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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
Trouble with this prayer	Charles	Monday, August 31, 2009
Question: Dear Brother - I have a little bit of trouble with the wording on the following prayer. I have see this in many prayers and ask you to enlighten me if I am wrong. This prayer comes from the liturgy of the hours prayers that I have found from a good website. Its from morning lauds and it reads in part: Our SAVIOUR HAS MADE US INTO A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD OFFERING ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICES TO GOD. Let us thank him and ask him: – LORD, HELP US TO SERVE GOD. Christ, eternal Priest, you conferred your holy priesthood on your people. Grant that we may ceaselessly offer acceptable sacrifices to God. – LORD HELP US TO HELP GOD The part that troubles me (the part that I capitalized)is that we know that Jesus is God. Yet this prayer uses wording (which I have seen in many other books) that bothers me because it seems that we are asking Jesus (who is God) to help us serve God thus making Jesus a mere man and not God. Shouldn't the wording me more lie. "Lord, help us to serve You"? Please explain and thank you.
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM Dear Charles: Jesus is true God and true man. He, who is the second person of the Trinity, is our savior. Although Jesus and the Father are one, "being of one substance with the Father" as it says in the Nicene Creed, he spoke of his father and prayed to the Father as we read in the Gospels. We too pray to the Father. The Our Father prayer is a prayer to the Father. We pray all the time to the Father, in the name of Jesus, who is God who became man to save us. We honor the son of God and recognize the love of the Father to have his Son, the second person of the Trinity, become man and die a horrible death that we may have life. It was the actions of Jesus God that made us a royal priesthood. By that fact we ask for the intercession of Jesus God to serve Father God (and the Son, and the Holy Spirit). The language here in the Divine Office is the same thing as saying, "Father in heaven, help me to serve you better. In Jesus name I pray." This relationship of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is part of the mystery of the Trinity to which we cannot fully understand in this life. I hope this helps a little. God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary Footer Notes: This forum is for general questions on the faith. See specific Topic Forums below: Spiritual Warfare, demons, the occult go to our Spiritul Warfare Q&S Forum. Liturgy Questions go to our Liturgy and Liturgical Law Q&A Forum Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) Questions go to our Divine Office Q&A Forum Defenfing the Faith Questions go to our Defending the Faith Q&A Forum Church History Questions go to our Church History Q&A Forum

Question Title

Posted By

Question Date

Trouble with this prayer

Charles

Monday, August 31, 2009

Question:

Dear Brother - I have a little bit of trouble with the wording on the following prayer. I have see this in many prayers and ask you to enlighten me if I am wrong. This prayer comes from the liturgy of the hours prayers that I have found from a good website. Its from morning lauds and it reads in part: Our SAVIOUR HAS MADE US INTO A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD OFFERING ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICES TO GOD. Let us thank him and ask him:
– LORD, HELP US TO SERVE GOD.
Christ, eternal Priest, you conferred your holy priesthood on your people.
Grant that we may ceaselessly offer acceptable sacrifices to God.
– LORD HELP US TO HELP GOD

The part that troubles me (the part that I capitalized)is that we know that Jesus is God. Yet this prayer uses wording (which I have seen in many other books) that bothers me because it seems that we are asking Jesus (who is God) to help us serve God thus making Jesus a mere man and not God. Shouldn't the wording me more lie. "Lord, help us to serve You"?
Please explain and thank you.

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM

Dear Charles:

Jesus is true God and true man. He, who is the second person of the Trinity, is our savior. Although Jesus and the Father are one, "being of one substance with the Father" as it says in the Nicene Creed, he spoke of his father and prayed to the Father as we read in the Gospels.

We too pray to the Father. The Our Father prayer is a prayer to the Father. We pray all the time to the Father, in the name of Jesus, who is God who became man to save us. We honor the son of God and recognize the love of the Father to have his Son, the second person of the Trinity, become man and die a horrible death that we may have life.

It was the actions of Jesus God that made us a royal priesthood. By that fact we ask for the intercession of Jesus God to serve Father God (and the Son, and the Holy Spirit).

The language here in the Divine Office is the same thing as saying, "Father in heaven, help me to serve you better. In Jesus name I pray."

This relationship of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is part of the mystery of the Trinity to which we cannot fully understand in this life.

I hope this helps a little.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

Footer Notes: This forum is for general questions on the faith. See specific Topic Forums below:
Spiritual Warfare, demons, the occult go to our Spiritul Warfare Q&S Forum.
Liturgy Questions go to our Liturgy and Liturgical Law Q&A Forum
Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) Questions go to our Divine Office Q&A Forum
Defenfing the Faith Questions go to our Defending the Faith Q&A Forum
Church History Questions go to our Church History Q&A Forum