The Our Father

by Saint Louis de Montfort

       Each word of the Lord’s Prayer is a tribute we pay to the perfections of God. We honor His fertility by the name of Father:

FATHER,
Thou
Who throughout eternity
Dost beget a Son
Who is God like Thee–
Eternal, consubstantial with Thee
Who is the very same essence
As Thee;
And is of like power
And goodness
And wisdom
As Thou art...
Father and Son
Who from Thy mutual love
Spirate the Holy Spirit
Who is God like unto Thee;
Three Persons
But one GOD.

       Our Father – this means that He is the Father of mankind because He has created us and continues to sustain us. He is also the merciful Father of sinners, the Father Who is the friend of the just and the glorious Father of the blessed in Heaven.

       When we say Who art, by these words we pay tribute to the infinity and immensity and fullness of God’s essence. God is rightly called “He Who is”, that is to say, He exists of necessity, essentially, and eternally, because He is the Being of beings and the cause of all beings. He possesses within Himself, in a supereminent degree, the perfections of all beings and He is in all of them by His essence, by His presence and by His power, but without being bounded by their limitations. We honor His sublimity and His glory and His majesty by the words Who art in Heaven, that is to say, “Who is seated as on a throne, holding sway over all men by Thy justice.”

       When we say hallowed be Thy name, we worship God’s holiness; and we make obeisance to His Kingship and bow to the justice of His laws by the words Thy Kingdom come, praying that men will obey Him on earth as the angels do in Heaven.

       We show our trust in His Providence by asking for our daily bread, and we appeal to His mercy when we ask for the forgiveness of our sins.

       We look to His great power when we beg Him not to lead us into temptation, and we show our faith in His goodness by our hope that He will deliver us from evil.

       The Son of God has always glorified His Father by His works and He came into the world to teach men to give glory to Him. He showed men how to praise Him by this prayer which He taught us with His own lips. It is our duty, therefore, to say it often – we should say it reverently and attentively and in the spirit in which Our Lord taught it.

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