This is the final talk in our series on the Our Father. We hope to be running another series in the autumn. The words we are looking at this evening, like the whole of the Our Father, are at first sight comforting in their familiarity. But, when we stop to reflect, the ground seems to shift beneath our feet slightly alarmingly.  Deliver us from evil: a quick perusal of the daily news certainly confirms

The words of the Our Father speak to the depths of our need, our need for God, and what we need from God. So far, we have explored the coming Kingdom, the doing of God’s will, the gift of bread for both physical sustenance and - in Jesus as the Bread of life -spiritual life. Today we are going to look at the petition in the Our Father

How am I going to follow that?!  This is probably a fairly common reaction to occupying the slot immediately after Sr Gemma in a lecture series, but in my case this evening, it’s not just that I’m concerned that I might personally be an anticlimax – it’s also that there is a particular and rather obvious kind of challenge involved for anyone in speaking about the Crucifixion after the Resurrection, Good Friday after Easter Day. But maybe the scheduling conflict that has brought about this reversal is providential.

How can St John of the Cross help us to pray?   I want to begin by saying that I’m somewhat further out from my comfort zone today than I was last week, when I was speaking about his spiritual daughter St Therese of Lisieux.  But, in a strange sort of way, I wonder if this might be vaguely helpful, as I suspect this is perhaps true for some of you as well – so let’s set out on this voyage of discovery together. For those of you who were here last week, you might remember that I was interested in exploring the idea that the saints show us not so much how as why to pray. I went on to suggest that therefore we should a) be a bit suspicious of a search for methods and techniques in prayer and b) look for evidence in the saint’s own life of the difference prayer makes to them, not so that we can slavishly copy the way they prayed, but to see if their motivation for praying and the effect it had in their lives might offer us consolation and inspiration when we reflect on our motivation and the work God is doing in our lives.

I have been asked to talk to you on the subject of fasting and self-denial.  As my physique might suggest, I am no great expert on the topic, but I have access to those who are, and I have spent this Lent (among other things), gleaning and gathering together some thoughts on the matter. The fifth precept of the Church is “You shall observe the prescribed days of fasting and abstinence." This, the Catechism of the Church assures us ‘ensures the times of ascesis and penance which prepare us for the liturgical feasts; they help us acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart.’[1] During Lent we have attempted (and perhaps failed) to exercise the three-fold ascesis of fasting, almsgiving and prayer.  It may seem a little late to begin to ask ourselves what, in particular, is the point of fasting.