Trusting the Father in a Busy World

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Jesus gives us the words of the Our Father,
but before He teaches us how to pray,
He teaches us why:
because the Father already knows what we need.

In a world that runs fast,
He invites us to slow down.
To step out of the noise.
To stop performing.
To remember that prayer isn’t about many words —
it’s about making room.
Room to breathe.
Room to listen.
Room to let God be God.

“Give us this day our daily bread.”
Not tomorrow’s answers.
Not next week’s clarity.
Just today’s grace —
and the patience to receive it in God’s time.

And when He calls us to forgive,
He’s not adding another burden.
He’s opening our hearts.
Because a clenched heart cannot hear,
and a hurried heart cannot wait.
Only a trusting heart can rest in the Father’s love.

So today, in the middle of our busyness,
Jesus invites us to pray simply,
to trust deeply,
and to wait with hope —
because the Father already knows,
and the Father is already near.

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The Our Father

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. Amen.

When You Stand Before Me

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Sometimes the Gospel holds up a mirror.
And it shows us something we’d rather not see.
Today Jesus asks a quiet, piercing question:
Where do I meet Him… and where do I turn away?

 

I think of a deacon I once knew.
At the altar, he was flawless.
Vestments perfect.
Movements precise.
Every prayer said with confidence.

But outside the sanctuary, something changed.
His words grew sharp.
His patience grew thin.
He walked past the very people
Jesus calls “the least of these.”

He loved the liturgy…
but he struggled to love the poor.
He proclaimed the Gospel…
but he missed the Christ standing right in front of him.

And before we judge him,
we have to breathe and admit:
there is a little bit of that deacon in all of us.

Because Jesus isn’t asking
how well we serve at the altar.
He is asking
how well we serve Him
in the hungry,
the lonely,
the forgotten.

When love becomes a person in need,
do I recognize Him?
And do I respond?

That is the question.
And that question is meant
to change us today.

Prayer

Lord Jesus,

open my eyes to the places I pass by.

Soften my heart where it has grown hard.

Teach me to see You

in the hungry, the lonely, the forgotten.

When love takes flesh before me,

let me recognize Your face.

Make my hands gentle,

and my steps ready to respond.

Amen