The Lord’s Prayer
C. COMMUNION RITE
We all stand even as the Great Amen, uniting us to the sacred action, still echoes in the church.
The ancient sacrificial custom required that part of the victim be given back to the person offering the sacrifice. Thus, he became, symbolically, God’s guest. That which was just a symbol in the pagan rites and a figure in the Jewish offerings, is a reality in the Holy Mass. After we have offered to God his Son Jesus Christ in sacrifice, God offers him to us as spiritual food.[1]
* * *
Once they were set free from the oppression of the Egyptians, the Jews had to travel across the desert. Their confidence in God began to dwindle. They began to complain against Moses, “You have brought us to this wilderness to starve to death!” (Ex 16:3). But God’s patience was greater than the nasty complaints of the Israelites. He sent them manna, “bread from heavens.” Each morning for forty years, until they entered the Promised Land, the people went out and gathered the day’s portion of manna; only for the Sabbath rest did they get a double portion.
Jesus himself pointed out the manna as a prefiguration of the Eucharist, “Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead; but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die” (Jn 6:49). The Christians are strengthened by the body of Christ, the true “Bread from heavens,” during their pilgrimage on earth, in the same way that the Jews were nourished during their wandering in the desert. If the manna was a token of God’s tender care for the chosen people whom he delivered from slavery, more so does the Eucharist reveal God’s paternal love for us. Those who nourish their soul with the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ, can be sure of reaching the end of the road that leads to eternal life.
The early Christians always likened the Eucharist with the life of the soul. St Augustine writes:
It is an excellent thing that the Christians around Carthage call baptism itself nothing else but salvation, and the sacrament of Christ’s body nothing else but life. By apostolic tradition the churches of Christ hold that without baptism and participation at the Lord’s table it is impossible for any man to attain either the kingdom of God or salvation and life eternal. The Scriptures give testimony of this.[2]
* * *
In the synagogue of Capernaum, Jesus said,
I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead...I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world (Jn 6:48 ff).
These words perplexed those who heard Christ. They had followed him after the multiplication of the fishes and the loaves. This promise of living bread...,his flesh...,his blood... sounded like madness. The Lord did not take back his assertions; he even went further on with a cascade of declarations. The spiral of surprises reached the point of scandal when he assured them:
I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day...He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I in him (Jn 6:53 ff).
After this, St John notes, many left him and stopped going with him.
During the Last Supper, Jesus redeemed his promise making it a reality, to the amazement of the apostles. “What we cannot do, our Lord is able to do. Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect man, leaves us, not a symbol, but a reality. He himself stays with us. He will go to the Father, but he will also remain among men. He will leave us, not simply a gift that will make us remember him, not an image that becomes blurred with time, like a photograph that soon fades and yellows, and has no meaning except for those who were contemporaries. Under the appearances of bread and wine, he is really present, with his body and blood, with his soul and divinity.”[3]
This is the very same body and blood that, by being immolated, restored our friendship with God. Christ’s sacrifice and the paschal meal are intimately linked. Our Mother the Church encourages us to participate in one and in the other, if we are properly disposed,[4] by receiving our Lord’s body and blood. These will be our nourishment for the journey to our Father’s home. And this is what the Communion Rite is going to do: to prepare our soul to receive our Lord.
* * *
In the early Church, the Communion rite was simple. The Anaphora was followed by the Breaking of the Bread, and then by the Lord’s Prayer and Communion. A crown of prayers and ceremonies was added through the centuries. Nowadays, the Communion rite is ordained thus:
• Lord’s Prayer, preceded by the invitation to pray and followed by the embolism[5] and the people’s acclamation.
• Rite of Peace.
• Breaking of the Bread, with the commingling, while the Agnus Dei is said or sung.
• Personal preparation of the priest.
• Invitation to the sacred banquet by showing the host to the faithful.
• Communion of the priest and the faithful.
• Communion song.
• Silent prayer, if opportune.
• Prayer after Communion.
The Lord’s Prayer
You should pray like this: Our Father in heaven... (Mt 6:9‑13).
The priest offers the invitation to pray, and all of us continue the prayer with him. The priest raises his hands. No special gesture is indicated for the people during this prayer.
This invitation is a very touching and most ancient formula (one alluded to as early as the fourth century by St Jerome). It states that we should not dare (audemus) to utter what we are about to say—were it not for the express command of our Lord. He taught us to approach God as a son talks to his father. Hence, the priest says:
At the Savior’s command
and formed by divine teaching,
we dare to say:
* * *
The profound religious atmosphere pervading the Canon is increased here with the great reverence rendered to this prayer. We are so miserable, and our mind is so limited, that we do not even know what we should ask of God. Jesus Christ himself deigned to compose this prayer to indicate how we should address God. It is our Savior’s own prayer, and, therefore, the prayer of the Christian.
In the early Church, the Lord’s Prayer was taught to the catechumens only a few weeks before baptism. Outside the Mass, it was always said in a low voice. It seemed that the faithful recited it before Communion, which they took home on Sundays and received there on ordinary days. Then, it may have been introduced into the Mass. Many are the allusions made to this custom in the writings of the Fathers of the Church, and St Augustine regarded it as something well established in his own time.
* * *
Our Father. Our Lord used the Aramaic word Abba. It is how children called their father; the best translation could be Daddy. God wants us to deal with him with full confidence, as his little children. All our prayer is nourished by this fact; we are children of God.
How merciful the Lord is to us, how kind and richly compassionate! He wished us to repeat this prayer in God’s sight, to call the Lord our Father and, as Christ is God’s Son, be called in turn sons of God! None of us would ever have dared to utter this name unless he himself had allowed us to pray in this way.
We pray the Lord’s Prayer, feeling ourselves members of the big family of the children of God, gathered in Christ by the Holy Spirit. “We are children of God, bearers of the only flame that can light up the paths of the earth for souls, of the only brightness which can never be darkened, dimmed or overshadowed.
“The Lord uses us as torches, to make that light shine out. Much depends on us; if we respond many people will remain in darkness no longer, but will walk instead along paths that lead to eternal life.”[6]
During the day, we can ponder each of the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. These will give us abundant material for our prayer and meditation.
Hallowed be Thy name. It is not that we think to make God holy by our prayers; rather we are asking God that his name may be made holy in us. Indeed, how could God be made holy, he who is the source of holiness? Still, because he himself said: “Be holy, for I am holy,” we pray and ask him that we who have been hollowed in baptism may persevere in what we have begun. In the first petition, we desire to obtain the highest degree of sanctity for all. We desire to give glory to God; that he may be loved and feared by all; that his holiness, his good‑ness, and his wisdom may be acknowledged everywhere.
Thy kingdom come. In the second petition, we desire that God may reign in everybody’s will. We ask that we all may happily reach our destination in his kingdom. We pray that the kingdom promised to us by God will come, the kingdom won by Christ’s blood and passion. Then we who formerly were slaves in this world will reign from now on under the dominion of Christ, in accordance with his promise: “Come, O blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In the third petition, we pray that all men serve and obey God on earth as he is served by the angels in heaven; and that all may always avoid sin and do what is pleasing to God. We do not pray that God should do his will, but that we may carry out his will. How could anyone prevent the Lord from doing what he wills? But in our prayer we ask that God’s will be done in us, because the devil throws up obstacles to prevent our mind and our conduct from obeying God in all things. So if his will is to be done in us we have need of his will, that is, his help and protection. No one can be strong by his own strength or secure save by God’s mercy and forgiveness.
Give us this day our daily bread. In the fourth petition, we ask for whatever is necessary for nourishment, clothing, and other temporal needs; for our daily food, which for a Christian means preeminently the body of Christ, and also for purification from sin, so that what is holy may, in fact, be given to those who are holy.[7] Thus, we can understand this petition in a spiritual and in a literal sense. For in the divine plan both senses may help toward our salvation. Christ is the bread of life; this bread does not belong to everyone, but is ours alone. We who want to live in Christ and receive the Eucharist, the food of salvation, ask for this bread to be given us every day. With Christ’s help, we who live and abide in him will never be separated from his body and his grace.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Once we have requested the needed sustenance from God’s magnanimity, we ask him pardon for our sins. To be reminded that we are sinners and forced to ask forgiveness for our faults is prudent and sound. Even while we are asking God’s forgiveness, our hearts are aware of our state! This command to pray daily for our sins reminds us that we commit sin every day. No one should complacently think himself innocent, lest his pride lead to further sin.
Christ clearly laid down an additional rule. Thus we are made aware that we cannot obtain what we ask regarding our own trespasses unless we do the same for those who trespass against us. This is why he says elsewhere: “The measure you give will be the measure you get.” And the servant who, after his master forgives all his debt, refuses to forgive his fellow servant is thrown into prison. Because he refused to be kind to his fellow servant, he lost the favor his master had given him. We make an act of contrition and of sincere love towards our enemies and all who have caused us any harm. We wholeheartedly love them in the Lord.
Lead us not into temptation. In the sixth petition, we ask God to keep us from falling into temptations. We should not trust our own strength; we should fear our malice and lack of constancy, lest these induce us to wander away from his grace and friendship.
Deliver us from evil. In the seventh petition, we ask for deliverance from the evils that afflict us and may set us away from his fatherly love. Our hearts are filled with hope as we remember the Lord telling the disciples, “What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread?” (Lk 11:11). We ask to be liberated from the guilt and punishment of sin, from all snares that the devil and the world set up against us.[8]
* * *
Now, we are going to recite the Lord’s Prayer before Communion. It will suffice for us to savor these petitions with our hearts turned toward our Father and our brothers. We will, then, realize we love them more than we think we do. And relying on their help, we will feel safe. It is logical: “A brother helped by his brother is a fortress” (Prov 18:19).
Meanwhile, the priest alone develops the last petition of the Lord’s Prayer in the Embolism. He begs, on behalf of all of us, for deliverance from the power of evil:
Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil,
graciously grant peace in our days,
that, by the help of your mercy,
we may be always free from sin
and safe from all distress,
as we await the blessed hope
and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
We join in that petition with our acclamation, which is also a doxology or hymn of praise to God:
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and for ever.[9]
Footnotes:
[1]Cf. G. Chevrot, Our Mass, p. 218.
[2]De Baptismo Parvulorum, 1,24,34.
[3]St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, Christ Is Passing By, no. 83.
[4]Cf. GIRM, no. 56; GIRM3, no. 80.
[5]Embolism means extension.
[6]St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, The Forge , no. 1.
[7]Cf. GIRM, no. 56a; GIRM3, no. 81.
[8]Cf. St Cyprian of Carthage (200‑258), The Lord’s Prayer 12‑18; cf. also J. Card. Bona (seventeenth century), De Sacrificio Missae, V, 10.
[9]Taken from the Didaché (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), (year 110), chap. X.
We all stand even as the Great Amen, uniting us to the sacred action, still echoes in the church.
The ancient sacrificial custom required that part of the victim be given back to the person offering the sacrifice. Thus, he became, symbolically, God’s guest. That which was just a symbol in the pagan rites and a figure in the Jewish offerings, is a reality in the Holy Mass. After we have offered to God his Son Jesus Christ in sacrifice, God offers him to us as spiritual food.[1]
* * *
Once they were set free from the oppression of the Egyptians, the Jews had to travel across the desert. Their confidence in God began to dwindle. They began to complain against Moses, “You have brought us to this wilderness to starve to death!” (Ex 16:3). But God’s patience was greater than the nasty complaints of the Israelites. He sent them manna, “bread from heavens.” Each morning for forty years, until they entered the Promised Land, the people went out and gathered the day’s portion of manna; only for the Sabbath rest did they get a double portion.
Jesus himself pointed out the manna as a prefiguration of the Eucharist, “Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead; but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die” (Jn 6:49). The Christians are strengthened by the body of Christ, the true “Bread from heavens,” during their pilgrimage on earth, in the same way that the Jews were nourished during their wandering in the desert. If the manna was a token of God’s tender care for the chosen people whom he delivered from slavery, more so does the Eucharist reveal God’s paternal love for us. Those who nourish their soul with the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ, can be sure of reaching the end of the road that leads to eternal life.
The early Christians always likened the Eucharist with the life of the soul. St Augustine writes:
It is an excellent thing that the Christians around Carthage call baptism itself nothing else but salvation, and the sacrament of Christ’s body nothing else but life. By apostolic tradition the churches of Christ hold that without baptism and participation at the Lord’s table it is impossible for any man to attain either the kingdom of God or salvation and life eternal. The Scriptures give testimony of this.[2]
* * *
In the synagogue of Capernaum, Jesus said,
I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead...I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world (Jn 6:48 ff).
These words perplexed those who heard Christ. They had followed him after the multiplication of the fishes and the loaves. This promise of living bread...,his flesh...,his blood... sounded like madness. The Lord did not take back his assertions; he even went further on with a cascade of declarations. The spiral of surprises reached the point of scandal when he assured them:
I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day...He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I in him (Jn 6:53 ff).
After this, St John notes, many left him and stopped going with him.
During the Last Supper, Jesus redeemed his promise making it a reality, to the amazement of the apostles. “What we cannot do, our Lord is able to do. Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect man, leaves us, not a symbol, but a reality. He himself stays with us. He will go to the Father, but he will also remain among men. He will leave us, not simply a gift that will make us remember him, not an image that becomes blurred with time, like a photograph that soon fades and yellows, and has no meaning except for those who were contemporaries. Under the appearances of bread and wine, he is really present, with his body and blood, with his soul and divinity.”[3]
This is the very same body and blood that, by being immolated, restored our friendship with God. Christ’s sacrifice and the paschal meal are intimately linked. Our Mother the Church encourages us to participate in one and in the other, if we are properly disposed,[4] by receiving our Lord’s body and blood. These will be our nourishment for the journey to our Father’s home. And this is what the Communion Rite is going to do: to prepare our soul to receive our Lord.
* * *
In the early Church, the Communion rite was simple. The Anaphora was followed by the Breaking of the Bread, and then by the Lord’s Prayer and Communion. A crown of prayers and ceremonies was added through the centuries. Nowadays, the Communion rite is ordained thus:
• Lord’s Prayer, preceded by the invitation to pray and followed by the embolism[5] and the people’s acclamation.
• Rite of Peace.
• Breaking of the Bread, with the commingling, while the Agnus Dei is said or sung.
• Personal preparation of the priest.
• Invitation to the sacred banquet by showing the host to the faithful.
• Communion of the priest and the faithful.
• Communion song.
• Silent prayer, if opportune.
• Prayer after Communion.
The Lord’s Prayer
You should pray like this: Our Father in heaven... (Mt 6:9‑13).
The priest offers the invitation to pray, and all of us continue the prayer with him. The priest raises his hands. No special gesture is indicated for the people during this prayer.
This invitation is a very touching and most ancient formula (one alluded to as early as the fourth century by St Jerome). It states that we should not dare (audemus) to utter what we are about to say—were it not for the express command of our Lord. He taught us to approach God as a son talks to his father. Hence, the priest says:
At the Savior’s command
and formed by divine teaching,
we dare to say:
* * *
The profound religious atmosphere pervading the Canon is increased here with the great reverence rendered to this prayer. We are so miserable, and our mind is so limited, that we do not even know what we should ask of God. Jesus Christ himself deigned to compose this prayer to indicate how we should address God. It is our Savior’s own prayer, and, therefore, the prayer of the Christian.
In the early Church, the Lord’s Prayer was taught to the catechumens only a few weeks before baptism. Outside the Mass, it was always said in a low voice. It seemed that the faithful recited it before Communion, which they took home on Sundays and received there on ordinary days. Then, it may have been introduced into the Mass. Many are the allusions made to this custom in the writings of the Fathers of the Church, and St Augustine regarded it as something well established in his own time.
* * *
Our Father. Our Lord used the Aramaic word Abba. It is how children called their father; the best translation could be Daddy. God wants us to deal with him with full confidence, as his little children. All our prayer is nourished by this fact; we are children of God.
How merciful the Lord is to us, how kind and richly compassionate! He wished us to repeat this prayer in God’s sight, to call the Lord our Father and, as Christ is God’s Son, be called in turn sons of God! None of us would ever have dared to utter this name unless he himself had allowed us to pray in this way.
We pray the Lord’s Prayer, feeling ourselves members of the big family of the children of God, gathered in Christ by the Holy Spirit. “We are children of God, bearers of the only flame that can light up the paths of the earth for souls, of the only brightness which can never be darkened, dimmed or overshadowed.
“The Lord uses us as torches, to make that light shine out. Much depends on us; if we respond many people will remain in darkness no longer, but will walk instead along paths that lead to eternal life.”[6]
During the day, we can ponder each of the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. These will give us abundant material for our prayer and meditation.
Hallowed be Thy name. It is not that we think to make God holy by our prayers; rather we are asking God that his name may be made holy in us. Indeed, how could God be made holy, he who is the source of holiness? Still, because he himself said: “Be holy, for I am holy,” we pray and ask him that we who have been hollowed in baptism may persevere in what we have begun. In the first petition, we desire to obtain the highest degree of sanctity for all. We desire to give glory to God; that he may be loved and feared by all; that his holiness, his good‑ness, and his wisdom may be acknowledged everywhere.
Thy kingdom come. In the second petition, we desire that God may reign in everybody’s will. We ask that we all may happily reach our destination in his kingdom. We pray that the kingdom promised to us by God will come, the kingdom won by Christ’s blood and passion. Then we who formerly were slaves in this world will reign from now on under the dominion of Christ, in accordance with his promise: “Come, O blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In the third petition, we pray that all men serve and obey God on earth as he is served by the angels in heaven; and that all may always avoid sin and do what is pleasing to God. We do not pray that God should do his will, but that we may carry out his will. How could anyone prevent the Lord from doing what he wills? But in our prayer we ask that God’s will be done in us, because the devil throws up obstacles to prevent our mind and our conduct from obeying God in all things. So if his will is to be done in us we have need of his will, that is, his help and protection. No one can be strong by his own strength or secure save by God’s mercy and forgiveness.
Give us this day our daily bread. In the fourth petition, we ask for whatever is necessary for nourishment, clothing, and other temporal needs; for our daily food, which for a Christian means preeminently the body of Christ, and also for purification from sin, so that what is holy may, in fact, be given to those who are holy.[7] Thus, we can understand this petition in a spiritual and in a literal sense. For in the divine plan both senses may help toward our salvation. Christ is the bread of life; this bread does not belong to everyone, but is ours alone. We who want to live in Christ and receive the Eucharist, the food of salvation, ask for this bread to be given us every day. With Christ’s help, we who live and abide in him will never be separated from his body and his grace.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Once we have requested the needed sustenance from God’s magnanimity, we ask him pardon for our sins. To be reminded that we are sinners and forced to ask forgiveness for our faults is prudent and sound. Even while we are asking God’s forgiveness, our hearts are aware of our state! This command to pray daily for our sins reminds us that we commit sin every day. No one should complacently think himself innocent, lest his pride lead to further sin.
Christ clearly laid down an additional rule. Thus we are made aware that we cannot obtain what we ask regarding our own trespasses unless we do the same for those who trespass against us. This is why he says elsewhere: “The measure you give will be the measure you get.” And the servant who, after his master forgives all his debt, refuses to forgive his fellow servant is thrown into prison. Because he refused to be kind to his fellow servant, he lost the favor his master had given him. We make an act of contrition and of sincere love towards our enemies and all who have caused us any harm. We wholeheartedly love them in the Lord.
Lead us not into temptation. In the sixth petition, we ask God to keep us from falling into temptations. We should not trust our own strength; we should fear our malice and lack of constancy, lest these induce us to wander away from his grace and friendship.
Deliver us from evil. In the seventh petition, we ask for deliverance from the evils that afflict us and may set us away from his fatherly love. Our hearts are filled with hope as we remember the Lord telling the disciples, “What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread?” (Lk 11:11). We ask to be liberated from the guilt and punishment of sin, from all snares that the devil and the world set up against us.[8]
* * *
Now, we are going to recite the Lord’s Prayer before Communion. It will suffice for us to savor these petitions with our hearts turned toward our Father and our brothers. We will, then, realize we love them more than we think we do. And relying on their help, we will feel safe. It is logical: “A brother helped by his brother is a fortress” (Prov 18:19).
Meanwhile, the priest alone develops the last petition of the Lord’s Prayer in the Embolism. He begs, on behalf of all of us, for deliverance from the power of evil:
Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil,
graciously grant peace in our days,
that, by the help of your mercy,
we may be always free from sin
and safe from all distress,
as we await the blessed hope
and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
We join in that petition with our acclamation, which is also a doxology or hymn of praise to God:
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and for ever.[9]
Footnotes:
[1]Cf. G. Chevrot, Our Mass, p. 218.
[2]De Baptismo Parvulorum, 1,24,34.
[3]St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, Christ Is Passing By, no. 83.
[4]Cf. GIRM, no. 56; GIRM3, no. 80.
[5]Embolism means extension.
[6]St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, The Forge , no. 1.
[7]Cf. GIRM, no. 56a; GIRM3, no. 81.
[8]Cf. St Cyprian of Carthage (200‑258), The Lord’s Prayer 12‑18; cf. also J. Card. Bona (seventeenth century), De Sacrificio Missae, V, 10.
[9]Taken from the Didaché (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), (year 110), chap. X.