Today's reading begins with what is commonly known as The Lord's Prayer and follows naturally after Jesus' own words to the Father in 10:21-22 (the longer, Matthean version is found in 6:9-13).

The prayer emerges from an episode in which Jesus himself was praying and a conversation with Jesus' disciples in which an unnamed disciple asks Jesus to "teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples" (v.1). It is a request which, in order to answer, would require considerable discussion about the nature of prayer and related issues such as the discipline of prayer, the time to pray, the frequency of prayer, the posture of the penitent, etc. Instead, Jesus offers a prayer for them to use "When you pray" (v.2). The implication is neither that this prayer would make further praying unnecessary nor t…