PHOTO: NASA Eternal Spirit,
Life-Giver, Pain-Bearer, Love Maker,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The Hallowing of your Name echo through the universe!
The Way of your Justice be followed by the people of the world!
Your Heavenly Will be done by all created beings!
Your Commonwealth of Peace and Freedom sustain our hope and come on earth!
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For your reign is the glory of the power that is love, now and forever. Amen.
Version of the Lord’s Prayer
Jim Cotter in the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer
In today’s gospel, Matthew 6:7-15, Jesus admonishes his disciples not to babble on and on when they pray as the pagans do. Since God already knows their needs, their prayer can be simple. Jesus then teaches them the prayer we call the “Our Father” or “The Lord’s Prayer.”
Years ago, while attending a writing workshop/retreat directed by Madeliene Le’Engle, I was introduced to the above version of the prayer as we gathered each evening to pray compline.
The New Zealand Prayer Book, He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa, was published in 1989 for the province of Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia, and incorporates Maori text and elements of indigenous culture, sensitivity to creation, and direct simplicity of language and expression. It has become a popular prayer book around the world.
The unique phrases and language served as a “whack on the side of the head,” helping me to look with fresh eyes at a prayer so often on my lips that its words tumble out without engaging my brain and more importantly, my heart.
I am not saying that every time I prayer the Our Father familiarity renders it simply a rote recitation, but there is something to be said for attempting to word this great mystery in a new way.
I particularly love the image of heaven being “in” God, and that of God’s name echoing through the universe. The choice of words brings the hallowing of God’s name into the never ceasing present.
Amine.
© 2011 Mary van Balen
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