TOGETHERNESS
IN PRAYER

Topics: Church; Community; Lord’s Prayer

References: Matthew 6:9–13; Luke 11:2–4; Acts 2:42–47

I like to fly-fish, and when I do, I spend a lot of time alone. Even when I go on a trip with my son, we usually split up and take different parts of the river to fish. Later we come back and swap stories.

Even when I’m casting by myself, though, in front of a gentle riffle, I never feel alone. I know my son is fishing with me even though he’s not fishing with me.

That’s how it is with the Lord’s Prayer. Even though we say it alone, it reminds us that we’re not alone. That’s the point of the words our and us that run through it. Even when you pray alone, you are reminded that you’re part of a community—in particular, a group that honors Christ, that prays to him regularly, and also, from time to time, says the prayer he taught.

—Mark Galli, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Prayer (Macmillan, 1999)