A Talk About Prayer* (Part 8)
As to the rest of the petitions of the Lord's Prayer, what has already been said of the first four is sufficient to show how the devout soul may occupy her time with each of the others.
It is enough to say that in the petition, "Forgive us our trespasses," special consideration should be given to the second clause "As we forgive those who trespass against us."
For here we can make acts of patience under annoyances, of ready forgiveness of all injuries, offer ourselves to be ill-treated, humiliated, and insulted, and pray for the spirit of meekness.
Here, also, in this connection, we can bring in the sacred Passion of Our Lord, and consider the meekness and patient love with which He endured so many outrages; and so, thinking upon this petition can set us to meditatmg or the Passion of Christ.
The next petition, "Lead us not into temptation," refers especially to the temptations, wiles, and machinations of the devil; and the last petition refers, not only to temporal and spiritual evils, from which we ask to be delivered, but also to this life of exile, from which the devout soul may beg to be set free, if it be God's will, in order to enter upon the possession of her heavenly kingdom, which is the kingdom of her Spouse...
(Continued tomorrow)
* From Spencer's "The Little Grain of Wheat."
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From "Prayer-Book for Religious"
by Rev. F.X. Lasance
Copyright 1904, 1914
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