Prayer is letting go to God

Isaiah 55:10-11, Mt. 6:7-15. The symbol of the rain and snow, falling from the sky and soaking the earth, then rising towards Heaven as bushes and trees is presented to us as the cycle of life in today's first reading. Here Divine inspiration is represented by rain and snow, while our inspired lives represented as the bushes and trees. With Divine inspiration, our life will be full of hopes and ideals, with courage and persistence, calling us to trust in God. If we have absolute trust in God, we will focus on God’s will above our own preferences. One of the dangers we may encounter in living our faith is that of conceiving prayer in a magical and egoistic sense. We multiply prayers and hours of prayers without creating a relationship with God. Sometimes, we engage in prayer to create an escape route for evading an encounter with God and with ourselves.

Jesus not only discourages many words in today's Gospel, but provides a model which brings together the relationship with God and relationship among us. To consider God as “Our Father” is to bring to awareness that the other person is our brother and sister and together we are children of the same Father. An important ingredient in this new family is forgiveness and letting go. Prayer is first a letting go to God, a yielding to what God wants for His world and for us. Only then do we focus on our own needs. The Lord’s Prayer encourages us to pray about fundamental needs: need for sustenance, both material and spiritual, need for forgiveness and need for God’s deliverance in times of crisis.

May the Lord help us by His grace to be imitators of Christ who has taught us what it means be children of God and has shown us the cost and gain of forgiveness! Amen!! Good morning and have a pleasant day!!!