Our Father?...

When the apostles asked Jesus, “Teach us to pray,” he taught them the ‘Our Father’.
That is the beginning for all of us.
One teacher’s advice on learning to pray was, “Say the Lord’s Prayer, and take an hour to say it.”
There is no word or phrase in it which does not repay if you mine it for meaning, and savour it. Even the opening word ‘Our’ - not just my father, for I share you with the human race.
What does it mean to call God our Father/Mother/Parent/Lover...?
Is there anyone whom I felt uneasy to claim as a sister or brother?
Take the prayer slowly, breathing slowly as you relish it and are led into its depths.
It sets the scene: each of us as a temple of the Holy Spirit reaching out to the Father through his son.
Many of you who read this have gone beyond words to a sort of quiet presence.
When Jean Vianney, the Curé of Ars, noticed an old peasant sitting for hours in his church, he asked him what he was doing.
“I look at the good God and the good God looks at me.”
That old man was well on his way.

Taken from this week's Sacred Space prayers - with one line added!!