Prayer - Part 1

 In this introduction to prayer we will be looking at three of the most common prayers that all Catholics should know, and can always know more about. They are:

1. Our Father.
2. Hail Mary.
3. Glory Be.

There are many forms of prayer, from meditative to spoken, private to public, but the most often any and all form of prayer will include one or more of those prayers listed above. There are four types of prayer as well, as well will see in the talk on the Mass in Module 2.

"Our Father"

This is probably one of the most known prayers across any form of Christianity be it Catholicism (East and West), Orthodoxy, or Protestant denominations. There are traditional and more modern translations, below you will see them in Latin, Greek, and English. 

Latin: Pater Noster, qui es in caelis, 

sanctificetur nomen tuum. 

Adveniat regnum tuum. 

Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. 

Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, 

et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. 

Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, 

sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

Greek: Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς·ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου·
ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου·
γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς·
τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον·
καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν,
ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφίεμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν·
καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν,
ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ.

English: 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.

Amen.

Two things. I added the prayer in the three languages for two reasons. One Latin and Greek are both liturgical languages, among others in the Orthodox Rites but Latin and Greek are the most common. Latin and Greek were the original languages for the Old Testament and the New Testament. English is there simply due to the commonality of it, and to reinforce the usage of the original languages to help people better understand the scriptures that they read. Now I also have them written according to the seven petitions found in the prayer, I will label them below. If my Greek is incorrect, please let me know. 

The Petitions:

"Hallowed be thy Name."

Why not start with the Our Father  as the First Petition? Because we are making it clear to whom we are praying, and not petitioning for anything. What is meant by the petition "Hallowed be thy name"? In the petition we are asking and declaring that the Name of the Lord be hallowed, be made sacred or holy. It reminds us of these things, and it reminds others that it is to be so.

"Thy Kingdom Come"

This is referring to a three-fold kingdom of God, the Spiritual Kingdom. In particular it is about the reign of grace, His Church, and the Heaven itself. We are asking the grace of God to reign in us, by which He, being the King of Kings dwells in us. We are asking that His Church reign supremely on Earth, and spread across the Earth. As for Heaven we beg that we can be admitted to Paradise, as we were originally created for being in Heaven with Him.

"Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven"

We clearly are asking for the Divine Will to be done, and not our will. We are asking for the necessary graces to be able to follow His will in all things and to obey His commandments in all things.

"Give us this day our daily bread"

As the Hebrews wandering in the desert relied on the manna from heaven for their physical nourishment, we are asking for our Spiritual nourishment. Not only are we asking for this, but we are also asking for the necessary physical sustainment in this temporal life to do His will.

"And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us"

Trespasses have been called debt's in other translations, this is due to the nature of sins in the "economy of grace" which we will go over in module 2. However, this petition is asking for the forgiveness of our sins against God, as we forgive those who sin against us. 

"And lead us not into temptation"

Here we are asking God to deliver us from temptation by either allowing us to not be tempted or to give us the graces to resist temptation.

"But deliver us from evil"

Here we ask God to free us from all evil past, present, and future. Particularly the evil of sin and its penalty damnation. We ask this in the general form of evil, and not in all forms of evil, namely evils. We do this because we ask for liberation from what God deems to be bad for us, and not all evils. It is good to pray for freedom or liberation from a particular evil, like sickness, but in all things we submit out will to His Will.