OUR FATHER
POPE FR A NCIS
OUR FATHER R e fl ec t ion s on the L ord’s P raye r
RIDER
LONDON • SYDNEY • AUCKLAND • JOHANNESBURG
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Rider, an imprint of Ebury Publishing, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA Rider is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com
Copyright © 2017 Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Citta del Vaticano Copyright © 2017 by Rizzoli Libri, S.p.A./Rizzoli, Milano Translation copyright © 2018 by Penguin Random House LLC. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Citta del Vaticano have asserted their right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 First published in Great Britain by Rider in 2018 Published in the United States by Image, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. Originally published in Italian by Rizzoli Libri S.p.A. in 2017 www.penguin.co.uk A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 9781846045905 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives PLC Penguin Random House is committed to a sustainable future for our business, our readers and our planet. This book is made from Forest Stewardship Council® certified paper.
“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This is how you are to pray: Our Father . . .” —M AT T H E W 6 : 5 – 9
Contents A Note to Readers
9
Preface by Pope Francis: Pray to the Father
11
Our Father “I Will Not Leave You Orphans”
17
Who Art in Heaven Fathers and the Our Father
29
Hallowed Be Thy Name Participating with Prayer in the Work of Salvation
39
Thy Kingdom Come The Kingdom of God Needs Our Participation
7
21
35
45 51
57
Contents
Thy Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven Mary’s Total “Yes” to the Will of God Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread Feed the Hungry And Forgive Us Our Trespasses as We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us Training for Giving and for Forgiveness And Lead Us Not into Temptation The Foundation of Our Hope But Deliver Us from Evil The Weeds Amid the Good Wheat
63 67 73 77
81 89 93 97 101 105
The Lord’s Prayer The Prayer of Grandparents Is a Treasure
117
Afterword by Marco Pozza: An Our Father Among the Imprisoned
121
Sources
139
8
111
A Note to Readers
Teach us to pray. Both Image and Rider Books are honored to publish Our Father: Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer on the fifth anniversary of Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s election as pope, when he took the name of Francis in honor of Saint Francis, the patron saint of the poor. In this book, a conversation with Fr. Marco Pozza, a priest and 9
A Note to Readers
prison chaplain from Padua, Italy, the pope offers his heartfelt thoughts on the universal prayer for strength, mercy, and forgiveness. To mark this special celebration, this book is supplemented with some of Pope Francis’s most thoughtful meditations on the Lord’s Prayer from throughout his papacy. Certain adjustments in the translation of the original Italian texts, including punctuation and grammar, have been made for the sake of cohesion and consistency. We hope this book of meditations on the words Jesus used to instruct us on how to pray will bring you comfort, inspiration, and, ultimately, the joy of knowing that our heavenly Father is always with us. To all, our prayers and blessings. Gary Jansen, Director of Image Books 10
Pray to the Father
Father. Without saying this word, without taking it to heart, we cannot pray. To whom do I pray? Almighty God? Too far away. I cannot feel that he is near. Even Jesus did not refer to God as “the Almighty God.”
11
Pray to the Father
To whom do I pray? The cosmic God? That is fashionable these days, praying to the cosmic God. But that is nothing but a polytheistic idea of who God is, typified by a lite culture. To whom do we pray? No, not a cosmic God, but a . . . Father. We have to pray to the Father! It is a powerful word, “father.” We have to pray to the one who has begotten us, the one who has given us life. He has given life to everyone, of course, but “everyone” is too anonymous. He has given life to you. He has given life to me. He is also the one who accompanies us on our journey. He knows our whole lives, the good and the not-so-good. If we do not begin our prayer with this word, spoken not with our lips but with our hearts, we cannot pray as Christians.
12
Pray to the Father
We have a Father who is close to us, one who embraces us. All of these anxieties, all of the worries we may have, let us leave them to the Father. He knows what we need. But wait. How do we understand the word “Father”? Is he my Father? No, he is our Father! I am not an only child; none of us is. And if I cannot be a brother, it will be hard for me to truly be a son of this Father, because he is a Father of all. My Father, and that of my brothers and sisters. If I am not at peace with my brothers and sisters, I cannot say “Father” to him. We cannot pray with enemies in our hearts. This is not easy, I know. Sometimes people will say, “ ‘Father’? I can’t say ‘Father,’ that doesn’t work for me.” I understand that. Some people have said to me, “I can’t say ‘our,’ because my brother, my enemy, did this 13