The Lord’s Prayer broken down into its seven petitions
The prayer that Jesus taught his followers to pray is known as the “Lord’s Prayer.” They asked, “Lord, instruct us on how to pray…”
Jesus instructed his disciples to pray the Lord’s Prayer. “Lord, teach us to pray,” they prayed. (Luke 11:1). This question was put to Jesus right after he finished praying to the Father. The Lord’s Prayer is directly quoted by Jesus Christ, who had just finished praying to the Father. We are praying with Jesus, as Pope Benedict XVI put it. The Lord’s Prayer begins with requests for God, followed by ones for ourselves and our behavior toward others. The prayer is organized like the Decalogue. We begin to understand who God is, that He is worthy of respect and worship, that His kingdom has already begun and will continue until it is fully realized, and we pray to God for assistance in living as Christ has modeled for us. Let’s examine each phrase of the Lord’s Prayer in order to better grasp the most powerful prayer ever given to us.
Our Father Who Art in Heaven
The most incredible thing here is that we may call God, Father. When we are baptized and follow Jesus Christ, in a sense, Jesus becomes our brother, a kin to us (not our buddy). The greater sense is that we become children of God again. In biblical history, man was separated from God at the fall, at enmity with Him. But by Christ’s life, death and resurrection, that rift is mended again. Fatherhood has been marred since the fall of man. Many have not had good fathers. But Jesus shows us what father means again—God is the perfect heavenly Father.
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Moses asks for God’s name at the burning bush. In Moses’ time, there were many gods. “But the God who calls Moses is truly God, and God in the strict and true sense is not plural. God is by essence one. For this reason he cannot enter into the world of the gods as one among many; he cannot have one name among others” (Benedict XVI). This name is above all names, yet it establishes relationship. By revealing His name, God made himself accessible. With Jesus in the incarnation, God has made himself truly accessible. “He has become a part of our world…” (Benedict XVI).
Thy Kingdom Come
Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God on earth. He is the kingdom. The Kingdom of God is the dominion of God that His will be done, as Pope Benedict XVI said. We ask the Lord that His kingdom come, not our own kingdom. Only God’s kingdom is perfect. Only God’s rule is perfect and perfects all things. By this prayer we ask that God unite us into his body—the body of Christ—and that God’s kingdom reign so that “God may be all in all” (1 Cor 15:28). God’s kingdom is the eternal kingdom, not our own kingdoms.
Thy Will be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven
The simplest way to put it is how Pope Benedict puts it: “God’s will with and for us must become the standard of our willingness and being… Heaven is where God’s will is carried out, and when that occurs, Earth transforms into heaven. How can we determine God’s will? Scripture, custom, and elevated reason. The standard of knowledge and reality is God. Unlike man. Being in line with God’s plan is the goal of this Christian life. Only Jesus flawlessly carried out/performs God’s will. We practice doing Christ’s will as we follow Him. We discover God’s will when we are in communication with Him. When we recite the Our Father, we ask that God draw nearer to us “so that God’s will can resist the downward pull of our selfishness and [climb to] the magnificent height to which we are called.” to fulfill God’s will and have a relationship with God.
Give Us this Day Our Daily Bread
Jesus says, “Do not be anxious about your life or what you will eat.” This part of the Lord’s Prayer asks for our needs. We give our cares over to God. Yet, man cannot eat bread alone, for there is an eternal bread that sustains. This part of the prayer is also referring to the Word of God and the future bread. The bread that points toward the eschaton—the fulfillment of all things. Give us our daily bread is communion with God in the sacrament of communion or the Eucharist—the great thanksgiving (literal translation). We are material beings with bodies and need sustenance, but we are also spiritual and need sustenance in our inner being. This is a twofold prayer. We ask for sustenance for our soul—our entire person.
And Forgive us our Trespasses
God’s love is the power with which we are forgiven. This petition presupposes there is trespass toward God and toward man. There is “some kind of injury to truth and to love … and is opposed to God who is truth and love,” as Pope Benedict XVI said. God forgives because he loves his creatures. We trespass against God in thought, word and deed on a daily basis, and we do the same to our fellow man each and every day. It is by forgiving that we are forgiven. God has forgiven each of us an insurmountable debt like the servant in Matthew 18. But we too must forgive others as Christ tells us to do.
And Lead us not into Temptation
Satan tempts us; God does not do so. However, when God permits temptation, it is to purify the saint—the Christ follower. He is able to assist people who are tempted because he has experienced suffering and temptation, according to Hebrews 2:18. But because Christ is sinless, he never lost his grace. where every step puts us at risk of falling. Job is a wonderful example of a person who was tempted to hate and forsake God. In an effort to get Job to reject God, Satan sifted him like sand. The primary tempter is Satan, but God is the one who uses temptation to cleanse and sanctify the one who is subjected to it. God strengthens us when we make the decision to resist temptation because he is strong and we are weak. We don’t become like him in and of ourselves; we become like him via Jesus Christ. Our reaction to extreme difficulty or temptation is “Lead us not into temptation,” and by saying this, we are directing our hope, our worship, and our assistance toward the God who can deliver us from the devil and ourselves. How else do we develop and mature? overcoming difficulty and temptation without giving in to them. The grace of God sustaining us through adversity and temptation is what changes us.
But Deliver us from Evil
“The Evil One,” according to other translations. Who is the enemy of our soul, of our entire being? Satan. “Deliver us,” cries the persecuted Christian to the Lord. The adversary, Satan, is in the world consuming, seeking the ruin of souls. As described in Revelation, Satan is the beast rising from the sea. Evil is a presence, a presence seen in war, selfishness, greed, sex trafficking, and many other places, but also in the despair and secularism that pervades the world, making God a fiction and allowing people to live as they wish. Yes, evil exists, but who orchestrates such evil? We lose ourselves in the face of Evil (the Evil One). We lose the Good who is God. We beseech the Lord to deliver us so that we do not lose the Good. In the same petition, we ask for God’s Kingdom to consume the earth’s fallen kingdoms. That God will be everything. That we fix our gaze on the living God.
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