The Our Father: the Catholic Text, the Bible Passage and the Seven Petitions

The Our Father is the prayer that Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself taught. The priest prays it at every Holy Mass after the Canon, at baptism he says it with the godparents, and on the rosary every large bead belongs to it. This guide gives you the Catholic text in English and Latin, shows the two Bible passages in St Matthew and St Luke in the Douay-Rheims translation, and explains the seven petitions as the Roman Catechism interprets them.

What is the Catholic text of the Our Father?

In its Catholic form the Our Father begins with ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name’ and ends with ‘and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.’ It contains seven petitions, as the Gospel of St Matthew hands them down.

Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum: adveniat regnum tuum: fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie: et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris: et ne nos inducas in tentationem: sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

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; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Latin according to the Breviarium Romanum. English in the traditional version used in our prayer companion.

The English text is the same as in our guide to the Rosary with all the prayers. It follows the Latin clause by clause: debita nostra is ‘our trespasses’, a malo ‘from evil’. The Catholic Bible translation of Allioli, whose fourth edition appeared in Landshut in 1839 with the approbation of the Apostolic See, words the same passages in older German, just as the Douay-Rheims Bible does in older English. The sense is the same; only the language is older.

Where is the Our Father found in the Bible?

The Our Father appears twice in the Bible: in St Matthew 6:9–13, in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, and in St Luke 11:2–4, after a disciple had asked: ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’ St Luke gives a shorter version with five petitions.

One word in the Latin stands out. Where the Church prays ‘daily bread’, the Vulgate has supersubstantialem in St Matthew and quotidianum in St Luke. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910, St Jerome replaced the older quotidianum with supersubstantialem in St Matthew and left it standing in St Luke. Allioli translates ‘daily bread’ both times and in his note gives as the literal rendering ‘our bread belonging to our being (our need)’ (translated from the German).

Why does the Our Father have seven petitions?

The Our Father has seven petitions: according to St Augustine, three for the glory of God and four for our own salvation and that of our neighbour. Whoever prays rightly, says Augustine, can ask for nothing that is not contained in this prayer. The order shows what is to be asked for first.

In his note on Mt 6:9 Allioli calls the Our Father ‘a model of prayer which, without many words, contains the right disposition’ (translated from the German). St Thomas Aquinas goes a step further. For him the Lord’s Prayer is the most perfect prayer, because it asks not only for what is right but also in the right order.

‘In the Lord’s Prayer we ask not only for all that we can rightly desire, but also in the order in which it is to be desired. So this prayer not only teaches us to ask, but also shapes all our desire.’

Thomas Aquinas: Summa theologiae II-II, q. 83, a. 9. Our translation from the Latin.

The Roman Catechism, published by order of Pope St Pius V after the Council of Trent, gives the same reason for the order: God’s glory comes first, for it is to be preferred to everything created. The fourth and the following petitions, for what body and soul need, are subordinate to the first, just as the goods of earthly life are ordered to the divine. According to the same Catechism, the addition ‘on earth as it is in heaven’ belongs not only to the third petition but to all of the first three.

What do the seven petitions of the Our Father mean?

The seven petitions of the Our Father ask for the hallowing of God’s name, the coming of His kingdom, the fulfilment of His will, our daily bread, the forgiveness of our trespasses, preservation in temptation and deliverance from evil. They are preceded by the address to the Father in heaven.

On the fourth petition the Roman Catechism notes two things. We say ‘give us’ and not ‘give me’, because Christian charity cares not only for itself but also for our neighbour. And by the bread the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is also meant. It is called daily because it is offered daily in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and because we should live so as to be worthy to receive it daily. The Catechism quotes St Ambrose on this: ‘If it is daily bread, why do you receive it only once a year?’

Does God lead us into temptation?

God leads no one into temptation in order to bring him to sin. With the sixth petition of the Our Father, the one who prays asks that God may not let him succumb to temptation and may assist him with His grace when he is tempted.

The Apostle St James writes in the Vulgate: Deus enim intentator malorum est: ipse autem neminem tentat, ‘For God is not a tempter of evils, and he tempteth no man’ (Jas 1:13). The Roman Catechism therefore explains the word ‘lead’ precisely. The German edition of 1853 says: ‘We are said to be led into temptation when we yield to temptations’ (translated from the German). To incite to evil, it says, is ‘the proper business of the devil’.

According to the Catechism, God permits even the good and devout to be tempted. But He supports them with His grace and does not abandon them. The sixth petition is therefore no reproach against God but a confession of our own weakness. Allioli sums it up thus: may God not let us come into circumstances, situations and occasions which, in our frailty, could lead us into sin.

What does ‘deliver us from evil’ mean?

With ‘deliver us from evil’, the seventh and last petition of the Our Father, the one who prays asks to be freed from sin, which according to Allioli is the origin of all other evils, and from the devil, whom the Roman Catechism at this point expressly calls the Evil One.

The Catechism gives several reasons why the devil is here called ‘the Evil One’. Among others, he led man into sin, and he wages unceasing war against us, although we have done him no harm. The singular is striking. We say ‘from evil’ and not ‘from evils’, because we attribute the wrong that others do us to Satan as its instigator. From this follows a practical rule: whoever has been wronged by a neighbour should pray not only to be delivered from this wrong, but also that God may free the neighbour himself from the hand of the devil.

If we are not heard at once, the Catechism urges patience: it is pleasing to God that we bear afflictions with patience.

When does the Church pray the Our Father?

The Church prays the Our Father at every Holy Mass, in the Breviary, at baptism and in the Rosary. At Low Mass the priest says it after the Canon with hands extended; the server says the last petition, ‘Sed libera nos a malo’, in response, and the priest closes quietly with ‘Amen’.

This is what the Ritus servandus in the 1962 Missal prescribes. The prayer is introduced with the words Praeceptis salutaribus moniti, et divina institutione formati, audemus dicere: ‘Admonished by saving precepts and formed by divine instruction, we make bold to say’ (our translation). The same words stand in the 1962 Missal in the liturgy of Good Friday, on which all present pray the Our Father in Latin with the priest (nos. 959 f.).

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, it was Pope St Gregory the Great who gave it its place immediately after the Canon. Why it is the priest who says the ‘Amen’ the Roman Catechism explains thus: as mediator between God and men, he answers that God has heard the petitions of His people.

At the baptism of a child, according to the Rituale Romanum, when all have entered the church and are going to the font, the priest says the Creed and the Our Father aloud together with the godparents. In the Rosary the Our Father lies on every large bead, as our Rosary prayer companion shows step by step.

Mentioned in this article Lava Stone Rosary, Black/Anthracite Handmade on black cord, with lava stone Hail Mary beads, matt obsidian Our Father beads, a Miraculous Medal and a St Benedict cross. View the rosary

Frequently asked questions about the Our Father