Weekly Meditation

The disciples on one occasion asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. Jesus responded by giving them the words of the Our Father, the Lord's Prayer. We disciples say that prayer quite regularly and we do our best to do so with sincerity and awareness. Many saints have reflected on the meaning of the Lord's Prayer.

St. Cyprian, bishop and martyr, who lived in the 3rd century and was martyred in Carthage in 258 offers some thoughts in his "Treatise on the Lord's Prayer".  Here are a few of his reflections on the phrase "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

 "...We pray not that God should do his will, but that we may carry out his will...All Christ did, all he taught, was the will of God.  Humility in our daily lives, an unwavering faith, a moral sense of modesty in conversation, justice in acts, mercy in deed, discipline, refusal to harm others, a readiness to suffer harm, peaceableness with our brothers, a whole-hearted love of the Lord, loving in him what is of the Father, fearing him because he is God, preferring nothing to him who preferred nothing to us, clinging tenaciously to his love, standing by his cross with loyalty and courage whenever there is any conflict involving his honor and his name...this is what it means to do the will of the Father."

St. Cyprian came to his Catholic faith as an adult.  With the gift and power of the Holy Spirit may our lives be characterized by a mature, adult faith.

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