Lord, Teach Us to Pray

By Fred Vilbig

In the Gospels we read that Jesus often went off alone to pray. Matt. 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16. When the Apostles asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He gave them the Our Father. If you look at this prayer, it is really a very short, simple prayer. It consists of seven petitions, but it is good to take some time to think about each one of them:

• “Hallowed be Thy Name” – God is the pure essence of holiness. He is Holy beyond anything you and I could ever imagine. During Jesus’s time, and even to this day, most Jews feel it is a sacrilege to even utter the Name of God. There’s nothing you and I can do to add to the holiness of God’s name. But we can, in a way, detract from it. If we call ourselves Catholic and live in a worldly way, we dishonor the Name of Christ. By our sins, we decrease the holiness of God’s name in us and for others. So to me, this petition is a call to holiness for us. It is a call to live our faith and give glory to God.

• “Thy Kingdom come” – in this petition, we pray for the coming of the Kingdom of God in our time. The Kingdom of God is both spiritual and physical. On the spiritual level, it is communion with God, which results in the “peace that is beyond understanding”. Philippians 4:7. On the physical level, it is caring for the poor, sick, the widows, orphans. Matt. 25:31-46. In addition, this petition is a prayer for the coming of the Kingdom at the end of time.      
• “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven” – God is all-powerful. In the end, nothing will frustrate His Will. But we are called to cooperate in the “plan” of God. When Gabriel appeared to Mary and asked her to be the Mother of God, the universe held its breath waiting for her answer. She said, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” Luke 1:38. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed, “Father… not my will but yours be done.” Luke 22:42. The two greatest examples for our lives humbly submitted their wills to the Will of God in their own lives, and so should we.
• “Give us this day our daily bread” – this petition marks a shift in the prayer. The first three petitions focus on God, and now we turn to our own needs. Millions if not billions of people in our world daily suffer from hunger. This is a very basic request that God provide food for our daily needs. But it also is a prayer for the Eucharist.
• “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” – this is the only petition that has a condition attached to it. We are asking that our sins be forgiven but only to the extent that we forgive the sins of others. Kind of a scary thought, isn’t it?
• ”Lead us not into temptation” – this is a request that we be delivered from our own sinful tendencies, what St. Augustine calls our concupiscence.
• “And deliver us from evil” – I have heard that a different translation of this is “deliver us from the evil one.” This is a request that we be protected from Satan, and all his works, and all his empty promises.

Although this is a very simple prayer, St. Thomas Aquinas described it as the perfect prayer and wrote extensively about it. Many of the other saints have reflected deeply on it as well. One of the most famous reflections, perhaps, is included in a book entitled The Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila. In it, Teresa talks about prayer generally, but in particular she focuses on the Our Father which was her favorite prayer.

The question for us, though, is how many of us have really taken the time to think about what we are praying when we pray the Our Father. We (me included) typically rattle it off without thinking about it. That has some value to it, but not the full value. We get more from the prayer (any prayer, really) by reflecting on it as we pray. Why did Jesus tell us to pray this prayer? Why these petitions in particular?

Since this is the prayer that Jesus gave us to pray, I think taking a little time to think about each of the petitions would be worthwhile. Although the Our Father is short enough to pray while waiting in a line at the grocery store, it is also a good prayer to pray in those quiet moments when we can reflect on what each petition means to us in particular.

“Lord, teach us to pray.” Luke 11:1.