The co-authors of this book are grateful to Father Jonah Teller, o.p., Father Isaiah Beiter, o.p., Father Pius Pietrzyk, o.p., our editor Father Sebastian White, o.p., and the Magnificat staff for their assistance. Imprimi potest Very Rev. Allen Moran, o.p., Prior Provincial of the Province of St. Joseph Nihil obstat Rev. Sebastian White, o.p., Censor librorum Publisher: Romain Lizé Editor: Gabrielle Charaudeau Graphic design: Gauthier Delauné Iconography: Isabelle Mascaras Editorial assistant: Lou Trullard Proofreading: Samuel Wigutow Photo-engraving: Les Caméléons Copyright © 2025 by Magnificat Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in November 2024 by GPS Group, Slovenia. First edition: February 2025 Edition number: 24L1195 ISBN: 978-1-63967-142-7 No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For more information, write to Magnificat, PO Box 834, Yonkers, NY 10702. www.magnificat.com
Father Andrew Hofer, o.p. • Father Philip Nolan, o.p Paris • New York • Oxford • Madrid Magnificat® OUR FATHER Our Prayer of Hope
Dedicated in filial love to Our Lady of the Rosary
TEACH US TO PRAY: Learning our prayer of hope. ......................................................................................................7 CHAPTER 1: Our Father, who art in heaven......................................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 2: Hallowed be thy name. ..................................................................................................................................................25 CHAPTER 3: Thy kingdom come................................................................................................................................................................41 CHAPTER 4: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven............................................................................57 CHAPTER 5: Give us this day our daily bread....................................................................................................................71 CHAPTER 6: And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us..................................................................................................................87 CHAPTER 7: And lead us not into temptation. ............................................................................................................101 CHAPTER 8: But deliver us from evil. ........................................................................................................................................... 117 CONCLUSION: Amen.................................................................................................................................................................................................131 CREDITS. ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................140 TABLE OF CONTENTS
The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, and he did (cf. Lk 11:1-2). His teaching was simple—to pray not with many words, as the pagans do, but instead to make this short prayer, just seven petitions: Pray, then, like this: Our Father, who art in heaven… (Mt 6:9-13). The Lord’s Prayer—the “Our Father”—is a prayer for all seasons, a prayer for all people. Those who meditate on it join a school of prayer where little children sit alongside the Church’s greatest teachers and mystics. Together we learn from the Son how to pray to the Father. Everything our Lord said and did was suffused with the utmost wisdom and love, perfectly attuned to our needs. And when his disciples asked to be taught to pray, the wisest teacher lovingly gave us the wisest prayer. Saint Thomas Aquinas calls it “the most perfect of prayers,” 1 and Saint Teresa of Ávila marvels that in the few words of the Our Father “everything about contemplation and perfection is included; it seems we need to study no other book than this one.” 2 If we wish, like the first disciples, to learn from Jesus how to pray, this prayer is our school. “If you run through all the words of holy petitions,” Saint Augustine writes to the widow Proba, “you will not find, in my opinion, anything that this prayer of our Lord does not contain and include.” 3 When Jesus first spoke these seven “words,” he had in mind not only those first disciples, but all who would come to believe through their word (Jn 17:20)—each one of us. With this prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, he teaches us all to pray in the Spirit. This book is meant to enrich your prayer life by exploring the depths of the Our Father. We hope to offer you a guided tour through the Church’s massive treasury of writings on the Lord’s Prayer. From Scripture, the Church’s liturgy and magisterium, and the wisdom of the saints, we find insights about the Our Father for our daily life. TEACH US TO PRAY Learning our prayer of hope The Sermon on the Mount Fra Angelico (1387–1455) 7
Exploring our faith’s great tradition on this prayer, we discover one virtue repeatedly associated with it: hope. Saint Augustine teaches: “Of all things that must be faithfully believed, the only ones that concern hope are those that are contained in the Lord’s Prayer.” 4 Saint Thomas Aquinas writes that our Savior “thought it well to carry us on to a living hope by giving us a form of prayer that mightily raises up our hope to God.” 5 In a particular way, then, this book takes hope as its theme. As we travel on our life’s pilgrimage to our Father, we want to walk with ever-growing hope. But what does hope have to do with the Our Father? How is this a prayer for those who hope? To enrich our meditation on the virtue of hope in the Lord’s Prayer, we have chosen to interweave two themes: Exodus to the Promised Land and the Eucharist. The Exodus was the journey of the Israelites, God’s Chosen People, from slavery in Egypt into the freedom of the Promised Land. Our life, too, is a pilgrimage, a journey through this valley of tears towards our heavenly fatherland— towards our Father, who is in heaven. And we need food for this long journey! Every time we pray this prayer, we beg the Father for “our daily bread,” something emphasized when we pray the Our Father at every Mass. In tasting the depths of the Lord’s Prayer, we want you to see that its most natural place is in the Sacrifice of the Mass, where the pilgrim Church asks for and receives her daily bread, before being sent out on mission. The Eucharist is both our food during this life and “the pledge of future glory” 6 for the life to come. Pope Francis encourages us to be “opened to receive the outpouring of God’s grace and to make the ‘Our Father,’ the prayer Jesus taught us, the life program of each of his disciples. ”7 Each phrase of the prayer Jesus taught us offers guidance as we make our way through life. This book walks through the prayer step by step in the form of a series of retreat conferences, showing how the words Jesus taught his disciples bring light and hope to our lives. The journey through the opening address and the following seven petitions of this perfect prayer can be 8 INTRODUCTION
made in a matter of seconds, but don’t let that fool you. The Our Father can indeed be our “life program.” God the Father loves us, and he guides us to himself through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. He leads us through the Exodus of this life to the Promised Land of heaven. He feeds us and strengthen us in our journey. And all along the way, he wants us to know his closeness— especially when we suffer, when we feel the distance between ourselves and our destination. He is close to us because he has adopted us as his children, and he is a faithful Father. We remember who we are every time we address him as “our Father,” every time we approach the Son of God in the Bread of Life from the altar. And filled with his Holy Spirit, praying this prayer that Jesus taught us, we are filled with hope that we shall come at last to see our Father face to face. Remembering in contemplation God the Father loves us. In our love for him, we can make the Our Father our life program. We can meditate on and live by each line of this perfect prayer. Christ leads us in hope in our Exodus pilgrimage through this world, and he feeds us with himself, our daily bread. Filled with the Spirit of adoption, we make our journey in Christ to the Father. At the Savior’s command and formed by divine teaching, we dare to 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 this day our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen. 9
Nativity Master Francke (active between 1424 and 1436) Our Father, who art in heaven But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption. As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out “Abba, Father!” Galatians 4:4-6 C THE GOAL OF OUR HOPE Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Mt 6:8) - 11 -
Our Father! In the first words of the prayer, we are already thrown into the deep end of its teaching: Our Father, who art in heaven. If we dare to call God “our Father” (and we can, if Jesus tells us to), then we must be his children. The whole of the Lord’s Prayer is built on these first two words, just as our whole Christian life is built on the foundation of our adoption as sons and daughters of God. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus refers to your Father who is in heaven or your heavenly Father. What makes Christians distinct is that God has made us his children in Christ. With the Spirit of adoption, we can live as Christ tells us. What does he tell us? Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5:48). Look for rewards from your Father who sees in secret (6:4, 6, 18). Trust that your heavenly Father knows your needs (6:32). And know that your Father in heaven gives good things to his children who ask for them (7:11). All Christian prayer looks towards our Father in heaven because he is looking at us. He loves us. One day a Carmelite novice saw Saint Thérèse of Lisieux sewing with an expression on her face that made the young Sister ask, “What are you thinking of?” “I am meditating on the Our Father,” Saint Thérèse replied. The Little Flower then continued, “It is so sweet to call God our Father!” 8 God desires nothing more than for us to look towards him—to know and love him. Think of who he is. Consider his wisdom and truthfulness, his goodness and love, his mercy and protection. It is Jesus, the eternal Son of God made flesh for our salvation, who reveals his Father to us. Filled with wonder at this prayer taught by the Lord himself, Saint Teresa of Ávila says, “Consider the words that divine mouth speaks, for in the first word you will understand immediately the love He has for you.” 9 We could have been commanded to address God as “Our Master,” 12 CHAPTER 1 OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN
“Our Commander,” or some other such thing. But we are told to call him Father! It was the love contained in that title that Jesus came to show us. God’s identity and our own These words teach us the answer to a fundamental question: Who is God? He is our Father. It is impossible to overstate the importance of having true knowledge of who God is. Remember what Jesus said: Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ (Jn 17:3). If we don’t know who God is, we won’t know who we are, and we won’t know what life is all about. If we want to see what happens when we get the wrong idea of God, we need look no further than the Garden of Eden. Consider how Adam and Eve change after they sin by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden (Gn 3:7-8). 13
God created Adam and Eve to know him and to love him, and he designed the Garden as the place where they could enjoy that friendship with him. But as soon as Adam and Eve sin, their vision of things changes, both of God and of themselves. Imagine them trembling behind a bush, beneath their hastily made fig-leaf garments. They become afraid, they cover themselves up, and they hide. When we sin, we can feel like Adam and Eve, afraid of God and hiding from him. It is precisely this mistaken fear that the Lord came to correct. God looks on us as his children. He loves us, not because we have earned his love but because God is love (1 Jn 4:8, 16). His love wipes away our sinfulness and makes us precious in his eyes. After his Resurrection, Jesus, the New Adam, speaks emphatically to his disciples: Do not be afraid! (Mt 28:10). God is our Father, and Jesus shows us that we do not need to be afraid to address him. We do not need to cover our nakedness before him. We do not need to hide anymore. We can converse with him. We can pray to him. In fact, in prayer we encounter the love of God that casts out fear. Saint Gregory of Nyssa teaches, “Prayer is intimacy with God and contemplation of the invisible. It satisfies our yearnings and makes us equal to the angels. Through it, good prospers, evil is destroyed, and sinners will be converted.”10 God did not make us to hide from him. He made us so that we could have intimacy with him. 14 CHAPTER 1 OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN
We can forget how perfectly marvelous it is that we can call God “Our Father.” Many of us were taught to pray this way from childhood. We shouldn’t, however, forget that this is a gift of pure grace. Prompted by nothing but his own love, God chose to make us his sons and daughters. Saint Paul expresses this mystery of our being taken up into the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God sent his Son to us through the Virgin Mary, and through Jesus, God pours the Holy Spirit into our hearts (Gal 4:4-6). Once the Spirit arrives in our hearts, because he is the Spirit of adoption as sons, he makes us cry out Abba, Father! (Rom 8:15). Because he is the Spirit of Jesus, the firstborn Son, he makes us pray as Jesus did: Abba, Father! (Mk 14:36). It is only because we have been welcomed—adopted—into the eternal life of God that we can dare to say, “Our Father.” We need to be frequently reminded of our adoption. Thus, Christians say “Our Father” all the time, whether in the morning, at Mass, in a spare moment, in a Rosary, or preparing for bed. Jesus arranged the prayer so that even if we get distracted after just two words, we have still recalled the most fundamental part, addressing God as “Our Father.” It is easy, in the spiritual life, to get caught up with worrying about what we have to do. Much more important than that is what we are called to be. Beloved, we are God’s children now (1 Jn 3:2). This is the foundation of our lives as Christians, our new identity as adopted sons and daughters of the Father, by the grace of Jesus Christ, in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has plenty to teach about what we should do or say, but all of it flows from what we are: the children of God. There are times in our life, though, when we might wonder: Does God hear me when I call out “Abba, Father”? The saints give a resounding reply: Yes! Saint André Bessette said, “When you say to God ‘Our Father,’ he has his ear right next to your lips.”11 Jesus has promised that the Father is so attentive to us 15
The Eternal Father Paolo Veronese (1528–1588)
that he has counted every hair on our heads, and that he knows our needs before we ask. And still he teaches us to go to God, saying, “Our Father.” If God doesn’t need us to inform him of anything but still asks us to speak, then he must want to listen. God listens to our mumbled prayers, so that we may confidently draw close to him. He wants us to be certain that he hears us, that he loves us. And knowing that we are loved changes us: It makes us bold! At Mass, the priest introduces the Lord’s Prayer in this way: “At the Savior’s command and formed by divine teaching, we dare to say....” Think of the confidence with which a little child approaches his father to ask for something. Jesus Christ commands us to address God as “Our Father.” In fact, how could we have the courage if he had not taught us to? Saint Peter Chrysologus asks, “When have mortals dared to call God their Father, except now, when the deepest recesses of the human being are enlivened by power from heaven?”12 We are changed in the deepest way, made into children of God. We courageously cry out to the One who made all things because he has given us his Spirit of adoption. We do not know how to pray as we ought, Saint Paul says, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us (Rom 8:26). What does the Spirit stir us to say? “Our Father!” CHAPTER 1 OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN
Ad Patrem: Going to the Father As adopted children of God, we pray ad Patrem, “to the Father.” Are your eyes on the Father? Saint Cyril of Jerusalem preaches: “Raise your eyes to the Father who has begotten you through baptism, to the Father who has redeemed you through his Son, and say: ‘Our Father.’” Saint Ignatius of Antioch heard a voice welling up within him, saying, “Come to the Father.”13 In the Mass, we ceaselessly pray ad Patrem. Nearly every collect at the beginning of Mass prays to God the Father, addressing him: “Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.” We pray to the Father through Jesus, because he taught us to pray to his Father. Blessed Columba Marmion writes of Jesus: “All his divine personal life is to be ad Patrem; in giving himself to us, he gives himself as he is, seeking in all things his Father and the glory of his Father; and so, our entire turning towards the Father is wrought when we receive the Word with faith, confidence, and love. What we ought to ask and constantly seek after is that all our thoughts, all our aspirations, all our desires, all our activity, should tend, by the grace of our filiation and by love, to our Heavenly Father in his Son Jesus.”14 Every life has direction, is going somewhere. Where are you going right now? Is it the way you want to go? Do you want to go to the Father? If so, Christ is the Way! Christ says to us, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (Jn 14:6). Saint Augustine preaches, “It’s better to limp and stagger on the way than to walk strongly and vigorously off the way.” 15 If two men want to go from New York City to Miami, the one walking south on foot will be doing much better than the one on a train to Montreal. We want to go from earth to heaven—and Christ is the only way. 19
Together we go to our Father We want to be on the way to the Father. But we can’t reach him by ourselves. By the Lord’s own design, the Our Father unites us to other Christians. Listen to Saint Cyprian: “Before all things, the Teacher of peace and the Master of unity did not wish prayer to be offered individually and privately as one would pray only for himself when he prays. We do not say, ‘My Father, who art in heaven.’” 16 Whenever we pray the Lord’s prayer, we express our union with all Christians. Christ came to gather together those who are scattered. In prayer, the scattered parts of our soul are all directed to God. In this prayer, the scattered members of God’s family are united in being directed to God. This prayer saves us from lonely isolation. We cannot but pray with others and for others when we pray this prayer. God is “Our Father.” Think of those baptized whom you might find it difficult to love, and see yourself as being together with them in this prayer: “Our Father….” The Sacrifice of the Mass is precisely when we have the greatest experience of togetherness. Here we can most truly call out, “Our Father,” especially when we receive Communion. Communion literally means “union with.” In the Mass, we have union with God by sharing in Christ’s own Body and Blood. We also have union with each other. The body of Christ that is the Church comes into being because of the Body of Christ given for our salvation in the Eucharist. As Catholics, we long for all to be fully united in the Church’s communion with heaven. In heaven, there is no division; all the angels and saints are united in praise of our Father. 20 CHAPTER 1 OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN
Exodus to heaven Where is our Father? He is in heaven—“Our Father, who art in heaven.” Here and now, it can be difficult to imagine what heaven is like. If you would like to think about heaven but find it difficult, know that you are in good company. Saint Paul reveals that we can’t really imagine heaven: What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor 2:9; cf. Is 64:3). We know that God has prepared something glorious, but we cannot picture it. The Eucharistic prayers of the Mass teach us to long for what we cannot fully imagine. Heaven is seeing God face to face in “a place of refreshment, light and peace,” according to the Roman Canon, the First Eucharistic Prayer. The Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, and all the apostles and saints enjoy that place, while we hope “to be coheirs to eternal life,” as the Second Eucharistic Prayer says. Similarly, the Third Eucharistic Prayer sets our attention on heaven: “There we hope to enjoy for ever the fullness of your glory through Christ our Lord, through whom you bestow on the world all that is good.” As you can see, the Eucharistic Prayers prepare us to pray the Lord’s prayer by directing our thoughts to heaven.
We begin the Lord’s Prayer with “Our Father, who art in heaven” because God wants us to keep in mind our goal. We are made for nothing less than him, and only in heaven will we have our complete happiness. For now, we are making our Exodus, like the children of Israel. God summoned Israel out from Egypt: When Israel was a child, I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son (Hos 11:1). Israel knew God’s fatherhood in their Exodus, and we are now learning of God’s fatherhood in our own Exodus. We are leaving sin behind and going to the Promised Land. Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come (Heb 13:14). Pope Francis writes of heaven in this way: “All that we now experience in hope, we shall then see in reality. We are reminded of the words of Saint Augustine: ‘When I am one with you in all my being, there will be no more pain and toil; my life shall be true life, a life wholly filled by you.’” 17 A life filled with God—that is our heavenly goal. The Our Father perfectly expresses our hope that we are being raised up by Christ to be with his Father and ours. Our life is an Exodus, a going out, from this world to the next. The Our Father inflames our hope for heaven. Remembering in contemplation We can say in prayer what Jesus himself said: Father! We are not alone. Christ has united us in himself during our pilgrimage by teaching us to pray “Our Father.” God in heaven is our goal. The Our Father guides us as we leave behind this world and make our way to heaven, just as the Israelites left behind Egypt and limped towards the Promised Land. Our hope is firm, because God is at work in the depths of our hearts, moving us to pray as the Spirit wills. God alone is our happiness, our rest, our glory, our love, our all. God the Father opens heaven for us through the prayer of his Son, who is intimately present to us in Holy Communion at Mass. 22 CHAPTER 1 OUR FATHER, WHO ART IN HEAVEN
At the Savior’s command and formed by divine teaching, we dare to 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 this day our daily bread, And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen. 23
A C Cover: God the Father, from Bible (1865), Gustave Doré (1832–1883), colored engraving, Collection Archive of Art and History, Berlin, Germany. © akg-images. Page 4: Madonna of the Rosary, Maerten de Vos (1532-1603), Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Page 6: The Sermon on the Mount (between 1437 and 1445), Fra Angelico (1387–1455), fresco, 80.3 x 81.5 in., Convent San Marco, Florence, Italy. © akg-images. Page 10: Nativity (Part of the Thomas Altar of the Hamburg Englishmen, c. 1426), Master Francke (active between 1424 and 1436), tempera on wood, 36.1 x 32 in., Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany. © akg-images. Pages 16-17: The Eternal Father, Paolo Veronese (1528–1588), oil on canvas, Hospital Tavera, Toledo, Spain. © akg-images / Joseph Martin. Page 24: Visitation (detail), Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–1494), oil on wood, 67.3 x 65 in., Louvre Museum, Paris, France. © RMN-GP/Jean-Gilles Berizzi. Pages 32-33: Moses on Mount Sinai and the worship of the golden calf (1481–1482), Cosimo Rosselli (1439–1507), fresco, 137.8 x 225.2 in., Sistine Chapel, Vatican. © Photo Scala, Florence, Dist. RMN-GP. Page 40: The Sermon of the Beatitudes, James Tissot (1836–1902), gouache on paperboard, 9.6 x 6.3 in., Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA. © akg-images / Liszt Collection. Pages 48-49: The sower (1888), Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), oil on canvas, 25.3 x 31.6 in., Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands. © akg-images. Page 56: The Sacred Heart (1916), Maurice Denis (1870–1943), oil on canvas, 44.8 x 48 in., Maurice Denis Museum, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. © RMN-GP (musée Maurice Denis) / Benoît Touchard. Pages 62-63: The Agony in the Garden (c.1465), Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430–1516), tempera on panel, 31.8 x 50 in., National Gallery, London, UK. © Luisa Ricciarini / Bridgeman Images. Page 70: The Fall of Manna, Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto (1518–1594), oil on panel, 216.5 x 204.7 in., Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice, Italy. © Cameraphoto Arte Venezia / Bridgeman Images. Pages 76-77: The Last Supper, Juan de Juanes (c. 1523–1579), oil on canvas, 45.6 x 75.2 in., Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain. © Bridgeman Images. Page 86: The Return of the Prodigal Son (1651), Guercino (1591–1666), oil on canvas, 54 x 43.7 in., Diocesan Museum, Wloclawek, Poland. © Alinari / Bridgeman Images. Pages 94-95: Martyrdom of Saint Stephen (c. 1645), Bernardo Cavallino (1616–1656), oil on canvas, 27.5 x 35.4 in., Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain. © akg-images / Album / Oronoz. Page 100: Moses and the Brazen Serpent (detail, 1618-1620), Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), oil on canvas, 80.7 x 92.5 in., Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain. © Bridgeman Images. Pages 110-11: Christ tempted by Satan, Mattia Preti (1613–1699), oil on canvas, 41.3 x 52.3 in., Galleria Spada, Rome, Lazio, Italy. © Bridgeman Images. Page 116: Crucifixion (1632), Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez (1599–1660), oil on canvas, 97.6 x 66.5 in., Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain. © Photo Josse / Bridgeman Images. Pages 122-23: Christ rising from the tomb, Gustave Doré (1832–1883), Gouache and brush and brown ink on paper, 20.2 x 34.3 in., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. © Photo: Public domain. Page 130: Annunication (diptych, c. 1470–1475), Flemish School, oil on wood, 24.4 x 55.1 in., Museum of Fine Arts, Dijon, France. © akg-images / Erich Lessing. Pages 134-35: The Assumption of the Virgin (c. 1475), Francesco Botticini (c. 1446–1497), tempera on wood, 90 x 148.5 in., National Gallery, London, UK. © Heritage Images / Fine Art Image / akg-images. 140 CREDITS
T 1 Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 83, a. 9. For all of Saint Thomas’s quoted writings, see aquinas.cc, hosted by the Aquinas Institute. 2 Saint Teresa of Ávila, The Way of Perfection, chapter 37.1 in The Collected Works of Saint Teresa of Avila, vol. 2, translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, o.c.d., and Otilio Rodriguez, o.c.d. (Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1980), p. 183. 3 Saint Augustine of Hippo, Letter 130.22, in Letters 100–155, translated by Roland Teske, S.J., Works of Saint Augustine II/2 (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2003), p. 195. 4 Saint Augustine, The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Charity, 30.114, translation by Bruce Harbert, in On Christian Belief: Works of Saint Augustine I/8 (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2005), p. 339. 5 Saint Thomas Aquinas, Compendium of Theology, Book II, chapter 3. Saint Thomas did not complete the Compendium’s treatment of the Our Father. But see his Sermon Conferences on the Lord’s Prayer, his commentaries on the Gospel accounts of Matthew (6:915) and Luke (11:1-4), his Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 83, as well as his Catena on Matthew (6:9-15) and Catena on Luke (11:1-4) for his collections of sayings from early saints and doctors on the Lord’s Prayer. 6 Saint Thomas Aquinas, “O Sacred Banquet,” Second Vespers Magnificat antiphon of the Feast of Corpus Christi. 7 Letter of the Holy Father Francis to Msgr. Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization for the Jubilee 2025, February 11, 2022. For all the quotations of recent popes, see vatican.va. 8 Quoted in The Prayers of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux: The Act of Oblation, General Introduction by Guy Gaucher, o.c.d., translated by Aletheia Kane, o.c.d. (Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1997), p. 15, note 15, citing Sister Geneviève of the Holy Face, A Memoir of My Sister St. Thérèse, translated by the Carmelite Sisters of New York (New York: P. J. Kenedy and Sons, 1959), p. 109. 9 Saint Teresa of Ávila, The Way of Perfection, chapter 26.10, in The Collected Works of Saint Teresa of Avila, vol. 2, p. 137. 10 Saint Gregory of Nyssa, The Lord’s Prayer, Sermon 1, in The Lord’s Prayer, The Beatitudes, translated by Hilda C. Graef (Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1954), p. 24. 11 Quoted in Jean-Guy Dubuc, Brother André: Friend of the Suffering, Apostle of St. Joseph, translated by Robert Prud’homme, foreword by Mario Lachapelle, c.s.c. (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2010), p. xiii. 12 Saint Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 71.3, Sermon 5 on The Lord’s Prayer, in St. Peter Chrysologus, Selected Sermons, vol. 2, translated by William B. Palardy, Fathers of the Church vol. 109 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2004), p. 286. 13 Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans, chapter 7 in The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, edited and revised by Michael W. Holmes (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), p. 175. 14 Blessed Columba Marmion, Christ in His Mysteries, translated from the French by Mother M. St. Thomas of Tyburn Convent, 4th ed. (London: Sands & Co., 1939), p. 54. 15 Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 141.4 in Sermons 94A–147A, translated by Edmund Hill, o.p., The Works of Saint Augustine, vol. III/4 (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1992), p. 41. 16 Saint Cyprian of Carthage, On the Lord’s Prayer, chapter 8 in Saint Cyprian: Treatises, translated by Roy J. Deferrari, Fathers of the Church vol. 36 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1958), p. 132. 17 Pope Francis, “Spes non confudit,” Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025, May 9, 2024, no. 21, citing Saint Augustine’s Confessions 10.28. 18 Dante, Inferno, Canto 3, line 9 in Dante Alighieri: The Inferno, translated, edited, and with an introduction by Anthony Esolen (New York: The Modern Library, 2002), p. 23. 19 Saint Thomas Aquinas, Compendium of Theology, Book II, chapter 3 in Compendium of Theology, translated by Richard J. Regan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 215. 20 Saint Thomas Aquinas, Contra impugnantes, prologue. 21 Saint Gregory of Nyssa, The Lord’s Prayer, Sermon 3, in The Lord’s Prayer, The Beatitudes, p. 48. 22 Saint John Chrysostom, Homily 19.7 on the Gospel of Matthew, in Chrysostom: Homilies on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, vol. 10, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2012 [reprint]), p. 134. 23 Saint Cyprian of Carthage, On the Lord’s Prayer, chapter 12, in The Complete Works of Saint Cyprian of Carthage, edited by Phillip Campbell, Christian Roman Empire Series, vol. 10 (Merchantville, NJ: Evolution Publishing, 2013), p. 77. 24 Saint Cyril of Alexandria, on John 6:56, Book 4, chapter 2, in Commentary on John, vol. 1, translated by David R. Maxwell, Ancient Christian Texts (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013), p. 239. 25 Saint Teresa, The Way of Perfection, chapter 31.4 (p. 150). 141
26 Saint Teresa, The Way of Perfection, chapter 31.6 (p. 151). 27 Saint John Paul II, General Audience, December 6, 2000, no. 5. 28 Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians, no. 20. 29 Saint Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Lord’s Prayer, article 2. 30 Saint Clare’s Second Letter to Agnes of Prague, in Regis J. Armstrong, The Lady: Clare of Assisi: Early Documents, revised ed. (New York: New City Press 2006), p. 49, citing Rom 8:17, 2 Tm 2:12, 1 Cor 12:26, Psalm 110:3, Phil 4:3, and Rev 3:5. 31 Rule of Saint Benedict, chapter 40. 32 Saint John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater, On the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim Church, no. 13. 33 Saint John Paul II, Redemptoris Mater, no. 13. 34 Saint Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3, 22, 4 cited in Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 494. 35 Saint John Paul II, Salvifici Doloris, Apostolic Letter on the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, no. 18. 36 Communication to Father Joseph Neuner, s.j., in Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the “Saint of Calcutta,” edited with a commentary by Brian Kolodiejchuk, m.c. (New York: Doubleday, 2007), p. 210. 37 Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light, p. 260. 38 Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, translated by Adrian J. Walker (New York: Doubleday, 2007), p. 154. 39 Saint Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 68, in St. Peter Chrysologus: Selected Sermons, vol. 2, p. 278. 40 Code of Canon Law, canon 919 §1. 41 Code of Canon Law, canon 919 §2 and §3. 42 Joseph I. Dirvin, C.M., The Soul of Elizabeth Seton: A Spiritual Portrait (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1990), p. 68. 43 Dirvin, The Soul of Elizabeth Seton, p. 71. 44 Dirvin, The Soul of Elizabeth Seton, p. 78. 45 Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Visits to the Most Holy Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary, translated and edited by R. A. Coffins, c.ss.r. (London: Burns & Lambert, 1855), p. 17 (translation adapted). 46 Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 27.4, in On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and the Two Letters of Cledonius, translated by Frederick Williams and Lionel Wickham (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2002), pp. 27-28. 47 Saint Augustine, Sermon 224.3 from Sermons (184– 229Z) on the Liturgical Seasons, translated by Edmund Hill, o.p., Works of Saint Augustine III/6 (New Rochelle, NY: New City Press, 1993), p. 244. 48 Saint John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Encyclical on the Eucharist and Its Relationship to the Church, no. 58. 49 Saint Francis of Assisi, Letter to the Entire Order (1225–1226), in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 1: The Saint, edited by Regis J. Armstrong, o.f.m. cap., J. A. Wayne Hellman, o.f.m. conv., and William J. Short, o.f.m. (New York: New City Press, 1999), p. 118. 50 Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 1: The Saint, p. 129. 51 Quoted in Pope Benedict XVI, Letter Proclaiming a Year for Priests on the 150th Anniversary of the dies natalis of the Curé of Ars, June 16, 2009. 52 Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, q. 73, a. 3, ad 3. Pope Benedict XVI refers to this passage when he begins his post-synodal exhortation on the Eucharist, Sacramentum Caritatis. 53 Saint Augustine, Homily 26.13, in Homilies on the Gospel of John 1–40, Works of Saint Augustine I/12, translated by Edmund Hill, o.p. (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2009), p. 461. 54 Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, q. 21, a. 3, ad 2. 55 Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 25, a. 8. 56 Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 598, Roman Catechism I.5.11. 57 “A Devout Prayer,” in The Complete Works of St. Thomas More, vol. 13, edited by Garry E. Haupt (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1976), p. 231. More's exact words were: “make vs saued soules in heauen together.” 58 Saint Catherine of Siena, Prayer 9, in The Prayers of Catherine of Siena, edited by Suzanne Noffke, o.p. (New York: Paulist Press, 1983), pp. 72-73. 59 Pope Benedict XVI focuses on Saint Josephine Bakhita in his Spe Salvi, Encyclical on Christian Hope, no. 3. 60 Jean Maynard, Josephine Bakhita, The Lucky One (London: The Catholic Truth Society, 2002), p. 68. For a discussion, see Dawn Eden, My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints, foreword by Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, s.v. (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2012), pp. 5-20. 61 Transcription of the recorded homily for the Mass of Beatification of Stanley Francis Rother by Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, September 23, 2017, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 142 CREDITS
62 Saint John Paul II, Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, PostSynodal Exhortation on Reconciliation and Penance in the Mission of the Church Today, no. 11. 63 Saint Jerome, Letter 21.26, to Damasus, in The Letters of Saint Jerome, vol. 1, translated by Charles Christopher Mierow, Ancient Christian Writers, vol. 33 (Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1963), pp. 122-23. 64 Saint Jerome, Letter 21.27, p. 123. 65 Saint Augustine, Sermon 112A.10, Sermons, (94A–147A) on the New Testament, translated by Edmund Hill, o.p., Works of Saint Augustine, vol. III/4 (Brooklyn, NY: New City Press, 1992), p. 159. 66 Saint Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 5, in St. Peter Chrysologus: Sermons and St. Valerian: Homilies, translated by George E. Ganss, s.j., The Fathers of the Church, vol. 17 (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 1953), p. 50. 67 Saint Augustine, On the Gift of Perseverance 6.12, in Answer to the Pelagians IV: To the Monks of Hadrumetum and Provence, Works of Saint Augustine I/26, translated by Roland J. Teske, s.j. (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1999), p. 198. 68 Saint John Henry Newman, “The Pillar of the Cloud,” in John Henry Cardinal Newman, Verses on Various Occasions (London: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1888), p. 156. 69 Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, q. 69, a. 3. 70 John Mason Neale, translator, and available at https:// www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/879. 71 Saint Gertrude, The Herald of Divine Love, translated by Margaret Winkworth (New York: Paulist Press, 1993), p. 111. 72 From “The Yellow Notebook,” August 25, 1897, no. 6, in Saint Thérèse of Lisieux: Her Last Conversations, revised edition, translated by John Clarke, o.c.d. (Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 2023), p. 140. 73 Saint Teresa, Way of Perfection, chapter 38. 74 Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1394. 75 Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1395. 76 Saint Augustine, Confessions 10.38.53, in The Confessions: Works of Saint Augustine I/1, translated by Maria Boulding, o.s.b. (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1997), p. 379. 77 Saint Hildegard, Scivias, Book 2, Vision 7.23, in Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias, translated by Mother Columba Hart and Jane Bishop (New York: Paulist Press, 1990), p. 302. 78 Saint Maximus the Confessor, “Commentary on the Our Father,” in Maximus Confessor: Selected Writings, translated by George C. Berthold (New York: Paulist Press, 1983), p. 118. 79 Last Conversations with Sister Geneviève, August 16, 1897 in Saint Thérèse of Lisieux: Her Last Conversations, p. 201. 80 Saint Augustine, City of God, Book 19.13. 81 Saint John Bosco, The Life of Saint Dominic Savio, translated by Paul Aronica, s.d.b. (Paterson, NJ: Salesiana Publishers & Distributors, 1955), p. 7. 82 Saint Thérèse, Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, translated by John Clarke, o.c.d. (Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1976), p. 84. 83 Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity to Françoise de Sourdon, August 11 or 12, 1905, in Elizabeth of the Trinity: The Complete Works, vol. 2, Letters from Carmel, trans. Anne Englund Nash (Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1995), p. 213. 84 Saint John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, no. 71, in Saint John of Damascus: On the Orthodox Faith, Greek Critical Text and English Translation, translated by Norman Russell (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2022), p. 226. 85 The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, chapter 4, translated in Thomas J. Heffernan, The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 127. 86 Saint Hildegard, Scivias, Book 2, Vision 7.25. 87 Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2856, quoting Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catechesis 5, 18. 88 Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2865. 89 Saint Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 362.29, in Sermons (341–400) on Various Subjects, translated by Edmund Hill, o.p., The Works of Saint Augustine III/10 (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1995), p. 265. 143
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