Matthew·Prayer and stillness·12 of 34
Our Father
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Matthew 6:9–13 · King James Version
Prayer begins from kinship, not from a distant petition, and it asks that earth agree with heaven.
An inner reading
“Our” comes before any request. The Father is not a private patron. Heaven, metaphysically, is the realm of perfect order — God’s idea of reality, already whole. To hallow the name is to treat the nature of God as holy, not as a word worn smooth. The hinge of the prayer is the next sentence: thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Earth is the realm of appearance, body, circumstance. Prayer is consent that the outer agree with the inner original.
Daily bread is substance for this day, not a hoard against all imagined futures. Forgiveness is written as one motion with two faces: debts released toward us as we release them. Temptation, in this reading, is the pull to trust a power other than the Father. The prayer ends by giving the kingdom, the power, and the glory back to their owner — so the one who prays does not leave the closet carrying them as personal possessions.