LITANY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN:

When we say "Our" Father, we are invoking the new covenant in Jesus Christ, communion with the Holy Trinity, and the divine love which spreads through the Church to encompass the world.Praying to our Father should develop in us the will to become like him and foster in us a humble and trusting heart."Who art in heaven" does not refer to a place but to God's majesty and his presence in the hearts of the just. Heaven, the Father's house, is the true home land toward which we are heading and to which,already, we belong. The Lord's Prayer contains seven petitions made to God the Father. The object of the first three petitions is the glory of the Father:the sanctification of his name, the coming of the Kingdom, and the fulfillment of his will.The four other petitions present our wants to him: they ask that our lives be nourished, healed of sin, and made victorious in the struggle of good over evil. The seven petitions follows:

HOLLOWED BE THY NAME:

Beginning with this first petition to our Father, we are immersed in the innermost mystery of the holiness,majesty, honor and glory of God!We ask God to hallow his name,which by its own holiness saves and make holy all creation. It is this name that gives salvation to a lost world.We ask that this name of God should be hallowed in us through our actions.For God's name is blessed when we live well, but is blasphemed when we live wickedly. As the Apostle Paul says: "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." We ask then that, just as the name of God is holy, so may we obtain his holiness in our souls. Prayer to our Father is our prayer, if it is prayed in the name of Jesus. In his priestly prayer, Jesus asks: "Holy Father, protect in your name those whom you have given me."

Thy Kingdom Come

The Church prays for the final coming of the Kingdom of God through Christ's return in glory. The Church prays also that the Kingdom of God increase from now on through people's sanctification in the Spirit and through their commitment to the service of justice and peace in keeping with the Beatitudes.This petition is the cry of the Spirit and the Bride: "Come, Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22-20).

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Thy Will Be Done on Earth,as it is in Heaven

Jesus teaches us that one enters the Kingdom of Heaven not by speaking words, but by doing " the will of my Father in heaven" (Mt. 7:21). God's expression of his will is the Commandment that you love one another, even as I have loved you (Jn.13:34)." Although he was a Son. [Jesus] learned obedience through what he suffered" (Heb.5:8). For this reason Jesus gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God the Father. By prayer we can discern what is the will of God for us and obtain the endurance to do it. In committing ourselves to Jesus, we can become one spirit with him, and thereby accomplish his will that will be perfect on earth as it is in heaven.

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

Jesus teaches us this petition, because it glorifies our Father by acknowledging how good he is, beyond all goodness. The Father who gives us life cannot but give us the nourishment life requires - all appropriate goods and blessings, both material and spiritual. The presence of world hunger calls Christians to exercise responsibility and justice for the poor, to share with love our spiritual and material goods. This petition also addresses the spiritual famine of the world, and the Christian is to proclaim the good news to the poor. The specifically Christian sense of this fourth petition concerns the Bread of Life: The Word of God accepted in faith, the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is our daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food members of him, we may become what we receive... This also is our daily bread: readings we hear its day in church and the hymns we hear and sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage.