My father converted to Catholicism when I was in the third grade. I remember how proud I was and eager to help. After all, I had three years studying Catholicism while Dad had only a few meetings with the parish priest. I remember the day I asked whether he had studied the rosary yet, eagerly explaining how it is prayed. I still recall Dad’s gentle, almost curious response. “Why would I say something fifty times to God, when I know he heard me the first time?” I was left speechless, my theological studies to date leaving me unprepared for the question.

I am reminded of that moment when reading today’s Gospel, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask . . .” and its clear guidance about prayer.

Our familiarity with the Lord’s Prayer might cause us to miss the amazing flow present throughout the prayer starting from the grand and vast, and moving to the personal and daily. We begin with awe and wonder at the coming reign of God’s love on earth as in heaven. The prayer then moves to the personal: bread for this day, our failings acknowledged, and forgiveness sought, before turning outward to the need to forgive others. We pray for our own safety, and again, turn outward and pray that all people be delivered from evil.

This inward-outward turning, like the intake and release of breath, is the stuff of prayer. Both movements are needed in prayer; they nurture and support each other. The next time we pray, what if we pay attention to our breath, and allow this breath to support the inward-outward hopes of our prayer? This prayer and the next, like this and every breath.