Article May 12, 1997 Issue

On the Lord's Prayer

Tom Harpur

The Toronto Star

What I want to share are thoughts about the archetypal prayer of all time, commonly called the Lord's Prayer. My thinking was push-started last week when a reader called to get advice on a discussion he is having. His friend, a Jew, is arguing that this prayer is really a Jewish prayer and not just the property of Christians.

There's much to be said for that view. Jesus was and remained a pious Jew all his life. There's not a word in the prayer that a strict Jew of his day could not have uttered in complete fidelity to the God of Moses, of Israel, and of the cosmos. Historically, however, it has been so identified with Christianity that it has become the quintessential Christian prayer. So, in a way, both sides of that debate are right. ...

That said, I've been re-reading Simone Weil's little book, Waiting For God, and she confirms what I (with millions of others) have found—that is, that regularly praying this prayer, with deep concentration and focus, is one of the most satisfying prayer experiences one can have. If you work with it, if you look for its bite on your life and the lives of others, it never ceases to comfort and to challenge at the same time.

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