Many of us know the Lord's Prayer. If we were not raised in a Christian tradition, one might have heard it in a movie, or heard about it in the news as Fundamentalists try to push its use on the nation, or heard someone recite it in a stressful moment. While the culture has become more and more secular, this prayer is still fairly well embedded in the milieux.
The problem is, for many it has become rote (a danger for any memorized prayer), even meaningless. Worse, for some it attains an almost magical status, a charm against evil or bad luck or what have you. That is not Jesus' intention. Our Lord's intention was borne out of His disciples' earnest desire to learn to pray as they had witnessed Him praying (see today's Gospel reading for Mass: Lk. 11.1-13). Jesus gave them a prayer with several elements:
Addressing God directly as Father, acknowledging Him as source of one's life and ruler of one's life, and loving parent (let's leave discussions of patriarchy to another time).
Acknowledging God's Most Holy Name (which reflects His Nature and Essence), and aligning one's self with His Kingdom and Will here and now as if it were heaven.
Requesting from God what is necessary to live.
Asking God to forgive shortcomings, screw ups, wrongdoings on our part and the pledge that we will do the same for anyone else...no exceptions!
Begging God not to allow us to be put to the test (mainly because we're weak).
Other Gospel accounts add a request to be delivered from evil, or the Evil One, depending on how one interprets the Greek, and Matthew's adds an embolism, an exuberant sentence of praise that almost certainly wasn't part of the original transmission, but hey, it works,
Jesus then goes on to give a couple of analogies on persistence. This, to Him, is not a one-and-done prayer, but something prayed frequently, meaningfully, expecting an answer. It is as much a reminder to us that we depend on God as much as asking God for those things for which we depend on Him. It is not so much reminding God that we are still here but reminding ourselves that He is still here and letting Him know we have not forgotten Him.
It is a complete prayer, a pervasive prayer, and a springboard prayer, leading us to become more specific in our adoration, alignment, and requesting our needs. It helps us not only confront our own sins and contemplate repenting of them and turning back to God, but asking God to help us to process and move past the wrongs other people have done to us. Perhaps we should springboard more off this prayer and use it to move deeper into relationship:
Our Father who are in Heaven: God you are my creator and while you are all around me you are also outside creation and way beyond any picture I have in my mind.
Hallowed (Holy) be Your Name: Ponder aloud what of God is beyond understanding and how as the source of Good, indeed Goodness itself, how He leads us to pursue Goodness.
Your Kingdom come: pledge here how God's renewal of creation and how His desire for us to live selflessly can make a difference and how we can do our part to bring the Kingdom closer.
Your Will be done on Earth as in Heaven: think where we can bring our lives back in line with the Will of God, loving Him and loving our neighbour as ourselves.
Give us this day our daily bread: what do we need today? What will keep us alive and healthy and effective in God's Kingdom?
Forgive us our debts/sins/trespasses as we forgive those who owe us/sin against us/trespass against us: where have we fallen short, and who are we holding hostage to our bitterness?
And lead us not into the time of trial: here we think on avoiding triggers and ask for strength to deal with triggers that other people trip, or worse yet, deal with those who wish to drag us down or even harm us.
Let us deepen this prayer, and let us pray it often.