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Gospel Reading for March 11, 2025 – Matthew 6: 17-15
LANGUAGE OF LOVE
Jesus said to his disciples: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“This is how you are to pray:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who
trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
“If you forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
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Jesus often went to deserted places alone to pray to the Father. He did not think that as the Son of God, he had the sole right to approach the Father and communicate with him. He really wanted his Father, the provider of all good things, to also be our Father, that he taught us the LANGUAGE OF LOVE.
They say that the Our Father is the most powerful prayer because it is the prayer that Jesus himself taught us. It sounds like there are prayers that are less powerful and more powerful. Let us remember that prayer is the most common way we communicate with a God we don’t see and a God who will not speak to us the way we speak to him. Therefore, it is not really the prayer but how much we mean the prayer and how much our prayer touches our daily lives. Otherwise, as Jesus said, we will just be babbling like the pagans. If we can mean every line of the Our Father – putting him at the center of our lives; with the lives we lead making his kingdom come; with the graces we receive truly appreciating and not wasting them, and even sharing them with others who have not; asking to be forgiven and in our lives forgiving those who too sin against us; truly fighting against temptations that come our way by choosing him instead, then we are TRULY PRAYING, and this is what really gives POWER to our prayer!
Our Father, bless us your children especially during these trying times when countries go against each other through all types of war. May thy kingdom come always and forever!
