The latest “Sunday Word” column for the Florida Catholic by Father Alfredo Hernández, rector/president of St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, explores the meaning of prayer:
May God reign in our hearts
Most of us would prefer to read today’s Gospel and maybe the second reading and skip the first reading from Genesis. It is difficult to associate the God who is planning on destroying whole cities, with the God who is our Father, who answers all our prayers and gives only good things to His children.
In truth, though, the Lord’s Prayer, whether in the shorter form Luke gives us, or the longer form we know better from Matthew’s Gospel, is a prayer asking that God’s kingdom come. In both versions, the request for forgiveness of sins is present. In other words, when we pray to our loving Father, we are praying that the world be changed so that He may reign in and through us. We are asking for forgiveness for the ways in which we have been obstacles to His will.
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