March 14: Teach Us How to Pray and Live
♫ Music:
Day 10 - Friday, March 14
Title: Teach Us How to Pray and Live
Scripture #1: Luke 11:1–4 (NKJV)
Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
Scripture #2: Colossians 3:13 (NKJV)
Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
Poetry & Poet:
“The Weighing”
by Jane Hirshfield
The heart's reasons
seen clearly,
even the hardest
will carry
its whip-marks and sadness
and must be forgiven.
As the drought-starved
eland forgives
the drought-starved lion
who finally takes her,
enters willingly then
the life she cannot refuse,
and is lion, is fed,
and does not remember the other.
So few grains of happiness
measured against all the dark
and still the scales balance.
The world asks of us
only the strength we have and we give it.
Then it asks more, and we give it.
TEACH US HOW TO PRAY AND LIVE
The practice of praying The Lord’s Prayer is perhaps, of all things, a sacred exercise of remembering.
Remembering we belong to our heavenly Father. We are His children and siblings to one another.
Remembering our heavenly Father is wonderfully, perfectly good. Every moment, in every situation, and in every way, He is wonderfully, perfectly good.
Remembering our heavenly Father reigns eternally and sovereignly over all rulers, principalities, and powers. His will establishes the flourishing of life in all creation.
Remembering our heavenly Father’s unlimited storehouse of supply, providing for our needs now and in the age to come.
Remembering our heavenly Father graciously forgives our sins, compelling us to forgive one another.
Our songs today––two renditions of The Lord’s Prayer, take us to places in our human experience that need always stay connected––adoration and action. In the first, Bocelli’s august performance joined by the ethereal sound of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir lifts us to heaven’s door in sublime worship and awe, while Maher’s earthy street-beat style brings The Lord’s Prayer home “right here in my heart,” influencing my personal everyday decision to forgive.
Similarly, Albrecht Dürer’s Christ-like Self-Portrait connects with Maher’s humble message of “right here in my heart.” Throughout his lifetime, Dürer kept this masterpiece at home in the family’s private collection and never wrote about it in his personal journals or in any of his other writings. Respected as a man of devout faith and piety, this has led some to believe he might have painted the image as a personal reminder to be like Christ in the world. Others add that Dürer might have sought to show Christ reflected in the face of everyman, using his own as the example.
On well-dressed Sunday mornings, while singing songs and reciting the prayer together at church, the command to forgive rings happy and true. But come that storm-cloudy day when the wound of sin cuts deeply, straight through the heart, and the weight of our losses crushes us, the command to forgive feels not only impossible but cruel.
Forgiving leads us to the total surrender of laying down our lives, becoming “the drought-starved eland [who] forgives the drought-starved lion who finally takes her, enter[ing] willingly then the life she cannot refuse, and is lion, is fed, and does not remember the other,” as poet Jane Hirschfield so eloquently and horridly describes.
Jesus’ words haunt me at such times. “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
Following the way of Jesus, who laid everything down and died with forgiveness in His heart and on His lips, requires nothing less of us. Only in Him, the One sacrificed for us on the cross, do “the scales balance.”
Only in remembering our good Father restores and redeems all things can we be like Christ in the world, awaiting the glorious time and place when all is made new.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, thank you for your perfect love, forgiving us while we were your enemies. Please help us to do the same. We want to be like you. Help us forgive from the heart, for love covers a multitude of sins. Be glorified in us and through us, that the world will know we belong to you because we love one another.
Amen.
Kay Vinci, M.Div.
Writer and editor
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Art #1A (left):
Praying Hands (Study of the Hands of an Apostle)
Albrecht Dürer
c. 1508
Pen-and-ink drawing
29.1 x 19.7 cm
Albertina Museum
Vienna, Austria
Public Domain
Praying Hands, also known as Study of the Hands of an Apostle, is a pen-and-ink drawing by the German printmaker, painter, and theorist Albrecht Dürer. The image is the most widely reproduced depiction of prayer in the Western world—found on posters, coffee mugs, mobile phones, and album artwork.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praying_Hands_(D%C3%BCrer)
About the Art #1B (right):
Self-Portrait (Self-Portrait at Twenty-Eight)
Albrecht Dürer
1500
Oil on panel
67 x 49 cm
Alte Pinokothek
Munich, Germany
Public Domain
Self-Portrait is a panel painting by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. Completed early in 1500, just before his twenty-ninth birthday, it is the last of his three painted self-portraits. Art historians consider it the most personal, iconic, and complex of the three. Today’s self-portrait is considered remarkable because of its resemblance to many earlier representations of Christ. Art historians note the similarities with the conventions of religious painting, including its symmetry, dark tones, and the manner in which the artist directly confronts the viewer and raises his hand as if in an act of blessing. Dürer deliberately set out to create a Christlike image, but this was not a gesture of arrogance or blasphemy. It is considered a statement of faith for the artist—Christ was the Son of God and God had created man. For Dürer, the painting was an acknowledgment that artistic skills were a God-given talent.
https://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/d/durer/1/03/1self28.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Portrait_(D%C3%BCrer,_Munich)
About the Artist:
Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) was a German painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints. He was in contact with the major Italian artists of his time, including Raphael, Giovanni Bellini, and Leonardo da Vinci, and from 1512 was patronized by Emperor Maximilian I. Dürer's vast body of work includes engravings, altarpieces, portraits and self-portraits, watercolors, and books. The woodcuts series are stylistically more Gothic than the rest of his work, but revolutionised the potential of that medium. Dürer's introduction of classical motifs and of the nude into Northern art, through his knowledge of Italian artists and German humanists, has secured his reputation as one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albrecht-Durer-German-artist
About the Music #1: “The Lord’s Prayer” from the album A Family Christmas
Lyrics #1:
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 our debtors,
And lead us not into temptation;
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
And the power and the glory.
Forever.
For thine is the kingdom,
And the power and the glory.
Forever. Forever.
About the Composer #1:
Albert Hay Malotte (1895–1964) was an American pianist, organist, composer, and educator. His career as an organist began in Chicago, Illinois, where he played for silent movies and later for concerts throughout the US and Europe. He composed a number of film scores, including much uncredited music for animations from the Walt Disney Studios. He was most known, however, for this setting of the Lord's Prayer, which has become, in many faith traditions, the standard setting for Christ’s beautiful petition of prayer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Hay_Malotte
About the Performer #1:
Andrea Bocelli (b. 1958) is an Italian tenor. He rose to fame in 1994 after winning the newcomers' section of the forty-fourth Sanremo Music Festival. Since 1994, Bocelli has recorded fifteen solo studio albums of both pop and classical music, three greatest hits albums, and nine complete operas, selling over eighty million records worldwide. He has had success as a crossover performer, bringing classical music to the top of international pop charts. My Christmas was the best-selling holiday album of 2009 and one of the best-selling holiday albums in the United States. He duetted with Celine Dion on the song "The Prayer" for the animated film Quest for Camelot, which won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Bocelli
https://www.andreabocelli.com/
About the Music #2: “The Lord’s Prayer (It’s Yours)” from the album The Stories I Tell Myself
Lyrics #2:
Father let your kingdom come.
Father let Your will be done.
On earth as in heaven
Right here in my heart.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us, forgive us.
As we forgive the ones who sinned against us
Forgive them.
And lead us not into temptation.
But deliver us from the evil one.
Let Your Kingdom come.
Father let your kingdom come.
Father let Your will be done.
On earth as in heaven
Right here in my heart. (x2)
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us, forgive us.
As we forgive the ones who sinned against us
Forgive them.
And lead us not into temptation.
But deliver us from the evil one.
Let Your Kingdom come.
It’s Yours, it’s Yours
All Yours, all Yours.
The kingdom, the power, the glory are Yours.
It’s Yours, it’s Yours.
All Yours, all Yours.
Forever and ever the kingdom is Yours.
It’s Yours, it’s Yours
All Yours, all Yours.
The kingdom, the power, the glory are Yours.
It’s Yours, it’s Yours.
All Yours, all Yours.
Forever and ever the
Kingdom is Yours.
Father let your kingdom come.
Father let Your will be done.
On earth as in heaven
Right here in my heart. (2x)
About the Composer/Performer #2:
Matt Maher (b. 1974) is a Canadian contemporary Christian music artist, songwriter, and worship leader who currently lives in the United States. He has written and produced nine solo albums to date. Three of his albums have reached the Top 25 Christian Albums Billboard chart and four of his singles have reached the Top 25 Christian Songs chart. Maher has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards in his career and was awarded the Songwriter of the Year at the 2015 GMA Dove Awards. Maher was born and raised in Newfoundland, Canada. His parents recognized his musical talent, and he grew up taking piano lessons and immersing himself in a broad variety of music, including playing in concert and jazz ensembles, singing in a choir, and playing in a garage rock band. Maher started his post-secondary studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland and continued his studies in the Jazz Department at Arizona State University. Maher currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
www.mattmahermusic.com
About the Poetry and Poet:
Jane Hirshfield (b. 1953) is an American poet, essayist, and translator. She received her bachelor's degree from Princeton University in the school's first graduating class to include women. Hirshfield's eight books of poetry have received numerous awards. Her fifth book, Given Sugar, Given Salt, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She has edited four books collecting the work of poets from the past, and is noted as being "part of a wave of important scholarship then seeking to recover the forgotten history of women writers." Her honors include: a Guggenheim Fellowship (1985), the Academy of American Poets’ 2004 Fellowship for Distinguished Achievement, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship (2005), and the Donald Hall-Jane Kenyon Award in American Poetry (2012). Never a full-time academic, Hirshfield has taught at the University of California at Berkeley, University of San Francisco, and as the Elliston Visiting Poet at the University of Cincinnati.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jane-hirshfield
https://poets.org/poet/jane-hirshfield
About the Devotion Writer:
Kay Vinci, M.Div.
Writer and editor
Over the years, Kay has enjoyed writing for both adults and children. She has written for a variety of publications, including magazines and journals, and has also written a self-published children’s story. Kay graduated in 2011 with her M.Div. from Western Theological Seminary in Holland, MI. She enjoyed being part of the teaching team of her local church and developed a children's summer day camp curriculum. Retired now, she lives in Costa Mesa, California, near her children and grandson.