Teach Us to Pray
"One day in a place where Jesus had just finished praying, one of His disciples requested, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” So Jesus told them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”"
— Luke 11:1-4
Religious groups of that time may have had a short prayer of their own, one that set them apart, and John the Baptist had given his followers one. The disciple asks only after watching Jesus pray and waiting for him to finish. Luke's version is shorter than Matthew's, the one most people know by heart. The first word in Jesus' own language was most likely Abba, the word a son used for his father, grown sons included. Devout Jews avoided saying God's name out of reverence. This request grows from the same awe and echoes the Jewish Kaddish: that God would cause his name to be honoured as holy. The Greek word behind daily is so rare that we hardly know it outside this prayer, and its exact meaning is still debated: for today, for tomorrow, or what we need to live. Forgiveness works like bread here: it is asked for constantly, not once in a lifetime. This prayer does not call for fine words, only honesty.