Easter Marathon. Prayer "Our Father"

 

Dear readers, I suggest you to take part in the marathon. We have two weeks in April to prepare our souls for the celebration of Easter. I want to come on Easter to the temple with my soul being changed, sanctified, illuminated. The gospel can do this to us. Therefore - a marathon for April: choose one Gospel and read it in full in 14 days so that in the last days before the holiday we have already read about the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the resurrection. I choose the Gospel of Matthew for myself and once a week I will publish reflections on the verses I have read. I will begin today with the Our Father prayer in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.

Jesus taught people, “Pray, 'Our Father who art in heaven! Hallowed be thy name; let thy kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen".

Every line of this prayer has a deep meaning. It is not so important whether a person believes in God, or not. It is important that God believes in a person.

God gives us the opportunity to call Him our Father. God offers His love and care without demanding anything in return. Jesus teaches: say to God, "Our Father." In this formulation, if the one who says this accepts it, agrees with it, the relationship has already begun: I call God the Father, I believe that He is close to me, He did not die, as the philosopher said, He is not somewhere far away, Father is next door. Not only - "My Father", in this there would be an individualization in which a misconception could be hidden, because "my god" can be a product of my consciousness, my personality. Jesus says "Our Father", and such a God is already beyond my personal faith / unbelief and becomes so great that He affects the lives of all of us. 

Our Father exists in heaven. The focus here is not that the Father is not on earth, it is not. The focus is on the fact that there is heaven. In everyday life we ​​do not see the heavens, but in the inner, spiritual life we ​​must not forget about them, about the higher plane of existence, about the heavenly places to which every soul aspires. Heaven always symbolizes something better, purer, more perfect than the earth. No matter how hard it is for us here on earth, in our wars, sufferings, diseases, worries, our souls strive to rise above all this chaos.

Jesus teaches us to pray for the name of Heavenly Father to be sanctified. Because this must be asked daily, consecration is important for our lives, but it is short-lived, and it should be renewed every day. To sanctify means to "separate." It is necessary to set aside a certain place for the Father, preferably not somewhere far, at the end of our list of deeds and values. It is important to understand what comes first in my mind: it can be everyday empty worries, anxieties, fear or even anger.

Jesus teaches us to pray, "let the kingdom come." With the coming of the Kingdom of God, any other authority will be abolished. Judgment will come immediately: all the wicked, thieves, sinners, perverts, those who hate God, will not enter the Kingdom of God. Is my heart ready for the coming of God's Kingdom and judgment? This is an important question. It doesn't matter if I believe in God, but my soul really exists for me and I can analyze it, I can imagine how it would meet the coming of God's Kingdom: looking boldly into the eyes of God and Savior Jesus Christ, without feeling any guilt? Does the future judgement frighten me and I do not want to think about it and therefore I am more comfortable hiding behind the illusory wall of atheism?

Next you need to ask: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Can a person sincerely ask for God's Kingdom to come, for His will to be completed here on earth, if his soul, his heart is not ready to enter into God's order, not ready to accept God's life? Elsewhere in the New Testament, it is written that the Kingdom of God is within us. This means that God's life, God's power must, first of all, enter into our soul, almost control us, and only then will it manifest in the visible world. You can repeat "Our Father" every morning, but will your soul sincerely desire what your mouth says? After all, this is the sphere of moral repentance - a state when a person wants to change his way of thinking, his power for life, he asks the Father to take from his heart all the dirt and sins that make his soul unworthy of God's Kingdom.

We continue to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." Why is "today" important? Not yesterday, not tomorrow, not in a month, not a "black" day, but today I need bread: food, health, strength, security, finances. I will not receive all this with a reserve, tomorrow I have to ask again. What are you asking for today? About happiness? About money? About health? About the end of the war? I pray that the emptiness of my soul may be filled, that my soul may sincerely bless God, that I may love my neighbor as myself.

“And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" is the next request to Heavenly Father. Who is a "debtor"? One to whom you can either forgive or not forgive the debt. You can be angry with the debtor, or be restrained; you may be angry or not take his behavior to heart; you can complain about injustice or hope for the best; you can look through your fingers at someone's mistakes, or you can justly order them. You can ... choose either good or evil. When a person openly asks God to forgive his debts, this request implies that the basis for such forgiveness already exists, because God cannot simply turn a blind eye to our sins in a human way. But when I say, "As we forgive our debtors," I only promise to change my attitude toward my debtor or the person who has offended me. I then give up my own power to either not forgive or pardon the debtor, but I get something more valuable. Power makes a person a slave, so by renouncing such power in my mind, in my feelings to command or pardon the debtor, I seem to say to God, "Behold, Father, I have a certain number of sins before Thee. I will not add to them any pride, nor hardness of heart towards my debtors, no envy, no anger, in other words, none of what could appear in my soul because there are people who owe me. I will try to forgive them as soon as possible ".

The prayer ends on a practical note: "and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." I acknowledge my weakness and fear of all the difficulties that exist in the world. I do not want to be in a situation where my soul chooses evil, so I ask you to protect me from temptation. I know that it is difficult for me to evaluate my life correctly, to make plans, dreams, to find meaning in my life. That is why I ask the Father to protect me. I can't find the right answers to the questions why people do something, why evil exists in the world. I don't want to live this way anymore, carrying all the burdens. Therefore, as a child, I ask the Father, "Will you stay with me? Will you not leave me? Protect me, please! Protect me from temptation." If the Father frees me from the evil, from the evil within me, and at least for today, then everything will be fine!