What a long way we are from knowing how to live "Our Father"!

What a long way we are from knowing how to live "Our Father"!

Then again, when we say, 'Thy will be done.' It's easy enough to accept God’s will when it coincides with our own. We know exactly how to ask the Lord for things, but the Lord had better look out and agree with what we want. And on no account should the Lord think or want anything different.

And yet, very often what we ask for isn't what is good for us. We are like children, as far as the Lord is concerned. A father knows better than to give his child the knife it wants to play with or to let it go down the stairs on its own.

You know the prayer I love to say? 'Lord, may your grace help me to want what you want, to prefer what you prefer...' For, honestly, what do we know? We ought to do everything as though all depended on us, at the same time putting ourselves into the Lord’s hands, knowing that our own strength lies in offering him our weaknesses.

We really need to learn to live Christ's prayer. To learn for instance how to share our bread...

If only we Christians, charged with the terrible responsibility of bearing the name of Christ, if only we could at least really behave like brothers and sisters.

* Dom Helder Camara