The Lord's Prayer: 'A deep desire to connect with God': Reflection

Notes: When the author "a parish priest in the community of Digby-Weymouth, in the diocese of Nova Scotia", was in a car accident 10 years before, she was injured and transported to hospital by ambulance on bumpy roads. "Every bump was agony. ... Struggling to avoid shrieking, instead I began to say the Lord's Prayer. Out loud. Quite loud, actually. The ambulance people politely looked away. The prayer helped, a lot. I wasn't concentrating on the meaning of the words so much as I was relying of their soothing familiarity. The prayer kept the pain at bay -- a mantra". "The residents of our local long-term care facility come from a variety of religious backgrounds: some have no church experience at all, and many are dementia patients, unable to communicate. Our monthly services there are well attended, though. There may not be much discernible participation in the liturgy, but when we get to the Lord's Prayer, lips move, voices are raised and gazes focus. It's as if the Lord's Prayer lives in the body -- that those who have known it and prayed it, and have it by heart, embody it. And that, perhaps is part of our call as Christians on a journey together, to embody the prayer Jesus taught his disciples -- so that we may be a sign to today's world that God is truly with us".

Subjects: Lord's prayer - Anglican Church of Canada; Prayer - Anglican Church of Canada