The Our Father, The Lord's Prayer

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 Our Father, or Lord's Prayer, is given to us by Jesus Christ himself, Who at Matthew 6: 9-13 teaches it to his Apostles. In addition to Catholics reciting it on its own, the Our Father is recited near the culmination of the Liturgy of Eucharist during Holy Mass, almost just before the receipt of the Eucharist, and is featured in many important devotions, such as the Liturgy of the Hours, the Rosary, and the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Often when praying for the Holy Father, the Pope, and his intentions, Catholic do so by praying an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be.

A Spiritual Advisor might recommend, for those facing difficult trials, to pray the Our Father slowly five times, emphasizing "Thy Will be done."

The Our Father is rich with deep meaning, and can provide a basis for an entire homily, or series of homilies, if not entire books.

The version set out above, with its archaic versions of some words, is traditional for very many English-speaking Catholics and other denominations.

With the New American Bible, Holy Mother Church went back to the oldest manuscripts possible to translate the very oldest original texts directly into modern American English. There are different ways to translate, either word-for-word, or looking at entire phrases or lengths of text and trying to convey their meaning. In the second translation of the New American Bible, a retranslation, there reportedly was an effort to provide more of a literal word-for-word translation. For example, the retranslation might translate "Amen, I say to you" literally rather than try to interpret it and convert it to something like "I solemnly assure you."

A latest such straight word-for-word retranslation of the Our Father is the following:

Father in Heaven,
Your Name is Hallowed
Your Kingdom Come
Your Will be done
on earth as in Heaven.

Give us today our daily bread
and forgive us our debts
as we forgive our debtors.
and do not subject us to the final test
but deliver us from the evil one.

Matthew 6: 9-13
[click here for Mt Chapter 6]

- page last modified May 21, 2008 -

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