Explanation of the Prayers and Ceremonies of Holy Mass, Dom Prosper Guéranger - The Lord’s Prayer

Our Lord has told us: “When you would pray say: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, etc., etc.”  What better occasion could there be than the present, of making this prayer to God?  So the Priest now, is going to let us hear the Pater noster. ... As in our own day, so in all past ages, the Lord’s Prayer has had a place in the course of the Holy Sacrifice, for we meet with it in every Liturgy and in every Canon of the Mass.  Moreover, it is used by the Church, on all solemn occasions; it is our support; it is the pledge which Our Lord has given us, saying: when you would pray, say: Pater noster.  Holy Church preludes this Prayer, with these magnificent words: Praeceptis salutaribus moniti, et divina institutione formati, audemus dicere.  Yes, if we dare to speak, if we formulate the petitions which follow, it is because we rely on the very precept which we have received so to pray, a precept given us by our great Master for our salvation.  Thus have we been instructed by His own Divine Mouth, so we dare to say, audemus dicere: Pater noster.

The Priest is about to present to God successively, the seven Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. The first three regard God Himself and treat, therefore, of the Love of Benevolence, thus does Our Lord set us on the road of the purest love. Pater noster qui es in coelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum, hallowed be thy name, that is to say, let all honour and respect be paid to it as it deserves, because that is thy very right. - Adveniat regnum tuum. Thy kingdom come that is, we beg that thy reign be established in all and over all, because thou art truly king. Fiat voluntas tua sicut in coelo et in terra. Thy Will be done on earth; that is to say, by men, as it is in heaven, by the Angels and the blessed.

Having thus prayed, following the teaching of Our Lord Himself, that God’s kingdom may come, that His Glory may be realised in all creation, the Priest adds the other four Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, which treat of that which is necessary for ourselves. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie. Here we ask for our daily bread; God so understands it, and Our Lord thus points out to us, by bidding us say only daily bread, that it is useless to be preoccupied without cause, seeing that we do not even know if we shall be alive to-morrow. But we are asking bread, not for the body only, but also for the soul, which likewise needs food. For this reason, one of the Evangelists has it: panem nostrum supersubstantialem da nobis hodie (Matth. vi. 11). Lo! this Bread is on the Altar; there it is to feed our souls; and now is the moment to ask It of God. - Then, as we are sinners, it behoves us to beg for pardon Et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris; yea, forgive what ever we have done against thee. And we ourselves mark the measure of this our pardon, by begging Him to forgive us, as we forgive them that trespass against us. - Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, and lead us not into temptation, that is to say, ward and defend us when temptation strikes us. Although it be in the designs of God that we should thus be tried, in order that we may gain merit, still may we beseech Him to spare us therein, for we are weak and may so easily fall.

Sed libera nos a malo, but deliver us from evil. Here two things must be understood: we ask to be delivered from evil, from the evil one, that is the devil, who is ever seeking to make us fall into evil. Moreover, if we have committed it, we beg of God mercifully to withdraw us from its grasp.

* “This does not mean that man’s forgiveness is the measure of God’s, but that the more mercy we show “to others, the more will be extended to ourselves.”