The following is from the coda of Wesley Hill’s magnificent book, The Lord’s Prayer: A Guide to Praying to Our Father, pp. 99-101. It’s taken a couple of years for me to realize how much looking at [Rembrandt’s “The Return of the Prodigal Son”] hanging over my kneeler has affected the way I pray […] In […]
A (Low-Anthropology) Guide to Quarantine Prayer and ‘Loud Time’
Recently, over coffees and 1000-calorie donuts the size of our heads, a couple of friends and I discussed our morning spiritual routines. I expressed frustration, for the thousandth time, that establishing a morning routine of Bible reading / journaling / prayer / whatever is very difficult for me. And that I consistently feel shame as […]
The Lord’s Prayer as Portrait of Jesus
I rarely said the Lord’s Prayer growing up. My ministers, suspicious of any swish of ritual, took it as a template and taught me to ad lib to Our Father. I’ve learned to value that emphasis on spontaneous communication and individual requests. Although I now recite Jesus’ formula more often, I decided to do so […]
W.H. Auden Riffs on the Lord’s Prayer in “For the Time Being”
From the “Chorale” section, which is part of “The Summons”:
Our Father, whose creative Will
Asked Being for us all,
Confirm it that Thy Primal Love
May weave in us the freedom of
The actually deficient on
The justly actual.
Though written by Thy children with
A smudged and crooked line,
The Word is ever legible,
Thy Meaning unequivocal,
And for Thy Goodness even sin
Is valid as a sign.
Inflict Thy promises with each
Occasion of distress,
That from our incoherence we
May learn to put our trust in Thee,
And brutal fact persuade us to
Adventure, Art, and Peace.
Hector Black Forgives The Man Who Murdered His Daughter
I recently learned about Transom.org through This American Life. If you like TAL, you might enjoy listening to the Transom podcast, which produced an amazing (and relatively brief) interview with Hector Black, an elderly organic farmer, whose adopted daughter was killed by a crack-addicted burglar. Black describes this terrible incident and the ensuing relationship he […]
We Are Bold to Say… The Lord’s Prayer, Pt 7: For Thine Is the Kingdom, The Power and the Glory, For Ever and Ever. . . Amen.
We’ve come to the end of our 7 part series on the Lord’s Prayer. Over the past few weeks we have seen how the liturgical invitation to this prayer “we are bold to say,”—one familiar to Christians all over the world—truly is a profound and radical confession of how we understand God and ourselves. The […]
We Are Bold to Say… The Lord’s Prayer, Pt 6: Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From Evil
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Underlying all theological reflection, and at the center of all religious disputes about “god” lies one fundamental question, namely, does he/she/it to whom and about whom we are speaking actually exist? If so, then, ulitmately, like pesants arguing about the King or citizens arguing […]
We Are Bold to Say… The Lord’s Prayer, Pt 5: Forgive Us Our Trespasses
Forgive Us Our Trespasses, As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us A single pang of hunger will drive home the truth of our need for bread, our utter dependence on it. But when it comes to survival, our need for forgiveness (both received and given) is a bit less obvious. Certainly, I can not […]
We Are Bold to Say… The Lord’s Prayer, Pt 4: Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
What a transition: to go from the wonder and splendor of the preceding verses—thoughts of heaven, of God’s hallowed name, of His beautiful kingdom and perfect will, to this: what concerns us. The transition is almost abrupt, moving from things above to things below, but—and our understanding of the Gospel is of great importance—not surprising: […]
We Are Bold to Say… The Lord’s Prayer, Pt. 3: “Thy Kingdom Come”
Continuing in the next portion of the Lord’s Prayer, we come to the section which is probably the most debated and discussed, but least understood. For many, the coming of the Kingdom means the future destruction of the world (a prediction of Jesus’ which – for some interpreters – never happened!). Perhaps in reaction to […]
We Are Bold To Say… The Lord’s Prayer, Pt 2: “Hallowed Be Your Name”
After the initial address of “Our Father“, the Lord’s prayer then follows with 6 successive requests to God. For Jesus, prayer is foremost supplication. It is a cry to God for help. Or, we relate to God not on the basis of our strength, but out of our desperate need. So what is meant when […]
We Are Bold to Say… The Lord’s Prayer, Part 1: “Our Father”
The following is the first in a series of weekly posts to be published on the Lord’s Prayer. Somewhat ironically, because of the prayer’s importance in Christian worship there is always the temptation or danger that, though we prayed and we “spoke the words but never gave a thought to what they could mean” (Brand […]
