Turn, Turn, Turn
“Like a sunflower that follows every movement of the sun, so I turn towards you, to follow you, my God.”
– John of the Cross
Before Jesus began his ministry, he turned to God in prayer for 40 days in the wilderness. At his baptism, before naming his 12 disciples, before deciding to go to Galilee, before deciding to go to Jerusalem, before his Last Supper in the Upper Room, before giving himself up in Gethsemane, before he died on the cross, he turned to God in prayer. Again and again we read about how he would rise early and go to find a lonely place to turn to God in prayer. It was not something he sought only in an emergency. It was the air he breathed, the rhythm of his life, the constant companionship he sought, turning again and again to God.
His disciples could see how it strengthened and sustained him, and so they asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.” That’s when he gave them the prayer that for 20 centuries has provided a path by which people of faith can, like St. John’s sunflowers, turn to the light. We call it “The Lord’s Prayer.”
Often we pray it as automatically and heedlessly as we say The Pledge of Allegiance. But not this Sunday! Plan to be present as together we turn to the light and pray as he taught us, “Our Father…”
Grace and Peace,
Callie
