Simple String Lord's Prayer Things

Over the summer I was finding a modicum of interest in the Lord's prayer knotted cords I've been using and occasionally promoting. So I've decided to make them more widely available ... Simple string Lord's prayer thing
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Paternoster rosary 5.5 - 1 Corinthians 10:13

Quite often this is the passage I leave aside if I'm not using all five. Some of what it says is covered in earlier reflections. It is a comforting verse in both the reassuring and the challenging sense of 'comfort'. It can reassure us that God is providentially guiding our life so that whatever times of test, challenge or temptation we may face, there will always be a way through. There lies the challenge too: we can't get away with claiming there is no alternative but to sin which can be the easier thing to want to say.

No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

First off, it's good to reflect on our solidarity with the rest of the human race: we are all prone to temptation and testing, and in fact it all derives from the same set of drives and concerns that we all share to varying degrees. We may not all be tempted to lust after David Beckham, but we have all experienced desire and that desire can be inappropriate to who we are or our situation. We may not suffer the trial of finding an unlocked car and finding it all to easy to drive off in it, but the possibility of passing up having something that is not rightfully ours when an apparently victim-free opportunity presents itself is far from foreign to most people, even if it is only the extra change we are given on the bus home.



Then we might want to think about what lies ahead recalling that God is faithful: there is nowhere we can go, no situation we can be in which is God-forsaken (much though it may feel like it, or much though we might want it to be, sometimes). God's resources to meet our hour of trial are always available whether it is strength or a way to sidestep. Sometimes our biggest trial is actually to be willing to look for God, God's strength or God's exit strategy. This is not to say it will not still be testing; clearly it is the case that the trial is severe, but we can take comfort that it is not, in principle, beyond us.



It may be that as we look into the day ahead, as much as we can anticipate of it, we see potential situations of trial. Let's look for the ways out or round them, let's think ourselves into them but conscious that God will be there and see if we can reconfigure our reactions ...

Save us from the time of trial, but if we must go through it, deliver us from becoming part of the ill of the situation, rather let us be instruments of shalom.



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Paternoster rosary 5.4 - Matthew 10:32-33

I have tended to find this one pretty challenging, oddly enough.

Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

It's meaning is fairly straightforward and I tend to take it straightforwardly as a call to think about how I will respond to those occasions when admitting a faith in Christ or putting in a good word for God is a reasonable possibility. I say 'reasonable possibility' because I don't think that this is meant to be a carte blanche to religiously or spiritually abuse others, and some witnessing is certainly that: all about 'my' need to think that I have commended my faith and very little about what would make sense and help along the work of the Spirit in that other person's life. The word 'commended' is important to me; surely when we do acknowledge Christ before others, it should be done in a way that is winsome, likely to encourage further thought and leave a positive impression. So I don't hear this as promoting crude, insensitive or aggressive witness or preaching. Quite the reverse.

On the other hand, I have found that I can become over-sensitive about it and so miss the chance to acknowledge Christ before others. I get to assuming that they won't want to hear or will just be embarrassed and I bottle it. This couple of verses brings me up short. I pray that I wil find the wisdom in forthcoming situations to commend Christ winsomely and in ways that stand a chance of provoking further thought. I'm not looking for chances to sock 'em with everything I've got, just to lay down a few hints or gentle teasing challenges that people could take further or not. I see Jesus doing this; asking questions or making statements that invite further responses.

Generally, as I've tried to do this, I've found that people are not as disrespectful as I fear they may be.
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Paternoster rosary 5.3 - Luke 4:12

It may be a bit shocking at first in a set of readings designed, more or less, to help us to pray the line "save us from the time of trial", to come across and be asked to pray with this line:

Jesus answered him, "It is said, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' "

But a little reflection should help make things clear. The context of the verse is the tempations of Christ in the wilderness, Satan has just suggested that Jesus should throw himself from the temple because God will order the angels to catch him in accordance with the scriptures. This line is Jesus's reply. I take it to mean that God's promises for things like protection (or even provision) are not meant to be wrested from the context of a life being conformed to God's way. This temptation is to abrogate to oneself the promises of God aside from the overall will of God. It is presumptuousness; presuming God will serve us.

It seems to me that a good example of the temptation today is prosperity teaching which essentially starts well in God's promises of provision, but slides out of a resposible contextual trust into a fairly selfish and narrow view which seems to expect the world to run for 'me' and mistakes the contingency of living in a prosperous society for a universal spiritual template for wealth attraction. Similarly, to live irresponsibly using God's protection as a pretext seem presumptuous too: not to look before stepping into to road because 'God will protect us' is irresponsible and putting God to the test. Trusting God to provide but not being prepared to be the agent of at least some of that provision is also not faith-full but rather ducking out of our responsibilities.

So here I tend to be praying about not being presumptuous and making sure I am doing my bit or playing my part in God's providence.
Save us from the time of trying God's patience and that of those who have to clear up after us ...

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Paternoster rosary 5.2 - Matthew 6:21

This too might seem to be a verse not immediate in its relevance to the part of the Lord's prayer "Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil".

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also

The basic way that I tend to use it is to ask myself, "what do I treasure", and the answer becomes an invitation to recognise that it is at the points in my life where I most treasure things, people or principles that I may be in the greatest danger of putting the cart before the horse or outrightly making wrong decisions.

For example, if I treasure the good regard of people around me I am in danger of 'people pleasing', that is putting saving face or maintaining reputation before doing God's will in some cases. That's not to say that rep is wrong: it could serve the gospel, for example. However, if desire to be thought well of is too primary, it could stop me drawing back from an invitation to do something 'important' when I am really being called to serve my sick wife or to make a phone call to a friend.

It would be my treasuring of that thing that skews my valuing of things away from God's valuing of them...
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Paternoster rosary 5.1- Matthew 11:28-30

This is the first passage in the round praying "Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil" (or whichever version you prefer).

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

I suspect that at first it looks a bit tangential to the matter at hand, to say the least, but bear with me.
The yoke would have been readily understood as relating to the rabbinic characterising of taking up with a Rabbi to learn the Law from him. This was taking up the yoke of the Law to learn from it. So Jesus is putting himself in place of the Law as humankind's guidance. It is probable that the heavy burdens were the kinds of things that Jesus criticises in other places; in a word the legalism that imposes burdens but lifts not a finger to help.

One way to pray this is to think about the temptation to do things by rote and rule rather than living relationship to God and neighbour. The rules may be religious or they may be some other kind of rule but if they come before the demands of justice and mercy, Christ had hard words for that. Rules are good servants but bad masters. God, not the rules is supposed to be the ruler (pun intended).

The other way that for me this can inform my praying, is in reminding me that Christ's leading of me is gentle and not burdensome. Sometimes, in a time of trial we are tempted to think that God's will is too hard, with these words is an implicit promise that God will support us as we attempt his way; we are not on our own.

Yet another angle is to focus on firding rest: in our society lack of proper sabbath in our lives leads us into unnecessary temptation and trial. Our frenetic chasing after more, sometimes artfully disguised as serving our nearest and dearest (when in fact we are colluding in their discipleship to hurrydom), deprives us of God's commanded gift: rest. In Christ we rest from the labour of trying to earn heaven, in creation God has made us to function best with regular rest. We ignore it at our peril and make ourselves vulnerable to trials since when we are tired, we are less able to muster our intelligence or energy to spot and resist wrong.
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Paternoster rosary 4.5 - Luke 5:20

Usually to end the forgiving round there is this verse.

When he saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you."

I generally find myself using this in two ways. One is as an assurance that I am forgiven, so that the words "Forgive us our sins as we forgive ..." are given a background sense of assurance as they are said; a sense that the asked for forgiveness is being granted. The other way is to appropriate the words to myself in relation to people that I hold a grievance against; and so the words then foreground the phrase "... as we forgive those who sin against us". Sometimes with each bead a person is thought of along with the phrase 'your sins are forgiven. It is salutary to acknowledge that in many cases I would only be playing catch-up with God's own forgiveness, in any case. And if God either forgives as a present reality or at least stands ready to forgive, who am I to hold out?

And what of the corporate dimension? -The fact that it is 'us' and 'we' means that we need to be forming communities where forgiveness is practiced and encouraged. It also seems to me to imply that there are dimensions to forgiveness that may be corporate. This is a big and contested issue at the moment, but I think that the corporate language of the Lord's prayer not only encourages a solidarity of confession but perhaps the recognition that human groups may need to be factored into our forgiving.
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Paternoster rosary 4.4 - Matthew 5:23 - 24

I normally only use this passage when I'm praying five passages per round [as per Dominican rosary] or wanting a change from one of the other four. This is mainly because the main gist of the passage can be found in the previous one [4.3]. However there are some considerations that this one brings that are worth reflecting on over and above the issue of forgiving others.

So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.

When I reflect on this passage as part of praying the Lord's prayer, I tend to focus not so much on the principle of forgiving others which is implicit in the previous passage as well as the this section of the Lord's prayer ["Forgive ... as we forgive ..."] as on the idea of reconciliation which is more active than simply attitudinal. It drives me to consider both an urgency about taking steps to be reconciled: don't put off to tomorrow what can be done today and the importance to God; it's something that ranks above specifically religous acts, as if God in Christ is saying, "don't make me an excuse for not doing right by your neighbour."

I am reminded of the story told about Festo Kivengere the former Anglican archbishop of Uganda, who it is said one day had an argument with his wife which led to him leaving for a church event in a state of some enmity with her. As he was leaving he sensed God's urging to be reconciled with her before he left, but protested that he would be late for the meeting. He then felt that God was saying in effect, "You go on then, I'll stay here with your wife." That stopped him in his tracks and he went back to her.

Sometimes it may not be possible or appropriate to act in total conformity with this plan, but the principles of urgency and not waiting for the other to act (note, it's if 'your brother or sister has something against you' not the other way round). You may need to wait for them to wake up as a phone call that wakes them in the wee small hours may be counterproductive of reconciliation. You may have to simply try to make it known that you are seeking reconciliation because at that point they do not wish to be reconciled (Paul in Romans wisely adds 'so far as it depends on you ...'). So I tend to take this as a call to reflect on whether there is any unfinished reconciliation business and to plan how I am going to take it forward and even to ask God's help in carrying it forward. Sometimes that may mean making a phone call straight away. But it should not be vague, rather specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-defined. This is part of our prayer: to plan such things in the acknowledged presence of God. This is part of forgiving and being forgiven. God did not simply have forgiving dispositions towards us, but actively embodied and suffered loss in order to effect reconciliation with being who frankly often don't give a damn ... Now there's a thought.
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Paternoster rosary 4.3 - Matthew 7:1-3

This is a challenge but a necessary one as it spotlights the attitudes for praying the second part of the forgiveness section of the prayer.

"Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?

Sometimes it happens that as I reflect on the previous two passages, I am reminded of ways in which I think myself to have been sinned against, and so I may have already begun to reflect and to pray actively about the kind of thing that this passage recalls us to. However it is worth remembering that the faults we think we discern in others are often seen because we actually know them well from the inside. Or it can be that we are suffering from the 400 kilo gorilla thing: there it is in the corner of the room, taking up space and eating our fruit but we don't talk about it and even stop noticing it while we happily chunter on about the hamsters or goats that our neighbours seem to be keeping. If we approach the sins of others with an attitude of being aware of how easily we find ourselves either doing the same kind of things or the things that could lead to them or different things that nevertheless require that others are merciful and gracious to us, it can make forgiving others quite a lot easier. When we find ourselves criticising others perhaps we need to take it as a call to self examination. Likewise, when we find ourselves excusing our own actions, perhaps it is time to reflect on how much slack we cut others and whether we make similar allowances for others as we hope are made for us.

These are the kinds of things that are often going through my head as I pray "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us."
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Paternoster rosary 4.2 - 1 Corinthians 13:6-7

The next reading follows on from the previous, being the second bit of the passage, made famous by its use in weddings, on love.

[Love] does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

As I pray this with the words "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us", I tend to do so in way similar to the previous passage: holding my life in company with those words and noticing what emerges. I think they are challenging in that they make uncomfortable reflection in the face of how we relate to those woh differ from us or oppose us. When we don't really like someone (take an easy case like a political leader) it is all too easy for us to experience schadenfreud (literally 'shame-joy'; a pleasure in the misfortune of others) if and when they do something wrong. However, we don't normally have this reaction when we love someone, when a loved-one 'falls', we experience disappointment, or embarrasment or shame arising from identification with them. From those core responses flow others like anger or sorrow. The delight in wrongdoing tells us that we we are not regarding that person with God's love and is a call to realign our attitudes with regard to that person. Rejoicing in the truth is also a test we can use. With those we love, we are delighted when they tell the truth. With those we oppose without love we are disappointed we don't have something on them or the chance to expose their duplicity. Love is about celebrating truth wherever it is found, even if it is uncongenial to us or our position on something.

The bearing, believing, hoping and enduring all things needs a littel care. It could be read to mandate that an abused person continues to be abused, for example. These characteristics are not to be read as absolutes, but as examples of what love may do. In the case of someone who suffers chronic abuse (for example), there comes a time when it should be recognised that to allow the abuser to continue in sin without challenge is not love but complicity in evil. How to act then is a hard thing to give general rules about best dealt with using the aid of a wise help-mate and with much prayer. The point of what Paul says here is that in situations of ordinary human disagreement, grumpiness and frailty, love acts with patience and by going the second mile in order to allow or even encourage the best and most loving from the other: it seeks to be part of the solution rather than augmenting the problem.

Usually I have found that situations when I haven't been reacting as part of the solution or where my reactions demonstrate that I am regarding someone or some others with hostility have come to mind in contemplating these words. That has been what is in mind as I pray the words of forgiveness.
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Paternoster rosary 4.1 - 1 Corinthians 13:4 - 5

With this passage we begin to pray "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us". It can be interesting how the two parts of this passage of the prayer interlock, especially when we realise how little of our corporate liturgical prayer acknowleges explicitly the issue of forgiving others. So I find it may be that this passage and the following may remind me of things directly in my own relating to other people, or sometimes it reminds me of how I may have been treated or not by others. In the case of being reminded how I have been treated, I tend to take it that if something in someone else's behaviour raises my indignation, then I should be extra aware of the possibility that I am myself guilty of it and that the subconscious recognition and repudiation produces a desire to push it away and the behaviour of others becomes the lightening rod for my own inner conflict and guilt. A later passage in this round of readings asks us to look at that explicitly. Anyway to the actual passage.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

It's interesting to use this charatcerisation of love as something to measure ourselves by. God is love and so, as people aspiring to imitate Christ, we need to measure ourselves by God's love. In a way each of these characterisations of love would be sufficient to reflect on, and it may be a strategy for regular prayer to visit one or two each time and so over time to cover them all.

What I often do is to see which of the characteristics draws me and to explore why; what am I being reminded of in my life and that becomes the matter that I hold in mind as I pray "Forgive us ....".

One other thing I occasionally reflect on as I consider these marks of love is that they are not prescriptive, that is to say that they are not necessarily invariable guides to action. For example, "Love does not insist on its own way" can be interpreted in such a way as to mean that we always give way to another person's opinion or ideas and never put forward our own. What I think we should take from it is that if we act lovingly we will not want the other person to be dominated by us. However, we should note that there may be times when acting lovingly, that is in the best interests of the other person[s] and for their welfare, love may require us to be tough with them, and insist on 'our' way because it is important that their way is not followed through. We could think of when to allow a child their own way with regard to bedtimes or sweet consumption would be not an act of love but of sentimental weakness, for example.
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Paternoster rosary 3.5 - John 6:51

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

This is the one I generally omit using the Anglican prayer beads. So I've done less refletion on it in this context. It is in the collection because of the bread reference and the fact that a lot of early commentators on the Lord's prayer among the church fathers, tendend to link the petition with the Eucharist and this passage makes some sense of that link.

In using this passage as part of praying 'give us today our daily bread', I tend to focus on the idea that Christ is the true and living bread and that he gives his life for the Life of the world (the capital letter should be noted). So the prayer for daily bread is transformed by this passage into requesting eternal life and the food that lasts, sustaining eternal life within and around us. Christ is our Life, and day by day we ask for a renewal of Life within us. Actually this might be done by asking for the Holy Spirit, whose job it is, among other things, to form Christ within us and convey to us the benefits that Christ has won for us. So, praying for this daily bread involves asking for our spiritual needs to be met, particularly that we will have the grace and strength of the Spirit and keep our spiritual fervour.

I take the opposite of spiritual fervour to be something like a loss of spiritual appetite. However, I don't necessarily think that spiritual fervour has to show up as buoyant, upbeat and loud. Sometimes our emotional resources don't run to that but our emotional resources are not necessarily a guide to our spiritual health; the spiritually healthy may be a quiet and undemonstrative person by nature and their style of spiritual fervour should not be looked down on; their depth of commitment and quiet perseverance even in hard circumstances is testimony to the work of the Spirit within them.
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Paternoster rosary 3.4 - Romans 8:32

He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?

This sentence tends to make me think, when I'm praying the daily bread round on the paternoster rosary, of how much there is in our lives that we do not own, earn or even deserve but which enriches us and keeps us well and sane and even brings us joy: the air we breathe, the view, sun and wind and rain, relationships with people who love us, and so on and so on. This is what is triggered in my thoughts by the "everything else" of the passage.

The context is a reassurance of God's love and salvation. So probably we are meant mainly to be thinking here about calling, justification, sanctification and glorification. However, thinking about those things also means that we need to think about the provision God makes to enable us to continue in a life of growing sanctity, including the material things and including our share in the 'free' benefits of our island planet home.

I can't help but pray corporately that God will somehow work things to the good; that the free benefits will continue to sustain us and that the instruments of governance and commerce will work for the common good that the life systems that give us our daily bread may continue to do so.
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Paternoster rosary 3.3 - Matthew 4:4

But he answered, "It is written, "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.' "

This actually links strongly to the final comment for the last passage. If our provision is linked to being in God's will, or at least striving to make God's ways the priority in our lives (as per the first passage in this round of readings), then learning God's will is a priority too. In the sentence quoted, Jesus is resisting the temptation to grasp at provision (of bread, literally) that is not meant for him at that time and in that way. He does so by quoting '... not ... by bread alone...', indicating that God's revealed will is prior. So part of our provision, our daily bread, is encounter with God's will. That encounter is life-giving and will lead us or keep us on the path of God's provision.

I'm interested too, that in the context of this passage, we have an example of Christ refusing provision because although it was on offer and was needed, it was not going to be obtained by right livelihood (to quote Friederich Schumacher in Small is Beautiful, and recognising the usefulness of this Buddhist phrase to describe what I mean). This is an attitude that we in the consumerist west need to reflect on more fully, I think: capacity does not constitute a right to use.

So, as I pray "Give us today our daily bread" I am, at this point, often praying for the provision of guidance and life-giving words from God to help us on our way, particularly in circumstances where there seems to be a snarl-up or the way forward seems unclear, whether for me personally, us as a family, or church-wise.

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Paternoster rosary 3.2 - Matthew 14:16

Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat."

This is taken from the story of the feeding of the five thousand. Here are the apostle's confronted with human need on a pretty big scale, and no visible means to meet it (they want to send the crowd away to provide for themselves) and that's what Jesus says. As I reflect on that sentence in preparation to pray "Give us today our daily bread", I usually find myself focussing on a couple of things either together or singly. One thing is that there is the implicit offer to provide through them. In other words, the apostles are being told that they can meet this need because God wants it to be met through their cooperation. So one line of thought for me is that God will provide for me/us to do things that seem out of our means at the moment. I rather suspect that this is what lies behind Paul's affirmation in 2 Corinthians 9 that God will provide for us to be generous.

This prompts some reflection on what we already have and how it is to be employed. The assumption that it is for us is one that we need to be prepared to challenge, as with the lad who had the loaves and fishes. Another line of thought then, is that we might be the vehicles of provision for others, either in terms of offering what we already have or in anticipating gaining more to give away. In fact it may be that we will find our provision in meeting the needs of others. The ox is indeed not muzzled as it treads the threshing floor.

This prompts me to think also of the will of God. Knowing that provision will be there if the will of God is served makes me want to pray also that we may know God's will, that we will live by discernment of God's guidance. But that is a matter for a later reflection on a following passage, but it is well to note the link.
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Paternoster rosary 3.1 - Matthew 6:33

But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Now we come onto the round of "Give us today our daily bread".
Praying this phrase with that sentence in mind, reminds me right at the beginning of this round of prayer that we pray for our daily bread (which I take to stand for the necessities of life) in the context of praying and indeed living towards God's will, in the context of a life being tuned to God's music and shaped by God's agenda. "All these things" are what it is legitimate for us to have in the pursuit of God's kingdom. It is not carte blanche for getting whatever items on the western consumerist shopping list handed to us by the advertisers. In that sense God does NOT want us rich: God wants us faithful with enough to live, to serve, to be thankful and joyful and to be generous. It is hard to justify lifestyles that would cost 3 or more planet earths were everyone to aspire to them as being God's will and covered by this prayer.

So I tend to reflect on what we most need to continue our ministries [including the ministry of almsgiving] and think of those before God as I pray the words. I try to be alert to the possibility that my imagination for how those things might be provided may be limited and that God may have ways to provide that as yet I am not aware of. So while I may pray for work to provide an income, it may be that for the time being, God provides by other means. On the other hand I don't, either, have the right to presume that, because God has provided one particular way in the past, I have the right to expect it will ever be that way.
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Paternoster rosary 2.5 - Matthew 28:18 - 20

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you."

I generally find that I respond to this passage by praying for mission in the sense of making disciples. Now this includes evangelism; so I sometimes find myself praying for particular people to come to Christian faith; sometimes it means that I'm holding wider issues in mind and heart as I say the words "Your kingdom come ...", things like projects to understand the challenges of proclaiming Christ in western society, particular church planting initiatives, mission agencies and so on.

I tend to pray this passage knowing that making disciples is not the same as making converts, so I may also end up praying about the way that churches help people grow and develop in their appreciation and application of Christ's teaching. This may include local church programmes, learning materials for children and adults, people involved in soul friendship, spiritual direction etc. and ministerial formation of various kinds.
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Paternoster Rosary 2.4 - Luke 17:20b-21

[Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered,] "The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, "Look, here it is!' or "There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you."

This quotation from the gospel is often better known as "... the kingdom of God is within you" and individualised as a result. It is a possible translation, but "among you" is better. Jesus is probably pointing to the fact that he is among them and has been showing with signs that the kingdom of God is breaking in on them in his ministry. So this passage picks up a thought from previous passages about the centrality of Christ. What I tend to do with it in my own praying of the Lord's prayer in rosary style, is to take it to be a situation which is continued through the ministry of the church. The church is meant to be a body of people among whom God's agenda and action is demonstrated; The kingdom is among us by the Spirit. The ministry of Christ is supposed to be continued by the church.
So that's what I pray for; the demonstration of God's will in and through the church; that the church and churches will show Christ in the way they act among themselves and in our action in the world; that we will be the good news.

Clearly sometimes this means I pray for particular churches, sometimes groups of churches or denominations or the worldwide scene, eg Christian-Muslim relations or consumerism or aid.

As I read or hear in my mind the words of this passage, I let them call out in me situations relating to the calling of the church to demonstrate Christlikeness and the will of God and hold them in my heart as I pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven."

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paternoster rosary 2.3 - Luke 11:42

"But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others"
This is actually one of the passages that only normally gets used by me when I use all five of a particular round in the whole cycle, ie when I'm using a Dominican rosary or, alternatively, choose this passage instead of one of the other 'Kingdom come' passages.

So what happens in my reflections in praying 'your kingdom come' with this verse in view? Well, the reason for it's inclusion was to provide a reflection on the nature of God's project on planet earth with humanity so that our praying can be an increasingly good fit with the spirit and nature of that project. The verse serves to remind and warn that justice and the love of God are foundational in the outworking of the Kingdom of God. The danger that the Pharisees Jesus criticised here was that they were making second order matters in the law more primary than the most important things, in fact, the context shows that the criticism goes further; some were using these parts of Torah to sidestep the demands of justice and love of God.

When I pray this verse, I tend, then, to regard it as a call to keep the big picture in mind; to consider global discipleship as a world Christian. Doing so then often results in praying for those working on the aspects of Make Poverty Hisory [fair trade, debt cancellation, better aid]. I Sometimes also find myself musing over the way that local churches are being agents of justice and mercy in God's name, as I say "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven".

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Paternoster Rosary 2.2 - Matthew 5:43-44

"You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

When I pray the next few 'Kingdom comes' with this passage in mind, I am generally taking it pretty much at face value. However there are a couple of ways that I tend to take 'enemy' and each affects how I pray in a different way.

I sometimes take 'enemy' personally, that is to say someone who has taken against me [as they say in Yorkshire], in which case I tend to pray with an image of them in mind as I say the phrase "Your kingdom come...", sometimes the prayer will turn to a kind of blessing of them, sometimes a cry that they might repent, sometimes that their hearts might be softened [to use a phrase from an Anglican litany]. There are times when praying this phrase as a kingdom come prayer involves me in reckoning with the way that I have taken against someone, in which case I may also be praying for them to know the kinds of riches that I hope God wants for me.

Enemy can also be national or corporately defined; our governments define enemies. So we must pray for terrorists, drug barons, Osama bin Laden etc; that God's will be done in them, remembering God loves them to and wills to bring them to repentance...

Those who persecute us. Now, I don't [thank God] suffer much persecution. But we in the church universal /catholic do. So sometimes I find myself remembering Christians under pressure for their profession of faith as I pray "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven...."

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