The Our Father is such an important prayer for us
Christians. We must strive each day to
open our hearts and pray this prayer with sincerity of heart. After reflecting on my own life and a small
part of the prayer, I was moved to read how the Catechism of the Catholic
Church expressed the beauty of each phrase.
It is about 20 pages in length. I
challenge you some time to read all of it.
It is so inspiring! But, I wanted
to give you a little taste of the beauty of this prayer. I copied and pasted from the following
website (where you can read all of it…it is towards the end of the
Catechism). I have left the paragraph
numbers to each thought so I hope it is not confusing to you. Enjoy this reflection on the Our Father. (http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catechism/catechism-of-the-catholic-church/epub/index.cfm)
The Lord’s Prayer “Our Father”
2761 The Lord’s Prayer “is truly the summary of the whole gospel.” “Since the Lord... after handing over the practice
of prayer, said elsewhere, ‘Ask and you will receive,’ and since everyone has
petitions which are peculiar to his circumstances, the regular and appropriate
prayer [the Lord’s Prayer] is said first, as the foundation of further
desires.”
2763 The Lord’s Prayer is the most perfect of prayers.... In it we ask,
not only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence
that they should be desired. This prayer not only teaches us to ask for things,
but also in what order we should desire them.
“OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN”
2780 We can invoke God as “Father” because he is
revealed to us by his Son become man and because his Spirit makes him
known to us.
2781 … The first phrase of the Our Father is a blessing of
adoration before it is a supplication.
2783 Thus the Lord’s Prayer reveals us to ourselves at
the same time that it reveals the Father to us.
2784 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
2785 Second, a humble and trusting heart that
enables us “to turn and become like children”:
2786 “Our” Father refers to God. The adjective, as used by
us, does not express possession, but an entirely new relationship with God.
2787 … we have become “his” people and he is henceforth
“our” God.
2792 Finally, if we pray the Our Father sincerely, we leave
individualism behind, because the love that we receive frees us from it.
IV. “Who Art in Heaven”
2794 This biblical expression does not mean a place
(“space”), but a way of being; it does not mean that God is distant, but
majestic. Our Father is not “elsewhere”: he transcends everything we can
conceive of his holiness. It is precisely because he is thrice-holy that he is
so close to the humble and contrite heart.
2795 The symbol of the heavens refers us back to the
mystery of the covenant we are living when we pray to our Father.
THE SEVEN PETITIONS
2803 After we have placed ourselves in the presence of God
our Father to adore and to love and to bless him, the Spirit of adoption stirs
up in our hearts seven petitions, seven blessings. The first three, more
theologal, draw us toward the glory of the Father; the last four, as ways
toward him, commend our wretchedness to his grace. “Deep calls to deep.”
2806 By the three first petitions, we are strengthened in
faith, filled with hope, and set aflame by charity.
“Hallowed Be Thy Name”
2807 … Beginning with this first petition to our Father, we
are immersed in the innermost mystery of his Godhead and the drama of the
salvation of our humanity. Asking the Father that his name be made holy draws
us into his plan of loving kindness for the fullness of time.
2814 When we say “hallowed be thy name,” we ask that it should be
hallowed in us, who are in him; but also in others whom God’s grace still
awaits, that we may obey the precept that obliges us to pray for everyone, even
our enemies. That is why we do not say expressly “hallowed be thy name ‘in
us,’” for we ask that it be so in all men.
“Thy Kingdom Come”
2818 In the Lord’s Prayer, “thy kingdom come” refers
primarily to the final coming of the reign of God through Christ’s return. But,
far from distracting the Church from her mission in this present world, this
desire commits her to it all the more strongly.
2820 …Man’s vocation to eternal life does not suppress, but
actually reinforces, his duty to put into action in this world the energies and
means received from the Creator to serve justice and peace.
“Thy Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven”
2822 Our Father “desires all men to be saved and to come to
the knowledge of the truth.”
2823 “He
has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure
that he set forth in Christ... to gather up all things in him, things in heaven
and things on earth…We ask insistently for this loving plan to be fully
realized on earth as it is already in heaven.
2825 “Although he was a Son, [Jesus] learned obedience
through what he suffered.” How much more reason have we sinful creatures
to learn obedience—we who in him have become children of adoption. We ask our
Father to unite our will to his Son’s, in order to fulfill his will, his plan
of salvation for the life of the world. We are radically incapable of this, but
united with Jesus and with the power of his Holy Spirit, we can surrender our
will to him and decide to choose what his Son has always chosen: to do what is
pleasing to the Father.
2826 By prayer we can discern “what is the will of God” and
obtain the endurance to do it.
“Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”
2828 “Give us”: The trust of children who look to
their Father for everything is beautiful…Jesus teaches us this petition,
because it glorifies our Father by acknowledging how good he is, beyond all
goodness.
2829 “Give us” also expresses the covenant. We are his and
he is ours, for our sake.
2830 “Our bread”: The Father who gives us life cannot but
give us the nourishment life requires…He is not inviting us to idleness, but
wants to relieve us from nagging worry and preoccupation. Such is the filial
surrender of the children of God:
2831 … The drama of hunger in the world calls Christians
who pray sincerely to exercise responsibility toward their brethren.
2834 …Even when we have done our work, the food we receive is
still a gift from our Father; it is good to ask him for it and to thank him.
2835 This petition, with the responsibility it involves,
also applies to another hunger from which men are perishing. Christians must
make every effort “to proclaim the good news to the poor.” There is a famine on
earth, “not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words
of the LORD.”
“And Forgive Us Our Trespasses, as We Forgive Those Who Trespass
Against Us”
2838 …according to the second phrase, our petition will not
be heard unless we have first met a strict requirement. Our petition looks to
the future, but our response must come first, for the two parts are joined by
the single word “as.”
And forgive us our trespasses...
2839 … though we are clothed with the baptismal garment, we do
not cease to sin, to turn away from God. Our petition begins with a
“confession” of our wretchedness and his mercy. Our hope is firm because, in
his Son, “we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
2840 Now—and this is daunting—this outpouring of mercy
cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have
trespassed against us. Love, like the Body of Christ, is indivisible; we cannot
love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother or sister we do see.
2841 …This crucial requirement of the covenant mystery is
impossible for man. But “with God all things are possible.”
...as we forgive those who trespass against us
2843 Thus the Lord’s words on forgiveness, the love that
loves to the end, become a living reality. It is there, in fact, “in the
depths of the heart,” that everything is bound and loosed. It is
not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers
itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory
in transforming the hurt into intercession.
2844 … Forgiveness is a high-point of Christian prayer;
only hearts attuned to God’s compassion can receive the gift of prayer.
Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love is stronger than sin…Forgiveness
is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with
their Father and of men with one another.
“And Lead Us Not into Temptation”
2846 This petition goes to the root of the preceding one,
for our sins result from our consenting to temptation…”God cannot be tempted by
evil and he himself tempts no one”;…We ask him not to allow us to take the way
that leads to sin…This petition implores the Spirit of discernment and
strength.
2847 The Holy Spirit makes us discern between
trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, and
temptation, which leads to sin and death…Finally, discernment unmasks the lie
of temptation, whose object appears to be good, a “delight to the eyes” and
desirable, when in reality its fruit is death.
2848 “Lead us not into temptation” implies a decision of
the heart.
2849 … In this petition to our heavenly Father, Christ
unites us to his battle and his agony. He urges us to vigilance of
the heart in communion with his own…The Holy Spirit constantly seeks to awaken
us to keep watch.
“But Deliver Us from Evil”
2850 …Our interdependence in the drama of sin and death is turned
into solidarity in the Body of Christ, the “communion of saints.”
2851 In this petition, evil is not an abstraction, but
refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God.
2854 When we ask to be delivered from the Evil One, we pray as
well to be freed from all evils, present, past, and future, of which he is the
author or instigator.
2856 “Then, after the prayer is over you say ‘Amen,’ which
means ‘So be it,’ thus ratifying with our ‘Amen’ what is contained in the
prayer that God has taught us.”
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