The Lord's Prayer

In St.Matthew, Chap.6 Verses 9 - 13, the Christ instructs us " After this manner, therefore, pray."
Please allow me to look at the Lord's Prayer line by line.


Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
In this line we direct thought to the Creator God.  We acknowledge the source of the Spirit within us.  We concentrate and dedicate our thinking.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.
Do we not all know the beauty and perfection, the light, the love and peace of Spirit and surely would we not wish this to be the state of this earth-plane.  Indeed we heartily pray for it.

Give us this day our daily bread.
There are not many here who lack for food but sadly there are many without food in this world today, this should remind us of that fact.  A Camphill prayer also reminds us that - " Bread is not our food.  What feeds us in the bread is God's Eternal Word, His Spirit and His Life."
Our daily bread is both material and spiritual; we ask for the body, mind and spirit to be nourished.

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
This reminds us that we can, and must, forgive ourselves first in order to forgive others, as we are also reminded to love others as we would wish to be loved.  Many of the world's woes, indeed our own woes, are deepened, hardened and ingrained by an unwillingness to let go, to move on in forgiveness.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
As Buddhists will affirm, desire is a fault in humankind.  The desire for power, the desire for what we should not have, do not need or for things that are not good for us anyway is almost endemic.  The disease, indeed the dis-ease, of the modern world is the wish to acquire and accumulate as much as possible of the worldly goods which are around us in abundance.  If some people do not have the wherewithal they will not hesitate to steal, maim or kill to get what they want.
We need this reminder also to resist the temptation to evil thoughts, words or actions which would eat away at ourselves and  our opinions of others.

For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, forever.
Again we acknowledge the Higher Force and that this is Eternal.  We also recognise that whereas material things are of the here and now, Spiritual gifts are forever.  We cannot pass through the portal with gold or possessions for we are born anew with the gifts of the Spirit we accumulate throughout our mortal passage.

Amen.
So be it.  Not by my will but by the will of Spirit.

                                                                                                                                R.E.B