Lord, teach us to pray… Luke 11:1

I was awakened the other morning with the thought of how the Church was the answer to the Lord’s prayer. The Church is the answer because it is she who provides what we asked for. The more we grow in sacramental grace, the more God’s Kingdom comes. That we move farther away from sacramental grace will only bring our demise. It is a sorrow when the sons and daughters of the church move people away from the sacraments and make people think the sacraments don’t matter. They are the remedy to all of our ills.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom Come.

This is Baptism. The Kingdom of God comes when we mark ourselves and our children in the Kingdom through Baptism.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20

The church’s mission is to bring the Kingdom through the Sacramental Grace of Baptism.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This is Confirmation. God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven when we surrender fully to His will and are filled with the Holy Spirit like the disciples at Pentecost, with a double portion of the Spirit. The church is the conduit through which His will is done when we fully embrace this sacramental grace of Confirmation.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Acts 2:1-4

Give us this day our daily bread.

This is the Eucharist. The more we receive this daily bread in a state of grace, the more the we progress towards the unity that Christ came for.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. John 6:51

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

This is Confession. We need the Sacrament so as to reconcile to God, and the church. The church is the Mystical Body, when we sin we not only harm our own soul, but we harm the whole body. This sacrament heals.

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” John 20:21-23

And lead us not into temptation.

This is the Priesthood specifically, and Anointing of the Sick as we head to our death. It has to do with concupiscence and our desire to do wrong. The Priesthood is meant to protect the flock. To “keep the garden,” so to speak. Where Adam failed to keep the garden and let the serpent in to tempt Eve, so the Priesthood with the Priest in persona Christi, helps to guard the flock from the temptation to do evil by his ability to bring us the Sacraments where grace flows. No where is this more apparent than when we are leaving this world to enter the next – so as to protect us in our last hours from the temptation of the evil one. What a shame that during the pandemic many failed in this duty.

...one who has become a priest, not through a legal requirement concerning physical descent, but through the power of an indestructible life. For it is attested of him, “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” Hebrews 7:16-17

Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. James 5:14-15

and deliver us from evil. Amen.

When we are fully delivered from evil, we are in union. We are in union with God. We are in union with one another. A marriage of unity. Harmony restored. No where does the image of the Trinity seem more apparent than in the family who is fruitful and multiplies, like the love of God. And Satan becomes our footstool. This marriage can also be for Priests and religious who have a Divine Spouse that makes them fruitful for the kingdom and is an objectively higher calling.

But from the beginning God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. Mark 10:6-9

Everything we need for happiness, for healing, for peace is found in the Sacraments of the church. The church that Jesus founded, to answer our prayer and give us what we need.