In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 “This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread; 12 and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; 13 and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one. 14 If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.
Jesus teaches his disciples to pray with simplicity, trust, and sincerity. He first warns them not to “babble like the pagans” (v. 7). This does not forbid repeated prayer or long prayer when it comes from faith and love. Jesus himself prayed at length, and the Church continues to pray with repeated words in the Psalms, litanies, and other forms of worship. The warning is against empty words, as though God must be worn down, impressed, or forced to listen.
The reason is simple: “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (v. 8). Christian prayer begins from the knowledge that God is Father. He is not distant, indifferent, or hostile. He already knows our needs, yet he still wants us to come to him. Prayer does not inform God of something he does not know. It opens the heart to receive what he gives and shapes us to desire what is holy.
Jesus then gives the prayer that Christians have treasured from the beginning: “Our Father in heaven” (v. 9). The word “our” matters. Jesus does not teach each disciple to pray only as an isolated individual, but as a member of the family of God. Even when we pray alone, we pray as children joined to one another before the same Father.
The first petitions turn our attention to God before they turn to our needs. “Hallowed be your name” asks that God’s name be honored as holy (v. 9). In Scripture, God’s name stands for God himself as he reveals his presence, power, and holiness. To pray this is to ask that God be known, loved, worshiped, and glorified.
To pray “your kingdom come” is to ask that God’s saving rule take fuller possession of the world and of our lives (v. 10). God’s kingdom is his saving rule: God reigning over human hearts, defeating sin and evil, gathering his people to himself, and bringing creation toward the fullness of life he intends. To pray that his will be done “on earth as in heaven” is to ask that human life be brought into harmony with God’s purpose (v. 10). We do God’s will by trusting ourselves to the Father, obeying the commandments of Christ, choosing what is true and good, and allowing God’s grace to shape our thoughts, words, and actions.
Only after these petitions does Jesus teach us to ask for our needs. “Give us today our daily bread” is a humble request for what sustains both physical and spiritual life (v. 11). We are creatures who depend on God each day. This petition recalls Israel’s dependence on God in the wilderness, where the people received manna one day at a time. It also teaches the disciple to ask the Father for what is needed on the journey of faith.
Jesus then joins our need for mercy to our willingness to forgive: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (v. 12). Here “debts” means sins, the real offenses by which we stand in need of God’s mercy. Jesus makes this point explicit after the prayer: “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you” (v. 14). Forgiveness belongs to the heart of prayer because a person who receives mercy must also become merciful.
This does not mean that forgiving others is always easy, immediate, or without pain. It does mean that a closed and vengeful heart resists the very mercy it asks from God. The forgiven disciple is called to let God’s mercy pass through him to others. Without that, prayer can become words that have not yet reached the heart.
The final petition asks God not to subject us “to the final test,” but to deliver us “from the evil one” (v. 13). The prayer recognizes human weakness and the reality of evil. The disciple does not rely only on personal strength. We ask the Father to guard us in every trial, deliver us from evil, and bring us safely through whatever could lead us away from eternal life with him.
The prayer Jesus teaches is brief, but it contains the whole direction of Christian life. It begins with the Father, seeks his holiness, kingdom, and will, asks for daily sustenance, begs for forgiveness, commits us to forgive, and entrusts us to God’s protection. In this prayer, Jesus teaches us not only what to say, but how to stand before God: as trusting children who desire the Father’s will and depend upon his mercy.
Father in heaven, teach us to pray with trust, sincerity, and humility. May your name be honored, your kingdom come, and your will be done in our lives. Give us what we need today, forgive our sins, help us to forgive others, and deliver us from evil. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The New American Bible, Revised Edition. Washington, DC: Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2011. Matthew 6:7-15 and notes on Matthew 6:7, 6:9, 6:9-10, 6:11, 6:12, 6:13, and 6:14-15.
- Hahn, Scott, and Curtis Mitch. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010. Pages 17-18, notes on Matthew 6:7, 6:9-13, 6:9, 6:11, and 6:13.
- Casciaro, José María, gen. ed. The Navarre Bible: New Testament, Expanded Edition. Dublin: Four Courts Press; New York: Scepter Publishers, 2008. Pages 65-66, notes on Matthew 6:7-15.
- Brown, Raymond E., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, eds. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990. Pages 644-645, paragraphs 38-39.
- Aguilar Chiu, José Enrique, Richard J. Clifford, Carol J. Dempsey, Eileen M. Schuller, Thomas D. Stegman, and Ronald D. Witherup, eds. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. New York: Paulist Press, 2018. Pages 922-923.
- Collins, John J., Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid OP, and Donald Senior CP, eds. The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century. Third Fully Revised Edition, with a Foreword by Pope Francis. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2022. Pages 1184-1185.
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