As children of the Most High God, we are called to live out The prayer which sums up our life here on earth: The Our Father; The prayer that our Master taught us.

Every week until we cover all the words, we are going to meditate on each word of The Lord’s Prayer and pretend that they are Holy rooms. Imagine that the meaning of each word is like water, so each room is filled with water; now we are going to imagine ourselves as being sponges who freely and individually lock ourselves in these rooms and let “the water” soak into our souls. We are going to keep this in mind while saying the whole prayer.

“Our Father”: It is the essence of our being, a reminder for each one of us that we are not orphans. So, to be able to immerse ourselves completely into these words and to own them, let’s see the “our” as “mine” (This meditation is only to help us be aware of our identity in a personal way; and as we will know who we are by His grace, we will know who others are because He is OUR Father.)

Now, let’s call in mind Who The Father is: The Provider, The Healer, The Counselor, The Teacher, The Savior, The Way Maker, The Merciful, The Lover… and The One who is always for us.

So, we are going to meditate on the full definition of “Our Father” in a personal way (Please read the next lines slowly and while reading them, let’s pause after saying “my” and bring in mind the fact that “my” means that what follows belongs to me and only me, and me as I am, the broken me, the sinful me, the sad me, the mad me, the wounded me…(name your weaknesses)) and it is as follows, “My Father is my Provider, my Healer, my Counselor, my Teacher, my Way Maker, my Savior. The One who is always merciful, patient, and forgiving towards me, The One Who is always for me, and The One who loves me as I am.

(Throughout our days, whenever we can and remember, each one of us will make it intentional to take time, immerge oneself into our spiritual life, call Him “my Father”, and rest on these two words for few minutes, hours, or for as long as one wants or need.)

Before I go further, I would like to do something that is dear to my heart; it might not be my place to do that but as your sister and someone who was born outside the covenant of marriage, and who grew up without her biological father being present, with your permission, I want to apologize for all the times that our biological fathers have failed us.

I apologize for the actions, words, and looks where love was withdrawn from us. I apologize for the empty seat at the dinner table, at the school activities, and even on your important day; I apologize for the pain they inflicted on our mothers; I apologize for the fact that they never apologized or even regretted the wrong they did to us.

I apologize for the pain that they caused to us which is sometimes hard to name because it is unbearable and shameful. I am sorry dear hearts, none of us deserves that.

I pray for healing. May the One Who created our hearts heal us and restore them to their original beauty and innocence, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

The Fatherhood of our Eternal Father is unfathomable. Our human mind is too limited to fully comprehend it and even if we were able to fully grasp it, our hearts won’t be able to support the truth of the love that is the ultimate core of it.

But like our sister in Heaven St. Therese of the Child Jesus, we are going to learn to model our lives to conform to our spiritual childhood. In order for us to achieve our goal, we are going to do some spiritual exercises and we will be doing them as if we were newborns to learn to trust and be completely dependent on Him like newborns are completely dependent on their parents; and sometimes like three years old so we can pour out our hearts to Him with the same honesty and freedom of a three years old.

With His grace, we are going to learn to see life, worship Him, and get to know Him through the lens of our true identity: His sons and daughters.