that he has counted every hair on our heads, and that he knows our needs before we ask. And still he teaches us to go to God, saying, “Our Father.” If God doesn’t need us to inform him of anything but still asks us to speak, then he must want to listen. God listens to our mumbled prayers, so that we may confidently draw close to him. He wants us to be certain that he hears us, that he loves us. And knowing that we are loved changes us: It makes us bold! At Mass, the priest introduces the Lord’s Prayer in this way: “At the Savior’s command and formed by divine teaching, we dare to say....” Think of the confidence with which a little child approaches his father to ask for something. Jesus Christ commands us to address God as “Our Father.” In fact, how could we have the courage if he had not taught us to? Saint Peter Chrysologus asks, “When have mortals dared to call God their Father, except now, when the deepest recesses of the human being are enlivened by power from heaven?”12 We are changed in the deepest way, made into children of God. We courageously cry out to the One who made all things because he has given us his Spirit of adoption. We do not know how to pray as we ought, Saint Paul says, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us (Rom 8:26). What does the Spirit stir us to say? “Our Father!” CHAPTER 1 OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN
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