Refreshing the Our Father

Jesus himself taught what we call the “Our Father” to his disciples. St. Augustine called it the perfect prayer and yet we can get in a rut of saying it without really thinking about the words. Perhaps we can refresh this perfect prayer by thinking about what we are praying for and how we pray.  

The Our Father consists of a call to God and then seven petitions. The call to God is the opening phrase, Our Father, who art in Heaven. It recognizes our relation to God as Father and his exalted status as the One who is in Heaven. The first petition immediately follows: Hallowed be thy name. God’s name is holy, we ask to avoid any word or action which makes his name less holy. 

Thy Kingdom come is the second petition. We ask that eventually God’s Kingdom be recognized by all people and established on Earth as a source of true peace, freedom, and justice.

Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven is the third petition. Create some greater intentionality by saying this petition with one breath. God’s will is carried out perfectly by his angels in Heaven and we ask his will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
  
Give us this day our daily bread asks for the grace we need each day. We can think of this bread as the Eucharist but, its reference is more broadly the grace we need to get through today. Like the manna from Heaven eaten by the Israelites in the desert, that daily grace doesn’t get stored up, but is renewed by an ever-faithful God each day. Each day when we wake, we pray for the grace needed for today. 
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us is the fifth petition. Again, to help refresh the prayer you might try saying this petition as one phrase. How we forgive is connected directly to how we ourselves forgive others.  

Lead us not into temptation is the sixth petition and stirred up controversy in 2019 when people speculated Pope Francis wanted to change the Our Father to clarify that God does not lead us into temptation; Satan does. Pope Francis commented that he liked “Let us not fall to temptation” better and a few YouTube bloggers had a hissy fit. God permits temptation, but is not the tempter, that is the Evil One. 

Deliver us from evil is the seventh petition. In Matthew’s Gospel the Our Father concludes with, “Deliver us from the Evil One.” Pope Francis once commented that the original language recognizes the spiritual battle is sometimes with unseen forces. Pope Francis, however, gave an official teaching on the prayer where he said “deliver us from evil” is a reminder that God can help us with all the evils of our world, great and small. Now, at the end of the prayer, we have come full circle recognizing God’s power to deliver us from all evil because he is our caring Father who is in Heaven.