Today we hear one of the disciples say to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples” (Lk 11:1). Jesus’ answer is simple and profound: “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test” (Lk 11:2-4). This can be summed up in one phrase: the right disposition for Christian prayer is the attitude of a child before his father.

We see immediately that prayer, according to Jesus, is a relationship of “father and child.” It’s a family matter, grounded in familiarity and love. The image of God as Father speaks to us of affection and intimacy—not primarily of power and authority.

To pray as Christians means putting ourselves in the position where we see God as our Father, speaking to Him as His sons: “You write: ‘To pray is to talk with God. But about what?’. About what? About Him, about yourself: joys, sorrows, successes and failures, noble ambitions, daily worries, weaknesses! And acts of thanksgiving and petitions: and Love and reparation. In a word: to get to know Him and to get to know yourself: ‘to get acquainted!” (Saint Josemaría)

When children speak to their parents, they focus on one thing: to express, in words and gestures, what they carry in their hearts. We grow as men and women of prayer when our dealings with God become more intimate—like the bond of a father with his child. Jesus Himself gave us this example. He is the way.

And if you turn to the Blessed Virgin, the teacher of prayer, how much easier it becomes! In fact: “The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs to Mary (...). No one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary.” (Saint John Paul II).