Lord's Prayer
天主經
40 X 95cm in Standard Script (楷書)
Historical Information
How should one pray? Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer:
Jesus "was praying at a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.'"(Lk 11:1) In response to this request the Lord entrusts to his disciples and to his Church the fundamental Christian prayer. St. Luke presents a brief text of five petitions(Cf. Lk 11:2-4), while St. Matthew gives a more developed version of seven petitions. The liturgical tradition of the Church has retained St. Matthew's text (Cf. Mt 6:9-13).
The Catholic version of the Lord's Prayer was first translated to classical Chinese (文言文) by Matteo Ricci (利瑪竇, 1552-1610AD) and scholar Xu Guangqi (徐光啓, 1568-1633AD). Subsequently, a version in vernacular Chinese (白話文) was published in the Chinese version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The calligraphy above is the Catholic version of the Lord's Prayer in vernacular Chinese.
Translation
The Chinese texts inside the brackets are the classical Chinese (文言文) translations of the Lord's Prayer by Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi, while the Chinese texts outside the brackets are the vernacular Chinese (白話文) translations of the Lord's Prayer that are recited in today’s Chinese Catholic Churches.
English
Chinese
Our Father who art in heaven,
我們的天父，
(在天我等父者，)
hallowed be thy name.
願祢的名受顯揚，
(我等願爾名見聖。)
Thy kingdom come.
願祢的國降臨，
(爾國臨格。)
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
願祢的旨意奉行在人間，如同在天上。
(爾旨承行於地，如於天焉。)
Give us this day our daily bread,
求祢今天賞給我們日用的食糧，
(我等望爾，今日與我，我日用糧。)
and forgive us our trespasses,
求祢寬恕我們的罪過，
(爾免我債，)
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
如同我們寬恕別人一樣。
(如我亦免負我債者。)
and lead us not into temptation,
不要讓我們陷於誘惑，
(又不我許陷於誘感。)
but deliver us from evil.
但救我們免於凶惡。
(乃救我於凶惡。)
Amen
亞孟。
(亞孟。)
Personal Comments
The Lord's Prayer is "truly the summary of all gospels"(1). St. Augustine (354-430AD) once wrote,
"Run through all the words of the holy prayers [in Scripture], and I do not think that you will find anything in them that is not contained and included in the Lord's Prayer" - St. Augustine, Ep. 130,12,22:PL 33,503.
The Lord's Prayer is, hence, the most important prayer in Christianity, as it wholly summarizes the message delivered by the Four Gospels: putting God's will first and personal desires last. As The Most Reverend Savio Hon Tai-fai (Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Vatican) rightly noted, "This is the gist of the Gospels: The mortal ones have their own will and desires, while God has God's own will and desires; if one choses to follow God's desires, then one shall effortlessly fulfill all of one's desires (這是福音: 人有人意，天有天意，順得天意，自能如意)" (2)."The Lord's Prayer is the most perfect of prayers. . . . In it we ask, not only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired. This prayer not only teaches us to ask for things, but also in what order we should desire them." - St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II,83,9.
What is God's will? Jesus told us to protect the weak, help the poor, act with justice (Matthew 25:31-46), and stay away from the temptation of worldly goods and powers (Matthew 6:24). In Christianity, the downfall of mankind is attributed to putting personal desires first and God's words second. This is clearly indicated in the very first chapter of the Bible, Genesis, where Adam and Eve chose to satisfy their own personal desires rather than obeying God's will (Genesis 3:1-12 ). One can thus argue that all pain and suffering (痛苦及不如意的事) is derived from the unnecessary and never-ending desires for worldly goods and power, for materialistic desires are endless and can never be completely satisfied.
Indeed, one must first leave personal desires behind to pursue God’s will - “You Cannot Serve Both God and Mammon” (Luke 16:1-13).
KS Vincent Poon, June 10, 2017; calligraphy rescribed Aug 2020.
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