Wednesday, October 05, 201627th Week in Ordinary Time First Reading: Gal 2: 1-2. 7-14 Gospel Reading: Lk 11:1-4
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” And Jesus said to them, “When you pray, say this:
Father, hallowed be your name,may your kingdom come,give us each day the kind of bread we need,and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive all who do us wrong,and do not bring us to the test.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE (Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Two superiors from the Jesuit and the Redemptorist Congregations exploring the compatibility of smoking and praying send letters of inquiry to their Major Superiors in Rome. Surprisingly, the Jesuit gets a positive answer while the Redemptorist a negative one. It turns out that the Jesuit had asked if it would be okey for his priests to pray while smoking, while the Redemptorist had asked the other way around. Praying while smoking is not the same as smoking while praying.
Praying while smoking is an example of informal prayer. One can pray anytime and anywhere and in any manner befitting God’s dignity. One can even do it by reciting the Psalms while doing the daily routine. While taking showers, for example, one can pray, “O wash me more and more from my guilt Lord and forgive us our sins” (Psalm 51:2). While brushing the teeth one can also pray, “If I ever forget you O Lord, let my tongue cleave to my mouth”. Informal prayer is our way of raising our minds to God while immersed in our daily activities. Saint Mother Teresa of Kolkata was expert in spontaneous prayers. Her fingers were always on her rosary beads while doing charitable works.
Informal prayer can also be patterned after the “Our Father”. We begin by acknowledging God’s fatherhood as we renew our trust that he won’t give us a snake when what we need is a fish. It then proceeds to the expression of the desire that his kingdom be established on earth, to the petition for daily bread, repentance, and a pledge to forgive others. It ends with supplication to be delivered from evil. Presumably this was also the way Jesus prayed. Remember that the disciples had asked him to teach them how to pray right after he himself had prayed.
In using the same pattern that Jesus used to communicate to his Father, we too exercise our identity as children of the same Father God. In this exercise, we renew our commitment to the age-old covenant God made with Abraham where God declared: “You shall be my people, and I will be your God.” – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM, MMExM, MAPM, REB. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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