Thought for the Day-The Prayer of all Prayers

Pater Noster Church, Jerusalem

A Thought for the Day given at a lunchtime service of Holy Communion at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Wednesday 9th October 2024 based on the text of Luke 11.1-4

There’s a church on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem that’s now called Pater Noster - or ‘Our Father’. It’s built on top of a cave which, since the time of the crusades, has been known as that ‘certain place’ where Jesus taught the disciples to pray - where the Lord’s Prayer was first spoken. A connection that is probably more to do with cashing in on the pilgrim trade than any historical reality! But it’s still worth a visit if circumstances ever permit, to see the panels of ceramic tiles that adorn the walls of the church and its cloisters. Installed nearly two thousand years after Christ first spoke them, they show the words of the Lord’s Prayer in over 140 different languages. A reminder that this prayer is spoken across the world and through the ages.  

Since the days of the early church, The Lord’s Prayer has been said when Christians gather and begin to worship together. A tradition Cranmer maintained when he compiled the Book of Common Prayer and which we continue here today. 

It’s also a prayer we say individually. It’s woven into the fabric of each of our lives. 

Perhaps you have a distinct memory of saying The Lord’s Prayer on your own. What were the circumstances? Maybe it was a time of great stress, uncertainty and anxiety, before an exam or after a difficult situation at work or in a personal relationship. Perhaps someone close to you was in the final moments of their life on earth - or maybe you said the prayer in celebration of a new life? Was it a time when you couldn’t find the words to say - or when there were so many words floating around in your mind that only those which Jesus taught us seemed the right ones? 

Or perhaps you don’t have a distinct memory of saying the Lord’s Prayer at one particular time in your life - because you say it so often!

Some call it a Pattern Prayer - a model for all others - a template for how to communicate with God.

It acknowledges the closeness and intimacy as well as the mystery of our relationship with the one who is our Father in heaven; who is to be hallowed - or set apart - above all things.

It is a prayer of adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. A prayer of faith, hope and love. A prayer to grow as disciples of Christ. Acknowledging what we have done, what we need now and who we are meant to become - recognising God as the source of that transformation.  

The Lord’s Prayer addresses the reality of who we are, what God is like, what the world is like and how it is meant to be. It truly is ‘The Prayer of all Prayers’.