I love the picture of this guy praying the Lord's prayer :)
Notes from yesterday's class:
The Church has called this “The Perfect Prayer”
This is said in the Liturgy almost immediately before receiving the Holy Mysteries. This is because it is the best prayer to pray before meeting Christ. This is not a general prayer for everyone. It is given specifically to Christians and the Church
Our Father who art in heaven
• The word “our” is a reminder that we have personal prayer, but not individual prayer because we are never “alone”.
• Our Father is something that we can say because Christ is come in the flesh and allowed us a way to know God. He is not directly MY Father, but “our” Father as believers.
• “Father” is different than that used in the OT. The word used by Christ is Abba, or daddy. This is because we have gained a personal relationship to the Father through Jesus Christ.
• “Who art in heaven” We must be careful when saying this. The Fathers advise us not to use our imaginations when saying this because it limits our view of God and creates a box that hinders our encounter of Christ. It is slightly better understood as our Father who art not of the earth. This is what is meant, not a place of residence.
Hallowed be Thy name
• Hallowed also means not of the earth. We are praying for God’s name to be hallowed in our lives. Not that we contribute to His holiness! This goes hand in hand with the prayer in the Trisagion that asks for us to be cleansed from every stain, for THY name’s sake.
• Matt 5:16; 1 Cor. 6:20
Thy Kingdom come
• John the Baptist and Christ preached, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” This is, in essence, the Gospel. As Christians, we CHOOSE to have Christ as King in our lives.
• St. Syprion says that the spiritual life is “That we who have been sanctified through baptism may persevere in being what we have begun to be.”
• Maranatha – Christ come quickly in your Kingdom! 2 Peter 3:11-12
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven
• Ephesians 5:16-17
• Our example for doing God’s will is Jesus Christ. Look at the prayer before His crucifixion. “Not My will, but Thy will be done” Here, Christ brings His human will into submission of the divine will. Are we willing to fight with our will to the point of our sweat becoming as drops of blood?
• His will is: keep His commandments, resist evil and do good (“Pray and do what’s right.” Fr. John), don’t forsake the Church, pray.
• St. Simeon The New Theologian calls this petition a daring and dangerous act.
Give us this day our daily bread
• The fathers understand this as both wheat and epiousion. Epiousian is the word translated as daily. Epi-above ousian-essence. Obviously, this is meant much more than ordinary bread. It also means the Bread of Life. He is the Bread behind the bread ☺
• We are able to call Him the Bread in the same manner that we can now call God our Father. He has given Himself to us.
• Matt. 6:34
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us
• This indicates we have done something wrong, or that we owe something. We fall short and go against what God desires for us.
• We also owe all those who came before us something for our salvation. They all contributed. We are never saved alone, but with each other.
• We have to forgive the wrongs done to us in order to experience the forgiveness of Christ. This seems conditional. Think about Peter. Peter asks, “If my brother sins against me 7 times, is that enough…?” Christ says, more or less, don’t even try to count the number. Christ immediately tells the parable of the unforgiving servant.
• What does it mean to be forgiven? This is not easily answered. It means that we let go of the right to feel wronged.
• James 2
• The deacon constantly says, “In peace let us pray to the Lord.” This means in peace with each other.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one
• This means a testing or trial. We are asking Him to give us strength to withstand those temptations that we face in our lives. We are talking about dealing with the progression towards sin.
• If we receive any temptation, it is because God has thought us strong enough to withstand it.
• The saints did not resist sin lightly, but took it extremely seriously.
• The demonic desire is to destroy and deface God’s creation out of jealousy.
• We have to wrestle our wills into conformity!
