The Lord's Prayer
Jesus taught this model prayer covering all dimensions of communion with God.
When disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he gave the prayer beginning 'Our Father in heaven.' This prayer encompasses adoration (hallowed be your name), submission (your kingdom come), dependence (daily bread), confession (forgive our debts), protection (lead us not into temptation), and praise (yours is the kingdom). Each phrase contains depths of meaning. The prayer is both a template and an actual prayer. Its plural pronouns ('our,' 'us') emphasize community. Millions pray these words daily, uniting believers across time and space.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Thomas Aquinas wrote that the Lord's Prayer 'contains all that can be desired and all that we ought to desire.'
Gospel of Matthew
Written about in
- What Christianity says about forgiveness
Jesus builds the request for pardon and the granting of it into a single clause: forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Aquinas said the prayer contains everything a person ought to want; what it also contains is a condition most people would rather not have said out loud. Its pronouns are plural throughout — this was never meant to be a private negotiation.