From: Luke 11:1-4

The Our Father

[1] He (Jesus) was praying in a certain place, and when He ceased, one of His
disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught His disciples.”
[2] And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Our Father, hallowed be Thy
name. Thy Kingdom come. [3] Give us each day our daily bread; [4] and forgive
us our sins, for we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us; and lead
us not into temptation.’”

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Commentary:

1-4. St. Luke gives us a shorter form of the Lord’s Prayer, or Our Father, than
St. Matthew (6:9-13). In Matthew there are seven petitions, in Luke only four.
Moreover, St. Matthew’s version is given in the context of the Sermon on the
Mount and specifically as part of Jesus’ teaching on how to pray; St. Luke’s is
set in one of those occasions just after our Lord has been at prayer — two diffe-
rent contexts. There is nothing surprising about our Lord teaching the same
thing on different occasions, not always using exactly the same words, not al-
ways at the same length, but always stressing the same basic points. Natural-
ly, the Church uses the longer form of the Lord’s Prayer, that of St. Matthew.

“When the disciples asked the Lord Jesus, ‘Teach us to pray’, He replied by sa-
ying the words of the ‘Our Father’, thereby giving a concrete model which is also
a universal model. In fact, everything that can and must be said to the Father is
contained in those seven requests which we all know by heart. There is such
simplicity in them that even a child can learn them, but at the same time such
depth that a whole life can be spent meditating on their meaning. Isn’t that so?
Does not each of those petitions deal with something essential to our life, direc-
ting it totally towards God the Father? Doesn’t this prayer speak to us about
‘our daily bread’, ‘forgiveness of our sins, since we forgive others’ and about pro-
tecting us from ‘temptation’ and ‘delivering us from evil?’” (Bl. John Paul II, “Ge-
neral Audience”, 14 March 1979).

The first thing our Lord teaches us to ask for is the glorification of God and the
coming of His Kingdom. That is what is really important — the Kingdom of God
and His justice (cf. Matthew 6:33). Our Lord also wants us to pray confident that
our Father will look after our material needs, for “your Heavenly Father knows
that you need them all” (Matthew 6:32). However, the Our Father makes us as-
pire especially to possess the goods of the Holy Spirit, and invites us to seek
forgiveness (and to forgive others) and to avoid the danger of sinning. Finally the
Our Father emphasizes the importance of vocal prayer. “’Domine, doce nos ora-
re. Lord teach us to pray!’ And our Lord replied: ‘When you pray say: “Pater nos-
ter, qui es in coelis”... Our Father, who art in Heaven...’. What importance we
must attach to vocal prayer!” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 84).

1. Jesus often went away to pray (cf. Luke 6:12; 22:39ff). This practice of the
Master causes His disciples to want to learn how to pray. Jesus teaches them
to do what He Himself does. Thus, when our Lord prays, He begins with the
Word “Father!”: “Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46); see
also Matthew 11:25; 26:42, 53; Luke 23:34; John 11:41; etc.). His prayer on
the Cross, “My God, My God,...” (Matthew 27:46), is not really an exception
to this rule, because there He is quoting Psalm 22, the desperate prayer of the
persecuted just man.

Therefore, we can say that the first characteristic prayer should have is the sim-
plicity of a son speaking to his Father. “You write: ‘To pray is to talk with God.
But about what?’ About what? About Him, about yourself: joys, sorrows, succes-
ses, failures, noble ambitions, daily worries, weaknesses! And acts of thanksgi-
ving and petition: and love and reparation. In a word: to get to know Him and to
get to know yourself: ‘to get acquainted!’” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 91).

2. “Hallowed be Thy name”: in this first petition of the Our Father “we pray that
God may be known, loved, honored and served by everyone and by ourselves in
particular.” This means that we want “unbelievers to come to a knowledge of the
true God, heretics to recognize their errors, schismatics to return to the unity of
the Church, sinners to be converted and the righteous to persevere in doing
good.” By this first petition, our Lord is teaching us that ‘we must desire God’s
glory more than our own interest and advantage.” This hallowing of God’s name
is attained “by prayer and good example and by directing all our thoughts, affec-
tions and actions towards Him” (”St. Pius X Catechism”, 290-293).

“Thy Kingdom come”: “By the Kingdom of God we understand a triple spiritual
kingdom — the Kingdom of God in us, which is grace; the Kingdom of God on
earth, which is the Catholic Church; and the Kingdom of God in Heaven, which
is eternal bliss [...]. As regards grace, we pray that God reign in us with His
sanctifying grace, by which He is pleased to dwell in us as a king in his throne-
room, and that He keeps us united to Him by the virtues of faith, hope and chari-
ty, by which He reigns in our intellect, in our heart and in our will [...]. As regards
the Church, we pray that it extend and spread all over the world for the salvation
of men [...]. As regards Heaven, we pray that one day we be admitted to that
eternal bliss for which we have been created, where we will be totally happy”
(”ibid.”, 294-297).

3. The Tradition of the Church usually interprets the “bread” as not only material
bread, since “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3). Here Jesus wants us
to ask God for “what we need each day for soul and body [...]. For our soul we
ask God to sustain our spiritual life, that is, we beg Him to give us His grace, of
which we are continually in need [...]. The life of our soul is sustained mainly by
the divine word and by the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar [...]. For our bodies
we pray for what is needed to maintain us” (”St. Pius X Catechism”, 302-305).

Christian doctrine stresses two ideas in this petition of the Our Father: the first
is trust in Divine Providence, which frees us from excessive desire to accumu-
late possessions to insure us against the future (cf. Luke 12:16-21); the other
idea is that we should take a brotherly interest in other people’s needs, thereby
moderating our selfish tendencies.

4. “So rigorously does God exact from us forgetfulness of injuries and mutual
affection and love, that He rejects and despises the gifts and sacrifices of those
who are not reconciled to one another” (”St. Pius V Catechism”, IV, 14, 16).

“This sisters, is something which we should consider carefully; it is such a se-
rious and important matter that God should pardon us our sins, which have me-
rited eternal fire, that we must pardon all trifling things which have been done to
us. As I have so few, Lord, even of these trifling things, to offer Thee, Thy pardo-
ning of me must be a free gift: there is abundant scope here for Thy mercy.
Blessed be Thou, who endurest one that is so poor” (St. Teresa of Avila, “Way
of Perfection”, Chapter 36).

“And lead us not into temptation”: it is not a sin to “feel” temptation but to “con-
sent” to temptation. It is also a sin to put oneself voluntarily into a situation which
can easily lead one to sin. God allows us to be tempted, in order to test our fide-
lity, to exercise us in virtue and to increase our merits with the help of grace. In
this petition we ask the Lord to give us His grace not to be overcome when put to
the test, or to free us from temptation if we cannot cope with it.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Readings at Mass

First reading	Jonah 4:1-11 ©

Jonah was very indignant; he fell into a rage. He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Ah, Lord, is not this just as I said would happen when I was still at home? That was why I went and fled to Tarshish: I knew that you were a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness, relenting from evil. So now, Lord, please take away my life, for I might as well be dead as go on living.’ The Lord replied, ‘Are you right to be angry?’

Jonah then went out of the city and sat down to the east of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God arranged that a castor-oil plant should grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head and soothe his ill-humour; Jonah was delighted with the castor-oil plant. But at dawn the next day, God arranged that a worm should attack the castor-oil plant – and it withered.

Next, when the sun rose, God arranged that there should be a scorching east wind; the sun beat down so hard on Jonah’s head that he was overcome and begged for death, saying, ‘I might as well be dead as go on living.’ God said to Jonah, ‘Are you right to be angry about the castor-oil plant?’ He replied, ‘I have every right to be angry, to the point of death.’ The Lord replied, ‘You are only upset about a castor-oil plant which cost you no labour, which you did not make grow, which sprouted in a night and has perished in a night. And am I not to feel sorry for Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, to say nothing of all the animals?’

Psalm
Psalm 85:3-6,9-10 ©

You, O Lord, have mercy and compassion.

You are my God, have mercy on me, Lord,

for I cry to you all the day long.

Give joy to your servant, O Lord,

for to you I lift up my soul.

You, O Lord, have mercy and compassion.

O Lord, you are good and forgiving,

full of love to all who call.

Give heed, O Lord, to my prayer

and attend to the sound of my voice.

You, O Lord, have mercy and compassion.

All the nations shall come to adore you

and glorify your name, O Lord:

for you are great and do marvellous deeds,

you who alone are God.

You, O Lord, have mercy and compassion.

Gospel Acclamation	Ps118:24

Alleluia, alleluia!

Train me, Lord, to observe your law,

to keep it with my heart.

Alleluia!

Or	Rm8:15

Alleluia, alleluia!

The spirit you received is the spirit of sons,

and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’

Alleluia!

Gospel	Luke 11:1-4 ©

Once Jesus was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘Say this when you pray:

“Father, may your name be held holy,

your kingdom come;

give us each day our daily bread,

and forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us.

And do not put us to the test.”’