One Minute Reflection – 20 June – Thursday Eleventh Week of Ord Time Year C – Today’s Gospel Matthew 6:7-15
“Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”…Matthew 6:7
REFLECTION – Prayer is a petition for what God gives – “The Lord’s prayer, as I have said, contains a petition for each of these things. First, it speaks of the Father, His name and His kingdom. Second, it shows us that the person who prays, is by grace the Son of this Father. It asks that those in heaven and those on earth may be united in one will. It tells us to ask for our daily bread. It lays down that people should be reconciled with one another and it unites our nature with itself when we forgive and are forgiven, for then it is not split asunder by differences of will and purpose. It teaches us to pray against entering into temptation, since this is the law of sin. And it exhorts us to ask for deliverance from the evil one.
For the author and giver of divine blessings could not but be our teacher as well, providing the words of this prayer, as precepts of life, for those disciples who believe in Him and follow the way He taught in the flesh. Through these words, He has revealed the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:3) that exist in Him as pure form. And in all who offer this prayer, He kindles the desire to enjoy such treasures.
It is for this reason, I think, that Scripture calls this teaching “prayer”, since it contains petitions for the gifts that God gives to us by grace. Our divinely inspired Fathers have explained prayer in a similar way, saying that prayer is petition for that which God naturally gives us, in the manner that is appropriate.”…St Maximus the Confessor (c 580-662) Monk and Theologian – Interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer (Philokalia, Volume Two)
PRAYER – Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
Amen
AnaStpaul 