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  • I don't know how many of you pay particular attention to technology but I do

  • every day.

  • I take a glance at the summary that appears every day on my Droid phone.

  • and I ran across an interesting story this week.

  • It actually marked a kind of milestone that I think all of us probably expected to come

  • We just didn't realize that would come so quickly.

  • It turns out that one of the most popular social networking sites on the web

  • hit a huge milestone this week

  • as they realized their five hundred millionth

  • subscriber

  • that's half a billion people

  • half a billion people subscribing to this particular online networking web site.

  • Now to put that in perspective, if it were a nation-

  • half a billion people subscribers would make it the third largest nation.

  • The third largest

  • after China and India

  • if it were indeed going to be a nation.

  • That's a gigantic number of people

  • and that number of people in the frenzy over the social networking website I think reflects a

  • much deeper need within ourselves

  • to remain connected

  • with one another.

  • Sites like that

  • allow people to quickly share their thoughts and keep

  • connections with friends and family around the world it turns out.

  • Let me ask another question.

  • How many of you are carrying a cell phone

  • right now?

  • Probably the majority of us. I hope you remembered to turn it off

  • when church began.

  • That's not my reason for asking that question though.

  • Think back to ten or fifteen years ago

  • When cell phones were not a necessity but a luxury.

  • Cell phones now allow us

  • to stay in contact with one another

  • very simply.

  • All of that

  • highlights that need that we have to remain connected

  • with one another.

  • In the gospel this morning

  • the disciples are realizing this very profound need

  • for not just staying connected with one another,

  • but with God

  • in prayer.

  • And they've been watching.

  • They've been noticing John the Baptist's disciples praying.

  • And they must pray regularly apparently.

  • And they asked Jesus a simple but beautiful question. Lord can you teach us how to pray?

  • Jesus' response has

  • come to be known as what we call

  • The Lord's Prayer. The our father.

  • One of our most treasured prayers and one of the prayers that can be shared

  • no matter what brand of Christianity we happen to fall under.

  • It's a prayer that unites us and it's a prayer that's easy for us to remember because

  • we've probably been learning it

  • since we were very young.

  • I want to spend some time this morning unpacking

  • this powerful and beautiful prayer.

  • Because although weve known it from a time when we were very young,

  • I think sometimes because we are so familiar with something

  • we can downplay its significance.

  • In order to do this I need to go back to second grade and sister Mary Francis and

  • religious education at Saint Thomas

  • in Saginaw.

  • She taught us a great acronym

  • four letters A.C.T.S.

  • ACTS, when it comes to prayer.

  • ACTS outlines the four different kinds of prayer

  • that are contained with the Lord's Prayer.

  • The letter “A” in that acronym

  • stands for

  • Adoration.

  • God you are so great.

  • You are the source of all being.

  • That's what an adoration prayer means. And we echo that

  • when we say our father who art in heaven

  • hallowed be thy name.

  • A reminder that all we have all we are

  • comes from God.

  • God created us.

  • Because we are the creature and he is the creator

  • we also owe God our adoration and thankfulness for giving us this gift of life he

  • has given to us.

  • but also for the wonders he has created within that world.

  • The beginning of that prayer places things in proper perspective.

  • GOD is GOD. And we are not.

  • God is our savior. We are not our

  • own saviors.

  • The lord's prayer helps us to remember that.

  • The “C” in the acronym ACTS is for contrition

  • Oh there's a word that makes us uncomfortable

  • because none of us likes to admit to God

  • or to one another that

  • we messed up.

  • But that's exactly what a prayer of contrition

  • reminds us.

  • That we messed up and we need forgiveness of God and the forgiveness of one another.

  • And we need to be forgiving people.

  • In Matthew's version of the Lord's Prayer (the one that we pray to get most often)

  • We say forgive us our trespasses

  • as we forgive those that

  • trespass against us.

  • Notice how that's phrased. It's kind of a measuring stick.

  • Not only do we realize the need for forgiveness from God

  • but also

  • Jesus reminds us that we need to be forgiving

  • toward one another.

  • And in a certain way

  • our forgiveness toward one another will be a measuring stick

  • for the forgiveness that God

  • extends to us.

  • But it's important for us to pause on a regular basis and think;

  • What have I done or not done?

  • What have I said or not said?

  • that might hurt the people close to me?

  • or the people sitting next to me?

  • How will it affect my relationship with God?

  • When we come to that realization we also

  • realize that we must ask for forgiveness.

  • That's the contrition part of prayer.

  • So we have "A" adoration and "C" contrition.

  • “T” is for thanksgiving. Now there's one were more comfortable with.

  • We have a holiday in November that's all about thanksgiving right?

  • That should be adequate. One time a year, right?

  • WRONG

  • What is it that we have to be thankful for?

  • "Give us this day our daily bread."

  • What is it that we have to be thankful for?

  • We have that daily bread.

  • We have the talent in our hands.

  • The love in our hearts. The wisdom in our minds.

  • We did not manufacture that. We are not the source of those things.

  • God is the source of those. We are their caretakers. We are their stewards.

  • and so it's necessary for us to remember those great blessings God has shared with us to pause in

  • thanksgiving

  • And then finally the "S" in the acronym

  • So "A" we get adoration,

  • C is contrition, T is thanksgiving

  • "S" stands for

  • "supplication."

  • That's the kind of prayer we're most familiar with.

  • Supplication. To ask something for ourselves or for someone else.

  • Sometimes when things are tough and we're not feeling well, we'll ask a friend a family member

  • to pray for me?”

  • And sometimes when we realize that things are not going well for another we will say

  • I have

  • been keeping you

  • in my prayers.

  • Hopefully those are prayers of supplication.

  • Thy Kingdom come

  • thy will be done.

  • Not my kingdom.

  • Not our kingdom.

  • Not my will.

  • Not our will.

  • But God's kingdom.

  • and God's will.

  • When were asking for that,

  • think of what it is were asking for?

  • We're asking for God's kingdom to be present here and now.

  • We're asking for a reality that strips away all the ways that we

  • differentiate one from another.

  • Based on gender, social class, language, skin color

  • all of the other ways that we divide one from another.

  • God's kingdom instead

  • unites.

  • that's a radical

  • challenging

  • powerful thing

  • to pray for.

  • but that's the unfolding reality. It's in our midst of that unfolding reality

  • that is a part of our prayer whenever we pray

  • the Lord's Prayer.

  • The Lord's Prayer is so beautiful because it wraps together all of those four kinds of

  • prayer.

  • Adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, supplication.

  • And does it so beautifully and so simply.

  • As Saint Therese said,

  • I would much rather pray one our father slowly and well

  • than one hundred

  • quickly and without care.

  • That's because of the beauty of the significance contained in this prayer

  • that Jesus teaches the disciples.

  • they want to remain connected with one another and they want to remain connected with God.

  • So do we

  • This prayer provides us one way, one means, one Avenue.

  • Jesus also offers us another beautiful way to remain connected

  • with one another

  • through this Eucharist we share together

  • before we come to receive this Eucharist we will pray the Lord's Prayer

  • together

  • Asking God.

  • Thanking God.

  • Praising God.

  • and realizing

  • in the end that we're not worthy of so great a gift.

  • And he calls us forward

  • to be connected

  • with one another

  • and with him.

  • and the great body of Christ.

I don't know how many of you pay particular attention to technology but I do

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