Christian Life part 4: Christian Prayer

Christian Life, Summaries of Catholic Teaching, part 4: Christian Prayer
 
Source: www.opusdei.org.uk" Pagina van1 25
Christian Life"
Summaries of
Catholic Teaching
These brief texts, prepared by theologians at the Pontiﬁcal
University of the Holy Cross in Rome, offer an introduction to the
teachings of the Catholic Church. Extensive use has been made
of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and it’s Compendium."
Published on www.opusdei.org.uk in the section Christian Life.
Part IV: Christian Prayer

Index"
"
"
Topic 1: Prayer" 4"
Basic bibliography " 11"
Recommended reading" 12"
Footnotes" 12"
Topic 2: Our Father who art in Heaven" 14"
Basic bibliography " 23"
Recommended reading" 23"
Footnotes" 24

 
Christian Life"
Summaries of
Catholic Teaching
Part IV: Christian Prayer"
"
Topic 1:"
Prayer

Topic 1: Prayer!
"
Prayer is absolutely necessary for our spiritual life. It is, as it were, the
“breathing” that permits the life of the spirit to develop."
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St. John Damascene deﬁnes prayer as “the raising of one’s mind and
heart to God or the requesting of a suitable good,”[2] while St John
Climacus views it as an “intimate conversation and union with God.”[3]"
"
Prayer is absolutely necessary for our spiritual life. It is, as it were, the
“breathing” that permits the life of the spirit to develop. In prayer, our
faith in God’s presence and love is afﬁrmed. Prayer fosters hope, which
leads to directing our life towards God and trusting in his providence. It
expands our heart to respond with love to divine Love."
"
Prayer issues from the very depths of our soul, from the “heart” (cf.
Catechism 2562). We are led by the Holy Spirit to unite ourselves to
Christ, teacher, model and path for all Christian prayer (cf. Catechism
2599 ff.), and with Christ, through Christ and in Christ, we are drawn to
God the Father, coming to share in the riches of the life of the Trinity (cf.
Catechism 2559-2564). Hence the importance of the liturgy and, at its
center, the Eucharist, in the life of prayer. "
"
As in any conversation of love, the topics of prayer are many and varied,
but a few particularly important ones should be highlighted."
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Petition"
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Sacred Scripture contains many references to supplicatory prayer.
Jesus himself had recourse to it, and taught us the importance of simple
and trusting petition. Christian tradition has echoed Christ’s invitation to
beseech God for help in many different ways: asking for pardon, asking

for one’s own and others’ salvation, praying for the Church, the
apostolate, needs of all sorts, etc."
"
Prayer of petition is part of mankind’s universal religious experience.
Recognizing even vaguely the reality of God (or more generally, a
superior being) leads to turning to him and asking for his protection and
help. Prayer is certainly not limited to supplication, but petitioning God
for help is a clear recognition of our condition as creatures and our
absolute dependence on God, whose love for us is revealed in its
fulness through faith (cf. Catechism 2629-2635). "
Thanksgiving"
"
Recognizing all the gifts we have received and, through them, God’s
mercy and generosity, spurs us to turn our hearts to God in
thanksgiving. From beginning to end, Sacred Scripture and the history of
spirituality is imbued with an attitude of thanksgiving."
"
In the light of faith, we come to realize that whatever happens to us
forms part of God’s loving plan, and that everything works for the good
of those who love God (cf. Rom 8:28). “Make it a habit to raise your
heart to God, in acts of thanksgiving, many times a day. Because He
bestows on you various gifts. Because you’ve been despised. Because
you don’t have what you need, or because you do have it. Because He
made his Mother, who is also your Mother, so beautiful. Because He
created the sun and the moon and an animal or plant of this or that kind.
Because He made that man eloquent and you He left slow of speech…
Thank Him for everything, because everything is good.”[4]"
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Adoration and praise"
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An essential part of prayer is recognizing and proclaiming God’s
grandeur, the plenitude of his being, his inﬁnite goodness and love.
Consideration of the beauty and immensity of the universe prompts us

to praise him, as we see in many biblical texts (cf., for example, Ps 19;
Sir 42:15-25; Dan 3:32-90), and in traditional Christian prayers.[5] Praise
may be prompted also by the great and wonderful works that God
performs in the history of salvation, as shown by the Magnificat (Lk
1:46-55) and the great Pauline hymns (see, for example, Eph 1:3-14), or
by the small and even tiniest details that manifest God’s love."
"
In any case, what characterizes praise is that it focuses our attention
directly on God himself, as he is in himself, in his unlimited and infinite
perfection. “Praise is the form of prayer which recognizes most
immediately that God is God. It lauds God for his own sake and gives
him glory, quite beyond what he does, but simply because HE
IS” (Catechism 2639). Therefore it is closely united to adoration, to the
deeply-felt realization of the smallness of all created reality in
comparison with the Creator, and, as a consequence, to humility, to
accepting our personal littleness before the One who infinitely
transcends us. And we are led to marvel at the fact that this God of ours,
to whom the angels and the whole universe render homage, deigned not
only to turn his regard to man but also to dwell in man, and even more,
to become incarnate."
"
Adoration, praise, petition and thanksgiving are the basic dispositions
underlying all dialogue between man and God. Whatever the particular
content of our prayer, everyone who prays always does so, explicitly or
implicitly, by adoring, praising, beseeching or giving thanks to God,
whom we revere, love and trust. At the same time it is worth repeating
that the specific content of prayer can vary considerably. Our prayer
may sometimes involve considering passages from Scripture, or going
more deeply into some Christian truth, or reliving Christ’s life, or drawing
close to our Lady…. Or it may involve starting from events in our own
life to share with God our joys and worries, our hopes and problems; or
to seek his support and consolation; or to examine in God’s presence
our own behavior and make resolutions and decisions; or simply to talk
about the events of the day with someone whom we know loves us."
"

“You write: ‘To pray is to talk with God. But about what?’ About what?
About Him, about yourself: joys, sorrows, successes and failures, noble
ambitions, daily worries, weaknesses! And acts of thanksgiving and
petitions: and Love and reparation. In a word: to get to know him and to
get to know yourself: ‘to get acquainted!’”[6] In one way or another,
prayer will always be an intimate and ﬁlial meeting with God, which will
foster our sense of God’s closeness, and lead to living each day in
God’s presence. "
"
Regarding the ways or forms of praying, spiritual writers usually make
various distinctions: vocal prayer and mental prayer; public and private
prayer; predominantly intellectual or reﬂective prayer and affective
prayer; guided and spontaneous prayer, etc. Sometimes these writers
try to outline a gradation of intensity in prayer, distinguishing between
mental prayer, affective prayer, the prayer of quietude, contemplation,
unitive prayer…."
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The Catechism distinguishes between vocal prayer, meditation and the
prayer of contemplation. These three “have one basic trait in common:
composure of heart. This vigilance in keeping the Word and dwelling in
the presence of God makes these three expressions intense times in the
life of prayer” (Catechism 2699). The Catechism makes clear that the
use of this terminology is not meant to refer to three levels in the life of
prayer but rather to two ways of praying, vocal prayer and meditation,
presenting both as apt to lead to contemplation, the summit of the life of
prayer. In our discussion below we will follow this approach."
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Vocal prayer"
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“Vocal prayer is an essential element of the Christian life. To his
disciples, drawn by their Master’s silent prayer, Jesus teaches a vocal
prayer, the Our Father. He not only prayed aloud the liturgical prayers of
the synagogue but, as the Gospels show, he raised his voice to express
his personal prayer, from exultant blessing of the Father to the agony of

Gesthemani” (Catechism 2701). We could define vocal prayer as prayer
that makes use of set words, whether short formulas (aspirations),
words taken from Scripture, or prayers from traditional spirituality (the
Veni Sancte Spiritus, the Salve, the Memorare....)."
"
It is important to stress that vocal prayer is not just a matter of words but
above all of the intellect and the heart. If this devotion is lacking, if there
is no awareness of Who is being addressed in the prayer and what is
being prayed for, then, as St Teresa of Jesus graphically puts it, one
cannot properly speak of prayer “however much the lips wag.”[7]"
"
Vocal prayer plays a decisive role in teaching people how to pray,
especially when first starting to talk to God. Through learning the sign of
the Cross and vocal prayers, children—and often adults as well—take
their first steps in living the faith in practice, and thus in their life of
prayer. However, the role and importance of vocal prayer is not
restricted to the beginning of one’s dialogue with God, but is meant to
accompany every stage in our spiritual development. "
"
Meditation"
"
Meditation means applying our mind to the consideration of a reality with
the desire to know and understand it in greater depth. For a Christian,
meditation (often called “mental prayer”) involves directing our thoughts
to God as he revealed himself during the history of Israel and definitively
and fully in Christ. And then, with the light we receive from God, turning
to our own life to appraise and adapt it to the mystery of life, communion
and love that God has opened our eyes to."
"
Meditation may develop spontaneously, during moments of silence
accompanying or following liturgical celebrations or occasioned by
reading some biblical text or a passage from some spiritual writer. At
other moments it can be limited to times specifically dedicated to it. In

any case, it is obvious that, especially at the beginning but not only then,
it requires effort, the desire to deepen our knowledge of God and the
requirements of his will, and to persist in our determination to truly
improve in our Christian life. In this sense, it can be said that “meditation
is above all a quest” (Catechism 2705), although we should stress that it
is not a matter of seeking something but Someone. The aim of Christian
meditation is not only, or primarily, to understand something (in the ﬁnal
analysis, to grasp God’s ways of acting and manifesting himself), but to
draw close to him, to identify ourselves with his will and to be in union
with him. "
"
Contemplative prayer"
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As one’s experience of Christian life grows, and with it, one’s prayer life,
a more constant, personal and intimate communion between the
believer and God comes about. Prayer at this level is what the
Catechism calls “contemplative” prayer. Based on a lively sense of
God’s loving nearness, this form of prayer transcends formal words and
concepts and leads to truly living in intimate communion with him."
"
“What is contemplative prayer?” the Catechism asks at the beginning of
the section dealing with contemplative prayer. And it answers with words
taken from St Teresa of Jesus: it is simply “a close sharing between
friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we
know loves us.”[8] “Contemplative prayer seeks him ‘whom my soul
loves’ (Song 1:7). It is Jesus, and in him, the Father. We seek him,
because to desire him is always the beginning of love, and we seek him
in that pure faith which causes us to be born of him and to live in
him” (Catechism 2709)."
"
“Contemplative prayer is the prayer of the child of God, of the forgiven
sinner who agrees to welcome the love by which he is loved and who
wants to respond to it by loving even more. But he knows that the love
he is returning is poured out by the Spirit in his heart, for everything is

grace from God. Contemplative prayer is the poor and humble surrender
to the loving will of the Father in ever deeper union with his beloved
Son” (Catechism 2712)."
"
This form of prayer can come about during specific moments dedicated
to prayer or at any other moment. In short, prayer is destined to
encompass the entire human person—intellect, will and feelings—and to
reach the center of the heart and change its dispositions, shaping the
Christian’s whole being, making each one another Christ (cf. Gal 2:20). "
"
An important condition for true prayer is recollection. The term
“recollection” means the action whereby the will, by virtue of its capacity
to control all the tendencies involved in human nature, tries to moderate
its inclination to dispersion, fostering interior calm and serenity. During
moments dedicated especially to prayer, this attitude of leaving aside
other tasks and trying to avoid distractions is essential, but it is by no
means limited to those moments. Rather, it should spread to other
moments of one’s day until recollection becomes habitual, filling the
heart with a spirit of faith and love that leads us to strive to carry out all
our activities, implicitly or explicitly, with reference to God, even when
engaged in work that demands our whole attention."
"
Another condition for prayer is trust. Without full trust in God and his
love for us prayer is impossible, at least sincere prayer capable of
overcoming trials and difficulties. It is not just a matter of trusting that a
certain petition will be granted, but rather of the assurance that the One
we are speaking to loves us and understands us, and that we can open
our heart to him without reserve (cf. Catechism 2734-2741)."
"
Sometimes prayer is a spontaneous dialogue arising from the depth of
the soul that brings joy and consolation. At other time however—
perhaps more frequently—it calls for determination and perseverance.
Then a feeling of discouragement may creep in leading one to think that
it does not make sense spending time talking with God (cf. Catechism

2728). Moments like these make clear the importance of another
condition for prayer: perseverance. The goal of prayer is not to obtain
favors or consolations, but rather communion with God, whence the
importance of persevering in prayer, which is always—whether filled with
sensible feelings or not—a living encounter with God (cf. Catechism
2742-2745, 2746-2751)."
"
A fundamental trait of all Christian prayer is its Trinitarian character. The
Holy Spirit infuses faith, hope and charity into our hearts and leads us to
Christ, the incarnate Son of God, in whose humanity we perceive the
divinity of his Person. Following this path, we come to God the Father,
and to an ever more trusting relationship with him. Christian tradition
also recommends going to the intercession of the angels and saints, and
especially to Mary the Mother of God. "
"
Thus Christian prayer is an eminently filial prayer. It is the prayer of sons
or daughters who—whether joyful or suffering, working or resting—turn
to their Father with simplicity and sincerity and place in his hands all
their concerns, finding there welcome and a love that gives meaning to
everything."
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José Luis Illanes"
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Basic bibliography !
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Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2558-2758."
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Recommended reading!
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St Josemaria, “Christ Triumphs through Humility,” “The Eucharist, Mystery of Faith
and Love,” “The Ascension of Our Lord,” “The Great Unknown,” “To Jesus through
Mary,” in Christ is Passing By, 12-21, 83-94, 117-126, 127-138 and 139-149. "
"
“Getting to Know God,” “A Life of Prayer,” “Towards Holiness,” in Friends of God,
142-153, 238-257, 294-316."
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Javier Echevarria, Paths to God, ch. 8, “Along the Paths of Prayer,” Scepter."
"
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Footnotes!
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[1] “Great is the mystery of the faith! The Church professes this mystery in the
Apostles’ Creed (Part One) and celebrates it in the sacramental liturgy (Part Two),
so that the life of the faithful may be conformed to Christ in the Holy Spirit to the
glory of God the Father (Part Three). This mystery, then, requires that the faithful
believe in it, that they celebrate it, and that they live from it in a vital and personal
relationship with the living and true God. This relationship is prayer” (Catechism,
2558)."
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[2] St John Damascene, De ﬁde orthodoxa, III, 24; PG 94,1090."
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[3] St John Climacus, Scala paradisi, 28; PG 88, 1129."
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[4] St Josemaria, The Way, 268."
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[5] Two of the best known are “Glory to God in the highest” and the “Canticle of
Brother Sun and Sister Moon” by St Francis of Assisi."
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"

[7] St Teresa of Jesus, Foundations, ch. 1, 7."
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[8] St Teresa of Jesus, Life, ch. 8, no. 5; cf. Catechism, 2709.48."
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Christian Life"
Summaries of
Catholic Teaching
Part IV: Christian Prayer"
"
Topic 2:"
Our Father who art in
Heaven

Topic 2: Our Father who art in Heaven!
"
"If we pray the Our Father sincerely, we leave individualism behind,
because the love that we receive frees us from it. The ‘our’ at the
beginning of the Lord’s Prayer, like the ‘us’ of the last four petitions,
excludes no one.""
"
With the Our Father, Jesus Christ teaches us to turn to God as our
Father: “To pray to the Father is to enter into his mystery as he is and as
the Son has revealed him to us. ‘The expression God the Father had
never been revealed to anyone. When Moses himself asked God who
he was, he heard another name. The Father’s name has been revealed
to us in the Son, for the name Son implies the new name
Father’ (Tertullian, De oratione, 3)” (Catechism 2779)."
"
In teaching the Our Father, Jesus reveals to his disciples that they too
have been made sharers in his condition as Son. “Through the
revelation of this prayer, the disciples discover a special participation for
them in divine filiation, which St John was to speak of in the Prologue of
his Gospel: ‘To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave
power to become children of God’ (Jn 1:2). So quite rightly, they pray
according to his teaching, Our Father.”[1]"
"
Jesus Christ always distinguishes between “my Father” and “your
Father” (cf. Jn 20:17). In fact, when he prays he never says “our Father.”
This shows that his relationship with God is quite special; it is his own
relationship and no one else’s. With the Our Father prayer, Jesus wants
to make his disciples aware of their condition as sons of God, indicating
at the same time the difference between his natural filiation and our
divine filiation by adoption, received as a gratuitous gift from God."
"
The Christian’s prayer is that of a son of God who turns to his Father
God with filial trust, which “is expressed in the liturgies of East and of
West by the beautiful, characteristically Christian expression: parrhesia,

straightforward simplicity, filial trust, joyous assurance, humble boldness,
the certainty of being loved (cf. Eph 3:12; Heb 3:6; 4:16; 10:19; 1 Jn
2:28; 3:21; 5:14)” (Catechism 2778). The word parrhesia, which
originally designated a Greek citizen’s privilege of freedom of speech in
popular assemblies, was adopted by the Fathers of the Church to
express the filial behavior of Christians before their Father God."
"
By calling God our Father, we recognize that divine filiation unites us to
Christ, the firstborn among many brethren (Rom 3:29), through a real
supernatural fraternity. The Church is this new communion of God and
men (cf. Catechism 2790)."
"
This is why Christian holiness, although personal and individual, is never
individualist or self-centered. “if we pray the Our Father sincerely, we
leave individualism behind, because the love that we receive frees us
from it. The ‘our’ at the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer, like the ‘us’ of the
last four petitions, excludes no one. If we are to say it truthfully (cf. Mt
5:23-24; 6:14-16), our divisions and oppositions have to be
overcome” (Catechism 2792)."
"
The fraternity that divine filiation institutes extends to all men and
women, because in a certain sense all are God’s children—they are his
creatures—and are called to be holy: “There is only one race in the
world: the race of the children of God.”[2] Therefore Christians need to
be aware of their responsibility to bring all mankind to God."
"
Divine filiation spurs us to do apostolate, which is a necessary
manifestation of filiation and of fraternity: “Be mindful of what others are
—and first of all those who are at your side: children of God, with all the
dignity that marvellous title entails. We have to behave as God’s children
toward all God's sons and daughters. Our love has to be a dedicated
love, practiced every day and made up of a thousand little details of
understanding, hidden sacrifice and unnoticed self-giving.”[3]"
"

When one’s divine filiation is lived intensely it becomes “a profound
attitude of the soul which eventually permeates one’s entire existence. It
is there in every thought, every desire, every affection.”[4] It is a reality
to be lived constantly, not just in certain situations: “We are children of
God all day long, even though we do set aside special moments for
considering it, so that we can fill ourselves with the awareness of our
divine filiation, the heart of true piety.”[5]"
"
St Josemaria teaches that the “sense” or vivid awareness of one’s divine
filiation “is the basis of the spirit of Opus Dei. All men are children of
God. But a child can look upon his father in many ways. We must try to
be children who realize that the Lord, by loving us as his children, has
taken us into his house, in the middle of the world, to be members of his
family, so that what is his is ours, and what is ours is his, and to develop
that familiarity and confidence which prompts us to ask him, like
children, for the moon!”[6]"
"
Christian cheerfulness is anchored in the sense of our divine filiation:
“Cheerfulness is a necessary consequence of our divine filiation, of
knowing that our Father God loves us with a love of predilection, that he
welcomes us, helps us and forgives us.”[7] St Josemaria’s homilies
often reflect this reality in his life: “For reasons that I need not go into
now (but which Jesus, who is presiding over us here from the
Tabernacle, knows full well) my life has led me to realise in a special
way that I am a son of God and I have experienced the joy of getting
inside the heart of my Father, to rectify, to purify myself, to serve him, to
understand others and find excuses for them, on the strength of his love
and my own lowliness … Over the years, I have sought to rely
unfalteringly for my support on this joyous reality.”[8]"
"
One of the most challenging questions one encounters when meditating
on divine filiation is the problem of evil. Many people are unable to
reconcile the experience of evil in the world with the certitude of faith in
God’s infinite goodness. However, the saints teach us that everything
that happens in our life works for our good, because they have attained

a deep understanding of the connection between divine filiation and the
Holy Cross. For example, when St Thomas More was incarcerated in
the Tower of London, he told his eldest daughter: “My dear daughter,
never let your soul be upset by whatever happens to me in this life.
Nothing can happen unless God wants it. And I am quite sure that, come
what may, however bad it may seem, it will be for the good.”[9] St
Josemaria teaches the same thing in relation to situations that are less
dramatic, but where a Christian soul may lose its peace: “Woes?
Setbacks deriving from one thing or another? Can’t you see that this is
the will of your Father—God... He is good... and He loves you—loves
you personally—more than all the mothers in the world can possibly love
their children?”[10]"
"
For St Josemaria, divine filiation is not a sugary reality, far removed from
any suffering and pain. On the contrary, he sees it as a reality
intrinsically linked to the Cross, which is necessarily present in all those
who want to follow Christ closely: “Jesus prays in the garden. Pater mi
(Mt 26:39), Abba Pater! (Mk 14:36). God is my Father, even though he
may send me suffering. He loves me tenderly, even while wounding me.
Jesus suffers, to fulfil the Will of the Father... And I, who also wish to
fulfil the most holy Will of God, following in the footsteps of the Master,
can I complain if I too meet suffering as my travelling companion? It will
be a sure sign of my sonship, because God is treating me as he treated
his own Divine Son. Then I, just as He did, will be able to groan and
weep alone in my Gethsemani; but, as I lie prostrate on the ground,
acknowledging my nothingness, there will rise up to the Lord a cry from
the depths of my soul: Pater mi, Abba, Pater... fiat!”[11]"
"
Another important consequence of the awareness of our divine filiation
is filial abandonment into God’s hands. This is not so much the result of
personal ascetical struggle, though that is a necessary condition, but of
letting oneself be led by God, whence the need for “abandonment.” It
involves an active abandonment, a free and conscious abandonment on
the part of a son or daughter. This attitude has given rise to a specific
way of living divine filiation (which is not the only way, or obligatory for

everyone) called “spiritual childhood.” This path consists in seeing
oneself not only as a child, but as a small, needy child before God. St
Francis of Sales described it as follows: “If you do not become as simple
as children you will not enter into the kingdom of my Father (cf. Mt 18:3).
As long as a child is small it remains very simple; it knows only its
mother; it has only one love, its mother; it has only one desire, the lap of
its mother; it wants only to recline in such lovable peace. The perfectly
simple soul has only one love, God; and in this single love, a single
desire, to rest in the bosom of the heavenly Father and there to find its
repose, like a loving son leaving everything completely to his Father’s
care, seeking nothing but to remain is this holy confidence.”[12] St
Josemaria also recommended taking the path of spiritual childhood:
“Being children you will have no cares: children quickly forget what
troubles them and return to their games. With abandonment, therefore,
you will not have to worry, since you will rest in the Father.”[13]"
"
In the Lord’s prayer, the first invocation, Our Father who art in heaven, is
followed by seven petitions. “the object of the first three petitions is the
glory of the Father: the sanctification of his name, the coming of the
kingdom, and the fulfillment of his will. The four others present our wants
to him: they ask that our lives be nourished, healed of sin, and made
victorious in the struggle of good over evil” (Catechism 2857)."
"
The Our Father is the model for all prayer, as St Thomas Aquinas
teaches: “The Lord’s prayer is the most perfect of prayers … In it we not
only ask for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence
that we ought to desire them. Thus this prayer not only teaches us to
ask for things, but also in what order we ought to desire them.”[14]"
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First petition: “Hallowed be thy name”"
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No creature can increase God’s holiness. Therefore “the 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 … 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’ (cf. Eph 1, 9
and 4)” (Catechism 2807). Thus the first petition asks that God’s
holiness may shine forth and increase in our lives: “Who could sanctify
God since it is he who sanctifies? Inspired by the words ‘You shall be
holy to me for I the Lord am holy’ (Lev 20,26), we ask, sanctified by
baptism, that we may persevere in what we have begun to be. And we
ask for it every day because every day we fall and need to purify our
sins through continual sanctification… And so we turn to prayer that this
sanctity may remain in us.”[15] Second petition: “Thy kingdom come”"
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The second petition expresses the hope that the time will come when
God will be recognized by everyone as their King, who will shower his
gifts on us: “This petition is Marana tha, the cry of the Spirit and the
Bride: ‘Come, Lord Jesus’ (Rev 22:20) … In the Lord’s Prayer, ‘thy
kingdom come’ refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God
through Christ’s return (cf. Tit 2:13)” (Catechism 2817-2818).
Furthermore, God’s kingdom was inaugurated in this world with the
coming of Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit: “‘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 (cf. Rom 6:5), and has purified himself in
action, thought and word will say to God: Thy kingdom come!’ (St Cyril
of Jerusalem, Catecheses mystagogicæ, 5, 13)” (Catechism 2819).
Thus in the second petition we express our desire that God may reign in
us now through grace, that his Kingdom on earth may each day be more
extensive, and that at the end of time he may reign fully over all in
Heaven."

"
Third petition: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”"
"
God’s will is that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the
truth (cf. 1 Tim 2:3-4). Jesus teaches us that the one who does the will
of my Father who is in heaven enters the kingdom of heaven (cf. Mt
7:21). Therefore, here “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)” (Catechism 2825). As a Father of the Church says, when
we pray in the Our Father thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we
ask this “not in the sense that God should do what he wants but rather
that we may be able to do what God wants.”[16] Moreover, the
expression on earth as it is in heaven contains the petition that here on
earth we may long to accomplish God’s will as it has been accomplished
by the angels and the blessed in heaven. "
"
Fourth petition: “Give us this day our daily bread”"
"
This petition expresses the filial abandonment of God’s children, since
“the Father who gives us life cannot but give us the nourishment life
requires—all appropriate goods and blessings, both material and
spiritual” (Catechism 2830). Christians understand that 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 6:26-28)” (Catechism
2835). Regarding the term daily: “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).” (Catechism 2837)"
"
"

Fifth petition: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
trespass against us”"
"
In this petition we begin by acknowledging our condition as sinners: “we
return to him like the prodigal son (cf. Lk 15:11-32) and, like the tax
collector (cf. Lk 18:13), recognize that we are sinners before him. Our
petition begins with a ‘confession’ of our wretchedness and his
mercy” (Catechism 2839). But this petition will not be heard if we have
not satisfied the requirement of forgiving those who have offended us:
“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” (Catechism 2840)."
"
Sixth petition: “Lead us not into temptation”"
"
This petition is related to the preceding one because sin is the
consequence of consenting freely to temptation. That is why we now
“ask our Father not to ‘lead’ us into temptation … 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” (Catechism 2846). God always gives us grace to
overcome temptation: 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, that you may be able to endure it (1 Cor 10:13). But to
overcome all temptation we need to pray: “Such 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
(cf. Mt 4:11) and in the ultimate struggle of his agony (cf. Mt 26:36-44).
In this petition to our heavenly Father, Christ unites us to his battle and
his agony … 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)” (Catechism 2849). "
"
Seventh petition: “But deliver us from evil”"
"
The last petition is found in Jesus’ priestly prayer to his Father: I do not
pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst
keep them from the evil one (Jn 17:15) In 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” (Catechism 2851). Moreover, “When 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” (Catechism 2854),
and especially from sin, the one true evil,[17] and its punishment: eternal
condemnation. Other evils and tribulations can be turned into beneﬁts if
we accept them and unite them to Christ’s suffering on the Cross."
"
Manuel Belda"
"
"
Basic bibliography !
"
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2759-2865."
"
Benedict XVI/Joseph Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth, ch. 5."
"
"
Recommended reading!
"
St Josemaria, “Getting to Know God” and “Towards Holiness” in Friends of God,
142-153 and 294-316."

"
Bonaventure PERQUIN, Abba Father, Scepter 2002."
"
"
Footnotes!
"
[1] John Paul II, Address, 1 July 1987, 3."
"
[2] St Josemaria, Christ is Passing by, 13."
"
[3] Ibid., 36."
"
[4] St Josemaria, Friends of God, 146."
"
[5] St Josemaria, Conversations, 102."
"
[6] St Josemaria, Christ is Passing by, 64."
"
[7] St Josemaria, The Forge, 332"
"
[8] St Josemaria, Friends of God, 143."
"
[9] St Thomas More, Letters from the Tower, no. 7."
"
[10] St Josemaria, The Forge, 929."
"
[11] St Josemaria, The Way of the Cross, 1st Station, Points for Meditation, 1."
"
[12] St Francis of Sales, Spiritual Conversations, no. 16, 7."
"

"
[14] St Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiæ, II-II, q. 83, a. 9."
"
[15] St Cyprian, De dominica oratione, 12."
"
[16] Ibid., 14."
"
[17] Cf. The Way, 386."
"
"
"

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