“Lord, teach us to pray.” Jesus, the Son of God, teaches us to address God as “Abba” or “Daddy” when we pray. It is what a child calls his father. We’re invited to be intimate and confident in God’s loving presence and goodness, for we are all His children through Baptism, with His only Son, Jesus.
In the “Our Father,” we present seven petitions to the Father. In the
first three, we glorify the Father by sanctifying his name (“Holy be
your name”) and look forward to the coming of the kingdom in our lives
today and in Christ’s final return. We also ask our Father to unite
our will to that of His Son, so as to fulfill God’s plan of salvation
for us.
In the last four petitions, we present our wants to the Father. We ask
that our lives be nourished with food (“Our daily bread”) for both
body and soul. We also beg for God’s forgiveness and healing from our
sins. Finally, in the last petition, “but deliver us from evil,” we
pray to God and the Church with confidence in the victory, already won
by Christ, over evil. The final “Amen” expresses our commitment to all
the petitions. “So be it.”
