[Music] we just have some short reflections on the our father and i want to talk about first of all where it comes from and then i'll talk about what is this prayer and then we'll look at what's what are called the seven petitions uh of the prayer um and kind of say a few things about each of the petitions the lord's prayer or our father is the title of the prayer that jesus taught his apostles to use and to pray and the church believes that by giving it to the apostles like that that jesus also gave it to all christians as well it's called the lord's prayer because it comes to us directly from the lord who is the master and model for our prayer according to the catechism where does it occur well it originally occurs in the gospel of luke in chapter 11 and it also occurs in matthew chapter 6. and what's interesting about the prayer is its context we know that it's it's the teaching to the apostles because they ask jesus specifically in luke chapter 11 it says that jesus was praying in a certain place and after he had finished one of his disciples said to him lord teach us how to pray and jesus's response is this prayer this is how you are to 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 forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil now the early church and especially the church fathers believed that this gift of the lord's prayer was a prayer it was a model of all prayer it was not just one prayer that people should recite but that in this prayer it contained so many themes and so many important key ideas that it was a model for other prayers in fact the church teaches in the catechism it says this gift of the lord's words and of the holy spirit who gives life to them in the hearts of believers has been received and lived by the church from the beginning so it's thought that this prayer something that's been held closely to the heart of the church since the very beginning of time and because of its power to sort of summarize so many different christian themes in fact saint augustine said that lots of different scriptural and biblical themes are contained in this prayer after showing how the psalms are the principle food of christian prayer and flow together in the petitions of the our father saint augustine remarked run through all the words of the holy prayers in scripture he says and i do not think that you will find anything in them that is contained and included i'm sorry you will you will find and i do not think that you will find anything in them that is not contained and included in the lord's prayer this quote is essentially saying that all of the things that are in the prayers of the bible especially in the psalms all the things that are in the prayers of the bible can be included that are they are contained they are included in their our father and that's why it's a model saint thomas aquinas the great 13th century theologian of the church the universal doctor says that the lord's prayer quote is the most perfect of prayers in it we ask not only for all the things we rightly desire but also in a sequence that they should be desired this prayer not only teaches us to ask for things but also in what order we should desire them that's an interesting idea that this prayer not only helps us to express ourselves to god but it also teaches us how to express the things we want to talk about to god in what order and what sort of importance are the things that we have on our mind so it actually has a way of bringing order to us it might sound kind of weird to think about prayer bringing order to you but that's exactly what prayer does prayer does a sort of transformation on your heart and it helps you to focus on god and others instead of just focusing on yourself and on the things that you want in fact the famous theologian once said that the function of prayer or how prayer works is that it's not to change god to pray to change god but rather to change the nature of you to change the one who prayers so sometimes prayer is thought of as only requesting god but if we we understand that god and prayer if we understand prayer only as requests and intercessions then we miss something deep and profound and transformationable transformational about prayer