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What is prayer?  What does it mean to you?

Is it a personal conduit to the Lord or a form of personal meditation?

Is it how you ask for things, or thank the maker for his gifts?

How do you use prayer?

Today’s reading is very interesting because it shows Jesus teaching his disciples how they should pray.  Not prayer for the sake of prayer, but a meaningful prayer that says it all – it praises God, asks for forgiveness, and prayers for guidance and understanding.  The reading is from Matthew 6:7-15

Jesus said to his disciples:

^7″And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

⁹“This, then, is how you should pray:
” ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹Give us today our daily bread.
¹²Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.^[a]‘

¹⁴For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Do you stand in church and prayer the Lord’s prayer with your heart, or your mouth.  I have found that my strength is within my relationship with God and that relationship is nourished by my ability to pray and pray often.  I also find that praying to God helps center my mind and even when I am troubled by events unfolding around me, a quick prayer and reflection help dig me out.

Jesus sat in the garden of Gethsemane and prayed to God about his future and the plans that were unfolding before him.  He prayed so hard that he sweat out blood.  You have to admit that this level of concentration and diligence in his prayers is reflective of the meaning behind his teachings written above.

I sit in church and the great thing about the Catholic church is that it is highly ritualized and that ritual has such majesty and beauty.  I don’t go to sit and fulfill and obligation.  I can find God on a nice walk in our local park, or while I am digging into the soil of my back yard.  My prayers are just as important in the privacy of my backyard as they are standing before a priest.

Do this:  take 2 minutes out of your day and Thank God that you woke up, that you got dressed, that you saw the sun rise another morning.  Embrace your existence as a blessing and give thanks to the one who gave it to you.

Thank you, God, for allowing me to share your Word with anyone who will read it.

Today marks the Holy Day of the Feast of The Chair of Saint Peter, the Apostle.  While we reflect through Lent, our yearning to strengthen our relationship with Jesus, we must take notice and also reflect upon the prophetic words and beauty, spoken by Jesus to Peter:

Peter 5:1-4

^13(A) Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” ¹⁴And they said, “Some say^(B)John the Baptist, others say^(C) Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”¹⁵He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” ¹⁶Simon Peter replied,^(D) “You are^(E) the Christ,^(F) the Son of^(G) the living God.” ¹⁷And Jesus answered him, ^(H)“Blessed are you,^(I) Simon Bar-Jonah! For^(J) flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,^(K) but my Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸And I tell you,^(L) you are Peter, and^(M) on this rock^[a] I will build my church, and^(N) the gates of^(O) hell^[b] shall not prevail against it. ¹⁹I will give you^(P) the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and^(Q) whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed^[c] in heaven.”

To fully understand the above verse and the meaning behind it, we must have a rudimentary understanding of the time when Jesus lived – the political climate, if you would.  The Romans had been occupiers of Jewish homeland for years upon years, imposing taxes and their ideology upon all that they conquered.  There were, at this time, many zealots who appeared and spoke of GOD and preached of the coming of the messiah.  John the baptist, himself, was a prophet, baptizing and preaching about the one coming with fire to cleanse all.  Jesus came and taught a great multitude – preached about his father’s kingdom and perform miracles.  News of this ‘man’ spread widely amongst the Nation of Israel.  But the establishment in power had other plans for the Lord.

When Jesus spoke the above words, the proverbial writing was on the wall and the tide of favor by the common people was being turned by the religious leaders and he knew, the end was coming soon.

So Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do the people say that I am?”.  The disciples presented sound answers that were reasonable at the period given people’s expectations of a ‘holy’ presence.   None of the answers were bad – just not correct.  To be called Elijah or Jeremiah fit a lot of views at the time by the Jewish people of who the ‘messiah’ was supposed to be.

So, Jesus asked his disciples directly of who they thought he was?  This could have been answered a thousand different ways, but Simon simply said in a factual manner: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

WOW!  You can’t blame Peter for being a direct-to-the-point type of guy.  Read that statement again:  YOU ARE THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD!

A factual statement – no, a revelation.  You are the Christ.  And with this statement, Simon is forever altered and changed.  Jesus addresses him and says that he is blessed and that NO MAN HAS SAID THIS, but that this revelation has been granted to him BY GOD DIRECTLY!  This is important.  It wasn’t Simon who said, “I think you are… ”  or “We talked and we think you are…”, but “YOU ARE…”!

Jesus goes on to say that “You shall be called PETER, and on this ROCK I will build my church”.

I believe Jesus is telling Peter (notice I no longer call him Simon) that his statement is the rock upon which his church will be built.  Is not Peter’s statement, in fact, a dogmatic truth of our religion?

To build our faith and grow with the Lord, we too must have a strong foundation from which we can build our relationship with God.  This foundation begins with Peter’s words:  You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!  With this, our relationship, our community, our church will have all the foundation necessary to grow and flourish.

Today marks the first Sunday during Lent and the appropriate time to tell the story of Jesus and his 40 days in the desert with the devil.  I find that in life, we are all put to the test of our faith.  Faith that the Lord has a plan and knows all that is occurring.  Is it the ‘plan’ that we would see unfold?  No.

I watch the news and see a 2 year old killed by a falling tree and I pray and ask God, WHY?  Is it my place to ask this question?  Is my faith so shallow that I ask an all powerful and loving father, why he allows this to occur? Is my faith lacking, that I question the Lord how these things can be allowed to occur?

When we pray to GOD, we enter into a very personal relationship with the LORD.  It is a unique relationship in which we find solace and meaning and the act of praying helps clear the mind and for me, reboot my soul.   We live by faith and not by sight.  Why should we believe that in order to have our faith, a visible miracle should occur.  How is it that we lost sight of the miracles that happen every day around us and yet still have faith questions.

In today’s reading, Jesus was put to the test by the Devil, where the Devil commanded Jesus to task the LORD to prove that Jesus was truly the son of GOD.   The exchange between the Devil and Jesus is one of the best in the New Testament because it shows that faith does not need proof for existence.  Faith lives in us all and with that faith, comes the existence and beauty of our relationship with GOD.  Not the other way around.  A proof of GOD, would undoubtedly spawn faith, but the very definition of FAITH is to believe in a GOD based upon spiritual apprehension rather than proof.   WOW!

¹Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, ²where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.³The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

⁴Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’^[a]“

⁵The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. ⁷So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”

⁸Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’^[b]“

⁹The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. ¹⁰For it is written:
” ‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
¹¹they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’^[c]”

¹²Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’^[d]“

¹³When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

How many times throughout the day do we put our Lord to the test?  How many times do we worship our money, our jobs, and forget the Lord that brings all to fruition?  How many times do we eat, but are not fulfilled in life?

How amazing and beautiful our relationship with GOD.  The meaning behind Lent also becomes more clear through the above passage.  We too must journey for forty days and be tempted to test the LORD.  But at the end, what an amazing time we have when we join together and celebrate the risen Christ.  Through his son Jesus, we can be fulfilled with the word, commune with GOD and forever have faith.

Amen