Daily Prayer
June 17th, 2010
"Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name"
Matt. 6 : 9
Throughout history, today’s Gospel reading has been known as the Lord’s prayer. Jesus taught us how to pray in word and deed. When we pray His prayer, His spirit becomes our own. Every word has a lesson in it.
Much is written in books about prayer, but the Lord’s prayer is the best of all prayers. It reveals that our prayer is directed to God who is Father of us all, connecting us as brothers and sisters who pray to the one God and Father.
Not only do we ask God’s forgiveness for our daily offences, but we link God’s forgiveness of us with our forgiveness of others.
Five excellent qualities – confident, ordered, suitable, devout and humble are found in the Lord’s prayer. So we ask God to keep us from falling when we are tested, to help us to know the right thing to do, and to deliver us from any evil which might await us in life.
Prayer
Compassionate God, as you know each star that you have created and as you know the secrets of every heart, have pity on all those who need your help today. The prayer you taught us is the most perfect of all prayers and, knowing your mercy and forgiveness, we pray it with great confidence.
The prayer for each day has been prepared by various members of the Holy Family Association. All who visit our website are remembered in prayer. If you would like us to pray for a particular need, simply complete and submit the form on the right hand side of this page. You may wish to leave a comment in the space below.
Just a Thought
How the Holy Family prayer: A Reflection by Pope Benedict XVI
“I would like to invite you to reflect on the place of prayer in the life of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The home of Nazareth, in fact, is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to ponder and to penetrate the profound meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
Pope Paul VI during his visit to Nazareth said “we come to understand the need for a spiritual discipline, if we wish to follow the teaching of the Gospel and become disciples of Christ.” And he added: “First, it teaches us silence. Oh! That there would be reborn in us the esteem for silence, that wonderful and indispensable atmosphere of the spirit: while we are deafened by so many noises, sounds and clamorous voices in the frantic and tumultuous times of modern life. Oh! Silence of Nazareth, teach us to be resolute in good thoughts, intent upon the interior life, ready to listen well to the secret inspirations of God and the exhortations of the true masters.”
We can glean several insights on the Holy Family’s prayer and relationship with God from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ childhood. We may begin with the Presentation of Jesus in the temple. St. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph, “when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, brought the child up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord”(2:22). Like every observant Jewish family, Jesus’ parents go up to the temple to consecrate the firstborn son to God and to offer sacrifice. Moved by fidelity to the law’s prescriptions, they set off from Bethlehem and go up to Jerusalem with Jesus, who is now forty days old. Instead of a one-year-old lamb, they present the offering of simple families; that is two young pigeons. The Holy Family’s pilgrimage is one of faith, of the offering of gifts, a symbol of prayer, and of encounter with the Lord, whom Mary and Joseph already see in the son Jesus.”
