Lord’s Prayer
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July 25, 2025My Dear People of God: The Catechism of the Catholic Church has dedicated Part 4, Section 2, and Numbers 2759 through 2865 to the Lord’s Prayer presenting it as a fundamental Christian prayer. It is the most known prayer not only of the Catholic Church but also to other Christian denominations. Fr. Charles Belmonte, a Catholic priest and author, in his book Understanding the Mass, has given a brief overview of the seven petitions in the Lord’s Prayer and hopefully these can guide us as we pray more deeply the prayer Christ himself taught us:- Hallowed be thy name. “It is not that we think to make God holy by our prayers; rather we are asking God that his name be made holy in us… We desire to give glory to God: that he may be loved and feared by all;that his holiness, his goodness, and his wisdom may be acknowledged everywhere.”
- Thy kingdom come. “We desire that God may reign in everybody’s will. We ask that we all may happily reach our destination in his Kingdom. We pray that the Kingdom promised to us by God will come, the kingdom won by Christ’s Blood and passion…”
- Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. “We pray that all men serve and obey God on earth as he is served by the angels in heaven; and that all may always avoid sin and do what is pleasing to God…”
- Give us this day our daily bread. “We ask for whatever is necessary for nourishment, clothing, and other temporal needs; for our daily food, which for a Christian means also the Body of Christ, and for the forgiveness of sins. Thus, we can understand this petition in a spiritual and in a literal sense…”
- Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. “Once we requested the needed sustenance from God’s magnanimity, we ask him pardon for our sins. To be reminded that we are sinners and forced to ask forgiveness for our faults is prudent and sound…”
- Lead us not into temptation. “We ask God to keep us from falling into temptations. We should not trust our own strength; we should fear our malice and lack of constancy, lest these induce us to wander away from his grace and friendship.”
- Deliver us from evil. “We ask for deliverance from the evils which afflict us and may set us away from his fatherly love… We ask to be liberated from the guilt and punishment of sin, from all snares of the devil and the world set up against us.”