Die Oratio Dominica (Chapter 5 of "Jesus of Nazareth"

Recapitulation of chapter 4: the Sermon on the Mountain tells us how to be a human being. And a real anthropology is only possible in the light of a theology.

1) Then Pope Benedict turns to the version of Oratio Dominica in the Matthew's Gospel: the evangelist tells us how to pray in a right way. Not the human being should be in the centre of the prayer, but only the love to God. As the Revelation says, God calls everyone with his own name, which nobody knows other than God (Rev. 2, 17). The Oratio Dominica is a We-Prayer, that means, only in the Church we can reach God as individuals! So in a correct prayer one should brings one's innermost personality to God but at the same time in a community. The other false way to pray is the thoughtless repetition, as we are told by the evangelist.

In the prayer we intensify our relationship to God. But not only the awareness of being together with God is needed, but also concretes formulas of prayers. The prayers of Israel and later the prayers of the Church are the school of praying and also lead to a deep transformation of our life.

Saint Benedict wrote in his Regula: Mens nostra concordet voci nostrae (cf. also Reg 19, 7). But in the prayers of psalms and the prayers in the liturgy of the Church it is different: our mind must be obedient to the Word, in this Word God comes to help us to pray and find Him.

 2) the version of Luke's Gospel: the Father-Son-relationship in the Oratio Dominica. The inner unity with God.

3) Structure of the Oratio Dominica:

Our Father:
three petitions with "thou", and 7 with "we", thus its structure is parallel to Decalogue. As we only know the Father through the Son, so the prayer begins with the addressing of God as "Father". And God is our Father, because our life comes from Him as the Creator and belongs to Him. To be children of God is to be the followers of Christ. But only Jesus Christ can say: "my Father", but we all must say "our Father".

Who art in heaven:
Name of God: I am who I am (Ex 3,6).

Thy Kingdom come: 
The Kingdom of God comes over a pure heart, and this is what we pray for.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven:
Jesus Christ is the heaven, and God's will is done in Heaven. We on the earth should follow Christ in obedience, so that we can come nearer to heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread:
As Cyprian already said, we pray for OUR daily bread, no one should pray for his own alone. And he said also, that who he must pray for the bread of today, is poor, so the followers of Christ are poor because they give up their property for God's sake. And the others, who haven't went so far, should stay in solidarity with these who try to love God in such a radical way (the religious). And of course already explained by the Fathers of the Church as the prayer for Eucharist.


and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us:
This is a christological prayer, not merely a moral appeal, because the forgiveness of our Sins costed our Lord the Blood of His Son.

And lead us not into temptation:
Parallel to Hiob: not that God will tempt us into sin, but that he will send us trial, which we withstand ad gloriam Dei. But we pray at the same time, that God never let us alone in our trial.

but deliver us from evil:
with this prayer we pray for the Kingdom of God. And that is why in the Liturgy after the Pater noster the Priest prays further: Libera nos, quaesumus, Domine, ab omnibus malis, praeteritis, praesentibus, et futuris, et intercedente beata et gloriosa semper Virgine Dei Genitrice Maria, cum beatis Apostolis tuis Petro et Paulo, atque Andrea, et omnibus Sanctis, da propitius pacem in diebus nostris, ut ope misericordiae tuae adjuti, et a peccato simus semper liberi, et ab omni perturbatione securi. Per eumdem Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum. Qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus. Per omnia saecula saeculorum. This Embolism, thus Pope Benedict, shows the human side of the Church, which is very much in need of deliverance.