Lk 11, 1 Lord, teach us to pray

(Lk 11, 1) Lord, teach us to pray

[1] And when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."

(CCC 2773 In response to his disciples' request "Lord, teach us to pray" (Lk 11:1), Jesus entrusts them with the fundamental Christian prayer, the Our Father. (CCC 2774) "The Lord's Prayer is truly the summary of the whole gospel" (Tertullian, De orat. 1: PL 1, 1251-1255). The "most perfect of prayers" (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II, 83, 9). It is at the center of the Scriptures. (CCC 2775) It is called "the Lord's Prayer" because it comes to us from the Lord Jesus, the master and model of our prayer. (CCC 2776) The Lord's Prayer is the quintessential prayer of the Church. It is an integral part of the major hours of the Divine Office and of the sacraments of Christian initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. Integrated into the Eucharist it reveals the eschatological character of its petitions, hoping for the Lord, "until he comes" (1 Cor 11:26). (CCC 2762) After showing how the psalms are the principal food of Christian prayer and flow together in the petitions of the Our Father, St. Augustine concludes: Run through all the words of the holy prayers [in Scripture], and I do not think that you will find anything in them that is not contained and included in the Lord's Prayer (St. Augustine, Ep. 130, 12, 22: PL 33, 503). (CCC 2768) According to the apostolic tradition, the Lord's Prayer is essentially rooted in liturgical prayer: [The Lord] teaches us to make prayer in common for all our brethren. For he did not say "my Father" who art in heaven, but "our" Father, offering petitions for the common body (St. John Chrysostom, Hom. in Mt. 19, 4: PG 57, 278). In all the liturgical traditions, the Lord's Prayer is an integral part of the major hours of the Divine Office. In the three sacraments of Christian initiation its ecclesial character is especially in evidence: (CCC 2769) In Baptism and Confirmation, the handing on (traditio) of the Lord's Prayer signifies new birth into the divine life. Since Christian prayer is our speaking to God with the very word of God, those who are "born anew"… through the living and abiding word of God" (1 Pet 1:23) learn to invoke their Father by the one Word he always hears. They can henceforth do so, for the seal of the Holy Spirit's anointing is indelibly placed on their hearts, ears, lips, indeed their whole filial being. This is why most of the patristic commentaries on the Our Father are addressed to catechumens and neophytes. When the Church prays the Lord's Prayer, it is always the people made up of the "new-born" who pray and obtain mercy (Cf. 1 Pet 2:1-10).