The readings for today in the Liturgy of the Hours contain a snippet from St. Cyprian of Carthage, a bishop and martyr who lived around 250 A.D.. He is writing to his flock about the Lord's Prayer.

We need to remember that at this time there was no official Bible. There were writings which were floating around that were accepted, others were not accepted for good reason. Yet, before we have the official adoption of the Bible with the Gospels, we have this instruction on the Lord's Prayer!

This tells us that the Lord's Prayer was truly there from the beginning and was well known by the 200s A.D.. St. Cyprian felt the need to stress to his followers,

Above all, he who preaches peace and unity did not want us to pray by ourselves in private or for ourselves alone. We do not say, "My Father, who art in heaven," nor, "Give me this day my daily bread." It is not for himself alone that each person asks to be forgiven, not to be led into temptation or to be delivered from evil. Rather, we pray in public as a community, and not for one individual but for all. For the people of God are all one.

These words slapped me in the face this morning.

I subscribe to SBCYahoo! DSL. Its opening screen has a young woman pointing to herself with the caption, "You, you, you...it's all about you." Of course, SBCYahoo! is trying to point out that you can customize your home page to your interests. But, that would go counter to who we are as Christians, that is, to have everything "our way".

When Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is, he answers that there are two. The first is to love God without inhibition. The second is to love neighbor. The focus of the Christian life then is away from ourselves. It is not about "me, me, me."

Saint Cyprian points out that we learn this, too, from the Lord's Prayer. We are to pray for all of humanity when we pray the Lord's Prayer. "Give the world this day, her daily bread," and "Forgive the world her trespasses," might be paraphrases we could use to talk about this outward focus of the Lord's Prayer.

What could we do today to focus on someone else besides us? What could we do to focus on God today? Could we pray a short prayer on the hour every hour silently at work? Could we pray for the people who really irritate us and make us angry? Could we talk about the poor in other parts of the world? Could we be more concerned about the people in poverty in our own country? We could and we should. So, do it. Pray for everyone, because we are all one before God.

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St. Cyprian of Carthage, bp. and martyr. Died 258 A.D. in the persecution of Christians by Decius, Emperor of Rome. He was involved in the dispute with the Novations who said that those who gave in to persecution should not be let back into the Church. Cyprian said that we were the church of the impure and forgiven. His appeal to Bishop Cornelius of Rome was a sign of the prominence of Rome in the Church at that time. His writings dealt with the Church, the sacraments and the apostolic ministry.