Pray Like This
3 min
The First Ever Guide to Eucharistic Consecration
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Gospel
Mt 6:7-15
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 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,
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 have forgiven 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."
Readings are from Dynamic Catholic’s New Testament Bible: RSV Catholic Edition
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Transcript
Pray Like This
Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly. Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where we're exploring the genius of Jesus in the Gospels. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew 6:7-15. This section of Matthew's Gospel is phenomenal. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 are just so many things to reflect on there, things to pray about there, things to live out there. Sometimes it helps to go and read the chapter of the Bible that the reading comes out of. And so today, I encourage you to go and read Chapter 6 of Matthew. And then you can see the context in which this one very, very famous reading is placed. "When you pray, 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, 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 have forgiven 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. And if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
So today's theme is prayer and the question that the gospel is confronting us with and the gospel is a confrontation. The gospel does come out and confront us each day. And the question it confronts us with today is how do you pray? And it's a great question for us to reflect upon. It's a great question for us to think upon often because in different seasons of our lives, God may be calling us to pray in different ways. And so what I encourage you to do today is think about your prayer life. What does your prayer life look like? What is your daily, weekly routines of prayer? And do they need to be changed? Do they need to be taken to the next level? Have you fallen off some of them? Are you being called back to pray in a way that you prayed at some time in your past? Or are you being invited to learn new ways to pray and to pray in new ways? God bless you. Have an amazing day. Don't just be yourself today. Be the very best version of yourself, all that God created you to be.
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