the source of life,
that God is the Creator of every living thing.

Jesus is also teaching us that we are God’s children,
We are sons and daughters, of God.

And if we are children of the one God,
then we are brothers and sisters to each other.
And there can be no exceptions.

Whenever we pray this prayer
Whenever we pray any prayer it has to
bind us together into one human family

Every prayer which leaves our mouth should speak to this profound truth
Every prayer is for everyone

Do we understand this when we say the word Father in prayer.

Am I prepared to see every single person on the face of this earth,
regardless of race, nationality, skin color,
class, occupation, age, religion,
or behavior… as my brother and sister?

If not,
How can we continue to pray ?

Hallowed be your name or
May your name be held holy:

God’s name is already holy and nothing we can do can make it any more so.

In this petition Jesus tries to help us understand that God is greater than us
That God is beyond our grasp

He is all Good all Powerful all Loving

With this petition Jesus wants the whole world sing with the angels,
“Holy, holy, holy…” like the scene in the Book of Revelation before the very throne of God

God does not need our praise but we do
When we realize that God is holy we are saying that we belong to him and recognize him as Lord.

Your kingdom come:
God’s Kingdom is that world where God’s will prevails
in people’s hearts and minds and relationships.

It produces a world of freedom, peace and justice for all.
In praying this petition, we are not just asking God to bring it about while we sit back and wait.

We are also committing ourselves to be partners with God in bringing it about.
Our co-operation in the founding of the God's Kingdom is essential

To be a Christian,
To be a disciple of Jesus is essentially
to be involved in this task of making the Kingdom a reality.

All of us have to help bring about the founding of God’s kingdom
All of us have to bring the world to God

With the petition
Give us this day our Daily Bread…
Jesus teaches us there that it is right and good for God’s children to petition their Father for the things they need…
not necessarily the things we want.

Like any Father God will provide for us

The author in living spaces spoke at lengths about the pronoun us.
Who does the us stand for.

Is it us who pray this prayer?
Is it our family ?
Is it our our friends acquaintances?
Or does the us mean that we are praying for everyone
all of God’s children

When we say give us
Are we not praying for the whole world

Are we not asking that the whole world receive what they need…

If this is the case
with this petition are we not promising to help make that happen?

Are we not promising to share God’s resources with all of God’s children

That’s a scary implication for a country that uses way beyond our far share of the world’s natural resources to sustain our life style.

With the petition
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,

Jesus is teaching us that in our prayer we can ask for forgiveness
It is implied that God really wants to forgive us our sins.

But when we ask for forgiveness for our sins
we are also promising to forgive those who sin against us

This petition teaches us that we will only be forgiven
in proportion to how much we forgive.

If that is indeed the case
How many of us still harbor anger or resentment in our hearts

And how many of us can count on God’s forgiveness
if we have not forgiven each other from our hearts?

And do not subject us to the final test….
With this last petition Jesus is reminding us that our world is filled with temptation and that we permanently need God’s loving protection
God’s Loving Mercy.

We need God’s presence in our lives
So that we may not ever permanently separate from God’s love


In teaching us the Our Father
Jesus teaches us how to pray
And reminds us that…

We are precious in God’s eyes
He is our Father we are His Children

He reminds us that
That God is ever greater than us

That God’s will and God’s dreams are what is best for us
And that we should work to follow God’s plan in our lives

Jesus reminds us that we have a role in God’s plan
that all of us have to work for
The coming of His kingdom on earth

Along our Journey home God will provide our daily bread
He will give us what we need
It is good and right and just to depend on him for our daily necessitates

We should never forget that we can count on God’s forgiveness
if we forgive each other

And finally that God will be with us always on the journey home to him