The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
This prayer is called the Lord's Prayer because our Saviour Jesus Christ Himself taught it to His disciples, when they asked the Lord to teach them to pray, since they did not know how to pray. That is why this prayer is the chief among all other prayers. In this prayer we address God the Father, the first Person of the Holy Trinity. This prayer is divided into seven petitions, or supplications.
Our Father, which art in heaven — at the beginning of the prayer we ask God the Father, who is our heavenly Father, to hear our request and our supplication. When we speak of heaven, we do not mean the visible blue sky that surrounds the earth, but the invisible, spiritual heaven.
Hallowed be thy name — help us, grant us strength, that we may live so righteously and purely that Thy name may always be holy in us and may not be defiled by our unclean deeds and our lawless life.
Thy kingdom come — make us worthy that here, on earth, we may see Thy heavenly kingdom in our very hearts and around us: this is righteousness, love and peace.
Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven — let everything be as Thou willest and not as we will. Help us, make us able to submit to Thy will and to fulfil it as silently as the holy angels fulfil it in heaven (in the spiritual world) with great love and joy; for Thou alone knowest what is truly good and desirable for us and what is bad. Thou desirest far more good for us than we do for ourselves.
Give us this day our daily bread — by bread here is meant not only bread as food, but everything that is necessary for our existence on earth: food, clothing, shelter and, most important of all, the all-holy body and precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we receive in the mystery of holy Communion and without which salvation is impossible and eternal life does not exist. The Lord bequeathed to us to ask for ourselves not riches, not luxury, but only what is necessary for existence, and to entrust ourselves to God in everything; let us remember that He, as a Father, always cares and grieves for us.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors — forgive and pardon us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. In this case the sins we have committed are called our debts, and here is why: God gave people strength, gifts and abilities so that we might do good; but we often use the gift and the ability given us by God for good to do evil, to commit sins, and thus we find ourselves “in debt” before God. So that if we ourselves do not sincerely forgive our “debtors,” God will not forgive us the sins we have committed either.
And lead us not into temptation — temptation here means a state in which some power draws us toward sin, or someone compels or entices us to commit a sin which we cannot bear and before which we are powerless.
But deliver us from evil — that is, save us from every evil that exists in the world, from the devil himself, who is ready at every hour to destroy us. Defend us and save us from his cunning and deceitful falsehood, which before Thee is nothing.
