Members of St. John-St. Matthew-Emanuel have been reading Lenten Journey: 40 Days with the Lord’s Prayer (Augsburg Fortress), by Henry French, this Lent. On Wednesday evenings some of us gather in the Social Hall and talk about the reading for that particular day, share some pizza, and close with the Service of Evening Prayer.

The book leads the reader in a considered reflection of The Lord’s Prayer. What does it mean when we pray, “Our Father in heaven,” or “Thy kingdom come,” or “Thy will be done?” Do we appreciate what we are praying, what we are asking God to do? Do we really want God’s will to be done in our lives?

Beyond such inquiries lies an implicit, deeper question: if Jesus calls us to pray, commanded us to pray, how are we responding to that command? Many of the Wednesday evening group indicate that it is challenging to read the daily reading (two pages) each day. Several have remarked that our line-by-line examination of the Lord’s Prayer has revealed to them how often they recite it by rote, as a habit, without engaging with the profound meaning of its words.

Lent is an invitation to slow down, to go deeper in our faith, to re-commit to following the Way of Jesus. While the traditional prayers of the church have great power and beauty, their luster can be dulled when we fail to invest ourselves fully as we offer them to God.

This week I read a lovely quote from Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897) a French Carmelite nun: “I have not the courage to search through books for beautiful prayers … Unable either to say them all or choose between them, I do as a child would do who cannot read — I say just what I want to say to God, quite simply, and [God] never fails to understand.”

God wants us to pray. And God hears us, however we pray, whether in glorious words that the church has known for millennia, or in words that come from our heart, in the moment of our need. Lord, help us to remember this, in Lent, and always.

Pastor Parsons