{"id":4698,"date":"2021-02-21T21:10:04","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T21:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=4698"},"modified":"2021-02-22T03:52:18","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T03:52:18","slug":"first-sunday-in-lent-2021-but-mostly-the-lords-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/first-sunday-in-lent-2021-but-mostly-the-lords-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"First Sunday in Lent, 2021: But Mostly the Lord’s Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Today’s Gospel, Mark 1:12<\/a>–15<\/a>, is a sort of segue between our Lord’s baptism and recruitment of brothers Simon and Andrew, then James son of Zebedee and John.<\/p>\n

All four were in the fishing industry, and that’s another topic.<\/p>\n

Mark summarizes Jesus the Nazarene’s 40-day fast in 33 words. That’s 33 words in my native language, English. In a particular translation of Sacred Scripture.<\/p>\n

And that, finally, gets me to Matthew 6:9<\/a>–13<\/a>, which was the Tuesday Gospel for February 20, 2018. And, more to the point, an example of the Lord’s Prayer.<\/p>\n

I say the Lord’s Prayer several times a day. Which doesn’t me particularly pious or permeated with virtue. It’s more that take my faith seriously.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the Lord’s Prayer is very, very important. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2759<\/a>–2760<\/a>, 2761<\/a>–2772<\/a>, ff)<\/p>\n

And more tightly-packed with ideas than most of what our Lord said. Which is saying something, and that’s yet another topic.<\/p>\n

My version of the Lord’s prayer has me saying “lead us not into temptation” near the end.<\/p>\n

That’s odd on at least two levels.<\/p>\n

First, my daily prayer routines are solo. It’s just me, God plus all the angels and Saints. Which isn’t exactly solo, and that’s \u2014 yet again another topic.<\/p>\n

Second, “lead us not into temptation??!”<\/p>\n

What, if I don’t ask nicely, God’s going to shove me into a life of sin and infamy?<\/p>\n

Or, from some perspectives, a life of enlightenment and recognition. And I am not going to wander into that labyrinthine rabbit hole. Which is an odd metaphor. Or maybe not so much. Rabbit warrens can be topologically complex.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Prayer and Priorities (or) It’s Greek to Me<\/h4>\n

\"March<\/a>Okay. I mentioned today’s Gospel, prayer and something odd in the Lord’s Prayer.<\/p>\n

I’m a Catholic, so I don’t have to make up my own version of what a Bible verse means, or accept what some dude with stage presence says.<\/p>\n

My language’s “lead us not into temptation” comes from an effort to translate a Greek verb into a Germanic language.<\/p>\n

“…the Greek means both ‘do not allow us to enter into temptation’ and ‘do not let us yield to temptation.’ ‘God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one’; on the contrary, he wants to set us free from evil. We ask him not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin. … this petition implores the Spirit of discernment and strength.”
\n(Catechism, 2846<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t know how or why the two options mentioned in the Catechism weren’t used in my language’s Lord’s Prayer.<\/p>\n

Maybe I’ll dig that out from the last half-millennium or so of records. Eventually. Or, more likely, I won’t.<\/p>\n

Interesting as that bit of lore is, its priority is low.<\/p>\n

It’s simply not worth chasing.<\/p>\n

Besides, even if I learned how and why the Greek-to-English translation happened, I’d still have the original-to-Greek question. Which isn’t quite another topic: and is something I may be looking into. One of these days. Maybe.<\/p>\n

There’s more to say about all of the above. Some of which I’ve said before:<\/p>\n