Dear Friends of Carmel Mission,
In our Gospel this weekend, Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray. This is one of the most important and instructive lessons that He taught during His earthly ministry. It is the template or model for all our prayers.
One of the interesting things to note about the Lord’s Prayer is that it emphasizes the things that pertain to God, and only in the second part of the prayer does it address our human needs.
Many of us, when we go to God in prayer, present our “wish list” of items with which we seek His assistance. That is a natural human tendency, and there is nothing wrong with it. However, the more perfect way of prayer is one which begins with praise of God and concern with the things of God.
In prayer we raise our hearts and minds to God and ask that His Kingdom come, that His will be done, not ours.
The difficult part of prayer is presence. By that I mean that we are often so distracted and even consumed by all that is happening in our lives, that we are only partly present to God. Prayer is one of those things that becomes easier for us with persistent practice.
The truth is that God always answers our prayers and provides for our real needs. We have only to ask and we will receive.
Blessings,
Fr. Paul
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