The Gospels described more times Jesus as a man of prayer. Jesus prayed. Despite the urgency of his mission and the pressure from the many people making demands on him, Jesus feels the need to withdraw in solitude and pray. Jesus prayed publicly in the synagogue but felt the need to pray alone. The most important moments of his life and death are marked by prayer: before calling the apostles, in the hour of the passion, on the cross, when he still has the strength to quote a psalm “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Jesus prayed like so many men and women of this world, but his prayer was different, it contained a mystery, something that certainly did not escape the eyes of his disciples, since the Gospels contain that plea that was so simple and immediate: “Lord, teach us to pray” (Lk 11:1). They see Jesus praying and they want to learn how to pray: “Lord, teach us to pray”. And Jesus does not refuse, he is not possessive of his intimacy with the Father, but rather, he came precisely to introduce us to this relationship with the Father. And thus, he becomes the teacher of prayer to his disciples, as he undoubtedly wants to be so for all of us. We too should say: “Lord, teach me to pray. Teach me”.

And Jesus taught us the Our Father, a simple and beautiful prayer. We usually begin our prayers with “Almighty Father”, “Merciful God”, almost in an attempt to ingratiate ourselves with God, to appease him before asking him something. Instead, Jesus begins immediately with Abbà, Daddy, in a familiar way. It is a prayer that begins in confidence: a child calling his father. And we too can turn to the father in this way: it is a prayer that begins with “ours”, it is the prayer of all, it is the prayer of brothers and sisters who have one father and who concretely live fraternity.

It is not a prayer that takes us away from the earth to let us enter heaven.

It is a prayer for courageous people, for all and all those who have made the Kingdom of God their home and the good of man their goal, learning to resemble the Father in the way of loving and serving.

It is the prayer of one who has accepted to live as a child in the father’s house, not as a hired employee under a boss.

It is the prayer of those who have chosen to share rather than accumulate, to serve rather than command, to believe in forgiveness as the only force capable of changing the world.

It is a cry of freedom that comes from the heart of those who live as a son and brother, as a daughter and sister. These are the words that cry out the possibility of a new world, where the goal is happiness, where sharing is a style, where the dignity of everyone is at the center of everyone’s heart, where there is no one in need, but everyone can eat abundantly and take away what is left over, thinking of those who could not come or those who did not want to be there.

It is a prayer that calls us to conversion: from boss to Father, from mine to ours, from hatred to forgiveness, from weakness to the strength of God’s grace.

“Lord, teach us to pray” and help us to change our life.