Freedom is the ability to live out the words of Christ in His prayer commonly known as “The Our Father.” It is in the Our Father that our earthly passage to complete eternal freedom is outlined. I honestly believe that the only way to be completely free is the purposeful embracing of the evangelical counsels hidden in Christ’s prayer. The evangelical counsels are: 1. Poverty 2. Chastity 3. Obedience (obedience means “to listen”).
“Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” (I love God and He is my all.) “Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (In heaven, there is no marriage as we know it on earth. In heaven, we are like angels Matt 22:30 this is the evangelical council: Chastity.) “Give us this day our daily bread” (evangelical counsel:
“Poverty” that is acknowledging that the hand of God feeds me daily. My air, my water, my rest, all are gifts from the Father enough for this moment, enough for today. Also, the Eucharist, the bread of life, is the resurrected food which sustains and nourishes the resurrected life, the eternal life, within us John 6:53.)
“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” (This speaks of the evangelical counsel” “obedience.” In “obedience” I “listen” to Christ within myself and Christ within all, even those who persecute me, I listen for any semblance and/or resemblance to the spark of life within all known as Christ. It is in listening that I preserve the source of this life with great care, carefully guarding the harmonious unity first known in the beginning of all creation as the “Holy Trinity.”
‘I (Christ) was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be’ (Proverbs 8:23). And, ‘In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’ John 1:1). And “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil’ (the love of money is the root of all evil’ 1 Tim 6:10 is further encouragement for embracing the evangelical counsel “poverty”. I trust God, not goods. I want to be completely free.)
I heard that a Saint said regarding various prayers and formulas, “After the Our Father everything else is a play on words.”