Teach us how to pray.....

Jesus preaching by Beato Angelico

Jesus encourages the people today to pray in a simple way. Many are concerned about what prayer books to use, how to pray, when to pray and what methods are most effective. He teaches the people a simple prayer, the ‘Our Father,’ repeated at least once at each Mass, 6 times during the Rosary and on many other occasions before meetings, etc. It’s amazing how much this prayer covers so many areas for which we are to pray. During the Our Father we honor Jesus’ name (Hallowed be thy name,) and pray as Mary prayed in front of the Angel Gabriel (Thy will be done.) We ask for our physical and spiritual nourishment (Give us this day our daily bread,) and of course we ask for forgiveness for our sins and pray that we be reminded to forgive all those who wrong us (Forgive us our trespasses....) And last but not least we pray that we’ll always be protected from the snares of the devil (Lead us not into temptation,) and pray finally that evil never approaches us (Deliver us from evil,) which is partly up to us to resist.

According to the website ChristusRex.com, the Our Father has been translated into 1697 languages, including Maltese. There is a place in Jerusalem where various Our Fathers are written on tiles in a cloister, including this one, in Maltese, although it is in old Maltese pronunciation, besides a few orthographic mistakes.