The Prayer Jesus Taught Us: Our Father
CTS Notes on Prayer Book 8
Father Ugo Vanni
Rino Fisichella (Forward)
Pope Francis (Preface)
ISBN 9781784698324
This is volume 8 of a new 8 volume set released for the Jubilee 2025, and the seventh I have read. All 8 volumes have the same preface from Pope Francis. Each volume is by a different author. The books were originally released in Italian, and have since been released in Europe by the CTS, and there are forthcoming edition by Our Sunday Visitor for North American Release. The original series and the CTS editions are marked as ‘Notes on Prayer’, the OSV editions the series is called ‘Exploring Prayer’. Some of the titles are different between the two editions and one even has an Americanized name for the author. My recommendation is to get the CTS editions, they are excellent. But back to this seventh read which is of the eighth volume.
The description of this volume states:
“Since the early Church, the Mass has juxtaposed this praying of the Our Father with the Gospel reading. These meditations offer a renewed way to pray the Lord’s Prayer in a way that opens the riches of Sacred Scripture.
“Prayer is the breath of faith; it is its most proper expression. Like a silent cry that issues from the hearts of those who believe and entrust themselves to God.” – Pope Francis
The final volume in this series of eight booklets on prayer contains Fr Ugo Vanni’s meditation on the Our Father. Since the early Church, the Mass has juxtaposed this praying of the Our Father with the Gospel reading, and in this connection is revealed “the antecedents in Mark, then the systematic presentation of Matthew…the accentuation of Luke, and, finally, the mature synthesis found in John.” These meditations offer a renewed way to pray the Lord’s Prayer in a way that opens the riches of Sacred Scripture.”
This volume is a little different in that it is an edited edition of an older piece. We are informed about the details by Father Rino Fisichella in the Forward. We are also informed on the inside of the front cover:
“Fr Ugo Vanni was a theologian and exegete, and among the greatest experts on the Apocalypse. He taught exegesis of the New Testament at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Biblical Institute. In 2018 he returned to the Father's house.”
I highlighted three passages from the forward they were:
“Jesus could not have imparted to His disciples any prayer other than this, a synthesis of His entire Gospel. Over the centuries the Church has referred to it in various ways: "Prayer of the Lord's Day", "the Lord's Prayer. For Christians, it remains simply the Our Father that prayer that Jesus himself has taught us. Far from any formula, here lies the heart of the relationship with God and what the Christian experiences in the depths of his heart. This is the prayer of the individual believer and of the whole church, which experiences in this way the perennial presence of the life giving Spirit.”
“As we know, Pope Francis has asked that the year immediately preceding the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025 be dedicated to prayer. This has led among other things to the creation of a simple series, entitled "Notes on Prayer" to indicate that speech or writing about prayer can only outline some of its aspects. The mystery of prayer endures, the cargo deep within it proving unfathomable. After all, who could presume to exhaust the essence of prayer, which always remains a privileged action of the Holy Spirit who comes to the aid of each one's weakness, as the apostle reminds us (cf. Rom 8:26)?”
“In other words: the prayer of the Our Father asks that God's will be done, but this must be sought in prayer that is turned into action. To return to the thoughts of Bishop Aphrahat: "Let man do God's will, and this will be prayer" (Demonstrations 4, 16) . In short, prayer does not detract from the tasks of everyday life but supports them and indicates the path to follow.”
The chapters in this volume are:
Preface by Pope Francis
Foreword
Introduction
The Antecedents in St Mark
The Complete Formulation of St Matthew
The Our Father in St Paul
The Our Father in St Luke
The Our Father in St John
Conclusion
I highlighted numerous passages while reading this volume, some of them are:
“The Our Father was born and took shape in the experience of the early Church, so it could be enlightening to revisit its origin and early development.”
“We find at the beginning of the second century, the "Lord's Prayer" already in use in a formulation corresponding to the current one, in the liturgy of the early Church (cf. Didache, 8, 3), where the "quadriform" gospel also began to be read, the gospel, that is, according to Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. The concurrence of the use of the Lord's Prayer and the reading of the four gospels is significant. It constitutes the arrival point of the journey of a manifold tradition, which developed amid various events and tensions - one could simply think of the tensions within the Pauline and Johannine Churches - and culminated in the second century in what has been called "the great Church''.”
“An answer to this question will allow us to identify the theological-biblical structure underlying the Lord's Prayer, and to situate it in the living environment of the early Church. This will give us a framework of reference, and as a result we will see first the antecedents in Mark, then the systematic presentation of Matthew, Paul's push forward, the accentuation of Luke, and, finally, the mature synthesis found in John.”
“The disciples must have been particularly struck when Jesus, at the height of His interior passion in Gethsemane, asks God as a supreme gift for the fulfilment of His will, thus realising the pinnacle of prayer for all time.”
“In contact with Jesus, the disciples are repeatedly urged to entrust their earthly concerns to Him and to God, 'these worries are centred upon bread, a symbol of what is needed to live life.”
“The context of the Our Father is the Sermon on the Mount. And this is significant in itself. The sermon represents a relatively complete programme of Chris tian practice, based on the initial beatitudes (Matt 5:3-11). These represent the value judgements that Jesus makes on man's fundamental choices, on the aspects of his life that are valid or not.”
“The Our Father is situated within this specific context, qualified as an exquisitely Christian prayer, which starts from the heart of man and inclines to reach, so to speak, the heart of God with the essentiality, the profundity, the openness, not always definable, that characterise the mature relations hip with the Father.”
“What he is asking for is a greater presence of the richness of Christ among men, in their lives, in their structures, in the world they inhabit. The petition concerns both God and man, precisely because God has willed to be involved with man through the offering He makes to him.”
“The Christian knows how to live day by day, because he is followed, loved, guided, protected by the Father, without over haste or delay.”
“The biblical concept of temptation is unique and, rather than a concept in the strict sense, it is a cluster of concepts. Temptation takes place when certain values realised before, individually or collectively, are subjected to pressure. This pressure could be individual or collective, momentary or protracted.”
“When Christians welcome the message of Jesus and to the extent that they do so, there is as it were a transfer from Jesus to Christians.
When "my heavenly Father" has become "your heavenly Father': it is possible to say, "Our father who art in heaven''.”
“No form of evil will find him unprepared, in a situation of dreamy naivety, nor simply willing to systematically ignore the harm done to him. The Christian will have a constructive attitude. He will not let evil defeat him, not only in the sense of not using the same weapons, but above all in the sense of not being coerced by its pessimism. Evil can and will be overcome, but only through a flood of goodness.”
“As we observed at the beginning, we also find a formula of the Our Father in Luke. It is worth taking a closer look at this. To understand it we must keep a general fact in mind: the close contact between Luke and Paul, which can be seen in the book of Acts written by Luke and which also leaves its mark on the gospel. What we have observed in Paul, we therefore expect to find in Luke as well. This brings us to the formula of the Our Father.”
“Debts are sins: that is, every time man does wrong, going outside of the proper context devised for him by God, the result is sin. Sin always concerns God, not only when the wrongful action is aimed directly at Him - as in blasphemy - but also when the sinful decision affects man alone.”
“Pressure towards the wrongful choice of sin is temptation, which does not remain isolated: if there is temptation there is also a tempter who activates it. Keeping this fact in mind, liberation from the evil one is already contained in the request not to get caught up in temptation. In other words: temptation will happen, but as long as one gets through it, it can even have a positive purpose. But it will take special support from God, to be obtained with prayer, to keep the inevitable temptation from turning into a deadly trap. Overcoming temptation involves neutralising the effect of the demonic, and therefore a full liberation from its negative influence. A temptation that comes from man alone could hardly have an impact so strong and worrying as to require turning to the Father to escape unscathed.”
“The whole life of Jesus is regulated by the Father. It unfolds, we could say, in the light of the Father, moment by moment, hour by hour (cf. John 11:9-10), in a continuous dialogic situation. And this means that Jesus is always in action, just as the Father is in action (cf. john 5:17).”
“John teaches in the first place that the disciples pray by learning from Jesus. So, is it possible to identify, following the contours of the Our Father, the points of interest on which the prayer of the Johannine community must have been particularly insistent? How did the Johannine church learn to pray, in continuity with the first disciples?”
“We can say, in conclusion, that once the disciples have gradually reached the full level of their filiation, they are able to express, in perfect harmony with Jesus, their prayer to the Father. Jesus involves them in His relationship with the Father.”
“The disciples hear Jesus say to them, "Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13 ). The Glorification/sanctification of the Father, in the sense of participation by the ecclesial community as indicated above, is realised as a result of the prayer of the disciples.”
“We find in John a development suggestive of the underlying core expressed and detailed in the Our Father. No aspect is absent. But along with this presence identifiable in the details, there emerges in John the synthesis that the Christian community has developed and continues to develop, journeying onward, maturing, realising ever more and ever better the great values of which it is the bearer.”
“The brief examination conducted on the main texts of the New Testament that concern it, the ramifications of which are even more extensive if one thinks, for example, of the conception of the will of the Father in the Letter to the Hebrews, presents us with an Our Father in movement. It begins with Mark, where the constituent elements are not yet connected to each other in a formula of prayer. Next comes the formula that is presented in Matthew and Luke, but the values that it expresses, far from being separable from the context of the respective gospels, find themselves reinterpreted and deepened there. Paul, emphasising the law of Spirit, delved deep: he made the community reflect on the significance of the fatherhood of God and the implications it entails. John, finally, offered a mature and entirely Christ-centred reworking of the core components of the Our Father.”
“The very numerous commentaries that have been produced throughout the span of Church history duly reflect the issues of the various historical situations, summarising and interpreting them. All of these follow one stage of this long journey of the Our Father in the life of the Church. A stage that will not be the last. The Lord's Prayer will continue its function of synthesis and inspiration, like the heartbeat of the Gospel until the end of the ages.”
I hope those quotes give you a feel for this excellent volume. There were many things in this volume and series that caught my attention. This is my favourite of the 7 volumes I have read yet. There was much that caused me to slow down and take note in this work. I loved this piece and will endeavour to track down the original that it is taken from.
I jumped around and was not reading these books in order my first time through, I already have plans to reread them again, this time in the numeric order (Barring maybe book 3). I had planned to reread them in order.
The description of the series on the CTS site states:
“The “Notes on Prayer” series is an inspiring collection of eight booklets from the Vatican, designed to deepen and enrich the prayer lives of Catholics as they journey through the Year of Jubilee 2025, themed “Pilgrims of Hope.”
Each booklet in this series is a powerful resource, offering spiritual guidance, reflections, and wisdom from Church teachings, Sacred Scripture, and the lives of the saints. Whether you’re seeking personal renewal or walking the path of forgiveness and reconciliation, this series will help you grow in intimacy with God during this special time of grace.”
Most of the books in this series I have great to read, this one is my favourite to date, and I only have 1 to go; across the 8 volumes we have over 700 pages of instruction on prayer. This is a great volume in an excellent collection; these books would be good for any school, home, or church library. I can recommend this book and the series as a whole is great. I encourage you to give them a try!
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2024 Catholic Reading Plan! For other reviews of books from the Catholic Truth Society click here.
Notes on Prayer Series:
1. Prayer Today: A Challenge to Overcome - Cardinal Angelo Comastri
2. Praying with the Psalms - Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi
3. The Prayer of Jesus – Juan Lopez Vergara
4. Praying with Saints and Sinners - Fr Paul Brendan Murray, OP
5. The Parables of Prayer – Msgr Antonio Pitta
6. The Church in Prayer - Carthusian Monks
7. The Prayer of Mary and the Saints Who Met Her - Sr Catherine Aubin, OP
8. The Prayer Jesus Taught Us: Our Father - Fr Ugo Vanni
…
Original Italian Editions
CTS Editions English
OSV English Editions
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