Practical Devotion: Discovering the Virtues of the 'Our Father' Prayer

Because our Father and not mine. Jesus praying in Gethsemane said: My Father; He was the true, the only Son of God; we are all together, by adoption, children of him. Therefore, our word is more appropriate, because it recalls the common benefit. Mine, it brings with it a tender sound, but isolated, exclusive, ours, it expands the thought and the heart; mine expresses a single person praying: ours, remembers an entire family; this one word of ours, what a beautiful act of faith is in the universal Providence of God!

Brotherhood and charity. We are all equal before God, rich and poor, bosses and dependent, wise and ignorant, and we profess it with the word: Our Father. We are all brothers of nature and origin, brothers in Jesus Christ, brothers here on earth, brothers of the Heavenly Fatherland; the Gospel tells us, the Our Father repeats it to us. This word would solve all social issues if everyone spoke it from the heart.

Virtue of our word. This word unites you to all the hearts that pray down here and to all the saints who in Heaven invoke God. Now can you evaluate the power, the virtue of your prayer, joined and corroborated by so many merits? With our word, make a high continuum of charity, praying for your neighbor, for all the poor and troubled in this world or in Purgatory. With what devotion you must therefore say: Our Father!

PRACTICE. - Before reciting the Our Father, think about Who you pray. - Recite some for those who do not pray