The Our Father

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father (Latin: Pater Noster), is a

central Christian prayer which, according to the New Testament, Jesus taught as the way to pray:
Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon
on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew, and a shorter form in the Gospel of Luke when "one of
his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his
disciples.'". Lutheran theologian Harold Buls suggested that both were original, the Matthean
version spoken by Jesus early in his ministry in Galilee, and the Lucan version one year later,
"very likely in Judea".
The first three of the seven petitions in Matthew address God; the other four are related to
human needs and concerns. The Matthew account alone includes the "Your will be done" and the
"Rescue us from the evil one" (or "Deliver us from evil") petitions.
Initial words on the topic from the Catechism of the Catholic Church teach that it "is
truly the summary of the whole gospel". The prayer is used by most Christian churches in
their worship; with few exceptions, the liturgical form is the Matthean. Although theological
differences and various modes of worship divide Christians, according to Fuller
Seminary professor Clayton Schmit, "there is a sense of solidarity in knowing that Christians
around the globe are praying together ... and these words always unite us."

St. Augustine gives the following analysis of the Lord's Prayer, which elaborates on
Jesus' words just before it in Matthew's gospel: "Your Father knows what you need before you
ask him. Pray then in this way" (Mt. 6:8-9):
We need to use words (when we pray) so that we may remind ourselves to consider
carefully what we are asking, not so that we may think we can instruct the Lord or prevail on
him. When we say: "Hallowed be your name," we are reminding ourselves to desire that his
name, which in fact is always holy, should also be considered holy among men. ...But this is a
help for men, not for God. ...And as for our saying: "Your kingdom come," it will surely come
whether we will it or not. But we are stirring up our desires for the kingdom so that it can come
to us and we can deserve to reign there. ...When we say: "Deliver us from evil," we are
reminding ourselves to reflect on the fact that we do not yet enjoy the state of blessedness in
which we shall suffer no evil. ...It was very appropriate that all these truths should be entrusted to
us to remember in these very words. Whatever be the other words we may prefer to say (words
which the one praying chooses so that his disposition may become clearer to himself or which he
simply adopts so that his disposition may be intensified), we say nothing that is not contained in
the Lord’s Prayer, provided of course we are praying in a correct and proper way.