9 Pray then like this:
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread;
12 And forgive us our debts, As we also have forgiven our debtors;
13 And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
(Matthew 6:9-13)
1.1 The most excellent prayer
The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCCC 579; cf Catechism of the Catholic Church -- CCC 2761-2764, 2774) explains the importance of the Lord's Prayer, that is, the prayer that the Lord Jesus Himself taught us.
The Our Father is the "summary of the whole Gospel" (Tertullian), "the perfect prayer" (Saint Thomas Aquinas). Found in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), it presents in the form of prayer the essential content of the Gospel.
Fr John Hardon SJ, following the explanation of Saint Thomas (see St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II q83 a9), comments in History and Theology of Grace (pp 102-103) that it is very important:
to know that we have in the Pater Noster a compendium of all the lessons that Christians should learn about prayer: How we should pray, what priority of values to observe, what objects to request, and how to state our petitions.
Moreover within the petitions themselves is enclosed the whole of the Christian religion in miniature. Christ has given us a composite of faith and supplication that has an efficacy, compared in patristic writings with one of the sacraments. It is the one prayer most often recommended TO OBTAIN THE GIFT OF FINAL PERSEVERANCE. Saint Augustine, and after the Council of Trent, singled out the Oratio Dominica (Lord's Prayer) as a quasisacramental means of obtaining REMISSION for DAILY VENIAL SINS. "Since we live in the midst of the world, where no one can live without sin, the forgiveness of our faults is found not only in the sacred waters of baptism, but also in the daily repetition of the Lord's Prayer. It is like our daily baptism" (St Augustine, Enchiridion 81, MPL 40, 270). [Emphasis added.]
1.2 More than words
Pope Benedict XVI teaches us that our Lord is not just telling us to repeat some words. It involves much more. In Jesus of Nazareth (Baptism to Transfiguration) (pp 132-133), he writes:
Jesus ... involves us in his own prayer; he leads us into the interior dialogue of triune love; he draws our human hardships deep into God's heart, as it were.
This also means, however, that the words of the Our Father are signposts to interior prayer, they provide a basic direction for our being, and they aim to configure us to the image of the Son. The meaning of the Our Father goes much further than the mere provision of a prayer text. It aims to form our being, to train us in the inner attitude of Jesus (cf Philippians 2:5).
...We must strive to recognise the thoughts Jesus wished to pass on to us in these words. But we must also keep in mind that the Our Father originates from his own praying, from the Son's dialogue with the Father. This means that it reaches down into depths far beyond the words. ...
1.3 Not to be repeated mechanically
This is why, the Our Father cannot be prayed just with our lips. The CCC 2766 teaches us:
But Jesus does not give us a formula to repeat mechanically [cf Matthew 6:7; I Kings 18:26-29]. As in every vocal prayer, it is through the Word of God that the HOLY SPIRIT teaches the children of God to pray to their Father. Jesus not only gives us the words of our filial prayer; at the same time he gives us the Spirit by whom these words become in us "spirit and life" [John 6:63]. Even more, the proof and possibility of our filial prayer is that the FATHER "sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" [Galatians 4:6] Since our prayer sets forth our desires before God, it is again the Father, "he who searches the hearts of men," who "knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God" [Romans 8:27].
2.1 We dare to say
We know that one of the main reasons the Pharisees and Scribes were infuriated with Jesus is that he referred to God as his Father. Saint John records (5:18):
18 This was why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but also called God his Father, making himself equal with God.
So who are we to dare call God Father? We are sinners, children of Eve. The CCC (2777) explains:
In the Roman liturgy, the Eucharistic assembly is invited to pray to our heavenly Father with filial boldness; the Eastern liturgies develop and use similar expressions: "dare in all confidence," "make us worthy of...." From the burning bush Moses heard a voice saying to him, "Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground" [Exodus 3:5]. Only Jesus could cross that threshold of the divine holiness, for "when he had made purification for sins," he brought us into the Father's presence: "Here am I, and the children God has given me" [Hebrews 1:3; 2:13].
Our awareness of our status as slaves would make us sink into the ground and our earthly condition would dissolve into dust, if the authority of our Father himself and the Spirit of his Son had not impelled us to this cry . . . 'Abba, Father!' . . . When would a mortal dare call God 'Father,' if man's innermost being were not animated by power from on high?" [St Peter Chrysologus, Sermo 71, 3: PL 52, 401 CD; cf Galatians 4:6]
2.2 Abba!
The Aramaic word "Abba" is mentioned three times in the whole New Testament: during Jesus' prayer in the garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:36) and again in two letters of Saint Paul (Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6).
36 And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what thou wilt."
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" 16 it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"
Calling God "Abba!" was not only unusual. It seemed presumptuous. Either that or He was out of his mind. This is why Saint Mark decides to quote directly this Aramaic word, then add the translation in the language in which he was writing (Greek). "Abba" is a more intimate expression than the normal word for father ("av"), something like "Papa" or "Daddy". It was used by children, both young and grown up.
So why can we dare call God "Abba", "Father"? The CCCC (582-583; cf CCC 2777-2785, 2789, 2797-2800) explains:
Because Jesus, our Redeemer, brings us into the Father’s presence and his Spirit makes us his children. We are thus able to pray the Our Father with simple and filial trust, with joyful assurance and humble boldness, with the certainty of being loved and heard.
We can invoke the "Father" because the Son of God made man has revealed him to us and because his Spirit makes him known to us. The invocation, Father, lets us enter into his mystery with an ever new sense of wonder and awakens in us the desire to act as his children. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are therefore aware of our being sons of the Father in the Son.
2.3 Children of God -- our Divine Filiation
Saint Josemaria Escriva preached often about divine filiation. For example, in the homily "The Conversion of the Children of God" (Christ is Passing By 64), he said:
This divine filiation is the basis of the spirit of Opus Dei. All men are children of God. But a child can look upon his father in many ways. We must try to be children who realize that the Lord, by loving us as his children, has taken us into his house, in the middle of the world, to be members of his family, so that what is his is ours, and what is ours is his, and to develop that familiarity and confidence which prompts us to ask him, like children, for the moon!
A child of God treats the Lord as his Father. He is not obsequious and servile, he is not merely formal and well-mannered: he is completely sincere and trusting. Men do not scandalise God. He can put up with all our infidelities. Our Father in heaven pardons any offence when his child returns to him, when he repents and asks for pardon. The Lord is such a good Father that he anticipates our desire to be pardoned and comes forward to us, opening his arms laden with grace.
...
When God runs toward us, we cannot keep silent, but with St Paul we exclaim: Abba, Pater: "Father, my Father!", for, though he is the creator of the universe, he doesn't mind our not using high-sounding titles, nor worry about our not acknowledging his greatness. He wants us to call him Father; he wants us to savour that word, our souls filling with joy.
Human life is in some way a constant returning to our Father's house. We return through contrition, through the conversion of heart which means a desire to change, a firm decision to improve our life and which, therefore, is expressed in sacrifice and self-giving. We return to our Father's house by means of that sacrament of pardon in which, by confessing our sins, we put on Jesus Christ again and become his brothers, members of God's family.
God is waiting for us, like the father in the parable, with open arms, even though we don't deserve it. It doesn't matter how great our debt is. Just like the prodigal son, all we have to do is open our heart, to be homesick for our Father's house, to wonder at and rejoice in the gift which God makes us of being able to call ourselves his children, of really being his children, even though our response to him has been so poor.
2.4 Both a responsibility and a privilege
What does being God's children mean for us? The CCC 2784 and 2785 explains:
The free gift of adoption requires on our part continual conversion and new life. Praying to our Father should develop in us two fundamental dispositions:
First, the desire to become like him: though created in his image, we are restored to his likeness by grace; and we must respond to this grace.
"We must remember . . . and know that when we call God "our Father" we ought to behave as sons of God." [St Cyprian, De Dom. orat. 11 PL 4:526B]
"You cannot call the God of all kindness your Father if you preserve a cruel and inhuman heart; for in this case you no longer have in you the marks of the heavenly Father's kindness.[St John Chrysostom, De orat Dom. 3: PG 51, 44]
" We must contemplate the beauty of the Father without ceasing and adorn our own souls accordingly.[St Gregory Of Nyssa, De orat. Dom. 2: PG 44, 1148B]
Second, a humble and trusting heart that enables us "to turn and become like children" [Matthew 18:3]: for it is to "little children" that the Father is revealed [cf Matthew 11:25]
[The prayer is accomplished] by the contemplation of God alone, and by the warmth of love, through which the soul, molded and directed to love him, speaks very familiarly to God as to its own Father with special devotion [St John Cassian, Coll. 9, 18 PL 49, 788c].
"Our Father: at this name love is aroused in us . . . and the confidence of obtaining what we are about to ask.... What would he not give to his children who ask, since he has already granted them the gift of being his children? [St Augustine, De serm. Dom. in monte 2, 4, 16: PL 34, 1276]
2.5 "Our" Father
The use of the plural possessive implies many things, a "new relationship with God" as the CCC explains in points 2786-2793.
2.6 Who art in heaven
The CCCC (586; cf CCC 2794-2796, 2802) explains what we mean by 'heaven':
This biblical expression does not indicate a place but a way of being: God transcends everything. The expression refers [1] to the majesty, the holiness of God, and [2] also to his presence in the hearts of the just. Heaven, or the Father’s house, constitutes [3] our true homeland toward which we are moving in hope while we are still on earth. "Hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3), we live already in this homeland.
"What is the structure of the Lord’s Prayer?" the CCCC (587; cf CCC 2803-2806, 2857) asks. The reply goes as follows:
It contains seven petitions made to God the Father. The first three, more God-centered, draw us toward him for his glory; it is characteristic of love to think first of the beloved. These petitions suggest in particular what we ought to ask of him: the sanctification of his Name, the coming of his Kingdom, and the fulfillment of his will. The last four petitions present to the Father of mercies our wretchedness and our expectations. They ask him to feed us, to forgive us, to sustain us in temptations, and to free us from the Evil One.
This structure reminds us of the ten commandments, where the first three commandments refer to God, and the following seven refer to neighbour. As can be seen clearly, this prayer takes our attention away from self. We have already explained above that we speak of "our Father", not "my Father". In the prayer Jesus taught us, THERE IS NO "I," "ME," "MINE," OR "MYSELF". This prayer teaches us how to be unselfish, to think FIRST about God, then SECOND about the others, and be forgetful of self.
3.1 Hallowed be thy Name
The CCCC (588; cf CCC 2807-2812, 2858) explains:
To hallow or make holy the Name of God is above all a prayer of praise that acknowledges God as holy. In fact, God revealed his holy Name to Moses and wanted his people to be consecrated for him as a holy nation in which he would dwell.
"How is the Name of God made holy in us and in the world?" asks CCCC 589 (cf CCC 2813-2815).
To make holy the Name of God, who calls us "to holiness" (1 Thessalonians 4:7) is to desire that our baptismal consecration animate our whole life. In addition, it is to ask –with our lives and our prayers – that the Name of God be known and blessed by every man.
We put this petition into action when we glorify God in all our being--body and soul. In chapter 6 of the First Letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul exhorts us to glorify God in our body because (1) we (soul and body) are members of Christ, and (2) temples of the Holy Spirit:
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two shall become one." 17 But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body.
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
When we pray that God's Name be made holy, we are reminded that there are people who do not honour His Most Holy Name. Thus, this petition moves us to make REPARATION for the blasphemies against God.
3.2 Thy Kingdom come
What do we mean by this petition? CCCC (590; cf CCC 2816-2821, 2859) says
The Church prays for the final coming of the Kingdom of God through Christ’s return in glory. The Church prays also that the Kingdom of God increase from now on through people’s sanctification in the Spirit and through their commitment to the service of justice and peace in keeping with the Beatitudes. This petition is the cry of the Spirit and the Bride: "Come, Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22:20).
Pope Benedict XVI, in Jesus of Nazareth (Baptism to Transfiguration) (pp 146-147) explains the requirement for God to reign.
The first and essential thing is a LISTENING HEART [emphasis added], so that God, not we, may reign. The Kingdom of God comes by way of a listening heart. That is its path. And that is what we must pray for again and again.
The encounter with Christ makes this petition even deeper and more concrete. We have seen that Jesus is the Kingdom of God in person. The Kingdom of God is present wherever He is present. By the same token, the request for a listening heart becomes a request for communion with JesusChrist, the petition that we increasingly become "one" with him (Galatians 3:28). What is requested in this petition is the true following of Christ, which becomes communion with him and makes us one body with him. ...
To pray for the Kingdom of God is to say to Jesus: Let us be yours, Lord! Pervade us, live in us; gather scattered humanity in your body, so that in you everything may be subordinated to God and you can then hand over the universe to the Father, in order that "God may be all in all" (I Corinthians 15:28).
3.3 Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Point 591 of the CCCC (cf CCC 2822-2827, 2860) explains the reason for this petition.
The will of the Father is that "all men be saved" (I Timothy 2:4). For this Jesus came: to perfectly fulfill the saving will of his Father. We pray God our Father to unite our will to that of his Son after the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints. We ask that this loving plan be fully realized on earth as it is already in heaven. It is through prayer that we can discern "what is the will of God" (Romans 12:2) and have the "steadfastness to do it" (Hebrews 10:36).
Pope Benedict XVI, in the same book cited above (pp 147-148), explains:
Two things are immediately clear from the words of this petition: God has a will with and for us and it must become the measure of our willing and being; and the essence of "heaven" is that it is where God's will is unswervingly done. Or, to put it in somewhat different terms, where God's will is done is heaven. The essence of heaven is oneness with God's will, the oneness of will and truth. Earth becomes "heaven" when and insofar as God's will is done there; and it is merely "earth," the opposite of heaven, when and insofar as it withdraws from the will of God. This is why we pray that it may be on earth as it is in heaven--that earth may become "heaven."
3.4 Give us this day our daily bread
"This day": it reminds us of God's instructions to Moses about the manna he gave the Israelites to eat in the desert as narrated in chapter 16 of the book of Exodus.
2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and said to them, "Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."
4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily."
13 ... and in the morning dew lay round about the camp. 14 And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as hoarfrost on the ground. 15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "It is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat. 16 This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Gather of it, every man of you, as much as he can eat; you shall take an omer apiece, according to the number of the persons whom each of you has in his tent.'" 17 And the people of Israel did so; they gathered, some more, some less. 18 But when they measured it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; each gathered according to what he could eat. 19 And Moses said to them, "Let no man leave any of it till the morning."
20 But they did not listen to Moses; some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and became foul; and Moses was angry with them. 21 Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted. 22 On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers apiece; and when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, 23 he said to them, "This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy sabbath to the LORD; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay by to be kept till the morning.'" 24 So they laid it by till the morning, as Moses bade them; and it did not become foul, and there were no worms in it. 25 Moses said, "Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is a sabbath, there will be none." 27 On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, and they found none. 28 And the LORD said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? 29 See! The LORD has given you the sabbath, therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days; remain every man of you in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day." 30 So the people rested on the seventh day. 31 Now the house of Israel called its name manna ...
Likewise, God gives us our daily supply of "manna"--grace. The grace we are given each day is the grace for that day, not for the next. This is what many saints and spiritual writers have called "the grace of the present moment." And God wants us to use that grace to fulfill our duties for that day.
"This day": Saint Josemaria wrote in point 163 of The Way:
Don’t wait until the New Year to make your resolutions. Every day is a good day to make good decisions. Hodie, nunc! — Today, now!
Sister Faustina prayed thus (From her Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul, Notebook 1,1):
O My God,
When I look into the future, I am frightened,
But why plunge into the future?
Only the present moment is precious to me,
As the future may never enter my soul at all.
It is no longer in my power to change, correct or add to the past;
For neither sages nor prophets could do that.
And so what the past has embraced I must entrust to God.
O present moment, you belong to me, whole and entire.
I desire to use you as best I can.
And although I am weak and small,
You grant me the grace of Your omnipotence.
And so, trusting in Your mercy,
I walk through life like a little child,
Offering You each day this heart
Burning with love for Your greater Glory.
When we live in the present moment, we are putting into practice what our Lord Jesus Christ said (Matthew 6:34):
34 Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day.
The time to respond to grace is not tomorrow but NOW. Because if we do not use today's grace, it will be gone by the morrow.
The CCCC (592; cf CCC 2828-2834, 2861) explains the meaning of this petition.
Asking God with the filial trust of children for the daily nourishment which is necessary for us all we recognize how good God is, beyond all goodness. We ask also for the grace to know how to act so that justice and solidarity may allow the abundance of some to remedy the needs of others.
Pope Benedict XVI explains also (cf Jesus of Nazareth. Baptism to Transfiguration, pp 151-152):
[W]e pray for our bread--and that means we also pray for bread for others. Those who have an abundance of bread are called to share. In his exposition of the First Letter to the Corinthians--of the scandal Christians were causing in Corinth--Saint John Chrysostom emphasises that "every bit of bread in one way or another is a bite of the bread that belongs to everyone, of the bread of the world." ... By expressing this petition in the first person plural, the Lord is telling us: "Give them something eat yourselves" (Mark 6:37).
The adjective "daily" is a translation from the Greek "epiousios." It is a rare and unusual word, as Pope Benedict XVI points out (see p 153 of his book cited above). In Latin, it is rendered as "supersubstantialis" -- super-substantial. The bread we ask for is not only the daily material requirement, but something that goes beyond it, something that also feeds our soul and becomes the pledge of eternal life--the Holy Eucharist. Thus, this petition has a specifically Christian sense. The CCCC (593; cf CCC 2835-2837, 2861) says:
Since "man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4), this petition equally applies to hunger for the Word of God and for the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist as well as hunger for the Holy Spirit. We ask this with complete confidence for this day – God’s "today" – and this is given to us above all in the Eucharist which anticipates the banquet of the Kingdom to come.
3.5 Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us
The CCCC (594; cf CCC 2838-2839, 2862) explains:
By asking God the Father to pardon us, we acknowledge before him that we are sinners. At the same time we proclaim his mercy because in his Son and through the sacraments "we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:14). Still our petition will be answered only if we for our part have forgiven first.
"How is forgiveness possible?" point 595 (cf CCC 2840-2845, 2862) of the CCCC asks. Then it replies as follows:
Mercy can penetrate our hearts only if we ourselves learn how to forgive--even our enemies. Now even if it seems impossible for us to satisfy this requirement, the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit can, like Christ, love even to love’s extreme; it can turn injury into compassion and transform hurt into intercession. Forgiveness participates in the divine mercy and is a high-point of Christian prayer.
3.6 Lead us not into temptation
Point 596 of the CCCC (cf CCC 2846-2849, 2863) explains:
We ask God our Father not to leave us alone and in the power of temptation. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us know how to discern, on the one hand, between a trial that makes us grow in goodness and a temptation that leads to sin and death and, on the other hand, between being tempted and consenting to temptation. This petition unites us to Jesus who overcame temptation by his prayer. It requests the grace of vigilance and of final perseverance.
3.7 But deliver us from evil
The Compendium (597; cf CCC 2850-2854, 2864) says:
"Evil" indicates the person of Satan who opposes God and is "the deceiver of the whole world" (Revelation 12:9). Victory over the devil has already been won by Christ. We pray, however, that the human family be freed from Satan and his works. We also ask for the precious gift of peace and the grace of perseverance as we wait for the coming of Christ who will free us definitively from the Evil One.
3.8 Say "Yes!" to God
In point 598 of the CCCC (cf CCC 2855-2856, 2865), it says:
"At the end of the prayer, you say 'Amen' and thus you ratify by this word that means 'so be it' all that is contained in this prayer that God has taught us." (Saint Cyril of Jerusalem)