Wednesday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Respect Life Month

Saints: Saint Faustina Kowalska, (1905-1938); Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos (1819-1897)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 7:51-54 Humility

Mass: Gal 2:1-2, 7-14; Resp Ps 117; Lk 11:1-4

Glorify Him, all you peoples!

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

MARY, QUEEN OF THE MOST HOLY ROSARY,

SAINT JOSEPH, DEFENDER OF LIFE,

PRAY FOR US.

Father ...

(Lk 11:2)

Our Father ...

(Mt 6:9)

Our Lord teaches us how to pray with what we know as the Lord's Prayer, or the Our Father, and in today's Gospel we learn a shorter version as related by Saint Luke that begins with "Father." Saint Matthew's version, the one we may be more familiar with, and the version we pray in the liturgy, begins with "Our Father" (Mt 6:9). Father, Our Father, His name is hallowed; there is no need to babble and think that we will be heard because of our many words (see Mt 6:7). As Jesus tells us, "Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him" (Mt 6:12).

We learn too from our Catechism*:

When we pray to the Father, we are in communion with Him and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Then we know and recognize Him with an ever new sense of wonder. The first phrase of the Our Father is a blessing of adoration before it is a supplication. For it is the glory of God that we should recognize Him as "Father," the true God. We give Him thanks for having revealed His name to us, for the gift of believing in it, and for the indwelling of His Presence in us.

(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2781)

If we pray Our Father sincerely, we leave individualism behind, because the love that we received frees us from it. The "our" at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, like the "us" of the last four petitions, excludes no one. If we are to say it truthfully, our divisions and oppositions have to be overcome.

(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2792)

With these tenets of our faith in mind and heart then, it is no wonder that Saint Benedict writes in the Holy Rule: "Assuredly, the celebration of Lauds and Vespers must never pass by without the superior's reciting the entire Lord's Prayer at the end for all to hear, because thorns of contention are likely to spring up" (Rule of Saint Benedict, 13:12). United in faith and prayer, let us pray the Lord's Prayer sincerely, truthfully, and reverently. And forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us (Lk 11:4).

SAINT FAUSTINA KOWALSKA,

BLESSED FRANCIS XAVIER SEELOS,

PRAY FOR US.

* See the Catechism of the Catholic Church 2759-2865 for an exposition of "the fundamental Christian prayer, the Our Father" (CCC 2773), the "quintessential prayer of the Church" (CCC 2776).

Today's photo: For steadfast is His kindness toward us.

© Gertrude Feick 2022