6/19/2014 – Thursday of 11th week in ordinary time – Matthew 6:7-15

       Today, we hear the words of the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught us to pray.  So often, we cannot find the right words that we want to pray.   We have longings, desires, and prayers filling our hearts, but often it is hard to put them into words.  The Lord’s Prayer helps us to pray, and if we incorporate the values that these words stand for into the way we live our lives, then these words will help transform us into the followers of Christ that the Lord is calling us to be. 

       One of the saints we celebrate later this week really exemplifies someone who lived by the values of our faith and by the words we hear in the Lord’s prayer.  Aloysius Gonzaga was born to a wealthy family in Florence, Italy in the middle of the Renaissance in 16^th century Europe. His family wanted him to have a successful and lucrative military career, but as a child and youth he felt the call to the priesthood. He chose to enter the Jesuits after hearing stories about their missionary work in India.   Yet, he suffered from many ailments as a youth, including kidney disease, skin disease, chronic headaches and insomnia.   This young man had many crosses to bear.  The life of Aloysius Gonzaga was cut short – he died in Rome at the age of 23 after he contracted the plague while nursing patients with this dreaded affliction. When I went to Rome just after Christmas in 2010 with the youth choir from St Richard, the choir sang at the Church of St Ignatius of Loyola in Rome where Aloysius Gonzaga is buried.  I remember a young lady coming into the church wanting to see where he was buried.  Even today, more than 4 centuries after his death, the faithful still are inspired by the holy life by which St. Aloysius lived. 

       As we hear the Lord’s Prayer today in our Gospel, may the meaning of those words really penetrate our hearts and call us to lives of faith and action.