The Lord's Prayer. The Our Father. We say or sing it every Sunday as part of our worship, and you may even say it as part your own devotions, but what is this prayer, what does it mean, why has the Church continually turned to it as the heart of Christian prayer, and what can it teach us about prayer itself? These are some of the questions we will consider over the next three weeks in our Adult Catechesis class.

In Luke 11 the disciples happen upon Jesus while he is praying, and one disciple makes this simple request--Teach us to pray. In what follows Jesus teaches them the prayer we now call the Lord's Prayer. In teaching them this prayer he doesn't simply teach them a list of requests. He goes on to teach them about persistence, about hope, and about trusting the Father whom we petition in prayer, trusting Him to hear us and to give us good gifts, to give us even the Holy Spirit.

Simple enough, we might say. But while prayer itself can be simple, praying is anything but simple. To actually pray is hard. To really pray can be frustrating, maddening, even boring sometimes. We can often find ourselves discouraged. Praying is something we know we should do or something that we wish we did more, but it can so easily slip away.

If any of that describes you, maybe, just maybe, the Lord's Prayer can serve as a way back into prayer again. So please plan to join us this Sunday at 4 in the parish hall, and bring all your questions and frustrations about prayer.

Thanks,

Chris+