Fourth Friday of Easter

You are my Son; this day I have begotten you. “I myself have set up my king on Zion, my holy mountain.” I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; this day I have begotten you.”

We are the children of God. This means we are unconditionally loved by our Heavenly Father. He cares for us better than any earthly parent ever could and will do everything in His power to help us to grow in faith, hope, and love. He wants us to succeed in life, but like a good father, He will not force us to become what He wants us to be. He wants us to choose to know, love, and serve Him on our own because He knows He can’t force us to be good and faithful. We must want to follow in His footsteps before we can walk with Him into Paradise.

Are we living up to the responsibilities of being a child of God? How can we become better sons and daughters of our Good Father? What can we do to help others to be better children, too?

O Lord, you begot us and love us, help us to be holy children.

Amen.

Twenty-Seventh Wednesday of Ordinary Time

When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.

We can learn a lot from this simple prayer. It teaches us to call God, Father, and hallow His Name. It also reminds us that the purpose of our prayers should be to call forth the Kingdom. At the center of the prayer is the appeal for our Father to give us our daily bread, the Bread of Life, which is the Body and Blood of Jesus. It also makes clear that the forgiveness of our sins is tied to our own ability to forgive others. Finally, it asks our Heavenly Father to spare us from the final test. This prayer is a summation of our faith and a perfect expression of our trust in God and our willingness to participate in His Divine Plan for our salvation.

Do we recognize God as our Heavenly Father and give him the respect He is due? Do we make a prayer of spiritual communion with God whenever we cannot receive the Eucharist? Are we as forgiving of others as we ask God to be forgiving of us?

O Lord, you are our Heavenly Father. May your kingdom be made manifest on earth through our every thought, word and work.

Amen.

Eleventh Thursday of Ordinary Time

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.

This is how Jesus tells us to pray. He makes it clear that our God is also our Heavenly Father. We are His children and as such we are called to do His Will on earth. In return, He sustains us with our daily bread, forgives us as we forgive, and delivers us from evil. We need all three of these things in order to grow in faith, hope, and love. We need the Body and Blood of Christ to nourish our spirits. We need to be merciful toward others so that our own faults might be forgiven. Lastly, we need to be delivered from temptation and evil because alone we would fall into sin, but with God at our side we can overcome every obstacle to living the Christ-like life.

Do all our thoughts, words, and works find their source in our Heavenly Father’s Will? Do we seek out the strengthening graces of the Blessed Sacrament as often as we can? Are we willing to forgive those who trespass against us and avoid temptation and sin?

O Lord, teach us how to make our lives a living prayer that give glory to your hallowed name.

Amen.

The First Tuesday of Lent

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.

The Our Father was handed down to us by Jesus and it is one of the central prayers of our faith. However, it also gives us a blueprint of how to live our lives. We should give reverence to God by recognizing Him as our Heavenly Father. We also should ask Him to bring about His Kingdom and to do His Will in our lives. So too, we ought to live in such a way as to bring about His Will on earth. Besides these things, we must hunger for the daily bread of life that God offers us through prayer and especially the sacrament of the Eucharist. We also need to ask for forgiveness for our failings while forgiving the failings of others. Last but not least, we should pray to be protected from the temptations of the world and evils that seek to lure us away from God. If we do these things, we will be able to lead Christ-like lives filled with faith in the Father, hope in His Providence, and love for God and His children.

Do we pray the Our Father every day? Do we take each line and meditate upon its deeper meaning? How can we put its precepts into practice?

O Lord, you are our Father, our Bread, and our Deliverer.

Amen.

Eleventh Thursday of Ordinary Time

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

This first line of the Our Father gives us a perfect example of what our relationship with Heavenly Father should be like. We should praise His Holy Name at all times, through our thoughts and words, especially through our prayers to Him. Our every work should have the aim of bringing about the Kingdom of God by doing His Will on earth. We should worship our Father who is the source of our being. We should center our daily lives on doing His Will and strive to reach the summit of the Kingdom. When we do all these things, then we align our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths to God and do all things in accord with his Divine Plan.

How do we praise our Father each day? What do we do to bring about His Kingdom on earth? In what way do we recognize God as the source, center, and summit of our lives?

O Lord, you are our Father, we want only to bring about your kingdom and do your will.

Amen.

Second Saturday of Lent

Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.

We share a lot in common with the prodigal and older son in today’s gospel. We have taken the gifts and talents God has given us and squandered them. Some of are like the older brother. We waste our abilities a little at a time, here and there. We hardly notice the missed opportunities to do more than just what is required of us. We think obedience is enough, but it is not. Doing God’s Will requires self-sacrifice and humility. However, others of us are like the prodigal son. We blind ourselves to the good with our desire for worldly things. We let our physical wants guide us away from our spiritual needs. We starve on a lack of charity toward God, others, and ourselves. We have no harvest to tend to because we have not taken the time to purchase the seeds through sacrifice or plant them with love. However, the Father is always there for us, hoping we too will come to our senses and return to him like the prodigal son or realize that everything is ours like the elder one.

In what ways are we like the prodigal son? Do we identify with the jealousy of the elder son? How can we learn from both of these men and grow in our relationship with God, our father?

O Lord, help us to come to our senses and to know everything you have is ours.

Amen.

First Tuesday of Lent

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.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us the perfect prayer—the Our Father. In this simple prayer we are given a microcosm of our faith. We recognize God as Our Heavenly Father and hallow his name. We remind ourselves that the focus of our faith should be on the second coming and doing God’s Will on earth. We ought to desire the daily bread of the Eucharistic celebration, but also the future bread of the heavenly feast. We ask for the forgiveness of our sins and the grace to forgive others. Finally, we petition God to protect us from temptation and evil. This single prayer encompasses the petitions at the heart of our faith and every time we pray it we unite ourselves to Our Father and all of His beloved children.

Do we meditate on the Our Father when we pray it or do we just say the words? What can we do to take these words into our hearts and live them? What petitions do we have for God today?

O Lord, when we pray the Our Father grant us the grace to ask you for what we really need, and not just what we want.

Amen.