Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
(Galatians 2:1-2.7-14; Luke 11:1-4)
In his wartime memoir, Flight to Arras, Antione de
Saint-Exupéry compares the concentration of a Dominican friar at prayer to the
intensity of Louis Pasteur looking through a microscope. Saint-Exupéry wants to emphasize that although
both postures seem to be passive, in truth neither is. Both contemplative and scientist are fully
alive although neither makes any outward movement. In today’s gospel Jesus exhibits the same fullness
of purpose as he prays to the Father.
As he does often in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is seen
praying. His prayer attracts the
attention of one of his disciples. The
understudy asks Jesus to teach him and his cohort how to pray. Jesus then relates a shortened version of
what is known as the “Our Father” or “The Lord’s Prayer.”
When we are at prayer, it is all too likely that what Jesus says
with intensity, we pass over without much thought. We must make more effort to take Jesus’ own words
to heart. “Our Father” – God loves us as
much as any father has loved his child. “Hallowed be they name” – we love you
in turn so much that we want his fame spread throughout the world.
