2803After we have placed ourselves in the presence of God our Father to adore and to love and to bless him, the Spirit of adoption stirs up in our hearts seven petitions, seven blessings. The first three, more theological, draw us toward the glory of the Father; the last four, as ways toward him, commend our wretchedness to his grace. “Deep calls to deep.”Ps 42:7.

2804The first series of petitions carries us toward him, for his own sake: thy name, thy kingdom, thy will! It is characteristic of love to think first of the one whom we love. In none of the three petitions do we mention ourselves; the burning desire, even anguish, of the beloved Son for his Father’s glory seizes us:Cf. Phil 2:6; cf. 2:9-11. “hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. . . .” These three supplications were already answered in the saving sacrifice of Christ, but they are henceforth directed in hope toward their final fulfillment, for God is not yet all in all.Cf. 1 Cor 15:28.

2805The second series of petitions unfolds with the same movement as certain Eucharistic epicleses: as an offering up of our expectations that draws down upon itself the eyes of the Father of mercies. They go up from us and concern us from this very moment, in our present world: “give us . . . forgive us . . . lead us not . . . deliver us. . . .” The fourth and fifth petitions concern our life as such—to be fed and to be healed of sin; the last two concern our battle for the victory of life—that battle of prayer.

2806By the three first petitions, we are strengthened in faith, filled with hope, and set aflame by charity. Being creatures and still sinners, we have to petition for us, for that “us” bound by the world and history, which we offer to the boundless love of God. For through the name of his Christ and the reign of his Holy Spirit, our Father accomplishes his plan of salvation, for us and for the whole world.

2807The term “to hallow” is to be understood here not primarily in its causative sense (only God hallows, makes holy), but above all in an evaluative sense: to recognize as holy, to treat in a holy way. And so, in adoration, this invocation is sometimes understood as praise and thanksgiving.Cf. 2 Kings 19:15-19; 1 Chr 29:10-13; Ps 111:9; 113:1; 148:13. But this petition is here taught to us by Jesus as an optative: a petition, a desire, and an expectation in which God and man are involved. Beginning with this first petition to our Father, we are immersed in the innermost mystery of his Godhead and the drama of the salvation of our humanity. Asking the Father that his name be made holy draws us into his plan of loving kindness for the fullness of time, “according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ,” that we might “be holy and blameless before him in love.”Eph 1:9, 4.

2808In the decisive moments of his economy God reveals his name, but he does so by accomplishing his work. This work, then, is realized for us and in us only if his name is hallowed by us and in us.

2809The holiness of God is the inaccessible center of his eternal mystery. What is revealed of it in creation and history, Scripture calls “glory,” the radiance of his majesty.Cf. Ps 8:1; 99:3; 111:9; 113:1-3. In making man in his image and likeness, God “crowned him with glory and honor,” but by sinning, man fell “short of the glory of God.”Ps 8:5; Rom 3:23. From that time on, God was to manifest his holiness by revealing and giving his name, in order to restore man to the image of his Creator.Cf. Ezek 36:22-38.

2810In the promise to Abraham and the oath that accompanied it,Cf. Gen 22:16-17. God commits himself but without disclosing his name. He begins to reveal it to Moses and makes it known clearly before the eyes of the whole people when he saves them from the Egyptians: “he has triumphed gloriously.”Ex 15:1. From the covenant of Sinai onwards, this people is “his own” and it is to be a “holy” (or “consecrated”: the same word is used for both in Hebrew) nation,Ex 19:5-6. because the name of God dwells in it.

2811In spite of the holy Law that again and again their Holy God gives them—“You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy”—and although the Lord shows patience for the sake of his name, the people turn away from the Holy One of Israel and profane his name among the nations.Lev 19:2; Ezek 20:36-37; 36:20-21. For this reason the just ones of the Old Covenant, the poor survivors returned from exile, and the prophets burned with passion for the name.

2812Finally, in Jesus the name of the Holy God is revealed and given to us, in the flesh, as Savior, revealed by what he is, by his word, and by his sacrifice.Cf. Mt 1:21; Lk 1:31; 2:21. This is the heart of his priestly prayer: “Holy Father . . . for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.”Jn 17:11, 19. Because he “sanctifies” his own name, Jesus reveals to us the name of the Father.Jn 17:6. At the end of Christ’s Passover, the Father gives him the name that is above all names: “Jesus is Lord,” to the glory of God the Father.Phil 2:9-11.

2813In the waters of Baptism, we have been “washed . . . sanctified . . . justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”1 Cor 6:11. Our Father calls us to holiness in the whole of our life; and since “he is the source of [our] life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and . . . sanctification,”1 Cor 1:30. both his glory and our life depend on the hallowing of his name in us and by us. Such is the urgency of our first petition.

2814By whom is God hallowed? God certainly sanctifies himself: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.”Prov 18:10. But we ask him to hallow his name, this name by which we are saved.Cf. Jn 17:12; Acts 4:12; Rom 10:13; 1 Cor 6:11.

When we say “hallowed be thy name,” we ask that it should be hallowed in us, who are in him; but also in others whom God’s grace still awaits, that we may obey the precept that obliges us to pray for everyone, even our enemies. That is why we do not say expressly “hallowed be thy name ‘in us,’” for we ask that it be so in all men.St. Gregory of Nyssa, De oratione dominica 2: PG 44, 1156D.

2815This petition embodies all the others. Like the six petitions that follow, it is fulfilled by the prayer of Christ. Prayer to our Father is our prayer, if it is prayed in the name of Jesus.Cf. Jn 14:13-14. In his priestly prayer, Jesus asks: “Holy Father, protect in your name those whom you have given me.”Jn 17:11.

2816In the New Testament, the word basileia can be translated by “kingship” (abstract noun), “kingdom” (concrete noun) or “reign” (action noun). The Kingdom of God lies ahead of us. It is brought near in the Word incarnate, it is proclaimed throughout the whole Gospel, and it has come in Christ’s death and Resurrection. The Kingdom of God has been coming since the Last Supper and, in the Eucharist, it is in our midst. The kingdom will come in glory when Christ hands it over to his Father:

It may even be . . . that the Kingdom of God means Christ himself, whom we daily desire to come, and whose coming we wish to be manifested quickly to us. For as he is our resurrection, since in him we rise, so he can also be understood as the Kingdom of God, for in him we shall reign.St. Cyprian, De oratione dominica 13 PL 4, 528A.

2817This petition is “Marana tha,” the cry of the Spirit and the Bride: “Come, Lord Jesus.”

Even if it had not been prescribed to pray for the coming of the kingdom, we would willingly have brought forth this speech, eager to embrace our hope. In indignation the souls of the martyrs under the altar cry out to the Lord: “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?” For their retribution is ordained for the end of the world. Indeed as soon as possible, Lord, may your kingdom come!Tertullian, De oratione 5; cf. Rev 6:10.

2818In the Lord’s Prayer, “thy kingdom come” refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God through Christ’s return.Cf. Titus 2:13. But, far from distracting the Church from her mission in this present world, this desire commits her to it all the more strongly. Since Pentecost, the coming of that Reign is the work of the Spirit of the Lord who “complete[s] his work on earth and brings us the fullness of grace.”Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer IV.

2819“The kingdom of God [is] righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”Rom 14:17. The end-time in which we live is the age of the outpouring of the Spirit. Ever since Pentecost, a decisive battle has been joined between “the flesh” and the Spirit.Cf. Gal 5:16-25.

Only a pure soul can boldly say: “Thy kingdom come.” One who has heard Paul say, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies,” and has purified himself in act, thought, and word will say to God: “Thy kingdom come!”St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses mystagogicae 5, 13 PG 33, 1124A.

2820By a discernment according to the Spirit, Christians have to distinguish between the growth of the reign of God and the progress of the culture and society in which they are involved. This distinction is not a separation. Man’s vocation to eternal life does not suppress, but actually reinforces, his duty to put into action in this world the energies and means received from the Creator to serve justice and peace.Cf. GS 34; 39; 45.

2821This petition is taken up and granted in the prayer of Jesus which is present and effective in the Eucharist; it bears its fruit in new life in keeping with the Beatitudes.Cf. Lk 6:20-23.

2822“Our Father ‘desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.’”1 Tim 2:3-4. He “is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish.”2 Pet 3:9. His commandment is “that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”Jn 13:34. This commandment summarizes all the others and expresses his entire will.

2823He has made known to us “the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ . . . to unite all things in him.”Eph 1:9-10. We have been made “known . . . the mystery of his will” and we pray to fulfill our calling.

2824In Christ, and through his human will, the will of the Father has been perfectly fulfilled once for all. Jesus said on entering into this world, “Lo, I have come to do your will, O God.”Heb 10:7; cf. Ps 40:7-8. Only Jesus can say: “I always do what is pleasing to him.”Jn 8:29. In the prayer of his agony, he consents totally to this will: “not . . . my will, but yours be done.”Lk 22:42. For this reason Jesus “gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”Gal 1:4. “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”Heb 10:10.

2825“Although he was a Son, [Jesus] learned obedience through what he suffered.”Heb 5:8. How much more reason have we sinful creatures to learn obedience—we who in him have become children of adoption. We ask our Father to unite our will to his Son’s, in order to fulfill his will, his plan of salvation for the life of the world. We are radically incapable of this, but united with Jesus and with the power of his Holy Spirit, we can surrender our will to him and decide to choose what his Son has always chosen: to do what is pleasing to the Father.Cf. Jn 8:29.

2826By prayer we can discern “what is the will of God” and obtain the endurance to do it.Rom 12:2; cf. Eph 5:17; 6:6. Jesus teaches us that one enters the kingdom of heaven not by speaking words, but by doing “the will of my Father in heaven.”Mt 7:21.

2827“If anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.”Jn 9:31; cf. 1 Jn 5:14. Such is the power of the Church’s prayer in the name of her Lord, above all in the Eucharist.

2828“Give us”: the trust of children who look to their Father for everything is beautiful. “He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”Mt 5:45. He gives to all the living “their food in due season.”Ps 145:15. Jesus teaches us this petition, because it glorifies our Father by acknowledging how good he is, beyond all goodness.

2829“Give us” also expresses the covenant. We are his and he is ours, for our sake. But this “us” also recognizes him as the Father of all men, and we pray to him for them all, in solidarity with their needs and sufferings.

2830“Our bread”: the Father who gives us life cannot but give us the nourishment life requires—all appropriate goods and blessings, both material and spiritual. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus insists on the filial trust that cooperates with our Father’s providence.Cf. Mt 6:25-34. He is not inviting us to idleness,Cf. 2 Thess 3:6-13. but wants to relieve us from nagging worry and preoccupation. Such is the filial surrender of the children of God:

To those who seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he has promised to give all else besides. Since everything indeed belongs to God, he who possesses God lacks nothing, if he himself is not found wanting before God.St. Cyprian, De oratione dominica 21: PL 4,534A.

2831But the presence of those who hunger because they lack bread opens up another profound meaning of this petition. The drama of hunger in the world calls Christians who pray sincerely to exercise responsibility toward their brethren, both in their personal behavior and in their solidarity with the human family. This petition of the Lord’s Prayer cannot be isolated from the parables of the poor man Lazarus and of the Last Judgment.Cf. Lk 16:19-31; Mt 25:31-46.

2832As leaven in the dough, the newness of the kingdom should make the earth “rise” by the Spirit of Christ.Cf. AA 5. This must be shown by the establishment of justice in personal and social, economic and international relations, without ever forgetting that there are no just structures without people who want to be just.

2833“Our” bread is the “one” loaf for the “many.” In the Beatitudes “poverty” is the virtue of sharing: it calls us to communicate and share both material and spiritual goods, not by coercion but out of love, so that the abundance of some may remedy the needs of others.Cf. 2 Cor 8:1-15.

2834“Pray and work.”Cf. St. Benedict, Regula 20,48. “Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you.”Attributed to St. Ignatius Loyola; cf. Joseph de Guibert, The Jesuits: Their Spiritual Doctrine and Practice, 148. Even when we have done our work, the food we receive is still a gift from our Father; it is good to ask him for it and to thank him, as Christian families do when saying grace at meals.

2835This petition, with the responsibility it involves, also applies to another hunger from which men are perishing: “Man does not live by bread alone, but . . . by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,”Deut 8:3; Mt 4:4. that is, by the Word he speaks and the Spirit he breathes forth. Christians must make every effort “to proclaim the good news to the poor.” There is a famine on earth, “not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”Am 8:11. For this reason the specifically Christian sense of this fourth petition concerns the Bread of Life: the Word of God accepted in faith, the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist.Cf. Jn 6:26-58.

2836“This day” is also an expression of trust taught us by the Lord,Cf. Mt 6:34; Ex 16:19. which we would never have presumed to invent. Since it refers above all to his Word and to the Body of his Son, this “today” is not only that of our mortal time, but also the “today” of God.

If you receive the bread each day, each day is today for you. If Christ is yours today, he rises for you every day. How can this be? “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” Therefore, “today” is when Christ rises.St. Ambrose, De sacramentis 5,4,26: PL 16,453A; cf. Ps 2:7.

2837“Daily” (epiousios) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Taken in a temporal sense, this word is a pedagogical repetition of “this day,”Cf. Ex 16:19-21. to confirm us in trust “without reservation.” Taken in the qualitative sense, it signifies what is necessary for life, and more broadly every good thing sufficient for subsistence.Cf. 1 Tim 6:8. Taken literally (epi-ousios: “super-essential”), it refers directly to the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the “medicine of immortality,” without which we have no life within us.St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Eph. 20,2: PG 5,661; cf. Jn 6:53-56. Finally, in this connection, its heavenly meaning is evident: “this day” is the Day of the Lord, the day of the feast of the kingdom, anticipated in the Eucharist that is already the foretaste of the kingdom to come. For this reason it is fitting for the Eucharistic liturgy to be celebrated each day.

The Eucharist is our daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its effect is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made members of him, we may become what we receive. . . . This also is our daily bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you hear and sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage.St. Augustine, Sermo 57,7: PL 38,389.

The Father in heaven urges us, as children of heaven, to ask for the bread of heaven. [Christ] himself is the bread who, sown in the Virgin, raised up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion, baked in the oven of the tomb, reserved in churches, brought to altars, furnishes the faithful each day with food from heaven.St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermo 67: PL 52,392; cf. Jn 6:51.

2838This petition is astonishing. If it consisted only of the first phrase, “And forgive us our trespasses,” it might have been included, implicitly, in the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, since Christ’s sacrifice is “that sins may be forgiven.” But, according to the second phrase, our petition will not be heard unless we have first met a strict requirement. Our petition looks to the future, but our response must come first, for the two parts are joined by the single word “as.”

And forgive us our trespasses . . .

2839With bold confidence, we began praying to our Father. In begging him that his name be hallowed, we were in fact asking him that we ourselves might be always made more holy. But though we are clothed with the baptismal garment, we do not cease to sin, to turn away from God. Now, in this new petition, we return to him like the prodigal son and, like the tax collector, recognize that we are sinners before him.Cf. Lk 15:11-32; 18:13. Our petition begins with a “confession” of our wretchedness and his mercy. Our hope is firm because, in his Son, “we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”Col 1:14; Eph 1:7. We find the efficacious and undoubted sign of his forgiveness in the sacraments of his Church.Cf. Mt 26:28; 20:23.

2840Now—and this is daunting—this outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us. Love, like the Body of Christ, is indivisible; we cannot love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother or sister we do see.Cf. 1 Jn 4:20. In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father’s merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace.

2841This petition is so important that it is the only one to which the Lord returns and which he develops explicitly in the Sermon on the Mount.Cf. Mt 6:14-15; 5:23-24; Mk 11:25. This crucial requirement of the covenant mystery is impossible for man. But “with God all things are possible.”Mt 19:26.

. . . as we forgive those who trespass against us

2842This “as” is not unique in Jesus’ teaching: “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”; “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful”; “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”Mt 5:48; Lk 6:36; Jn 13:34. It is impossible to keep the Lord’s commandment by imitating the divine model from outside; there has to be a vital participation, coming from the depths of the heart, in the holiness and the mercy and the love of our God. Only the Spirit by whom we live can make “ours” the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.Cf. Gal 5:25; Phil 2:1,5. Then the unity of forgiveness becomes possible and we find ourselves “forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave” us.Eph 4:32.

2843Thus the Lord’s words on forgiveness, the love that loves to the end,Cf. Jn 13:1. become a living reality. The parable of the merciless servant, which crowns the Lord’s teaching on ecclesial communion, ends with these words: “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”Cf. Mt 18:23-35. It is there, in fact, “in the depths of the heart,” that everything is bound and loosed. 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.

2844Christian prayer extends to the forgiveness of enemies,Cf. Mt 5:43-44. transfiguring the disciple by configuring him to his Master. Forgiveness is a high-point of Christian prayer; only hearts attuned to God’s compassion can receive the gift of prayer. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love is stronger than sin. The martyrs of yesterday and today bear this witness to Jesus. Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their Father and of men with one another.Cf. 2 Cor 5:18-21; John Paul II, Dives in misericordia 14.

2845There is no limit or measure to this essentially divine forgiveness,Cf. Mt 18:21-22; Lk 17:3-4. whether one speaks of “sins” as in Luke (11:4), “debts” as in Matthew (6:12). We are always debtors: “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.”Rom 13:8. The communion of the Holy Trinity is the source and criterion of truth in every relationship. It is lived out in prayer, above all in the Eucharist.Cf. Mt 5:23-24; 1 Jn 3:19-24.

God does not accept the sacrifice of a sower of disunion, but commands that he depart from the altar so that he may first be reconciled with his brother. For God can be appeased only by prayers that make peace. To God, the better offering is peace, brotherly concord, and a people made one in the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.St. Cyprian, De oratione dominica 23: PL 4,535-536; cf. Mt 5:24.

2846“This petition goes to the root of the preceding one, for our sins result from our consenting to temptation”; we therefore ask our Father not to “lead” us into temptation. It is difficult to translate the Greek verb used by a single English word: the Greek means both “do not allow us to enter into temptation” and “do not let us yield to temptation.” “God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one”;Jas 1:13. on the contrary, he wants to set us free from evil. We ask him not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin. We are engaged in the battle “between flesh and spirit”; this petition implores the Spirit of discernment and strength.

2847The Holy Spirit makes us discern between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man,Cf. Lk 8:13-15; Acts 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; 2 Tim 3:12. and temptation, which leads to sin and death.Cf. Jas 1:14-15. We must also discern between being tempted and consenting to temptation. Finally, discernment unmasks the lie of temptation, whose object appears to be good, a “delight to the eyes” and desirable,Cf. Gen 3:6. when in reality its fruit is death.

God does not want to impose the good, but wants free beings. . . . There is a certain usefulness to temptation. No one but God knows what our soul has received from him, not even we ourselves. But temptation reveals it in order to teach us to know ourselves, and in this way we discover our evil inclinations and are obliged to give thanks for the goods that temptation has revealed to us.Origen, De oratione 29: PG 11,544CD.

2848“And lead us not into temptation” implies a decision of the heart: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. . . . No one can serve two masters.”Mt 6:21, 24. “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”Gal 5:25. In this assent to the Holy Spirit the Father gives us strength. “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, so that you may be able to endure it.”1 Cor 10:13.

2849Such a battle and such a victory become possible only through prayer. It is by his prayer that Jesus vanquishes the tempter, both at the outset of his public mission and in the ultimate struggle of his agony.Cf. Mt 4:1-11; 26:36-44. In this petition to our heavenly Father, Christ unites us to his battle and his agony. He urges us to vigilance of the heart in communion with his own. Vigilance is “custody of the heart,” and Jesus prayed for us to the Father: “Keep them in your name.”Jn 17:11; cf. Mk 13:9, 23, 33-37; 14:38; Lk 12:35-40. The Holy Spirit constantly seeks to awaken us to keep watch.Cf. 1 Cor 16:13; Col 4:2; 1 Thess 5:6; 1 Pet 5:8. Finally, this petition takes on all its dramatic meaning in relation to the last temptation of our earthly battle; it asks for final perseverance. “Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake.”Rev 16:15.

2850When we say “deliver us from evil,” we are asking our Father not to allow us to take the path that leads to sin. This petition implores him to keep us from the Evil One.

2851In this petition, evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The devil (dia-bolos) is the one who “throws himself across” God’s plan and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ.

2852“A murderer from the beginning, . . . a liar and the father of lies,” Satan is “the deceiver of the whole world.”Jn 8:44; Rev 12:9. Through him sin and death entered the world and by his definitive defeat all creation will be “freed from the corruption of sin and death.”Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer IV,125. Now “we know that anyone born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one.”1 Jn 5:18-19.

2853Victory over the “prince of this world” was won once for all at the Hour when Jesus freely gave himself up to death to give us his life. This is the judgment of the world, and the prince of this world is “cast out.”Jn 12:31; Rev 12:10.

“We ask with insistence for deliverance from all evils, present, past, and future; and by this request which summarizes all our petitions we are putting ourselves in the hands of God.”Roman Missal, Embolism after the Lord’s Prayer, 126.

2854When we ask to be delivered from the Evil One, we pray as well to be freed from all evils, present, past, and future, of which he is the author or instigator. In this final petition, the Church brings before the Father all the distress of the world. Along with deliverance from the evils that overwhelm humanity, she implores the precious gift of peace and the grace of perseverance in expectation of Christ’s return. By praying in this way, she anticipates in humility of faith the gathering together of everyone and everything in him who has “the keys of Death and Hades,” who “is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”Rev 1:8,18; cf. Rev 1:4; Eph 1:10.