Our Father (Lord's Prayer)

The Meaning of the Our Father Prayer

The Lord’s Own Prayer

The Our Father is unique among Christian prayers because Jesus himself gave it to his disciples when they asked, ‘Lord, teach us to pray’ (Lk 11:1). The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls it ‘the summary of the whole gospel’ (CCC 2761), echoing Tertullian’s early reflection that the prayer Jesus gave stands ‘as the foundation of further desires’ (CCC 2761). St. Matthew’s seven-petition version (Mt 6:9–13) is the text the Church’s liturgical tradition has retained for Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours. The prayer divides naturally into two movements: the first three petitions, more theological, draw us toward the glory of the Father; the last four commend our creaturely need and wretchedness to his grace (CCC 2803).

First Petition — ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’

‘To hallow’ God’s name means, above all, ‘to recognize as holy, to treat in a holy way’ (CCC 2807). We are not asking God to become holy — he already is holiness itself — but praying that his holiness might be acknowledged throughout the world and reflected in our own lives. Asking the Father that his name be made holy draws us into his plan of loving kindness, that we might be holy and blameless before him in love (CCC 2807, citing Eph 1:4–5). This first petition is therefore both adoration and a commitment: to live in a way that makes God’s name honoured, not dishonoured.

Second Petition — ‘Thy Kingdom Come’

In the New Testament the Greek word basileia can be translated as ‘kingship,’ ‘kingdom,’ or ‘reign’ (CCC 2816). The Church prays this petition with a double horizon: the kingdom has already drawn near in Christ and come in his death and Resurrection, yet its definitive arrival awaits his return (CCC 2816). Origen suggested that the kingdom of God may even mean Christ himself, whom we daily desire to come (CCC 2816). To pray ‘thy kingdom come’ is to align our hope with the final triumph of love over sin and death.

Third Petition — ‘Thy Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven’

This petition does not ask God to impose his will by force, but invites us to embrace it as the angels and saints do in heaven — freely and joyfully. ‘In Christ, and through his human will, the will of the Father has been perfectly fulfilled once for all’ (CCC 2824). In Gethsemane Jesus modelled this petition in its fullest form: ‘not my will, but yours be done’ (Lk 22:42). When we pray these words we are asking for the grace to make Christ’s surrender our own.

Fourth Petition — ‘Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread’

The word translated ‘daily’ renders the Greek epiousios, which has no exact parallel elsewhere in ancient Greek and has been understood by the Fathers both as ‘for today’ and as ‘supersubstantial’ — pointing beyond ordinary food. The Catechism holds both meanings together: the petition covers real bodily hunger (the Church cannot ignore those who lack bread) and spiritual hunger, ‘the Bread of Life: The Word of God accepted in faith, the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist’ (CCC 2835). Praying it each day trains us to receive both kinds of nourishment as pure gift rather than as something owed to us.

Fifth Petition — ‘Forgive Us Our Trespasses as We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us’

The Catechism calls this petition ‘astonishing’ because it contains a condition that falls on us, not on God (CCC 2838). The two clauses are joined by a single word — ‘as’ — which makes our reception of divine forgiveness inseparable from our willingness to extend it. ‘This outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us’ (CCC 2840). Jesus underlines this in Matthew 6:14–15 and in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Mt 18:23–35). The petition is not a bargain we strike with God but an honest acknowledgement that a closed heart cannot receive what it refuses to pass on.

Sixth Petition — ‘Lead Us Not Into Temptation’

The Greek verb here carries two complementary senses: ‘do not allow us to enter into temptation’ and ‘do not let us yield to temptation’ (CCC 2846). God himself tempts no one (Jas 1:13); this petition does not accuse him of doing so. Rather, it acknowledges our weakness and asks the Father not to let us take the way that leads to sin. The Catechism teaches that this petition ‘implores the Spirit of discernment and strength’ (CCC 2846) — the grace to recognise evil’s approach and the courage to resist it. It goes to the root of the fifth petition, for our sins result from our consenting to temptation (CCC 2846).

Seventh Petition — ‘But Deliver Us From Evil’

‘In this petition, evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God’ (CCC 2851). The final petition widens the horizon from personal temptation to the whole drama of human history under the shadow of sin. The Church prays it on behalf of all humanity: ‘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’ (CCC 2854). It closes the prayer with an act of surrender — we cannot deliver ourselves; only God can.

The Doxology — ‘For Thine Is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory’

Catholics and Protestants often notice a difference here. In the Catholic Mass, after the priest’s embolism (‘Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil…’) the congregation prays the doxology aloud: ‘For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever.’ This doxology does not appear in Matthew 6 in Catholic Bibles — the oldest and most reliable Greek manuscripts (such as Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus) do not include it — and so the Church has never treated it as part of the prayer Jesus gave. The Catechism explains that the doxology ‘takes up again, by inclusion, the first three petitions to our Father: the glorification of his name, the coming of his reign, and the power of his saving will. But these prayers are now proclaimed as adoration and thanksgiving, as in the liturgy of heaven’ (CCC 2855). An early form of such a doxology already appears in the first-century Didache as a liturgical conclusion, and the full wording entered Protestant English Bibles (such as Tyndale’s and the King James Version) through the later Greek manuscript tradition behind the Textus Receptus. It is ancient and beautiful — Catholics pray it at every Mass — but as a liturgical acclamation, not as part of the scriptural text of the prayer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Prayers

• Hail Mary
• Glory Be (Gloria Patri)
• Apostles' Creed

Source

https://www.vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html verbatim