Lord, Teach Us To Pray!

A Meditation by Anne

Our Lord at prayer

Jesus would pray. Frequently He felt the desire to leave, for a moment, the interested crowd and his often hard-headed disciples, to retire to a separate place or a mountain, and where He could be alone with the Father.

For himself, He had nothing to ask for – Neither bread, nor forgiveness, nor protection, nor favours. But in God’s presence, He would be what He was – and still is. He would be filled with peace. He would listen in the depth of his soul. The awareness of his child-likeness would fill him with strength and joy. Once again, Jesus would know that He was the beloved Son whom the Father had filled with His gifts. Again He would feel imbued with that infinite patience, with that untiring mercy that He shares with His Father, with that dynamic and creative love of the Trinity. His prayer would overflow in words of confidence and love: “Father, I know that You always hear me. Father, I bless You. I give You thanks. Father, everything yours is mine…..”

And when He would return – glowing, radiant, renewed – the Apostles would ask themselves: “Where is He coming from? What has happened to Him? Who has been able to transform Him in that way?” Someone would then tell them that He had been away to pray. Then they would say to themselves: “Ah, if only we would know how to pray that way! What a pity that nobody taught us to pray!” And one day they dared to say: “Lord, teach us to pray!”

And Jesus taught them that beautiful prayer, which we call the Our Father or the Lord’s Prayer. It is a prayer that reflects what Jesus did – He hallowed God’s Name; He brought about His Kingdom; He did His Will. But, at the same time, it is a prayer adapted to the needs of the disciples: Give us our daily bread; forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; lead us not into temptation.

More than a prayer to recite, it is a prayer to meditate upon. Did He not need an entire night to only pronounce one verse of the Our Father: “Let not my will be done, but Thine!” It is a prayer that would transform the Apostles – moulding them from withi; a prayer which would lead them throughout their lives to the same total surrender of their Lord.

Through this prayer, Jesus shows us the true face of the Father: He is so good that – in the eyes of those who are superficial – He seems a ‘weak’; He is so loving that He seems unable to deny anything; He gives himself to us so much that, apparently, one does with Him whatever one wants.

In the Our Father, Jesus attacks our scepticism and our lack of confidence. He shakes up our timidity and affirms with all his might that there is no limit to Divine generosity. Our desires are seen limited only by our fears; our prayers only have the boundaries of our inconsistency; our doing only fails because of our lack of faith. One must never seek in God the reasons for our failures.

The only obstacle for us to be heard is not the difficulty for disposing the Father in our favour, it is the difficulty of convincing ourselves that we must go to Him with Faith. The only resistance to oppose persevering in prayer is not that of the Father who refuses to give, but ours in our insisting not to receive.

But it is not about our becoming even more interested than what we already are. The only thing which can be asked for, the only thing which God can give, is Himself: His spirit; His love. Therefore, let us be careful with God’s gifts: they are full of life, surprising, active, and dangerous to our egoism and laziness. God’s gift makes one give. God’s forgiveness makes one forgive. God’s love makes one love as He does; like the Son did even unto the Passion and the Cross.

Let us make a new beginning today, to pray the Our Father with that same spirit, with God’s spirit, so that it may be fruitful in us – so that it may be fertile in our lives as Christians and that we may be then go out and radiate it to others!

Anne C is a supporter of the Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma