"Lord, teach us to pray."

Given the plethora of negative vibes we all get these days related especially to sexual predators among Church hierarchy, exaggerated and biased news reporting, unbecoming (read “un-presidential”) behavior and unseemly dialogue among our elected officials and their associates, and many other things, we might consider re-discovering or doubling down on our prayer life.  But how should we pray?  What should we say when we pray?  To whom should we pray?  Where should we go to pray?  Well, Jesus, has some answers.

One incident in Sacred Scripture was when Jesus’ disciples made the request “Lord, teach us to pray.”  (Luke 11:1).  Jesus responded with what has become known as “The Lord’s Prayer.”  The parts of the Lord’s Prayer that I believe have great relevance in today’s world are:  “Hallowed by thy name,” Thy will be done,” and “Deliver us from evil.” 

When we pray to our Father in heaven, we should pray that his name, “God,” be “hallowed,” that is, it should be “honored as being holy.”  This would be the ultimate sign of respect.  People should respect the name “God” because it is, in fact, a holy name.  Today it is often disrespected by, for example, calling upon God to damn someone or some thing.  If we want God to answer our prayer, “hallowed be thy name” would seem to be a good way to start our prayer.  If God has ears, I can imagine Him turning his ear to us as soon as he hears that.

No one knows the will of God.  What we can be sure of, however, is that God wants the best for us.  He created us for the purpose of sharing his heavenly glory with us.  So we can say that his will is for us to ignore the will of Satan and be free from sin, so that when we die, we can be judged as worthy of heaven.  Back in 2016, we had a choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to be our president.  It was an unhappy choice to make either way, to say the least.  I could do nothing better that to simply say “Lord, thy will be done.”  When we are faced with this kind of decision, it is about all we can say.  These words are part of the Lord’s prayer.  It is something we should say when we pray.  It seems especially important in these troubled times.

Finally, he says we should say “Deliver us from evil” when we pray.  God has the power to defeat Satan.  In fact, he has already done that by having his Son die on the cross 2000 years ago.  However, it is still up to us to make the right choices in our lives.  To ask Him to deliver us from evil is to ask Him to take us away from the sins of this world and to make us holy.  If you worry about sexual predators within His Church and the other things mentioned in the introduction to this blog post, then this request within The Lord’s Prayer is timely and most appropriate.

In summary, we should pray thus:  Dear God, we would like everyone to respect your name as being holy.  Please infuse this respect into the hearts and minds of all on earth.  In addition, we would like your will for us on this earth to be done in every way possible, including the election of leaders that will govern us according to your will.  And finally, Lord, please allow us to move forward in our lives with no evil, no Satan.  In other words, lead us, please, Lord, with our focus on your heavenly kingdom. 

And where should we go to pray?  Jesus told us to “go to our inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.”  Because “your Father, who sees in secret will repay you.”  (Matt 6:6).  For me, that is the solitude of a small Catholic chapel in the presence of Jesus’ body, blood, soul, and divinity in the monstrance or tabernacle there.  “Lord, I love you.  Please sustain us in these troubled times.  Amen!!”