Fr. Tony’s Midweek Message
Our Parent
June 17, 2015
A few months ago for the Ashland Youth Collective, I gave a
class on praying in our own language and ideas.
One of the exercises was a reflection on the Lord’s Prayer, and how it
would sound if Jesus had given it to us in our own language and ideas
today.
What I came up with was this:
Loving parent above,
May all give honor and value to everything you are.
May you be fully in charge, right here, right now.
May what you want be what happens
Here on earth just as it happens in heaven.
Give us enough food for today, and then some.
Forgive us what we owe you
Just as we forgive
what others owe us.
Please don’t put us to the test,
But keep us safe
from bad.
Amen.
When Jesus says “your kingdom come,” he asks that God be in
charge here and now. When he asks for
“daily bread” he uses a word that means “for today and then a little bit more,”
whether for the morrow or something beyond mere bread made from grains. He asks for forgiveness of debts, what we owe
and haven’t paid, whether monetary, moral, or social. “Lead us not into temptation” is better
translated as “put us not to the test.”
The final doxology “for thine is the kingdom, the power, etc.” is not part
of the original text of the prayer, having been inserted into the text by a
scribe who remembered the liturgical line that came after the prayer in the
Eucharistic canon. (That is why it is
technically called the ‘embolism' of , i.e., ‘insertion into,’ the Lord’s Prayer.)
Grace and peace,
Fr. Tony+
Beautiful and worth keeping. Thanks so much. keeping in mind and prayer you and Elena - Ann M
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