Something about a religious store that offers eye candy – physical and spiritual. From garden statues to beads of every color and kind, necklaces and books to fill a small library, grace the wall and scented candles waft the air with spiritual aromas. Spirituality has a cost.

For anyone unaffiliated, this would seem curious to have all this spirituality neatly organized in one space. But it’s all there to avail ourselves to find something that will help guide our spiritual journey. Dare we say, whatever it takes to move our hearts and spirits and souls to get into the pews with a faith that streams in as through a stained-glass window and a faith that blows us out of the pews to a world so in need of this Truth then, so be it.

There are so many choices to find that one book, that one trinket that would be an aide to keep us focused on God, Son, and Spirit. But Jesus simplifies. “This is how you should pray.”

There’s more. After the Prayer, as Jesus has taught us, we are bound to do something that seems so foreign – accepting responsibility for self-actions. It’s a universal certainty – we transgress; we sin; we are not what we are meant to be, and we need to be forgiven and to forgive. Forgive us our trespasses ….

This prayer condenses the basic tenets of our faith. It connects us to our faith history. The disciples prayed this prayer; a whole line of saints prayed this prayer; our grandparents prayed this prayer; and our parents prayed this prayer.

Father Donald Jette SSS, of fond memory, often remarked that this prayer (the Our Father) is the Church’s national anthem.

So, in spirit, we stand with each other and all the saints. Let us pray.

Prayer:

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.