Part 5, Chapter 16
I once heard a homily that went kind of like this “My Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be my Name. My Kingdom come. My Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give me this day my daily bread. And forgive me my trespasses, as I forgive those who trespass against me. And lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. Amen.” This just sounds wrong!!! It should strike us as totally bad, and it is. Rather we should be like the Saints who lived Thy will be done. It is like the prayer that our saints in today’s reading said habitually from the depths of their being. “’I am not my own, whether I live or whether I die, I am the Lord’s. There is no longer any me or mine, my “me” is Jesus, my “mine” is to be his. O world, you will ever be yourself, and hitherto I have been myself, but henceforth I will be so no more’” (Introduction to the Devout Life, 203). The prayer of those in the world, or in the flesh is My Father, the prayer of those who truly want to live the devout life, is the Our Father, along with the prayer that is quoted by St. Francis De Sales.
Look at the picture on this page. It is of the elevation of the Eucharist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Take some time to pray with the image. It truly shows us that we need to die to ourselves. This is what the devout life leads to because it leads us to the sacrificial love of Jesus.