Following the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass, we recite together the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father. There are four parts to this one action. First, there is an invitation by the priest. Then, there is the Our Father itself, followed by an expansion of the final petition of the Lord’s Prayer by the priest and a concluding doxology of praise by all of us. 

The Our Father is part of the preparation for the reception of holy Communion along with the sign of peace and the breaking of the bread that has become the Eucharist. The Our Father serves as a preparation for holy Communion in the celebrations of the Eucharist in Eastern and Western Christianity today. It is also normally part of the rite of reception of holy Communion outside of Mass, for example by the sick. It is thought that the reference in the Our Father to our “daily bread” established the close connection between the prayer and the reception of holy Communion from ancient times.

The Lord’s Prayer begins with an invitation spoken by the priest and addressed to all of us, “At the Savior’s command and taught by divine teaching.…” That wording dates from at least the 600s in the liturgy as celebrated in Rome. It has consistently been used at Mass since then. This wording has some similarities with the text of Commentary on the Lord’s Prayer written by St. Cyprian of Carthage in North Africa around the year 258. 

The Our Father is the prayer of the children of God, handed on to us by the Lord Jesus Himself. A shorter version is found in the Gospel of St. Luke. A longer version occurs in St. Matthew’s Gospel. The Our Father as prayed today closely follows St. Matthew’s account. The English translation that is so familiar to us dates from the mid-1700s when the Catholic missionary bishops of England settled on a standard English translation for the country.  

The Our Father contains seven petitions made to God. The first three pertain to God Himself: (1) may your Name be made holy, (2) your kingdom come, and (3) your will be done. The next four petitions pertain to us: (1) give us this day our daily bread, (2) forgive us our trespasses, (3) lead us not into temptation, and (4) deliver us from evil. Originally, it appears that the Our Father was prayed immediately before actually receiving Communion. We know that Pope St. Gregory the Great (c. 540-604) moved the Our Father to its current position in Mass immediately following the Eucharistic Prayer. 

The final petition of the Our Father, “but deliver us from evil,” is expanded in a prayer by the priest that begins, “Deliver us Lord from every evil.” The technical literary term for this kind of prayer is an “embolism” because it expands on what comes before it. The final wording of the embolism quotes the Letter of Titus: “as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ” (Ti 2:13). This was added to the traditional form of the embolism during the revisions of the Mass that took place after the Second Vatican Council. However, the bulk of the prayer can be found in manuscripts as early as the year 1080 (cf. Ordo Romanus I). 

Finally, all recite together a concluding acclamation of praise called the doxology, “For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours….” In a similar way, the priest concluded the Eucharistic Prayer with a final doxology of praise, “Through him, with him, in him.…” This doxology at the end of the Our Father was also added following the Second Vatican Council, although its wording can be found as early as the late first century or early second century in a Christian document called the Didache. Most Eastern Churches and Protestant communities have prayed this doxology after the Our Father for centuries. Its inclusion in the Roman Missal was an ecumenical gesture by the Catholic Church. 

Next, we will examine the other parts of Mass that prepare us to receive holy Communion: the Rite of Peace and the Fraction Rite.