Mt 6:7-15

Jesus said to his disciples:

“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,

who think that they will be heard because of their many words.

Do not be like them.

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

“This is how you are to pray:

           Our Father who art in heaven,

                       hallowed be thy name,

                       thy Kingdom come,

           thy will be done,

                       on earth as it is in heaven.

           Give us this day our daily bread;

           and forgive us our trespasses,

                       as we forgive those who trespass against us;

           and lead us not into temptation,

                       but deliver us from evil.

“If you forgive men their transgressions,

your heavenly Father will forgive you.

But if you do not forgive men,

neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”

Today's reflection from Mrs. Salzano's (Holy Rosary '00, PCHS '04) 2nd grade class at St. John the Evangelist.

Today Jesus is teaching us about prayer and forgiveness. In The Lord’s Prayer we ask God to forgive us our sins with the same measure that we use to forgive others.

The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer that was given to us by Jesus as a perfect example of how to pray to God. Jesus Christ insists on the virtue of forgiveness because it is through forgiveness that strong bonds of love are nurtured among us.

Due to our human weakness, we tend to think that we deserve or it is our right to be forgiven by others who we have wronged. We forget that others too want to be forgiven by us.

In order to balance this situation, Jesus makes us a deal. When we seek forgiveness from God, we will only be forgiven if we have forgiven others who have sought for our forgiveness.



But there are others who do not seek forgiveness from us! What about them? Should we forgive them? Yes we should. We should forgive them so that we can offload that burden of hatred from ourselves and place it in the hands of Jesus.

Please click play to join us in our prayer for today, led by Mrs. Salzano's 2nd grade class at St. John the Evangelist.