An Answered Prayer

Lord, teach us to pray… Luke 11:1

I was awakened one morning with the thought of how the Church was the answer to the Lord’s prayer. The Church is the answer because it is she who provides what we asked for. The more we grow in sacramental grace, the more God’s Kingdom comes. That we move farther away from sacramental grace will only bring our demise. It is a sorrow when the sons and daughters of the church move people away from the sacraments and make people think the sacraments don’t matter. They are the remedy to all of our ills.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

We should remember to never blaspheme the Holy Name. Before petitioning God, we should always remember to praise His name.

Petition 1: Thy Kingdom Come

This is Baptism. The Kingdom of God comes when we mark ourselves and our children in the Kingdom through Baptism.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20

The church’s mission is to bring the Kingdom through the Sacramental Grace of Baptism.

Petition 2: Thy will be done

This is Confirmation. God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven when we surrender fully to His will and are filled with the Holy Spirit like the disciples at Pentecost, with a double portion of the Spirit. The church is the conduit through which His will is done when we fully embrace this sacramental grace of Confirmation.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Acts 2:1-4

Petition 3: On earth as it is in heaven.

This is matrimony. Matrimony is the union of a man and a woman, this unity should mirror the unity we want between heaven and earth where things are in harmony and charity is the center of everything. God’s goodness is seen, which bears the fruitfulness of children. It is a place of dominion. God wills the restoration of the dominion stolen from us, marriage and the family is where it begins. It is why the family is the domestic church. Mini-churches should be mini-heavens.

 Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created humans in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” Genesis 1:26-28

Petition 4: Give us this day our daily bread.

This is the Eucharist. The more we receive this daily bread in a state of grace, the more the we progress towards the unity that Christ came for.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. John 6:51

Petition 5: And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

This is Confession. We need the Sacrament so as to reconcile to God, and the church. The church is the Mystical Body, when we sin we not only harm our own soul, but we harm the whole body. This sacrament heals.

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” John 20:21-23

Petition 6: And lead us not into temptation.

This is the Priesthood. The Priesthood is meant to protect the flock as the Catholic Priest stands “in persona Christi.” The Priest “keeps the garden,” so to speak. Where Adam failed to keep the garden and let the serpent in to tempt Eve, so the Priesthood with the Priest “in persona Christi”, helps to guard the flock from the temptation to do evil by his ability to bring us the Sacraments so we receive sanctifying grace. He has a duty to teach and preach the truth to us and to serve and minister to our spiritual wounds. He is a guardian. We should pray ardently for our guardians who make the sacrificial offering at Mass.

 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,  and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Hebrews 10:12-13

Petition 7: and deliver us from evil. Amen.

This is Anointing of the Sick. During the pandemic it is a shame this was not done, as this sacrament is meant to usher a person safely delivered into the next life and into the arms of God. Sometimes it heals enough to deliver us from the sickness/evil that is happening to us here.

Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. James 5:14-15

Everything we need for happiness, for healing, for peace is found in the Sacraments of the church. The church that Jesus founded, to answer our prayer and give us what we need.