S
SeanTom
Guest
Does Jesus expect us to pray for and on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ? And do we?
The answer is positively “YES”. He even included this in the prayer he gave us to use as an example of how we should pray.
Note the words in “The Lord’s Prayer” which our Father gave to us: “OUR Father”, “Give US this day”, “OUR daily bread”, “and forgive US”, “as we forgive “THOSE”, “lead “US not into temptation”, but deliver “US from evil”.
Other prayers sanctioned by the Catholic Church: In the Hail Mary: “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for US sinners” “and at the hour of OUR death”.
Also at the end of each decade of the Rosary: “Oh my Jesus, forgive US our sins, save US from the fires of hell, and lead ALL souls to heaven, especially THOSE most in need of thy mercy”.
In the prayer “Hail Holy Queen”: “OUR life, OUR sweetness and OUR hope.” “To thee do we send up OUR sighs”, “turn then thine eyes of mercy towards US and after OUR exile, show unto US the blessed fruit”, “pray for US O holy Mother of God, that WE…”.
In many of our prayers, we are praying for and on behalf of others, even though we may not realize it. This is what Jesus is asking us to do in the “Our Father”, the prayer He personally gave to us in the Gospels.
When we don’t include others in our prayers, is when we are saying personal prayers to God, such as in the “Act of Contrition”, in the “Apostles Creed”, and also in words chosen by us personally when verbally communicating with God for specific purposes.
We are all brothers and sisters in Christ and Jesus wants us to pray, not only for ourselves, but also to all of God’s adopted children.
By the way, in the Bible where the Lord’s prayer says, “Lead us not into temptation”, the Spanish bible interpretation of this is: “Lead us from falling into temptation. I don’t know this for a fact, but I do not have a problem with changing those words since some interpretations from different bibles (I.e. The Holy Bible, RSV, etc.) do say, “Pray then LIKE this: Our Father etc.“ This tells me that the words may be changed somewhat as long as we do not change the intent of the prayer Jesus gave us.
The Catholic Catechism tells us in Article 2829: “Give us“ also expresses the covenant. We are his and he is ours, for our sake. But this “us” also recognizes him as the Father of all men and we pray to him for them all in solidarity with their needs and sufferings.
As for me, I pray often, but to be honest, I sort of skip over the “us’s”, “we’s” and “our’s” without realizing that I was not only praying for myself, but for all my brothers and sisters in Christ.
I guess what I am saying here is that we should be aware that we are also praying for and on behalf of others.
The answer is positively “YES”. He even included this in the prayer he gave us to use as an example of how we should pray.
Note the words in “The Lord’s Prayer” which our Father gave to us: “OUR Father”, “Give US this day”, “OUR daily bread”, “and forgive US”, “as we forgive “THOSE”, “lead “US not into temptation”, but deliver “US from evil”.
Other prayers sanctioned by the Catholic Church: In the Hail Mary: “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for US sinners” “and at the hour of OUR death”.
Also at the end of each decade of the Rosary: “Oh my Jesus, forgive US our sins, save US from the fires of hell, and lead ALL souls to heaven, especially THOSE most in need of thy mercy”.
In the prayer “Hail Holy Queen”: “OUR life, OUR sweetness and OUR hope.” “To thee do we send up OUR sighs”, “turn then thine eyes of mercy towards US and after OUR exile, show unto US the blessed fruit”, “pray for US O holy Mother of God, that WE…”.
In many of our prayers, we are praying for and on behalf of others, even though we may not realize it. This is what Jesus is asking us to do in the “Our Father”, the prayer He personally gave to us in the Gospels.
When we don’t include others in our prayers, is when we are saying personal prayers to God, such as in the “Act of Contrition”, in the “Apostles Creed”, and also in words chosen by us personally when verbally communicating with God for specific purposes.
We are all brothers and sisters in Christ and Jesus wants us to pray, not only for ourselves, but also to all of God’s adopted children.
By the way, in the Bible where the Lord’s prayer says, “Lead us not into temptation”, the Spanish bible interpretation of this is: “Lead us from falling into temptation. I don’t know this for a fact, but I do not have a problem with changing those words since some interpretations from different bibles (I.e. The Holy Bible, RSV, etc.) do say, “Pray then LIKE this: Our Father etc.“ This tells me that the words may be changed somewhat as long as we do not change the intent of the prayer Jesus gave us.
The Catholic Catechism tells us in Article 2829: “Give us“ also expresses the covenant. We are his and he is ours, for our sake. But this “us” also recognizes him as the Father of all men and we pray to him for them all in solidarity with their needs and sufferings.
As for me, I pray often, but to be honest, I sort of skip over the “us’s”, “we’s” and “our’s” without realizing that I was not only praying for myself, but for all my brothers and sisters in Christ.
I guess what I am saying here is that we should be aware that we are also praying for and on behalf of others.