The Our Father (Matthew 6:9-13) Reflection & Meditation

The ‘Our Father’ is a prayer of the disciple of Jesus. God is the Creator and we are his creatures. No human can dare to call God father. But we who believe in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour are accepted as brethren by him. Therefore the father of Jesus becomes our father and we his children.

The 'Our Father' prayer comprises of the opening exclamation and seven petitions. The first three petitions are directed towards God and the next four are directed towards us. In the first three we give to God what is desired by him. In the next four we ask for what is needed by us.

The 'Our Father' prayer is both personal as well as intercessory since we pray for self as well as others. Whenever we use the word 'our' we include ourselves as well as every human being. We are not only members of the church of Christ but representatives of all humanity as well.

The 'Our Father' prayer is perfect or fully complete as it covers all aspects of prayer like adoration, praise, thanksgiving, worship, infilling, surrender, healing, repentance, forgiveness, protection and deliverance.

Instructions for meditation:

1. Take each phrase of the 'Our Father' and keep chanting with your mouth softly.

2. As your mouth is chanting bring to your mind reflections that are given under each section below.

3. Alternately you can chant a phrase a number of times and then meditate silently.

Our Father in heaven

An exclamation is an emotional utterance. When we say 'Our Father in heaven' three things happen. We identify the person to whom we are going to address our prayer to, we remind ourselves of the kind of relationship we have with him and we bring ourselves in his presence. We need to be imaginative and really think whose presence we are in. The word 'father' arouses love in us and is widely used by us to define a relationship (e.g. our biological father, priests, the pope). However we are not praying to any of these but to the heavenly father who is the father of Jesus Christ. We come before him not with fear but with the boldness of a child who has experienced God’s fatherly love. When we stand before the throne of God our response should be of awe and wonder. This is called 'adoration'.

1. Hallowed be your name

Reflection: God is infinitely holy (Lev. 19:2) and so is his name. No one can add something to him and make him more holy. Here we pray that everyone may recognize that God is Holy. To hallow is to honour as holy. We pray that everyone may give the highest honour to God that is due to his holiness. The bible teaches us three basic ways of honouring God in prayer i.e. praise, thanksgiving and worship.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we pray that everyone may recognize your holiness and honour you continually by giving you 'praise', 'thanksgiving' and 'worship'.

2. Your kingdom come

Reflection: The kingdom of God is a person (Jesus)(Matt. 6:33), an experience (Rom. 14:17) and a community (1 Cor. 12:27). Romans 14:17 says: 'For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit'. (peace is calmness of thoughts, joy is happiness of heart and righteousness is the ability to do things right). The kingdom of God is an experience received with the help of the Holy Spirit. However the Holy Spirit is given only to those who believe in Jesus Christ. Therefore the first thing we pray for here is that everyone may come to believe in Jesus (conversion). Secondly we pray that every believer may be filled with the Holy Spirit ('infilling') and thus experience a life of righteousness, peace and joy. However this is just a foretaste of the fullness that we await for till the second coming of Jesus.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we pray that everyone may respond to your grace and believe in Jesus and accept him as their Lord and Saviour. May everyone be filled with your Holy Spirit and experience your kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy.

3. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Reflection: The will of God is your sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3). Sanctification takes place through obedience (Luke 11:28). In heaven there is total obedience. This is because there is total surrender. Surrender requires humility. We obey in some areas and not in all things. We are able to obey only in those areas of our life which we have totally surrendered to God. Here we pray that everyone may be able to 'surrender' to God in all aspects of our lives and thus fully obey him.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we pray that everyone may respond to your grace and surrender to your will completely and obey you in each and every area of our life.

4. Give us this day our daily bread

Reflection: Humans are both physical as well as spiritual. We have dual needs - needs of our body and needs of our soul. The basic need of every human being is food, clothing and shelter. To get these one needs to work. To work we need good health. When unwell we need 'physical healing'. We also need education, skills, etc. and a sound environment.

We also need food for our soul. We receive this spiritual food in the form of the 'word of God' and the 'Eucharist'. It may not be possible for everyone to receive the Eucharist on a daily basis but every person who can read can get the daily portion of the word of God. To be more specific we need daily spiritual exercise of prayer, reading and meditation.

This is a prayer for ‘sustenance’. Therefore in this section we pray that everyone may receive the daily portion of our physical and spiritual necessity. We also pray that everyone may be sufficiently motivated to put in required efforts.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, give us our daily requirement of physical need and spiritual need. Give good health to everyone and healing to the sick. Inspire everyone to make time for daily prayer, reading your word and meditation. Help everyone to believe in the Eucharist and make efforts to attend Holy Mass as often as possible.

5. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors

Reflection: Asking for forgiveness from God is called 'repentance'. Repentance restores or strengthens our relationship with God ('spiritual healing'). Forgiving others leads to healing of emotional hurts ('inner healing'). We need to accept and express sorrow for our wrong doings as well as the wrong doings of others. Also we need to forgive those who have hurt us and caused us pain and suffering. The word of God in Matthew 6:14 clearly states that we will receive forgiveness from God only in proportion to the extent we forgive others. Here we pray that everyone may respond fully to the grace to repent and to forgive.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we accept all our sins and feel sorry for them. Please forgive us. We forgive everyone who has hurt us and caused us pain and suffering. Fill everyone with humility so that they may respond to your grace to repent and to forgive.

6. Do not bring us to the time of trial

Reflection: Temptations are evil influences from the devil to deceive us to do something that displeases God. Trials or tests are sufferings allowed by God in our lives to test our faith. All sufferings come from the devil. But God allows these in our lives but only to the extent we are capable to deal with them. Temptations and testing are an intrinsic part of our spiritual life and will stop only at the point of death. The devil does not require rest or sleep. These are allowed by God to help us evaluate our spiritual growth. We always think we are better than what we actually are. Failure or success during the time of temptation and testing helps us to understand our spiritual level better. Temptations are smaller exams and testing are major exams. This is a prayer of 'protection'. Here we pray that everyone may receive the strength and courage to face and overcome temptations and persevere in sufferings and not to get discouraged and give up.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, increase our faith. Give everyone the strength and courage to face temptations and overcome them.   Help those who are suffering to persevere in faith. Do not let us be discouraged and do

 not let us give up trying.

7. Rescue us from the evil one

Reflection: Here to deliver means to set free. Most of us do not surrender every aspect of our life to God. Although we are with God we allow the devil control over certain aspects of our life. This is the area of our weakness. When ignored it becomes bondage. Reducing these areas is a constant battle we have to fight throughout our life. We are imperfect humans trying to be perfect with the help of God. Our bondages are areas where we have allowed the devil to hold control. Bondage can be minor or major. Doing something forbidden by God as well as doing something in too much excess regularly is bondage. Examples – false beliefs, fears (of suffering or of loss), addictions (food, drink, things, pleasures), bad habits, inordinate desires of pride, greed, lust, wrath, avarice, sloth, envy, jealousy. This is a prayer of 'deliverance'. Here we pray that the power of God may come on everyone and destroy the power of the devil that is holding people in any particular bondage.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, send your power upon us and destroy every bondage of the devil and set us free. Help us to recognize deceptions and set us free from all fears, worries, bad habits and other evil inclinations. Give us boldness to proclaim your word.

Conclusion

Daily meditation on the 'Our Father' will heal us spiritually, emotionally and physically. We will be fully empowered to walk in the way of Jesus. We will experience abundance of life with peace of mind and a heart full of joy.

The more details about the Our Father refer to the links provided below.

This post provides inputs for reflection on the 'Our Father' the prayer taught by Jesus. Complete instructions on how one can meditate on this prayer and receive daily spiritual healing, inner healing and physical healing and live a life of abundance.


IMPORTANT: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) is divided into 4 parts. All links provided below are from part 4 which deals with prayer.

Part 4 -  CHRISTIAN PRAYER

Section 1 -   Prayer in the Christian Life (What is Prayer)
Chapter 1 -  The Revelation of Prayer (The Universal Call to Prayer)
Article 1 -    In the Old Testament
Article 2 -    In the Fullness of Time
Article 3 -    In the Age of the Church
Chapter 2 -  The Tradition of Prayer
Article 1 -   At the Wellspring of Prayer
Article 2 -   The Way of Prayer
Article 3 -   Guides for Prayer
Chapter 3 - The Life of Prayer
Article 1 -   Expressions of Prayer
Article 2 -   The Battle of Prayer
Article 3 -   The Prayer of the Hour of Jesus

Section 2 -  The Lord's Prayer: "Our Father"
Article 1 -  The Summary of the Whole Gospel
Article 2 -  Our Father Who Art in Heaven
Article 3 -  The Seven Petitions
Article 4 -  The Final Doxology