What the Our Father Teaches Us About Prayer

Some two thousand years after institution, the Our Father still has much to teach us about prayer.

Below are some lessons that various saints and doctors of the Church have gleaned from the first Christian prayer over the centuries.

They that are heavenly: In his commentary on the Our Father, Aquinas sees in the second clause—who art in heaven—a clue as to how we out to prepare for saying the Our Father. “And this preparation ought to be in the form of an imitation of heavenly things, since the son ought to imitate his Father,” Aquinas writes. He quotes from 1 Corinthians 15:9, a reference to our imitation of Christ: “Therefore as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly.” Aquinas emphasizes the contemplative aspect of this preparation: “So also this preparation ought to be through contemplation of heavenly things, because men are wont to direct their thoughts to where they have a Father and others whom they love.”

Prepare a pure heart: Such preparation also has a moral dimension, according to St. Gregory of Nyssa, who takes his cues from the opening address and the third clause—hallowed be thy name. Gregory writes, “See how great a preparation you need, to be able to say boldly to God, ‘O Father,’ for if you have your eyes fixed on worldly things, or court the praise of men, or are a slave to your passions, and utter this prayer, I seem to hear God saying, ‘Whereas you that are of a corrupt life call the Author of the incorruptible your Father, you pollute with your defiled lips an incorruptible name.’ For He who commanded you to call Him ‘Father,’ gave you not leave to utter lies. But the highest of all good things is to glorify God’s name in our lives. Hence He adds, ‘Hallowed be thy name’” (as cited in the Catena Aurea commentary).

Confidence in Christ: According to Aquinas, the Our Father reminds us in a special way that when we pray Christ is before the Father interceding and advocating on our behalf. The Our Father is, after all, the very words Christ Himself delivered to his disciples. As Aquinas puts it, “Furthermore, this prayer is even more worthy of confidence in that He who taught us how to pray, graciously hears our prayer together with the Father.” This insight, in turn is drawn from St. Cyprian, who wrote, “It is a friendly and intimate prayer to beseech God with his own words, for the prayer of Christ to ascend to His ears.”

Desire much, say little: Augustine sets down this principle for all prayer, “To use much speaking in prayer is to employ a superfluity of words in asking a necessary thing; but to prolong prayer is to have the heart throbbing with continued pious emotion towards Him to whom we pray. For in most cases prayer consists more in groaning than in speaking, in tears rather than in words. But He sets our tears in His sight, and our groaning is not hidden from Him who made all things by the word, and does not need human words.”

It’s not that the words are wholly unimportant, but it’s the groaning and tears that find their expression in the words. Rather than necessarily pouring out our emotions in so many words, Augustine would say, let them find expression in the simple words of the Our Father. One can see this principle at work in our request for daily bread—both a Eucharistic petition on one level, but also a stand-in for our daily needs whatever those may be. Augustine also points to the last petition, deliver us from evil: “And this petition, which stands last in the Lord’s Prayer, is so comprehensive that a Christian, in whatsoever affliction he be placed, may in using it give utterance to his groans and find vent for his tears.”

The gold standard of prayer: Expanding upon the above principles, Augustine declares that the Our Father is the standard by which to measure other prayers. We can use other words and say other prayers, but ultimately we should be able to find expression for them in the Our Father. As Augustine puts it, “And whoever says in prayer anything which cannot find its place in that gospel prayer, is praying in a way which, if it be not unlawful, is at least not spiritual.

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Stephen Beale is a freelance writer based in Providence, Rhode Island. Raised as an evangelical Protestant, he is a convert to Catholicism. He is a former news editor at GoLocalProv.com and was a correspondent for the New Hampshire Union Leader, where he covered the 2008 presidential primary. He has appeared on Fox News, C-SPAN and the Today Show and his writing has been published in the Washington Times, Providence Journal, the National Catholic Register and on MSNBC.com and ABCNews.com. A native of Topsfield, Massachusetts, he graduated from Brown University in 2004 with a degree in classics and history. His areas of interest include Eastern Christianity, Marian and Eucharistic theology, medieval history, and the saints. He welcomes tips, suggestions, and any other feedback at bealenews at gmail dot com. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/StephenBeale1

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