The Lord’s Prayer Reflected Upon Itself

I usually walk my dog each day along one of the many local park trails and I allow my mind to wander. One day I found myself thinking about a lesson I learned during my time in the theater: the meaning of any sentence is largely determined by where the point of emphasis is placed. For instance, the meaning of the sentence “I love you,” changes based on which word is emphasized or which word is used to reflect the rest of the sentence. For instance, if the word “I” is emphasized, “I love you” reflects my role in the relationship; if the word “love” is emphasized, “I love you” reflects the nature of the relationship; and if the word “you” is emphasized “I love you” reflects the fact that my love’s object is the one to whom I was speaking. The words remain the same, but their reflection changes meaning as the point of emphasis moves.

But this lesson from the stage, I realized, also applies generally to any spoken word in the real world and, specifically, to the Lord’s Prayer. By changing my point of emphasis from one phrase of the Lord’s Prayer to the next, I might arrive at a number of different versions of the Lord’s Prayer. The words would all be the same, of course, and they would all be spoken in the same order, but the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer could subtly change. When I tried this I realized that as I changed my focus from one line of the Lord’s Prayer to the next, the reflection of the prayer became a new prayer I hadn’t before considered.

What these last few posts will consist of will be the many different reflections of the Lord’s Prayer as seen through the light of the different phrases within the Lord’s Prayer. I intended to put all of the various reflections of the Lord’s Prayer into one large post, but I quickly realized that when presented all at once, the reader may not be able to take the time to meditate upon and pray through each reflection. As such, I will be posting only one prayer per day. The frequency of these initial posts will be greater than the usual once-a-week posting, but I trust a post every other day will not be an overload. Some of these reflections may seem slightly redundant in places, but I think you will soon see if you have not already seen, that praying the Lord’s Prayer is a much deeper and more meaningful exercise than we might initially first envision.

I hope these final few posts on the Lord’s Prayer will help deepen your relationship with the Father, his Son, and his Spirit as well as help you become a better disciple of Jesus Christ.

Click on the links below to access each of the ten reflections of the Lord’s Prayer.

• Reflection I: The Lord’s Prayer as seen through the lens of Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name.
• Reflection II: The Lord’s Prayer as seen through the lens of Your kingdom come (on earth as it is in heaven).
• Reflection III: The Lord’s Prayer as seen through the lens of Your will be done (on earth as it is in heaven).
• Reflection IV: The Lord’s Prayer as seen through the lens of On earth as it is in heaven.
• Reflection V: The Lord’s Prayer as seen through the lens of Give us this day our daily bread,
• Reflection VI: The Lord’s Prayer as seen through the lens of And forgive us our debts,
• Reflection VII: The Lord’s Prayer as seen through the lens of As we also have forgiven our debtors.
• Reflection VIII: The Lord’s Prayer as seen through the lens of And lead us not into temptation,
• Reflection IX: The Lord’s Prayer as seen through the lens of But deliver us from evil.
• Reflection X: The Lord’s Prayer as seen through the lens of For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.