578. What is the origin of the Our Father?

578. What is the origin of the Our Father?      

(Comp 578) Jesus taught us this Christian prayer for which there is no substitute, the Our Father, on the day on which one of his disciples saw him praying and asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). The Church’s liturgical tradition has always used the text of Saint Matthew (6:9-13).

“In brief”

(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.  

To deepen and explain

(CCC 2759) Jesus "was praying at a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." (Lk 11:1). In response to this request the Lord entrusts to his disciples and to his Church the fundamental Christian prayer. St. Luke presents a brief text of five petitions (Cf. Lk 11:2-4), while St. Matthew gives a more developed version of seven petitions (Cf. Mt 6:9-13). The liturgical tradition of the Church has retained St. Matthew's text: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Reflection

(CCC 2760) Very early on, liturgical usage concluded the Lord's Prayer with a doxology. In the Didache, we find, "For yours are the power and the glory for ever" (Didache 8, 2: SCh 248, 174). The Apostolic Constitutions add to the beginning: "the kingdom," and this is the formula retained to our day in ecumenical prayer (Apostolic Constitutions, 7, 24, 1: PG 1, 1016). The Byzantine tradition adds after "the glory" the words "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." the Roman Missal develops the last petition in the explicit perspective of "awaiting our blessed hope" and of the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13; cf. Roman Missal 22, Embolism after the Lord's Prayer). Then comes the assembly's acclamation or the repetition of the doxology from the Apostolic Constitutions.

(Next question: What is the place of the Our Father in the Scriptures?)