Growing up as a Catholic I’ve said my fair share of Our Fathers. In second grade, I received the Sacrament of Confession. As with all Catholic Sacraments, there is a protocol to follow.

In a telephone booth with a kneeler, you tell the Priest behind a screened window all the sins you have committed since the last time you “talked”. It all starts with you making a sign of the cross while saying “Bless me father for I have sinned….”. There is a required script but I won’t go into that.

The completion of your Confession is when you cite the Commandment that you feel worst about breaking. You are then given a penitence based on the degree of your sins. This penitence consists of a combination of Hail Marys (HM) and Our Fathers (OF) that you must immediately recite to be absolved of your sins, concluding with a good Act of Contrition.

The Hail Mary is the lightweight prayer probably because it is exclusively Catholic. The Our Father on the other hand, is THE universal Christian prayer that God gave to all of us on the Mount. The more OFs you are assigned the more serious your infractions. I’ve heard that the “norm” is 2-3 OFs and 4 HMs.

Which brings us to why I am an authority regarding The Our Father prayer. Getting my Commandments mixed up I always cited the 5^th Commandment as the one I was “mostly” sorry for. That’s right, the one that says “Thou shalt not kill”. I followed the same script  every confession and I assumed that 30 OFs and 20 HMs was the standard penitence for “lying to my Mother once and fighting with my brother twice”. I also thought the gasp and pause behind the screen was Father Hale thinking “Not again.” Come to think of it, that’s probably exactly what he was thinking.

So, as someone who has probably recited the Our Father thousands of times I have decided to put my money where my mouth is. I am speaking specifically to the section that goes, “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us”.  I have always translated the word “trespass” as meaning “having wronged”.

I recently found myself amid a “trespass” and in a position to make good the commitment that I’ve made thousands of times to God. I have always asked Him to forgive me in the same way I choose to forgive others. (shades of the Golden rule). In other words, I set the bar and He’ll follow my lead.

I decided that I could not live with the Power of Forgiveness that I possess and not use it. So, I did. I truly did. And what an incredible power it is. When I embraced forgiveness, I was filled with a feeling of warm fullness and clarity that pushed out and took the place of the cold anger, resentment and ache that were all trying to take root in my soul. Although some may view forgiving as a weakness, I found that it took all the spiritual strength I could muster. Jesus knew what He was talking about in that Sermon.

I don’t think the expression ” actions speak louder than words” is truer anywhere more than in the eyes of God. How many commitments to God do we make just through memorization, not taking our words to Him seriously? In the group of people standing during the Our Father on Sunday mornings, how many are just reciting the words from memory and not really planning to put them into action? Some won’t when asked to. They seem to think that sayin’ it is good enough for God. In the Heavenly circles this is referred to as “lip service”.

I don’t believe God is a big fan of the expression “take me for what I say and not for what I do”. He certainly doesn’t follow that practice