The Beauty of Prayer

"Recieving God's word with a willing heart and returning it to him in prayer and praise is a work of Lenten transformation" (Magnificat, 384). Prayer is one of the pillars of Lent, along with fasting and almsgiving. Many of the faithful work to increase their prayer life during this holy season and hopefully it carries them beyond. In the gospel for today, Matthew 6:7-15, Jesus tells his disciples and us, this is how you are to pray. With that statement, Jesus gives us the Our Father. The Third Edition, Roman Missal picks up on that in the introduction to the Lord's Prayer: "At the Savior's command and formed by diving teaching, we dare to say..." The Lord's Prayer is a beautiful prayer that Jesus gave to us because it says it all. We acknowledge our Father who is in heaven and whose name is hallowed. We pray that the kingdom will come. That we will do God's will on earth as it is done in heaven. We ask for our daily bread. We pray that we may be forgiven so that we in turn can forgive others. The prayer concludes that the Father will keep us free from all evil and temptation. The gospel passage concludes with Jesus focusing on forgiveness, "If you forgive men their trangressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions." As I mentioned, what more can we say because the Lord's prayer says it all. Let us pray this prayer reverently and take to heart each word for the beauty of this prayer can help us in our daily transformation! God Bless You!!!