05212013 Loyola Press Retreat

This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. ~ Matthew 6:9

How do the words I use in prayer reflect my relationship with God?

• I come to prayer as I do a phone call with a dear friend.  God is my friend and confidant.  He knows me intimately.
• I am respectful of our time together in prayer.  I don't complain a lot.  I'm usually grateful for all that he has given me, sometimes I need reminders of just how much he has given me.

Jesus invites us to use the same name as he does for God. What implications does that have for me?

• My relationship with my earthly father is kind and good and loving. Calling God Father is not hard in that way.
• Calling God Father brings God closer than some distant being watching from afar.  He cares for me like my dad.  He is my spiritual dad.

Jesus, thanks for teaching us all to pray as you did your disciples. Please help me not to take this great closeness with you and your Father, my Father, for granted. Thank you, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.