September 13, 2026

Twenty Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

by Fr. Jonah, O.P.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We all want to be better at praying, or maybe we’re nervous that we don’t in fact know how to pray at all. The good news is that Our Lord has given us a perfect school of prayer, the Our Father. Most all of us know it by heart, and it’s easy to learn if you don’t. Consider that: it’s quite probably the case that you already have memorized a perfect instruction program on how to pray. Thank God for the Lord’s Prayer.

As we enter into autumn, I’m going to dedicate a number of these letters to some small meditations on the Our Father. I hope they help you pray.

“Our Father…”

God is our Father. He’s not just my Father, and he’s not just your Father. He’s our Father. That means that we are related to each other. It means that there is something that unites us: God. To say the Our Father is to make an act of unity with others. Since God is the creator of us all, you could say that all humans are united as fellow creatures, fellow children of the same creator. There’s a deeper unity that Christians share by virtue of their baptism. When you are baptized, your life is merged with the life of the only-begotten Son of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s how we can say we are adopted sons and daughters of the Father, because the life of Christ has been made our own life. “He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:5). 

As the Lord’s Prayer goes on, you’ll notice that it prompts us to pray for each other: Give us this day . . . Forgive us our trespasses . . . Lead us not into temptation . . . Deliver us from evil. You never pray the Our Father for yourself alone. The words won’t let you. We have to be united to each other in our hearts in order to say the words honestly.

May God pour out the Holy Spirit into our hearts to unite us in the life of his Son, Jesus Christ, who is Lord for ever and ever. Amen.

Know of my prayers for all of you.

In Christ,

Fr. Jonah, O.P.