From Reverend Jonathan Clodfelter, 

11:1 Now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities. 2 When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" 4 Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. 6 And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me." ( NRSV Matthew 11:1-6)

The truth of the word of God ends there and while there are some time-line challenges that present themselves, I believe that there was a healthy information exchange when the two groups of disciples met. John's disciples engaged Jesus asking the all-important question. And those same disciples were later to return to John with the information from Jesus himself, in a way that could not be challenged and there was no need of further discussion. And, John's and Jesus' disciples shared their teaching, John taught his disciples to pray. Jesus was asked by his disciples to teach them to pray in the way of John.

Jesus gathered those who trusted him most away from the hustle and bustle of the market city of Jerusalem. He took them well above the Kidron Valley, up through the centuries-old olive trees and herbs. He took them to the ridge on the Mount of Olives where cedars dominated the vegetation. And in that private place he taught his disciples the words of the Lord's Prayer. Today, this place is marked by the Church of the Pater Noster, where the campus contains handcrafted ceramic plaques containing the Lord's Prayer in well over 100 languages.

I believe that the Lord's Prayer should be understood as of the highest importance to all humanity. We should, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it, so as all of us during periods of want as well as prosperity, we may with confidence know that we have ample words at our disposal to engage God.

Prayer is simple, yet at times, we make it hard. Many of us will look for the most perfect words to pray, feeling - maybe - judged by those we are praying with. This past Thanksgiving, one of my grandchildren requested that we pray the Lord's Prayer as our special Thanksgiving prayer and it was indeed, special. I was praying and had sort-of lost myself in the prayer, so on black Friday, I asked another present if it seemed as though everyone knew the Lord's Prayer and she said, "I was praying and I don't know what the others were doing." Can there be a better answer?

Prayer can be difficult, if we let it, but the Lord's Prayer should not be. Yes, the Prayer, as I have chosen to have printed for our liturgical use, is not the most enlightened, but it is the one that the world knows. It is the version of prayer that I have prayed countless times at the death beds of the dying. It is the prayer that I have believed that I have felt acknowledged from folks in comas. It is the prayer that I pray every day throughout the day.

As English is the language of international affairs, so the traditional language Lord's Prayer is the prayer that almost all of us know. It was the version that, in as early as 1541, Henry the VIII, decreed be taught to all humankind in his realm. He commanded fathers to teach their children the prayer as well as the creeds of the church as combating idleness, which almost 500 years later is, once again, the scourge of our society. And thus 500 years later, the prayer can be heard the world over, because everywhere there was English, there was the Lord's Prayer.

I have made a few liturgical changes since my arrival in October most geared toward either bringing us into the mainstream of broad-church Episcopalianism or what in my education and experience helps new-comers enter the fold and feel a part of what we are doing. The return to "Prayer Book liturgy" by using what are more-or-less exact page to page copies of our worship services from the Book of Common Prayer. To this end, and as early as my second week here, I re-introduced the traditional language Lord's Prayer. Initially, I printed the prayer in the worship leaflet, and now it is printed weekly in our booklet. My goal is that the traditional language Lord's Prayer should always be considered our main prayer, a theological statement, and that the prayer is so written in our hearts that we will never forget it and that it can be prayed by any and all wherever in the valley of the shadow of darkness we find ourselves.

There are other versions of the prayer that are wonderful and maybe even more biblically relevant. And for those of us that English is not our first language should always know that they are welcome to pray the prayer as taught in their own, discipleship, if you will. But this is the version that I have heard from thousands of hospital beds in tens of hospitals from one end of the Episcopal Church to the other. The traditional language Lord's Prayer was the last prayer on the lips of my grandparents, as well as my parents, and I have prayed it with folks from the alleys and shooting galleries of Kensington and Frankford to private care rooms in some of the finest hospitals in the region.

Everyone I know, unless they came from under a rock or some other part of the country I have yet to be exposed to, whether Christian, Muslim, or Jew, if they are my age or older, they know the Lord's Prayer. My point is that regardless of our belief system, we may pray the Lord's Prayer. And that, because we all know it, let's go ahead and cling to it, so that in that last day, when everything we have known will appear differently, we can still cling to the Lord's Prayer. I do not know how many times I have prayed the Lord's Prayer or with how many folks. I just don't know . But I do know, that regardless of the circumstances, when I begin praying, that the sickest, angriest, most marginalized folks will pray with me.

Please accept my reverting to the traditional language Lord's Prayer, as it will serve us well as we teach it, without shame, and without regret, to the young we influence so.