Our Father who is in heaven,
the Holy One, the Father of all Fathers, There, in heaven, You are intangible, yet not distant. Master of that unseen realm where our happiness will be complete, where the current hints of goodness in our hearts will be fulfilled and made whole, our contradictory desires reconciled, and the current ravages of evil in our hearts will be cleansed and removed.
May your Name be holy
Your name is holy, I cannot make it holy, but may I understand how holy it is, may I set myself to living out the awareness of Your holiness. May I remember that as often as you grant me success and keep me from failure, my success or my failure does not really add or detract from your wondrous nature or the glories of your plans.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven
May your agenda, your mystery of reconciling all peoples in Christ go forward today. May there be a measurable step in that direction this day. May your intricate plan to overrule the powers and practices of this world advance and spread. May the secret of the eternal Word lovingly written on each heart, no matter how weak or lowly or despised, advance until the awareness of You fills the world as the waters fill the sea.
Give us this day our daily bread
Today I have new needs. Give me today what I need today. Grant me wisdom to see that I need you again today. Grant me understanding when you supply my needs but not my wants.
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us
Remind me my worst enemy is not my fellow human, but my own heart marching to the old music of autonomy and the refusal to admit dependence. I yet believe the old old story that all will be well if I could have what I want. Remind me that the one I call enemy is as loved by You as I am, and that if I understood his circumstances, I might understand what he does. Grant me the wisdom to see where I'm not any better than he.
Lead us not into temptation
The publicity of this seen world would draw me in still if I did not pay careful attention. Give me the clarity of a mind longing for that unseen realm, already tasting the life of the world to come
But deliver us from evil
I am not yet strong enough to bear much adversity as I await your deliverance, grant that I not be overcome. But as I have reminded You of my weakness, remind me of Your strength in my weakness.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever
Once there, in that realm, the torments and difficulties of this world will be like a bad dream that I start forgetting as soon as I wake up
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