The first prayer that many people learn, even as young children, is the Lord’s Prayer – the Our Father. For Catholics, the reason for that may be that we pray it every time we go to Mass.

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.

The Lord’s Prayer has been part of the liturgy since the very beginning.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls it “the summary of the whole Gospel.” In fact, the final section of the Catechism is about the Lord’s Prayer.

This prayer is prayed at a most appropriate time during the Mass: shortly before we go up to receive Communion. As we ask God to “Give us this day our daily bread,” we prepare ourselves to receive the Bread of Life – the Body and Blood of Christ. But it goes even deeper, referring to the whole Mass – the liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

The Catechism, number 2835, puts it like this: “The specifically Christian sense of this fourth petition concerns the Bread of Life: The Word of God accepted in faith, the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist.”