{"id":655,"date":"2019-04-23T19:12:22","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T00:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lorrainekisly\/?p=655"},"modified":"2019-04-24T06:02:44","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T11:02:44","slug":"655","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lorrainekisly\/2019\/04\/23\/655\/","title":{"rendered":"BECOMING A DISCIPLE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
The Lord\u2019s Prayer is the prayer of a disciple. It is made in trust and dependence and with the assurance that it will be heard. If that assurance is lacking we can make a beginning anyway. We can pray in obedience, as a faithful disciple. Not in blind obedience, but relying upon our own response to the words and message of Jesus, even if the response is undeveloped and so deep that we have yet to fully apprehend it. We know it is there.<\/p>\n
This spirit of obedience frees us to pray when we have no inclination, when we feel muddled and at a loss, when we decide \u201cwe aren\u2019t getting anywhere.\u201d All of these self-judgements are not the stubborn obstacles they may seem. When faced and passed through, the apparent barrier falls away.<\/p>\n
This depends however, on setting a rule, and of keeping it. Better not to embark upon the Lord\u2019s Prayer as a practice until the decision to commit is fully taken. It is unclear why, but skipping a time of prayer, making an excuse \u201cjust this once,\u201d always results in far more difficulties than one imagines. John of the Cross cautions that \u201che who interrupts the course of his spiritual exercises and prayer is like one who allows a bird to escape from his hand; he can hardly catch it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
We perhaps have already seen in the past that we can lose our way easily and that it can take a long time before the wish to pray comes to the surface again. Even so, we all need reminders. Knowing this, Christ teaches us to pray, \u201cGive us this day our daily<\/em> bread.\u201d If the emerging hunger for real being is not fed every day, we lose our way.<\/p>\n
We can lose sight of the fact that a wish to pray now is not solely the result of our decision. Rather it comes to us when for a time we are open to the current of prayer already present within us. If we omit our prayer even for one day we are in danger of falling asleep again, and of bringing upon our next beginning\u2013if it comes\u2013more troubles than before. If we think it is our decision to pray or not, that we can stop and begin as we wish, we are in danger of losing the track for many months, or even years.<\/p>\n