Video Transcript

Emily Mentock: Hi, and welcome back to The Real + True Podcast. I am your co-host, Emily Mentock.

Edmund Mitchell: And I’m your other co-host, Edmund Mitchell.

Emily Mentock: We’re so glad to have you back joining us for the podcast where we continue our mission of Real + True, which is to unlock the beauty and truth of the Catechism for the modern world. In this season of the podcast, we are diving deeper into these topics about prayer, sharing our own experiences, and tapping the experts for how to better incorporate what the church teaches about prayer into our daily lives. 

And today we are kicking off our exploration of really what the second half of this pillar of the Catechism covers step-by-step, line- by-line: the Our Father. So we’re going to be covering—in this episode—the first few words of the Our Father, because that’s how the Catechism goes through it. And we’ll be covering “Our Father, who art in heaven.” 

So, really excited to finally be diving into the Lord’s Prayer line-by-line with the Catechism. And Edmund, when you think about the role of a father, what are some of the qualities that make it unique from other relationships or roles of people in your life?

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. When I think of fatherhood—especially maybe when I’m watching movies or or when it’s referenced somewhere—I think of protection. Also this kind of relationship where you’re looking up to someone; you’re kind of in awe at this person. Also maybe a little scared of them a little bit because they also maybe discipline you. But it’s kind of like this loving presence in your life, but also this standard that kind of is present. 

And not expecting something of you necessarily, but it’s like, “Oh man, I want to be good. I want to be good and be like this person maybe.” Those are some of the things I think of. Also, for some reason, I always think of a king-son—maybe it’s too much Chronicles of Narnia—but I always think of this king- prince relationship. For some reason that image comes to mind. But what about you?

Emily Mentock: Yeah, for me, when I think about fathers in the media, you think of someone strong, someone older, masculine. Someone you depend on or who has responsibility for you. And I think that—to tie into what you said—that responsibility for you often comes with expectations for you that maybe come from a good place. But there are countless stories about wrestling with the expectations or the challenges of that relationship. I think also we’ve seen it explored what happens when someone who isn’t living up to their responsibility for you, or you’re not living up to your perceived expectations that they have for you.

Edmund Mitchell: There also is kind of this cliche role in media of the kind of aloof father. Like it isn’t always a really good.

Emily Mentock: Yeah.

Edmund Mitchell: I was thinking, “Man, the last couple decades, a lot of fathers in sitcom shows are kind of goofy. They don’t really have it all together necessarily.”

Emily Mentock: They don’t know what’s going on at home with family life, they’re not emotionally available; some of those challenges. And I think because “father” is such a core concept to our society still—our society is still really built on the building blocks of an understanding of fathership, sonship, father-son, father-child relationship—we are very aware of it. No matter what your own father was like, we’re aware of some of the tropes in society.

 I was reading an article the other day—probably because this is me—how firstborn daughters are just like their father or something like that. So even if maybe the assumptions in the article or whatever the study showed—whether it aligned with my experience of my father or not—it’s something that we as a society still like to dive into. Like, “How do fathers impact their children? How do fathers impact their families? And what is that like for you as a person coming of age?”

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. If you had to guess of the three people of the Trinity—God as Father, Son or Holy Spirit—just based on your experience and people you’ve talked to, which do you think people are most comfortable thinking of or relating to? When they go to pray, are they thinking of God as Father, Son, Jesus, Holy Spirit? In their daily prayer life—for most people— which would you think it is?

Emily Mentock: Yeah, that’s a great question. We might have different answers for this, but my answer is that it is Father. Because when you’re a child, that’s the first relationship you can understand really of the Trinity.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah.

Emily Mentock: In children’s books, God is often an old white man with a beard. And I think that when you’re a child, understanding your relationship with your parents is one of the first things that sets in. So from the earliest days of growing up in a Christian home, you probably are understanding God as Father before all else. At least that was my experience. Now understanding other parts of the Trinity has changed my prayer life, but for me, the primary is always God as Father.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. You just changed my opinion on what I was going to answer because I think you’re right. I think at the earliest stages, it just seemed normal. Like, “Oh, there’s this big, powerful rule-making thing in the sky.” I can understand that as kind of like a parental role. I think when I first started getting really engaged in my faith and was really starting to re-appreciate it, I think I gravitated more towards Jesus because it seemed new. 

I know what a sky father is; I kind of had that concept. And Jesus seemed like, “Oh no, but this is new.” It seemed at the time like, “Oh, this is more tangible to me. I can understand this.” The Holy Spirit was definitely the last one. I was just like, “I don’t know what to do with the bird.”

Emily Mentock: The Paraclete.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. But I think that’s really interesting.

Emily Mentock: But I think it’s superficial. I’ll caveat it as my understanding of God as Father didn’t necessarily mean that I had a relationship with God as Father. It was just sort of my primary understanding and primary placement of “This person has more authority and power than I do. So I’m asking for something from someone who is older and bigger.” That was my childhood understanding. But I will say though, that a struggle—this is probably pivoting from the run-of-show.

Edmund Mitchell: No, that’s great.

Emily Mentock: A struggle though to fully understand God as Father means to also recognize myself as Daughter. And that has been—in adulthood—that’s been a process to embrace. So to really have a personal relationship with the Father and not just sort of that childlike understanding of “old guy in the sky,” I also have to embrace the role as Daughter. And that has been more of a journey that’s been more challenging than having a relationship with Jesus or the Holy Spirit.

Edmund Mitchell: I think you’re right. Now I’m thinking about it, when I was younger, “Oh, you’re a son or daughter of God.” Well, I know what it’s like to be a son—not a daughter. I know what it’s like to be a son, that’s nothing new. It was just like, “sure.” 

And it wasn’t until much later in life that I started understanding “No, being a son of God is actually a really radical thing.” That’s something different than just going, “Yeah, I have parents.” It really changes everything to realize what that means. That there are certain privileges and responsibilities and that it’s not obvious that God would be a father. It’s not obvious that He would decide to be our Father.

Emily Mentock: Because that’s something we could come up with on our own.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah.

Emily Mentock: It’s like, “God as Father of us” is something that the Catechism says is revealed to us through Jesus especially. Jesus invites us to make His father our Father. And I think we were talking about how you could probably come up with using reason alone that there is a creator of the universe, a design to the universe; a divine plan. But would you understand yourself to be the son or daughter of that creator? Probably not.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. It’s like we’re doing all this work in science and quantum physics and trying to understand the very basic, smallest, dynamics or parts of the atoms. And it would be like, “Okay, I could do all these experiments and I know that there are electrons and these other particles within the atom.” But then to suddenly find out that they have what we kind of have—a personhood and relationship—would be insane. 

And it’s a similar thing. You could come to some understanding that there’s some type of first cause, but then there’s nothing other than Jesus or God’s revelation to help get us to an understanding that that thing would have a relational nature. Or that that thing wants relationship—actually is relationship—in its very core.

Emily Mentock: Right. The Catechism says it in paragraph 2780: “We can invoke God as ‘Father’ because he is revealed to us by his Son become man and because his Spirit makes him known to us. The personal relation of the Son to the Father is something that man cannot conceive of nor the angelic powers even dimly see; and yet, the Spirit of the Son grants a participation in the very relation to us who believe that Jesus is the Christ and that we are born of God.”

Edmund Mitchell: And again, this is stuff that Christianity has so soaked culture and impacted the world. So we hear these things a lot and we maybe kind of take them for granted. In the Old Testament, God is referred to in a lot of different ways—and a few times is referred to as a father—but it’s not until Jesus that we really understand the full implications of that.

And it wouldn’t be that crazy. We wouldn’t be that upset. If people meet Jesus, they believe He’s the Son of God, and He just says, “No, that’s my Father. This isn’t your father, this is my Father.” All the Gospel would still be really crazy. Like, “My Father sent me to come save you. He’s my Father, and I’m going to help you.’ We still would be like, “This is great.”

But the fact that He kind of offers that invitation to have the same relationship with this Father that He has was pretty crazy. And Jesus consistently refers to God as Father. And not just Father. He uses this very familial—it’s almost like “Daddy”—He says “Abba,” which is a very informal way of referring to your father. 

And that would’ve been revolutionary; it would’ve been almost obscene to hear someone speaking about something so sacred. In the Old Testament, they have “the name that can’t be uttered.” And then now Jesus is like, “Daddy. He’s Daddy. And I want you to pray to Him. He wants to be your Father in the same way He’s my Father.”

Emily Mentock: And that’s what this section of the Catechism is really diving into. Like “Why does the Lord’s prayer begin ‘Our Father ‘ rather than ‘Father of Jesus’ or ‘creator of the universe?’” But when they say, “Jesus, teach us how to pray,” Jesus says, “Okay. Well, we’re going to begin by saying ‘our Father.’” That is what has developed over time in our tradition.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah.

Emily Mentock: And the Catechism even specifically calls out—and I love this and hadn’t known it before—the line before the Our Father—at least in the Roman liturgy—that the priest says at Mass “Before we begin the Lord’s Prayer, that we dare to say.” Because it truly is crazy that Jesus has taught us to pray “Our Father” in His name. Which I’m so glad that the Catechism highlights that it’s crazy that we would call this creator of the universe—the God of the Old Testament to all those faithful Jewish people that they met—our Father.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. I’m imagining times when I was a kid, if I visited a friend’s house, it would be me randomly my friend’s dad being like “Dad, I need your help with this thing.”

Emily Mentock: Like, “Hey, Dad.”

Edmund Mitchell: And being like, “Hey, I need your help at school. There’s this and this. Can I have 20 bucks?” And they’d be like, “What? You’re not my son. I care about you, but why are you doing this?” It’s a crazy thing to presume or to trust that he can be our Father.

Emily Mentock: That is so true. I love that example. Because even with my husband’s parents, I still refer to them as “your Mom” or “your Dad” to Drew. And I don’t call them Mom and Dad. I know some families do.

Edmund Mitchell: And another thing that’s a good distinction from some of our Protestant brothers and sisters—or sometimes the way it’s presented—is that God is Father, and in a way he’s Father to all creation and all of humanity. But there is a difference between an unbaptized person and a baptized person. Because of Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist, we enter into that fullness of adopted sons and daughters of God. 

And I think—at least in my experience—in teaching people and just also my own life, I just walked around the world just being like, “Oh yeah, God’s a Father to all of us.” And we don’t want to say this in a negative way, like, “He’s my Father, not your Father,” but just to highlight and appreciate that the Sacraments change your relationship with God. 

We are in Mass able to pray this way because we’ve entered into Jesus and His relationship. We are part of that relationship; part of that family, the Church because of the Sacraments.

Emily Mentock: That is such a powerful reminder; that we become adopted sons and daughters through the Sacraments. And I think you’re right. If anyone who’s doing catechesis through the Our Father—which I think is very important to do, whether it’s for people coming into the Church or if you are sort of re-catechizing people who have grown up Christian; grown up Catholic—to remind them of this special privilege to be a son or daughter of God. And that’s made possible by Baptism where we’re then baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

I also think it’s a very important tip for catechists if you are going to do a series on the Lord’s Prayer or just returning to a personal relationship with God, to make sure that we’re always keeping in mind those three persons of the Trinity. Because a better understanding of what we believe in the mystery of the Trinity—as complicated as it can be—will help to know and then love better our relationship with each of the three persons of the Trinity, including the Father.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. Again, it’s just a few words of the Our Father, but we can see how the four pillars of the Catechism—Creed, Sacraments, and Liturgy, Morality and Prayer— at each stage, there are these similar themes that are holding up all of the teachings of the Church. Even across these four areas of the faith and the themes that we keep coming back to: Trinity, Jesus, the dignity of the human person, salvation. 

So it’s really important. It might seem like, “Well, now we’re teaching on prayer. So this is easy. We just talk about what we do in the morning or what we do at Mass.” But this is another opportunity to take something like the Trinity and be presenting it in a way that’s really tangible. Whereas if you’re just doing a lesson on the Trinity, that’s one approach to—it’s very explicit—but it’s also important when we’re teaching prayer, or we’re teaching the Our Father to be doing it in a way that respects the Trinitarian nature of God.

And it’s something even I still have to return back to and brush up on and remind myself because it’s complicated. It’s not easy to present or wrap your head around because God’s a mystery. And I think it’s really helpful just to encourage catechists and evangelists, turn back to those places in the Catechism and remind yourself; brush up on how to speak about the Trinity.

Emily Mentock: Yeah. I agree. It’s a mystery. And so one of the most beautiful things about that is that it’s going to be kind of revealed and understood to us through grace and through openness and through asking God to help us better understand, so we can be in deeper relationship with the three persons of the Trinity. So that’s one of the beauties of it being a mystery, is that it can be fresh and new to us each time we return to it, whether it’s through just understanding the Creed. Like “What does the Church say we believe about this?” Or through prayer; entering into personal relationship with each of those three persons. 

And I think keeping the focus on the Trinity also can kind of keep us from falling into— I don’t want to say “bad habit” because all prayer is a good habit—but a habit of maybe only focusing on relationship with Jesus. Or only on the Holy Spirit, or only on the Father, or neglecting one of those areas or one of those persons that we’re invited into relationship with.

So I think that always returning to the mystery of the Trinity in your catechesis on prayer is a way to invite proper, deep relationship with each of the three persons, which is helpful because sometimes people might struggle with one or the other for different reasons.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah Paragraph 234 in the Catechism says, “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in Himself…” And I know for me—when I first was starting in ministry—I was very focused on Jesus. And for good reason. I mean, Jesus is who came.

Emily Mentock: It’s Jesus

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. It’s Jesus. He’s tangible; He came here. That’s crazy. But when you read throughout Scripture, Jesus is seen in context of the Trinity. And the Trinity really is the key to understanding Jesus. And Jesus is the key to understanding the Trinity. The Trinity is the central drama; it’s the central truth. It’s the central thing that unlocks everything else. And the Trinity at its nature—or at its very center—is relationship. 

And that is the central mystery that changes everything; is that God is relationship. So everything else should be presented in light of that; every doctrine of the faith, everything about the faith, can be and should be presented to direct us back to that central mystery.

Emily Mentock: Yeah. God is relationship and prayer is relationship.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah.

Emily Mentock: So you’re right. That we are going to enter deeper into that relationship through our prayer if we are also always keeping in mind, and returning to, and prayerfully working through the mystery of the Trinity as well.

Edmund Mitchell: Do you have some recommendations? I have a few recommendations, but I think you have one for families maybe.

Emily Mentock: Yeah. So one for families is a book that my friend Colleen wrote. It’s published and you can find it at the OSV Catholic bookstore called God the Father’s Love. And it’s a journey through Scripture for families to highlight specifically “Where does God as Father reveal Himself to us?” at a level that kids and families can understand well. 

So whether you’re a family that has really strong fatherly role there that reflects well what God is like or not, I think it’s such an important thing for children to understand directly from Scripture how God has revealed Himself as a loving Father to us.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah, that’s great. And I think there’s no time too early to begin placing in front of children the concept of this very, very, good Father. Two other places that came to mind that I wanted to mention, Father Dave Pivonka, who people might know from the Wild Goose series on the Holy Spirit. They came out with another series on the fatherhood of God called My Father’s Father. 

And I just keep hearing random people mention to me that they have this experience where they’re like, “I kind of know the Father stuff. I’m not expecting this to be really great.” And then by the end of it—when I’m hearing them talk to me about it—they’re like, “I’m so excited to start exploring this more in my own prayer life.” The other one I come back to all the time—anytime I’m about to teach on the Trinity or something—I’ll come back to this short book called Theology for Beginners.

And it has a really clear explanation of the Trinity. Now if that’s too heady for you, he wrote a shorter version called A Map of Life, which breaks it down much simpler. If Theology for Beginners is too simple for you—and you want to go deeper—there’s Theology and Sanity, which is the same thing, but much more expanded. 

And this always comes to mind and is really helpful. If I could share one thing that helps me kind of wrap my head around the Trinity, it’s that God is one and he has His divine nature, but He has three persons. And so He’s three persons that are distinct, but He’s one. And the idea that helps me remember this is that if there’s a dark room and you open the door and you’re looking and you can’t see what’s in the dark room, you might say “What’s in there?”

And someone could say “A rock” or “a tree” or “a plant.” So nature answers the question, “What is it?” If there was a person in that room, you could say “What’s in there?” And they’d say “A human person.” But if you said “Who’s in there?” Someone would say their name. It’d be “Edmund’s in there.” Or “Dave’s in there,” or whoever. 

So there’s three persons. “Who is God?” “God is Father, Son, Holy Spirit; distinct persons.” “What is in this room?” “God is in this room.” “So there’s three Gods in that room?” “No, it’s just God. But there’s three persons.” And so it’s hard to wrap your head around or visualize, but that is the thing I always come back to when trying to navigate questions about how the Trinity could be three persons, but one God.

Emily Mentock: Yeah. And I think that’s why it is so important to keep returning to that teaching, because we’re never going to fully grasp it, certainly not in just one lesson on the Trinity at some point in our catechesis. So yeah, to always return to that, and find new examples, and new ways for people at different stages of their life. And as adults at different stages of their discipleship journey, cannot encourage you enough to keep returning back to teaching on the Trinity, especially as you’re teaching on prayer.

 I think another thing that I would really want people to keep in mind as they are teaching about the Our Father —or a relationship with God the Father in general—is that God is not like a father. God didn’t invent fathers so He could be like them. Fathers are like God. We better understand God, and fathers are invited to be like a loving Father that God is, but it’s not like God is like fathers, which I think is so important. 

The Catechism even kind of calls out—maybe not the fatherhood relationship specifically—but about how to free ourselves of being trapped by worldly images that fall short. In paragraph 2779, it says: “Before we make our own this first exclamation of the Lord’s Prayer, we must humbly cleanse our hearts of certain false images drawn ‘from this world’”—including false images of what God would be like as a worldly father, which is not how it is.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. I love that. I think that’s something that if you could help people reflect a little more on that, it really starts unlocking. I don’t know. I’m just thinking if God had said, “Hey, here’s a way to understand me. I’m like what you guys on earth understand as fathers,”  it would be cool. But there is something really, really more intimate or more reassuring to say “No, actually, if you’ve experienced qualities of a good father, that’s just because they’ve acted kind of like me.”

Emily Mentock: Yeah.

Edmund Mitchell: And you can’t even exhaust or begin to understand, if this experience of a father was good, you can’t even begin to understand how much better—not in a bad way—but how much deeper and more good God is as the Father.

Emily Mentock: It’s true. It’s such a gift. And also, if you struggle with this and you’re hearing this and you’re like, “Well, I don’t know what that’s like because I have a hard time with understanding good, loving fatherhood” for whatever reason in your life. Back in the second pillar—no, sorry, back in the third pillar—where we’re going through morality; going through the 10 Commandments, we covered “Honor your mother and father.” And we actually on the podcast had an amazing Catholic family therapist, Brya Hanan, talk about “How do you honor your mother and father? How do you have a relationship with your mother and father when you have had maybe a traumatic childhood experience or you have a broken relationship?” 

So if you—either yourself or maybe somebody that you have in your catechesis setting—is struggling with that because of broken fatherhood in our world today, go back and listen to that episode with Brya because I think it’ll really bring to life how—as Catholics—we should navigate some of the struggles of parent-child relationships in a broken world when we’re trying to teach about having a loving father or to honor our mother and father ourselves.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. And I think this is something we have to speak into, whether people are telling us they have bad relationships with their father or not. We just have to acknowledge that. I know I had a fairly good relationship with my dad. And it wasn’t until early on that I started hearing people struggling with the fatherhood of God, that I realized that the way I talked about it was kind of reflecting like, “Hey, doesn’t everyone relate to the idea of a good father?” 

And it’s just the case that a lot of people don’t. And another thing is, it’s not necessarily that people have to have had a very horrible, traumatic experience. It’s kind of like growing up your whole life with the speakers in the back of the car don’t work.

It’s like if your whole life you’ve always been in that car, you don’t know what you’re missing out. You’re just like, “Yeah.” You listen to the radio and are like “What’s going on?” And then the first time you get in a car that has full surround sound, you’re like, “Oh my gosh, what is going on here?” You might not feel any sadness about your life growing up lacking speakers. 

It’s not necessarily that people are going to say, “I have such a horrible relationship with my father.” It’s just there might be certain qualities or certain dynamics that weren’t present. And so you can’t assume that everyone has the same understanding of fatherhood.

Emily Mentock: Yeah. Or you’re hearing music on your car stereo all your life. It’s your favorite band, and you’re so grateful for that; you love them. And then you go and see them front-row seats at a concert.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah.

Emily Mentock: It’s the best show they’ve ever played. And it’s the same song and the same band that you’re relating to, but now it’s so much better. This is totally an imperfect analogy.

Edmund Mitchell: No, that’s so perfect because you’re in your car and you’re like, “My car has no bass, it’s all treble.” And then you’re in the concert and you’re like, “There’s a whole bass line in the middle of this chorus?”

Emily Mentock: There’s so much more! And you’re up close and personal and it’s amazing. So any good experiences you have of your father, great! God is like that, but better. And any challenges, don’t fall into the trap. 

And whether you need therapy or spiritual guidance or just more time working on your own relationship with God, to not let yourself think that any imperfect—because nobody is perfect—imperfect things about fatherhood that you might understand from the false images of this world—as the Catechism says—don’t let that hinder your relationship or potential relationship with God the Father, because He is not like that.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. And one other thing from the Father Dave Pivonka series that really stood out to me—and I’ve experienced a little bit—is that oftentimes teaching on the Father will bring to light for people certain areas that they’re being challenged to have forgiveness. And one thing that’s been really helpful for me is that forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation. 

I know people who haven’t spoken to their father in 10, 20 years, but forgiveness doesn’t mean that you have to have your dad over every Sunday for lunch or something. Forgiveness is forgiving the wrong that had happened and willing the good for this person. Like, “Hey, I’m willing that good things would happen to them.” It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to have them in your life or talk to them. And that often is a barrier for people. 

And sometimes explaining that—and especially for people whose fathers are now passed away—is reconciliation can’t happen, but forgiveness can happen. It doesn’t mean that what they did was right. It doesn’t mean that you’re condoning it, but it’s a personal forgiveness so that you can have a relationship with your father and not bring as much of those wounds into that relationship so he can love you better.

Emily Mentock: Yes. I think you’re right. Just separating the difference between what needs to happen in our worldly relationships—even if they’re God-given, like the relationship between a father and a child—and then our divine relationship with God. Well, it’s not a divine relationship. Let me say that again.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. I don’t know.

Emily Mentock: Is it a divine relationship? I don’t know.

Edmund Mitchel: Yeah. If you had a catechist who they were just given, “Hey, here’s the topic of everything you’ve reflected on and us kind of interacting with this topic.” And then also in the third pillar, like we talked about—I think this has come up in the first pillar—someone says, “Emily, the fatherhood of God.” What’s the thing that has kind of stuck with you the most so far? Could be something we’ve already mentioned, but if you were going to kind of highlight something for a catechist?

Emily Mentock: Yeah. If I was thrown into a classroom to teach about this part of the Our Father tomorrow, I would start with how it’s revealed. It’s revealed, and therefore special; it comes because God has chosen to reveal to us that He is our Father and wants to have that relationship with us. And then we really get to understand that because Jesus invites us into that relationship as well. Jesus unlocks that relationship for us, and we get to have that now through the Sacraments. 

And so from that kind of foundational understanding of “It’s revealed; it’s very special because Jesus makes it possible. And now it’s handed on to us through the Church through the Sacraments today.” That—for me—will change the way that I think about these first few words of the Our Father.

We’ve talked a lot about how when you return to even a simple line from a prayer or a liturgy and you understand kind of the fullness behind what is really given to us as a simple line. Now when I’m praying the Our Father and thinking “Our Father, who art in heaven,” instead of just thinking “Okay, God’s in heaven;” the most superficial understanding of what that line is—“Our Father, who art in heaven”—I can now better understand what that relationship is and how special it is that I get to say that to God.

Edmund Mitchell: Yeah. That’s so good. I think for me it would be—I think maybe we’ve talked about this in other episodes and we’ve talked about it here. It was just recently I think you had brought it up—we don’t say “My Father,” we say “Our Father.” And that’s really stuck with me. If people really meditate on that, there’s so many implications. 

The fact that we say “Our Father,” and it’s not “His Father;” it’s not “My Father.” It’s “Our Father.” There’s so much more empathy I have towards other people when I think about them as “Okay, we share a same Father.” I have a different level of responsibility to people that I’m frustrated with or to people that I see. 

It’s like, “Wow, this is our Father.” Ever since we’ve talked about that, when we go to Mass and we say that, I just have a different reaction to we all just start saying “Our Father.” And it just makes me feel more united with everyone.

Emily Mentock: Yeah. I think that’s such a great point. Jesus could have taught us to just address God individually, but He taught us to address God as our Father. And that can change your prayer, whether you’re praying it in Mass with everyone around you and you’re realizing, “Oh, we’re all addressing God our Father together.” Or even when you’re by yourself and praying the Our Father because you’re praying the rosary or something, to let it sink in. That even when you’re alone, you are united in prayer to all Christians who are praying that prayer together, and how special that is. 

So this was our intro to line-by-line, the Our Father. Hope you guys got a lot out of it. We are so excited to continue moving through the way the Catechism presents prayer to us by going through the Lord’s Prayer. What a gift it is. And we hope you’ll join us next time. 

If you want to find more episodes—especially the first few that we did in this pillar on the foundation of prayer as relationship— you can find this podcast on YouTube, Spotify; on our website, realtrue.org. Where you can also learn more about our mission to unlock the beauty and truth of the Catechism for the modern world, and help people encounter its pulsating heart: Jesus Christ. Thanks so much for joining us today.