Our Father by Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald book launch

There are two versions given in the Gospels of the prayer we know as the Our Father or the Lord’s prayer. In Luke’s Gospel, after observing Jesus praying, a disciple makes this request: ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John [the Baptist] taught his disciples.” We don’t know how the Baptist taught his disciples to pray, but obviously a form of prayer had become a badge of the group that had gathered around him. This is how Jesus responds:

When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name,

Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread,

and forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation (Luke 11:2-4).

We find a slightly longer version in the Gospel of Matthew:

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil”   (Matthew 6:9-13)).

Matthew’s version has become the prayer of Christians, to whatever denomination they belong...

According to St Cyprian, the great Bishop-Martyr of Carthage, it is “the public and common prayer” of the Church.