The Holy Gospel according to St Luke recounts: “The Lord was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ So he said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; give us each day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us; and lead us not into temptation’” (Luk 11:1–4).
This prayer was given by the Lord himself when his disciples asked him to teach them to pray, and has been received ever since as the model of all Christian prayer.
The Holy Scriptures record several of the Lord’s own prayers (Mat 11:25–26; Luk 22:39–46), as well as prayers offered in both the Old and the New Testament (2Kg 19:15–19; Act 4:24–30; see Q389).
The expression ‘Lord’s Prayer‘ does not mean that this prayer expresses the Lord’s own petitions, since he was sinless and needed no forgiveness; his own prayers, such as the ‘High Priestly Prayer’ (Joh 17), express his earnest petitions to the Father before his voluntary Passion.
In the Gospel according to St Matthew:
In praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their many words… for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: 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 debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Mat 6:7–13)
A less traditional but accurate rendering would be:
Our Father who are in heaven, may your Name be held as holy; may your kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our needful (epiousios) bread; and forgive us our debts (or ‘wrongs’), as we also have forgiven our debtors; and do not bring us to the testing, but deliver us from the evil one (Mat 6:9–13).
The Lord’s Prayer is not found in the Gospels of St Mark and St John; a shorter version appears in the Gospel of St Luke, as cited above.
The version of the Lord’s Prayer most commonly used is: “Our Father, who art in heaven: (1) hallowed be thy Name; (2) thy kingdom come; (3) thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth; (4) give us this day our daily bread; (5) and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; (6) and lead us not into temptation; (7) but deliver us from the evil one.”
To this is added the exclamation: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen”, which, in the Divine Liturgy, is pronounced by the celebrant in its full Trinitarian form: “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory: of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…”
It is customary to study the Lord’s Prayer according to this structure: the invocation, the seven petitions, and the doxology.
