Lords Prayer

The Lord's Prayer (sometimes known by its first two Latin words as the Pater Noster) is probably the most well-known prayer in the Christian religion. The Lord's Prayer is excerpted from Chapter 11, verses 2-4, of the Gospel of St. Luke in the New Testament.

It is called the "Lord's Prayer" because it was a prayer given by Jesus Christ (ie. the "Lord") as response to a request from the Apostles for guidance on how to pray. Most Christian theologians point out that Jesus Christ would have never used this prayer himself, for it specifically asks for forgiveness of sins, and in most schools of Christian thought, Christ was incapable of sin. The Gospel according to St Matthew recounts a very similar set of guidelines given during the Sermon on the Mount.

Although numerous variations exist, this version, from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, is a fairly well known example:

Our Father, who art in Heaven,

hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done,

on Earth, as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,

for ever and ever.

Amen.