The Bible Book

213

Reciting the Lord’s Prayer was

once a daily ritual in many Christian

families, as shown in this illustration

from Berlin, dating from around 1900.

THE GOSPELS

See also: The Origin of Prayer 38–39 ■ The Divinity of Jesus 190–93 ■ Sermon on the Mount 204–09 ■

Parables of Jesus 214–15 ■ The Nature of Faith 236–41

of the prayer is more pared down

than Matthew’s and includes just

five petitions. In Matthew’s Gospel,

the prayer is the focal point of the

Sermon on the Mount and includes

the salutation and seven petitions

familiar to Christians today.

Different religious traditions had

their distinctive prayers, and Jesus

intended the Lord’s Prayer to be

for His followers to say. The early

Christians recited it three times

a day in the same way that Jews

recite the 18 Benedictions.

Seven petitions

The prayer has become central to

Christian liturgies, but it is also

seen as a “school of prayer.” The

opening salutation stresses the

person’s membership in a family of

fellow children of God: “Our Fat her.”

Three so-called “you-petitions”

follow—hallowed be your name;

your kingdom come, your will be

done on earth as it is in heaven—

succeeded by four “we-petitions”:

give us our daily bread; forgive us

our trespasses; lead us not into

temptation; and deliver us from evil.

While the you-petitions concern

God’s desire for love and justice

among people, in the we-petitions

the believer grapples with the

challenges of living out that vision:

the need for material and spiritual

sustenance, forgiveness, mercy,

and the ability to persevere.

In both Matthew’s and Luke’s

Gospels, the prayer is followed

shortly afterward by other famous

pronouncements of Jesus: “Ask

and it will be given to you; seek and

you will find; knock and the door

will be opened to you ...” Through

the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus repeatedly

demonstrates His belief in making

petitions to God, thus encouraging

people to pray. ■

The Lord’s Prayer is the

most perfect of prayers. ...

This prayer teaches us not

only to ask for things, but

also in what order we

should desire them.

Thomas Aquinas

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