He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples." He said to them, When you pray, say : Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. . . Lk 11:1-4.
The gospels do not identify the "certain place" where Jesus gave us the Pater Noster, but tradition places it in the Mount of Olives. History tells us that Constantine built a church on the spot, but it was later destroyed by the Persians. Then when the Crusaders came along, they erected another church, and they called it the Pater Noster. After they were expelled, the church fell into ruins until the 19th century when a Florentine princess purchased the site and built a Carmelite Convent there. This is the church we found when we arrived at the mount around mid-morning. There were already crowds there. Father led us directly to the courtyard where the Church of the Pater Noster is situated, urging us not to get side-tracked by stores and vendors. There were so many people there that it was hard to imagine the quiet mount of olives where Jesus prayed all those years ago.
As had become our custom, we read the Scripture and then we prayed the words that Jesus taught us in probably the very spot where his disciples heard the words. I tried to reconstruct the scene as it might have been on the day that Jesus taught the prayer, but there were too many distractions. And then I realized, the crowds, vendors and the clicking of the camera shutters were evidence that although we live in a chaotic world, if we speak to the Father from the heart, He will hear us and answer.
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