The Lord’s Prayers, for me, is the most beautiful prayer one can say. it comes from the Lord Himself. These are His very words – ipsissima verba Jesu. Since these come from Him, they provide us a glimpse into the person that He is.
Jesus had a very intimate and tender relationship with God, calling Him ‘Abba’. It was so intimate that He declared that He and the Father are one. Everything He did was in obedience to the Father’s will. Everything He said, He spoke on the authority of the Father. And frequently, often early in the morning, he would leave everything and everyone behind, to be alone in communion with the Father. I can see how He loved the Father and how present he was with Him.
Jesus looks up into the heavens and He sees the glory and grandeur of God. He blesses the Father for everything there is, for everything is an act of the creative love of the Father. Nothing exists unless the Father has willed it into existence. In the unfolding of the universe, everything eventually happens according to the Father’s will.
Because of this, Jesus knows we are totally dependent on the Father. He gives us life – one day at a time. And He gives us everything we need for the day: bread, clothing, shelter, and most of all, love and companionship. It is an awesome thought that the same God and Father who created everything, creates a new day for me every morning and gives me enough till the next one.
God created me as a person with other persons in the world. Just as He is a community of three persons, He wants me to live in community with others in this world. He gave the bread and the earth that produced it to all of us and not just a few. Jesus teaches us love and forgiveness as the way to live in this world. And He teaches us to ask the Father to save us from temptation and evil so that we do not destroy our communion with others; so that just as Jesus and the Father are one, we also remain as one in their love.
It is an amazing feeling saying the words of this prayer and thinking that Jesus spoke these very words Himself. His words are on my lips. May His love live in my heart.