Devotion for today: Not mine, not yours, but ours

Today we begin our look at the beautiful prayer Jesus taught us: the Our Father. Our guest speaker is Blessed John Paul II.

In his general audience on January 29, 1992, Blessed John Paul stated:

We read in the Acts of the Apostles that after the risen Lord's ascension into heaven, the disciples returned to Jerusalem. "When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and his brothers" (Acts 1:12-14). This is the first image of that community, the communio ecclesialis, which we see described in a detailed way in the Acts of the Apostles….

After Christ's ascension, the little community continued its life. We read especially: "All these [the apostles] devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers" (Acts 1:14). The first image of the Church is that of a community which is devoted to prayer. All were praying for the gift of the Holy Spirit who had been promised them by Christ even before his passion, and again, before his ascension into heaven.

Prayer--prayer in common--is the basic feature of that "communion" at the time when the Church began, and so it will always be. This is evidenced in every century--and today as well--by prayer in common, especially liturgical prayer, in our churches, religious communities and, may God increasingly grant us this grace, in Christian families.

Luke emphasizes the "unanimity"... of this prayer. This fact highlights the communal meaning of the prayer. The prayer of the early community--as would always be the case in the Church--expresses and serves this spiritual "communion," and at the same time it creates, deepens and strengthens it. In this communion of prayer the differences and divisions which come from other material and spiritual factors are overcome. Prayer produces the community's spiritual unity.

Now it is my turn: Jesus taught us to call upon God as “Our Father.” In using the term “our” He gives us the enormous distinction of being one with Him as children of the same Father. We, all of us, are children of God. We are united with Jesus and each other in calling Him Father. This phenomenal gift given to us by Jesus that day when He taught the prayer is overwhelming. Although the term “Father” is used in the Old Testament, it is never used in the familiar way Jesus presents in this prayer. Thus Jesus has united us to Him in calling upon God as our Father. This unites us all in communion. We must see ourselves as the early Church did, as explained by John Paul II. The Church is about inclusion, not exclusion. We cannot just pray for ourselves and our families…that would create a sense of “My Father who art in heaven.” We cannot feel so unworthy to approach God that we would be led to say, “Your Father, who art in heaven.” No, we are all united with each other. We have a common Father, God, and He created each and every one of us in His image and likeness. So Jesus purposefully uses the term “Our” to place us in communion with Him, with each other, and with all the saints in heaven. We are family; the Church exists in communion.  As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains so well:

2790 Grammatically, "our" qualifies a reality common to more than one person. There is only one God, and he is recognized as Father by those who, through faith in his only Son, are reborn of him by water and the Spirit. The Church is this new communion of God and men. United with the only Son, who has become "the firstborn among many brethren," she is in communion with one and the same Father in one and the same Holy Spirit.⁴⁸ In praying "our" Father, each of the baptized is praying in this communion: "The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul."⁴⁹

2791 For this reason, in spite of the divisions among Christians, this prayer to "our" Father remains our common patrimony and an urgent summons for all the baptized. In communion by faith in Christ and by Baptism, they ought to join in Jesus' prayer for the unity of his disciples.⁵⁰

2792 Finally, if we pray the Our Father sincerely, we leave individualism behind, because the love that we receive frees us from it. The "our" at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, like the "us" of the last four petitions, excludes no one. If we are to say it truthfully, our divisions and oppositions have to be overcome.⁵¹

2793 The baptized cannot pray to "our" Father without bringing before him all those for whom he gave his beloved Son. God's love has no bounds; neither should our prayer.⁵² Praying "our" Father opens to us the dimensions of his love revealed in Christ: praying with and for all who do not yet know him, so that Christ may "gather into one the children of God."⁵³ God's care for all men and for the whole of creation has inspired all the great practitioners of prayer; it should extend our prayer to the full breadth of love whenever we dare to say "our" Father.

48 Rom 8:29; Cf. Eph 4:4-6.
49 Acts 4:32.
50 Cf. UR 8; 22.
51 Cf. Mt 5:23-24; 6:14-15.
52 Cf. NA 5. 
53 Jn 11:52.