2018-5-11

朋友们，今天的福音号召我们以耶稣的名义祈祷，使祈祷成为一种生活方式。你有没有注意到当我们在礼拜仪式、正式场合中祈祷，我们总是以主耶稣的名义祷告？这是因为耶稣自己吩咐我们要做的：“你们因我的名无论向父求什么，他必赐给你们。”当我们以耶稣的名义祈祷，我们依靠的是祂对圣父的影响力，信赖圣父会听耶稣的转告。

 

这也是自然监控和塑造我们祈祷的方式。当我们祈祷时说“因主耶稣基督之名”，我们即以耶稣的立场、态度和精神来祈祷，甘愿要祂想要的东西。因此，我们可以耶稣的名义来诚诚恳恳、坚持不懈地为正义、和平、宽恕和大爱而祈祷。

 

Friends, today’s Gospel calls us to pray in Jesus’ name, making our prayer a way of life. Have you noticed that when we pray liturgically, officially, we always do so in the name of Jesus the Lord? This is because Jesus himself told us so: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.” When we pray in Jesus’ name, we are relying on his influence with the Father, trusting that the Father will listen to him.

 

It also is a way of naturally monitoring and shaping our prayers. When we pray “through Christ our Lord,” we are praying in the stance, attitude, and spirit of Jesus, deigning to want the sort of things that he wants. So we can pray, honestly and consistently, for justice, peace, forgiveness, and greater love, all in Jesus’ name.

 

2018-5-12

朋友们，今天的福音敦促我们期待圣父回应我们的祈祷，因为祂爱着我们。“在那一天，你们要因我的名祈求，我不向你们说：我要为你们求父，因为父自己爱你们，因你们爱了我，且相信我出自天主。”

 

请记住，祈祷并不是用来改变天主的心意或者告知天主闻所未闻的事情。天主不像土豪劣绅或达官贵人那样需要我们去说服。更确切地说，天主唯一想做的就是给予我们好东西—尽管这些好东西不一定是我们想要的。

 

宗教的全部意义在于使我们谦卑地面对天主并引导我们走上爱的道路，其他一切或多或少都是次要的。礼拜仪式、祈祷、教会规条、诫命、圣事、圣礼仪式——所有的一切——说到底都是为了让我们遵从爱之道。若效果适得其反，那么上述的一切就失去了意义。

 

Friends, today’s Gospel urges us to expect the Father to answer our prayers because he loves us. “On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God.”

 

Keep in mind that prayer is not designed so much to change God’s mind or to tell God something he doesn’t know. God isn’t like a big city boss or a reluctant pasha whom we have to persuade. He is, rather, the one who wants nothing other than to give us good things—though they might not always be what we want.

 

The entire point of religion is to make us humble before God and to open us to the path of love. Everything else is more or less a footnote. Liturgy, prayer, the precepts of the Church, the commandments, sacraments, sacramentals—all of it—are finally meant to conform us to the way of love. When they instead turn us away from that path, they have been undermined.