Having spent a couple of months focusing on the Eucharistic Prayer, the highpoint of the Mass, we now move to the Communion Rite, which begins with the praying of the Lord’s Prayer, also referred to as the Our Father.
As I wrote early on in this series, our goal is to pray the Mass better, avoiding falling into autopilot with both our words and our gestures. The Lord’s Prayer is one place in the Mass where we can easily fall into this trap, considering how many times we have prayed this prayer in our lives. As children, we were taught to memorize prayers so that we could get the words right. From there, we can reflect more deeply on what we are praying, such that the words are an expression of a trusting child to their Father. But sadly, we sometimes never get past the memorization phase with these prayers and we miss out on the richness of this beautiful prayer that has come to us directly from the Lord Himself.
One of the ways to avoid just reciting the words of the Our Father is to take time outside of Mass to pray the Lord’s Prayer with greater intentionality. If we get used to praying this prayer, as opposed to just saying the words, we will find that when this part of the Mass arrives, we will more naturally have this moment be an expression of our close union with the Lord as His beloved sons and daughters. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer at Mass, in addition to our being conscious of being His children by calling Him “Father”, we also have the opportunity to be conscious of being brothers and sisters to those around us, for we call upon Him as our Father.
This awareness of being united with others who have God as Father when praying the Lord’s Prayer has really helped me to pray this prayer better. More often than not, I tend to think of the Lord’s Prayer in terms of praying for my needs, for His will to be done in my life, for His daily bread to nourish me. But when I consider that I am not just praying for myself, but for others, it makes the prayer even more powerful. I sometimes call to mind those who have drifted away from their faith. For whatever reason, they may no longer come to Mass, they may not even pray. Since they are not praying for themselves, my prayer to the Father includes praying for their needs and intentions. I sometimes call to mind people who find themselves in desperate situations, such as one who may be suffering physically or mentally, or a woman who is facing a difficult decision about her pregnancy. When I pray the Lord’s Prayer, I am asking the Lord to show them His fatherly compassion and encouragement, so as not to feel alone.
We have no idea the struggles of those who surround us at each Mass. Perhaps somebody in the next pew was just diagnosed with cancer. Perhaps somebody across the aisle has just lost a loved one. Perhaps somebody in the church has just lost a job. We may never know, but Father knows, and by praying together this beautiful prayer, we are experiencing a profound unity with Him and with one another, which is preparing us well for us to soon receive the Sacrament of Unity in the Eucharist which will only strengthen that bond.
I had a question last Sunday if I would resume my Lenten challenges this year. I had honestly not thought about it, but as I write this column, I think I have found my first challenge. I invite you to take time this week outside of Mass to pray the Lord’s Prayer with greater attention. I would invite you to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times, nice and slow. The first is for yourself, focusing on your relationship to the Father, asking Him for your daily needs. The second is for one person who is on your heart. It might be somebody who is struggling at this point in their life. It might be somebody who has a birthday that day. Just trust the Lord to put somebody on your heart, and pray this prayer slowly and intentionally for them. The third is for our parish. Again, we are largely clueless as to the many needs of our brothers and sisters in this parish, but as I said, the Lord knows. So offer this third prayer with trust in the Father’s goodness to our parish family, that He will give us all what we are most in need of that day according to His holy will. Father Alford