WASKESIU (Skwn) — To pray the Lord’s Prayer is to be transformed in accordance with its petitions — to become living prayers (to borrow the title of a book by Anthony Bloom). One approach to the Lord’s Prayer that will help us transform into living prayer is to turn this prayer into a meditation. The Lord’s Prayer is also worth meditating on.
In my talk, the focus was on how to meditate on the petitions, “give us this day our daily bread,” and, “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.”
When we meditate on this petition, or even just pray it at Morning and Evening Prayer every day of our lives, if we mean it, this prayer first and foremost sets us free from anxiety and every earthly care. Of course, this daily bread is not just the material world, is it?
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4 ESV).
Remember how God feeds us physically and spiritually, and be thankful. Thank the Lord that you can meet Him in the church, in Scripture, in prayer, in following His commands, in the still, small voice, in creation. Ask Him to ready your heart for His spiritual food wherever it may be found.
You will need the spiritual sustenance that God provides to pray the next petition, to be able not simply to ask God’s forgiveness, but to forgive others.
Meditate on the glory of Him to whom we owe the debt of sin, then move into meditative practice surrounding that debt. In On the Lord’s Prayer, St. Gregory of Nyssa encourages us to take stock of how we allow things to influence us negatively through our senses.
Go through the senses individually. Consider the eyes. Have we witnessed something that would provoke anger? What have we been watching on TV?
Has doomscrolling social media sapped our God-given joy? Have we read things that will spur us closer to Jesus? That will help us get the rest we need? Or is it all brain rot?
Once you’ve made the inventory, bring it to the cross. Forgiveness of others is the great challenge of the Lord’s Prayer. Meditate on who has wronged you. Figure out how to forgive them.
A place to start is to pray for those who have wronged you. Say the person’s name and pray for him or her. And when you feel negative things in relation to him or her, ask the Lord to help cure you of the wounds of the passions in your soul.
Finally, in the words of Aphrahat: Prayer is beautiful, and its works are fair; prayer is accepted when it provides alleviation, prayer is heard when forgiveness is to be found in it, prayer is beloved when it is pure of every guile,
prayer is powerful when the power of God is made effective in it (Dem. IV.16).
