"Our Father, who art in Heaven"
Do we call God Father because He created us all?
No, for this reason we can call Him the Creator, or the Creator. The conversion of the Father presupposes a very definite personal relationship between the children and the Father, which must be expressed primarily in likeness to the Father. God is Love, therefore our whole life should also become an expression of love for God and for the people around us. If this does not happen, then we risk becoming like those about whom Jesus Christ said: Your father is the devil; and you want to do the lusts of your father (John 8:44 ). The Old Testament Jews lost the right to call God Father. The prophet Jeremiah speaks about this with bitterness: And I said: ... you will call Me your father and will not depart from Me. But truly, just as a woman betrays her friend treacherously, so you, O house of Israel, have dealt treacherously with Me, says the Lord. …Return, you rebellious children: I will heal your rebellion (Jer 3 :20-22). However, the return of the rebellious children took place only with the coming of Christ. Through Him, God has again adopted all who are ready to live according to the commandments of the Gospel.
Saint Cyril of Alexandria : “Only God himself can allow people to call God Father. He granted this right to people, making them sons of God. And despite the fact that they withdrew from Him and were in extreme anger against Him, He granted oblivion of insults and the sacrament of grace.”
Why “Our Father” and not “mine”? After all, it would seem, what could be a more personal matter for a person than turning to God?
The most important and most personal thing for a Christian is love for other people. Therefore, we are called to ask God for mercy not only for ourselves, but for all people living on Earth.
Saint John Chrysostom : “...He does not say: My Father, who art in Heaven,” but “Our Father,” and thereby commands us to offer prayers for the entire human race and never have in mind our own benefits, but always try for the benefits of our neighbor. And in this way he destroys enmity, and overthrows pride, and destroys envy, and introduces love - the mother of all good things; destroys the inequality of human affairs and shows complete equality between the king and the poor, since we all have equal participation in the highest and most necessary matters.”
Why “in Heaven” if the Church teaches that God is omnipresent?
God is truly omnipresent. But a person is always in a certain place, and not only with his body. Our thoughts also always have a certain direction. Mentioning Heaven in prayer helps to distract our mind from earthly things and direct it to Heavenly things.
Saint John Chrysostom : “When he speaks in Heaven,” with this word he does not imprison God in heaven, but distracts the one praying from the earth.”
How to correctly read the Lord's Prayer
Any appeal to God is a message that should convey a depth of understanding of one’s own feelings. The clergy believe that those “Our Father” prayers that are spoken with the fulfillment of this condition will be heard. The foundations on which the person praying must rely:
- when turning to the Heavenly Father, one must believe that the request is really directed to the Father - the only, omnipotent one, as if all hope remains only on him; the Lord must be perceived as the final authority when addressing;
- when the line “Thy kingdom come” is spoken, it is also important to give the correct message: it is necessary to repent of your sins in order to get into the Kingdom of God, according to the Monk Simeon, the lack of understanding of these lines means a lack of understanding of how to prepare for the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven, which reduces no prayer;
- lying is unacceptable when making an appeal, and often the person asking is deceived or disingenuous, it is important to understand that prayer is not just words, but a broadcast of one’s inner state (faith, love, humility in making a decision, received from a soul turned to God), falsehood when this will not allow you to get the desired result, you will be left with a feeling of emptiness and disbelief, since the miracle did not happen, the release of energy when reading the prayer did not occur;
- Orthodox prayer, according to Metropolitan St. John of Tobolsk, should be selfless; for Catholics, Baptists, and Muslims this rule also applies, and when praying, one must ask the Lord to send down the understanding that love for the Almighty is above all else, and requests should come in second place so that there is work and money, health.
When reading the prayer, it is necessary to internally renounce the worldly, to draw your soul closer to the Divine. According to the Monk Isidore Pelusiot, those who by their actions and thoughts show that they are worthy of being called “Son of God” have the right to pray when they turn to the Most High Father.
"Hallowed be thy name"
Why specifically ask for this if God is always holy anyway?
Yes, God is always holy, but we ourselves are not always holy, although we call Him Father. But can children not be like the Father? “Hallowed be your name” is a request that God help us live righteously, that is, so that His name is hallowed through our lives.
Saint John Chrysostom : “Let him be holy means let him be glorified. God has his own glory, full of all majesty and never changing. But the Savior commands the one who prays to ask that God may be glorified by our life. He said about this before: Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16 ). … Grant us,” as the Savior teaches us to pray, “to live so purely that through us everyone will glorify You.”
Print the prayer
For convenience, you can carry a printed version of the text with you. This is a suitable option for children if they have not yet fully learned the prayer. First you need to download the image to your smartphone or personal computer. Then all that remains is to print the file onto paper. To do this, just press one button (“print”).
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"Thy kingdom come"
What kingdom are we talking about? Are we asking God to become a world king?
The Kingdom of God are words that simultaneously mean two concepts here:
- The state of a renewed world after the end of the world and the Last Judgment, in which people transformed by grace and inheriting this Kingdom will live.
- The state of a person who, by fulfilling the commandments of the Gospel, has overcome the action of the passions, and through this has allowed the grace of the Holy Spirit to act in himself, which every Christian receives in the sacrament of Baptism.
Saint Theophan the Recluse : “This kingdom is the future kingdom of heaven, which will open after the end of the world and the Last Judgment of God. But in order to sincerely desire the coming of this kingdom, we must be sure that we will be awarded it along with those to whom it will be said: come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34 ). Worthy of this is the one in whom, during this still life, the reign of sin, passions and the devil has been stopped. The suppression of this kingdom is accomplished by the action of grace through faith in the Lord Savior. The believer surrenders himself to the Lord, promising Him to live holy and blameless. For this, in the Sacrament of Baptism, the grace of the Holy Spirit is given, reviving him to new life; from that moment it is no longer sin that reigns in him, but grace, teaching him every good thing and strengthening him to do it. This is the kingdom of grace, about which the Lord said: the kingdom of God is within you. The future kingdom is the kingdom of glory, and this is the spiritual kingdom, the kingdom of grace. The Lord's Prayer embraces both kingdoms together. Otherwise, he who desires the speedy coming of the future kingdom, but has not become a son of the kingdom of grace, will wish for the end of the world to come sooner, and the Last Judgment, at which he will inevitably find himself on the side of those who will hear: depart from me, cursed into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angel."
“Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth”
Doesn’t God carry out His will on earth even without such a request from us?
The will of God is carried out on earth not only by His direct action, but also through us, Christians. If we live according to the commandments of the Gospel, it means we are fulfilling the will of God. If not, then this will will remain unfulfilled in the place where we did not fulfill it. And then - through us - evil enters the world. Therefore, with the words thy will be done, we ask God to protect us from such trouble, and to direct our lives to the fulfillment of His good will.
St. Augustine : “Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth. Angels serve You in heaven, so may we also serve You on earth. The angels in heaven do not insult You, and let us not insult You on earth. How they do Your will; let us do the same. “And what are we praying for here, if not to be kind to us?” For the will of God then happens in us when we do it; and this means being kind.”
Download a picture with a prayer to your phone
To always have a text at hand that allows you to contact God, you can install an image with a prayer on your phone’s desktop. There are no restrictions on whether the modern version or the Church Slavonic version will be used. The picture can be downloaded from any online resource or made yourself in a photo editor by superimposing words on the image of the desired format.
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“Give us this day our daily bread”
What do the words “daily bread” and “today” mean?
“Essential” means necessary for our existence; “today” means today. So this is a petition for what we most need at this moment, for today. The word “bread” was understood by the holy fathers here in two meanings: bread as food; and bread as the Eucharist.
Saint Simeon of Thessalonica : “Although we ask for heavenly things, we are mortal and, like people, we also ask for bread to support our being, knowing that this too comes from You. By asking only for bread, we do not ask for what is superfluous, but only for what is necessary for us for the present day, since we have been taught not to worry about tomorrow, because You care for us today, and you will care for us tomorrow and always.
But give us this day our other daily bread—the living, heavenly bread, the all-holy body of the living Word. This is our daily bread: because it strengthens and sanctifies the soul and body, and whoever eats it will not have life in himself, but whoever eats it will live forever (John 6:51—54)».
Read online text in Russian full version
When the words of appeal to God are at the stage of study, you should keep the source book with notes at hand. It will gradually become easier to read the Lord’s Prayer in Russian; the prayer is easy to remember. But it is recommended to memorize it completely first. Then you can pronounce the shortened version. The clergy believe that it makes no difference how long the appeal to God is pronounced, since the Almighty already knows what the person asking needs.
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“And forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors.”
Does God forgive sins only to those who have forgiven their offenders? Why shouldn't he forgive everyone?
Resentment and revenge are not inherent in God. At any moment, He is ready to accept and forgive everyone who turns to Him. But remission of sins is possible only where a person has renounced sin, seen all its destructive abomination and hated it for the troubles that sin has brought into his life and into the lives of other people. And forgiveness of offenders is a direct commandment of Christ! And if we, knowing this commandment, still do not fulfill it, then we are sinning, and this sin is so pleasant and important for us that we do not want to give it up even for the sake of Christ’s commandment. With such a burden on the soul it is impossible to enter the Kingdom of God. Only it is not God who is to blame, but ourselves.
Saint John Chrysostom : “This absolution initially depends on us, and the judgment pronounced about us lies in our power. So that no one who is unreasonable, being convicted of a great or small crime, has any reason to complain about the court, the Savior makes you, the guilty one, a judge over himself and, as it were, says: what kind of judgment do you pronounce on yourself, I am the same judgment I will say about you; If you forgive your brother, then you will receive the same benefit from Me.”
The main idea of the Lord's Prayer. History of Prayer
Previously, various representatives of the Orthodox Church in different countries made attempts to decipher the message given by God. The text was previously divided into separate fragments - phrases, words and phrases, which were analyzed in search of hidden meaning. Considering that the Lord's Prayer is common to all religions, similar attempts to decipher it were made by representatives of the Catholic Church and other faiths. It is more difficult to understand the meaning separately, but it is also important to understand what message is conveyed not only by a single word, but also by the full version of the prayer.
Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov) also asked similar questions. With God's help, he managed to find the answer - the main idea of the Lord's Prayer boils down to the need for complete unity with the Almighty. At the same time, one’s own will ceases to exist; the need to fulfill the will of the Lord becomes paramount. Any alienation from it is evidence of damage to faith.
The Lord is the only source of blessings, of all things.
When the need arises to contact him through prayer, the person asking accepts this condition and directs his soul to the Almighty. At the moment, the text being read is a way of communication between a person and the Lord. Requests are addressed to him: “give”, “deliver”, “leave”.
When interpreted, another thought follows from this thought - a new attitude towards the world, which is formed on the basis of the acquired meaning of the words read. Contrary to the usual interpretation of the text of the prayer about earthliness, the need to bring the Kingdom of God to Earth, a new message arises: it is necessary, on the contrary, to rise above everything worldly, to renounce, turning to the Lord.
There is a third message running through the entire text of Our Father; it is less obvious and therefore difficult to discern - this is the salvation of the soul through turning to the Lord. At the same time, forgiveness is mentioned, and it is said about the need to forgive the offenders yourself before the person asking turns to the Almighty.
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Does God tempt anyone or lead anyone into temptation?
God, of course, does not tempt anyone. But we are not able to overcome temptations without His help. If we, receiving this gracious help, suddenly decide that we can live virtuously without Him, then God takes His grace away from us. But He does this not for the sake of revenge, but so that we can be convinced from bitter experience of our own powerlessness before sin, and again turn to Him for help.
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk : “With this word: “Do not lead us into temptation,” we pray to God that He will preserve us with His grace from the temptation of the world, the flesh and the devil. And although we fall into temptations, we ask that he does not allow us to be overcome by them, but helps us to overcome and conquer them. From this it is clear that without God's help we are powerless and weak. If we ourselves could resist temptation, we would not be commanded to ask for help in this. By this we learn, as soon as we feel a temptation coming upon us, to immediately pray to God and ask Him for help. From this we learn not to rely on ourselves and our own strength, but on God.”
Who is this evil one? Or is it evil? How to correctly understand this word in the context of prayer?
The word wicked is the opposite in meaning to the word straight . Onion (as a weapon), from the beam of the river, the famous Pushkin's bow omorye - all these are words related to the word onion in the sense that they denote a certain curvature, something indirect, twisted. In the Lord's Prayer, the devil is called the evil one, who was originally created as a bright angel, but by his falling away from God he distorted his own nature and distorted its natural movements. Any of his actions also became distorted, that is, crafty, indirect, incorrect.
Saint John Chrysostom : “Christ here calls the devil evil, commanding us to wage irreconcilable warfare against him, and showing that he is not such by nature. Evil does not depend on nature, but on freedom. And the fact that the devil is primarily called evil is due to the extraordinary amount of evil that is found in him, and because he, without being offended by anything from us, wages an irreconcilable war against us. That is why the Savior did not say: deliver us from the evil ones, but from the evil one, and thereby teaches us never to be angry with our neighbors for the insults that we sometimes suffer from them, but to turn all our enmity against the devil, as the culprit of all angry."
On the screensaver there is a fragment spbpda/wwww.flickr.com
