The Lord’s Prayer, line by line

The Lord’s Prayer, also called the Our Father, is the prayer Christians of every tradition share. It is short enough to learn as a child and deep enough that writers from the early Church onward have written whole books on it. Jesus gave it as a pattern as well as a text: it shows what to ask for, and in what order.

Two versions, two settings

The prayer appears twice in the Gospels. In Matthew it stands at the center of the Sermon on the Mount, right after Jesus warns against praying to be seen and against “vain repetitions” (Matthew 6:5–8).

In Luke the disciples see Jesus praying and ask, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).

Luke’s version is shorter and says “sins” where Matthew says “debts.” In the earliest manuscripts of Luke it is shorter still: it opens simply with “Father” and has no line about God’s will or deliverance from evil. Many modern translations print that shorter text; the World English Bible, Catholic Edition, used on this site, follows later manuscripts in which Luke’s wording was brought closer to Matthew’s. Either way, the shape of the prayer is the same: first God’s name, kingdom and will, then our bread, forgiveness and protection.

Line by line

Our Father in heaven

The prayer is plural from its first word. Even prayed alone, it is prayed as one of a family. Calling God “Father” was not unknown in Israel, but it was characteristic of Jesus, who in Gethsemane prayed “Abba, Father” (Mark 14:36), using the Aramaic word for father spoken within a family. Paul says the Spirit gives believers the same voice (Romans 8:15). “In heaven” does not put God far away; it names Him as Lord over everything.

May Your name be kept holy

The traditional English is hallowed be Thy name. In Scripture a name stands for the person as he or she is known. Through Ezekiel, God says “I will sanctify My great name” (Ezekiel 36:23): the petition asks God to act so that He is known and honored as He truly is, and it commits the one praying to live in a way that does not dishonor that name.

Let Your Kingdom come

The Kingdom of God was the center of Jesus’ preaching: “God’s Kingdom is at hand!” (Mark 1:15). Christians understand it as already present in Jesus and still to come in fullness. To pray for it is to ask for God’s reign of justice and peace, and to hope for the world’s final renewal.

Let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Jesus prayed this line Himself on the night before He died: “Your desire be done” (Matthew 26:42). It is not resignation. It asks that the world, and the one praying, come to match the goodness of what God wants.

Give us today our daily bread

The prayer now turns to human needs, starting with the most basic. It recalls the manna in the wilderness, given “a day’s portion every day” (Exodus 16:4), and the request in Proverbs for neither poverty nor riches (Proverbs 30:8–9). The Greek word translated “daily” is very rare, and its meaning is debated: for today, for the coming day, or needed for life. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate rendered it two ways, quotidianum (daily) in Luke and supersubstantialem (supersubstantial) in Matthew. Catholic and Orthodox tradition hears in it the bread of the Eucharist as well as ordinary food; Protestant interpreters usually stress God’s provision for everyday needs. Both readings agree that the prayer asks for enough, today, and trusts God for tomorrow.

Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors

Sin is pictured as a debt that cannot be repaid. This is the only petition Jesus comments on afterward: forgiving others and being forgiven are bound together (Matthew 6:14–15), a point He presses in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:21–35). The traditional English trespasses, familiar from the Book of Common Prayer and the Catholic form of the prayer, is the word used in those two verses after the prayer.

Forgiving someone does not mean pretending a wrong did not happen, and it never requires staying in danger. For many people it is a long process rather than a single moment. See the Forgiveness page for more.

Bring us not into temptation

The Greek word means a test or trial as well as a temptation to sin. The petition cannot mean that God lures people into evil: “He Himself tempts no one” (James 1:13). It asks God not to let us be overcome. In Gethsemane Jesus told His disciples, “Watch and pray, that you don’t enter into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). In recent years the Catholic bishops of France (2017) and Italy (in a missal introduced from 2020) adopted wordings along the lines of do not let us enter into temptation and do not abandon us to temptation; the English Mass keeps the traditional lead us not into temptation.

But deliver us from the evil one

The Greek can mean “evil” in general or “the evil one,” Satan. Older English versions say deliver us from evil; many modern ones, including the text on this site, say “the evil one,” as in Jesus’ prayer in John: “keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15). Both readings are ancient, and the prayer covers both.

“For Yours is the Kingdom …”: the doxology

In the World English Bible, Catholic Edition, Matthew’s version ends “For Yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.” Some Bibles print these words and others place them in a footnote, for a textual reason:

• They are not found in the earliest Greek manuscripts of Matthew, and they are not in Luke at all. The Latin Vulgate does not have them.
• They appear in many later manuscripts, and from there in the King James Version and its successors.
• A short form, praising God’s power and glory, already appears in the Didache, an early Christian manual of instruction, which also tells believers to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day.

Most scholars think the doxology was added as the prayer was used in worship. Closing a prayer with praise was a Jewish custom, and the wording echoes David’s prayer: “Yours is the kingdom, LORD, and You are exalted as head above all” (1 Chronicles 29:11). Whether or not it was part of what Matthew wrote, it is a fitting, scriptural ending, and Christians have prayed it for well over a thousand years.

How Catholics and Protestants pray it

Catholics pray the Our Father at every Mass, after the Eucharistic Prayer and before Communion. The priest then continues with a short prayer for deliverance from evil and for peace, and the congregation responds with the doxology. In the Rosary and in private prayer the Our Father usually ends at deliver us from evil. Amen.

Orthodox Christians pray it in the Divine Liturgy, and the priest adds the doxology in a Trinitarian form, giving glory to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Protestants of most traditions pray it with the doxology at the end. Wording varies: many Presbyterian and Reformed churches say debts, while Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist churches usually say trespasses, and some congregations use modern ecumenical versions.

Some Christians hesitate to repeat a set prayer because of Jesus’ warning against “vain repetitions.” His warning is aimed at heaping up words to win a hearing (Matthew 6:7–8), not at repetition as such, since He gave this prayer to be prayed. The way to pray it well is the same in every tradition: slowly, meaning each line.

Praying it slowly

Try praying the Lord’s Prayer one line at a time, pausing after each petition to add your own words: a person you need to forgive, a need for today, a test you are facing. The prayer reflection worksheet offers a printable format, and the guide to lectio divina describes another slow way of praying with Scripture.