Sermon on the mount

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed by thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Amongst other things, while waking up this morning, I tried to rehearse the Lord's Prayer, but failed. I got various bits of it and dimly remembered that it was to be found in the Sermon on the Mount, but that was as far as I got. Now turned up in St. Matthew, Chapter 6, verses 9.5 to 13 - with the 9.5 meaning that that it only starts half way through that verse.

First thought was that one was subordinating one's will to that of one's Lord, albeit the one in the sky rather than the one in the here and now. A rather odd thing to do now, in this era of self expression and selfishness. Then that it was a useful dose of humility, that the daily bread was not a foregone conclusion, that I might do well to forgive the debts of others that they might forgive mine in due course. The harvest might fail one year and I might need to borrow a bit to see me through. That evil & temptation were all around and needed to be recognised and managed. And concluding that there was merit in daily rehearsal of such a prayer, to remind one, in brief, of the facts of life and one's place in the world.

But not enough merit, now fully awake, to actually do it. While containing useful truths, the prayer was cast in too antique a mould to be useful. What we should replace it with, I have no idea. The communists tried and failed, while we seem to believe in just letting things rip and hoping for the best: science, technology & democracy will probably see us right in the end. Let's hope so anyway.

Perhaps brought on by reading yesterday in the NYRB about archangels in Peru. It seems that while we here in Europe go in for portraying archangels in vaguely Roman gear, men with wings, draped in white sheets and brandishing spears, Peruvian artists of the 17th century went in for archangels, with wings as is proper, but otherwise kitted out like a musketeer (aka arquebusiers) of the Royal Guard, complete with the fancy dress that used to go with such a job. Ask google for 'archangel cuzco images arquebus' and you will see what I mean.

PS 1: one of my memories from primary school is being taken to task, about the time that I took the 11-plus, for not knowing the prayer, not coming from a god fearing household. My teacher was not impressed at all.

PS 2: sheets not the whole story. BH now reminds me that archangels in church windows were generally togged out as knights in armour. So not so different from the Peruvians after all.