The Our Father: A Eucharistic Prayer

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.

• Jesus said, “Pray then like this” (Matthew 6:9)
• This is the prayer the Lord Jesus Christ himself taught his disciples. (Matthew 6:9–13)
• “The Lord’s Prayer is the most perfect of prayers” (CCC 2763)
• “The Lord’s Prayer is the summary of the whole gospel” (CCC 2774)
• The Our Father has 7 points / petitions.
  • 3 points praise God the Father (hallowed be, come, be done)
  • 4 points of petition (give us, forgive us, lead us not, deliver us).

“Give us this day our daily bread...”

• is in the middle of all these points,
• is the first petition. Surely this point is meant to be important.
• In Matthew’s Gospel, the word for “daily” is expressed by a more meaningful word: Epiousios. In Latin, Super-substantiae. It means “beyond essence” or “more than substance”
• CCC 2837: Taken literally [epi-ousios: “super-essential”], it means the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the “medicine of immortality” (St Ignatius of Antioch), without which we have no life within us (John 6:53-56).
• The petition “Give us this day our daily bread”
  • Is in the middle of all the points: the Lord Jesus Christ wants to teach us that his Body, really present in the sacrament of the Eucharist, must be the centre of our prayer and our spiritual life.
  • Is the first petition: the Eucharist, which unites us with the Lord Jesus himself when it is eaten,
    • becomes the foundation, and
    • gives us sanctifying grace,
    • so that asking the Lord’s forgiveness and forgiving others, facing temptation, and deliverance from the powers of darkness will follow of themselves.