On the Lord's Prayer

397. Is there not a prayer which may be termed the common Christian prayer, and pattern of all prayers? Such is the Lord's Prayer. 398. What is the Lord's Prayer? A prayer which our Lord Jesus Christ taught the Apostles, and which they delivered to all believers. 399. Repeat it. Our father, who art in heaven? 1. Hallowed be thy Name; 2. Thy kingdom come; 3. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth; 4. Give us this day our bread for subsistence; 5. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors, 6. And lead us not into temptation; 7. But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Matt. vi. 9--13. 400. In order the better to understand the Lord's Prayer, how may we divide it? Into the invocation, seven petitions, and the doxology. On the Invocation. 401. How dare we call God Father? By faith in Jesus Christ, and by the grace of regeneration. As many as received him, to them, gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John i. 12, 13. 402. Must we say Our Father even when we pray alone? Certainly we must. 403. Why so? Because Christian charity requires us to call upon God, and ask good things of him, for all our brethren, no less than for ourselves. 404. Why in the invocation do we say, Who art in heaven? That, entering upon prayer, we may leave every thing earthly and corruptible, and raise our minds and hearts to what is heavenly, everlasting, and divine.