Day: January 9, 2020

(c) Mary TV 2020 January 9, 2020   Dear Family of Mary! “…My children, my Son pronounced the words of the ‘Our Father’-Our Father, [you] who are everywhere and in our hearts-because He desires to teach you to pray with words and feelings. He desires for you to always be better, to live merciful love which is prayer and limitless sacrifice for others…” (January 2, 2020) The “Our Father” is at the heart of our Catholic prayer life. We pray it just before receiving Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. We pray it in the Rosary, in the Divine Office, and in the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and in almost all Novenas. When we pray the Our Father, we feel we are praying with Jesus, using His words, and approaching the Father with His dispositions. And we are!! Jesus taught us how to pray. Here is what it says in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:    (PART FOUR: CHRISTIAN PRAYER, SECTION TWO THE LORD’S PRAYER, Article 1 “THE SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE GOSPEL”, II. The Lord’s Prayer) II. The Lord’s Prayer 2765 The traditional expression “the Lord’s Prayer” – Oratio Dominica – means that the prayer to our Father is taught and given to us by the Lord Jesus. The prayer that comes to us from Jesus is truly unique: it is “of the Lord.” On the one hand, in the words of this prayer the only Son gives us the words the Father gave him:13 he is the master of our prayer. On the other, as Word incarnate, he knows in his human heart the needs of his human brothers and sisters and reveals them to us: he is the model of our prayer. 2766 But Jesus does not give us a formula to repeat mechanically.14 As in every vocal prayer, it is through the Word of God that the Holy Spirit teaches the children of God to pray to their Father. Jesus not only gives us the words of our filial prayer; at the same time he gives us the Spirit by whom these words become in us “spirit and life.”15 Even more, the proof and possibility of our filial prayer is that the Father “sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”16 Since our prayer sets forth our desires before God, it is again the Father, “he who searches the hearts of men,” who “knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”17 The prayer to Our Father is inserted into the mysterious mission of the Son and of the Spirit. (13 Cf. Jn 17:7. 14 Cf. Mt 6:7; 1 Kings 18:26-29. 15 Jn 6:63. 16 Gal 4:6. 17 Rom 8:27.)https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p4s2a1.htm      Jesus gave us His own prayer, so that we could pray with His words and feelings, and we could ask for what He desires for us to ask. Jesus gave us everything we need to know to find our way to His Father. We are the most blessed to have such a Brother and Lord. 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. In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!Cathy Nolan©Mary TV 2020