In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray. He does not teach them to say many words or to use beautiful words to persuade God. Instead, he says, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

God is not a stranger to us. He is our Father. He knows our worries, our needs, our weaknesses, and even the deepest places of our hearts. Therefore, prayer is not first about saying many words – it is about coming to God with the heart of a child.

When Jesus teaches us to say, “Our Father,” he opens to us an intimate relationship with God. Through Jesus, we become children of God. We are invited to trust him, place our lives in his hands, and say to him: “Father.”

But Jesus does not teach us to say, “My Father.” He teaches us to say, “Our Father.” This reminds us that God is the Father of all, and that we are brothers and sisters to one another. Jesus also teaches us how to live with love and forgiveness.

Jesus says clearly: if we forgive others, our heavenly Father will also forgive us. Forgiveness is not always easy. But each time we pray the Our Father, we are invited to ask the Lord to heal our hearts and to help us walk the path of reconciliation.

At every Mass, before we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, we pray the Lord’s Prayer together. In the Eucharist, Jesus unites us with himself and with one another as children of the same Father.

Let us pray:

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.