Introduction

I believe we all know the Lord’s Prayer, many of us know it by heart, but I’m not sure if we all know its meaning. The Holy Fathers have gone deep into the Word of God and selflessly left their experience to us, so that we can learn the essential importance of this prayer. The Lord Jesus Christ gave us the prayer through the apostles when they asked Him to teach them how to pray.

So the Lord Jesus Christ taught them: When you pray, do not say much like pagans, for they think will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you should pray: “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 trespassess, as we forgive our trespasses; And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, for ever and ever. Amen! (Matthew, 6.7 -13, Luke 11.2-4)

The central prayer in the Orthodox Church is the Lord’s Prayer or the prayer Our Father and it is used in our church services. In the words of the prayer our Savior gave us what we need for our salvation. If we look a little closer at the words of the Lord’s Prayer, we will come to the conclusion that Lord Jesus Christ gave us two major commandments in the New Testament: Thou shall love thy Lord the God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment and the second is: ‘Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. (Matt. 22, 37-39; Mark. 12, 30-31). What is more interesting in this prayer is that we are not requesting anything for ourselves and nothing from this world. Often, when we pray, we request something of God, something for ourselves, we ask for something that is here on earth. But, God teaches us differently, even that petition Give us this day our daily bread, has a completely different meaning which I will talk about later.

We believe in a personal God, God the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and therefore we can personally address Him, get to know Him and be in communion with Him. That means that our God is One and we can establish personal and loving community through the Prayer.

Father – God is a person and we should establish a personal or parental relationship with Him, when we address someone with Father it means we address our parent that we feel close bound. This means our God is personal and Trinitarian; and if there is the Father and the Son there will be the Holy Spirit. The Son is son by nature but we are sons by blessing. When we are cristened we become sons to God and brothers to Jesus. By this petition we get to know God’s love.

What comes after the noun Father is the word “our”.  What does “ours” mean? It means that the Father is our Father, to the whole community, He is not only mine or yours, but ours, and that is what the Church is. So this prayer is not personal but always for the Church. Outside the church and church community, this prayer, I dare say, does not exist and has no power or knowledge. When we say Our Father, it means that we are all brothers and sisters, because we have one Father, and when we are brothers and sisters, then it is unavoidable to love each other. What is mine is yours and what is yours is mine. You will be me and I will be you. Always put the brother or sister before us.

To be continued…