37 Praying The Our Father

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TOPIC 37
PRAYING THE OUR FATHER
References: Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 2759-2865
Supplementary reading: https://opusdei.org/en/article/topic-36-praying-the-our-father/

Central Points Jesus teaches us

to address God as Father
Divine filiation The seven petitions

and Christian fraternity of the Our Father
Central Points
with the Our Father, Jesus wants to make us aware
of the most important truth of who we are:
children of a loving God
the constant awareness of our divine filiation should lead us

to deal with God with trust and abandonment in his hands
the Our Father is the model of all prayers:

we not only ask for everything we can rightly desire,
but also according to the order in which it should be desired.
Jesus teaches us to address God as Father
“Jesus said to them, Jesus reveals to his disciples We must never lose sight
‘When you pray, say, Our Father… .’” that they have been made sharers that we are always loved
Lk 11:2 in his condition as Son and cared for by God
• the first word of the Lord’s Prayer (“Abba”) is the most • “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, • trust, confidence, inner peace, desire to do God’s loving will in
important: it teaches us to address God in his deepest mystery that we should be called sons of God, and such we are.” all things
--as a loving Father 1 Jn 3:1
• “I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will or
• “The expression God the Father had never been revealed to • the Father gives us the same gift of the Spirit He eternally what you will drink, nor about body, what you will put on. Is
anyone. When Moses asked God who he was, he heard pours on the Son not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
another name. The Father’s name has been revealed to us in Look at the birds of the air: they neither so nor reap nor gather
the Son, for the name Son implies the new name Father.” • we become sons in the Son through the Holy Spirit: alter into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you
CCC 2779 Christus, ipse Christus not of much more value than they?...But seek first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added
to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will have anxieties of its own. Sufficient for the day
is its own trouble.”
Mt 6:25ff
Divine filiation
and Christian fraternity
Sharing in the filial relationship Christ has with the Father,
makes us brothers and sisters in Christ
◦ we all have one Father (God), one eldest brother and model (Christ),
one Mother (Mother Church, as epitomized in Mother Mary: cf. Jn 19:26-27)
Christian holiness, although very personal,

is never individualistic but always familial and ecclesial.
◦ we sanctify ourselves in and through the Church,
as members of Christ’s Body (“Communion of Saints”)
◦ “If we pray the Our Father sincerely, we leave individualism behind, because the love that
we receive frees us from it.
The ‘our’ at the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer, like the ‘us’
of the last four petitions, excludes no one…
Divisions and oppositions have to be overcome.”
CCC 2792
The fraternity stemming from divine filiation

extends to all men because all men are made
unto God’s image and called to be holy
◦ “If any one says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar;
for he who does not love his brother whom he sees,
cannot love God whom he does not see.”
1 Jn 4:20
The seven petitions of the Our Father
The object of the first 3 petitions is the glory of the Father: “Hallowed be thy name.” “Thy kingdom come.”
◦ the sanctification of God’s name;
◦ the coming of the kingdom; and
◦ the fulfillment of his will. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
The four others present our wants to him:

◦ that our lives be nourished;
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
◦ healed of sin;
◦ protected from falling into temptation; and
◦ emerge victorious in the struggle against Satan.
“Forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
The Lord’s prayer is the most perfect prayer:
we not only ask for all the things we can rightly desire,
but also in the order we ought to desire them.
“Lead us not into temptation.” “But deliver us from evil.”
First petition:
“Hallowed be thy name.”
◦ we ask God that his holiness shine forth
and increase in our life
◦ “(God) chose us in Christ

before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and blameless
before him.”
Eph 1:4
Cf. 1 Thess 4:3
◦ “We ask for (the grace to be holy) every day because

every day we fall and need to purify our sins through
continual sanctification.”
St. Cyprian
Second petition: “Thy
kingdom come.”
◦ CCC 2817: “This petition is Marana tha,
the cry of the Spirit and the Bride: ‘Come, Lord Jesus’ (Rev 22:20).”
◦ refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God

at Christ’s glorious return, when “God will be all in all”
(cf 1 Cor 15:25-28; CCC 2818)
◦ but concomitantly it refers to the constant increase of Christ’s reign

in our hearts and those of all men and the sanctification
of all human structures and institutions with the Gospel leaven
◦ ever since Jesus’ Ascension, He has never stopped coming back

through the Holy Spirit
◦ the need to wage the Christian battle of peace and joy

against the world, the flesh and the devil.
◦ “I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!
I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how constrained
I am until it is accomplished. Do you think that I have come to bring peace on
earth? No, not peace, but a sword…” (Lk 12:49; Mt 10:34)
Third petition:
“Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven.”
◦ God’s will is that “all men be saved
and come to the knowledge of the truth”
cf 1 Tim 2:3-4
◦ “We ask our Father to unite our will

to his Son’s, in order to fulfill 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… .”
CCC 2825
◦ the fruit of prayer is not that God

should conform his will to ours but ours to his
Fourth petition:
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
◦ expresses the filial trust and abandonment of God’s children
◦ “The Father who gives us life cannot but give us the nourishment
life requires –all appropriate goods and blessings,
both material and spiritual.”
CCC 2830
◦ this bread especially “concerns the Bread of Life: the Word of God accepted in faith, the
Body of Christ received in the Eucharist.”
CCC 2835
◦ “daily”  reminder that we ought to live every day of our life

with unconditional trust in God’s loving Providence and that we ought
to seek from him every good thing we need to love and serve him
cf. CCC 2837
◦ cf the daily ration of manna that God gave the Israelites

during their 40-year journey through the desert to the Promised Land
Fifth petition:
“Forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.”
◦ we acknowledge our condition as sinners

and our trust in his merciful love
◦ a reminder the outpouring of

God’s mercy cannot penetrate our hearts
as long as we have not forgiven
those who have trespassed against us,
for love of God and love of neighbor
are inseparable
cf 1 Jn 4:20
cf. CCC 2840.

Sixth petition:
“Lead us not into temptation.”
◦ Sources of temptation: the world, the flesh, the devil,
and the “lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life”
cf 1 Jn 2:16
◦ We ask God not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin.
We ask for the Spirit of discernment and grace to love
and do what is good and to hate and avoid evil.
◦ God always gives us grace to overcome temptation.

But to overcome all temptation we need to pray.
Cf. CCC 2849
cf. 1 Cor 10:13
◦ “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation;
for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Mt 26:41-42
Seventh petition:
“But deliver us from evil.”
◦ we unite ourselves to Jesus’ prayer to the Father
before his Passion: ‘I do not pray that you should take them out of the world,
but that you should keep them from the evil one’”
Jn 17:15
◦ “Evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan,

the Evil One, the angel who opposes God.”
CCC 2851
◦ devil (dia-bolos)  the one who ‘throws himself across’

God’s plan and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ.
◦ “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 instigator,” and especially from sin (the only
true evil) and its punishment (eternal damnation).
CCC 2854
Note
other evils and tribulations can be turned into benefits
if we accept them and unite them to Christ’s suffering
on the Cross.
TOPIC 37
References: Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 2759-2865
Supplementary reading: https://opusdei.org/en/article/topic-36-praying-the-our-father/

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DATA PRIVACY NOTICE

This session will be recorded

References: Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 2759-2865

Supplementary reading: https://opusdei.org/en/article/topic-36-praying-the-our-father/

Central Points Jesus teaches us

Divine filiation The seven petitions

the constant awareness of our divine filiation should lead us

the Our Father is the model of all prayers:

Christian holiness, although very personal,

The fraternity stemming from divine filiation

The four others present our wants to him:

◦ “(God) chose us in Christ

◦ “We ask for (the grace to be holy) every day because

◦ refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God

◦ but concomitantly it refers to the constant increase of Christ’s reign

◦ ever since Jesus’ Ascension, He has never stopped coming back

◦ the need to wage the Christian battle of peace and joy

◦ “We ask our Father to unite our will

◦ the fruit of prayer is not that God

◦ “daily”  reminder that we ought to live every day of our life

◦ cf the daily ration of manna that God gave the Israelites

◦ we acknowledge our condition as sinners

◦ a reminder the outpouring of

cf. CCC 2840.

◦ God always gives us grace to overcome temptation.

◦ “Evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan,

◦ devil (dia-bolos)  the one who ‘throws himself across’

◦ “When we ask to be delivered from the Evil One,

References: Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 2759-2865

Supplementary reading: https://opusdei.org/en/article/topic-36-praying-the-our-father/

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