The Our Father is the recipe Jesus taught His disciples that includes all the ingredients of prayer needed to grow in a relationship with God. It starts secure in our filial covenant, calling God “Father” and progresses through praise, petition, and contrition. Let’s look at the individual words of the prayer as laid out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraphs 2779–2855) to uncover their deeper meaning, as they can guide us in all types of prayer.
Father
When Jesus invites us to call God Father, it evokes in us a spirit of humility to come before Him as His children. What father wouldn’t give good gifts to his children?
“Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread, or a snake when he asks for a fish? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him” (Matt. 7:9–11, NABRE).
But as any father knows, you don’t give your kids whatever they want, whenever they want it. You tell them no sometimes for their good, even if they don’t agree or understand. You give consequences that teach the right way to live. As adopted children of God, we are chosen by Him to be under His care. “I am no longer worthy to be called your son,” we can echo with the prodigal son in Luke 15:19. And just as the father chose to restore the prodigal son’s status, God never deprives us of our inheritance when we return to Him with contrite hearts. This security of being chosen and beloved by God gives us the confidence to praise, ask, and repent.
Being chosen and loved by God means allowing Him to form our desires over time. We recently had a family dinner where all the kids chose hot dogs over steak. I thought to myself, “Who would choose hot dogs instead of steak?” But they have to get used to the steak with little bites at a time until the taste develops. St. Paul speaks of something similar happening in the spiritual life when he compares the Corinthians to infants who can only have milk instead of solid food (see 1 Cor. 3:2). With the Our Father, we ask the Father to feed us what we can handle until, little by little, we desire more.
“Our Father”
“Our” means we pray in communion with all believers. Prayer is not just for us, for we are part of the Body of Christ. We are reminded that love of God and neighbor are the greatest commandments, and our lives are meant to be lived in community.
Part 1: Praise
“Who art in Heaven”
When we pray to our Father “Who art in Heaven,” we are speaking not of a place, but a way of being. God isn’t way up in the clouds observing from a distance. He is majestic, transcendent, incapable of being contained in the created world. And yet, He is close to the humble heart because a little bit of Heaven is wherever God dwells. We haven’t yet experienced the fullness of His dwelling—the Father’s house in Heaven—but it reminds us of our destination. We praise God for preparing a place for us.
“Hallowed be Thy name”
Similarly, when we declare God’s name is holy, we touch upon a truth at the center of His “eternal mystery.” Created in God’s image, in His holiness, we fell short of that glory because of sin. And yet we long to see and worship God as He is, in His majesty, in awe and wonder. And somehow—hopefully, marvelously, miraculously—we get to share in His holiness and goodness. This is the ineffable mystery of our Faith.
Part 2: Petitions
“Thy kingdom come”
This petition is a cry from the heart to restore what was lost in the Garden: a never-ending encounter with the presence of God, the union that is the goal of prayer. “The Kingdom of God lies ahead of us… The Kingdom of God has been coming since the Last Supper and, in the Eucharist, it is in our midst.” Although this kingdom will be fully restored after Christ’s final coming, it also refers to the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit we can experience right now, an outpouring of the Spirit that began at Pentecost.
“Thy will be done”
This prayer expresses the desire to unite our will with God’s, surrendering our own pride and selfishness. By praying this petition, we cry out to want what God wants, to unite our will to His. Just as in marriage we strive to be of one mind on important matters, so let us try to put on the mind of Christ by spending time with Him in prayer and discerning His will for our lives.
“Give us this day our daily bread”
Every morning without fail, my kids ask me for breakfast. They know I will give it to them and that they need it, but they still ask. Children ask for what they need, and our Heavenly Father knows what we need (see Matt. 6:32). “Give us” is an expression of the trust of children in their father to provide for them. “Our daily bread” refers not only to physical nourishment but to the presence of Christ, the One Who satisfies. Just like God provided manna in the desert, we are reminded that our daily bread is a gift from the Father Who loves us.
Part 3: Contrition and Repentance
“Forgive . . . as we forgive”
First, we must recognize that we need to be forgiven. It is an acknowledgment of our fallen state, our dependence on God, our need for His mercy.
And yet, there are strings attached. We must forgive those who have sinned against us. “This outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us…. We cannot love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother or sister we do see.”
Forgiving others is a challenge, and when I see the need to forgive and cannot find it in myself to grant it, that’s where the Holy Spirit comes in. “It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.”
“Lead us not into temptation”
Similarly, this petition reminds us of our weakness toward sin and the spiritual warfare we all face. We are not alone to fight for ourselves! “Such a battle and such a victory become possible only through prayer. . . . In this petition to our heavenly Father, Christ unites us to his battle and his agony.”
It is important that we make a distinction between trials and temptations. “The Holy Spirit makes us discern between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, and temptation, which leads to sin and death.” And so we must ask for the Holy Spirit’s help to discern the difference. Temptations remind us that we are free to choose good or evil, for love cannot be forced. Trials remind us of our weaknesses and inclinations, areas that we can bring to the Lord for greater healing and conversion.
In her Diary, St. Faustina shows us how we can react to these temptations:
My Jesus, despite Your graces, I see and feel all my misery. I begin my day with battle and end it with battle. As soon as I conquer one obstacle, ten more appear to take its place. But I am not worried, because I know that this is the time of struggle, not peace. When the burden of the battle becomes too much for me, I throw myself like a child into the arms of the heavenly Father and trust I will not perish.
“Deliver us from evil”
This final petition is a declaration of trust, that we would be protected from the evil one (see John 17:15). The communal “us” is a reminder that we are all fighting against the prince of this world. And yet, with Christ, we can always have victory over sin! Our thoughts can be lifted up to think of our eternal home and all the saints who have made it to the kingdom already. These intercessors are cheering us on and helping us fight, and the Holy Spirit is with us to the end.
There we are: we see the entirety of the Gospel summed up in the Lord’s Prayer, including praise, petition/intercession, and contrition/repentance—essentially all the qualities of a healthy relationship. By praying this prayer slowly and with intention, focusing on one aspect at a time, we can grow tremendously in our filial relationship with our Heavenly Father.
