Today’s Gospel passage centres on the disciples asking Jesus to teach them how to pray. In response, he gives them the words that we pray so often – the words of the Our Father.
I was reminded of a lovely story I heard many years ago about a school principal and priest, who was giving a talk to the pupils in his school about prayer. He was a well-liked and respected man, who had a tendency to get side-tracked or confused in his words. This only endeared him more to all who knew him.
The story goes that he was talking to the pupils about prayer and telling them they should always say their prayers but that the most important prayer they could ever say, would be the “Our Father”. He explained that these words came from Jesus himself and that, in them, we found everything we needed for our daily life. He stressed the importance of this prayer and encouraged the students to never ever forget it. “Whatever prayer you pray”, he encouraged them “always pray the Our Father. It’s the best of all prayers and was given to us all by Jesus himself. So always, always remember the Our Father. I’ll say it again, it’s the best prayer you could ever say.”
He concluded his talk by saying: “If you kneel down now, we will say three Hail Mary’s for a special intention”!!
I always liked that story.
Pray as you can, don’t try to pray as you cannot.