Taught by Our Lord Himself (Mt 6:9–13)

Our Father — Pater Noster

The Lord's Prayer, in Latin and English

LatinEnglish

Pater noster, qui es in cælis,
sanctificétur nomen tuum.
Advéniat regnum tuum.
Fiat volúntas tua,
sicut in cælo et in terra.
Panem nostrum quotidiánum da nobis hódie,
et dimítte nobis débita nostra,
sicut et nos dimíttimus debitóribus nostris.
Et ne nos indúcas in tentatiónem,
sed líbera nos a malo.

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.

Amen.

SourceTaught by Our Lord Himself (Mt 6:9–13) · The Lord's Prayer, in Latin and English

The history of this prayer

The Our Father is the prayer Jesus taught His disciples when they asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Saint Matthew gives it in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 6:9–13) and Saint Luke in a shorter form (Lk 11:2–4). The Didache, a Christian writing from the end of the first century, already told the faithful to pray it three times a day. Saint Augustine said that everything we may rightly ask of God is contained in it, and the Catechism calls it “the summary of the whole Gospel”.

The Latin is the text of the Roman liturgy, prayed at Mass and in the Office for well over a thousand years (Saint Jerome's Vulgate of Matthew reads “panem nostrum supersubstantialem”; the liturgy kept the older “quotidianum”). At Mass the Our Father follows the Canon and prepares for Communion; in the Rosary it opens each decade. The ending “For thine is the kingdom…” is not part of the prayer in the Roman rite: in the modern Mass it appears only as a separate acclamation after the priest's embolism.

Church Latin pronunciation: “cælis” sounds “CHAY-lees”, “regnum” sounds “RAY-nyoom”, “hódie” is “OH-dee-ay”, and the “ti” of “tentatiónem” sounds “tsee”.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the Our Father in the Bible?

In Matthew 6:9–13, in the Sermon on the Mount, and in a shorter form in Luke 11:2–4.

Why don't Catholics add “For thine is the kingdom”?

That doxology is absent from the oldest manuscripts of Matthew and from the Vulgate. In the Roman rite it is not part of the prayer; at the modern Mass it is said as a separate acclamation.

Does the Latin say “debts” or “trespasses”?

The Latin says “debita nostra”, “our debts”, like the Greek Gospel. The traditional English “trespasses” renders the meaning: the debts of sin.

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