Daily Gospel Reflection
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March 12, 2019
Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“This is how you are to pray:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
“If you forgive men their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
When they were preschoolers, my twin niece and nephew noticed a cross with the risen Jesus in my home. My niece said joyfully, “Jesus our Savior!” I asked what they thought Jesus was saying. My nephew gazed at the cross for a long time, then looked straight at me and said, “Be quiet.”
Many Catholics memorize the Lord’s Prayer as young children. At every celebration of Mass, we pray ”in the words our Savior gave us.” Yet having the words so deeply ingrained in our memory may prevent us from being quiet as we pray them. We can easily miss hearing the message Jesus tells us today through the beautiful prayer because it is so familiar.
As I have sat quietly with the prayer recently, the language of community stands out: our, us, we. In almost every line, Jesus teaches us to pray in the plural, not in the singular. Sometimes I fall into a solitary prayer life. I’ll share prayer needs, praise, or thanksgiving with others. We assure each other, “I’ll pray for you,” but then I’ll pray mostly alone. My prayer life can resemble a recitation of the Lord’s Prayer from memory, faithful but not always with the quiet stillness to hear God’s voice.
Jesus reminds me in the Lord’s Prayer to seek out prayer in community. He calls me to pray with others, not just for them— for daily bread to nourish our faith, for forgiveness we need to receive and extend, and for wisdom to lead us. When we pray together, we must create quiet stillness to lift our hearts together as one to God.
The season of Lent invites us to be quiet and to recharge our prayer life. May we embrace new ways of praying with others daily, for in that quiet stillness we will surely hear God.
Prayer
Lord, your Son taught us to call out to you as our Father. Every time we pray as he taught us, may we realize ever more deeply our dignity as your children, and also the fellowship we share as brothers and sisters in Christ. United ever more closely with each other and with you, may we become a sacrament of communion in our alienated world. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Seraphina, also known as Fina, is venerated for the courage with which she endured the suffering of illness.
Fina was born to a poor family in the town of San Gimignano, in the Tuscan region of Italy, in the 13th century. She was a beautiful child and had a strong devotion to prayer and to serving others. Even though her family was poor, she always kept half of her food to give to those who were also hungry. She helped her mother with chores and sewing during the day.
Her father died when she was still young, and at about that same time, she was struck with a mysterious disease that deformed her head, hands, eyes, and feet. Her physical appearance changed drastically and she eventually suffered paralysis and had to be carried around on a plank. The slightest movement caused great pain.
Though her mother had to leave her for hours on end to work or beg, Seraphina never complained. She strove for peace in her terrible pain by identifying her own suffering with Jesus’, saying, “It is not my wounds but thine, O Christ, that hurt me.”
When her mother died suddenly, she was left in utter poverty, reliant on other neighbors who were poor and who did not want to be exposed to her sores. She learned about St. Gregory the Great, who also suffered from a debilitating illness, and she developed a devotion to him, asking him for prayer that God might grant her patience in her suffering.
St. Gregory appeared to her to foretell the day she would die, which came to pass on this day in 1253. When her body was removed from the plank on which it rested, the wood was found to be covered with white flowers. Her relics rest in the reliquary chapel of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus.
St. Seraphina, who even in weakness became a strong sign of hope to the town of San Gimignano—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Seraphina is in the public domain. Last accessed February 6, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
