"Our Father who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy Name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy Will be done on earth
As it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespasses against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil."
Amen.
To understand the significance of this prayer that Christ gave us, you must understand each statement that Jesus uses, below is an explanation that will help you grasp the true meaning of this prayer.
The meaning of the
Lord’s Prayer
Our…
The word “our” is
important. It is in the plural. Christ has highly recommended prayer in common
in which we as God’s children who love one another unite to ask our loving
Father for what we need. The official prayer of the whole Church as a body is
called the Liturgy. This public prayer of the Church is of far more value than
private prayer, even though this too is necessary and highly important.
Father who art in
heaven …
We address God as “Father
who art in heaven” because we belong to Him, our loving Father, who created us
and watches over us, who adopts us through sanctifying Grace as His children,
and who destines us to live forever with Him in Heaven, our true home and last
end.
Hallowed be Thy Name…
...comes from the word
“Holy,” be held and kept holy, be glorified by us, and that not only by our
words, but principally by the lives we lead. The honor and glory of God should
be the principal subject of our prayers, and the ultimate end of our every
action; every other thing must be subordinate to this. When we say this we are
simply praying that God may be known and honored by all men.
The “Name” of course,
represents the person. God’s name represents God Himself. The first desire of
love is that God should be known, loved, and honored by all. In Exodus 3:13-15
we find the four Hebrew letters spelling out “Yahweh,” meaning I AM who Am.
Thy Kingdom Come…
...When
we say this, we pray that the Kingdom of God’s grace may be spread throughout
the world, that all men may come to know and enter the true Church and to live
as worthy members of it, and that, finally, we all may be admitted to the
Kingdom of God’s Glory.
Those who desire to arrive
at the Kingdom of Heaven, must endeavor so to order their life and
conversation, as if they were already conversing in Heaven. This humble
petition is also to be understood for the accomplishment of the Divine Will in
every part of the world, for the extirpation of error, and explosion of vice, that
truth and virtue may everywhere obtain, and Heaven and earth differ no more in
honoring the Supreme majesty of God. -- St. John Chrysostom.
True love desires that
God’s Kingdom, the Church, should spread on earth until the day when Christ
will come again to take us all, body and soul, to Heaven.
Thy Will be done on
earth…
...We are praying that all
men may obey God on earth as willingly as the Saints and Angels do in Heaven.
We are asking God for our love to grow to perfection. Love seeks to do God’s
will and to please Him perfectly. We ask that our love will grow till we love
Him as much as He is loved in heaven where all love is perfect. We, therefor,
are asking Him to make us Saints.
“As we are only to pray for
our daily bread, we are not to be over solicitous for the morrow, now for the
things of this earth, but being satisfied with what is necessary, turn all our
thoughts to the joys of Heaven.” -- St. John Chrysostom.
Give us this day our
daily bread…
We can conclude then when
we say “give us this day our daily bread,” we are praying that God will give us
each day all that is necessary to support the material life of our bodies and
the spiritual life of our souls.
And forgive us our
trespasses…
Of all the petitions this
one is repeated twice. God puts our judgment in our own hands, that none might
complain, being the author of His own sentence. He could have forgiven us our
sins without this condition, but He consulted our good, in affording us opportunities
of practicing daily the virtues of piety and mildness.
“These trespasses or debts
signify not only mortal but venial sins, as St. Augustine often teaches.
Therefore every man, be he ever so just, yet because he cannot live without
venial sin, ought to say this prayer.” -- St. John Chrysostom.
As we forgive those
who trespass against us…
Here again Jesus
recommends the forgiving of others, as the means of obtaining forgiveness. In this sentence, Jesus reminds us that if we
want God’s merciful love to forgive us the horrible offenses of sin, we must
love others enough to forgive them their offenses against us. The Crucified Christ gave us a perfect
example of this in Luke 23:34:“Father forgive them, for they know not what they
do.”
Lead us Not into
Temptation...
God is not the tempter of
evil, nor is He the author of sin (James 1:13). He tempts no man; we pray that
He would not suffer the devil to tempt us above our strength; that he would
remove the temptations, or enable us to overcome them, and deliver us from
evil, particularly the evil of sin.
It is not a sin to be
tempted. Our Blessed Lord Himself was tempted. We also must be tempted if we
are to acquire any virtue. But we pray that when temptation comes, as it so
often does, that we may not be overcome by it.
But deliver us from
evil…
We are praying that God
will always protect us from harm and especially from harm to our souls. We are
also asking that the bodily evils, sickness, suffering, poverty, etc., will
never become so severe that we cannot bear them with the grace of God.
Amen.
“Amen” is a Hebrew word
that stems from the word aman, which means “to be faithful, support, or
confirm.” The word “amen” actually means, “so be it,” or “truly.”
Therefore, when we end our
prayers with "amen," we are re-affirming our dedication to God
through Jesus Christ. We also use it to confirm a statement (i.e., when the
pastor says something powerful out of the Word of God, and members of the congregation
say "Amen").
Amen explanation taken from: http://www.raptureready.com/faq/faq363.html
The Seven Petitions in the
Our Father:
1) God’s Glory
2) Union with God
3) Perfect Love
4) Needs of Soul and Body
5) Forgiveness of Sin
6) Protection in
Temptation
7) Freedom from all Harm
Excerpts from http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/s8.htm Written by Tim Rash
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