Prayer · Christian practice

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

The prayer Jesus gives when the disciples ask how to pray. It is the one text nearly all Christians hold in common, and correspondingly the one whose wording varies most between them.

Source: Matthew 6:9–13

The count shown here is Japa's suggestion, not a rule of the tradition. Follow the form and number you were taught.

Not counted on beads

How many times

Japa suggests three times a day. Follow the number you were taught.

Japa counts this one without a mala: a plain daily number rather than a ring of beads, with the words kept in view while you say them. Counting is unlimited and free.

Open this practice in Japa

Opens a preview of this practice, with an option to add it in Japa 1.6 or later. If you install the app, return here and open the link again.

What the words say

Seven petitions in the Matthean form: that the name be hallowed, the kingdom come, the will be done; then bread, forgiveness, not being led into temptation, and deliverance from evil. 'Daily' renders epiousios, a Greek word that occurs almost nowhere else and whose sense — daily, needful, for tomorrow — has never been settled. The forgiveness clause is the only one that makes the request conditional on the person praying.

Where it comes from

Matthew 6:9–13, with a shorter version at Luke 11:2–4. The concluding doxology — 'for thine is the kingdom' — is absent from the earliest manuscripts of Matthew, appears in the Didache, and is why Protestant and Orthodox usage ends differently from Catholic. This app carries a traditional Western form without it.

How it is practised

Said in every Christian liturgy, at the opening of each decade of the Rosary, and through the daily office. Three times here is this app's framing.

References

Matthew 6:9–13; Luke 11:2–4
Didache 8, for the early doxology

Keep it, and count it every day.

Japa keeps this text beside a large, calm counter on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, with a haptic for every bead and an optional bell at the end of each round. Counting is unlimited and free.

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