Saturday, May 12, 2018

Luke 11:1-2

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 

Desires

“Teach us to pray.” There is a desire beneath the request: I want to know God.

All these centuries later, it is easy to imagine Jesus pulling away by himself and sitting in repose, resting in the Presence he calls Father.

It is easy, too, to understand that Jesus ‘friends wanted what he had. They wanted to know what he knew, this intimacy with the Great Loving Mystery.

What they didn’t know is that the Father shares the same desire. The desire of their hearts is the echo of God’s Spirit in the depth of our own.

The voice of God beckons. Come, sit in my nearness and know me; know the Love I am. Be here ... with me.

Love desires our presence. Love hungers for our attention. Love wants to give to us what this great God shared in intimate closeness with our brother, Jesus. Love wants to fill us that we may become the Love who is the Source of our being.

This is why are moved to pray ... to know the One Jesus knew.  Knowing God ... experiencing in our depths the Love God is ... is what we seek in prayer.

We pray for the kingdom of God to come, first, in us.

Pr. David L. Miller