The Last Four Petitions

The final four petitions can be thought of as Jesus’ answer to the desires of the Christian heart:

He teaches us to ask boldly:

Our lives be nourished

We be healed of sin

Victory in the struggle of good over evil

Jesus tells us to ask with the confidence of children who rely on their parents for basic care.

Not monthly bread, not yearly bread – why?

This petition emphasizes our radical dependence on God.

We ask only for bread for today; tomorrow we will have to ask again.

Every day we must acknowledge our need for God’s natural gifts.

We confess our sinfulness and our need for God’s mercy.

We can pray for God’s forgiveness because Jesus has revealed to us a Father who is rich in compassion and full of mercy

We know that through Christ’s sacrifice our sins have been forgiven.

Our request to be forgiven will not be heard unless we forgive others.

Forgiving as God forgives includes forgiving our enemies. It ain’t easy. We need the Spirit.

A lack of forgiveness hardens our hearts.

God pours out forgiveness, but that forgiveness cannot flow into a hardened heart.

Only when we forgive others and confess our own sins are our hearts softened and opened to God’s grace.

The original Greek phrase means both:

“Do not allow us to enter”

“Do not allow us to yield”

We are asking God not to allow us to enter situations of evil, and

Not to let us yield to temptation

(God would never lead us into evil.)

Temptations are invitations or enticements (with an appealing promise or reward) to commit an unwise or immoral act

The Holy Spirit does “not let us yield to temptation” by helping us determine what is truly good from what is evil in a tempting disguise.

We move away from our personal struggle with evil (our trespasses) to pray with the whole Church about the suffering of the world.

The focus of the petition is the deliverance of the whole human family from all evils.

We pray for the world’s full deliverance from evil in the Second Coming of Christ (Parousia).

The whole prayer deals with issues that, while also personal, have a universal dimension

Jesus taught us to pray for us, not me.

Even when a Christian prays the Lord’s Prayer in private, he or she prays in communion with the whole Church for the needs of the entire human family.