Review article
The Our Father. Biblical-moral reflection
Marinko Perković
; Universitsy of Sarajevo - Catholic Faculty of Theology, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
This article deals with the Our Father, the prayer that Jesus bequeathed to us.
To pray and live in an honest way this faithful, correct, steady, pious and humble prayer
is a sure path to sanctity. Starting from this fact, the article begins by discussing the
Our Father in a general way, concluding that the Lord’s Prayer sums up the essence of
the whole Gospel. It contains everything that Christians should believe and that they
should live. This becomes clear in the second part of the article, which deals with all
seven petitions in the Our Father as it is recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. The article deals
with Matthew’s version of the Our Father, even though the prayer can also be found
in Luke’s Gospel (though with five petitions), because Matthew’s version, like all of his
Gospel, is more morally oriented. After dealing with each petition, the author offers
some insights and conclusions. For example, the Our Father is theologically powerful,
but at the same time demanding and dangerous. It is a prayer that can be used as the
framework for a profound examination of conscience. Because the Our Father is so important for a healthy moral-spiritual life and because it is such an effective prayer,
we should be thankful to Jesus for this precious gift. And the best way of showing this
thankfulness is reverently to pray the Our Father.
Keywords
Our Father; Sermon on the Mount; God’s name; God’s kingdom; God’s will; bread; forgiveness; leading into temptation; delivering from evil and Evil; moral and spiritual life; thankfulness to God.
Hrčak ID:
266496
URI
Publication date:
31.1.2013.
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