Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Father - Father (appeal is a form of the vocative case). He who art in heaven is the one who exists (lives) in Heaven, that is, the Heavenly One (who is like him). Esi is the form of the verb “to be” in the 2nd person singular. numbers of the present tense: in modern language we say you are, and in Church Slavonic - you are. Literal translation of the beginning of the prayer: O our Father, He who is in Heaven! Any literal translation is not entirely accurate; the words: Father Who is in Heaven, Heavenly Father - more closely convey the meaning of the first words of the Lord's Prayer. Let it be holy - let it be holy and glorified. As in heaven and on earth - as in heaven, so on earth (as - as). Essential - necessary for existence, for life. Give it - give it. Today - today. Like - how. From the evil one - from evil (the words crafty, wickedness are derived from the words “bow”: something indirect, curved, crooked, like a bow. There is also the Russian word “krivda”).
This prayer is called the Lord’s Prayer because our Lord Jesus Christ Himself gave it to His disciples and all people:
It happened that when He was praying in one place and stopped, one of His disciples said to Him: Lord! Teach us to pray!
He told them:
- When you pray, say: 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 our daily bread; and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every debtor to us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (Luke 11:1-4).
Pray like this:
Our Father who art in heaven! Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done both on earth and in heaven; Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen (Matt. 6:9-13).
+ By reading the Lord's Prayer daily, let us learn what the Lord requires of us: it indicates both our needs and our main responsibilities.
Our Father... In these words we still do not ask for anything, we only cry out, turn to God and call him father.
“Saying this, we confess God, the Ruler of the universe, as our Father—and thereby we also confess that we have been removed from the state of slavery and appropriated to God as His adopted children.”
Venerable John Cassian the Roman
(Philokalia, vol. 2)
...Who art thou in Heaven... With these words we express our readiness to turn away in every possible way from attachment to earthly life as wandering and far separating us from our Father and, on the contrary, with the greatest desire to strive for the region in which our Father dwells...
“Having reached such a high degree of sons of God, we must burn with such a filial love for God that we no longer seek our own benefits, but with all desire desire the glory of Him, our Father, saying to Him: Hallowed be Thy name, by which we testify that all our desire and all joy is the glory of our Father, so that the glorious name of our Father may be glorified, reverently honored and worshiped.”
Venerable John Cassian the Roman
May Your Kingdom come - that Kingdom “by which Christ reigns in the saints, when, after taking away power over us from the Devil and driving out passions from our hearts, God begins to reign in us through the fragrance of virtues - or that which at a predetermined time is promised to all the perfect, to all the children of God, when Christ says to them: Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from creation of the world (Matthew 25:34).”
Venerable John Cassian the Roman
“The Kingdom of God is within us when God reigns in us, when the soul in its depths confesses God as its Master and submits to Him with all its might, and God sovereignly acts in it.”
Saint Theophan the Recluse
“Go into yourself, live within yourself, in the beautiful cell of your spirit - and there seek the Kingdom, as our Savior taught. If it is not yet in you, then cry out: “Our Father, Thy Kingdom come!” - and it will come when you call. The kingdom is in you. Enter into yourself, remain in your heart, for there is God. He does not leave you, but you leave Him.”
Venerable Ephraim the Syrian
Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth. “This petition means: may people be like the Angels, and just as they fulfill the will of God in heaven, so may all those living on earth do not their own, but His will. This also means: may everything in life be with us according to Your will; We commit our fate to You, believing that You arrange everything—both happiness and misfortune—for our good and are more concerned about our salvation than we ourselves.”
Venerable John Cassian the Roman
“Do not pray, let it be done according to your desires, for they do not agree with the will of God in everything. But it is better to pray as you have been taught, saying: Thy will be done on me. And in every matter ask Him in this way, for He always desires what is good and beneficial to your soul, but you do not always seek this.”
Venerable Nile of Sinai (Philokalia, vol. 2)
The words “Thy will be done” turn us to the Lord’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: Father! Oh, that You would deign to carry this cup past Me! however, not My will, but Yours be done (Luke 22:42).
Give us this day our daily bread. We ask to be given the bread necessary for food, and not in large quantities, but only for this day... So, let us learn to ask for the most necessary things for our life, but we will not ask for everything leading to abundance and luxury, for we do not know whether it is useful to us. Let us learn to ask for bread and everything necessary only for this day, so as not to become lazy in prayer and obedience to God. If we are alive the next day, we will ask for the same thing again, and so on all the days of our earthly life.
However, we must not forget the words of Christ that man will not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). It is even more important to remember the other words of the Savior: I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world (John 6:51). Thus, Christ means not only something material, necessary for a person for earthly life, but also eternal, necessary for life in the Kingdom of God: Himself, offered in Communion.
Some holy fathers interpreted the Greek expression as “supra-essential bread” and attributed it only (or primarily) to the spiritual side of life; however, the Lord's Prayer embraces both earthly and heavenly meanings.
And forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors. The Lord Himself concluded this prayer with an explanation: For if you forgive people their sins, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive people their sins, then your Father will not forgive you your sins (Matthew 6:14-15).
“The merciful Lord promises us forgiveness of our sins if we ourselves show an example of forgiveness to our brothers: forgive us, as we forgive. It is obvious that in this prayer only those who have forgiven their debtors can boldly ask for forgiveness. Whoever with all his heart does not let go of his brother who sins against him, with this prayer he will ask for himself not mercy, but condemnation: for if this prayer of his is heard, then in accordance with his example, what else should follow, if not inexorable wrath and indispensable punishment? Judgment without mercy to him who has shown no mercy (James 2:13).”
Venerable John Cassian the Roman
Here sins are called debts, because by faith and obedience to God we must fulfill His commandments, do good, and shun evil; is that what we do? By not doing the good we should do, we become debtors to God.
This expression of the Lord's Prayer is best explained by Christ's parable about the man who owed the king ten thousand talents (Matthew 18:23-35).