The Lord's Prayer

The Lord's Prayer is without comparison the most holy and most excellent of all prayers, since Jesus Christ Himself was the framer and the teacher of it. It contains all the dispositions which are required of a Christian, both towards God and towards his neighbor; all that he is entitled to ask for the relief of his wants, either spiritual or temporal, and in particular the infallible means for obtaining pardon of his sins.

It is suited to the smallest capacity, yet contains a sublimity to which the greatest genius could never attain; a depth, which the most intense study and acute reflection would vainly attempt to fathom. It is adapted to every state and condition; to sinners desirous of returning to God, and to penitents; to the innocent, the just and the perfect. It is calculated to impart warmth to the lukewarm, increase of fervor to the pious, confidence to the timid, disinterested views to the selfish and narrow-minded, and the most exalted sentiments to great souls.

It is the will of Jesus Christ, that all Christians should say this prayer daily, and this His will is clearly expressed in the prayer itself. Few fail to comply with this will; but alas! with how little fruit. In every age of the church, the Lord's prayer has always formed a part of the holy sacrifice of  the worship service, and is said at the beginning of every division of the divine office.

Undoubtedly Jesus Christ has included in this divine prayer, short and simple as it may appear, all that can conduce to sanctification: but to effect this, it is not enough to recite it with the lips only, even attentively; we must also comprehend well its meaning, and be animated with the sentiments which it expresses. Nor is this all: we must have a practical knowledge of it, by making our thoughts, words and actions conformable to its dictates. Else instead of sanctifying us, it will serve only to condemn us on the great accounting day, when Jesus Christ will examine how far we have lived conformably to the prayer, which He prescribed to us for the rule of our conduct.

For many years we have recited the Lord's Prayer every day, and even often every day: yet have we ever applied ourselves to study it seriously, to understand it thoroughly? Are we deeply penetrated with the sentiments which it contains? We cannot be ignorant that all depends upon this; for we well know that God pays no regard to what issues from the lips, unless at the same time it has its source in the heart. In a word, is our life such that it can with truth be said to be an exact and constant practice of the Lord's Prayer? This is what never enters the thoughts of by far the greater part of mankind. The generality fondly imagine that they acquit themselves of their duty by rehearsing the Lord's Prayer like a set form of words, which they have been taught to lisp or mutter from their infancy, without ever reflecting that the study of their whole life ought to be to reduce this prayer to practice.

Although there are already in every language a great variety of expositions of this divine prayer, it is hoped that the addition of one more will not be deemed superfluous, as care will be taken to make it neither too long nor too short, but to accommodate it to the generality of Christians. To adapt it to the interior state and personal wants of each individual would require as many particular expositions as there are different classes of Christians: but this must be the work of the Holy Spirit, to whom alone it belongs to proportion His lights and inspirations to the interior dispositions of the faithful. This grace He is ever willing to grant to our humble and fervent petitions: let us solicit it with earnestness.

(continued with a breakdown of individual lessons on the Lord's Prayer)

(John Nicholas Grou)