Last time when we were discussing the first words of the Lord’s prayer, ‘Our Father,’  a gentleman from Hong Kong told us that the Chinese translation of the prayer began with ‘Heavenly Father’ and did not divide off the ‘being in heaven’ into a separate clause.  When talking about this later with others I found an interesting divergence of opinion.  Some thought that calling God our ‘heavenly father’ drew Him closer to us, as not being in a remote place ‘heaven.’ 

Introduction Last time Sr Tamsin gave us a general introduction to the whole of the Our Father, and from now on we’ll be focusing in turn on the different statements it contains. As it happens, there is a tradition in the Church of praying the Lord’s Prayer rather like this. St Ignatius of Loyola, for instance, suggests that, in our personal praying of the Our Father, it can be helpful to dwell on the first word for as long as we find spiritual nourishment in it, and then move on to the second, and so on.

So, we are moving on from the Beatitudes to the Our Father. This talk will serve as a sort of bridge, referring back to where we have been and forward into the topic of prayer, in relation to the Our Father, which is the pattern for all prayer. Once when I was travelling to London, I was handed a free magazine, a very worthy magazine, mostly about how to improve - how to eat the best food, drink the best drink, exercise and so on. 

This afternoon I am going to lead you in a meditation on the wounds of Christ and the instruments of the Passion, looking at how Christ suffered and what this means for us in our own lives.  So the first instruments of the Passion were the Scourge and the Crown of Thorns.

There is a story of a catechist telling the parable of the self-righteous Pharisee and the humble tax collector going to pray at the Jerusalem temple. Having read the passage to her class, she comments: “now, children, aren’t we glad we’re not like that nasty Pharisee”. At first sight, our short reading tonight might suggest a similar kind of confusion.