Over the next few days I will share with you some excerpts and thoughts on Fr. Gerhard Lofink’s book, The Our Father: A New Reading.  I hope and pray that in addition to these reflections you take the time to read his powerful book

He was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,

one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as

John taught his disciples.”  He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.”

In the Preface we read that “lead us not into temptation”, what does it mean, how should it be correctly translated; this section alone is worth reading the entire book.

In Chapter One: The Curious Form of the Our Father the author states the Our Father is primarily a prayer for Jesus’ disciples, and in the Gospel of Matthew [5:1-2] it is placed it at the center of the Sermon on the Mount

In the Gospel of Luke [11:1], the disciples ask Jesus to teach

them to pray and He taught them the Our Father and in this Gospel it is primarily for Jesus’ disciples, a petition for bread.

The Our Father leads us to desire only what God wants.  In the early Church the Our Father was so precious that it was fully given only when the catechumenate was completed, shortly before the baptism of new candidates.  The catechumens were presented the Creed and the Our Father solemnly.

For us much of the Our Father is routine, foggy and vague, here are

“… five observations about the Our Father:

1. the Our Father is pure petition

2. it is very short

3. it gets right to the point

4. God’s interest comes first

5. God acts through people

May God Be Praised!