Gottesblog

The beauty of the “Our” that begins the prayer that Jesus invites us into is that while it is intensely personal, it is far from the private myopic “just me and Jesus” thinking sadly prevalent in much of present-day Evangelical Christianity. The “Our” of the “Our Father” lives out in the spoken Word the reality sent by the resurrected Christ through Mary Magdalene to the disciples: “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

To those who had not attended the assembly; on the apostolic saying, “If thy enemy hunger feed him,” and concerning resentment of injuries. From Bishop John Chrysostom, Constantinople, 4th century.

Standing in front of the used religious book section in the Value Village thrift store in a town near my home in Canada, I was amazed (although perhaps should not have been) at how many books there were on prayer amongst the discarded volumes on various forms of spirituality. They were, for the most part, of the typical evangelical variety directing their readers to the life-changing power of truly personal and heartfelt prayer. Some touched on the power of communal prayer. Others, like the Prayer of Jabez volumes, promised a surefire way to guaranteed worldly happiness and success if you followed their tenets.