Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Hallowed

hal·low
ˈhalō/
verb
past tense: hallowed; past participle: hallowed
1.  honor as holy.

"the Ganges is hallowed as a sacred, cleansing river"
________________________________________________________________________________
Some years ago there was a book called Slowing Down the Our Father by Franciscan Leonard Foley. He contended that too often, as in most memorized prayers, we simply routinely rattle through the words. Instead the author's advice was to pay attention to each word.

If we pay attention to each word the words speak to us.

There is an added bonus when we slow down the Our Father: we can begin to understand what Jesus was expressing "between the lines." We realize that praying for God's will to be done also implies that we do the hard work of just learning what God's will is for us and what it asks of us.