For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory Forever

Date: 10 August 2005 10:48:59

Thus ends the Lord's Prayer. And while we remember this prayer, while we keep repeating it, our life is opened towards the kingdom, is filled with power, shines with glory, in the face of which darkness, hatred and evil lie powerless.

Our Father, Fr Alexander Schmemann, pp 92-93

So concludes Our Father, a book compiled from a series of radio broadcasts made by Fr Alexander Schmemann to listeners in the former Soviet Union.

This will be a book I return to often. It has truly granted me much insight and given me much to strive for. Repeating the words of the prayer will, God willing, never be the same for me: they are now charged with more meaning and with more demands on me. This prayer, given to us by our Lord, is a true treasure and a true blessing. And it is more than just a prayer, as Fr Schmemann says:

...it is an epiphany and revelation of that spiritual world for which we are created, that hierarchy of values which enables us to arrange everything in its place within our lives. Each petition opens a whole layer of personal awareness, a whole revelation about our selves. (p. 86)