Today, Jesus praying teaches us how to pray. Let us pay great attention to what his attitude enlightens us. Quite often, Jesus Christ feels the need to meet face-to-face with his Father. In his Gospel, Luke emphasizes this point.
What were they talking about that day? We do not know. On the other hand, some where else, we have located a fragment of a conversation between his Father and Himself. It was when He was baptized in the Jordan River, and He was in prayer, «And a voice came from heaven, «You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased» (Lk 3:22). It is an intermission in a tenderly affectionate dialogue.
When in today's Gospel, one of the disciples, realizing His meditation, pleads him to teach them how to speak with God, Jesus replies: «When you pray, say this: Father, hallowed be your name…» (Lk 11:2). The prayer consists of a filial conversation with this Father that loves us madly. Did not Teresa of Avila define a prayer as «nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us»?
Benedict XVI finds «significant for Luke to place the Lord's Prayer in the context of Jesus' personal prayer. Thus, he let us share his praying; He takes us inside the intimate dialogue of Trinitarian love; in other words, He lifts our human weaknesses up to the very heart of God».
It is notable that, in our current language, the prayer Jesus Christ taught us may be encapsulated in these two single words: «Our Father». The Christian prayer is eminently filial.
The Catholic liturgy puts this prayer upon our lips when we are about to receive the Body and Blood of Christ. The seven petitions that it entails and their own sequence give us an idea of the kind of behavior we have to take on when we receive the Holy Communion.