The Spirit of Adoption

In teaching us the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus opened Heaven for us in the spirit of adoption.

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed by Thy name;

The infinite power, love, and goodness of God is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning from which we come and the source to which we are invited to return.

Thy Kingdom come,

God’s majestic kingdom is revealed as His infinite, merciful blessing, which He offers to us in its totality. And the only place it can be received is in our hearts. In this way we become His children.

Cosmic Consequence of Adoption in Christ

We respond as we either bear or adopt children and their open hearts receive, with the mysteries of love, all who we are in spirit and truth. And if we are truly living as children of God, our children’s hearts are miraculously opened and receive the precious inheritance of God’s kingdom. Just as we are baptized, our children are likewise baptized: “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise.” (Gal 3:29).

Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

How we gaze at our children, with such purity of love in our hearts, is an infinitesimal hint of the love with which God gazes at us.

Give us this day our daily bread;

Eucharist, the bread of life, is borne of God’s salvific love for us. As we receive such love, there is only one thing we can do with it: give it to those whom we love, beginning with our children. “For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world… I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry” (John 6:33-35). As God breathes life into us, so we, made in His image and likeness, with our loving response to God, inspire true life in our children.

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;

It is on the basis of the love one has received that the soul is ordered to then receive God’s virtues of faith, hope and love. Once this miraculous conversion has taken place, the soul repents of its earthly orientation and turns toward the infinite goodness of God, finally able to return the love to God that it has received. Now the person, whose heart has been replaced with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is able to look at others and forgive them from the heart, leading that person by the hand through the gates of salvation.

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

It is the love of God, infused in our hearts, that is our strength and encouragement to resist temptation and permits God to deliver us from all evil. Then we can truly live joyfully and come home to the promises of Christ.