Just Teach Sheet Deep Formation August Week 4

In-Depth Track – Just Teach Sheet

Week 4: The Our Father – The Summary of the Whole Gospel
August Theme: Prayer & Personal Relationship with God
Audience: Adults seeking theological depth (catechists, RCIA leaders, serious seekers)
Focus: The Our Father, given by Christ, is the model and heart of Christian prayer. It encapsulates the Gospel, unites us to Christ’s sonship, and shapes Christian life in doctrine, morality, and worship.

Weekly Goal

To understand the Our Father as both a prayer of the lips and a school of the soul — drawing from Scripture, Tradition, the Catechism, and the Fathers.

What You’ll Need

A Bible (Matthew 6:9–13; Luke 11:1–4)

Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 2759–2865)

Optional: St. Cyprian On the Lord’s Prayer, St. Augustine Letter to Proba, St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica II–II, q.83

Opening Prayer (Daily)

Heavenly Father,
You gave us Your Son, who taught us to pray: “Our Father.”
Send Your Spirit to open my mind to the mystery of these words,
that I may not only pray them, but live them fully,
until Your Kingdom comes in glory. Amen.

�� Day 1 – The Source of Christian Prayer

Teaching:
Jesus does not simply give us a formula. He reveals His own relationship with the Father and draws us into it. The Our Father is Christ’s prayer made ours.

�� Luke 11:1–2 – “Lord, teach us to pray… When you pray, say: Father…”
�� CCC 2766: “But Jesus does not give us a formula to repeat mechanically. As in every vocal prayer, it is through the Word of God that the Holy Spirit teaches the children of God to pray.”

Fathers:

Tertullian: calls the Our Father “a compendium of the Gospel.”

St. Augustine: every legitimate prayer can be reduced to the petitions of the Our Father (Letter to Proba, 130).

�� Reflection: To pray this prayer is to participate in the eternal dialogue between Son and Father, in the Spirit.

Practice: Pray it once slowly, imagining Christ Himself at your side saying it with you.

�� Day 2 – “Our Father, Who Art in Heaven”

Teaching:
Calling God “Father” is not natural to all religions; it is revealed by Christ. Through Baptism we receive adoption as sons and daughters (Gal 4:6–7). The word “Our” abolishes individualism and reminds us we pray as the Church.

�� Romans 8:15 – “You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’”
�� CCC 2780–2782: “When we say ‘Our Father,’ we acknowledge that all His promises of love… are beyond all division.”

Apologetic Point: Some object that calling God “Father” is patriarchal or limiting. But this is Christ’s own language. God transcends male and female, yet chooses “Father” to reveal His eternal begetting of the Son and His covenantal care for His people.

Practice: Today, pray the Our Father consciously in union with the whole Church, especially persecuted Christians.

�� Day 3 – The Kingdom and the Will

Teaching:
“Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done” is a prayer of radical surrender. The kingdom is both already present in Christ (Luke 17:21) and yet to be fully revealed at the end of time. The will of God is accomplished in heaven perfectly; we ask that our obedience on earth mirror it.

�� Matthew 6:10 – “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
�� CCC 2816–2827: “This petition is Maranatha, the cry of the Spirit and the Bride: ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’”

Fathers:

St. Cyprian: To pray this is to pledge obedience: “We pray that God’s will may be done in us.” (On the Lord’s Prayer, 14)

Apologetic point: Some modern Christians reduce “kingdom” to social progress. But Catholic teaching insists it is first and foremost the reign of Christ in hearts, the Church as its seed, and its perfection in the Parousia.

Practice: Identify one area where my will clashes with God’s (relationships, money, career). Consciously pray: “Thy will be done here.”

�� Day 4 – “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”

Teaching:
The Greek epiousion is unique in the NT and has layered meaning:

Daily sustenance (trust in Providence).

Eucharistic Bread of Life (the Fathers overwhelmingly see this).

The Word of God.

�� John 6:51 – “I am the living bread which came down from heaven.”
�� CCC 2837: “‘Daily’ also refers to the Eucharist, the super-essential bread, the medicine of immortality.”

Fathers:

St. Jerome: “In the Eucharist we receive today what sustains us unto eternity.”

St. Ignatius of Antioch: called the Eucharist “the medicine of immortality.”

Apologetic point: Protestants often reduce this to mere food. But the Fathers testify that the Eucharistic meaning was central from the earliest centuries.

Practice: Attend Mass during the week. When saying the Our Father before Communion, unite this petition with receiving the Eucharist.

��️ Day 5 – Forgiveness and Spiritual Warfare

Teaching:
To pray “forgive us as we forgive” is to place a condition on ourselves. It is both comfort and warning. The final petition, “deliver us from evil,” is not vague: the Church interprets it as a cry of deliverance from the Evil One himself (CCC 2850).

�� Matthew 6:14–15 – “If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
�� CCC 2840–2854: “This petition is astonishing… The drama of forgiveness cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven.”

Fathers:

St. John Chrysostom: “Nothing makes us so like God as our readiness to forgive.”

Origen: “To ask deliverance from evil is to seek liberation from the grasp of the Evil One.”

Apologetic point: Modern culture treats evil as impersonal. Christianity insists on a personal Evil One — Satan — and our need for Christ’s victory.

Practice: Examine your conscience. Is there someone I must forgive? Make a deliberate act of the will: “I forgive them, Lord, as You forgive me.”

Weekend Wrap-Up – Living the Our Father

Questions for meditation:

Which petition challenges me most: surrender, bread, forgiveness? Why?

How does this prayer unite me more deeply with the Eucharist and the Church?

In what ways does praying it slowly change how I live?

✍️ Journal Prompts

“The Our Father teaches me that Christian life is…”

“This week, I discovered the Our Father is not just words, but…”

Apologetics in Depth

Objection: Isn’t repeating the Our Father “vain repetition” (Matt 6:7)?
Answer: Christ condemns empty babble, not meaningful repetition. The Psalms, Revelation, and liturgy repeat constantly. The Lord Himself repeated His own prayers (cf. Gethsemane).

Objection: Why do Catholics not always say the doxology (“For thine is the kingdom…”)?
Answer: That line appears in some later manuscripts and early Christian texts (Didache).  Catholics include it in the liturgy after the embolism prayer.

Objection: Why is “daily bread” Eucharistic?
Answer: Because the Greek epiousion can mean “super-essential.” The Fathers (Cyprian, Jerome, Augustine) consistently read it as Eucharistic, showing continuity with Catholic belief.

Optional Extension

Read CCC 2759–2865 carefully.

Read St. Cyprian’s On the Lord’s Prayer.

Read Augustine, Letter to Proba (on prayer).

Pray the Our Father before the Blessed Sacrament, pausing at each phrase.