The Lord’s Prayer nurtures love, confidence and trust in God

Article 180 - Catechism of the Catholic Church Series

Paragraphs 2777- 2785

One of the many joys of my priesthood has been celebrating the Sacrament of Penance – listening to Confessions and imparting absolution in persona Christi (in the person of Christ). As a young seminarian preparing for the priesthood, however, I often felt a little apprehension anticipating my role in this sacrament. I couldn’t imagine how I could hear so much about sin and darkness, doom and gloom, and then be able to function with a clear mind and heart without being affected by this shadow side of humanity, especially on the occasions when I left the confessional to immediately begin offering a public Holy Mass.

On the first day of my priesthood, however, everything changed. I recall being asked shortly after my ordination to hear someone’s Confession. Not an hour before I was laying face down on the floor in the sanctuary of the Cathedral as part of the ordination rite. Immediately following that first Confession, I knew the power of the Holy Spirit had come upon me and the grace I received through the Sacrament of Holy Orders would give me the strength to imitate our Heavenly Father each time I heard Confessions. I would not only be an instrument of God’s forgiveness, but also be given the grace to eliminate, or better yet, surrender the sins from my mind and heart, and move on to my next priestly responsibility with no preoccupation with what I had heard in the Confessional. All these years later, God continues to bestow this special grace of the Holy Spirit upon his priestly servant.

Similarly, it is the “power of the Spirit who introduces us to the Lord’s Prayer as expressed in the liturgies of East and of West by the beautiful, characteristically Christian expression: parrhesia, straightforward simplicity, filial trust, joyous assurance, humble boldness, the certainty of being loved” (CCC 2778). Before we even arrive in that place where we utter the words of the Lord’s Prayer, “we must humbly cleanse our hearts of certain false images drawn from this world” (CCC 2779). This act of humility is necessary because “the purification of our hearts has to do with paternal or maternal images, stemming from our personal and cultural history, … [that influence] … our relationship with God” (CCC 2779). The act of praying to the Father “is to enter into his mystery as he is and as the Son has revealed him to us” (CCC 2779).

As such, our loving Father in Heaven “transcends the categories of the created world. To impose our own ideas…‘upon him’ would be to fabricate idols to adore …” (CCC 2779). No wonder God’s revelation to Moses when he received the tablets bearing God’s Commandments included “You shall not have other gods beside me. You shall not make for yourself an idol” (Exodus 20:3-4). Idols include people and things that distract us or entice us to focus on matters that drift us away from our loving Father in Heaven.

The only reason we can call God our “Father … [is] … because he is revealed to us by his Son become man and because his Spirit makes him known to us” (CCC 2780). Quoted in the Catechism, Second Century writer, Tertullian, points out that “the expression ‘God the Father’ had never been revealed to anyone” (CCC 2779), not even Moses or the prophets. But, thank to our Blessed Lord, “when we pray to the Father, we are all in communion with him and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (CCC 2782). The Catechism explains: “… The personal relation of the Son to the Father is something that … [we] … cannot conceive of nor the angelic powers even dimly see: and yet, the Spirit of the Son grants a participation in that very relation to us who believe that Jesus is the Christ and that we are born of God” (CCC 2780).

The act of praying the Lord’s Prayer provides us the opportunity to “know and recognize him with an ever new sense of wonder” (CCC 2781). (I would add to these words the following: ‘wonder and awe in the Father’s presence!’) The Second Vatican Council points out further: “… the Lord’s Prayer reveals us to ourselves at the same time that it reveals the Father to us” (Gadium et Spes 22 § 1) (CCC 2783). No wonder we repeat the words of the Our Father often in prayer. This recitation and repetition gives us holy habits of the heart, enabling us to encounter the Father who created us and loves us. With time and proper introspection we also come to see, from God’s perspective, not only what we do, but who we truly are.

We are told in the Catechism (CCC 2784-2785) that … “Praying to our Father should develop in us two fundamental dispositions: First, the desire to become like him: though created in his image, we are restored to his likeness by grace; and we must respond to this grace. …” and second, “a humble and trusting heart that enables us ‘to turn and become like children’, for it is to ‘little children’ that the Father is revealed”.

Fourth Century theologian, St. Augustine, quoted in the catechism (CCC 2785), seems to capture the sentiments we experience when praying the words of the Our Father. He explains: “…at this name love is aroused in us…and the confidence of obtaining what we are about to ask. …What would he not give to his children who ask, since he has already granted them the gift of being his children?”

In brief, humble and joyous assurance as well as simple and faithful trust, are the proper dispositions sought for by the one who prays the Lord’s Prayer. These are also the dispositions accomplished for those who stay the course and don’t give up, including God’s ‘priestly servant’ who hears Confessions.

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