Lord's Prayer

The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father, Pater Noster and the Model Prayer is a venerated Christian prayer that, according to the New Testament, was taught by Jesus to his disciples.

The Lord's Prayer

 * Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς· Ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου· ἐλθάτω ἡ βασιλεία σου· γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς· Τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον· καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν, ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν· καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ. Ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία καὶ ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Ἀμήν.
 * 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. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.
 * Matthew 6:9-13, as translated in The Episcopal Book of Common Prayer (1928)

Quotes about the Lord's Prayer

 * "Our Father who art in heaven." Among all other prayers, the Lord's Prayer holds the chief place. It has five excellent qualities which are required in all prayer. A prayer must be confident, ordered, suitable, devout and humble.
 * It must be confident: "Let us, therefore, go with confidence to the throne of grace" (Heb. 4:16). It must not be wanting in faith, as it is said: "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering" (James 1:6). That this is a most trustworthy prayer is reasonable, since it was formed by Him who is our Advocate and the most wise Petitioner for us: "In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge;" (Col. 2: 3) and of whom it is said: "For we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just one"(I John 2:1).
 * Hence, St. Cyprian says: "Since we have Christ as our Advocate with the Father for our sins, when we pray on account of our faults, we use the very words of our Advocate."
 * Furthermore, this prayer is even more worthy of confidence in that He who taught us how to pray, graciously hears our prayer together with the Father, as it is said in the Psalm: "He shall cry to Me, and I will hear him" (Ps. 91:15).
 * Thus writes St. Cyprian: "It is a friendly, familiar, and devout prayer to ask of the Lord in His own words."And so no one goes away from this prayer without fruit. St. Augustine says that through it our venial sins are remitted.
 * Moreover, our prayer must be suitable, so that a person asks of God in prayer what is good for him. St. John Damascene says: "Prayer is the asking of what is right and fitting from God."


 * Saint Thomas Aquinas, Five Qualities of a Prayer, in Catechetical Instructions


 * By way of brief summary, it should be known that the Lord's Prayer contains all that we ought to desire and all that we ought to avoid. Now, of all desirable things, that must be most desired which is most loved, and that is God.
 * Therefore, you seek, first of all, the glory of God when you say: "Hallowed be Thy name." You should desire three things from God, and they concern yourself. The first is that you may arrive at eternal life. And you pray for this when you say: "Thy kingdom come."
 * The second is that you will do the will of God and His justice. You pray for this in the words: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
 * The third is that you may have the necessaries of life. And thus you pray: "Give us this day our daily bread." Concerning all these things the Lord says: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God," which complies with the second, "and all these things shall be added unto you,"(Matt 6:33) as in accord with the third.
 * We must avoid and flee from all things which are opposed to the good. For, as we have seen, good is above all things to be desired. This good is fourfold. First, there is the glory of God, and no evil is contrary to this: "If thou sin, what shalt thou hurt Him? And if thou do justly, what shall thou give Him?"(Job 35:6-7) Whether it be the evil inasmuch as God punishes it, or whether it be the good in that God rewards it--all redound to His glory.
 * The second good is eternal life, to which sin is contrary: because eternal life is lost by sin. And so to remove this evil we pray: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."
 * The third good is justice and good works, and temptation is contrary to this, because temptation hinders us from doing good. We pray, therefore, to have this evil taken away in the words: "Lead us not into temptation."
 * The fourth good is all the necessaries of life, and opposed to this are troubles and adversities. And we seek to remove them when we pray: "But deliver us from evil. Amen


 * Saint Thomas Aquinas, A Short Explanation of the Whole Prayer, in Catechetical Instructions


 * For the completeness of so brief a prayer He added — in order that we should supplicate not touching the remitting merely, but touching the entire averting, of acts of guilt — Lead us not into temptation: that is, suffer us not to be led into it, by him (of course) who tempts; but far be the thought that the Lord should seem to tempt, as if He either were ignorant of the faith of any, or else were eager to overthrow it. Infirmity and malice are characteristics of the Devil...The final clause, therefore, is consonant, and interprets the sense of Lead us not into temptation; for this sense is, But convey us away from the Evil One." *As quoted in Tertullian, On Prayer, Ch. VIII)


 * Before all things, the Teacher of peace and the Master of unity would not have prayer to be made singly and individually, as for one who prays to pray for himself alone. For we say not My Father, which art in heaven, nor Give me this day my daily bread; nor does each one ask that only his own debt should be forgiven him; nor does he request for himself alone that he may not be led into temptation, and delivered from evil. Our prayer is public and common; and when we pray, we pray not for one, but for the whole people, because we the whole people are one. The God of peace and the Teacher of concord, who taught unity, willed that one should thus pray for all, even as He Himself bore us all in one. This law of prayer the three children observed when they were shut up in the fiery furnace, speaking together in prayer, and being of one heart in the agreement of the spirit; and this the faith of the sacred Scripture assures us, and in telling us how such as these prayed, gives an example which we ought to follow in our prayers, in order that we may be such as they were: Then these three, it says, as if from one mouth sang an hymn, and blessed the Lord. They spoke as if from one mouth, although Christ had not yet taught them how to pray. And therefore, as they prayed, their speech was availing and effectual, because a peaceful, and sincere, and spiritual prayer deserved well of the Lord. Thus also we find that the apostles, with the disciples, prayed after the Lord's ascension: They all, says the Scripture, continued with one accord in prayer, with the women, and Mary who was the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren. Acts 1:14
 * Saint Cyprian of Carthago, On the Lord's Prayer, n°. 8

(Full text online)
 * The Lord's Prayer was given as a sample: not to be followed literally... according to Fenton's translation it is a series of affirmations, as follows:Our Father in the Heavens; Your Name must be being hallowed; Your kingdom must be being restored; Your will must be being done, both in Heaven and upon the Earth.Give us to-day our tomorrow's bread;And forgive us our faults, as we forgive those offending us, for You would not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from its evil.
 * Charles Fillmore, Teach Us to Pray (1941)


 * Madame de Staël thought it was pride in mankind to endeavour to penetrate the secret of the universe; and speaking of the higher metaphysics she said: "I prefer the Lord's Prayer to it all."
 * Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, Sketch of the Life, Character, and Writings of Baroness de Staël-Holstein (1820) by Albertine-Adrienne Necker de Saussure, p. 349; often misquoted as, "I desire no other evidence of the truth of Christianity than the Lord's Prayer."


 * He took along with him a bell, armed with which he ran about the streets ringing it in broad middday, until he succeeded in drawing after him a troop of boys and others, attracted by curiosity, who greeted him with j ears and laughter. When he had thus got together a considerable auditory, placing himself on some large stone, he forth with began his sermon, which was delivered in the language of the country interladed with fragments of Latin, Spanish, Italian and French, to which, he added much gesticulation with both hands and feet. He then finally produced a large cross, which he piously kissed, and required , the crowd to do likewise, presenting each one who complied with a beautiful rosary, thousands of which he had brought from Portugal. This, however, was only the first part of his method. The second was much more effectual and consisted in pulling down, with the assistance of the Portuguese troops, which he called into requisition, the native temples, and breaking in pieces the idols found therein, not, however, without replacing them by Christian chapels with the image of the crucified Jesus, and erecting in the neighbourhood a handsome building constructed of bamboo canes, for the instruction of the young..... far from making them acquainted with the principles of Christianity, he merely contented himself in teaching them to say the Lord’s prayer, along with the creed, and causing them to understand the same, as also to cross the arms with humility." (Pages 89 & 90).
 * Theodor Griesinger on Francis Xavier-"The Jesuits; a complete history." translated from German into English by A. J. Smith. M. D. and was published in 1892 by W. H. Allen and Co. publishers to the India office London. quoted from  Shraddananda, Hindu Sangathan, Saviour of the Dying Race (Delhi 1926)


 * The Natives of the Country now Possessed by the New-Englanders, had been forlorn and wretched Heathen ever since their first herding there; and tho' we know not When or How those Indians first became Inhabitants of this mighty Continent, yet we may guess that probably the Devil decoy'd those miserable Salvages hither, in hopes that the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ would never come here to destroy or disturb his Absolute Empire over them.
 * Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana (The New English History), Book III, p. 190 (1702).


 * All my life I've prayed the Lord's Prayer, but I've never prayed, "Give me this day my daily bread." It is always, "Give us this day our daily bread." Bread and life are shared realities. They do not happen in isolation. Civilization is an unnatural act. We have to make it happen, you and I, together with all the other strangers.
 * Bill Moyers, "Pass the Bread", baccalaureate address at Hamilton College (20 May 2006), as quoted in Moyers on Democracy (2008), p. 385


 * When the Lord's Prayer is prayed with insight it becomes a petition for the abolition of capitalism and the supplanting of the existing economic order with a society which is consistent with the religion of Jesus.
 * Kirby Page, Individualism and Socialism (1933)


 * I couldn't get to sleep at night without saying the Lord's Prayer because, when I was young, I felt I was touched by the hand of Jesus, and hated myself for challenging it.
 * Bruce Parry, as quoted in "Bruce Parry: 'My job doesn't allow me a private life" by Cassandra Jardine in The Telegraph (19 September 1007)


 * Since I think just in pictures it's sort of hard to think about abstract concepts so I have to have visual images like for example when I was a child I didn't really understand some of the stuff in the Lord's Prayer and y'know when it talks about "the power and the glory"...and I thought "electrical high tension lines, circular rainbow." "Thou art in Heaven"; that didn't make any sense to me but another autistic person says "Well I always pictured God up in Heaven with an easel."
 * Dr. Temple Grandin First Person (TV series) Episode 1 "Stairway to Heaven"


 * Progress of his Version. Luther was gradually prepared for this work. He found for the first time a complete copy of the Latin Bible in the University Library at Erfurt, to his great delight, and made it his chief study. He derived from it his theology and spiritual nourishment; he lectured and preached on it as professor at Wittenberg day after day. He acquired the knowledge of the original languages for the purpose of its better understanding. He liked to call himself a "Doctor of the Sacred Scriptures."
 * He made his first attempt as translator with the seven Penitential Psalms, which he published in March, 1517, six months before the outbreak of the Reformation. Then followed several other sections of the Old and New Testaments,—the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Prayer of King Manasseh, the Magnificat of the Virgin Mary, etc., with popular comments. He was urged by his friends, especially by Melanchthon, as well as by his own sense of duty, to translate the whole Bible


 * Philippe Schaff, Luther's competence as Bible translator


 * Business underlies everything in our national life, including our spiritual life. Witness the fact that in the Lord's Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.
 * Speech of Woodrow Wilson in New York (23 May 1912)


 * [Cromwell is hosting Archbishop Cranmer and his wife for dinner at his house]
 * Thomas Cromwell: What a pleasure to have both you and your lovely wife to sup with, Your Grace.
 * Katerina Cranmer: So, tell me- you are suppressing some religious houses?
 * Thomas Cromwell: I am starting to, yes.
 * Katerina Cranmer: Und what else?
 * Thomas Cromwell: I am intending to abolish almost all the Holy Days of the Lord's service- and, during the harvest. (scoffs)  These enforced holidays- they damage the country's economy, stop vital works! (the Cranmers nod in agreement)  And, in fact, they also impoverish workers!
 * Katerina Cranmer: Und the priests?
 * Thomas Cranmer: As far as the clergy are concerned, we mean to issue a set of injunctions, requiring them to preach the Supremacy.  There will also be an injunction requiring parents and employers to teach their children and servants the Lord's Prayer, Creed and the Ten Commandments in English, rather than Latin.
 * Thomas Cromwell: And all clerics will be put on notice to attack the superstitious cults surrounding images and relics.  They will be told it will profit more upon their souls to bestow upon the poor and the needy, what they currently waste on relics.


 * The Tudors, The Definition of Love [2.6]


 * When you say the Lord's Prayer, give the following meaning to the words: Our Father, Who are in our minds, may Your Light come to my mind, so that it will  be able to perceive. May Your Will be within all my undertakings, in all my thoughts and feelings, in all my actions. May Your Will be present even in my breathing and in my blood circulation, so that I can serve You in Joy and Love.  'Lead us not into temptation' means: Lord, give us knowledge and wisdom, so that we cannot fall into temptation through our ignorance.
 * Peter Deunov, 'Sacred Words of the Master', p.65