“The whole mystery of Christian prayer is summed up here, in this word: to have the courage to call God by the name of Father”. Pope Francis said this during his general audience catechesis today dedicated to God’s paternity seen as the source of our hope. “Even the liturgy tells us so, when it invites us to pray together the Lord’s Prayer using the expression ‘we dare to say’”, Pope Francis recalled. “There was something fascinating about the Lord’s Prayer, so fascinating that one day His disciples asked Him to be introduced to it”, Pope Francis continued. “The Lord is praying”, he added off the cuff. “And the disciples of Jesus – he went on to say – are struck by the fact that He, particularly in the mornings and evenings, withdraws into solitude to pray”. “It is then that Jesus teaches them what has become the Christian prayer par excellence”: the Our Father, the Pope explained, noting that “Luke, unlike Matthew, reports a shorter version of the Lord’s prayer, which begins with this simple invocation: ‘Father’”.