Father our who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, Come your kingdom, your will be done as in heaven so on earth.
Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors, and do not abandon us to temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
Latin
Pater noster, qui es in cælis: sanctificétur Nomen Tuum: advéniat Regnum Tuum: fiat voluntas Tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra. bread nostrum cotidiánum from nobis hódie, et dimítte nobis debita nostra, safety and us dimittimus debitoribus nostris. et ne nos indúcas in tentatiónem; sed libera nos a Malo.
Amen.
The Sermon on the Mount Carl Bloch, 1890
Explanation of the Our Father
We are too sons of Dad! Thoughtful commentary on the Pater Noster:
The Father Ours, the synthesis of the entire Gospel (Tertullian, De oratione, 1), is the Sunday prayer (that is, "the Lord's prayer") par excellence, because taught to us by Christ himself (Catechism of the Church Catholic, no. 2765) in response to the request of his disciples: "Lord, teach us to pray" (Lk 11:1).
If you review all the words of the prayers contained in Holy Scripture, as far as I think, you will not find one that is not contained and summarized in this prayer taught to us by the Lord (St. Augustine, Letter to Proba, Epistulae, n. 130 ).
Example of perfect harmony, in Father Ours is not only asked for all the things that we can rightly desire, but also in the order in which they are to be desired: so that this prayer not only teaches us to ask, but also shapes all our affections (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, II-II, q. 83, a. 9).
A first approach to Father Our leads us to consider the succession of three commitments and three requests, with which man first undertakes to be as according to the will of God and then asks for what is needed for his material and spiritual needs:
The request for the support of God:give us today our daily bread
The request for the forgiveness of sins: forgive us our debts
The request for Salvation: lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
If the Sermon on the Mount is doctrine of life, Sunday prayer is prayer, but in both the Spirit of the Lord gives a new form to our desires, to the inner impulses that animate our lives. Jesus he teaches us new life with his words and educates us to ask for it through prayer (CCC, 2764).
The Father Ours is a prayer as admirable as perhaps taken for granted, perhaps recited every day, but often hastily. For this reason, a second approach can only lead us on a journey that brings us closer to the Father Our word for word.
Since his first word, Christ introduces me to a new dimension of the relationship with God. He is no longer just my “Dominator”, my “Lord” or our “Master”. He is my Father.
And I am not only a servant, but son. So I turn to you, Father, with the respect due to the One who is also those things, but with the freedom, trust and intimacy of son, aware of being loved, trusting even in despair and in the midst of slavery to the world and to sin. He, the Father who calls me, awaiting my return, I the prodigal son who will return to Him in repentance.
Our
Why not alone Father mine or of “my” (my family, my friends, my social class, my people,…), but Father of all: the rich and the poor, the saint and the sinner, the cultured and the illiterate, whom you all tirelessly call to You, to repentance, to Your love.
“Ours”, certainly, but not confusedly everyone's: God he loves everyone and each one individually; He is everything to me when I am in trouble and in need, he is all mine when he calls me Himself with repentance, vocation, consolation.
The adjective does not express a possession, but a relationship with God totally new; shape to generosity, according to the teachings of Christ; indicate God as common to many persons: there is but one God and it is recognized Father by those who, through faith in His Son only begotten, they were born again of him by water and the Holy Spirit.
And the Church this new communion of God and men (CCC, 2786, 2790).
That you are in Heaven
Extraordinarily other than me, yet not far away, indeed everywhere in the immensity of the universe and in the small of my daily life, Your admirable creation.
This biblical expression does not mean a place, as space could be, but a way of being; not the remoteness of God, but his majesty and although He is beyond all is also very close to the humble and contrite heart (CCC, 2794).
Hallowed be your name
In other words, may it be respected and loved, by me and by the whole world, also through me, in my commitment to setting a good example, to bring Your Name even to those who do not really know it yet.
By asking your name to be hallowed, we enter the drawing of God: the sanctification of His name, revealed to Moses and then in Jesus, on our part and in us, as well as in every people and every man (CCC, 2858).
When we say: "Hallowed be thy name", we excite ourselves to desire that his name, which is always holy, be considered holy also among men, that is, not be despised, which is not good for God but to men (St. Augustine, Letter to Proba).
Come your kingdom
May Your Creation, Blessed Hope, be fulfilled in our hearts and in the world, and our Savior return JesusChrist! With the second question the Church mainly looks at the return of Christ and at the final coming of the kingdom of God, but also pray for the growth of the kingdom of God in the "today" of our lives (CCC, 2859).
When we say: "Thy kingdom come", which, whether we like it or not, will surely come, we arouse our desire for that kingdom, so that it may come for us and we deserve to reign in it (St. Augustine, ibid.).
Thy will be done
Which is the will of Salvation, even in our misunderstanding of Your ways. Help us to accept Your will, fill us with trust in You, give us the hope and consolation of Yours love and join our will to that of the Son Yours, for your plan of salvation to be fulfilled in 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 He has always chosen Son his: do what pleases the Father (CCC, 2860).
As in heaven, so on earth
For the world, also through us, Your unworthy instruments, to be shaped in imitation of Paradise, where Your will is always done, which is true Peace, infinite Love and eternal Bliss in Your countenance (CCC, 2825-2826).
When we say: "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven", we ask him for obedience, to fulfill his will, as it is fulfilled by his angels in heaven. (St. Augustine, ibid.).
give us today our daily bread
Our bread and that of all our brothers, overcoming our sectarianism and our selfishness. Give us the truly necessary, earthly nourishment for our livelihood, and free us from useless desires. Above all things give us the Bread of life, Word of God and Body of Christ, Eternal table prepared for us and for many since the beginning of time (CCC, 2861).
When we say: "Give us today our daily bread", with the word today we mean "in the present time", in which we either ask for all the things that are sufficient for us, indicating them all with the term "bread" which is the most important thing among them, or we ask for the sacrament of the faithful which is necessary for us in this life to attain the happiness not of this world, but of eternal happiness. (St. Augustine, ibid.).
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
I implore Your mercy, aware that however it cannot reach my heart, if I too do not know how to forgive my enemies, following the example and with the help of Christ. If therefore you present your offering at the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother and then return and offer yours. gift (Mt 5:23) (CCC, 2862).
When we say: "Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors", we call to our attention what we must ask and do to deserve to receive this grace (St. Augustine, ibid.).
And lead us not into temptation
Don't abandon us at the mercy of the road that leads to sin, along which, without You, we would be lost. hold the hand and seize us (see Mt 14:24-32), send us the Spirit of discernment and fortitude and the grace of vigilance and final perseverance (CCC, 2863).
When we say: "Lead us not into temptation", we excite ourselves to ask that, abandoned by his help, we are not deceived and that we do not consent to any temptation or give in to it overwhelmed by pain (St. Augustine, ibid.).
But deliver us from evil
Along with all the Church Please manifest the victory, already achieved by Christ, on the "prince of this world" who personally opposes You and Your plan of Salvation, so that You can free us from those who hate all Your Creation and all Your creatures and would like to see everyone lost with them, deceiving our eyes with poisonous delights, until forever the prince of this world will be cast out (Jn 12:31) (CCC, 2864).
When we say, "Deliver us from evil," we remind ourselves to reflect that we are not yet in possession of the good in which we will suffer no evil. These last words of the Lord's Prayer have such a broad meaning that a Christian, in whatever tribulation he finds himself, in pronouncing them he emits groans, sheds tears, here he begins, here he lingers, here his prayer ends (St. Augustine, ibid.).
Amen.
And so be it, according to Your will (CCC, 2865).
Ask and it will be given to you
Then he said to them: "If one of you has a friend and at midnight goes to him and says: 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,' and if the one from interior replies: "Don't bother me, the door is already closed, my children and I are in bed, I can't get up to give you the loaves", I tell you that, even if he won't get up to give them to him because he is his friend, at least because of his intrusiveness he will get up and give him as many as he needs.
Well, I tell you: ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. Because whoever asks receives and whoever seeks finds and whoever knocks will be opened. Which father between you, if the son asks him for a fish, will he give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he give him a scorpion?
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good things to yours sons, the more the Father God of heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Lk 11,5-13).
