When the disciples of Jesus asked for help with prayer, Jesus, so the tradition goes, gave them a model prayer.  Simone Weil claimed that this familiar set of six petitions includes everything that any true prayer includes.
(“. . . we cannot conceive of any prayer not already contained within it.” – from the last paragraph of  her essay “Concerning the Our Father”)

Our Father who art in heaven

These opening words indicate to whom we are praying.  We are addressing the sire of our existence,  the womb of our origin,  the beyond of the beyond of the beyond.  That Jesus chose the metaphor “father” rather than “mother” does not mean a contempt of women.  It means that he lived in the first Century, not the twenty-first.  Also, Jesus did not think of God as a human-built model of human values.  God was sheer Mystery –  the Unknowable Unknown without beard or penis, breasts or vagina.  For this enigmatic Source of our existence, Jesus used the word “Papa” rather than “sire” or “womb” or “enigma,” not because he knew  something  about  the  nature  of  God,  but because  his relationship with this Final Source was familial.  He trusted this Final Source of everything to be for him.  He considered himself offspring of  this Ultimate Parenting.  He gave up his right to judge this Final Source and assumed that all that came toward  him  from that Source  was  good  for  him and for everyone.  “Papa” (abba) was a devotional word, not a description of God.

Hallowed be Thy name

All that we or Jesus or anyone know for certain about this Final Source is that it is mysterious beyond all measure.  The name given us is “Hallowed,” which is another word for Awesomeness, Mysteriousness, or Wonderment. That is, we have no name at all.  We do not have a name that defines God.  Rather this God of Moses and the prophets is the Mysterious Actuality that defines us.  When in the story about the bush, Moses asked for a name, “NO NAME” was the answer he got.  “I AM THAT I AM”  means “stop asking for a name!”    When we say “Hallowed be Thy name,” we affirm that Wonder or  “Namelessness” is the only name we have for this Thou to whom we are to pray.

We are instructed with this first of six model petitions to hallow this already hallowed Final Reality.  This Hallowed Otherness does not need our hallowing.  It is we who need to hallow the Hallowed.  Our hallowing means opening in trust to those here and now moments in which we are confronting this Hallowedness, this Awesomeness – this Mystery that never ceases to be mysterious.

Thy Kingdom Come

This second model petition concerns the future. The future is the surprise that happens to us as we are expecting something else.  The future we have constructed from our experiences of the past is a prediction that is never entirely true. The actual future contains elements that are always unpredictable.  We tend to be closed to whatever is unfamiliar.  We tend to want life to continue in whatever familiar rut we have constructed for it.  Sometimes our self-constructed expectations are optimistic, overly sentimental, less grim than life usually turns out to be.  At other times our self-constructed expectations are pessimistic, overly glum, less glorious or joyous or innovative than life turns out to be.  We do not know what the future will bring. This model petition is saying, “Let it come!”   Openness to the actual future is the quality implied in this petition.  If loss of everything I hold dear is my future, let it come.  If gains that taunt all my pessimism is my future, let it come. Thy, not my, kingdom come.

Like the prophets, Jesus views the God he prays to as King over the future.   So, the Kingdom of this Mysterious King will not be the kingdom I have imagined for myself or hope to build.  God’s Kingdom will not be built by me.  God’s Kingdom will come to me as a surprise, as unpredictable, as beyond my wildest dreams.  If the term “kingdom” offends us, we need to remember that Jesus never heard of a democracy.  And even if he had, Final Reality is not a democracy in which my vote determines the leadership of this kingdom.  No, the leadership of Final Reality is beyond my control.  That leadership, that King, will indeed grant me the freedom to make some difference and hold me accountable for the differences I make, but that will never mean that I tell this King how to behave. This King is King in a manner that makes me, for the most part, helpless in controlling the future.  For me to pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” means that I choose to be open to whatever comes. And that means that I choose to be detached from all “my kingdoms of expectation.”  It means that I am ready to be surprised. That is the second model petition on how to pray.

Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven

This third model petition pertains to the past as well as to the present and future. Whatever has happened in the past is all we actually know about the Will of God. Whatever has happened is the Will of Final Reality; otherwise it would not have happened.  God as Final Reality has already done God’s will, is still doing God’s Will, and will do God’s Will in the future.  This petition means that we are consenting to the Will that God (Final Reality) has already done, is doing, and will do.  Concerning the past, we are consenting to let the past be the past.  Whatever has happened has brought us to our one and only real moment.  That past cannot be undone.  Our current moment can now be nothing other than it is.  This is it.  This petition is saying “So be it.”

So be it here on Earth!  We are not talking about some other realm.  We are talking about the health or lack of health of our body.  We are talking about the life or death of our companions.  We are talking about the economic conditions of our community, nation, and globe.  We are talking about the political structures we have and the leaders that we have to operate those structures.  We are talking about the human-made cultures in which we live.  The choices that we and humanity have made in the past have resulted in these consequences.  Yet it was Final Reality, not humanity, that made the final determination about what these existing consequences would be.  The past is God’s will (that is, the real past is what Reality happened to happen).  We cannot get the past back.  We cannot do it over.  It is done.  “Thy will be done” means that we consent to what has been done, we leave behind all pride, all shame, all guilt about the past.  What is done is done.  What is done belongs to God (Reality did it and now Reality owns it and won’t give it back).  Let it be.  Thy will be done.

In praying this petition we also “let be” the present. The present is a moment of decision between past and future.  We cannot undo the past. We cannot have a different present.  But we can choose with regard to the future.  And it is God’s will (that is, Reality’s determination) that our choices will make a difference with regard to the next present we will have and the next past that will be our past.  Our choices matter.  This is God’s will.  An eternal weight of significance is placed upon our God-given freedom. How do we know that our freedom is God-given?  Because it is given.  Whatever is given is God-given, Reality-given.  In some situations Freedom is not given.  Perhaps we are still trapped in old habits that rob us of our Freedom.  But old habits can be broken.  Habits are just habits.  Our Freedom constructed those habits and our Freedom can be rescued from those habits and be given power in the present moment to choose beyond those old habits and perhaps set different habits in motion.  When we choose in this present moment to act beyond all our habits, we are creating an act out of that deep well of emptiness that is our Freedom.  Freedom is an uncaused act.  We opt it.  Like God (the Ultimate Source), we can bring something out of nothing.  We can opt to choose.  We can opt to choose here on Earth in this moment toward a future that is unknown, but nevertheless impacted by our choosing.  This moment of Freedom is God’s Will.  Reality gives us our Freedom and requires of us a choice.  Thy Will be done!

And the future is also God’s will.  Our choice will make its impact because it is the actuality of ACTUALITY for that to be so.  (What will be will be different because we decide, even though that difference may be other than the future we expect.)  The impact that our choice will make is beyond our control.  God/Reality will provide the future.  It will be a surprise.   In praying “Thy will be done,” we open to this surprise.  And we will show up in that surprising future in a new present which again allows us choice.  This new opportunity for further choice is also God’s will.  “Thy will be done” means “let dialogue with Reality continue.”

“On Earth” means “here and now where we actually live.”  We do not wait for some other time or place to let God’s will be done.  “As it is in heaven” means “As it is in the eternal essence of things.”  God’s will is always being done and will be done eternally.  Reality is Reality is Reality.  It is we who are here and now on Earth who are instructed to pray “Thy will be done.” This petition does not change the Eternal, it changes us and all our temporal doings.  It means that we no longer rebel or flee the reality of our past, our present, or our potential future.  Rather, we allow it; we open to it; we do it.  In this third petition of the exemplary model for prayer, we choose realistic living.  Thy will be done!

Give us this day our daily bread

This fourth model petition reminds me of the life of the birds who fly about our bird feeder.  This seems to be their prayer, “Give us this day our daily seeds.”  They do not pray for seeds for tomorrow. They only eat today. And they do not pray to Joyce and I about these seeds. They do not know who brings the seeds, nor do they care.  They only care that seeds are somehow and somewhere provided.  They do not know or try to know the mysteries of seed provision. They just eat. They seek seed and they eat.  They do not bring all this to consciousness as we must do.  It is we, not they, who are asked to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

On the ground floor level of living, humans are similar to the birds.  We seek our food and other necessities of our bodily lives. We expect “God/Reality” to provide. We agree that it is appropriate to ask for this provision.  We agree that it is appropriate for us to eat, drink, sleep, keep warm, keep cool, keep dry, wash off — our   primary needs.  As we pray this for ourselves, we also pray this for all persons.  We do not assume that we deserve to eat, and that others do not.  We do not assume that we have entirely provided for ourselves and have no dependence on others and on the whole structure of the cosmos.  No, Reality is providing.  In petitioning Reality/God to continue providing, we take responsibility to share in the structures of that providing.  We notice that we are participating in a network of providing that provides for every human and every living being.  We can receive and we can enhance the receiving for ourselves and others.

None of us actually deserves to receive our lives and our food.   What an amazingly rare and good fortune it is to have shown up on such a generous planet.  No other planet in our solar system provides like this.  We were born here.  We live here.  Realistic living begins by admitting our dependence and by asking Reality to “Give us this day our daily bread.”

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors

Since this fifth model petition is also made to God, the Hallowed Finality, these are strange debts we are talking about.  God is not literally a big bank from whom we have borrowed money.  If we can be viewed as being in debt to the Final Reality, it must be because we have failed to live realistically and bear the consequences of that unrealism.  So in this petition we are asking for a fresh start in realistic living.  We, like the prodigal son, are asking to return from our far country of devastating unrealism to the real life we have squandered.  We are asked to pray this fifth petition because we need to ask for forgiveness in order to claim it.  God’s forgiveness is never absent.  It is our asking that has been absent.  It is our willingness to return to Reality that has been missing.  Reality has never been missing.  It is we who have been missing from Reality.

Jesus links this request for forgiveness to our forgiveness of those who have mistreated us, who have not paid their debt of realism to us, who have treated us unrealistically: moralistically in ways that denied us forgiveness, rationally in ways that did not recognize our whole emotional and Spirit being, sentimentally in ways that did not encourage our realistic living, violently in ways that disrespected our humanity, stupidly in ways that paid little or no attention to us, and this list is very long. Implied in this petition is the fact that we cannot ask for our own forgiveness of all these things unless we are also asking for the forgiveness of everyone – and indeed granting our forgiveness to everyone who owes us for the neglect and violations they have done.

The most preposterous implication within this fifth instruction on true prayer is this: Everyone is already forgiven by Final Reality, has always been forgiven, is now forgiven, and always will be forgiven.  To appropriate this restoration to realism all we have to do is ask for this ever-present forgiveness.  All anyone has to do is ask.  Final Reality stands ready, like the benevolent father in the prodigal son story, to receive us back into the family, to provide us fresh clothes, to put arms around us and kiss us, to throw a feast with excellent food.

And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil

This sixth model petition recognizes that most of our “praying” has been about asking Final Reality to provide us with those unrealities that we most desire.  With this sixth model petition we are instructed to ask to be kept real, to be kept home in the bosom of actuality.  And what is evil?  Evil is being lost in unreality – being lost in the manufacturings of our own silly minds – not noticing that our thoughts and our actuality are two different things – not noticing that we are not thinking about what is actual, but are using our thinking minds to create a world of our desire to replace the world of our IS.

This model petition also implies that Final Reality can and will answer our request.  We are never certain what that answer will be, but this  petition implies trusting Reality to lead us into realism, not temptation.  God/Reality will deliver us from illusory living, the only evil.  All that is missing here is our request, our willingness to be delivered, our willingness to give up our temptations to unreality. Praying this prayer changes the sternness of Reality in its opposition to our unrealities into the blessing of Reality upon our ongoing success with the option of realistic living.

A deep irony is present in this petition.  Often the last thing we want to pray for is realistic living.  Often we would rather die than give up our illusions.  Often we would rather rage in despair for the rest of our days than give up our desires to have life be different than it actually is.  The temptation to such evil is very strong.  Nothing is stronger than this temptation, except Reality. Yes, Final Reality is able to turn illusion into nothing in the blink of an eye.

So, the benediction that was added to these six model petitions is appropriate:

For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power,
and the Glory Forever

In other words, if you insist on picking a fight with Reality, you will lose.  For Infinite Reality is the Rule that rules all things, the primal Power that none can defeat, and the Glory of fulsome joy meant for us from the beginning and for all time.

Here in simplified form is my metaphorical translation of the model prayer:

Our Father who art in heaven

Oh Infinite Silence, our devotional Thou, our Primal Parent,

Hallowed be Thy name

May we honor Your nameless awesomeness.

Thy Kingdom Come

May we open ourselves to whatever future You will bring to us and our planet.

Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven

May we accept the past and also the present situation of limits and possibilities as

Your good gift to us in this real down-to-Earth moment.

Give us this day our daily bread

We ask no more than what we need for today’s living.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors

We ask for forgiveness for our malice, our bondage, and our self-inflicted despair,

and we ask that we be similarly forgiving toward all our companions.

And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil

Guard us from the lure of unreality and deliver us from a life of despair.

For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power,
and the Glory Forever

For Yours, Oh Final Reality, is the Rule that rules all things,

the primal Power that none can defeat,

and the Glory of fulsome joy meant for us all

from the beginning and for all time to come.