Meaning of OUR FATHER

Traditional name given in Christian churches to a series of petitions and doxologies taught by Jesus to His disciples and recorded in the Gospels according to Saint Matthew (Mt. 6:9-13) and according to Saint Luke (Lk. 11:2- 4).

This is one of the best-known passages in the Bible and has appeared in sermons, catechisms and worship forms since the Apostolic Fathers. He is so well known by Christians that in all languages he is cited by his first words.

The words of Jesus have been transmitted in two different ways by the evangelists, who also describe various circumstances within the framework of the period of training of the disciples by the Master.

Christ places before his people a model of prayer in which after the invocation to the "Father", so pleasing to Jesus and so characteristic of Christianity, he places seven petitions.

The version that the Gospel of Saint Matthew brings us is more suitable for community recitation, while Luke transmits it to us with the characteristics of a more personal prayer like the one made by the Lord Jesus in Gethsemane.

There are numerous treatises and expositions of this Christian prayer par excellence. The great appreciation of the Fathers of the Church can be summed up in Tertullian's phrase: "it is the compendium of the entire Gospel" (PL 1:1255).

The Reformed Churches that follow the teachings of Calvin, when they discarded the old liturgies, kept the Lord's Prayer embedded in the most agile formulas of their cults. The Heidelberg Catechism uses it as an example of prayer and makes a long practical exposition of its requests.

There are numerous versions of this prayer in Spanish, but the people like to repeat a classic that comes from the 16th century. When Christ taught it, he showed his people a model of asking the Father, and did not teach them to repeat the formula as if it had magical efficacy by itself.