a) What is the Lord’s Prayer?
The Lord’s Prayer or the “Our Father” is the prayer given to us by Jesus himself, when he was asked by his disciples to teach them how to pray. It is made up of seven requests:
i. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
ii. Thy kingdom come.
iii. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
iv. Give us this day our daily bread,.
v. and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,.
vi. and lead us not into temptation.
vii. but deliver us from evil.
In the first three requests we glorify God the Father: may his name be holy, may his kingdom come, and may his will be done. The other four requests present to God the Father our wishes: these are requests to nourish our life or to cure it from sin, and refer to our struggle for the victory of good over evil.
b) Why should an Altar Server know the Lord’s Prayer and apply it into his life?
The Lord’s Prayer is the “summary of the whole Gospel,” because it presents in the form of prayer the essential content of the Gospel. The whole Church prays it every day in the Mass, Baptism, Liturgy of the Hours, Holy Rosary, and in many other prayers.
It is the perfect and excellent prayer of the Church.
God is a loving Father who cares for his children. The Altar Server should always remember that he is a son of God. All that he does is for God his Father, who invites him to be one day in heaven, responds to his needs in the most appropriate moment, forgives his sins, and gives him the grace to persevere in doing good and avoiding evil.