Today's Gospel

Pray Like Jesus

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we listen to the gospel together, we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us to a word, a phrase, or an idea, to speak to us through that word, phrase, or idea, to focus our day in gospel living. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew, 6:7-15, "And in praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, but 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, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors 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."

What jumps out at you today? Something about fatherhood, something about God as Father. And as I was reading, just got this image of how the world is just constantly trying to spiritually orphan us. The world is constantly trying to get us to believe that we don't have an eternal father. And what happens when we accept that is we just go into a state of deep confusion. And we struggle to find our way. We struggle to make decisions. We make poor decisions. We spend time doing the wrong things. We just get lost. And so the question I lay before you today is, what is your relationship like with God the Father? And regardless of what your relationship is like with your earthly father. You may not know your earthly father. You may have been an orphan in this world. You may have had a father who didn't treat you well.

You may have had a father who neglected you or ignored you or whatever. All different father experiences we have in this world. But regardless of that, you have this great eternal father. And what is your relationship like with him? And when is the last time you worked on that relationship? We talk quite a lot about Jesus, obviously. Talk quite a lot about the Holy Spirit. And sometimes God the Father is just sort of in this third place. And I think it's good from time to time for us to really pray our way around the Holy Trinity and to look at how is our relationship with each person of the Holy Trinity. And today, how is your relationship with God the Father? Have a great day. Remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

I hope you're enjoying the Daily Gospel Reflections. It's one of the things I love doing, spending this time with you each day. Recently, I released a book called 33 Days to Divine Mercy. If you haven't had a chance to check that out yet, I encourage you to do that today.