CCC 2763

 All Christians know the Lord's Prayer, or sometimes called, The Our Father.  But I bet you didn't know that the prayer is arranged in the sequence that prioritizes our needs. The prayer not only teaches us to ask for things, but also in what order we should desire them.  

Our Father, Again

 Four days ago, I posted about The Lord's Prayer.  Today, I read in Aleteia, that Philip Kosloski is just as much gobstruck as I am, by the thought of the number of people, kinds of people, nationalities, from way back when, 33 AD, that have prayed the very same prayer that I am praying now.  

My Black Jesus

 I give myself an "F".  I didn't plan ahead.  My granddaughter and I were making a craft on prayer. We had felt kits on the The Lord's prayer.  I did the children's faces first.  When it came time to make Jesus, the only face left was the brown one.  OK.  So?  I thought nothing of it.  That is until it came time to add a beard and hair.  They were the same color as the face.  You couldn't distinguish face from beard.  It was a disaster!  

I should have used the brown face for one of the kids' faces.  The hair and beard need to be contrasted against a different color face.  My eight year old granddughter got it right.  Here's hers.

Everyone knows that God has no color, anyway.  He is the color of water.

The Test

Msgr. Moran

Some people are complaining about the wording in the prayer, "Our Father." They don't like changes.  What's the problem, really?  It's not a change, it's a fix.  There was something wrong with the word "temptation," i.e., "...lead us not into temptation." 

God wouldn't lead us into temptation, would He?  I said, "No." But my "cloistered brother, ARod, reminded me that God lead Job into temptation.

This morning the Gospel was Matt. 6: 7-15, about how we should pray and the Lord's Prayer.  Msgr. Moran agreed with ARod's reasoning.  The problem with the English wording, was the word "temptation."  A better translation would have been "test." 

"...and lead us not to be tested."  We should all fear failing God's test.  The changes will be known in the coming months.  Most probably we will be saying, "Do not let us fall into temptation."

God Leads Me into Temptation?

I've been saying this for years!  Actually, a friend called my attention to it.  She was first, then I thought about it and agreed.  I'm talking about the "The Lord's Prayer," or "The Our Father." 

She said it always bother her that we prayed:

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.

I understand that this wording is only in English.  Other languages say the equivalent of protect us, or keep us away from, temptation.  Now, I read that our Holy Father agrees.  He asks for a better English translation.  

The sooner, the better.

Readville, MA

Hubby is always talking about Readville.  He comes from there.  When I married him we lived there--for about 8 years.  I liked it.  I particularly enjoyed that I lived in Boston, and could take advantage of all that Boston offered; yet I was outside of it.  Readville is the name for a section of Hyde Park, and Hyde Park is a section of Boston.

Anybody who lives, or comes from Readville, does not say they're from Boston, or even Hyde Park.  Oh no!  As Thomas Aquinas says, "Distinctions are important."  You are from Readville.  And proud of it!

Now I live in the suburbs.  But when I do take the train to Boston, I always gaze wistfully out the train window at Readville, and reminisce about the many times I heard those trains go by and listen to the train whistles.

All this came to mind tonight.  I was at Mass.  The celebrant was the Rev. Msgr. Peter Conley, from St. Jude's Parish in Norfolk, MA.  Msgr. Peter told a story from his youth.  He comes from Readville, too.  He told of learning the Lord's Prayer.  He thought "Lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil."   was   "Lead us not into temptation,  and deliver us from Readville."

City boys have a peculiar sense of humor.