the Lord's Prayer: another March series

last March i did a series on prayer. just click this link and you'll find them. one of the things i wrote about was prayer while walking the dog and prayer on the bike commute. it's that time of year, again, when i'm walking the dog in the dark, in the cold, and embracing those moments of solitude while telling the dog to stop pulling on the leash. but in that wealth of time i freeze up mentally. where do i start? its not like i can carry a book of Celtic prayers with me or the daily office. however, i do have Jesus' pattern. one thing i appreciate my NT Greek professor for was getting us to memorize the prayer in Greek. Here it is, i don't know if your browser will support these fonts though.

9. πατερ ημων ο εν τοις ουρανοις αγιασθητω το ονομα σου
10. ελθετω η βασιλεια σου γενηθητω το θελημα σου ως εν ουρανω και επι γης
11. τον αρτον ημων τον επιουσιον δος ημιν σημερον
12. και αφες ημιν τα οφειληματα ημων ως και ημεις αφηκαμεν τοις οφειλεταις ημων
13. και μη εισενεγκης ημας εις πειρασμον αλλα ρυσαι ημας απο του πονηρου

here is Young's literal translation
9. Our Father who [art] in the heavens! hallowed be Thy name.
10. Thy reign come: Thy will come to pass, as in heaven also on the earth.
11. Our appointed bread give us to-day.
12. And forgive us our debts, as also we forgive our debtors.
13. And mayest Thou not lead us to temptation, but deliver us from the evil, because Thine is the reign, and the power, and the glory -- to the ages. Amen.

my Greek NT notes there are late manuscripts from the Eastern church with the emendation after "and the glory" which says "to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit." i like that too.

anyway, during my two years of Greek, this prayer became my mainstay before bed. i would journal it over and over again and found it turned enough stones in my life to cover the basics yet provided the focus i needed.

i can linger over each word for quite awhile and worship. this prayer is so tight, no word wasted, nothing superfluous. light but heavy. short but deep.
a prayer iceberg.
impressive at first glance, awesome upon each further investigation. maybe 50 words. maybe a month of posts. perhaps no links to anyone else's blogs except in the shared feeds section. i don't expect something technical, rather something personal. where the Holy Spirit hits me when those words scroll through my mind. perhaps assertions without footnotes. corrections of false assertions welcome in the comments.

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