In a very simple way in which the head of a house
is to present it to the household
Our Father, you who are in heaven.59
60What is this? Answer:
With these words God wants to entice us, so that we come to believe he is truly our Father and we are truly his children, in order that we may ask61 him boldly and with complete confidence, just as loving children ask their loving father.
May your name be hallowed.64
What is this? Answer:
It is true that God’s name is holy in itself, but we ask in this prayer that it may also become holy in and among us.
How does this come about? Answer:
Whenever the Word of God is taught clearly and purely and we, as God’s children, also live holy lives according to it. To this end help us, dear Father in heaven! However, whoever teaches and lives otherwise than the Word of God teaches profanes the name of God among us. Preserve us from this, heavenly Father!
The Second65 Petition
May your kingdom come.
What is this? Answer:
In fact, God’s kingdom comes on its own without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may also come to us.
How does this come about? Answer:
Whenever our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that through his grace we believe his Holy Word and live godly lives here in time and hereafter in eternity.
The Third66 Petition
May your will come about on earth as in heaven.
What is this? Answer:
In fact, God’s good and gracious will comes about without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may also come about in and among us.
How does this come about? Answer:
Whenever God breaks and hinders every evil scheme and will—as are present in the will of the devil, the world, and our flesh—that would not allow us to hallow God’s name and would prevent the coming of his kingdom, and instead whenever God strengthens us and keeps us steadfast in his Word and in faith until the end of our lives. This is his gracious and good will.
The Fourth67 Petition
Give us today our daily bread.
What is this? Answer:
In fact, God gives daily bread without our prayer, even to all evil people, but we ask in this prayer that God cause us to recognize what our daily bread is and to receive it with thanksgiving.
What then does “daily bread” mean? Answer:
Everything included in the necessities and nourishment for our bodies,68 such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, farm, fields, livestock, money, property, an upright69 spouse, upright children, upright members of the household,70 upright and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
The Fifth71 Petition
And remit our debts,72 as we remit what our debtors owe.
What is this? Answer:
We ask in this prayer that our heavenly Father would not regard our sins nor deny these petitions on their account, for we are worthy of nothing for which we ask, nor have we earned it. Instead we ask that God would give us all things by grace, for we daily sin much and indeed deserve only punishment. So, on the other hand, we, too, truly want to forgive heartily and to do good gladly to those who sin against us.
The Sixth73 Petition
And lead us not into temptation.
What is this? Answer:
It is true that God tempts no one, but we ask in this prayer that God would preserve and keep us, so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice, and that, although we may be attacked by them,74 we may finally prevail and gain the victory.
The Seventh75 Petition
But deliver us from evil.
What is this? Answer:
We ask in this prayer, as in a summary, that our Father in heaven may deliver us from all kinds of evil—affecting body or soul, property or reputation—and at last, when our final hour comes, may grant us a blessed end and take us by grace from this valley of tears to himself in heaven.
Amen.76
What is this? Answer:
That I should be certain that such petitions are acceptable to and heard by our Father in heaven, for he himself commanded us to pray like this and has promised to hear us. “Amen, amen” means “Yes, yes, it is going to come about just like this.”
59 Woodcut: Preacher delivering sermon from pulpit to a diverse audience. The text of the Lord’s Prayer follows the common form used in Wittenberg and not the version in the Luther Bible.
60 Luther first added this italicized explanation to the introduction in the edition of 1531.
61 Bitten means both ask and pray.
62 Woodcut: Same as the preceding. Caption: “This figure is taken from Exodus 20[:8–11*, 19*].”
63 Bitte, literally, “request.”
64 Geheiliget: literally, “made holy” or “sanctified.”
65 Woodcut: The same as for the third article of the Creed. Caption: “This figure is recorded in Acts 2.”
66 Woodcut: Christ falling under the cross and being beaten by soldiers. Caption: “This figure is taken from the New Testament, Matthew 27[:31f*.].”
67 Woodcut: Jesus with the little boy feeding the five thousand. Caption: “This figure is recorded in the New Testament, John 6[:1–15*].”
68 Cf. SC, “Apostles’ Creed,” 2.
69 frumm. In the sixteenth century this word meant upright, honest, competent, capable, well-behaved, sensible, but not, as in modern usage, pious or godly.
70 Gesinde: the house servants and workers. In Luther’s day the household was the center of economic activity.
71 Woodcut: The parable of the unforgiving servant. Caption: “This is taken from the New Testament, Matthew 18[:23–35*].”
72 Schulde.
73 Woodcut: The temptation of Christ, pictured with his sheep, by the devil, pictured with a wolf. Caption: “This figure is taken from the New Testament, Matthew 4[:1–11*].”
74 angefochten, the verbal form of Anfechtung.
75 Woodcut: Christ with his disciples as they are confronted by the syrophoenician woman and her daughter. Caption: “This figure is taken from the New Testament, Matthew 15[:21–28*].”
76 Some later editions of the catechism, printed after Luther’s death, add the doxology. Although found in Erasmus’s editions of the Greek New Testament and in Luther’s translation into German, Luther himself consistently followed the medieval usage in catechesis and omitted it.