The Our Father: why did Jesus teach us?

Our Father who art in heaven, be it
sanctified your name.
Come your kingdom,
your will be done
on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we forgive them to our debtors,
and lead us not into temptation,
but free us from evil.
Amen.

"Lord, teach us to pray." This is what the Savior's disciples asked of him. Obviously, every answer that comes from him would be a perfect answer. His response was what we call the "Our Father" or the "Lord's Prayer". This prayer is a perfect model of how we should pray and for what things we should pray, and in what order.

First of all, this prayer teaches us that we should desire the glory and honor of God as the primary intention of our prayer, regardless of what we can pray for. Therefore, we pray that the name of God will be honored and sanctified. Then let us pray that his will be done perfectly among us on earth while his angels carry it out in his heavenly kingdom. It wouldn't make sense to pray if we didn't want God's will to be done. Nothing would ultimately be useful to us if it were against his will, even if that's what we wanted.

So after these universal intentions - for the glory of God and his will - we pray for the things we need to glorify him and be united with him. "Our daily bread" means everything we need to serve it here and now: first of all, his supernatural gift of his Body in the Holy Eucharist, and therefore the necessities of life that we need every day.

So far, prayer has to do with all the positive things: the glory of God and his gifts for us. But there are also obstacles to his glory and gifts. These are our sins and other people's sins against us. We need God's forgiveness for our ingratitude in sinning, especially when we are in the act of asking him for good things and, of course, we must be willing to forgive others if we want to be forgiven ourselves.

This is the hardest petition of the Lord's prayer, the one we struggle with the most. It is so important that it is the only part of the prayer given in the Gospel of San Marco. If we can forgive those who have hurt us, we will receive what we ask from God, because we will act like him and please him. God loves a heart that forgives more than anything else.

But there is not only sin, there is also the struggle against sin that we must endure when we are tempted. Here we absolutely need help and grace, even if we understand that it is for our good that we must fight to be faithful to God. He will also be faithful to us in times of trial.

The last negative: there is the devil, our spiritual enemy who constantly tries to distance us from the glory of God, from his holiness, from his kingdom, from his Eucharist, from his forgiveness and from his help. Although the English and Latin versions of the Our Father simply pray for us to be freed from the "evil", the Greek original clearly prays for us to be freed from the "Evil". Thus, our most common prayer taught by the Lord himself contains a small exorcism against the devil.

The Lord truly responded to the apostles' request to teach them to pray. Our Father teaches us the goal of prayer, the means of prayer and the obstacles to overcome. Glory to him because, as we conclude this prayer at Holy Mass, his is the kingdom and power and glory forever!