Pastoral Reflection: Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026
Following the consecration of the Holy Gifts, we offer a litany of prayers that culminates in the Lord’s Prayer. At the center of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives His disciples a simple and direct instruction: “Pray, then, like this: Our Father, who art in heaven.…” The Lord’s Prayer is therefore not merely one prayer among many, but the model and heart of Christian prayer.
Jesus begins with the words “Our Father.” The Aramaic word Abba is an intimate and affectionate way of addressing one’s father, somewhat like “Papa.” It expresses the loving trust of a child for a father. Through Christ, we approach God not as frightened slaves, but as beloved sons and daughters. As Saint Paul writes, we have received “the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’”
This intimacy with God is both a gift and a holy privilege. Before praying the Lord’s Prayer in the Divine Liturgy, the Church asks God to “count us worthy, with boldness and without condemnation,” to call Him Father. Through the love of God the Father and the grace of the Holy Spirit, we receive this boldness, are united to Christ, and are enabled to pray as members of God’s family.
With love in Christ,
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