CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
SECOND EDITION
Paragraphs 2801–2865
- 2801 When we say "Our" Father, we are invoking the new covenant in Jesus Christ, communion with the Holy Trinity, and the divine love which…
- 2802 "Who art in heaven" does not refer to a place but to God's majesty and his presence in the hearts of the just. Heaven, the Father's house,…
- 2803 After we have placed ourselves in the presence of God our Father to adore and to love and to bless him, the Spirit of adoption stirs up in…
- 2804 The first series of petitions carries us toward him, for his own sake: thy name, thy kingdom, thy will! It is characteristic of love to…
- 2805 The second series of petitions unfolds with the same movement as certain Eucharistic epicleses: as an offering up of our expectations, that…
- 2806 By the three first petitions, we are strengthened in faith, filled with hope, and set aflame by charity. Being creatures and still sinners,…
- 2807 The term "to hallow" is to be understood here not primarily in its causative sense (only God hallows, makes holy), but above all in an…
- 2808 In the decisive moments of his economy God reveals his name, but he does so by accomplishing his work. This work, then, is realized for us…
- 2809 The holiness of God is the inaccessible center of his eternal mystery. What is revealed of it in creation and history, Scripture calls…
- 2810 In the promise to Abraham and the oath that accompanied it, God commits himself but without disclosing his name. He begins to reveal it to…
- 2811 In spite of the holy Law that again and again their Holy God gives them - "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy" - and…
- 2812 Finally, in Jesus the name of the Holy God is revealed and given to us, in the flesh, as Savior, revealed by what he is, by his word, and…
- 2813 In the waters of Baptism, we have been "washed . . . sanctified . . . justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of…
- 2814 The sanctification of his name among the nations depends inseparably on our life and our prayer : We ask God to hallow his name, which by…
- 2815 This petition embodies all the others. Like the six petitions that follow, it is fulfilled by the prayer of Christ . Prayer to our Father…
- 2816 In the New Testament, the word basileia can be translated by "kingship" (abstract noun), "kingdom" (concrete noun) or "reign" (action…
- 2817 This petition is " Marana tha ," the cry of the Spirit and the Bride: "Come, Lord Jesus." Even if it had not been prescribed to pray for…
- 2818 In the Lord's Prayer, "thy kingdom come" refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God through Christ's return. But, far from…
- 2819 "The kingdom of God [is] righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." The end-time in which we live is the age of the outpouring of…
- 2820 By a discernment according to the Spirit, Christians have to distinguish between the growth of the Reign of God and the progress of the…
- 2821 This petition is taken up and granted in the prayer of Jesus which is present and effective in the Eucharist; it bears its fruit in new…
- 2822 Our Father "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." He "is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any…
- 2823 "He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ . . . to gather up all things…
- 2824 In Christ, and through his human will, the will of the Father has been perfectly fulfilled once for all. Jesus said on entering into this…
- 2825 "Although he was a Son, [Jesus] learned obedience through what he suffered." How much more reason have we sinful creatures to learn…
- 2826 By prayer we can discern "what is the will of God" and obtain the endurance to do it. Jesus teaches us that one enters the kingdom of…
- 2827 "If any one is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him." Such is the power of the Church's prayer in the name of her Lord,…
- 2828 " Give us ": The trust of children who look to their Father for everything is beautiful. "He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the…
- 2829 "Give us" also expresses the covenant. We are his and he is ours, for our sake. But this "us" also recognizes him as the Father of all men…
- 2830 " Our bread ": The Father who gives us life cannot not but give us the nourishment life requires - all appropriate goods and blessings,…
- 2831 But the presence of those who hunger because they lack bread opens up another profound meaning of this petition. The drama of hunger in the…
- 2832 As leaven in the dough, the newness of the kingdom should make the earth "rise" by the Spirit of Christ. This must be shown by the…
- 2833 "Our" bread is the "one" loaf for the "many." In the Beatitudes "poverty" is the virtue of sharing: it calls us to communicate and share…
- 2834 "Pray and work." "Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you." Even when we have done our work, the…
- 2835 This petition, with the responsibility it involves, also applies to another hunger from which men are perishing: "Man does not live by…
- 2836 " This day " is also an expression of trust taught us by the Lord, which we would never have presumed to invent. Since it refers above all…
- 2837 "Daily" ( epiousios ) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Taken in a temporal sense, this word is a pedagogical repetition of "this…
- 2838 This petition is astonishing. If it consisted only of the first phrase, "And forgive us our trespasses," it might have been included,…
- 2839 With bold confidence, we began praying to our Father. In begging him that his name be hallowed, we were in fact asking him that we…
- 2840 Now - and this is daunting - this outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed…
- 2841 This petition is so important that it is the only one to which the Lord returns and which he develops explicitly in the Sermon on the…
- 2842 This "as" is not unique in Jesus' teaching: "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect"; "Be merciful, even as…
- 2843 Thus the Lord's words on forgiveness, the love that loves to the end, become a living reality. The parable of the merciless servant, which…
- 2844 Christian prayer extends to the forgiveness of enemies , transfiguring the disciple by configuring him to his Master. Forgiveness is a…
- 2845 There is no limit or measure to this essentially divine forgiveness, whether one speaks of "sins" as in Luke (11:4), "debts" as in Matthew…
- 2846 This petition goes to the root of the preceding one, for our sins result from our consenting to temptation; we therefore ask our Father not…
- 2847 The Holy Spirit makes us discern between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, and temptation, which leads to sin…
- 2848 "Lead us not into temptation" implies a decision of the heart : "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. . . . No one…
- 2849 Such a battle and such a victory become possible only through prayer. It is by his prayer that Jesus vanquishes the tempter, both at the…
- 2850 The last petition to our Father is also included in Jesus' prayer: "I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to…
- 2851 In this petition, evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The devil ( dia-bolos…
- 2852 "A murderer from the beginning, . . . a liar and the father of lies," Satan is "the deceiver of the whole world." Through him sin and death…
- 2853 Victory over the "prince of this world" was won once for all at the Hour when Jesus freely gave himself up to death to give us his life.…
- 2854 When we ask to be delivered from the Evil One, we pray as well to be freed from all evils, present, past, and future, of which he is the…
- 2855 The final doxology, "For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever," takes up again, by inclusion, the first three…
- 2856 "Then, after the prayer is over you say 'Amen,' which means 'So be it,' thus ratifying with our 'Amen' what is contained in the prayer that…
- 2857 In the Our Father, the object of the first three petitions is the glory of the Father: the sanctification of his name, the coming of the…
- 2858 By asking "hallowed be thy name" we enter into God's plan, the sanctification of his name - revealed first to Moses and then in Jesus - by…
- 2859 By the second petition, the Church looks first to Christ's return and the final coming of the Reign of God. It also prays for the growth of…
- 2860 In the third petition, we ask our Father to unite our will to that of his Son, so as to fulfill his plan of salvation in the life of the…
- 2861 In the fourth petition, by saying "give us," we express in communion with our brethren our filial trust in our heavenly Father. "Our daily…
- 2862 The fifth petition begs God's mercy for our offences, mercy which can penetrate our hearts only if we have learned to forgive our enemies,…
- 2863 When we say "lead us not into temptation" we are asking God not to allow us to take the path that leads to sin. This petition implores the…
- 2864 In the last petition, "but deliver us from evil," Christians pray to God with the Church to show forth the victory, already won by Christ,…
- 2865 By the final "Amen," we express our "fiat" concerning the seven petitions: "So be it."