What’s written on the inside?

Prayer was at the heart of Jesus’ life and ministry and so it should be in ours, writes Fr Richard in today’s reflection on the daily mass readings.

Readings for Tuesday in the first week of Lent can be found here.

On trips to the seaside as a child, whether it be Weston-super-Mare, Burnham-on-Sea or even Tenby, I remember being fascinated by sticks of rock. I was – and still am – intrigued about how they get the lettering to go all the way through. No matter where you break the stick of rock, you find the same letters and words. 

Today’s Gospel comes from the very centre of Jesus’ major teaching known as the Sermon on the Mount. And what do we find when we break into the middle of his teaching? What is written all the way through? It is, of course, the Lord’s Prayer. It is as though this prayer is summing up all that Jesus is trying to say. This should come as no surprise to us, for prayer ran through the heart of Jesus’ life and ministry, like writing through a stick of rock. Many were the times when he got up early to go and pray on his own; no doubt he spent much of those 40 days in the wilderness in prayer; and we all know that moving scene in the Garden of Gethsemane where he prayed to the Father. Even while hanging on the Cross, Jesus continued praying, especially the Psalms.

It goes without saying, then, that prayer ought to run through the centre of our lives as Christians and our life as a church. We need to deepen our relationship with God if we are to serve him. The Lord’s Prayer, if we look at it carefully, is also a radical call to action. “Your kingdom come … on earth as it is in heaven” is asking for nothing less than the transformation of this world into something more like the life of heaven. The first session of our Lent group tonight focuses on this theme, as we look at the quest for justice shown by the Old Testament prophets and how we might follow in that tradition today. But the Lord’s Prayer also acknowledges that transformation begins on the personal level. We are called to practice the forgiveness and reconciliation with each other that we have received from God. We need not only to say the Lord’s Prayer, but put it into action. If we have its words running right through us, then we can begin to change the world.

Mass tonight is in St Mary’s at 6.30pm.

If you’d like more resources for daily prayer, then check out our Day By Day pages.