Reflection for June 20, Thursday: Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time; Matthew 6:7-15

Gospel: Matthew 6:7-15

(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 others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”

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Reflection:

How do you pray? 

Do you pray with a set of structured prayer such as the Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be and many other prayers? Nothing is wrong with these prayers for it brings you closer to God. What is important is, when you pray you dive inside your prayer this means that your whole being is in communion with your prayer.

There is no wrong either with our spontaneous/personal prayers for these are prayers that originate deep in our hearts.  Our whole beings are with our prayer, and by doing so we establish our connection with the Good Lord.

So we know how to pray and that is very good! But let us think about the many others who do not know how to pray (There are many of them). Perhaps we can make it our mission in life to teach them how to pray and in the process introduce them to Jesus.

Let us do something about this and let us also share this prayer that was taught by Jesus to His disciples. We become productive followers of Jesus when we pay forward whatever we know about Jesus most especially this prayer that HE taught us to pray.

Have you shared the Our Father prayer? – Marino J. Dasmarinas