8 Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer Jesus told his disciples to pray. They requested, “Lord, teach us to pray…” (Luke 11:1). Jesus was asked this immediately after he had just been praying to the Father. The Lord’s Prayer is given to us directly from the lips of Jesus Christ who, moments before, was praying to the Father. As Pope Benedict XVI said, “…We are praying with Jesus.” The Lord’s Prayer begins with petitions to God and then to ourselves and how we are to live toward others. The prayer has a Decalogue structure to it. We learn who God is, that He is to be revered and worshipped, that His kingdom has come and will come in fullness, and we petition help from God to live as Christ has showed us. Let’s look at each portion of the Lord’s Prayer and begin to illuminate ourselves with some understanding of the greatest prayer given to us.

Thy Will be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven

Pope Benedict says it best, “God has a will with and for us and it must become the measure of our willing and being…where God’s will is done is heaven…. Earth becomes heaven when God’s will is done there.” How do we know what God’s will is? Scripture, tradition and sanctified reason. God is the measure of reality and what is known. Man is not. Our purpose in this Christian life is to be in harmony with God’s will. Jesus is the only one who perfectly did/does God’s will. We follow Christ and learn to do His will too. It is in communion with Him that we learn God’s will. The Our Father is prayed that we become closer and closer to God, “so…God’s will can conquer the downward pull of our selfishness and [rise to] the lofty height to which we are called.” To do God’s will and be in communion with God.

Give Us this Day Our Daily Bread

Jesus says, “Do not be anxious about your life or what you will eat.” This part of the Lord’s Prayer asks for our needs. We give our cares over to God. Yet, man cannot eat bread alone, for there is an eternal bread that sustains. This part of the prayer is also referring to the Word of God and the future bread. The bread that points toward the eschaton—the fulfillment of all things. Give us our daily bread is communion with God in the sacrament of communion or the Eucharist—the great thanksgiving (literal translation). We are material beings with bodies and need sustenance, but we are also spiritual and need sustenance in our inner being. This is a twofold prayer. We ask for sustenance for our soul—our entire person.

And Lead us not into Temptation

God does not tempt us; Satan is the tempter. But when God allows temptation to occur, it is for the purification of the saint—the Christ follower. Hebrews 2:18 says, “For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.” Yet Christ is without sin, so he never fell from grace. Where we are in danger of falling at every step. Job is the great example to us of one tempted to despise and forget God. Satan sifted him like sand, hoping Job would renounce God. Satan is the great tempter, but God is the one who uses this to purify and sanctify the one tempted. When we choose not to fall into temptation, God strengthens in our weakness because he is strong; we are weak. It is through Jesus Christ that we become like him, not in our selves. When we are in great trial or temptation, our response is “lead us not into temptation” and by this we are directing our hope, our worship, our help to the God who can save us from Satan and our self. How else do we mature and grow? Through trial and temptation—not falling into these things. It is the grace of God helping us through trial and temptation that transforms us.

But Deliver us from Evil

Other translations say, “The Evil One.” Who is the adversary of our soul, our whole being? Satan. The Christian in persecution calls upon the Lord, “Deliver us.” Evil is in the world, the adversary, Satan goes about consuming, seeking the ruin of souls. Satan is the beast rising from the sea as described in Revelation. Evil is a presence, a presence that is seen in war, in selfishness, in greed, in sex trafficking, many places, but also in the despair and secularism permeating the world, making God a fiction, to live as one wishes to live. Evils exist, yes, but who is the orchestrator of such evil? In the face of Evil (the Evil One), we lose our self, we lose the Good who is God. We ask the Lord to deliver us so that we may not lose the Good, God. In this same petition we ask for God’s Kingdom to consume the fallen kingdoms on earth. That God will be all in all. That we turn our gaze toward the living God.