The Communion Rite begins with the ‘Our Father’ (the Lord’s Prayer).
This prayer praises God, asks for our ‘daily bread’ and forgiveness of
our sins, and reminds us that we need to be united and at peace with our
neighbour through forgiving those ‘who trespass against us’. In asking
for our ‘daily bread’ we recognise that it is God who feeds us with
himself –Christ- under the form of Bread, as well as providing for all
our daily needs. Because the Our Father leads into the Deliverance Prayer there is no Amen at this point.
Our
body posture is important here. We as a congregation are no longer
kneeling as we were in the Eucharistic Prayer, but are standing. We are
standing to praise God, standing to acknowledge our daily needs,
standing to ask forgiveness, standing in unity with our neighbour. In
this posture, Jesus invites us to be whole just like he invited many of
those who were healed by him. He invites us to stand- not to be afraid
and to be whole. We are adopted sons and daughters of God and so call
Him Father. We are co-heirs with Christ. Somehow in this posture, we
claim that for ourselves once again.
Of
course, we know the prayer by heart and say it often. It is perhaps the
best-known prayer in the world, and it is precious because it comes to
us from Jesus himself. It is timely to remind ourselves the context
that Jesus gave this prayer: Luke records: ‘Lord, teach us to pray like
John taught his disciples’. (Lk 11:1)
Perhaps
on our spiritual journey, our prayer life becomes dry, or perhaps we
have short times or even extended periods when we feel overwhelmed with
our life.
Perhaps, like the disciples, we too can have a fresh start with the words ‘Lord, teach us to pray’.
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