The

Our Father
  
AYO, NICHOLAS: 
The prayer Jesus taught his
disciples, and which is given in
the gospels of Matthew and of
Luke, has been called the Lord’s
Prayer since Patristic period when
the early Fathers of the Church
began to study it.
Matthew and
Luke
Two variations of the
Lord’s Prayer- two
different portraits.
Crosby, Michael
Differences between
Matthew and Luke’s
versions of Jesus’ Prayer.
 GOSPEL LUKE MATTHEW
Location Found in section Found in first 5
where Jesus has set sermons- the sermon on
his face toward the mount.
Jerusalem.
Context Arises from the Arises unsolicited, at
disciples’ asking Jesus’ initiative.
Jesus : How to pray?
Length Shorter [Luke 11,2- Longer- one used in
4] most churches during
worship. [Matthew 6:9-
13]
Uses stronger words and
makes greater demands
on those who pray it.
Together with the CREED,
COMMANDMENTS and
SACRAMENTS, THE OUR
FATHER is one of the
4 PILLARS of the Catholic
Catechesis.

-CFC 2108
1. the “Our Father” is in keeping with
the Catholic tradition. For the
prayer our Lord taught his disciples
has always been revered as a
“summary of the whole Gospel,”
the perfect and fundamental
Christian prayer (cf. CCC 2759-61).
 AYO:

Thomas Aquinas, in
the Summa
Theologica, refers to
the Pater Noster as
the Perfect Prayer.
CFC 2111:
When reciting various prayers,
and the “Our Father” in
particular, we often do it from
routine, with a take-it-for-
granted attitude. Many of us
have never stopped to reflect
carefully on the meaning of the
words in the prayer, and
consequently our personal
appreciation of it is weak. This is
clear from the embarrassment
caused when we are asked to
explain how we live out the “Our
Father” in our daily lives.
2129. Three-Part Structure

The “Our Father” is composed of

three parts:
an address: “Our Father,”
three “You Petitions,” and four
“We Petitions.”
The opening address sets the tone
and orientation of the whole:
God-centered (cf. CCC 2803-4).
The first set of petitions draws us
to the Father’s glory: His Name,
His Kingdom, and His Will. All
three begin now, in our time on
this earth.
 ADDRESS

Our Father in
Heaven
The “Abba, Father” in
Jesus’ prayer takes up
every aspect of the Old
Covenant tradition and
carries it much further.
 . “Father” now signifies not only
Creator, sovereign Ruler, and
Helper/Protector of His covenant
people. In his teaching, Jesus
integrated these three images
within a new, intimate personal
relationship with God as loving
Father, offered to all in and through
Jesus, the Son.
 This new relationship with God is
in the present, the now of daily life,
and is experienced especially in
loving, merciful Forgiveness. Jesus’
Father is a God who cares, whose
love for each of us __ calling us by
name __ is completely freely given,
undeserved, and lasting __ never
failing.
 AYO:
Abba is Aramaic for
dad. It’s informal and
intimate.
 2136. “Our” Father, then, is
not a general designation for
some vague fatherly
“Someone up there.” No, it is
a personal adoring address to
the “Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ” (cf. CCC 2789).
 The “our” cuts through all
individualistic notions and
puts us squarely within the
community of “brothers and
sisters under our one
Heavenly Father”
(cf. CCC 2792f).
 AYO:
in calling God our Father,
we realize we are nothing
without God, and can do
nothing without God’s
sovereign will.
But calling Him FATHER,
means we must spiritually
resemble Him who do not
sin.
2138. In heaven. We know
“heaven” is not a place, so
this phrase does not move
God our Father away from
us, but rather expresses
His majesty and
transcendence.
 YOU PETITIONS

-Holy be Your Name

-Your Kingdom Come
-Your will be done on earth
as it is in Heaven
 YOU PETITION:

Holy be Your Name

2140. In this first petition, we
pray that God will sanctify
His Name, that He will
manifest His greatness
before all peoples.
In the Bible, “name” refers to
the very reality of the person
named, expressing the
person’s role or status, and
often representing the
person’s personal disclosure
or self-revelation.
The holiness of God is
called his “GLORY”,
manifesting his majesty.
 AYO:

God does not have a name.

GOD is everything.
The word HALLOW is an
earlier form of HOLY.
Greek: HAGIASTHETO-
unearthly, purified, sacred.
 God does not need to be
sanctified, or made holy,
but rather to be recognized
as already awesome.
“our Father who art
in heaven.
Hallowed be thy
name.” invites the
father to finish
what he has
begun.
 2143. In Deeds. From Jesus’ prayer it is clear that
the Father is to be glorified not only in words, but
also in deeds. Thus Jesus prays that his disciples be
“consecrated in the truth” (Jn 17:17,19), the truth
of God’s Love that Christ definitively expressed in
his Paschal Death and Resurrection. Hence, we
pray that the Father will glorify His Name in and
through our life and prayer.3
2144. Twofold dimension of holiness. That God be hallowed
in our lives is, of course, not mere pious rhetoric, but
illumines two basic dimensions of God. First, praise of God’s
being, His “total Otherness,” dwell in “unapproachable light”
(1 Tim 6:16), separated from the profane by His exclusive
holiness. This rejects all forms of idolatry since God is
different from all created realities. Our human reaction to
such an All-Holy God is both flight and attraction. We are
fearful in the presence of the unknown Holy One, yet
fascinated by the fullness of meaning and light. Second, the
ethical dimension wherein God is “shown holy by His
justice” (Is 5:16).
 YOU PETITION:

Your Kingdom
come.
 2149.
Kingdom here means
God’s Reign, brought
close to us in Jesus
Christ’s life, teaching,
Passion, Death and
Resurrection.
 St. Augustine comments:
“it is the grace of living the
right way that you ask for
when you pray: ‘thy
Kingdom come!’ ”
 God’s Kingdom, rather, is at
hand, calling for a conversion
and faith that can renew and
liberate our human hearts in all
the trials and temptations of
our human condition.
Concretely, Jesus is calling
us into an order of unity
and peace, under his own
Kingship, in which each of
us serves as servant
members, in our day-to-day
activities.
 “Your Kingdom come!”
relates more directly to
God’s transforming
presence within each of us
and society as a whole.
YOU PETITIONS:

Your will be
done.
 Most of those who recite
this prayer regularly never
seem to ask themselves:
“what actually does God
will?”
 2161.
The Father’s Will. But what
does the Father actually
will? From Christ’s life and
ministry, his disciples came
to realize that God our
Savior “wants all men to be
saved and come to know
the truth” (1 Tim 2:4).
AYO:

To do God’s will is to
collaborate with the
creator in the cosmic
work of love.
MARTIN MARTY:
Argues that we must not
say “Thy will be done” as
a prayer of resignation to
the will of the Father
rather –a battle cry for
God’s sovereignity in our
hearts and in the whole
world.
ON EARTH AS IT IS
IN HEAVEN.
2163. As for us on earth,
“by clinging to Christ, we can
become one single spirit with
him and so accomplish his will.
In this way, it will be fulfilled on
earth just as it is in heaven”
(Origen, On Prayer, 26; cf. CCC 2825).

But how exactly do we

accomplish Christ’s will?
The will of God is what Christ
did and taught. Humility in our daily
lives, unwavering faith, modesty in speech,
justice in acts, mercy in deeds, discipline in
not harming others, readiness to suffer,
peaceful living with our brothers, whole-
hearted love of the Lord, loving Him because
He is our Father, fearing Him because He is
our God; preferring nothing to Him who
preferred us above all else; clinging
tenaciously to His love, standing by his Cross
with loyalty and courage __ that is what it
means to do the will of God (St. Cyprian, Lit.
of Hrs. Thurs., 11th Wk).
AYO:

When earth is made sinless,

earth will be heaven.

In summary:
May earth and heaven be as
one under God.
2167. The three “You Petitions”
are ultimately different ways of
asking God to be God on earth
as in heaven. They all refer to
God’s escha-tological glory, that
is, His presence in the final
times of Christ’s return in glory
and the definitive establishment
of God’s Rule. But this presence
is already among us now, but
not yet as it will be.
The THREE YOU
PETITIONS: TRINITARIAN

The first, is on creator-Father

Almighty. Second, refers to
the Kingdom of his Son,
Lord Jesus Christ. Third, the
gift of the Holy Spirit that
tunes our will to the will of
the Father.
WE PETITIONS
- Give us this day our daily
bread.
- And forgive us our sins as we
forgive those who sin against us
- Do not lead us to the test but
deliver us from evil
 The second group of petitions,
those which pertain to our basic
needs: bread, support against sin
(forgiveness), temptation and Evil.
The two groups should not be
separated, since Christ himself has
brought them together in his
prayer. The reason is clear: God
Himself cares about our needs. His
Name, Kingdom and Will are truly
committed, by His freely given
Love, toward responding to our
needs.
 GIVE US THIS
DAY OUR DAILY
BREAD
“Give us” is really a Covenant
expression, based on the essential
interrelated roles of the covenant
partners. Our work of growing,
producing, distributing food,
depends ultimately on nature, and
the life given us and sustained by
our Creator. Thus we recognize the
fact that food is still a gift from our
Father for which we must ask and
thank Him (cf. CCC 2834).
 2170. Our bread. “Bread” here is
the symbol for all human food, the
food necessary to sustain our
human life, literally, the “bread of
life” (Jn 6:35).

“Our” bread means that although

each of us has an individual need
for bread, responding to that need
is a community effort. Jesus
teaches us to pray for “our bread,”
stressing our human fellowship.
Human eating is a communitarian
act, carried out in a meal.
It is a communion with others not
only in physical food but in
dialogue and conversation around
the table.
 AYO:
Bread was baked daily, because
the journeymen lived on daily
wages, because food is spoiled if
kept too long, and because fresh
baked bread is specially
satisfying. It was in that sense, a
daily ration, a daily bread, the
bread of the poor, the bread of all
people.
Greek word: ARTOS, translated in latin
as PANIS and BREAD in English.

Bread originally meant fragments

or morsel and when applied, and
when applied to food came by
general use to indicate pieces of
bread. Bread was broken from a
large loaf in order to divide it
among those on table and in order
to feed oneself in a small portion.
2175. This day our “daily bread.”
Bread in this petition can refer to:

• the material bread we need for today,

simply to live;
• the eschatological bread of God’s
eternal kingdom; and
• the Kingdom’s bread already present
to us in the teaching of Jesus, the
Incarnate Word of the Father, and in
the Eucharist.
 To address God with the words
“GIVE US” seems to assume that
God whishes to be asked for what
we need, and that God will answer
our prayer.

… it might also suggest how God

might take care of us by providing
for our table and by making us well
if we are sick. But we are open to
God’s ways and the mystery of
God to respond to our prayer.
Eating with friends feeds the soul.
Our companions are literally the
ones with whom we break bread
together [companion from cum-
panis in latin means with bread.]
AND FORGIVE US
OUR SINS AS WE
FORGIVE THOSE
WHO SIN
AGAINST US
2180.
Our petition is a personal
acknowledgment of our own
sinfulness
The radical importance of this is forcefully
presented by St. John:
If we say, “we are free of the guilt of sin,” we
deceive ourselves; the truth is not to be
found in us. But if we acknowledge our sins,
he who is just can be trusted to forgive our
sins and cleanse us from every wrong. If we
say, “We have never sinned,” we make Him a
liar, and His word finds no place in us (1 Jn
1:8-10).
2181. Sins/Debts. If we
offend another to whom we
are already bound in
gratitude, as in our
relationship with God, the
debt of offense is far
greater, calling for deeper
repentance on our part.
2182. Forgiving. “To forgive”
involves much more than simply
not holding a grudge against some
offender, or not plotting some
revenge. It is not the same as
“forgetting” the offense. Rather, it
means setting the offenders free,
releasing them from all obligation,
re-establishing broken
relationships.
2183. Asking forgiveness.
Perhaps it is even more
difficult for the average
Filipino to ask for
forgiveness. The positive
aspects of reconciliation and
joyful reunion find ready
acceptance in our culture.
Ultimately there is no
escaping this humility:
either we humble ourselves
in acknowledging the truth
of our sinfulness, or be
humbled by God’s true
judgment.
 2184. As we forgive those who sin against us.
This phrase is essential for understanding the
true nature of the petition. The word “as” seems
to imply first, that we forgive others, and then
ask God to forgive us, in reward. This cannot be,
since only through God’s grace within us are we
able to forgive others. God never comes “after
us.” His grace always precedes.
 2186. The parable brings out three important
truths. First, that God’s forgiveness precedes our
forgiveness. Second, that our human forgiveness
is grounded in God’s love for us and his
forgiveness of our sins. We can forgive others
because we have first been forgiven by God.
Third, that God’s forgiveness becomes real for us
only if we accept it and make it part of our
relating to others.
 AYO:

FORGIVENESS should be
universal and continual.
DO NOT
LEAD US TO
THE TEST
In “Lead us not into
temptation,”
we pray that God
may not let us enter
into, give in to,
submit to,
temptation.
 2191. Discernment. Actually
two basic distinctions must
be made. The first is between
“test” or “trial” and
“temptation.” St. Paul wrote
that we should even boast of
our tests/afflictions, knowing
that affliction produces
endurance, and endurance,
proven virtue (cf. Rom 5:3-5;
CCC 2847).
 Temptation, on the
other hand, is
enticement to evil,
seduction to sin and
death.
 2192. The second
important distinction is
between “being
tempted” and
“consenting to
temptation.” We know
that temptations are
part of our human
condition.
 The problem is
willfully consenting to
the temptation. Here is
where we need the
Holy Spirit to properly
discern and unmask
the lie and falsehood of
temptation.
 2193. Decision. Not to
enter into temptation,
then, depends on a
“decision of the heart.”
2194. Such success over
temptation is not
possible without
prayer, as we see in
Christ’s own example.
BUT DELIVER
US FROM EVIL
2195. Whether simply “Evil” or the
“Evil One,” namely Satan, be prefered
here, makes little difference in the
text’s basic meaning. We are dealing
with EVIL beyond our individual daily
temptations and sinful thoughts,
words and deeds.
Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and
grant us peace in our day. In your
mercy keep us free from sin, and
protect us from all anxiety As we wait
in joyful hope For the coming of our
Savior, Jesus Christ.

- There are no two kingdoms: there is

only the kingdom of heaven which is
permitted by God a certain space doe a
certain time.