Our Father
(ancient Greek Πάτερ ἡμῶν; Latin Pater noster; Church Slavonic Ѻ҆ч҃е на́шъ), also known as the **Lord’s Prayer** (Κυριακὴ προσευχή) — a prayer in Christianity. According to the Gospel, Jesus Christ gave it to His disciples in response to their request to teach them how to pray. It is recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke:
— Matthew 6:9–13
Papyrus 75 prayer in Luke 11
— Luke 11:2–4
The text in the modern liturgical use of the Russian Orthodox Church
The Lord’s Prayer is used in every service of the daily cycle in the Orthodox Church and in every performed office. During the Liturgy of the Faithful (and sometimes before meals) “Our Father” is sung by all the worshippers (or only by the choir); in all other cases it is read (or recited by heart) by a separate reader. In the current liturgical practice of the Russian Orthodox Church, the following text of the “Our Father” prayer in Church Slavonic is used in the evening and morning prayers:
Да святится имя Твое,
да приидет Царствие Твое,
да будет воля Твоя,
яко на небеси и на земли.
Хлеб наш насущный даждь нам днесь;
и остави нам долги наша,
якоже и мы оставляем должником нашим;
и не введи нас во искушение,
но избави нас от лукаваго.
In the church, only the priest or bishop pronounces the modified ending of this prayer:
The worshippers present respond:
Our Father
When the heavens thunder and the oceans roar, they call to You: Lord of Hosts, our Master of the heavenly powers!
When stars fall and fire bursts from the earth, they say to You: our Creator!
When in spring flowers open their buds and larks gather dry blades of grass to build a nest for their young, they sing to You: our Lord!
And when I lift my eyes to Your throne, I whisper to You: Our Father!
There was a long and terrible time when people also called You Lord of Hosts, or Creator, or Master! Yes, then man felt that he was merely a creature among creatures. But now, thanks to Your Only-Begotten and Greatest Son, we have learned Your true name. Therefore I, together with Jesus Christ, dare to call You: Father!
If I call You Master, I fall prostrate before You in fear, like a slave among slaves.
If I call You Creator, I distance myself from You, as night is separated from day or as a leaf is torn from its tree.
If I look at You and say to You: Master, then I am like a stone among stones or a camel among camels.
But if I open my lips and whisper: Father, the place of fear is taken by love, earth somehow becomes closer to heaven, and I walk with You as with a friend through the garden of this light and share Your glory, Your power, Your sufferings.
Our Father! You are Father to us all, and I would humiliate both You and myself if I called You: My Father!
Our Father! You care not only for me, a single blade of grass, but for all and everything in the world. Your goal is Your Kingdom, not one person. Self-love in me calls You: My Father, but love cries out: Our Father!
In the name of all people, my brothers, I pray: Our Father!
In the name of all creatures that surround me and with whom You have woven my life, I pray to You: Our Father!
I pray to You, Father of the universe, only one thing do I ask of You: let the dawn soon come of that day when all people, living and dead, together with angels and stars, beasts and stones, will call You by Your true name: Our Father!
Who art in heaven!
We lift our eyes to heaven every time we call upon You, and lower our eyes to the ground when we remember our sins. We are always below, at the very bottom because of our weakness and our sins. You are always on high, as befits Your greatness and Your holiness.
You dwell in heaven when we are unworthy to receive You. But You gladly descend to us, into our earthly dwellings, when we eagerly strive toward You and open the doors to You.
Though You descend to us, You still abide in heaven. In heaven You live, through heaven You walk, and with the heavens You descend into our valleys.
Heaven is far, too far from a person who rejects You in spirit and heart, or who laughs when Your name is mentioned. Yet heaven is near, very near to the person who has opened the gates of his soul and is waiting for You, our dearest Guest, to come.
If we compare even the most righteous person with You, You rise above him as heaven rises above the earthly valley, as eternal life rises above the kingdom of death.
We are made of perishable, mortal material — how could we stand on the same summit with You, Immortal Youth and Power!
Our Father, Who art always above us, stoop down to us and raise us up to Yourself. What are we, if not tongues created from the dust of Your glory for Your sake! Dust would be eternally mute and could not utter Your name without us, O Lord. How could dust know You except through us? How could You work miracles if not through us?
O Our Father!
Hallowed be Thy name;
You do not become holier from our praises, yet by glorifying You we make ourselves holier. Your name is wonderful! People argue about names — whose name is better? It is good that Your name is sometimes mentioned in these disputes, for in that very moment the arguing tongues fall silent in indecision because all the great human names, woven into a beautiful wreath, cannot compare with Your name, O Holy God, Most Holy!
When people wish to glorify Your name, they ask nature to help them. They take stone and wood and build temples. People adorn altars with pearls and flowers, kindle fire with plants — their sisters; take incense from cedars — their brothers; give strength to their voices with the ringing of bells; and call upon animals to glorify Your name. Nature is pure as Your stars and innocent as Your angels, O Lord! Have mercy on us for the sake of pure and innocent nature that sings together with us Your holy name, O Holy God, Most Holy!
How shall we glorify Your name?
Perhaps with innocent joy? — then have mercy on us for the sake of our innocent children.
Perhaps with suffering? — then look upon our graves.
Or with self-sacrifice? — then remember the torments of the Mother, O Lord!
Your name is stronger than steel and brighter than light. Blessed is the man who places his hope in You and becomes wiser through Your name.
Fools say: “We are armed with steel, so who can stand against us?” But You destroy kingdoms with tiny insects!
Terrible is Your name, O Lord! It illuminates and burns like a huge fiery cloud. There is nothing holy or terrible in the world that is not connected with Your name. O Holy God, grant me as friends those whose hearts are engraved with Your name, and as enemies those who do not wish to know You. For such friends will remain my friends until death, and such enemies will fall on their knees before me and submit as soon as their swords are broken.
Holy and terrible is Your name, O Holy God, Most Holy! May we remember Your name in every moment of our life, both in times of joy and in times of weakness, and may we remember it in our dying hour, our Heavenly Father, O Holy God!
Thy kingdom come;
May Thy kingdom come, O Great King!
We are tired of kings who merely imagined themselves greater than other people, and now lie in graves next to the poor and slaves.
We are tired of kings who yesterday proclaimed their power over countries and peoples, and today weep from toothache!
They cause disgust, like clouds that bring ashes instead of rain.
“Look, here is a wise man. Give him a crown!” — the crowd shouts. The crown does not care on whose head it sits. But You, O Lord, know the price of the wisdom of the wise and the power of mortals. Do I need to repeat to You what You already know? Do I need to tell You that the wisest among us ruled over us madly?
“Look, here is a strong man. Give him a crown!” — the crowd shouts again; this is another time, another generation. The crown silently passes from head to head, but You, Almighty, know the price of the spiritual strength of the exalted and the power of the mighty. You know the weakness of the strong and those in authority.
We have finally understood, having endured suffering, that there is no other king except You. Our soul passionately desires Your Kingdom and Your power. Wandering everywhere, have we not received enough offenses and wounds, we the living descendants on the graves of petty kings and the ruins of kingdoms? Now we pray to You for help.
Let Your Kingdom appear on the horizon! Your Kingdom of Wisdom, Fatherland, and Power! Let this earth, which has been a battlefield for thousands of years, become a home where You are the Master and we are the guests. Come, King, an empty throne awaits You! With You will come harmony, and with harmony — beauty. All other kingdoms are repulsive to us, therefore we now await You, Great King, You and Your Kingdom!
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;
Heaven and earth are Your fields, O Father. On one field You sow stars and angels, on the other — thorns and people. Stars move according to Your will. Angels play on the stars as on harps according to Your will. Yet man meets man and asks: “What is the will of God?”
How long will man refuse to know Your will? How long will he humble himself before the thorns beneath his feet? You created man to be equal to angels and stars, but look — even thorns surpass him.
But see, O Father, man, if he wills, can glorify Your name better than thorns, just like angels and stars. O You, Giver of Spirit and Giver of Will, grant man Your Will.
Your will is wise, clear, and holy. Your will moves the heavens, so why should the same will not move the earth, which in comparison with heaven is like a drop before the ocean?
Your will is wise. I listen to the voices of the past, look at the sky, and know that the stars move as they moved for millennia, always along the same path, and bring summer and winter when needed.
You never grow weary in creating with wisdom, our Father. No foolishness has a place in Your plan. Now You are as fresh in wisdom and goodness as on the first day of creation, and tomorrow You will be the same as today.
Your will is holy, for it is wise and fresh. Holiness is inseparable from You, as air is inseparable from us.
Something unholy may rise to heaven, but nothing unholy can ever descend from heaven, from Your throne, O Father.
We pray to You, Holy Father: make it so that the day may soon come when the will of all people will be wise, fresh, and holy, like Your will, and when all creatures on earth will move in harmony with the stars in heaven; and when our planet will sing in chorus with all Your wondrous stars:
Lord, teach us!
God, lead us!
Father, save us!
Give us this day our daily bread;
He who gives the body also gives the soul; and He who gives air also gives bread. Your children, O Merciful Giver, await from You all that is necessary.
Who will brighten their faces in the morning if not You with Your light?
Who will watch over their breathing at night while they sleep if not You, the most tireless of all watchmen?
Where else could we sow our daily bread if not on Your field? With what could we refresh ourselves if not with Your morning dew? How could we live without Your light and Your air? How could we eat if not with the mouths You gave us?
How could we rejoice and thank You that we are fed if not with the spirit that You breathed into lifeless dust and made into a wonder, O most wondrous Creator?
I pray not for my bread, but for our bread. What profit is it if I had bread while my brothers beside me were hungry? It would be better and more just if You took from me the bitter bread of the selfish, for satisfied hunger is sweeter when shared with a brother. It cannot be Your will that one person thanks You while hundreds curse.
Our Father, give us our bread so that we may glorify You with one harmonious choir and joyfully remember our Heavenly Father. Today we pray for today.
This day is great; today countless new beings are born. Thousands of new creatures that did not exist yesterday and will not exist tomorrow are born today under the same sunlight, fly with us on one of Your stars, and together with us say to You: our bread.
O great Master! We are Your guests from morning to evening, invited to Your table, and we await Your bread. No one but You has the right to say: my bread. It is Yours.
No one but You has the right to tomorrow and tomorrow’s bread — only You and those of today’s guests whom You will call.
If by Your will the end of this day becomes the dividing line between my life and death, I will bow before Your holy will.
If it be Your will, tomorrow I will again be a companion of the great sun and a guest at Your table, and I will repeat my gratitude to You as I repeat it constantly day after day.
And I will bow before Your will again and again, as the angels do in heaven, O Giver of all gifts, bodily and spiritual!
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
It is easier for man to sin and break Your laws, O Father, than to understand them. Yet it is not easy for You to forgive us our sins if we do not forgive those who sin against us. For You founded the world on measure and order. How can there be balance in the world if You have one measure for us and we have another for our neighbors? Or if You give us bread and we give our neighbors a stone? Or if You forgive us our sins and we execute our neighbors for theirs? How then would measure and order be preserved in the world, O Lawgiver?
And yet You forgive us more than we can forgive our brothers. We defile the earth every day and every night with our crimes, yet You greet us every morning with the clear eye of Your sun and every night send Your merciful forgiveness through the stars that stand as holy sentinels at the gates of Your Kingdom, our Father!
You shame us every day, Most Merciful, for when we expect punishment, You send us mercy. When we expect Your thunder, You send us a peaceful evening, and when we expect darkness, You give us sunlight.
You are eternally exalted above our sins and always great in Your silent patience.
Woe to the fool who thinks he can disturb You with foolish words! He is like a child who angrily throws a pebble into the waves to drive the sea away from the shore. But the sea only wrinkles the surface of the waters and continues to mock his impotence with its vast power.
See, our sins are common sins; we are all jointly responsible for the sins of all. Therefore there are no pure righteous people on earth, for every righteous person must bear some of the sins of sinners. It is hard to be an immaculately righteous person, for there is no righteous man who does not carry on his shoulders the burden of at least one sinner. Yet, O Father, the more righteous a man bears the sins of sinners, the more righteous he is.
Our Heavenly Father, You who send bread from morning to evening to Your children and accept their sins as payment, lighten the burden of the righteous and scatter the darkness of sinners!
The earth is full of sins, but also full of prayers; it is full of the prayers of the righteous and the despair of sinners. But is not despair the beginning of prayer?
And in the end You will be the victor. Your Kingdom will stand on the prayers of the righteous. Your will will become the law for people just as Your will is the law for angels.
Otherwise, why would You, our Father, delay forgiving mortal sins, thereby giving us an example of forgiveness and mercy?
And lead us not into temptation,
O how little it takes for man to turn away from You and turn to idols!
He is surrounded by temptations like storms, and he is weak like foam on the crest of a raging mountain stream.
If he is rich, he immediately begins to think that he is equal to You, or places You after himself, or even adorns his house with Your images as luxury items.
When evil knocks at his door, he is tempted to bargain with You or to cast You aside altogether.
If You call him to self-sacrifice, he rebels. If You send him to death, he trembles.
If You offer him all earthly pleasures, in temptation he poisons and kills his own soul.
If You open to his eyes the laws of Your providence, he grumbles: “The world is wonderful in itself, and without a Creator.”
Your holiness troubles us, O our Holy God. When You call us to light, we, like nocturnal moths, rush into darkness, but having rushed into darkness, we seek light.
A net of many roads lies before us, but we fear to reach the end of any of them, for at any edge temptation awaits and beckons us.
And the path that leads to You is blocked by many temptations and many-many falls. Before temptation comes, it seems to us that You accompany us like a bright cloud. Yet when temptation begins, You disappear. We turn around in anxiety and silently ask ourselves: where is our mistake, where are You, are You or are You not?
In all our temptations we ask ourselves: “Is He truly our Father?” All our temptations cast into our minds the same questions that the whole world around us asks us day after day and night after night:
“What do you think of the Lord?”
“Where is He and who is He?”
“Are you with Him or without Him?”
Give me strength, my Father and Creator, that I may at any moment of my life correctly answer every possible temptation.
The Lord is the Lord. He is where I am and where I am not.
I give Him my passionate heart and stretch out my hands to His holy garments; I reach toward Him as a child reaches toward a beloved Father.
How could I live without Him? That would mean I could live without myself.
How could I be against Him? That would mean I would be against myself.
A righteous son follows his father with reverence, peace, and joy.
Breathe Your inspiration into our souls, our Father, that we may become Your righteous sons.
But deliver us from evil.
Who will deliver us from evil if not You, our Father?
Who will stretch out hands to drowning children if not their father?
Who cares more for the purity and beauty of the house if not its owner?
You created us from nothing and made us something, but we reach for evil and again turn into nothing.
We warm a serpent at our heart that we fear more than anything in the world.
With all our strength we rise against darkness, yet darkness lives in our souls, sowing the germs of death.
We are all unanimously against evil, but evil quietly creeps into our home and, while we shout and protest against evil, occupies one position after another, coming ever closer to our heart.
O Most High Father, stand between us and evil, and we will raise our hearts, and evil will dry up like a puddle on the road under the hot sun.
You are high above us and do not know how evil grows, but we suffocate under it. Look, evil grows in us day by day, stretching its abundant fruits everywhere.
The sun greets us every day with “Good morning!” and asks what we can show our great King? And we show only old broken fruits of evil. O God, truly dust, motionless and lifeless, is purer than man who serves evil!
Look, we have built our dwellings in the valleys and hidden in caves. It would be no trouble for You to command Your rivers to flood all our valleys and caves and wipe humanity from the face of the earth, washing it clean of our dirty deeds.
But You are higher than our anger and our advice. If You listened to human counsel, You would have already destroyed the world to its foundations and perished Yourself under the ruins.
O Wisest among fathers! You eternally smile in Your divine beauty and immortality. See, from Your smile stars grow! With a smile You turn our evil into good, and graft the Tree of good onto the tree of evil, and with infinite patience cultivate our uncultivated Paradise garden. You patiently heal and patiently build. You patiently build Your Kingdom of good, our King and Father. We pray to You: deliver us from evil and fill us with good, for You abolish evil and complete good.
For Thine is the kingdom,
Yours is the kingdom, for Yours is the power and the glory. False kings are powerless. Their royal power lies only in their royal titles, which are truly Your titles. They are wandering dust, and dust flies wherever the wind carries it. We are only wanderers, shadows, and flying dust. But even when we wander and roam, we move by Your power. By Your power we were created and by Your power we will live. If man does good, he does it by Your power through You, but if man does evil, he does it by Your power, but through himself. Everything that is done is done by Your power, used for good or abused. If man, O Father, uses Your power according to Your will, then Your power will be Yours, but if man uses Your power according to his own will, then Your power is called his power and becomes evil.
I think, O Lord, that when You Yourself dispose of Your power, then it is good, but when the poor who borrowed power from You proudly dispose of it as their own, it becomes evil. Therefore there is one Owner, but there are many evil stewards and users of Your power, which You mercifully distribute at Your rich table to these unfortunate mortals on earth.
Look upon us, Almighty Father, look upon us and do not hasten to grant Your power to earthly dust until palaces are prepared there for it: good will and humility. Good will — to use the divine gift received for good deeds, and humility — to eternally remember that all power in the universe belongs to You, great Giver of Power.
Your power is holy and wise. But in our hands Your power is in danger of defilement and can become sinful and mad.
Our Father, Who art in heaven, help us to know and fulfill only one thing: to know that all power is Yours, and to use Your power according to Your will. See, we are unhappy because we have divided what is indivisible with You. We separated power from holiness, and power from love, and power from faith, and finally (and this is the first cause of our fall) separated power from humility. Father, we pray to You, unite all that Your children have divided through foolishness.
We pray to You, exalt and protect the honor of Your power that has been cast down and dishonored. Forgive us, for though we are such, we are Your children.
And the power,
Yours is the power, for Yours is the kingdom. False kings are powerless. Their royal power lies only in their royal titles, which are truly Your titles. They are wandering dust, and dust flies wherever the wind carries it. We are only wanderers, shadows, and flying dust. But even when we wander and roam, we move by Your power. By Your power we were created and by Your power we will live. If man does good, he does it by Your power through You, but if man does evil, he does it by Your power, but through himself. Everything that is done is done by Your power, used for good or abused. If man, O Father, uses Your power according to Your will, then Your power will be Yours, but if man uses Your power according to his own will, then Your power is called his power and becomes evil.
I think, O Lord, that when You Yourself dispose of Your power, then it is good, but when the poor who borrowed power from You proudly dispose of it as their own, it becomes evil. Therefore there is one Owner, but there are many evil stewards and users of Your power, which You mercifully distribute at Your rich table to these unfortunate mortals on earth.
Look upon us, Almighty Father, look upon us and do not hasten to grant Your power to earthly dust until palaces are prepared there for it: good will and humility. Good will — to use the divine gift received for good deeds, and humility — to eternally remember that all power in the universe belongs to You, great Giver of Power.
Your power is holy and wise. But in our hands Your power is in danger of defilement and can become sinful and mad.
Our Father, Who art in heaven, help us to know and fulfill only one thing: to know that all power is Yours, and to use Your power according to Your will. See, we are unhappy because we have divided what is indivisible with You. We separated power from holiness, and power from love, and power from faith, and finally (and this is the first cause of our fall) separated power from humility. Father, we pray to You, unite all that Your children have divided through foolishness.
We pray to You, exalt and protect the honor of Your power that has been cast down and dishonored. Forgive us, for though we are such, we are Your children.
And the glory forever. Amen!
Your glory is eternal, as You are, our King, our Father. It exists in You and does not depend on us. This glory is not from words, as the glory of mortals, but from true imperishable essence, such as You are. Yes, it is inseparable from You, as light is inseparable from the hot sun. Who has seen the center and halo of Your glory? Who became glorious without touching Your glory?
Your radiant glory surrounds us on all sides and looks at us silently, slightly smiling and a little surprised at our human cares and grumbling. When we fall silent, someone secretly whispers to us: you are children of a glorious Father.
O how sweet is this secret whisper!
What more could we desire than to be children of Your glory? Is that not enough? Undoubtedly, that is enough for a righteous life. Yet people want to be fathers of glory. And that is the beginning and apex of their misfortunes. They are dissatisfied with being children and partakers of Your glory, but want to be fathers and bearers of Your glory. And yet only You are the sole bearer of Your glory. There are many who abuse Your glory, many who have fallen into self-deception. There is nothing more dangerous in the hands of mortals than glory.
You manifest Your glory, and people argue about their own. Your glory is a fact, and human glory is merely a word.
Your glory eternally smiles and comforts, while human glory, separated from You, frightens and kills.
Your glory feeds the unfortunate and leads the meek, while human glory, separated from You, is the most terrible weapon of Satan.
How ridiculous people are when they try to create their own glory outside of You and apart from You. They are like some fool who could not stand the sun and tried to find a place where there is no sunlight. He built himself a hut without windows and, entering it, stood in darkness and rejoiced that he had escaped from the source of light. Such is the fool and such is the dweller of darkness — he who tries to create his own glory outside of You and apart from You, O Immortal Source of Glory!
There is no human glory, just as there is no human power. Yours is both power and glory, our Father. If we do not receive them from You, we will have none, and we will wither and be carried by the wind like dry leaves fallen from a tree.
We are content to be called Your children. There is no greater honor on earth or in heaven than this honor.
Take from us our kingdoms, our power, and our glory. Everything we once called our own lies in ruins. Take from us what belonged to You from the beginning. All our history was a foolish attempt to create our kingdom, our power, and our glory. Quickly complete our old history where we struggled to become masters in Your house, and begin a new history where we will strive to become servants in the house that belongs to You. Truly it is better and more glorious to be a servant in Your Kingdom than the greatest king in our kingdom.
Therefore make us, O Father, servants of Your Kingdom, Your power, and Your glory in all generations and unto ages of ages. Amen!