Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Ba Tuần thứ Nhất Mùa Chay (

Suy Niệm Tin Mừng Thứ Ba Tuần thứ Nhất Mùa Chay (Mt 6: 7-15)
Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu dạy chúng ta biết cách cư xử với Thiên Chúa như cách nguời con cư xử với người cha của chúng ta. Khía cạnh đầu tiên là chúng ta phải nên có sự tin tưởng và niềm tự tin vào nơi Thiên Chúa khi chúng ta tâm sự với Ngài. Nhưng Chúa Giêsu cũng cảnh báo chúng ta: “Khi cầu nguyện, anh em đừng lải nhải nhiều lời..” (Mt 6:7). Khi chúng ta nói chuyện với cha mẹ của chúng ta, chúng ta không bao giờ lý luận phức tạp, cũng không phải nói nhiều, nhưng chúng ta chỉ đơn giản là xin cha me cho chúng ta những gì chúng cho cần và muốn xin. Chúng ta nên luôn luôn biết rằng Thiên Chúa sẽ nghe những lời cầu xin của chúng ta bởi vì Thiên Chúa cũng là người Cha yêu thương chúng ta-và nghe lời chúng ta. Trong thực tế, cầu nguyện không phải là việc trình bày, phúc trình hay việc báo cáo cho Thiên Chúa những gì chúng ta muốn làm, những gì chúng ta dự định làm và những thành quả mà chúng ta đã làm, nhưng cầu nguyện với Chúa là để khẩn khoàn cầu xin Chúa ban cho chúng ta những gì chúng ta cần, như “Cha của anh em biết rõ anh em cần gì trước khi anh em cầu xin” (Mt 6:8). Chúng ta sẽ không phải là ngưới Kitô hữu tốt lành nếu chúng ta không cầu nguyện, như người con không thể là một đứa con tốt,  có hiếu, nếu anh ta không nói chuyện với cha mẹ của mình.
            Trong Mùa Chay, Giáo Hội nhắc nhở chúng ta nên biết dùng thời giờ để lắng đọng tâm hồn và cầu nguyện một cách sâu đậm hơn như Thánh Gioan Kim Khẩu đã nói: “Lời cầu nguyện, là những cuộc đối thoại trực tiếp giữa  chúng ta với Thiên Chúa, là kho tàng quý báu nhất của chúng ta, bởi vì nhờ đó mà chúng ta được kết hợp với Người”.  Điều cần nhất là để chúng ta cần phải biết sống trong đức bác ái thì lời cầu nguyện sẽ mang lại sức mạnh cho chúng ta để chúng ta sống thánh thiện hơn mỗi ngày. Những lý do tại sao chúng ta cầu nguyện với Chúa mỗi ngày là vì cầu nguyện giúp chúng ta biết tha thứ không phải chỉ là những vấn đề xích mích nhỏ thôi, Nhưng giúp chúng ta có thể  đối diện với những vấn đề to lớn khác, nhưng không thể bằng những lời nói và thái độ thù nghịch, tấn công và còn hơn thế nữa, Cầu nguyện giúp ta có khả năng chịu đựng, không có ác ý hay làm tổn thương đến người nào khác, Và chúng ta có thể thành thật nói với người thù nghịch của chúng ta là chúng ta đã thật lòng tha thứ cho hô với những gì mà họ đang mắc nợ với chúng ta. Và chúng ta có thể làm được điều đó vì có Chúa Thánh Thần nâng đỡ và hướng dẫn chúng ta và Đức Maria, mẹ Thiên Chúa cầu bầu cho chúng ta có được sức mạnh để phấn đấu.
            Ôi lạy Chúa! Xin Chúa giúp chúng con để chúng con biết con cần phải học biết làm thế nào để cầu nguyện và làm thế nào để thâu hoạch những ơn ích cụ thể cho cuộc sống của riêng của chúng con mỗi ngày qua việc cầu nguyện.”
 
Comment: When you pray, do not use a lot of words; your Father knows what you need
Today, Jesus —the Son of God— teaches us how to behave like a son of God. A first aspect is our trust and the confidence we should have when we talk to him. But our Lord warns us: «When you pray, do not use a lot of words» (Mt 6:7). When we talk to our parents, we do not resort to complicate reasoning, nor to using a lot of words, but they simply ask for what they need. We should always know God will listen to us because God —who is also the Father— loves us and listens to us. In fact, to pray is not so much to inform God, but to ask him for all we need, as «Your Father knows what you need, even before you ask him» (Mt 6:8). We will not be good Christians if we do not pray, as a son cannot be a good son if he does not talk to his parents.
            The Lord's Prayer is the prayer that Jesus himself taught us, and it is just a compendium of our Christian life. Each time we say the Lord's Prayer we let the Father to take us by the hand and we ask him what we need everyday to become a better sons of God. We need not only the material bread, but —more than that— the Celestial Bread: «Let us beg we never lack the Eucharist bread». We need also to learn to forgive and to be forgiven: «To be able to receive the forgiveness God offers us, let us to address ourselves to the Father who loves us», as it is said in the Mass in the preliminary introduction to our Lord's Prayer.
            During Lent, the Church is asking us to deepen in our prayers. «The prayer, our colloquy with God, is our best treasure, because it means (...) being united to him» (Saint John Crisostom). Oh Lord! I need to learn how to pray and how to draw specific benefits for my own life. Mostly to live the virtue of charity: the prayer gives me strength to live it better every day. And this is why I ask him daily to help me to forgive not only the small troubles I may have to face from others but, also, the offensive words and attitudes and, more than that, to bear no malice to my fellow men, so that I can sincerely tell them I have forgiven from the bottom of my heart those who are in debt with me. I will be able to achieve it because God's Mother will help me at all times.
 
Tuesday of the First Week of Lent
Jesus said to his disciples: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you are to pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…” Matthew 6:7–8
Prayer is so essential to our spiritual lives that we should strive to live in a state of constant prayer, all day, every day. However, saying prayers is very different from truly praying. Jesus begins by teaching that prayer is not about “babbling many words.” We do not pray to change God’s mind or to convince Him to do our will. That is not the essence of prayer. Jesus is very clear: “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
So, how do you pray? Do you come to God with a list of requests, thinking that if you ask enough or in the right way, He will grant your wishes? Consider how a child might plead with a parent until the parent finally gives in. Is this how God wants us to approach Him in prayer? Certainly not. Prayer must be constant—asking, pleading, and even begging—but for what? Should we beg God to conform to what we think is best? No. True prayer is when we ask, plead, and beg that God change us and conform us to His perfect will.
The Our Father teaches us both the sentiments and content of true prayer. We begin by acknowledging who God is—our loving and intimate Father who dwells in Heaven. Though He is transcendent and beyond us, He is also near, like a father who lovingly watches over His children.
God is holy—wholly other, perfect in every way, the Holy One. For this reason, we adore Him, proclaiming that even His name is holy.
What do we ask of God in prayer? Not that He fulfills our will, but that “Thy will be done!” His will is accomplished when His Kingdom is established in our lives—when He governs us and we live in obedience to His every precept. This requires deep trust and surrender.
We also ask for our “daily bread,” which includes all that we need materially and spiritually. We must trust that God will never forsake us as long as we remain faithful to Him. He always provides. Those who rely on worldly riches rather than on God’s providence may find themselves spiritually impoverished, so we ask God to provide for every need according to His will.
One of our greatest needs is for forgiveness. We all sin and are in need of mercy, which only God can provide. However, God’s forgiveness comes with a condition—we must forgive others as well. If we do not extend forgiveness to others, we cannot fully receive it ourselves. True forgiveness, once received, transforms us so profoundly that it must overflow to others as freely and abundantly as it was given to us.
The Lord’s Prayer concludes by acknowledging the reality of the evil one and the temptations that surround us. Only God’s grace can protect us from these snares. This truth should lead us to complete dependence on God’s grace and on the ministry of His angels to guard and guide us.
Reflect today on how you pray, especially when you recite the Our Father. Do you fully understand what you are saying? Do you believe it with all your heart? Your Father in Heaven knows your needs. Trust Him, turn to Him, acknowledge His holiness, worship Him, rely on His providence, seek and extend forgiveness, and allow Him to protect you from evil. If you do, you will pray as Jesus desires.
Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into tempt
 
Tuesday 1st Week of Lent 2026
Opening Prayer: Heavenly Father, I do not know how to pray as I ought. Guide my prayer today. Help me to praise you and thank you. Help me to ask for good things and to seek forgiveness for my sins.
Encountering the Word of God
1. A Father Who Provides: The fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer asks God the Father to “give us this day our daily bread.” This petition builds on the wisdom of humility. Like children, we ask our Father for our bread. “This is the filial boldness of God’s children. We ask, and we know we shall receive. For what father, ‘if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?’ (Mt. 7:9). We ask for our bread because we address our Father, and fathers produce families, not individuals. It is interesting, too, that we ask for ‘our’ bread and not ‘my’ bread. Jesus teaches us that even when we pray in private (cf. Mt. 6:6), we do not pray alone. We pray in solidarity with all the children of God, the Church of the living and the saints in heaven. And we pray for the whole Church, that all may have the bread they need today. This prayer is something intimate, yet something shared. It’s familial” (Hahn, Understanding “Our Father,” 43). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus urges us not to be anxious about our earthly needs, but to trust that our heavenly Father will provide for us.
2. Providing Our Natural Bread: The petition for daily bread is a petition for God to sustain us with what we need. We are members of God’s Kingdom, and we are asking our King and Lord to provide for us: “In the ancient world, the dispensation of daily bread was a sign of a kingdom’s prosperity. When the nation was doing well, winning its wars, and selling its goods, its citizens received an ample ration of bread, ‘without money and without price’ (Is. 55:1). Even greater was Israel’s vision of the ongoing banquet that would come with the reign of the anointed Son of David, the Messiah (cf. Is. 65:13-14)” (Hahn, Understanding “Our Father,” 44).
3. Providing Our Supernatural Bread: “The first Christians recognized that the Son of David had begun His reign – and His banquet. Moreover, His banquet had spiritual benefits that surpassed the most sumptuous worldly feast. For all the early Christian commentators, ‘our’ bread meant not only their everyday material needs, but also their need for communion with God” (Hahn, Understanding “Our Father,” 44). Just as God provided manna in the desert for his children each day, God the Father, through his Son, gives us the heavenly manna of the Eucharist. In the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, then, “We pray for our daily bread, for the material needs of the day. We pray for our daily spiritual communion with Jesus. We pray that God will give us grace in superabundance. And we pray even today for our ‘bread for tomorrow’ – our share, right now, in the heavenly banquet of Jesus Christ, every time we go to Mass” (Hahn, Understanding “Our Father,” 47).
Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you gave us the supreme model of prayer. You taught us to call God our Father. Your bread was to do the will of the Father. Help me to carry out the Father’s will in the Kingdom and be nourished with this bread always.
 
Tuesday 1st Week of Lent 2024

Jesus said to his disciples: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Matthew 6:7–8

Recall that Jesus used to go off by Himself at times and spend the whole night in prayer. Thus, it’s clear that Jesus is in favor of long and sincere times of prayer, since He gave us His own example as a lesson. But there is clearly a difference between that which our Lord did all night and that which He criticized the pagans for doing when they “babble” with many words. After this criticism of the prayer of the pagans, Jesus gives us the “Our Father” prayer as a model for our personal prayer.

The Our Father prayer begins by addressing God in a deeply personal way. That is, God is not just an all-powerful cosmic being. He is personal, familial—He is our Father. Jesus continues the prayer by instructing us to honor our Father by proclaiming His holiness, His hallowedness. God and God alone is the Holy One from which all holiness of life derives. As we acknowledge the holiness of the Father, we must also acknowledge Him as King and seek His Kingship for our lives and for the world. This is accomplished only when His perfect will is done “on earth as it is in Heaven.” This perfect prayer concludes by acknowledging that God is the source of all of our daily needs, including the forgiveness of our sins and protection from all evil.

Upon the completion of this prayer of perfection, Jesus provides a context in which this and every prayer must be prayed. He says, “If you forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” Prayer will only be effective if we allow it to change us and make us more like the Father in Heaven. Therefore, if we want our prayer of forgiveness to be effective, then we must live what we pray for. We must also forgive others so that God will forgive us.

Reflect, today, upon this perfect prayer, the Our Father. One temptation is that we can become so familiar with this prayer that we gloss over its true meaning. If that happens, then we will find that we are praying it more like the pagans who simply babble the words. But if we humbly and sincerely understand and mean every word, then we can be certain that our prayer will become more like that of our Lord’s. Saint Ignatius of Loyola recommends pondering every word of that prayer very slowly, one word at a time. Try to pray this way, today, and allow the Our Father to move from babbling to authentic communication with the Father in Heaven.

Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.  Jesus, I trust in You.

 

TUESDAY, 1st Week of Lent 2024

Opening Prayer: Heavenly Father, I do not know how to pray as I ought. Guide my prayer today. Help me to praise you and thank you. Help me to ask for good things and to seek forgiveness for my sins.

Encountering the Word of God

1. God’s Word Does Not Fail: Isaiah teaches us that God’s Word accomplishes God’s will without fail. When we read this passage in the light of Jesus Christ, we know that Jesus is the Word sent out by the Father to humanity. Jesus tells his disciples that his food is to do the will of the Father. He always does what is pleasing to the Father. In the Garden, Jesus offers to do the will of the Father (Matthew 26:29). The will of the Father was that his Son, Jesus Christ, die in such a way as to obtain the definitive and complete victory over death itself. Jesus obeys the Father’s will and conquers death by dying and offering himself as an innocent sacrifice in love.

2. The Three “Thy Petitions” of the Lord’s Prayer: One of the most important things Jesus does to accomplish the Father’s will is to teach us how to pray. The prayer he taught us, in Matthew’s Gospel, has seven petitions. The first petition, “Hallowed be thy name,” asks that God’s holy name be recognized and treated as holy. It asks that God’s plan of salvation be realized and that the holiness of God be made known to all the nations. God’s name is “hallowed” when his people are delivered from evil and saved. The second petition asks that God’s Kingdom be established. We are asking that God reign in our hearts and in the world. As the Kingdom expands throughout the world and history, we look forward to and ask for the definitive establishment of the Kingdom at the end of time – when evil will be vanquished, sin will be eradicated, and death will be no more. The third petition, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” asks that God’s will be accomplished here on earth. What God wills for us is our holiness – that we partake of and attain his eternal and divine life.

3. The Four “Us Petitions” of the Lord’s Prayer: While the first three petitions are “thy petitions” and refer to the hallowing of God’s name, the establishment of God’s Kingdom, and the accomplishment of God’s will, the next four petitions are “us petitions” and ask God to give us bread, to forgive us, to spare us, and to deliver us. The fourth petition of the Lord’s prayer asks that God providentially care for us this day and provide us with the supernatural bread of the Eucharist. Just as God fed his people every day in the desert with manna, so we ask that today God feed us with New Manna, the Body and Blood of his Son. The fifth petition asks for the forgiveness of our sins. By sinning, we accrue debt. By doing righteous deeds, we store up heavenly treasure. Our debt incurred by sinful deeds needs to be forgiven and, through the righteousness of Jesus, this is possible. The sixth petition, “lead us not into temptation,” recognizes that tribulation mysteriously precedes the great day of salvation. The petition is a prayer for divine mercy and is a plea that God spare us the sufferings of the great trial and tribulation that precede the coming of the Kingdom of God. The seventh petition asks that we be protected and delivered from evil and the evil one. Satan has been cast out of heaven and now only seeks to thwart the divine plan by bringing as many people as possible to reject God and become his slaves. In our prayer, we acknowledge that we do not want to be slaves of sin or the devil. What we truly want is to enjoy the freedom of the children of God!

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you gave us the supreme model of prayer. You taught us to call God our Father. You truly sanctified your Father’s name. You established your Father’s Kingdom. Your Father’s will was your food. As an obedient Son, you resisted temptation and conquered the evil one.

 

TUESDAY, 1st Week of Lent 

Opening Prayer: Lord, teach me to pray simply, sincerely, and with an open heart. Give me the grace to surrender to you in prayer.

Encountering Christ: 

Simple Words for Perfect Prayer: These words of Jesus are perfect, simple, and concise. Each precious phrase invites us to a conversion of heart, soul, and mind. Christ tells us we should begin our prayer with a surrender to the divinity of God, our almighty Father. We then ask our loving Father for seven petitions: 1) Hallowed be thy name, 2) Thy kingdom come, 3) Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, 4) Give us our daily bread, 5) Forgive us our trespasses, 6) Lead us not into temptation, and 7) Deliver us from evil. Christ’s words are eloquent in their simplicity and clarity, yet they contain challenge upon challenge to our fallen human nature.

A Synthesis of Scripture: Each phrase of the Lord’s Prayer touches upon truths found in other parts of Scripture. Only Jesus could have spontaneously provided such a beautiful synthesis of the Divine Word for us! For example, when we say “Our Father in heaven,” we echo Isaiah 66:1 and Acts 7:49: “Heaven is your throne and the earth is your footstool.” “Hallowed be thy name” is reflected here: “From the rising of the sun to its setting, may your name be praised and be great among the nations! Let your glory be over all the earth!” (Psalms 113:3-4). “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” is similar to,“For the glory of your name, deliver us and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake! (Psalms 79:9). (For a more complete look at the scriptural roots of the Our Father, see Expanded Lord's Prayer with Scripture References.) The Lord’s Prayer, awesome in its depth and scope, offers a perfect framework for our daily prayer.

Grace for Our Prayer Lives: The Our Father is one of the most familiar prayers in all of Christianity. In our fallen human state, we can easily speak the words of the Lord’s Prayer mechanically, but to truly surrender ourselves to our Father, we need his help. Only the grace of the Holy Spirit can conform our hearts and minds to the aspirations of this prayer. Like children, we must ask for our Father’s assistance in a task that we can not hope to accomplish alone. 

Conversation with Christ: Oh Lord, how easy it is to speak the words to the Lord’s Prayer. I have known it all my life. How hard it is to open my heart and mind and pray as I should. Please give me a childlike trust in you, my beloved Father. I humbly ask you to send your Spirit upon me, and to unite my soul to each and every word of this perfect prayer.