A Comforting Thought

As I finished up praying Matins this a.m., I was comforted yet again by the thought that despite all the very sad and real divisions that run throughout the Church on pilgrimage in this age due to false teaching and sin, yet when we stand before our heavenly Father, we stand always as one family, and offer together the prayer that our one Lord has given to us and taught us.  The Christian who offers up the Our Father, offers it in union with the whole Church and with the Church's Head.  If there is so much we cannot and do not agree on it, we can agree on this:  we have a heavenly Father through Jesus, we need His name to be hallowed, His kingdom to come, His will to be done in our lives and in this world; we can beg from Him our daily bread, forgiveness of sins, protection in temptations and deliverance from every evil.  And we do this not merely asking for ourselves, but asking all of this joyfully for each other - every single baptized Christian is embraced in the "us" and "our" of the prayer.  Satan trembles when Christians join together in asking such mighty gifts!