Daily Gospel Reflection

The Most Famous Prayer in History

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. Today, we got the most famous prayer in history, reading from Matthew's Gospel chapter 6 verses 7 through 15. "And in praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." Pray then like this: "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, they will be done on 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 if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father also will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. So it's a powerful prayer. We pray it all the time. What jumps out at me today is that after the prayer, Jesus turns back to this one line to reinforce our need to forgive each other. And the connection between our willingness to forgive each other and how that opens us up to receive forgiveness from God.

And there's obviously a powerful dynamic there that maybe we understand, maybe we don't, probably we don't. But who in your life do you need to forgive? I got a list. But let's think about someone in particular today and maybe you don't want to forgive them. Well, that's okay. That's an honest prayer. I hear my kids pray sometimes it's so honest and they just talk to God. If you don't want to forgive somebody, I want you to talk to God about that today. Tell God, "I don't want to forgive this person." Tell him why you don't want to forgive this person.

But let's end that prayer with God, "Give me the desire. Just give me the desire to want to forgive that person." Because if he can be open to that desire, if God will place that desire in our hearts, which He will, it will begin to grow. So, yes, it's very, very difficult to forgive some people in our lives. Let's ask God today for the grace and the desire not to do it, just the desire to want to do it. If that's all we can start with today, let's start there. Have an amazing day. And remember, be bold, be Catholic.