It's a Nice Day for a White Wedding

Why do we go to Mass?  The answer, of course, is because either our parents make us, or because our parents made us when WE were younger, and now we get to make OUR kids sit through it. 

Obviously neither of those is a good reason.  I’d say that the best reason for going to Church isn’t even because God commanded us to “Keep Holy the Sabbath Day.”  (Don’t worry, I’ll unpack each commandment in its own post later.)  I’d say that the best reason for going to Mass is so that we can be a witness to the ever-present sacrifice of Christ’s death on the cross, in which he gave up his own body and blood as a sacrifice in atonement for OUR sins, and so that we can receive the Body and Blood of the Risen Christ in its true substance in the physical guise of what looks like ordinary unleavened bread and ordinary wine.  How do we experience this?  Through the Eucharist.

At this point in the Mass, we come to Communion.  We jumped the gun a little in the last post, mentioning the silent prayer the priest prays, asking God to prepare his spirit for receiving the Eucharist.  After this silent prayer, the priest holds the Body of Christ up over the Chalice filled with the Blood of Christ (or over the paten), so that the congregation can see the true presence of Christ in their midst.  He then says:

Current Text:

This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  Happy are those who are called to his supper.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Behold the Lamb of God; behold him who takes away the sins of the world.  Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.

We respond:

Current Text:

Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

We’ve already talked a good bit about Jesus as the Lamb of God.  We mentioned in ‘Cause I Gotta Have Faith – Part V that the title “Lamb of God” is reminiscent of the ancient Jewish ritual (prescribed by God in the Old Testament) of sacrificing an animal in atonement for sins.  The basic idea was that it’s easy to sacrifice pocket lint or a dust bunny or something else that has no value and we don’t want to keep for ourselves, anyway, but sacrificing an animal—a GOOD animal—was a real sacrifice for the Jewish people.  They relied on these animals for food AND drink (they milked goats the way we milk cows today).  They could also use these animals to trade for other goods they needed.  It was a real sacrifice to offer God one of your better animals, but this was a good way of showing God that you were really sorry for what you did and you wanted to be back in a solid relationship with him.  So it’s very fitting that when the priest shows the newly changed Body and Blood of Christ to the congregation that he would take a moment to remind us that what we’re looking at IS Jesus—the Lamb of God—who was sacrificed in atonement for our sins. 

Then he says something a little interesting: “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.”  I know we’re about to go and “eat” the Body and Blood, but should we go so far as to call it supper?  I mean most people go to Mass even before lunch time on Sunday morning.  Why would we call it supper if we’re eating it between breakfast and lunch?  Shouldn’t we call it the “Brunch of the Lamb?”  Well, not exactly.  We get this term from the Book of Revelation.  In Revelation 19:9 John writes, “Then the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These words are true; they come from God.’” 

So if the Mass is a wedding feast, who’s the happy couple?  Well, interestingly enough, the wedding is that of Christ and the Church.  Bear with me for a second, here…In his Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul draws a parallel between the relationship of Christ and the Church (the entire group of believers in and followers of Christ…not the Church “building”) and that of a husband and his wife.  It’s the whole “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands, as to the Lord,” (Ephesians 5:22) line that you often hear at weddings, although it’s been neglected in more recent weddings because women don’t like to hear that they should be “subordinate” to their husbands.  (There’s that whole “women’s lib” issue that arises with this passage.)  The problem many people have with this passage (like many other passages from the Bible) is that they stop reading when they hit something they don’t like.  If you KEEP reading past this line, you read the REAL heart of this passage: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:25-27)  Now that’s good stuff, right there.

The Eucharist is that ever-present proof of the sacrifice of Christ for his church.  He handed himself over to be sacrificed like a lamb of the old Jewish traditions, so that we could be cleansed of our sins.  In the Eucharist, we are forever joined to Christ on earth that foreshadows the relationship we’ll have with God in heaven.

So now the Priest takes the Eucharist and prays a little prayer:

Current Text:

Before Receiving the Body of Christ: May the Body of Christ bring me to everlasting life.

Before Receiving the Blood of Christ: May the Blood of Christ bring me to everlasting life.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Before Receiving the Body of Christ: May the Body of Christ keep me safe for eternal life.

Before Receiving the Blood of Christ: May the blood of Christ keep me safe for eternal life.

Next time we’ll talk about who distributes Communion and why.  Peace out!

Who Can Forgive Forgiveness Where Forgiveness is Not? Only the Lamb White as Snow

Moving along with the Mass, the Fraction of the Bread (a.k.a. “Fraction Rite”) comes next.  The word fraction (for all you non-math whizzes) refers to pieces broken apart from a whole object, or a partial amount of something.  In this case, we’re talking about the priest breaking apart the main Eucharistic Bread that has now become the Body of Christ into many pieces.  He sometimes does this with the help of a concelebrating priest, or of a deacon if necessary.  This is a direct reflection of Christ’s actions at the Last Supper (the meal he shared with his apostles the night before he was crucified), and his action of breaking the bread, which he referred to as his Body, and sharing it with his apostles gathered there. 

In the Mass today, we have such large congregations gathered together, that it’s not entirely practical to have a piece of bread large enough for everyone to share.  We believe, though, that God’s power transcends the fact that we don’t all eat from the same “large piece” of bread, and that we spiritually partake of the one bread that St. Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 10:17: “Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”  So don’t go nuts…I’m sure God’s happy enough for having so many people wanting to have a relationship with him by attending Mass that it doesn’t much bother him that we each have our own, individual pieces of bread that have been consecrated and have had their substance changed to the Body of Christ.  It’s just one of those practical things we’ve evolved to over time.

After breaking the bread (Body of Christ), the priest then breaks off an even smaller piece that he places into the chalice of the Blood of Christ to show the unity of the sacrifice of Jesus’ Body and the Blood.  And speaking of the sacrifice of Jesus, while this Fraction of the Bread is going on, we all sing (or recite together, if there’s no music at the Mass) the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) supplication (which is a fancy word for a humble prayer to God).  It goes like this:

Everyone says together:

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

The “…have mercy on us” line is said at least twice, but can be repeated as many times as necessary (but be reasonable about it) to give ample time for the fraction rite.  The “…grant us peace” line is said only once, and is said at the end of the supplication.  Why three times with the third time having a different ending?  I’d love an answer if anyone has one (and preferably a source of your information, too). 

Now, I want to note here, that this is one of those times you may look around and see people inserting their own little gesture of making a fist and beating their chests.  They don’t have something caught in their throat that they’re trying to dislodge, they’re crossing into “rubrics” territory.  Rubrics are the little directions in the Sacramentary (soon to be the Roman Missal) that give the priest directions as to what to DO while he’s saying the things it tells him to say.  The word rubrics comes from the Latin ruber, meaning “red,” and directly refers to the color of the words in the book…not very creative, I know, but true.  Anyway, the rubrics here call for the priest to “strike his breast”—meaning make a fist and hit the chest—while saying, “Have mercy on us,” and, “Grant us peace.”  Over time, people in the congregation noticed and figured they should do it, too, and it just spread and stuck over time.  Nowhere does it say, however, that the congregation needs to do this, and we need to remember that we shouldn’t mindlessly add our own little nuances to the Mass wherever we feel like it—ESPECIALLY if our only reason for doing it is that “everyone else does it.”

After the Agnus Dei, you might notice that the priest stays quiet for a moment.  He’s not just taking a break; he’s praying a silent prayer that prepares him to receive the Eucharist.  That prayer goes like this:

Current Text:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, by the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit your death brought life to the world.  By your holy body and blood free me from all my sins and from every evil.  Keep me faithful to your teaching and never let me be parted from you.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who by the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit, through your death gave life to the world; free me by this your most holy Body and Blood from all my sins and from every evil; keep me always faithful to your commandments, and never let me be parted from you.

OR

Current Text:

Lord Jesus Christ, with faith in your love and mercy I eat your body and drink your blood.  Let it not bring me condemnation, but health in mind and body.

Beginning Advent 2011:

May the receiving of your Body and Blood, Lord Jesus Christ, not bring me to judgment and condemnation, but through your loving mercy be for me protection in mind and body, and a healing remedy.

Don’t you just love those little tidbits you don’t catch at Mass being brought to light?  But we’re about to cross over from the Fraction of the Bread to the Communion Rite, so we’ll stop here (even though we sort of already did cross over with the Priest’s preparation for Communion).  Be back next time with the Communion Rite.

All We are Saying is Give Peace a Chance

Alright, so we’re truckin’ right along with our quick (ha!) look at the Mass.  Next up after the Lord’s Prayer is the Rite of Peace.  But before we start running around church kissing hands and shaking babies (that joke was for me), the priest prays a Prayer for Peace that goes a little sum’n like this:

Current text:

Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles: I leave you peace, my peace I give you.  Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and grant us the peace and unity of your kingdom, where you live forever and ever.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your Apostles, Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will.  Who live and reign forever and ever.

Naturally, we all respond, “Amen,” ‘cause that’s just what we do.

Jesus did, in fact say these words to his apostles, but when did he say them?  Let’s mosey on over to John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world give do I give it to you.  Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” The footnote associated with this verse in the New American Bible says that the peace Jesus gives is different than the peace the world gives, because Jesus gives the peace of salvation, which is the ultimate peace.  What could put a person more at peace than knowing that they have the opportunity to be in heaven?  (Nothing, that’s what…in case you were having trouble with that brain-buster of a question.)  Notice, if you read the context of that verse, it’s said during the Last Supper (the last meal Jesus ate with his apostles), and fittingly, we go through this peace exercise right before we receive the Eucharist.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Speaking of peace, it’s time for the actual Rite of Peace.  As I mentioned in the last post, the Rite of Peace is where we as a united Church ask for peace and unity throughout not only those gathered, but all of humanity (the universal Body of Christ).  We greet each other in a peaceful manner; here in the United States, that usually means a handshake, but could also be a hug, or a kiss (depending on your relationship with the person).  The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) leaves the manner in which the congregation is to normally greet each other with a sign of peace up to the bishops of individual dioceses in order to allow local customs to dictate the actions so that people are not made to feel awkward or uncomfortable.  Immediately before we give the sign of peace, the priest grants us peace, we return it, then the deacon (or priest if there’s no deacon) invites us to greet each other:

Current Text:

Priest: The peace of the Lord be with you always.

Congregation: And also with you.

Deacon: Let us offer each other the sign of peace.

Beginning Advent 2011:

(our part changes from “And also with you” to…) And with your spirit.

Remember that this isn’t a free-for-all where we should be running across the church to shake hands with or hug someone sitting 24 pews behind us and across the center aisle.  The GIRM says that we should offer the sign of peace only to those nearest to us and do so in a “sober” (calm and heart-felt) manner.  See, if you greet the 5 or 6 people around you, and they greet the 5 or 6 people around them, eventually the whole congregation is connected in unity.  It’s not necessary for you to shake hands with every member of the congregation to accomplish this.  It’s also good to remember that if the guy sitting in front of you just cut you off on the highway on the way to church, or just sued you for pain & suffering from a car wreck, or burst his pimples at you and called your door opening request a “silly thing,” he’s still your brother in Christ, and we should forgive others of their trespasses so that we can be forgiven in a similar way and be better prepared to receive Christ in the Eucharist…which is what we’re about to do at this point in the Mass.

When I Say that Something, I Want to Hold Your Hand

After the Embolism, the people respond with the Doxology, which goes, “For the Kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever.”  Simple enough to take at face value, right?  “The Kingdom” is the “Kingdom of Heaven,” but not just what we think of as heaven after death.  We’re referring to all of creation as the Kingdom, because the King (God) totally has dominion over all his creation on both heaven and earth.  Obviously all power and all glory also belong to him.  But what I REALLY want to talk about in this post is what we’ve been doing with our hands all this time we’ve been praying the Lord’s Prayer at Mass.

If you’re like me, you’ve been to plenty of different churches in plenty of different cities, in plenty of different states, in plenty of different countries.  To me, one of the best things about the Catholic Mass is that no matter where you are in the WORLD, the Mass is the same.  It might be in a different language, but the order and the content is the same.  There’s really no time in the Mass when you have no clue what to do….no time, that is, except for when it comes time to say the “Our Father.”

Do we hold hands?  Do we open our hands?  Do we hold hands across the aisles? Do we keep our hands to ourselves?  Pretty wide range of options, here!  Thoughts on what the congregation should do here are so different that even neighboring parishes less than a 10-minute drive from one another can do completely different things.  So what’s the official answer?  What SHOULD we do during the “Our Father?”

The most common practice I find these days here in southern Louisiana is to hold hands.  This practice apparently grew in wide-spread popularity by the early 1990s.  However, there is no official guidance from the Church that says that hand-holding should be the norm during the praying of the “Our Father.”  A revision of the Sacramentary (book which denotes what to do and pray during the Mass) in the ‘90s by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) was discussed by the United States Bishop’s Committee on the Liturgy (BCL) who recommended specifying that the “orans” position (Latin for “prayer”—position of holding hands out as if pleading) be made the official norm for the “Our Father.”  For the sake of history, it’s important to note that when the Holy See came out with the new Roman Missal in 2000 (making its appearance in 2002), not only did they replace this Sacramentary revision, they officially rejected it.

Confused yet?

Ok, let’s make it worse…

See, there’s an intellectual feud that’s been going on for quite a while in the church as to the use of the orans position by the congregation.  Those who are in favor of the orans position make the argument that it was used by the earliest Christians, and so our use of it now keeps us in union with our earliest roots.  Those who oppose its use claim that it is a depiction of Christ crucified, and that, during the liturgy, it should be performed only by the Priest, who is acting In Personae Christi (in the person of Christ).  Judging by the responses of the Church through its wording of the 2000 edition of the Roman Missal and the accompanying General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), both and neither side is correct.  As for the holding of hands, some schools of thought say that the most intimate moment of the Mass is the Rite of Peace, which immediately precedes the Eucharist.  The Rite of Peace is explained in the GIRM as follows:

The Rite of Peace

82. The Rite of Peace follows, by which the Church asks for peace and unity for herself and for the whole human family, and the faithful express to each other their ecclesial communion and mutual charity before communicating in the Sacrament.

As for the sign of peace to be given, the manner is to be established by Conferences of Bishops in accordance with the culture and customs of the peoples. It is, however, appropriate that each person offer the sign of peace only to those who are nearest and in a sober manner.

 

So the Rite of Peace (not the “Our Father”) is supposed to be when the congregation shows their communion & mutual charity.  Think back to the last Mass you went to.  Other than your family members who either got a hug or kiss (or both), what did you do with the people around you during this time?  Most likely, you just shook their hand.   Now give this a little thought:  what’s more “intimate”?  A quick handshake, or holding someone’s hand for about a minute?  Most people would say that the “hand hold” rather than the “hand shake” is the more “intimate” action.  So the argument could be made, then, that holding hands during the “Our Father” can detract from the communal nature of the Rite of Peace.  (Please note: “sober manner” doesn’t mean that the people shouldn’t be drunk when they give a Sign of Peace…of course, they SHOULDN’T be drunk at church, but that’s another matter…it means that you should exercise reasonable judgement and not let yourself go overboard with your Sign of Peace.)

So what SHOULD we do during the “Our Father”?  There’s actually NO mention in the GIRM of what the congregation is supposed to do during this time.  There’s no mention in the Sacramentary, either, by the way, nor in the newly revised Roman Missal that will be coming into mandatory use in Advent of 2011.  It is important to note, that the GIRM does leave certain things up to variation to be ordered by either the local Conference of Bishops (in our case in the USA, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops—USCCB), or to each individual bishop; however, the mandate of what the congregation should do with their hands during the “Our Father” is not on that list of items, so a congregation should NEVER feel pressured or obligated to situate themselves in any particular way (other than standing).  The simple answer is this: whether you hold hands, stand in the orans position, or (like me) just keep your hands reverently to yourself (which seems to lend itself to the LEAST theological friction), be sure you remember WHY you do what you do and try to make sure you don’t making others around you uncomfortable, which can distract them from prayer.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Once we finish praying the Lord’s Prayer together as a congregation, the priest does this little prayer, called the Embolism, which comes from the Latin embolismus, meaning “insertion.”  It’s basically a little insertion (so they word fits) between the Lord’s Prayer and the Doxology, which we’ll talk about later.  The Embolism goes like this:

Current Text:

Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day.  In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Beginning Advent 2011:

Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Again, these “changes” that are coming soon to a Liturgy near you are being put in place so that what we say in English today most closely matches the meanings of the Latin we replaced in the 1960s.

The Embolism builds on that last petition we make in the Lord’s Prayer: “…but deliver us from evil.”  God has the power to keep our minds and hearts focused on his will and away from those “counterfeits” the devil places in our lives…we just need to ASK for his help and his grace.  This prayer that the priest prays on behalf of the whole congregation (notice he says “us” and “we” instead of “me” and “I”) does just that—it asks God for help in keeping us focused on what’s right. 

As for the “safe from all distress” line, I have an analogy that I like to use with my CCD students.  I tell them to think about when they are at a friend’s house because they told their parents that THAT’s where they’d be (for you guys reading this blog, you may have to dig back in your memory banks to retrieve that little bit of experiential knowledge).  Then I tell them to think about what would happen if their friend said, “Hey, let’s go over to _______’s house,” or, “Hey, let’s go over to the Sock Hop,” or whatever the devil these kids are into these days.  (Don’t worry…I know the kids aren’t into sock hops anymore…socks just get way too dirty to be hopping around in.  I mean, have you ever LOOKED at the bottom of your socks after just walking around your house for a couple minutes?  It’s enough to make you want to stop what you’re doing and start mopping right then and there.  Imagine hopping around in your socks all night, probably in some dirty, stinky school gym…your socks would be FILTHY!!!)  The first thing that SHOULD go through your head when that happens is, “Wait, I should call mom first to ask her if it’d be ok for me to go over to _________’s house or to the Sock Hop.”  The problem is that most of my students agree that their action of choice would be to just go without asking permission because they think that their parents would tell them, “No,” and the kids just want to have fun, and they KNOW they won’t do anything wrong and they’ll be fine, and their parents just don’t want them to have any fun, and their parents hate them and wish they were someone else’s kid.”  (Nearly verbatim rant by one of my students, by the way.)  Well, obviously, when you look at the situation objectively, the parents just want to know where their kids are so that they can be sure of their safety—not because they don’t want them to have fun, but because they want them to have the “right kind” of fun. 

Then I tell my students to think about how they feel when they decide to go somewhere without telling their parents first.  Can they REALLY have as much fun as they thought, or are they too worried about how much trouble they’ll be in if they get caught to have as much fun as they could be having?  They unanimously agree that their worry of being caught would be more powerful than their enjoyment level of whatever they would be doing.  If they would just pick up the phone and call their parents, sure their parents might say, “No,” and the never-ending parent-child battle would ensue, but if their parents WOULD say, “Yes,” then they could go where they had asked to go KNOWING that it was ok, and they wouldn’t have any worry, anxiety, or despair about their fate if they would get caught.

This is the same principle the priest hits on in the Embolism.  Sure God’s laws may not seem “totally rad” at times, but there are REALLY good reasons for them.  If we know what we’re doing is wrong and sinful, then we WILL be filled with anxiety in our lives.  If we know what we’re doing is right and in line with the will of God, then we’ll feel much more happy and free and at peace.  See, just like our parents, God wants us to be safe and happy—but even more so, because he’s God, and is infinitely more perfect than our parents…not because our parents are bad or mean, obviously, but because God is just that good.  And just like our parents, God doesn’t try to be our “buddy” when it comes to laying down the law of what will keep us safe and most happy.  Some of us get hooked on particular sins that we really like or feel “entitled” to, and after justifying to ourselves why WE think they shouldn’t be sins, we convince ourselves that they’re not, and do the things we want, anyway.  These people, though, are NOT (I GUARANTEE you) as happy as they COULD be, because they’re not following God’s law.  There is always a part of them—no matter how small that part may be at times, and no matter how small the rest of the world may convince them to MAKE that part of themselves—that questions their judgment, and keeps them in a state of spiritual unrest.

So let’s just make this Embolism our solemn prayer for ourselves so that we can eventually realize that God DOES want us to be happy and enjoy life.  Let’s also pray for the faith to accept that if God says something is bad, it is—even if we can’t understand why it is.  When we can accept this, we can apply God’s law to our lives, and we can live our lives freely KNOWING that we won’t be steered wrong and that what we’re doing is going to let us receive our eternal reward in Heaven.

Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part IX

...but deliver us from evil

You might have noticed that we use the words “our,” “us,” and “we” instead of “my,” “me,” and “I” in this prayer.  There’s a really good reason for that (other than the fact that those are the words Jesus told us to use).  When we say this prayer, we pray not only for ourselves, but for the whole Body of Christ (the Church…the universal Christian Church, that is).

Now for this petition, in particular.  Let’s not beat around the bush, here.  The “evil” Jesus was talking about is the evil “one;” i.e., the devil.  God does not create evil, but, then again, neither does the devil.  Only God has the power to create.  The only thing the devil has the “power” to do is turn the good of God’s creation into a “counterfeit” version that he can use against God by tricking us into believing that the “counterfeit” version is better than God’s version, and that the “counterfeit” is what we REALLY want.

Let’s look at an example of the counterfeit vs. the real thing.  Why not start with a biggie?  Sex.  I bet a couple of you cringed a little or got red in the face when you read that word.  Why?  The reason you did is at the core of the very point I’m making right now.  Sex is generally seen by the majority of our society one of two ways: (1) fun & exciting, or (2) dirty & shameful.  Those who lean more towards the “fun & exciting” side say it’s perfectly fine for people to have sex outside the context of marriage.  They make arguments like, “Would you buy a car without taking it for a test drive first?” and, “As long as two people love each other, what’s the harm?”  Well, the “harm” isn’t that the Church doesn’t want you to think of sex as “fun & exciting.”  In fact, totally to the contrary, we FULLY understand that sex was designed by God to be fun & exciting.  If God had made it awkward and painful, the human race would’ve died out thousands of years ago!  The problem is that the counterfeit version daily “pitched” to the world by the devil has us ONLY focus on the fun & exciting part of sex, and forget the more fundamental purpose for it—creating new life.  Some people recognize this twisting of sex by the devil, and take it to the opposite extreme by thinking of sex as dirty & shameful.  These people are wrong, too!  (…at least they’re wrong when we view sex in the holy context of marriage, that is.)

When you untwist the devil’s version, we still get fun & exciting sex (*gasp* I can’t believe he just said that!!!  Well, I did…deal with it.), but we ALSO get the opportunity to be co-creators of life with God.  Remember what I said earlier in this post?  ONLY God has the power to create.  The rest of us just take what God has already made and come up with new combinations for it.  It’s sort of like God gave us the colors red, yellow, and blue, and allowed us to take those and mix them together to make orange, green, purple, etc.  With sex, though, it’s way different.  God invites us into the process of the creation of a new life.  It’s like he created the colors red and yellow, and even though he’s fully capable of creating “blue” by himself, he invites us to take part in creating “blue” with him.  This is super big.  This is pretty much (what I’d argue to be) one of the most theologically profound things we can do as people here on earth.  Don’t feel horrible for priests, though, just because they can’t get married and experience this process of co-creating new life with God.  Priests have some pretty awesome things they can do, too.  They can act in the person of Christ to forgive sins, and they can bring the Eucharist into continued existence through the sacrifice of the Mass.  For lay people, though, this “co-creation of life thing” is a pretty awesome calling.  It’s how humanity continues on earth.  But think about it:  if the devil wants to take good things God has created and twist them so that he can tempt us to use these things AGAINST the will of God, how much more will he “target” things that are holier than most?  It’s no wonder why you can turn on your TV right now, flip through a few channels and probably find at least 15 different “counterfeit” versions of sex being presented to us in the comfort of our own living rooms.

The gifts and blessings that God gives us in our lives can EASILY be counterfeited by the devil.  When we give in to the counterfeit versions (besides this being a basic definition of “sin”), we may be temporarily happy, but it can never compare to the true happiness that comes from following the will of God.  Think about your own life.  I’m sure if you thought about it—and most of us probably don’t have to think to hard—you could find an example of some counterfeit that you’ve bought into in the past year, month, week, or even DAY that you thought would bring you happiness.  The danger is that it probably did, but eventually, that counterfeit either destroyed something really good in your life (like your family, your job, or your friendships), or the happiness you once felt from it wore off, and you were left even emptier than you started.  This is why we pray this petition in the Lord’s Prayer.  We need God’s daily help and guidance to be steered away from the counterfeits and towards his will.  ONLY then will we truly be happy. 

Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part VIII

…and lead us not into temptation

Man, I’m glad Jesus added that in there…if he hadn’t, God would be leading everybody into temptation all the time, and you’d never know WHAT was right or wrong, right?  Not exactly.  God is ultimate, supreme, and perfect good.  It’s not in his nature to “lead” anyone into temptation.  He cannot be tempted by evil, and he cannot tempt anyone to commit evil acts, either.  Here’s just one more example of why you can’t expect to read the English translation of the Bible on your own and understand EVERYTHING there is to pull out of the Scriptures.  The Greek phrasing used here means both “do not allow us to enter into temptation,” and “do not let us yield to temptation.”  This alludes to the whole Matthew 26:41 “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” thing. 

So why is it important for us to make this petition if it’s not possible for God to tempt us into committing evil acts?  Pretty simply, it’s for the exact opposite reason.  We are asking God to help us choose good, rather than evil.  Remember, God gave us all the gift of free will.  Because of this, God, in turn, chose to not force himself upon us.  He doesn’t FORCE us to make good choices.  If we’re praying for guidance and want to be good Christians, though, God is willing to offer his help to anyone who asks for it in weighing out the pros and cons of everyday decisions. 

One term you may hear in your faith journey is the word discern.  Discern fundamentally can be compared to the concept of “figuring something out.”  When dealing with matters of faith, we generally use it in association with discerning what is good versus what is bad, but we can also use discernment to help us choose between two good decisions.  When a guy is thinking about whether to become a priest, a married man, or a single man, we say he is discerning his vocation.  This implies a little more than just making a “decision.”  Using the word discern has more of a sense of ending up in a “realization” attached to it.  I tell people all the time that I believe loving someone is not a choice, but more of a realization.  I love my wife, but I don’t believe I “chose” to love her as in the sense of making an “effort” to come to that decision.  I noticed that not long after we started dating, I just sort of “realized” that I loved her.  It really just happened, and I just had to be in the right place and frame of mind and state of heart to realize what had happened.  It’s a similar situation with discerning the priesthood, discerning who to marry, or discerning right from wrong.  We have to come to a realization of what the best path is.  This petition is all about asking God to help us discern what is right and to help us commit to that end result.

Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part VII

…and forgive us our trespasses…

Easy enough, right?  Well, easy enough when you think of “trespasses” as our “sins.”  We’re not only asking God to forgive the times we’ve wandered onto private property that we weren’t allowed on.  We hear all the time that “Jesus died for our sins,” and we touched a little on how that worked in Cause I Gotta Have Faith – Part V.  It makes sense, then, that when Jesus, who died so that our sins could be forgiven, would encourage us to ask God TO forgive our sins.  It kinda makes his whole “dying thing” worthwhile.  This petition (or really this “part” of a larger petition—don’t worry…we’ll get to that in a second) is made with the realization that we’re not perfect, and that we FIRST must recognize that we’re sinners and ADMIT that to God. 

The problem with asking for forgiveness, though, is that we as humans won’t let God’s mercy FULLY penetrate our hearts and grant us the forgiveness we ask for, unless we have first forgiven others who have done wrong to us.  As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father’s merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace.” (CCC 2840)  Remember, God IS powerful enough to penetrate even the hardest of hearts, but he has given us the gift of free will for us to freely choose whether or not to accept his love and forgiveness.  God CHOOSES not to “force” himself upon us, but asks that we let him into our hearts.  So while it seems like an easy enough request to make to ask God to forgive our sins, we have to first finish this particular petition:

…as we forgive those who trespass against us

The word “as” isn’t used here to indicate time, as in, “LSU punter Brad Wing taunted the Gators punt return team as he neared the goal line during the greatest fake punt in recent history (that unnecessarily got called back for “unsportsmanlike conduct”.  I mean, seriously…I heard the argument that he should “act like he’s been there before,” but he’s a PUNTER!!  He HASN’T been there before!!!  It was an unnecessary flag, in my opinion, but I digress…as usual…).”  It’s more of a comparison as in, “LSU Punter Brad Wing’s fake punt run for a would-be touchdown was as awesome as the Saints’ onside kick to start the second half of Super Bowl XLIV.”  (Ok, even I, the most rabid LSU fan/Florida Gator-Hater imaginable can admit that the onside kick was a way better play…I was just trying to prove a point.)  We’re asking God to forgive our sins, but we’re putting a condition on it that says that we want God to forgive our sins in the same way that we forgive others who do bad stuff to US.  We have to forgive others FIRST, and then we can really have a clear and open enough heart to fully accept the love and forgiveness of God.  (Told you this prayer was hardcore.)  We need to let go of things in the past so that we can always be looking forward toward eternity.  (Don’t feel bad, I need to listen to this as much as anyone else reading this blog.)

But how much should I forgive someone for something they did to me?  Jesus says to forgive someone 70 times 7 times.  So once you’ve already forgiven someone for something 490 times, and they do that same thing again, IT’S ON, right?  Well, not exactly.  Like many other things Jesus said, that whole “70 times 7 times” probably wasn’t a math riddle.  (By the way, this is just another reason you can’t take Jesus’ words literally all the time.  Do you really think Jesus would have told us to stop forgiving someone after forgiving them 490 times?  I didn’t think so.)  If we are to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48), we need to take our lessons in forgiveness from Him.  God forgives us over and over again (as long as we’re truly sorry and truly want to accept his forgiveness).  We should then do the same for others so that this petition in the Lord’s Prayer can be fulfilled to its fullest extent. 

Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part VI

Give us this day our daily bread...

There’s a quote that I really like that goes: “Success is getting what you want.  Happiness is wanting what you get.”  I really like that quote.  Just because we get what we WANT in this life, doesn’t mean that we’ll be truly happy.  I know that sounds a little, well, wrong, but think about the last time you really wanted something that you ended up getting.  Was your life really made monumentally better by getting that thing?  How long did it take you to lose interest in that one thing you just HAD to have, before you started wanting something else?  Things we NEED, on the other hand are always good.  The petition “Give us this day our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer is about those things we NEED—our basic essentials for survival.

Obviously, the “daily bread” concept is directly linked to the Eucharist.  It’s no coincidence that Jesus decided to use bread as the medium for how we continually ask God to bless us with the presence of the Risen Christ in the Eucharist. Think about how much bread is mentioned in the Bible.  Bread is painted as THE essential food item needed for survival.  When the Hebrews wandered in the desert after being freed from slavery in Egypt, God gave them bread from heaven so they could have food.  Jesus multiplied 5 loaves of bread (and 2 fishes) to feed the 5,000 (5,000 men, that is…sorry, ladies, it was written to a patriarchal society…counting women and children, it was probably closer to 15,000, which is WAY more impressive).  Think about the references to wheat, also.  In fact, there’s a whole metaphor for the Christian journey wrapped up in the concept of bread. 

Bread is made from wheat.  Wheat is sown in a field, then cared for so it can grow.  It must be planted in fertile soil so it can root well.  If a sower is sowing seeds, and they fall on a path, they will never have a chance to take root and will be eaten by the birds.  This is like someone who is not brought up to have a firm foundation of faith in Christ and will be “eaten up” by the negativity of today’s society.  If they fall on rocky ground with little soil, they will root up quickly, concentrating on the stalk, rather than the roots, and when the sun comes, it will kill the plants because they do not have a firm root system.  We might learn about Jesus, but instead of nurturing our relationship with him deeply, we might let the world (especially in today’s society) take us down because we don’t have a firm foundation of faith.  If the seeds are sown among the thorns, they will grow, but the weeds will choke out the plants and they won’t produce grain.  Even if we try to live a good life, if we surround ourselves with people who don’t have our best interests in mind, we can be led away from God and won’t be able to be productive members of the universal Church.  The seed that is sown in fertile soil, however, will spring up, produce grain, and can be harvested.  (Read Mark 4 for that)  That wheat is then cut down and ground in a mill.  Much like Jesus tells us we have to take up our cross daily and follow him, there’s an element of sacrificing ourselves for the will of God that draws a parallel to the “wheat motif.”  Once it’s made into flower, it’s mixed with water to make dough.  Out of our suffering and sacrifice, we are given new life by God (water is used over and over again in the Bible as a symbol for life…since we need water to live).  When we are given that new life, we are kneaded like dough and shaped, molded, and formed into what GOD needs us to be—what God CALLS us to be (our “vocation”).  Once the dough is shaped, it still needs to be put in the oven and exposed to heat (fire) so that it can truly fulfill its purpose.  In the same way, once we pursue our true vocation, we will come under “fire” in our own ways so that we can truly become what we’re meant to be.  Another old saying is, “That which does not kill us only makes us stronger.”  This is the general idea of what is going on here.  We’re continually tested and strengthened by God so that we can be prepared to handle whatever it is we’re meant to handle in our lives.

…So there’s the whole “bread” analogy for the Christian life.  Now that we see the importance of bread in the Bible, it makes sense that when Jesus taught us how to pray, he decided to get metaphorical and say, “Give us this day our daily bread,” rather than being simple and saying, “Give us this day our basic needs.”  The Lord’s Prayer is a profound prayer that Jesus asks us to pray, and it asks for things as large as God’s will being done above our own will, and as small as asking to be blessed with the basic necessities we need for survival.  There’s more to come, though, ‘cause this prayer’s far from over.  Next we get to the REALLY hard prayers about forgiveness.  Until then………..

Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part V

…Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

“Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.”  Ever heard that before?  Probably from a painfully old person who never learned what the word cliché means?  The thing about clichés is that they became clichés because they’re true enough to be repeated.  Each petition seems to make the Lord’s Prayer even more dangerous than the last.  This petition, though, touches on some pretty profound fundamentals of Catholic teaching.

First, there’s the concept of a “separation” of earth and heaven.  God is infinite, yes; and because of this, God is all around us and, in fact, IN us.  The problem is because of the original sin of Adam and Eve, we’re made to live a short, mortal life here on earth where we make the best of what we’ve been given and strive to live according to the teachings of Christ before we die and leave our mortal bodies so that our souls can be united with God in a perfect state of eternal happiness and love which we call “heaven.”  (Heck of a sentence there, huh?)  Since there is this conscious “separation” between the perfection of heaven, and the “imperfection” of our mortal world, we recognize the need to desire to be perfect (or at least as perfect as possible) in accordance with the will of God.

The next concept that is implied here is that of free will.  As Catholics, we believe that each individual has been given the gift of “free will” by God, that we may FREELY choose what we do in this life.  God does not force himself on us, but INVITES us to seek his love and do what he has asked us to do in our lives.  The best way for us to figure out what God wants us to do—what God’s WILL for us is—is to pray for guidance and answers.  Now, don’t expect a booming voice to come from the clouds and give you an answer.  God typically doesn’t operate like that.  God’s will might come in the form of a “good feeling” you have about a job offer, or a simple suggestion a friend made to you about how he thought you’d be a good fit to teach a Religious Education class.  Sometimes when trying to figure out God’s will for you in your life can be incredibly hard to reason out, the answer can be as simple as telling God, “This is what I’ve decided to do because I feel it’s what you’re asking of me, but if I’m wrong, I’m asking you to put something in my life to stop this from happening.”  Many times, though, we can EASILY do things in our lives that are not done according to the will of God.  Often, this comes in the form of sin.  Other times, we may not follow God’s will exactly, but if our intentions are good, God will often bless our lives based on our decisions, anyway.  This line in the Lord’s Prayer asks that God have HIS will—not OURS—be done in the world.

This brings us into the pretty deep question of the ultimate purpose of prayer.  Luckily for you guys, I just had this discussion with a priest buddy of mine last night.  In south Louisiana, we have a pretty universal prayer we include in the Prayer of the Faithful during Mass every hurricane season.  It’s a simple prayer that asks that God would spare us from any major storms or hurricanes during this hurricane season.  Now that raises an obvious question.  If we pray for no storms, and get hit by a storm, is God listening?  Even more deeply, what’s the point of praying to be spared from a storm if God has already decided that we WOULD be hit by a storm this year?  The answer is not a simple one, but in the end, does make sense. 

Obviously, God doesn’t want his people to suffer any unnecessary hardships, but he typically is not acting like a “puppet master” pulling the metaphorical strings of the world and our existence.  He sets things in motion, and works through natural processes, intervening when he sees necessary to do so.  But again, there’s the question is if that’s all decided already (since God is eternal and unchanging), what’s the point of prayer if God has already decided when a storm will hit, or when someone will get killed in a car crash, or even something as simple as whether you will have enough patience to get through reading the rest of this blog post?  The answer is time.  We are bound by time.  God’s not.  It’s not that God has already decided everything and our prayers have no bearing on God’s plan.  The fact remains that we cannot fundamentally “change” God’s plan, but that God knew from before the world began that you would, right now at X:XX o’clock am/pm on Month-X Date-X, Such-and-Such a Year be praying for something in particular.  Then he took that prayer and considered it based on what would be best for you in your life, and decided accordingly…long before he said “Let there be Light.” See, God WANTS to give us what we ask for, but in the end he knows what’s BEST for us.  If you’ve ever been in a bad relationship or have had a drinking problem, you probably understand the principle of how we sometimes want things that are not good for us.  God takes our petitions and gives us what we want and ask for when it’s in our best interest, and denies our prayers when it’s not what will fall in line with his ultimate plan.

But remember, we still have to ask.  Even though it’s decided already, the decision has been made (partially) based on our actions.  If we decide right now that we’ll never ask for anything again, God knew we would choose to do that, so he would never have decided to take our desires into account.  Catching this?  It’s pretty complicated, I know.  Just remember that when you want something from God, Jesus has told us in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 7: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”  He goes on to say there, though: “Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asks for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him?”

God knows what he’s doing.  He hears you.  Just because you don’t get everything you ask for, doesn’t mean he doesn’t hear you asking.  Before getting upset about the things you ask for and DON’T get, take a second to think about the amazing things you DID get—things you probably didn’t even ask for.  Keep praying.

Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part IV

Thy kingdom come…

The “kingdom” here is obviously the “Kingdom of Heaven.”  But that’s a tricky term to take at face value.  “The Kingdom” was here on earth when Jesus was made man.  “The Kingdom” comes alive when we hear the Gospel proclaimed at Mass.  “The Kingdom” has come in Christ’s death & resurrection.  “The Kingdom” has been coming into our midst ever since the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.  So why do we pray that God’s kingdom should come to us?

St. Cyprian suggests that it may be that the “Kingdom” refers to Christ, himself, who we desire in our daily lives, so we should ask for the “Kingdom” to come to us in the form of Christ:  “For as he is our resurrection, since in him we rise, so he can also be understood as the Kingdom of God, for in him we shall reign.”  That may be a cool side thought, but it seems that this 2^nd petition of the Lord’s Prayer refers to the final coming of God’s reign through the return of Christ Jesus at the end of time.

When we stop and think about it in those terms, we might be a little more hesitant with this line.  If we’re praying for Jesus to come again, we need to be ready to face the consequences that come along with that.  Ever see those bumper stickers that say “Jesus is coming…look busy”?  Well, this petition is sort of reminiscent of that idea.  We’re asking that Jesus would fulfill his promise and come again one day, but what that implies is that we’re confident enough to think that we’re actually READY for that.  I don’t know about you, but I’m rarely in any shape to get a front row seat to the Parousia (Greek term meaning “arrival” but used in the Catholic faith with a capital letter to refer to Christ’s second coming…impressive word to know). 

Remember, this whole “Lord’s Prayer” did come straight from Jesus, himself.  He said, “This is how you are to pray.”  He didn’t say, “Here’s an easy way to pray so you can get whatever you want with no work on your part aside from just saying the words.”  It’s a dangerous prayer, and the words “Thy kingdom come” are three of the most powerful in it.  Almost as powerful as the next petition: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  WOAH!  Big “ask” there…we’ll check that one out next post.

Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part III

Let’s just get right into it (if you’re lost, go back a few posts and get caught up).

Hallowed be thy name…

First of all, let’s clear this up:  we’re not saying “hollowed”—we’re saying “hallowed.”  That second letter’s an “a”…not an “o.”  “Hollowed” (with the “o”) means that something is made empty, which is the exact opposite of the infinite nature of God.  “Hallowed” (with the “a”) means that something is made holy.  “Hallowed be thy name” is pretty self-explanatory once you clear up that confusion.  The other confusion is that crazy word “thy.”  We see words like this a good bit in our traditional Catholic prayers.  Basically, these words translate like this:

Thy/Thine: your

Thee/Thou: you

Some people like to translate these to the more common English words of “you” and “your”…nothing wrong with that.  The only “problem” comes in when one person is saying “you” and “your” while praying with a group where everyone else is saying “thy” or “thee.”  Remember, if you have a strong conviction about some aspect of prayer, be sure that your strong conviction doesn’t distract others from the focus of their prayers.

Now we’re looking at this phrase meaning “May your name be made Holy.”  Great…now we have to clear up another issue:  Isn’t God the only one who can make things holy?  In short, yes.  This isn’t really meant in the “causative” sense, as if we are praying these words in hopes that God’s name will be holy—I mean, come on…seriously?  How are WE going to make God holy?  Not really possible since he’s already the perfection of holiness by his very nature.  This is meant as more of a recognition of the holiness of God’s name, although, it is also a petition (i.e. a prayer asking for something in particular) of sorts that draws us into the greater plan of God by asking—albeit (that’s a weird word) a circular request—that his name be perpetually holy.  By the way (*Tangent Alert*) that little “i.e.” thing you sometimes see in writing just before something that was just said is better explained…yeah, that’s Latin, too.  Go figure, huh?  It stands for id est, i.e. “that is.”  (See what I did there, using “i.e.” to further explain “i.e.”?  Don’t think about that too long…you might hurt yourself.)  Now back to the show…As the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it, this petition “draws us into his plan of loving kindness for the fullness of time, ‘according to his purpose that he set forth in Christ,’ that we might ‘be holy and blameless before him in love.’” (CCC 2807)  There are seven petitions in all wrapped up into the Lord’s Prayer, and this “Hallowed be thy name” line is the first one.

Now I’m SURE after reading that last sentence you’re asking yourself, “Why SEVEN peititions?”  If you weren’t, you probably are now.  If you’re STILL not, get up, go get a cup of coffee or some nice, hot herbal tea, come sit back down, and once you re-read that sentence and have your “A-ha!” moment, you can continue reading…

Seven is used throughout the Bible to signify “Spiritual Perfection.”  Think about it: seven days to create the world, seven days between loading Noah’s ark to the flood, seven parables of Matthew’s Gospel, seven miracles in John’s Gospel, seven years in Tibet…wait, nevermind—that was a Brad Pitt movie.  It seems fitting that if Jesus is teaching us how to pray, he would teach us the “perfect” prayer, and so would have a spiritually perfect number of things to ask for in that prayer, right?  I thought so, too.  Next time we’ll continue unraveling this perfect prayer.

Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part II

Last post was an entire post about just two words: “Our Father.”  I’m going to try to double my efforts here and go for 4 words, because at the rate of 2 words per post, it would’ve taken 27.5 posts, and that, even for THIS blog, is quite ridiculous.

The next 4 words of the Lord’s Prayer, “Who art in Heaven,” have pretty significant meaning, and are pretty confusing at the same time.  Paragraph 2794 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church paints a pretty good picture of the deeper meaning behind this phrase:

This biblical expression does not mean a place ("space"), but a way of being; it does not mean that God is distant, but majestic. Our Father is not "elsewhere": he transcends everything we can conceive of his holiness. It is precisely because he is thrice-holy that he is so close to the humble and contrite heart. (CCC 2794)

Addressing God the Father as being “in Heaven” can sometimes (for me, anyway) make God seem distant.  Unless Belinda Carlisle was some unexpected prophet, heaven is NOT a place on earth, which inherently makes us feel alienated from God.  We’re down here—He’s up there.  But we need to remember (as the Catechism points out very well here) that not only is Heaven not a place on earth, it’s not a place at all!  God is infinite and has no boundaries or physical limits.  Being in heaven with God seems to logically imply that heaven would have no bounds, because God has no bounds.  With me so fra?  FRA?? I meant to say “far.”  Typographical errors ARE a problem, but the REAL problem is why didn’t I just hit the backspace button?  Why did I go into this completely and ridiculously unnecessary tangent about a typographical error?  We can’t, then, legitimately call heaven a “place,” because our human (and even further, our English) definition of a “place” implies that there are boundaries that separate one “place” from another.  Saying that God is in a place called heaven implies that there is some other “place” where God is not.  This is not possible, because God is infinite and has no boundaries. 

Saying, “Who art in Heaven,” should not give us a feeling that God is distant, but rather that he is, as the Catechism put it, majestic.  Heaven is that state of being we are in after we die once we have accepted God’s ultimate forgiveness and have been freed from sin.  It is a state of perfect being, and we should have a deep and profound respect for all entities in that state of heaven.  THIS is the image we need to mentally remind ourselves of when we pray the Lord’s Prayer.  Remember: without fully understanding what we say when we pray, we CAN fall into the trap of what many Protestants call “vain repetition.”

Now that we know who we’re praying to—the guide and provider for the universal Body of Christ here on earth who exists in a state of perfect existence and majesty—we can move forward in the next post and dive further into the (obviously) super deep meanings behind each and every word of this prayer.

Father Help Us, Send Some Guidance from Above - Part I

When I say that the Lord’s Prayer is addressed in an entire section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, I mean that there are over 100 paragraphs explaining it.  So when I say that I’m not going to be able to do justice to the Lord’s Prayer in one post, it’s the understatement of the millennium. I’ll try to do this in as few posts as possible, but I’m not making any promises.

St. Thomas Aquinas (smart dude…look him up) has this quote about the Lord’s Prayer:

The Lord's Prayer is the most perfect of prayers. . . . In it we ask, not only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired. This prayer not only teaches us to ask for things, but also in what order we should desire them.

So let’s take a look at what that order of prayer is in the Lord’s Prayer and what each part of the larger prayer really means when we pray it…

Our Father…

You could write a whole book just on the importance of these two words in the context of this prayer.  I’ll try to keep it down to a (rather long) paragraph.  Let’s look at the word “Father” first.  In summary of this thought, we are “adopted” children of God as pointed out in Chapter 1, Verse 5 of St. Paul’s letter to the Church of Ephesus: “…he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will.”  So when we call God our “Father,” there is a deep, spiritual meaning to that.  We are all sons and daughters of God through our baptism where we make ourselves his, and receive the graces of the sacrament to carry us through our Christian life.  This gift of adoption by God requires us to be continually converted to new life in Him.  If we are going to call God our “Father,” we should strive to make ourselves worthy to be called His children.  There is also an important notion of being “children” at work here.  Children put their complete trust in their parents for their needs.  They look to their parents not only for the essentials for survival like food, clothes, and shelter, but also for the essentials for growth like how to speak, how to interact with others, and more profoundly, guidance on ethics and morality.  In the same way, we should look to our Heavenly Father for not only spiritual guidance (which seems to be easier to ask for), but also for our essentials.  In our society that puts a strong emphasis on “earning your keep,” so to speak, it’s easy to give ourselves credit for the things we are blessed with in this life, and forget that they are just that—blessings.  We need to constantly remind ourselves that we ARE children of God and that everything in this life that we get, we get only through his grace and love.  Now, directing this prayer to the Father does not negate, nor separate in any way the greater idea of the Holy Trinity.  The opposite is true, in fact.  By addressing God the Father, we are inherently recognizing the relationship of God the Son, and since they both exist because of the relationship of love (the Holy Spirit) that exists between them, we cover the concept of the whole Trinity just by using the word “Father.”  Then there’s the concept of “OUR” Father…which I don’t feel right about keeping it in the same paragraph, so I’ll just start a new one…here I go:

So there’s this “OUR Father” concept…pretty heavy when you think about it.  In the constant Catholic v. Protestant battle for integrity, authority, and authenticity, it often seems pretty difficult to focus on what we actually have in COMMON.  Here’s the big one:  we all have ONE FATHER in Heaven…OUR Father.  If we can agree on NOTHING else, we at least have that.  The word “our” doesn’t necessarily point to God as “our possession,” but rather as a unifying factor.  He’s not MY God…He’s OUR God.  We are all one body in Christ as baptized Christians, and we are united as children of this ONE God, so we say “our.”

That’s a lot to take in for only two words, so we’ll call it “good” for this post.  Next post will at LEAST cover double the words as this post with “Who art in Heaven.”  So until then.......ok, I can’t come up with anything clever.