Teach Us To Pray

Gospel: Luke 11: 1-4

When the disciples approach Jesus and ask him to teach them how to pray, they were likely unaware that the very request is a prayer itself.  What Jesus provides as an answer has come to be known as the Lord's Prayer or the Our Father, but in actuality his answer becomes the second half of the prayer uttered by the disciples.  It is God's response to our desire for communion and conversation with God. If our request to know how to pray is the first part of prayer, God's response is surely the second.

In this response to prayer that Jesus gives we find one single theme that we hear as the authentic voice of God in our lives: love.  The term 'Abba" is a title of love for God.  Our desire for daily bread - communion with God and others - is a desire for love.  And our desire to be forgiving and merciful is an impulse of love.  The entire response of Jesus is a reflection of his own life of love lived for God and for others.  It is our life as disciples of the Lord.

So as we engage in prayer, we can make the request of the disciples our own, and we then come to listen to God speak to us in our heart.  That voice of God calls us to love and mercy.  It calls us to communion with God and others.  It invites us to meditation and imitation of the life of the Lord Jesus who was love incarnate in the world.  It is an ongoing reflection on how we are called to show love and mercy in concrete ways in our life.