How to Pray the Lord's Prayer

Meditation for July 27th, 2025 by Jan Savory

We have just heard Luke’s version of Jesus teaching his disciples how to pray. Luke’s version is a bit shorter than Matthew’s – not surprising that they are different since they were remembered orally for many years. And remember, that Jesus taught in Aramaic, a language where a word can have many meanings, but the NT was written in Greek. A much more precise language – more like English in that respect.

And at some point, possibly as early as the first or second century, the doxology (For thine is the kingdom…) was added and is used in Protestant and Orthodox churches but not Catholic).

How many times have you said the Lords Prayer in your lives? If you said it once a week for 70 years, that would be 3,640 times. And how often do you think about what you are saying (or singing) – Really think about it and what it means in your life? If you are like me, not very often. That’s why I like to use different versions sometimes. It jolts me out of complacency.

Today, I want us to think about the words of the prayer and how it can affect our lives.  This meditation is based on a writing from the Parish magazine of Llandaff Cathedral in Wales – my parent’s parish church. I return to this from time to time when I find the words getting stale from many repetitions.

After each phrase (sometimes fter just a word) of the Lord’s prayer, I will ask a question – How can I pray … if … and then pause for you to think about what this phrase means to you.  If you find yourself caught up in one phrase (If God is speaking to you) stay there and listen to God.

When we have been through the prayer in its traditional form, I will close the meditation by leading us in one possible version translated from the Aramaic version of the NT by Aramaic scholar Neil Douglas Klotz. Remember that, in Aramaic, a word can have many meanings, like the Ruach, a Hebrew or Aramaic word which can mean wind, breath, spirit or Spirit with a capital S, as in Holy Spirit.

So let’s get ready

Find a comfortable position, eyes closed or looking down

Take a few deep breaths. Breathe in God’s loving spirit and breathe out your care and anxieties  In … Out.  

How can I pray Our

if my faith has no room for others and their needs.

How can I pray Father,

if I do not demonstrate this close relationship to God in my daily living.

How can I pray who art in heaven,

if all my interests and pursuits are in earthly things.

How can I pray hallowed be thy name,

if I am not striving, with God's help, to be holy like God

.

How can I pray thy kingdom come,

if I am unwilling to accept God's rule in my life.

How can I pray thy will be done

if I am unwilling or resentful of having God’s will in my life.

How can I pray on earth as it is in Heaven,

unless I am truly ready to give myself to God's service here and now.

How can I pray give us this day our daily bread,

without expending honest effort for it, or if I would withhold from my neighbour the bread that I receive.

How can I pray forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,

if I continue to harbour a grudge against anyone.

How can I pray lead us not into temptation,

if I deliberately choose to remain in a situation where I am likely to be tempted.

How can I pray deliver us from evil,

if I am not prepared to fight evil with my life and my prayer.

How can I pray thine is the kingdom,

if I am unwilling to obey the King.

How can I pray thine is the power and the glory,

if I am seeking power for myself and my own glory first.

How can I pray for ever and ever

if I am too anxious about each day's affairs.

How can I pray Amen

unless I can honestly say, "Cost what it may, this is my prayer".

Now take a few more deep breaths and ask yourself – what is this prayer calling me to change today?

Let us pray

O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos/ you create all that moves in light.Focus your light within us–make it useful: as the rays of a beacon show the way.Create your reign of unity now–through our firey hearts and willing hands.Your one desire then acts with ours, as in all light, so in all forms.Grant what we need each day in bread and insight: subsistence for the call of growing life..

Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others’ guilt.Don’t let us enter forgetfulnessBut free us from unripenessFrom you is born all ruling will, the power and the life to do, the song that beautifies all, from age to age it renews.Truly–power to these statements– may they be the source from which all my actions grow. Sealed in trust & faith.                                   Amen.