In the Gospel, our Lord was approached by his disciples with the request, ‘Lord, teach us how to pray!’ (Lk 11:1). In response to this request, our Lord taught the first community of his disciples how we are to communicate with the Lord and Creator of the universe, someone we can not see, and someone whose voice we can not hear audibly and yet someone with whom we are called to be in relationship. Jesus taught his first disciples the Our Father.
In celebration of the great Jubilee year 2000, Pope John Paul II wrote a letter entitled, Novo Millennio Ineunte (At the beginning of a Mew Millennium). In that letter, John Paul II set forth a vision for us to follow as Catholics. In speaking specifically about prayer, our Holy Father said, ‘Christian communities must become genuine “schools of prayer,” where the meeting with Christ is expressed not just in imploring help but also in thanksgiving, praise, adoration, contemplation, listening and ardent devotion, until the heart truly “falls in love”’.[i]
Even though we are already over a decade into this new millennium, it is nonetheless good for us to continually reflect on these words of the pope and from it gain a new impetus in Christian living, making it an opportunity which inspires our journey of faith. ‘Conscious of the Risen Lord's presence among us, we ask ourselves today the same question put to Peter in Jerusalem immediately after his Pentecost speech: “What must we do?” (Acts 2:37)’.[ii]
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