A Recapitulation of the Lord's Prayer

“The Lord’s Prayer contains everything. It is the summary of the Gospel, the very essence of all that is most perfect in the moral teaching of Jesus Christ. When He said: ‘Thus shall you pray’, He was in effect saying: ‘You shall regulate your lives according to this prayer’. It contains all the dispositions, which are required of a Christian, both towards God and towards his neighbour. And if the sentiments it expresses are not constantly present in our hearts, we cannot flatter ourselves that we are true Christians.” (Père Jean-Nicholas Grou S.J.) “Most ancient prayers have nothing in common with petitions; they are, as it were, ‘recapitulations’. By repeating them aloud or to himself, a man endeavours to experience what is in them – their content – with his mind and feeling, concentrating and reflecting on the real sense of each word – what it really means to him, how he can understand it. In this way, many ideas will become connected in his thinking and many thoughts relating to the words of the prayer will pass through his mind. And then it is precisely these thoughts which can do for him what he asks God to do.” (G. I. Gurdjieff)