THE ART OF CHRISTIAN PRAYER

V/​ I will turn to you O God, 

R/​ to God who gives joy to my youth

V/​ Give me the Wisdom that sits by your throne; 

R/ that I may be counted among your children

Lord, in your all-providential plan, you have led me to this moment to rediscover me in your Word and Wisdom. Aid me to make this time of meditation and prayer enriching, transforming, and liberating for my well-being and others. Amen!

THE ART OF CHRISTIAN PRAYER

By Fr. Nicholas Macedon, OCD

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Genesis. 18:20-1, 23-32; Psalm 138 (137): 1-5, 7-8; Colossians 2:12-14; Luke 11:1-13

Sunday 27th July 2025

In the Gospel this Sunday, Jesus is not merely giving us a formula of prayer that is easy to memorise and recite. Rather, in giving us the prayer “Our Father”, Jesus is offering a three-fold invitation to us. In the first place, He is inviting us to enter into an intimate relationship with God. St. John pointed it out in his letter: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are” (1 Jn 3:1). Hence, we are reminded that when we pray, our only and best disposition is to be like little children. That is why Jesus insists, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 18:3). God wants us to relate to Him as a child relates to his father–with love, trust, honesty, humility and total dependence.

Prayer is the lifeblood of our soul. Saint Padre Pio calls it the “oxygen of our soul”. We cannot live without it. All of us need and are expected to pray. Prayer is the fruit of our relationship with God. The more we love God, the better our prayer will be. Therefore, there are no experts in prayer, but only true lovers of God. Likewise, seniority does not matter in prayer, but only the ability to become like little children.

Secondly, in teaching the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus also invites us to enter into a more meaningful relationship with Him and with one another. If we call God “Father”, then Jesus is our Brother. Perhaps, nobody among us here will object to that. But Jesus has identified Himself with our fellowmen, especially those considered the least, the lost and the last. In the parable on the Last Judgment, Jesus concluded: “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me” (cf. Mt 25). He demands that we also accept His brothers and sisters as our own. In his book “Jesus of Nazareth”, Pope Benedict XVI said: “Only within the ‘we’ of the disciples can we call God ‘Father’, because only through communion with Jesus do, we truly become ‘children of God.’ In this sense, the phrase “our father” is really demanding: It requires that we step out of the closed circle of our ‘I’. It requires that we surrender ourselves to communion with the other children of God. It requires that we accept the others – that we open our ears and our hearts to them. When we say the word our, we say Yes to the living Church in which the Lord wanted to gather his new family… The Our Father overcomes all boundaries of division and makes us one family.”

Finally, in teaching us the “Our Father”, Jesus is inviting us to share His vision for this world. The Lord’s Prayer demands a fundamental change of the world – from being a world of injustice, selfishness and misery, into a world of justice, peace and happiness. It is a prayer that impels us to obey God’s will so that we can be instruments for the transformation of this world into becoming God’s kingdom on earth: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is heaven.”

Jesus not only teaches His disciples how to pray but also reveals the heart of prayer: a relationship of love, trust, and surrender to God. St. Teresa of Ávila amplifies this teaching by showing how the “Our Father” can lead us into deeper intimacy with God, greater humility, and a life of transformative love. Her reflections invite us to make the “Lord’s Prayer” a living reality, allowing it to shape our hearts and guide our actions.

Thus, the Lord’s prayer is a threefold invitation: to become God’s children, to become His brothers and sisters and of one another, and to become instruments for the coming of God’s kingdom on earth. We must reply, and it should be: “Amen!”