The Lord’s prayer is the perfect prayer, prayer of the world

Article 179 - Catechism of the Catholic Church Series
Paragraphs 2759-2772

A woman once wrote me a letter describing the priestly kindness and fatherly care that I demonstrated toward her more than 10 years before when I was serving as her parish priest. She and her fiancé had approached me with a “holy” request – to prepare to receive the Sacrament of Matrimony. The woman was in her early 40’s and her boyfriend was in his 20’s when they came seeking marriage preparation. That was not the problem. The problem was that the young man had just gotten out of prison for armed robbery and kept busy spending the hard earned funds of his fiancée while refusing to seek gainful employment for himself. All of these things, coupled with the shabby way this man publicly treated his fiancée, made it clear to me as God’s priest that, in conscience, I could not officiate at their wedding or provide my blessing for them to get married. They left my office that day, screaming and shouting obscenities at me.

I was reminded of this event when reflecting on the very different way in which Jesus was approached by one of his disciples with the “holy” request – “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples” (CCC 2759).

Depending on the circumstances, it is not always easy to fulfill the request of another. In response to the disciples’ request, however, Jesus entrusted the familiar words of the “Our Father”. The Catechism tells us: “St. Luke presents a brief text of five petitions, [of the “Our Father”] while St. Matthew gives a more developed version of seven petitions” (CCC 2759). In my case, I was unable to entrust the Sacrament of Matrimony to a couple who were obviously incompatible (one being a giver and the other a taker). They would evidently be unsuited and otherwise incompatible, too, as custodians of one of Christ’s precious sacraments.

In Christ’s view, the disciples’ request was sincere and they were, in fact, the best custodians of his prayer to the Father. Later, the familiar doxology following the “Our Father” – “for yours are the power and the glory, for ever” (CCC 2760) – originating from an early church document called the Didache, would be added. “The Apostolic Constitutions add[ed] to the beginning: ‘the kingdom’, and this is the formula retained to our day in ecumenical prayer.” (CCC 2760) …The Catechism tells us further, “The Roman Missal develops the last petition in the explicit perspective of ‘awaiting our blessed hope’ and of the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then comes the assembly’s acclamation or the repetition of the doxology from the Apostolic Constitutions.” (CCC 2760).

The early church writer, Tertullian (155 AD-220 AD), quoted in the Catechism, states that the Lord’s Prayer “is truly the summary of the whole gospel” (CCC 2761). Fourth Century bishop and theologian, Saint Augustine (354-430), goes as far as to say, when commenting on all 150  acclamation or psalms, “I do not think that you will find anything in them that is not contained and included in the Lord’s Prayer” (CCC 2762).

Much later, in the Thirteenth Century, Dominican priest-theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), quoted in the Catechism, observes: “The Lord’s Prayer is the most perfect of prayers…In it we ask, not only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired. This prayer not only teaches us to ask for things, but also in what order we should desire them” (CCC 2763). The Catechism teaches that “the prayer that comes to us from Jesus is truly unique: it is ‘of the Lord’…He is the model of our prayer” (CCC 2765).

When praying the “Our Father”, it would be a mistake for us to assume it is a prayer that we repeat mechanically, even though we pray the “Our Father” repetitively when praying the Holy Rosary. The Catechism explains: “Jesus does not give us a formula to repeat mechanically”…[Rather,] “as in every vocal prayer, it is through the Word of God that the Holy Spirit teaches the children of God to pray to their Father” (CCC 2766). Jesus, therefore, “gives us the Spirit by whom these words become in us ‘spirit and life’” (CCC 2766).

We are reminded in the Didache that “the first (Christian) communities prayed the Lord’s Prayer three times a day, in place of the Eighteen Benedictions customary in Jewish piety” (CCC 2767). The Catechism goes on to explain that “the Lord’s Prayer is essentially rooted in liturgical prayer”… [which we know because, Fourth Century Early Church Father Saint John Chrysostom (347-407), observed that Jesus] “did not say ‘my Father’ who art in heaven, but ‘our Father,’ offering petitions for the common Body” (CCC 2768). It is, “in all the liturgical traditions… an integral part of the major hours of the Divine Office” (CCC 2768), which priests, monks and consecrated men and women Religious pray every day.

As well, “the three sacraments of Christian initiation” (CCC 2768) – Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist (CCC 2769/2770) – include the “Our Father” in their rituals. The Catechism explains: “In the Eucharistic liturgy the Lord’s Prayer appears as the prayer of the whole Church” (CCC 2770).  In addition, when celebrating the Eucharist, “the Lord’s Prayer also reveals the eschatological character of its petitions. It is the proper prayer of ‘the end-time’, the time of salvation that began with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and will be fulfilled with the Lord’s return” at the end of the world (CCC 2771).

Recall how I began this article…A couple requested that I preside at their wedding. Although I was unable to fulfill their request, the woman later tracked me down and wrote an incredible letter of deep gratitude – thanking me for declining their request for marriage! That same woman likely prayed the “Our Father” hundreds, maybe thousands of times. Her grateful heart and ours ought to thank Jesus often for providing the “Our Father” to the disciple who asked, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples?” (Luke 11:1).

Father Hillier is director, diocesan Office of Pontifical Mission Societies, the Office for Persons with Disabilities and Censor Luborum.