Thursday, June 16, 2011

The Our Father Contains All Prayers of Every Human Heart


In today's readings for mass, Jesus gives us the Our Father. This prayer contains "the 7 fundamental petitions of the human heart" (St Augustine), because it is the prayer of Jesus himself, who,
"For by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man." (Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes 22)
Therefore when we truly offer the Our Father we are really offering Jesus Christ to the Father, we are offering the whole Christ, his life death and resurrection. It could even be said that the Our Father is the very extension of Calvary and the Eucharistic Sacrifice, for all of the prayers and sighs of Christ on the Cross are summed up in this prayer.

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