by Leela Ramdeen, Chair of the Catholic Commission for Social Justice
In today’s Gospel (Luke 11:1-13), some of Jesus’ disciples ask him to teach them how to pray. Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer is shorter than the one we read in Matthew 6:9-11. During Holy Mass, the Lord’s Prayer is placed after the Eucharistic Prayer and before communion. St. John Damascene defines prayer as “the lifting of the mind and heart to God.” There are so many ways in which we can do so; so many ways in which we can ‘talk’ to God. This is a good time to re-visit Part Four of our Catechism, which focuses on Christian Prayer (http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM). Part 4: Section 2 focuses specifically on The Lord’s Prayer. Read about the seven petitions that we make when we say this prayer.
I thank God each day for giving humankind the ability to develop technology such as Skype which allows me to make free voice and video calls to my family and friends in various parts of the world – and this is just one of the free services Skype offers. The Church recognises that while modern technology can be abused, we can use it to build the common good.
As Hugh McNichol states: “The use of technologies as vehicles for the transmission of the Church’s teaching have always been in the forefront of evangelisation and catechesis methods employed by the Church. One might say that the first true patron of technology is the Catholic Church.”
I often use Skype to tell bible stories to my great-nephews and great-nieces who live in London. Recently, one of them, N’kai, has been sharing with me, some of the prayers he has been learning at home and at school. “But Auntie Leela,” he complained, “when I am praying in my bed at nights, Numair (his younger brother), disturbs me. I thump him but he still disturbs me.”
That reminded me of the picture of the little girl kneeling at the side of her bed saying her prayers while her dog, Fido, is tugging at her nightgown. The caption read: “Excuse me, Lord, while I kick Fido.”
We have an awesome responsibility to lead our children closer to God by teaching them how to pray from a young age and by offering prayerful guidance to them. How many families pray together today? I was fortunate that in my childhood my mother, who was a devout Catholic, gathered her children around her each night to pray. This experience has had a lasting effect on me. She taught me how to pray.
CCSJ has lead responsibility for the Values and Virtues Formation Programme in our Catholic primary schools. It is essential that this programme be seen as an integral part of RE in our schools. Prayer helps to root our children in their faith and to instil in them the kind of virtues and values that will guide them as they go through life.
I remember during my first year of teaching in London, I spent a whole term teaching my students the Lord’s Prayer – analysing each part of it with them and relating it to their lives. We linked this prayer, which Our Lord gave us, to sections of the Bible that describe prayer e.g. Genesis 4:26; Psalms 62:8, 107:6, 142:1-2; and Chronicles 16:11.
Just take, for example, the following petition that we make to God when we say the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive Us Our Trespasses, as We Forgive Those Who Trespass AGAINST US.” Like many of you, I know how hard it is to forgive people who have done us wrong. We have to pray for God’s grace so that our hearts will soften. We read in our Catechism that:
“Love, like the Body of Christ, is indivisible; we cannot love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother or sister we do see. In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father’s merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace…
“Christian prayer extends to the forgiveness of enemies…Forgiveness is a high-point of Christian prayer; only hearts attuned to God’s compassion can receive the gift of prayer. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love is stronger than sin…Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their Father and of men and women with one another.” (Catechism: 2840, 2844).
