Mark 6:7-15

Mark 6:7-15

Jesus said to his disciples:

"In praying, do not babble like the pagans,

who think that they will be heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them.

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

"This is how you are to pray:

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 trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us;

and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

“If you forgive men their transgressions,

your heavenly Father will forgive you.

But if you do not forgive men,

neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”

Opening Prayer: Heavenly Father, I do not know how to pray as I ought. Guide my prayer today. Help me to praise you and thank you. Help me to ask for good things and to seek forgiveness for my sins.

Encountering the Word of God

1. A Father Who Provides: The fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer asks God the Father to “give us this day our daily bread.” This petition builds on the wisdom of humility. Like children, we ask our Father for our bread. “This is the filial boldness of God’s children. We ask, and we know we shall receive. For what father, ‘if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?’ (Mt. 7:9). We ask for our bread because we address our Father, and fathers produce families, not individuals. It is interesting, too, that we ask for ‘our’ bread and not ‘my’ bread. Jesus teaches us that even when we pray in private (cf. Mt. 6:6), we do not pray alone. We pray in solidarity with all the children of God, the Church of the living and the saints in heaven. And we pray for the whole Church, that all may have the bread they need today. This prayer is something intimate, yet something shared. It’s familial” (Hahn, Understanding “Our Father,” 43). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus urges us not to be anxious about our earthly needs, but to trust that our heavenly Father will provide for us.

2. Providing Our Natural Bread: The petition for daily bread is a petition for God to sustain us with what we need. We are members of God’s Kingdom, and we are asking our King and Lord to provide for us: “In the ancient world, the dispensation of daily bread was a sign of a kingdom’s prosperity. When the nation was doing well, winning its wars, and selling its goods, its citizens received an ample ration of bread, ‘without money and without price’ (Is. 55:1). Even greater was Israel’s vision of the ongoing banquet that would come with the reign of the anointed Son of David, the Messiah (cf. Is. 65:13-14)” (Hahn, Understanding “Our Father,” 44).

3. Providing Our Supernatural Bread: “The first Christians recognized that the Son of David had begun His reign – and His banquet. Moreover, His banquet had spiritual benefits that surpassed the most sumptuous worldly feast. For all the early Christian commentators, ‘our’ bread meant not only their everyday material needs, but also their need for communion with God” (Hahn, Understanding “Our Father,” 44). Just as God provided manna in the desert for his children each day, God the Father, through his Son, gives us the heavenly manna of the Eucharist. In the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, then, “We pray for our daily bread, for the material needs of the day. We pray for our daily spiritual communion with Jesus. We pray that God will give us grace in superabundance. And we pray even today for our ‘bread for tomorrow’ – our share, right now, in the heavenly banquet of Jesus Christ, every time we go to Mass” (Hahn, Understanding “Our Father,” 47).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you gave us the supreme model of prayer. You taught us to call God our Father. Your bread was to do the will of the Father. Help me to carry out the Father’s will in the Kingdom and be nourished with this bread always.

Living the Word of God: Can I spend some time today praying the “Our Father” slowly, pausing to consider what I am asking for in each one of its seven petitions?