Tuesday – 1st Week of Lent  

Gospel – Matthew 6:7-15

Babbling On!

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

A grandfather was walking through his yard when he heard his grandson repeating the alphabet in a tone of voice that sounded like prayer.  He asked him what he was doing.  The little boy explained.  “I’m praying but I can’t think of exactly the right words, so I’m just saying all the letters and God will put them together for me because He knows what I’m thinking!

God hears our prayers!  God hears our heart!  Sometimes in prayer we use words!  Sometimes we pray in the quiet of our heart.  Sometimes the words get confused and jumbled!  Sometimes we just can’t find the words!  God knows! He always knows!

And so in today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us His words of prayer, our primary prayer of faith to Our Father!  It is a prayer of a common faith; we use the word “OUR”!  It is meant to unite us all with our Father in heaven! Every nation in the world, every culture and community, offers up this prayer, each in their own language, their own context, their own circumstance!  I offer you today a Native translation of the Lord’s Prayer!

“O Great Spirit, our Father from above, we honor Your name as sacred and holy.  Bring Your good road to us, where the beauty of Your ways in the spirit world above is reflected in the earth below.  Provide for us day by day – the elk, the buffalo, and the wild rice.  All the things we need for each day.

Release us from the things we have done wrong, in the same way we release others for the things done wrong to us. Guide us away from the things that tempt us from Your good road and set us free from the evil one and his worthless ways.  Aho!  May it be so!”

            (First Nations Version – An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament)

So pray today and every day!  And if necessary, use words!

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