" The Our Father" "Rooted in our Baptism in Christ."

 We should not take it for granted, that we have been given the privilege of coming to God in prayer. Nor should we take it lightly, that He has given us the very words with which to approach Him. Certainly, we should not presume that such prayer is our own prerogative or a matter of personal choice. Rather, it is a gift of divine grace, that God is our dear Father, that we are His dear children, and that He has given us both the invitation and the means to come boldly before him. All of this in and through Christ, and given to us in the waters of Baptism.
From the earliest days of the Church, "THE OUR FATHER" along with the "APOSTLES CREED."
has had a special relationship to the sacrament of "HOLY BAPTISM". CATECHUMENS in the early church would receive and learn these two chief parts of the Christian faith during Lent; then at heir baptism during the great vigil of Easter, they would confess the creed as they were immersed in the water, and afterwards ( on the basis of their baptism) they would pray the "Our Father" for the first time... together with the Church. To be sure, it is only by our Baptism into Christ, " the Son of God",
that we, too, are given the blessed privilege of approaching the "Lord God Almighty" as 'Our Father."
 Just as dear children ask their dear fathers here on earth ( but thankfully, with even more confidence than we have in our human fathers).
 Because we pray to our Father in virtue of ur Baptism into Christ, the Lord's  prayer ( like all Christian prayer, properly understood) is never a "private prayer" or private Christianity." Even when we take it to the Lord in prayer in the solitude of our own homes, we do so as members of the Body of Christ, as members of His Church of all times and Places. It is always our Father, never simply my father. The use of the "Our Father," in particular, along with other standard prayers ( such as Luther's (Morning and evening prayers.) is important confession of this catholicity and of our connection to it. Because the "Our Father" is part of our common language as Christians, this is the special language we all speak as fellow citizens of our Father's kingdom. For the words we use-even before we begin to "understand" them ( in part intellectually-the words God has spoken and given for us to repeat are words every Christian has received and speaks, a confession of the one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all. (Eph. 4:4-5). The catholicity of the "Our Father"  is demonstrated in the special importance attached to the Fifth Petition (" Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."), which Jesus reiterates in His teaching of the Our Father (Matt.6:14-15). since we pray in communion with the entire Church-in the unity of Christ Jesus- our relationship with others ( especially our fellow Christians) is an integral part of our prayer.  and as Christians that relationship is defined by forgiveness. We come before the Lord in prayer with repentance and humble recognition of our own sins; for we know that of ourselves we are unworthy to stand in His presence, and that we do so only by His tender grace and mercy towards us. Each and every prayer that we bring to him, therefore, presupposes and depends upon His forgiveness. and in this confession of our own sin, in our reliance upon the mercy and free forgiveness of our gracious Lord, we for our part must "heartily forgive and gladly do good  to those who sin against us. In the same way, we pray the "Our Father" as a matter of discipline, because it lifts our hearts and minds above and beyond  our own selfish cares and concerns to pray for the whole "Church."
Accordingly, the Lutheran Church has always included the "Our Father" in every single one of her liturgies great and small alike. Dr. Luther recommends in his small catechism that we include the "Our Father" in our daily prayers. ( Rom 8:26) we find our recourse and take refuge in this prayer taught by the lord himself. Even though our hearts and minds are never as pious or as focused  as they should be, we can know for a certainty that our lips are here guided by the words God himself; and that the "Holy Spirit" is thus praying with us...in our sinful weakness. The "Lord's prayer is always most appropriate, a prayer for all seasons. Certainly, we should never feel that we have nothing to say nor worry that we aren't being "creative" or "clever" enough, do so in this manner ( St.Matt. 6: 7-14).