St Mary's School
'The Lord never tires of forgiving.' - Pope Francis
Kia ora e te whānau,
What a super week we have had and being able to run our whole school Athletics Days in the sun (rather than the predicted rain) was definitely a highlight! This weeks whole school prayers were delivered by Room Takahē. They focused on the theme for this weeks RE lessons across the school, 'The Our Father'.
It was great to learn more about this traditional prayer as it's a prayer we say all the time, so much so that you (speaking for myself) just know it off by heart and don't always put much thought into what it actually means. I've taken the information below from our new RE curriculum ' Tō Tātou Whakapono - Our Faith'.
The Our Father is a prayer that comes directly from Jesus. The version that is almost identical to what we pray today comes from Matthew’s Gospel (6:9-13), and a slightly shorter version is found in Luke (11:2-4).
The introduction to the prayer in Luke is very important because it shows to us that there was something ‘different’ about the way that Jesus prayed. Remember, Jews – like Jesus and his friends - prayed all the time, and they had hundreds of prayers, but there must have been something about how Jesus prayed that prompted the disciples to want to be able to pray like that too. So, they ask him “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). What they are really asking is... “Jesus, we want to learn to pray like you!” And, Jesus responds by giving them a prayer which we continue to say today.
So, when we pray the Our Father we are joining in the same prayer which individual Christians have
spoken, in their own languages, for nearly 2000 years! Our prayer, joins with theirs, and even with all
those who will come after us. The Our Father is spoken in every language in the world. And, as we know, languages bring slight differences to meaning and
The 7 parts of the Our Father are like 7 short prayers in their own right:
1. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name
This first part is striking because it calls us to remember, right at the start, that God is the God of heaven, and that God’s amazing name is holy (this goes right back to the first two of the 10 commandments). So, when we acknowledge that God is ’our father’ we recognise that we are whānau to each other. Very powerfully, if Jesus’ Father is also my Father, then Jesus is my brother, tuakana. (And, everyone is my brother and sister.)
2. Thy kingdom come
We pray this part in two ways: 1) We know, now, Jesus has come and has shared the Good News, and that he has risen from the dead, so we pray with thanks that God’s kingdom has already come; and (not or) 2) We recognise that God’s kingdom of aroha, pono and tika has not yet come because there is still sadness and injustice in the world, so we pray in hope for the time when there will be only joy and love. (And we pray in confidence, that this time will eventually arrive.)
3. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven
This links to ‘thy kingdom come’. God wants the best for us, and wants us to make the best choices for ourselves, one another and our world. We are in relationship with God in heaven, and God’s love ‘rules’ heaven – there is no poverty, or sadness or fear in heaven - we pray that what God wants for us will come to pass on earth through people’s actions and choices. (Remember, God doesn’t just take over, one of God’s gifts to us is the ability to make our own decisions – good and bad.) There is a sense of asking for God’s strength and support to do what God wants.
4. Give us this day our daily bread; and
We pray in need and in thanks for the things in our lives. While this prayer asks for simple food, it also represents our need (hunger) for so many things that help us to live – shelter, school, clothes, drink, friends, etc.
5. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and
Trespass is also an old English word for something wrong that someone has done to someone else.
We are praying in absolute confidence that God will forgive us anything if we are sorry and we ask God for forgiveness. We are also promising that we will try and forgive others when they are really sorry and they need my forgiveness.
6. Lead us not into temptation,
God only wants what is good for us, and never leads us into doing something we know is wrong. The sense of this prayer is that ‘we know’ that we are often tempted – we can be greedy, selfish, unkind and dishonest – and we are asking God to help us to make good decisions, to help us not give in to temptation.
7. But deliver us from evil.
The main point – that evil exists and is to be avoided. Children are able to recognise evil in our world. In the context of the Our Father, evil may be described as:
- People being hurt, or our planet being damaged, for no good reason;
- A feeling inside that is all about hurting or being selfish;
- Something – words, actions or ideas - that has no goodness or aroha in it;
There is an invitation from Jesus for us to participate in bringing about what we ask for from God by being on our guard against evil, and where we can, countering it with aroha and kindness (sometimes there is nothing we can do, it’s especially at these times that prayer can help bring hope.)
Thus, understanding the Our Father as a selection of small prayers can help children to see the depth
of one powerful and beautiful prayer taught to us by Jesus himself. And they can recognise that if they know the Our Father they have a whole range of prompts for their own smaller prayers:
1. Prayers about God being so awesome!!
2. Prayers for my hopes for our lives and our world.
3. Prayers for big things that need to be done in our world.
4. Prayers for our everyday needs.
5. Prayers for forgiveness, and help to forgive.
6. Prayers for help to do what is right, and to avoid what is wrong.
7. Prayers for courage and hope when goodness is hard to find.
Ma te Atua e manaaki - God bless,
Mallory
Principal | Tumuaki
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