UNDERSTANDING “OUR FATHER”: BIBLICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE LORD'S PRAYER

by Scott Hahn

Emmaus Road Publishing, 2003

146 pages, $15.95

To order: (800) 398-5470

www.emmausroad.org

Do you ever find yourself praying the Our Father in a kind of pious coma? Here's a book to rouse you from the drone of repetition and guide you into the depths of Christ's own prayer.

Scott Hahn has helped acquaint many a Catholic with the finer points of Bible study. A gifted teacher, he has a knack for making the dull vivid and the complex simple. Here he unpacks the theological and biblical meaning of each phrase of the Lord's Prayer — and reveals what he terms the “inner logic” of this most fundamental of prayers.

Throughout, Hahn, professor of theology and Scripture at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, develops and draws from his trademark launching pad: covenant theology, according to which the Trinity creates a family bond with us, the members of the Body of Christ.

“If you want to see how the Our Father changes the souls who use it in prayer, take a closer look at its structure,” Hahn writes in introducing the study. “The first part is clearly ‘God-ward,’ focused on ‘Thy name,’ ‘Thy Kingdom,’ ‘Thy will.’ The second half, however, turns attention to us and our needs: ‘give us,’ ‘forgive us,’ ‘lead us,’ ‘deliver us.’ The sequence is significant, because it reverses the instinctive order of our petitions. When we pray spontaneously, we tend to begin with our troubles, our frustrated desires and our personal wish list. But Jesus shows us that we need to be less self-centered in prayer and more God-centered. … In its very sequence, the Our Father is a much-needed orientation-to-reality program.”

Elsewhere Hahn points to healthy human father-children bonds but doesn't forget those who've had bad experiences with their earthly fathers and now have difficulty accepting the authority of any “father figure” — including God the Father. Catholic tradition, he points out, “tells us we must go beyond our earthly experiences and memories of fatherhood. God is more unlike than like any human father, patriarch or paternal figure.”

The book is written in Hahn's usual energetic, conversational style. The chapters are peppered with playful subheads — “Send in the Crowns,” “From Heir to Eternity” and “Celestial Voices Impersonated” among them. Sometimes I feel like I shouldn't laugh; it only encourages him. Then again, more than one “Hahnhead” has assured me that the professor's peculiar penchant for puns serves a useful purpose: It provides a steady stream of mnemonic, doctrine-remembrance devices.

It's worth noting here that only the first half of the 146-page book is written by Hahn. The rest of the pages offer commentaries on the Lord's Prayer by four Church Fathers: St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Jerusalem and St. Cyprian. These selections, 19th-century translations now in the public domain, can make for tough going at times, especially for those unfamiliar with reading ancient or doctrinally dense writing. Unfortunately, Hahn provides only three paragraphs of guidance on how to read these commentaries. I suspect some readers will, upon reaching this point, feel as if they're being sent off on an exploration without a map. Also, the Church Fathers can be downloaded from the Internet for free — which makes the book's $15.95 price tag seem a bit steep.

Despite these not-insubstantial reservations, Understanding “Our Father” provides some startling and worthwhile insights that can serve as powerful aids to prayer. And it's a must-have for those looking to compile a comprehensive Scott Hahn collection.

Una McManus writes from Steubenville, Ohio.