What is the most important prayer of Christians?

The Catholic Church was born spiritually at the same moment in which Christ, preaching and training his apostles, asked them questions or interpreted the adventures that happened to them.

Many people did not believe that Christ was the son of God and therefore was the Messiah announced by the ancient scriptures.

The Gospel according to Saint Matthew (16, 13-19) recounts the same moment in which the embryo of what for Catholics would be their Church was to be born. Having arrived in the region of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks him what the people say about who the Son of God was. Some replied that they said Elijah, others that they called John the Baptist or Jeremiah that way. To which Jesus asks what they thought.

Simon Peter, one of the apostles, says: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him: «Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, because this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you: You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and against it the power of Death will not prevail. I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Peter appears in the history of the Catholic Church as the first Pope of the Church, and remained so until the year 67, when he died crucified by Nero, emperor of Rome. And Peter’s work was monumental in those years following the death of Jesus and the violent persecution of all those who called themselves Christians.

What is the most important prayer of Christians?

In 2000 years of history, the Church has managed to spread different prayers to millions of people that are learned from childhood and remembered throughout their lives.

Ave Maria, He GloryHe I believeTHE Prayer of the Guardian Angel These are some of them that in some cases have been with us for more than 1500 years. And it is very difficult to put one ahead of the other in importance.

But the truth is this Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants they pray every day Our father for 2000 years and consider it the universal prayer of Christianity. It is the pillar of Christian prayer. Yet the Holy Rosary, another prayer that is more than 1000 years old and is composed of 20 thematic sequences of 10 Hail Marys each, always begins with an Our Father before every ten Hail Marys.

The Lord’s Prayer has the charm of being given to the Apostles by Jesus himself in the Sermon on the Mount. In the Gospel according to Matthew, the Apostle writes the following in 6.9-10:

• 7. And when you pray, “do not use vain repetitions, like the Gentiles, who think they will be heard for their many words.
• 8. Therefore do not become like them, because your Father knows what things you need even before you ask him.
• 9. You will therefore pray like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
• 10. Come your kingdom. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
• eleven. Give us today our daily bread.
• 12. And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
• 13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen.

The Our Father as we have prayed it over these two thousand years is a slight adaptation of the words of Christ translated and taken from Gospel according to Matthew. But also the apostle Saint Lukein his New Testament gospel, record the prayer of Jesus, with different words. In Luke 11:2-4 he writes:

• “He (Jesus) then said to them:
• “When you pray, say:
• “Father, hallowed be your Name,
• Come your kingdom,
• give us our daily bread every day;
• forgive our sins,
• because we also forgive those who offend us;
• And don’t let us fall into temptation.”

The Our Father prayer in 2023

Already in 2017 Pope francesco He began to dialogue with Vatican experts about the need to make some small changes to the proposal Our father. He worked mainly with the Italian version which contained the phrase “lead us not into temptation”, which in Spanish would translate as “lead us not into temptation”.

For the Pope, the phrase entrusted God with the action of leading us into temptation, which, then, was not correct “It is I who fall, not God who throws me away.”, held. And all European Churches, with the traditional Italian and French Churches at the helm, agreed with him in 2019.

The Lord’s Prayer is now recited in this way:

• Our Father who art in heaven,
• Hallowed be your name;
• Come your kingdom;
• Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• Give us today our daily bread;
• forgive our offenses,
• just as we also forgive those who offend us;
• Don’t let us fall into temptation,
• and deliver us from evil.
• Amen.