When Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray, He responded with the Lord’s Prayer, also known as the Our Father.
The Catholic Church continues to teach this fundamental Christian prayer nearly 2,000 years later.
The prayer consists of seven petitions as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. St. Luke’s Gospel includes a shorter version.
The first three petitions strengthen our faith, hope, and love of God the Father and focus our attention on his glory.
The last four petitions ask that He will provide for our material and spiritual needs by his grace and in his mercy.
We get to call God Father:
When we pray to the Father, we are in communion with Him and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Then we know and recognize Him with an ever new sense of wonder. The first phrase of the Our Father is a blessing of adoration before it is a supplication. For it is the glory of God that we should recognize Him as “Father,” the true God. We give Him thanks for having revealed his name to us, for the gift of believing in it, and for the indwelling of his Presence in us.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2781
The greatest of Christian prayers:
Jesus places on the lips of his disciples a short, audacious prayer, made up of seven requests — a number that, in the Bible, is not random, but indicates fullness. I say audacious because, had Christ not suggested it, probably none of us — indeed, none of the most well-known theologians — would dare pray to God in this way.
Pope Francis, General Audience, December 12, 2018
Speaking boldly with a daring prayer:
A revolutionary prayer:
““This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.”
Matthew 6: 9-13
Jesus gave us the Perfect prayer:
Every type of prayer in one prayer:
Proper prayer fits into the Our Father:
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