Posted on 06/20/2013 3:06:19 AM PDT by markomalley
To pray the Our Father we have to have a heart at peace with our brothers. We don't pray "my Father," but "our Father," because "we are not an only child, none of us are”. This was the focus of Pope Francis' homily at Mass Thursday morning in Casa Santa Marta. The Pope emphasized that we believe in a God who is a Father, who is "very close" to us, who is not anonymous, not "a cosmic God."
Prayer is not magic, rather it is entrusting ourselves to the Father’s embrace. Pope Francis centered his homily on the prayer of the "Our Father" taught by Jesus to His disciples, of which the Gospel speaks today. Jesus, he said, immediately gives us a piece of advice in prayer: "In praying, do not babble", do not make "worldly noises, vain noises”. And he warned that "prayer is not a magical thing, there is no magic with prayer." Someone once told me that when he went to a "witch doctor" they said a lot of words to heal him. But that "is pagan." Jesus teaches us, "we should not turn to Him with so many words," because "He knows everything." He adds, the first word is "Father," this "is the key of prayer." "Without saying, without feeling, that word – he warned - you cannot pray":
"To whom do I pray? To the Almighty God? He is too far off. Ah, I can’t hear Him. Neither did Jesus. To whom do I pray? To a cosmic God? That’s quite normal these days, is it not? ... praying to the cosmic God, right? This polytheistic model that comes from a rather light culture ... You must pray to the Father! It is a strong word, 'Father '. You must pray to Him who generated you, who gave you life. Not to everyone: everyone is too anonymous. To you. To me. To the person who accompanies you on your journey: He knows all about your life. Everything: what is good and what is not so good. He knows everything. If we do not start the prayer with this word, not just with our lips but with our hearts, we cannot pray in a Christian language".
"Father," he reiterated, "is a strong word" but "opens the door". At the time of sacrifice, the Pope said, Isaac realized that "something was wrong" because "he was missing a sheep," but he trusted his father and “confided his worries to his father’s heart" . "Father" is the word that "the son" who left with his legacy "and then wanted to return home" thought of. And that father "sees him come and goes running" to him, "he threw himself in his arms", "to cover him with love." "Father, I have sinned:" this is, the Pope said, "the key of every prayer, to feel loved by a father":
"We have a Father. Very close to us, eh! Who embraces us ... All these worries, concerns that we have, let's leave them to the Father, He knows what we need. But, Father, what? My father? No: Our Father! Because I am not an only child, none of us are, and if I cannot be a brother, I can hardly become a child of the Father, because He is a Father to all. Mine, sure, but also of others, of my brothers. And if I am not at peace with my brothers, I cannot say 'Father' to Him."
This, he added, explains the fact that Jesus, after having taught us the Our Father, stresses that if we do not forgive others, neither will the Father forgive us our sins. "It's so hard to forgive others – said the Pope - it is really difficult, because we always have that regret inside." We think, "You did this to me, you wait '... and I’ll repay him the favour ":
"No, you cannot pray with enemies in your heart, with brothers and enemies in your heart, you cannot pray. This is difficult, yes, it is difficult, not easy. 'Father, I cannot say Father, I cannot'. It’s true, I understand. 'I cannot say our, because he did this to me and this ...' I cannot! 'They must go to hell, right? I will have nothing to do with them'. It’s true, it is not easy. But Jesus has promised us the Holy Spirit: it is He who teaches us, from within, from the heart, how to say 'Father' and how to say 'our'. Today we ask the Holy Spirit to teach us to say 'Father' and to be able to say 'our', and thus make peace with all our enemies. "
I have been struggling with this recently, and I’ve realized that there’s a further step required. You can forgive someone, no longer be angry, not be intending to get even, all that ... but you might have drawn a conclusion from what occurred that will continue to poison the relationship. “I forgive him ... but I’ve learned that I can’t rely on him. I have to do everything for myself.”
This is difficult to overcome, because it seems perfectly reasonable, and yet, “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” If I believe that the Spirit can work in me to conform me more closely to Christ, I have to believe that He is also working and changing others.
“No, you cannot pray with enemies in your heart.”
Nice.
I don’t want this to sound wrong, but keep in mind I attended 13 years of Catholic school and taught CCD for years. I now belong to an Evangelical Free church which main goal is to teach scripture so people would hear the truth of the gospel and accept that truth and be saved.
I would have never guessed that a Catholic pope would be the one to start a revival. In all my years as a Catholic the Catholic Church was presented around the gospel. The Pope Francis is speaking in God’s language, not Catholic language. I pray this trickles down to the Bishops, Archbishops, Priest..... All that I have read and seen tells me this man is truly a man of God who has God’s word in hearts and lives it out. God bless him!
*groan*
“I forgive him ... but I’ve learned that I can’t rely on him. I have to do everything for myself.”
Forgiveness doesn’t mean you have to leave out common sense.
If someone gives you a ride home, but gets into an accident because they are a bad driver - you can easily forgive them, but that doesn’t mean that you have to force yourself to get in their car again.
bookmark
agreed.
Why the Our Father is a Pro-Life Prayer, Part 3
Why the Our Father is a Pro-life Prayer, Part 2
Why the Our Father is a Pro-life Prayer, Part 1
The Essentials of the Catholic Faith. Part Four: Lord, Teach Us To Pray, The Lord’s Prayer
The Essentials of the Catholic Faith, Part Four: Lord, Teach Us To Pray, The Invocation: Our Father, Who Art in Heaven”
The Essentials of the Catholic Faith, Part Four: Lord, Teach Us To Pray; First Petition: “Hallowed Be Thy Name”
The Essentials of the Catholic Faith, Part Four: Lord,Teach Us To Pray, Second Petition: “Thy Kingdom Come”
The Essentials of the Catholic Faith, Part Four: Lord, Teach Us To Pray, Third Petition: “Thy Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven"
The Essentials of the Catholic Faith, Part Four: Lord, Teach Us To Pray, Fourth Petition: “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread"
The Essentials of the Catholic Faith, Part Four:Lord, Teach Us To Pray, Fifth Petition: “Forgive Us Our Trespasses As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us”
The Essentials of the Catholic Faith, Part Four: Lord, Teach Us To Pray, Sixth Petition: “Lead Us Not into Temptation"
The Essentials of the Catholic Faith, Part Four: Lord, Teach Us To Pray, Seventh Petition: “Deliver Us from Evil. Amen”
Our Father and Hail Mary, sung in Syriac-Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ
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Lord, Teach Us To Pray: The Lord’s Prayer [Ecumenical]
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THY WILL BE DONE(Catholic/Orthodox Caucus meditaion St Peter Julian Eymard)
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The Lord's Prayer
Lead Us Not into Temptation . . .
Our Father - In Heaven (Dr. Scott Hahn)
Praying in Jesus' Own Language
The Mass Explained
The 'Our Father': Appropriate gestures for prayer
The “Our Father” of “La Civiltà Cattolica” - (comparison to Muslim version)
Our Father
HOLDING HANDS AT THE OUR FATHER?
Our Father ... in Heaven
True, but if your spouse has incidents of unreliability, insisting that he can never improve in that area isn't good for the marriage.
Anyone can say the “Our Father...” A good ol’ Hebrew prayer.
But Jews don’t say this prayer. They say the Shema.
Jesus said it. He was a Jew.
For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (John 5:18)
Nice words about the Pope. It seems many Protestants/non-Catholic Christians have a similar impression (”he’s not ‘Catholic’, he’s more a man of God).
I appreciate what you’re saying here; I would challenge you though to perhaps re-investigate what it means to be Catholic. I think if you do so with an open, objective heart and mind you will find what you thought it was to be Catholic before (when you grew up Catholic and taught CCD) was not real Catholicism, just a bunch of rules. And you will find true, authentic Catholicism is more close, dare I say an even richer form of Christianity than you are currently experiencing in the Evangelical Free church.
I suggest this simply because from my personal experience what I just said is so, and thus for love for you I suggest you may be missing out on something much greater than your current church can ever offer. Thus it’s a suggestion of utility, usefulness for your life, and that’s it. Not a “my Church is better than yours” and certainly not a “if you don’t believe as I do you’ll go to Hell”.
For me the Church is infinitely more useful than any drug, entertainment, and most of all more helpful for my life than any other faith system the world has to offer.
Just something to consider.
I would agree that a spouse is a special case.
I'm asking because my experience is quite otherwise. When I was preparing for Confirmation (that would be 50 years ago) we were told that if we didn't yet have a personal Bible of our own, we should ask our parents for one for our birthday or Christmas. Our teacher, a SSJ nun, stuck with the motto "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. - St. Jerome." (See, 12-year-olds do remember some things!)
Things took a sharp downturn when I was in about 11th grade and the demolition of the Sacred Liturgy had hit full force: late 60's, everything had lost its muscle tone and gone sloppy: Sacred Liturgy, Sacred Scripture, sacred anything, out the window.
Still later, it depended on your your Diocese. I don't know how I could have survived as a Catholic in Seattle, Milwaukee or Raleigh; but Catholics who did, did so in parishes where both the Church and the Scripture counted for a lot.
I realize I'm meandering a bit, but here's what strikes me: if I'm understanding you correctly, you seem to be saying that when you were a Catholic, it seemed things were too much "Church" and not enough "Christ". By my experience has been that "Church" and "Christ" fare for better or for worse, together.
Meaning: in a parish where the "Catholic identity" was weak, the Gospel was weak: people were out there pursuing "human development" or "social justice" or "personal wellness" or "holistic spirituality" or some such, but it was neither particularly Catholic nor particularly Jesus Christ.
But if a parish was strongly Catholic, it was also strongly "Come to Jesus".
It's a big Church, so I hesitate to make generalizations based on the tiny slice known as "my own experience."
But do you see where I'm coming from?
Thanks again for your good remarks. You can see I'm turning them over in my mind!
Jesus seems to have been first to utter it, though it’s an Hebraic formulary nonetheless.
It’s also important to remember that Jesus himself was a Pharisee as attested to by their being the only ones to ordain rabbis through “simicha”, or the laying on of hands. And that he was referred to as rabbi throughout his career would otherwise seem a stolen title.
Though I believe he was “mashiach” in the Jewish sense in that America could not have been founded without his influence. And that’s no small thing.
That's interesting. A guy on a thread earlier this week said Jesus was an Essene, and therefore (?) could not have meant it when He said that we were to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
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