A priest recounts that once a peasant from Castilla with whom he had struck up a conversation said to him: “Father, I have a treatise on Christian doctrine in very few words.” The priest, surprised by what this man was saying, not so much because he did not know the treatise, but because it seemed that it would be very difficult to him to condense Christian doctrine into very few words, asked him: “Where, and what is it?” “In the Our Father,” he replied. “How is that?” the priest asked immediately. “Look, Father,” said the man, “I pray it many times, slowly, slowly, in church or at home, and each time I find in it more light and more consolation; I do not know whether I understand it well or badly, but what is certain is that I find consolation in slowly praying the Our Father.”
“And it must have been true,” the priest reflected after telling the story, “because I saw that that man had a very good life and much serenity of spirit.”
Leading a good life and having serenity are the effects of every good prayer, so it should not be surprising that the Our Father caused those effects in this man who devoutly prayed this prayer several times a day.
Prayer produces three effects that help us to lead a good life and keep our spirit serene. These three effects are: it is a remedy against evil, it obtains for us what we need, and it brings us closer to God.
In the first place, it is an effective and useful remedy against evils, and especially against the principal evil and enemy of man, which is sin. Prayer forgives our sins, as the prayer of the good thief freed him from his sins; in fact, Our Lord, as a response to that prayer, said to him: today you will be with me in paradise (Lk 23:43). Prayer also is the best means to overcome sin. Both effects are produced by the Our Father, since in it we ask God to free us from evil, to not lead us to temptation, and to forgive our sins.
Prayer, in the second place, is effective in obtaining what we need, as Our Lord said: all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it (Mk 11:24). If we are not heard, it is because we do not ask for what is most fitting for our salvation. Therefore, the Our Father is the best prayer, since Jesus taught us to ask for what we truly need for our salvation.
Finally, prayer is effective in making us close to, or familiar with, God. In this sense, the prayer of the Our Father, by having us call God Father, is effective in bringing us closer to God.
