Following the Truth: Don’t Take The Our Father So Personally! [Catholic and Open]

FollowingtheTruth.com ^ | Jul 26th, 2012 | Gary Zimak

[Salvation]

Don’t Take The Our Father So Personally!

Jul 26th, 2012

by Gary Zimak.

 

Are you kidding me? How can I not take the Lord’s Prayer personally? It allows me to communicate directly with my Heavenly Father and has been called the “Perfect Prayer”. Why shouldn’t I take it personally? Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let me explain what I mean. While it’s important (and encouraged) to have a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father, we want to make sure we don’t limit the effectiveness of this powerful prayer by focusing solely on our own personal intentions. Although we should pray for our own needs, we shouldn’t forget the needs of our brothers and sisters located around the world. The Lord’s Prayer provides the perfect opportunity for this type of global outreach. Need some examples?

Our Father Who Art In Heaven – The title says it all. He’s not just “my” Father, but the Father of my co-workers, the person who just cut me off in traffic, the irate customer who just yelled at me on the phone, the criminals whose mug shots appear in the newspaper, the homeless man begging on the street corner and everyone else on the face of the earth. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we speak on behalf of each of these individuals and ask for God’s blessings to be poured out upon them.

Hallowed Be Thy Name – On behalf of the entire human race, Father, I ask that Your name be made holy on earth. May those who ignore You learn to love You. Forgive those who use Your name in vain and allow them to see why this is wrong. Allow the entire world to have a greater appreciation of Your mercy and learn to turn to You in times of trouble.

Thy Kingdom Come – Jesus proclaimed that “the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14). We ask You, Heavenly Father, that this truly takes place in the world. Allow us to see the need for repentance and grant us the grace to turn away from sin. And let Your kingdom spread throughout the world.

Thy Will Be Done, On Earth As It Is In Heaven – In addition to praying that God’s will be done in our own lives, let’s pray that His will be done everywhere in the world. That means no more abortion, crime, pornography, hatred and selfishness. That’s the way it is in Heaven. Let’s pray that it will be this way on earth!

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread – By praying this one petition on behalf of the entire human race, we are placing our trust in God’s providence. We pray that all of the starving people will obtain food, we pray that all atheists will come to know and love the Lord, we pray that the unemployed will find jobs and we pray that everyone will receive and accept the grace they need to get to Heaven. By concentrating on “this day” (and not tomorrow), we put our faith in God’s providence and follow Jesus’ command to avoid worrying about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34).

Forgive Us Our Trespasses As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us – If we think beyond our own personal needs, we can ask the Father to forgive the sins of the entire world and request that they be able to practice that forgiveness as well. Can you imagine what the world would be like if that became a reality?

Lead Us Not Into Temptation – Help us to avoid gossip, selfishness, sexual immorality and greed. We are surrounded by temptation and need your help, Lord. Our human weakness makes it impossible to avoid these sins, but with your grace, we can do it.

Deliver Us From Evil – Father, we were created to live forever with you in Heaven, but we sometimes lose sight of that fact and turn away from You. On behalf of all of Your children, please allow us to achieve our salvation and live with You in perfect happiness.

There you have it! By broadening our focus as we pray the Our Father, we can intercede for all of God’s children throughout the world. Many of them don’t even realize that they should be asking the Father for these things, so we can step in and help them out. While the Lord’s Prayer can and should be very personal to us, let’s not limit the Father’s generosity. There is more than enough grace to go around. Let’s share it with the rest of the world!

 

[Salvation]

A little bit of humor in that title -- don' you think?

And a follow-up tidbit.

The Family That Prays Together…

Jul 26th, 2012

by Gary Zimak.

…Stays Together!!!

Believe it or not, these pictures aren’t staged. Every night when Eileen, Mary, Elizabeth and I kneel down to say our evening prayers, Gracie comes running as soon as she hears the beginning of the Our Father! Now, if your pet doesn’t pray with you, don’t feel bad. Gracie hasn’t learned all of the words to the Lord’s prayer yet and her examination of conscience (prior to the Act of Contrition) leaves something to be desired, but…

we’re working on it!

[Salvation]

Catholic Ping and chuckle of the day.

[the invisib1e hand]

a-roo-roo-roo, woof.

[lightman]

The is no first-person singular in the Our Father.

[surroundedbyblue]

I love this! Thanks so much!

[ConorMacNessa]

The Lord's Prayer - given to us by the Savior Himself. I pray it daily and treasure it dearly. This graphic contains a link to an excellent rendition of the Malotte "Lord's Prayer" by the tenor Andrea Bocelli. I hope you enjoy it!

GOD BLESS AND PROTECT OUR TROOPS AND OUR BELOVED NATION!



The Lord’s Prayer
Andrea Bocelli
(Click)

DEAR LORD, who suffered torment, agony, and death upon the Cross to free our souls from the chains of iniquity, protect and defend our troops. Guide them in the performance of their duties. Strengthen them to endure hardship, danger and deprivation in Your service. Let their efforts free the people of Iraq and Afghanistan from the chains of terror and slavery, foster a lasting peace in the region, and bring all to a greater share in Your Mercy.

Amen.

Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[353FMG]

For a Christian, it should not be necessary to disect this prayer.

All he/she has to do is to accept that the Son of God taught the prayer when sinful men asked Him to teach them how to pray.

[Salvation]

a lot of people, however, reflect on it -- including some authors.

Following the Truth: Don’t Take The Our Father So Personally! [Catholic and Open]
Our Father
Introduction to the Perfect Prayer (Our Father...) [Catholic Caucus]
The Hidden and Mysterious Word in the Lord’s Prayer
The Our Father: More than Words, it is a Structure for the Spiritual life

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
Our Father
Lord, Teach Us To Pray: The Lord’s Prayer [Ecumenical]
Ontario Premier's Plan to Scrap Lord's Prayer Backfires as Groundswell Grows in Opposition
The deity that won't stay dead
THY WILL BE DONE(Catholic/Orthodox Caucus meditaion St Peter Julian Eymard)
My Will v. Thy Will Be Done
The Our Father in the Catechesis of Teens

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

[Not gonna take it anymore]

***
Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread – By praying this one petition on behalf of the entire human race, we are placing our trust in God’s providence. We pray that all of the starving people will obtain food, we pray that all atheists will come to know and love the Lord, we pray that the unemployed will find jobs and we pray that everyone will receive and accept the grace they need to get to Heaven. By concentrating on “this day” (and not tomorrow), we put our faith in God’s providence and follow Jesus’ command to avoid worrying about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34).
***

Give us this day our daily bread does not only mean food. It is about the Eucharist.

http://www.adoremus.org/0707SupersubstantialBread.html

Our “Daily Bread?”
But is the Holy Eucharist of the Eucharistic banquet also the daily bread of the “Our Father”? If the “Our Father” is the perfect prayer, which is most perfectly prayed in the context of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, then does it not make sense that the daily bread that we most need and so ask for is the supersubstantial bread of the Holy Eucharist?

It may surprise many Catholics to learn that this indeed is the teaching of the Catholic Church as expressed by the Council of Trent and as re-proposed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Furthermore, many Protestants who say this prayer daily may be shocked to learn that they are truly praying to receive Holy Communion daily and that this interpretation goes back to very words of Our Lord in the “Our Father”: “Give us this day our daily bread”.

The Greek word here is epiousion, which is a hapax — a word that is only used here and nowhere else in the Greek language — and so presumed to be the Greek equivalent of whatever word Our Lord may have used in Aramaic or Hebrew. Most translate the word as “daily”, and this goes back to the Latin of Saint Jerome, who renders “arton epiousion” as “panis quotidianum”, daily bread, in the Gospel of Luke. However, in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Jerome translates the same words as “panis supersubstantialem”. In other words, Jerome, who realized that this Greek hapax could not be expressed in Latin with both meanings at once, chose to give it one meaning in Matthew — “daily”; and another in Luke — “supersubstantial”, so as to preserve both senses of the word for Latin speaking Christians, albeit in two distinct biblical locations.

We have mostly lost this second original meaning — supersubstantial — and so are usually unaware of this lost Eucharistic connotation in our recitation of the Our Father.

[Salvation]

Thanks for the information and the adoremus link.

[Salvation]

So would superstantial mean

above all other substances?

[scrabblehack]

I take “on Earth as it is in heaven” as governing both “Thy Kingdom Come” and “Thy Will Be Done.”

In the Vulgate, it is cotidianum nostrum panem = “our daily bread” in the Luke version. In the Matthew version, it is supersubstantialem nostrum panem = “our life-sustaining bread.”

I thought supersubstantialis might have a more heavenly meaning, but no.

[johngrace]

When I was 13 or 14. 1973 circa. I listen to heavy metal music than was attacked by spiritual sounds with spiritual presence. I prayed "The Our Father" . It stopped. The best exorcism pray. Threw out the album.

I hate Heavy Metal.

Praise Jesus!

[Salvation]

For me, though, even though I may be standing in a church full of people — it is a prayer between me and God. I do not hold hands with others in the congregation, but fold my hands, bow my head, close my eyes and pray. Very personal communication for me, for other thoughts of daily bread, sins against others, etc. do enter my mind.

I think forgiveness is the big thing that people love in the Our Father.

[Oratam]

Directed by saving precepts and schooled in divine teaching, we make bold to say . . . Our Father, who art in heaven . . . .

[rwa265]

I have often pondered the meaning of the phrase “give us this day, our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer. What is this bread that we ask to be given to us daily? The answer came to me several years ago when I was preparing to be the lector on the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B.
The first reading is from Exodus 16. In verse 4, the LORD said to Moses, “I will now rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion.” In verse 16, Moses tells the Isrealites, “This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.”
The Gospel reading ends with the following from John 6:30-35. So they (the crowd) said to him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” So Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.
Further on in John:6, Jesus refers to himself several more times as bread. In verse 51 he says: “I myself am the living bread come down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread he shall live forever; the bread I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” To this the Jews said, “How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?”
Jesus gives His answer at the Last Supper. From Matthew 26:26 - While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, “Take this and eat it; this is my body.”
So this daily bread that Jesus taught us to ask for from the Father is His body in the Holy Eucharist.

[campaignPete R-CT]

I visited a new church today. Stayed after Mass. The small group prayed the Luminous mysteries.

Afterward, the leader of the rosary thanked me for helping out volunteering for pro-life, pro-family activity I was doing in the town. She then informed me that she was voting for the NARAL candidate in 2 weeks in the primary. “I just like the guy.”

What does “Luminous” mean again?

(some peeple just doo not make any connection between their pro-life beliefs and their voting choices. Is it really that difficult? What am I missing? Is it the stooge factor in the church? Elderly suburbanites.)

I decided to be patient with church-stooges. But my political organizing strategy ain’t working.

[Salvation]

Obviously this lady is walking in the dark and not in an illumined world.

Christ, help her to change her mind and save the babies!

[campaignPete R-CT]

my strategy is to simply focus on the 5 to 10 people in each parish who are serious on our issues. That would be a huge difference if that many started to tune in on the key races.

They can see that Candidate A is preferred over Candidate B if it is another town and they only know their positions on issues.

But if it is their home town where they are doing the voting/activity, they still focus on the personalities involved. It is still all about who they like and don’t like, not who is pro-family and pro-death. (I think 5 or 10 ain’t happenin’, one or two maybe?)

[jackterrier]

353FMG wrote:
“For a Christian, it should not be necessary to disect this prayer.
All he/she has to do is to accept that the Son of God taught the prayer when sinful men asked Him to teach them how to pray.”

Really? Where does it say that in Bible? The very first thing Christ does after the prayer is dissect it:

“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Mat 6:14-15

We are also instructed to not just “accept” Christ’s teaching, but to be prepared to give an answer to every man that asketh:
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” (1Pet 3:15)

Paul counsels his acolyte Timothy that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2Ti 3:16)

Doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction do not arise from passive acts of acceptance, but from an act of the Reason.