1. - Jesus prayer begins with this word: Father (Lk 11,2). Jesus always call Father to God, in aramean abba, the familiar term with which a child addresses his father. The evangels place up to one hundred times the word “father” in Jesus´ mouth..
The confidence in the Father and the dialogue with him are the true heart of the Gospel. Jesus teaches his disciples to address his Father with the confidence of a child: Unless you change and become like children, you cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven.
2. - Prayer is the dialogue of the man with God. If there is any sense in the dialogue of the man with God is due to God talks to the man. To listen and to praise to God that speaks in many ways in the middle of history are the obverse and reverse of the same coin. Really, Jesus of Nazareth first seeds the Word; afterwards initiates in the prayer to those that have began to listen the Word: One day Jesus was praying in a certain place and when he have finished, one of his disciples said to him: Lord, teach us to pray, just us John taught his disciples (Lk 11,1)
3. - Prayer is communication with God, Saint Therese says: “We can maintain a conversation with not less than God” (1 Moradas 1,6). Like in any communication, we must talk and also listen. Recipes and fixed schemes are of no use. More useful is the conscience of not knowing to ask what is convenient (Rom 8,26). Once and again we nee to acknowledge that to pray is something farther away of any method. It is carried out in God’s spirit, although may be “alone” (Mt 14,23), “in secret” (6,6) or in community (Acts 1,14).
4. - Prayer is part of the experience, of what we are living: “God is among pots” (Saint Therese, Foundations 5,8). Prayer takes us to the deepest part of our life; so, it requires a climate of silence: a fruitful silence, that is neither is a symptom of blockade nor generates anguish, but drives to the heart of our own history; a silence from which both man’s and God’s word may blossom simultaneously; a silence that is the true contemplation of God’s action in history: Come and see the works of the Lord. (Ps 46,9).
5. - If we connect with the bottom of our experience, the least important are the words. Not many are needed (Mt 6,7). If we do not have our own words, we can find them in the psalms, in the reading of the Bible, in the teaching and in the shared experience. We can, in every meeting, follow Paul’s advise: When you gather, each of you can take part with a song, a teaching or a revelation, by speaking in tongues or interpreting what has been said in tongues (1 Co 14,26). Vatican Council II has recalled the importance or the Bible in the dialogue of man with God: In the sacred books, the Father, who is in heaven, tenderly comes out to the encounter with his sons to converse with them” (DV 21). In a special way, the book of the psalms (Lk 20,42; Acts 1,20; Lk 24,44) takes their language, songs and prayers from the first Christian community. The same God in his spirit talks to the hearts admonishing and comforting, instructing and helping. In the first communities new psalms, hymns and inspired songs were composed and sung (Eph 5,19; Col 3,16).
6. - When the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, they are asking him something essentially original. Each group, then like now, differs in the way of praying. Prayer gives unity and identity to the group, creating community. Jesus prayer manifests his the essentiality of his mission, gospel’s heart. In the catechumenal tradition of the first centuries, Lord’s prayer was a secret that was only revealed at the end of the process, in the context of a intensive catechesis about it.
7. - Lord’s prayer is not only a common way of prayer, but also an evangelisation scheme, according which we dare to pray like Jesus, in the Gospel spirit (Our Father: we address the father with confidence; we want his name not profaned but sanctified; we look above all for God´s kingdom and his justice; we ask what is necessary to live, the bread, hoping in his providence; we ask what is necessary to live together, the pardon, like sons who need to be forgiven, like brothers who need to forgive; we watch and pray before temptation, before the evil that lurks humanity from the beginning.
8. - God continues speaking, That who listens his word, is made God’s son (Jn 1,12), and can say: You, my Father, my God, my Rock, my Saviour (Ps 89,27). And also: Hold secure my lot (Ps 16,5). That who rejects his word, is made son of the prostitution (Jn 8,41?). Baptism´s water is of little use, if we do not present a conversion fruit. It is not enough to say: We are sons of Abraham (Lk 3,8). Or even “we are all life catholics”. The acknowledgement of God like Father is the experience we need to be able to overcome the falling of our securities and to live in confidence, like sons who claim in the spirit: ¡ Abba, Father! (Rom 8,15; Ga 4,6). It is the deepest foundation of the universal fraternity: all of us are brothers; God is our Father.
9. - Confidence is prayer foundation. It is affirmed many times with simplicity, without going into details: But I put my trust in your unfailing love (Ps 13,6), you are my God (Ps 140,7; 31,13). We often call to the Lord, My God (Ps 104,1). It is the confidence (Ps 22,10), the hope (Ps 71,5) of the believer, the living God (Ps 42,3), you are my Saviour (Ps 25,5), my light (Ps 27,1), my redeemer (Ps 19,15). The innocent addresses to Him like a just God (Ps 17,1), the calumniated names him my glory (Ps 3,4), the indigent names him my help (Ps 22,20). The Lord is my refuge (Ps 61,4), my stronghold (Ps 31,4), rock (Ps 19,5), fortress (Ps 31,3), a strong tower (Ps 61,4), my shield (Ps 3,4), shepherd (Ps 23,1). The love of a mother (Is 49,15;Ps 131,2) and the compassion of a father (Ps 103,13) are his love reflection: God is love (1Jn 4,8).
10. - Let us see this Jesus prayer: Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, I praise you, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to simple people (Mt 11,25); forward on he says: Come to me, all of you who work hard and who carry heavy burdens and I will refresh you (11,28-29). Jesus prays with words that we can find in Psalm 34: I will bless the Lord all my days; his praise will be ever on my lips; my soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. He also says: I sought the Lord, and he answered me; from all my fears he delivered me. And finally: He saves the poor from the distress.
11. - Before Lazarus´ tomb Jesus prays as follows: Father, I thank you for you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me; but my prayer was for the sake of these people, so that they can believe that you sent me (Jn 11,24). The situation is this: his friend has died, he has received a reproach for not having been there, he has announced that life overcomes death, a signal is produced., Lazarus is alive. Jesus thanks with words we can acknowledge in the psalm 138: I thank you, O Lord, with all my heart, for you have heard the word of my lips.
12. - In the last supper, Jesus prays for the disciples: Holy Father, keep in your name those that you have given me (Jn 17,11). Judas´ treason waits: The one who shared my table has risen against me (Jn 13,18; Ps 41,10). In the orchard loneliness, Jesus feel sadness and anguish. Psalm 42 is accomplished: So downcast is my soul (Ps 42,7). Then he prays like this: Father, if it possible, take this cup away for me. Yet not what I want, but what you want (Mt 26,39). It is said in psalm 40: Here I come! as the scroll says to me. On the cross he proclaims the accomplishment of psalm 22 in all that is happening: Eloi, Eloi, lamma Sabbacthani?, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? (Mt 27,46; Jn 19,24. 28). Finally, in the moment of dying, he prays with words from psalm 31: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Lk 23,46).
* Dialogue: What relationship do we have with God? Of confidence?.