Introducing the Lord’s Prayer at Mass

Bulletin Article for 11/13/2011

Appreciating the New Translations

After the Great Amen, we come to the Lord’s Prayer.  Currently, there are various phrases the priest may say to lead us into this awesome prayer that Jesus taught us.  In the new translation there is one, “At the Savior’s command and formed by his divine teaching, we dare to say:” At the Savior’s Command – when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray (Matthew 6:9-14 he says “This how you are to pray.”  The Church has been praying this prayer for 2,000 years based on those words by Jesus and we will continue to do so till the end of the age.  We are formed by ‘his divine teaching’ to believe as Jesus believed and to pray as he prayed.  We dare to say.  Why ‘we dare’?  Because these are challenging words, to seek that God’s will be done (not our own) and to say we ask for forgiveness as ‘we forgive others.’  These are difficult standards to live up to so it is only by Jesus’ command and in faith that we dare to say the prayer.  Lastly, the words of the Our Father itself will not be changing.