Lord's Prayer

[Dusty Fro]

I notice that Catholics genereally refere to the Lord's Prayer (Our Father, who art in Heaven...) as just Our Father. I guess because there are so many memorized prayers in Catholicism, it's A prayer, but since it's how Jesus said to pray, I tend to think of it as THE prayer (not the only one, but basically and structurally very important) Why do Catholics say "Our Father"? So you remember how it starts?

[Adeodatus]

It's a very old Catholic practice to refer to prayers by the first words of that prayer. Usually the first 2 words, but not uncommonly the first word alone or the first 3 words. It is an old practice inherited from our Jewish heritage. For example, the Jews call the prayer "Hear O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is One" the 'Shema', from the first word of that prayer in Hebrew, [i]Sh'ma[/i] meaning 'hear'. Something similar happens to the psalms. For example, in Latin, psalm 50 (51) is called 'Miserere' from the first word of the psalm meaning 'have mercy'. The Lord's Prayer is called the 'Pater noster', i.e. the "Our Father". The Creed is called 'Credo' ('I believe...'). The same principle is at work in the letters and documents of the Pope and Ecumenical Councils. Their title is always the first couple of words of the document itself: Humanae Vitae (of human life), Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason), etc.

This way of naming prayers presupposes a familiarity with these prayers. They aren't just texts in a book or scroll, but something lived and prayed by the Church. So there is a sense in which these titles for prayers shows that we really think these are [b]our[/b] prayers, given to us by God. Our familiarity shows our love, our being children of God.

I agree with you that the Our Father is a pre-eminent prayer inasmuch as Jesus Himself taught it to us. I think any Catholic would understand if you said 'The Lord's Prayer' that you meant the Our Father. I would suggest that we don't use that particular name because for Catholics we think of the Mass as the pre-eminent prayer. It is the prayer of Jesus Himself, uttered in the Spirit, directed to the Father. It is the one, unrepeatable sacrifice of Christ Himself upon the Cross, while at the same time being the vindication by the Father, through the Spirit, of the Son. The Son who offers Himself is not left dead, but rises in glory. This is the pre-eminent prayer of Christ the Head of the Church, and by which He breathes the Spirit upon the His Body, the Church.

So naturally, the 'Our Father' fits into the context of the Mass, because it is the Lord's Prayer. The fact that the Lord's Prayer ends with a doxology added by the Church ('For the Kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever') shows that the early Christians used the Our Father in a liturgical context also, and saw the Liturgy, the Mass, as THE Lord's Prayer.