In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
The pagans treated prayer like a magical formula by which gods could be manipulated. Simply heaping up a sufficient amount of words was thought to oblige the gods to answer one's request. But this practice stemmed from a relationship to the gods that was suspicious, one that assumed that they didn't know or care what anyone else needed, and had to basically be forced into providing help. In our call to "not be like them" we must be cautious. It is not the case the if one rosary is good then thousands will have a surefire result. Just how do we think of the God to whom we pray when we decide in what way to approach him? Do we think him cold, aloof, or indifferent? Do we believe that he loves us or think that we have to earn his care by choosing the right frequency of the right words? Jesus tells us that the reason we need not babble like the pagans is because our Father is not like their gods.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
He knows what we need because he cares about us, watches over us, and has good plans for us (see Jeremiah 29:11). He desires us to ask anyway not because he needs to be either informed or motivated but because it will result in something good in our minds and hearts to do so. At the very least it can prevent us from taking the blessings he desires to give for granted. But even more, it can help to shape our hearts and desires to be more in line with his own. He even wants to give us some of his own divine agency, sharing his providential governance of the world with those who will pray according to his purposes. The reason he makes us ask has nothing to do with any motivation to hold anything back. It is precisely to involve us more completely so that he is able to give us more that he calls us to pray for what we need.
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
The Lord God has an identity that can be expressed in many ways. We might think he would expect us to approach him first as king or with some other exulted title. But instead, the starting point of our relationship with him is meant to be the understanding that he is our Father. That said, we do hallow this name and rightly set it apart and above any earthly competition. In speech the name of God is designated only for sacred use, for the pursuit of intimate relationship with him. Having the God's name and identity properly situated in our hierarchy of goods is the way to ensure that we have correct priorities and pursue life the way he designed it to be lived. If we treat God's name casually and don't learn to value his identity, if we treat him as one good among many competing goods in the world, it is too easy to slip into treating other goods as competing gods, worshipping them as idols.
thy Kingdom come
His Kingdom, as is clear from the parables of Jesus, does not function according to the logic of earthly kingdoms. The Kingdom values mercy, love, and justice, whereas earthly kingdoms tend to be caught up in pride and violent exercises of strength. Jesus taught that his Kingdom was not of this world and that was why legions of angels were not dispatched to save him from the cross. But though it was not of this world it is meant to more and more be realized in this world. During the age of the Church this is meant to come about as Christians pray the petition "thy Kingdom come" and then surrender themselves to the resultant grace, going on to cooperate with it. The Kingdom may not be of this world but neither is it entirely ethereal, abstract, or subjective. Because of it originates in the heart of the Father it has the power to fill the world and transform it. During the final age the Kingdom will come in fullness. The best thing we can do now is to allow ourselves to be utilized to prepare for that day.
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
The life of Jesus was defined by obedience to the will of his heavenly Father. This was revealed from the time he was found teaching in the temple, when he was tempted in the desert, and especially when he embraced the cross for the salvation of the world. We are meant to learn to care about and desire the will of the Father in the same way Jesus did. Watching how he embraced it, even when it was difficult, can help us allow trust in the Father's plan to triumph over worldly minded suspicion. Because earth is earth and not heaven the will of the Father is not always going to be a natural fit, without any friction. But we see in Jesus that the will of the Father is always worth it. It always leads to a good that is better than anything that can be had in any other way.
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (see Hebrews 12:2).
In order to be agents of the Kingdom pursuing the will of the Father we need much more than our own strength. Fortunately God himself provides the daily bread we will need to empower us for the task at hand, just as the bread he provided Elijah gave him strength.
And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God (see First Kings 19:7-8)
There is little that hinders the coming of the Kingdom into our world so much as when we harbor grudges and cling to unforgiveness. And so Jesus makes it clear that we are in no position to expect mercy ourselves if we refuse to bestow it on others. He isn't saying this to be stingy. It is rather we who won't even be truly serious or intend what we say when we ask for mercy if there is not truly room for mercy in our hearts.
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
We acknowledge our need, not to avoid all tests, but to avoid being tested beyond our strength. This prevents us from pridefully assuming that when we manage not to sin it is primarily because of us. It is rather because God has calibrated our lives for what he knows we can endure to bring us growth. That we do not fall down in service of the evil one results primarily from his protection and care and only in a distant secondary sense from our cooperation with that care. And of this dependence on him we need to be reminded daily.
There really is no limit to the power of prayer. It makes saints like the Old Testament heroes like Elijah and Elisha. And it can make of us saints as well. But for it to do so we must stop treating the Our Father as rout and repetitive like pagans and approach it slowly and sincerely as children of a Father who loves us.
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