Understanding 'Our Father': Biblical Reflections On The Lord's Prayer

The prayer at hand has been called many things: the Pater Noster, the Our Father, the Model Prayer, the Lord’s Prayer. In Understanding “Our Father”: Biblical Reflections on the Lord’ s Prayer, Scott Hahn presents a unique meditation on this common prayer, leading readers to consider the wealth of meaning in its seeming simplicity.

Relying on the Fathers and Doctors of the Church as well as Sacred Scripture, Hahn reflects on each of the seven petitions of the Our Father individually and draws out the implications of the prayer given to us by Christ Himself.

About the Author

Scott Hahn is the bestselling author of over forty titles, including The Lamb’s Supper and Reasons to Believe. Professor Hahn holds the Fr. Michael Scanlan Chair of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he has taught since 1990. As Founder and President of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, he is Editor-in-Chief of Emmaus Road Publishing. His Emmaus Road titles include Understanding “Our Father,” Spirit and Life, Scripture Matters, Answering the New Atheism (co-author), and Catholic for a Reason Vols. I–IV (co-editor). He also serves as the McEssy Distinguished Visiting Professor of Biblical Theology at Mundelein Seminary. Hahn has six children and thirteen grandchildren. He lives in Steubenville, Ohio.

Endorsements

“The indefatigable Dr. Hahn has come up with a miniature masterpiece—miniature in its winsome simplicity, a masterpiece in its insight and depth. It merits a myriad of readers—and a miniature doxology.”

—Rev. Robert I. Bradley, S.J.

“In this wonderful exposition of the most beautiful of human prayers, that prayer which came from the divine lips of Jesus Christ Himself, Dr. Scott Hahn has, once again, provided the Catholic and the Christian with a splendid work of theological research. Understanding ‘Our Father’ will definitely serve to enrich spiritually all who are privileged to read and meditate on it. By coordinating his commentary and meditation on the Lord’s Prayer with those of four great doctors of the Church, Dr. Hahn provides an ongoing connection with the long continuity of Christian tradition. It is a book that the reader will find as intellectually satisfying as it is grace-filled and consoling.”

—Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz

“Understanding ‘Our Father’ offers inspiration and encouragement to a culture suffering a crisis of human fatherhood that often flows from an increasing denial of divine fatherhood. By blending his own scriptural insights on the Lord’s Prayer with the thoughts of four great Church Fathers, Professor Hahn writes a prescription for what ails many of our families—too little prayer. I urge husbands and wives to read and discuss this book and share its wisdom with their children by devotedly praying the Our Father as a family every day. Immeasurable blessings will follow.”

—Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.

“With remarkable clarity, keen personal insight, and solid catechesis, Dr. Scott Hahn once more takes the reader into a critical element of the faith: the nature and importance of prayer. His personal meditations on the Lord’s Prayer, combined with theological reflections from four saints and Fathers of the Church, are refreshing to the soul—nearly as refreshing as prayer itself!”

—Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan