# Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon - THE SECRET OF THE LORDS PRAYER Most Catholics Overlook

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 3 Sep 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74742485/bishop_barron_s_sunday_sermon_the_secret_of_the_lords_prayer_most_catholics_overlook.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you. Friends, our Gospel for today is St.
[0:03] Speaker 1: Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer, the Our Father. This
[0:08] Speaker 1: prayer that's, I mean, recited probably, I don't know, millions
[0:12] Speaker 1: of times a day all over the world. At every Mass,
[0:16] Speaker 1: if you're praying the Liturgy of the Hours, you pray
[0:18] Speaker 1: it three times a day. Think of all the people
[0:21] Speaker 1: who would recite these words. They're some of the best-known
[0:24] Speaker 1: words on the planet. It might be good for us, therefore,
[0:27] Speaker 1: to walk slowly through Luke's version of it to see
[0:30] Speaker 1: what this great prayer is about, what we're asking for
[0:35] Speaker 1: when we pray the Lord's Prayer. Here's the first idea, first,
[0:38] Speaker 1: I think, important observation. It comes from Jesus' own life
[0:44] Speaker 1: of prayer. So he's been praying, and the disciples notice that.
[0:49] Speaker 2: They say, Lord, teach us. How to pray.
[0:52] Speaker 1: Think of a great basketball player, a great guitarist, and
[0:55] Speaker 1: people watch and say, oh, teach me how to do that.
[0:57] Speaker 1: They must have noticed how intense his life of prayer was.
[1:01] Speaker 1: And so they say, Lord, help us to pray the
[1:03] Speaker 1: way you do. So this prayer, think about this when
[1:05] Speaker 1: you pray the Our Father. It reflects Jesus' own prayer,
[1:10] Speaker 1: his own life of prayer. When you pray, he says, say, Father,
[1:18] Speaker 1: hallowed be your name.
[1:21] Speaker 2: Father.
[1:22] Speaker 1: Let's pause right there. I mean, God could be addressed
[1:25] Speaker 1: as Lord, Master, All-Powerful, etc. All those are true designations.
[1:31] Speaker 1: That we're invited to call him Father. It's suggested by
[1:35] Speaker 1: some scholars that behind that is the diminutive, the Hebrew Abba,
[1:39] Speaker 1: more like Daddy. Jesus is uniquely the Son of the Father.
[1:45] Speaker 1: He has that unique relationship with him. How wonderful is that?
[1:49] Speaker 1: That as we pray this prayer he taught us, we're
[1:52] Speaker 1: invited to share in that intimacy. Now, we're not the
[1:56] Speaker 1: sons and daughters of God the way he's the Son
[1:58] Speaker 1: of God. But yet, he's giving us the privilege to
[2:03] Speaker 1: enter into that kind of intimacy with God. Don't brush
[2:06] Speaker 1: over that word when you start the Our Father. That
[2:09] Speaker 1: you're able to say Our Father in addressing the creator
[2:13] Speaker 1: of the universe, in addressing the infinite source of existence itself.
[2:18] Speaker 1: We're able to say Father because we share in Christ's
[2:22] Speaker 1: own intimacy. First thing we ask him, hallowed be thy name. Now,
[2:29] Speaker 1: may your name be held holy. It's not as though
[2:32] Speaker 1: our prayer is making his name holy. We're not praying
[2:35] Speaker 1: for that. As though we have the power to do that.
[2:37] Speaker 1: I mean, God's name is always holy. What we're asking
[2:42] Speaker 1: for is that we always hallow the name of God.
[2:49] Speaker 1: Now to hallow, to hold as holy, that means as
[2:54] Speaker 1: set apart. May we always consider God a value so
[3:02] Speaker 1: supreme that every other value by comparison simply falls away.
[3:09] Speaker 1: I'm interested in all sorts of things. I value all
[3:11] Speaker 1: kinds of things. I value my job. I value money.
[3:14] Speaker 1: I value my family. I value my country, etc.
[3:17] Speaker 2: etc.
[3:17] Speaker 1: And if I say, well, among these many values, I
[3:20] Speaker 1: also value God, then his name is not being hallowed.
[3:25] Speaker 2: It's not being held holy.
[3:26] Speaker 1: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is Lord alone.
[3:31] Speaker 1: The Shema, Deuteronomy chapter 6, this fundamental prayer of ancient Judaism.
[3:37] Speaker 1: Not one value among many. Not just the highest value
[3:42] Speaker 1: among many. But you are Lord alone. You alone are
[3:46] Speaker 1: the center of my life. No value is even in
[3:51] Speaker 1: competition with you. And see, as I've said many times
[3:55] Speaker 1: to you before, when we get this right, we get
[4:00] Speaker 1: everything else right. When God's name is held holy, as hallowed, well,
[4:04] Speaker 1: then all the rest of my interests and all the
[4:07] Speaker 1: other values find their place around that central value. That's
[4:12] Speaker 1: the first thing we ask the Father. May we hold
[4:15] Speaker 1: your name, your presence, as hallowed, as holy.
[4:22] Speaker 2: What's next?
[4:24] Speaker 1: May your kingdom come. That's the heart of Jesus' preaching, right?
[4:29] Speaker 1: When he first appears in the hills of Galilee, what's
[4:31] Speaker 1: on his lips is the message of the kingdom. The
[4:33] Speaker 1: kingdom of God is at hand, so repent and believe
[4:36] Speaker 1: the good news. The kingdom, the kingdom, what is it?
[4:39] Speaker 1: I always follow Origen here, the great church father. He said,
[4:43] Speaker 1: Jesus is autobasileia. That means he's the kingdom in person. See,
[4:50] Speaker 1: the kingdom of God means God's reign, God's way of
[4:54] Speaker 1: ordering things. Because for centuries, Israel longed for this. That
[4:59] Speaker 1: the God who made the world, who created the human race,
[5:03] Speaker 1: and wanted us to be his priests and his prophets
[5:06] Speaker 1: and his followers, that world has fallen into sinful disarray.
[5:11] Speaker 1: And no earthly ruler could set it right. And so
[5:14] Speaker 1: Israel begged, Lord, come.
[5:18] Speaker 2: How long, O Lord?
[5:19] Speaker 1: When will you come to set things right? Well, that's
[5:22] Speaker 1: God's kingdom, God's reign. How has it happened?
[5:25] Speaker 2: It's happened in him, in Jesus. He's the auto basileia,
[5:30] Speaker 2: the kingdom in person.
[5:31] Speaker 1: He himself is the coming together of divinity and humanity.
[5:35] Speaker 1: He himself is God's justice and peace reigning on the earth.
[5:40] Speaker 1: And so when we say, may your kingdom come, we're saying,
[5:44] Speaker 1: May we be drawn more and more completely into the
[5:49] Speaker 1: power of Jesus. May this reign embodied in him become
[5:57] Speaker 1: normative for me. An extraordinary thing when you think about it.
[6:02] Speaker 1: That's what we're asking for every time we say, thy
[6:04] Speaker 1: kingdom come. Then this, and it's mysterious.
[6:09] Speaker 2: It's mysterious.
[6:12] Speaker 1: Give us each day our daily bread. Now, it sounds
[6:16] Speaker 1: rather ordinary, but why do I say mysterious? Well, the
[6:18] Speaker 1: Greek behind this phrase is very strange. It means literally,
[6:27] Speaker 1: give us the super substantial bread.
[6:32] Speaker 2: Usia means substance. Epi is like on top of or
[6:35] Speaker 2: more of. Give us bread. the supersubstantial bread. It's very interesting.
[6:40] Speaker 1: You look in the old Vulgate, the ancient Latin rendering
[6:44] Speaker 1: of the New Testament, and you'll find St. Jerome translates
[6:48] Speaker 1: this as panem supersubstantialem, supersubstantial.
[6:55] Speaker 2: Bread, not daily bread.
[6:56] Speaker 1: Now, I won't bore you with the details of how
[6:58] Speaker 1: we got to daily, and there's a way the scholars
[7:00] Speaker 1: understand that.
[7:02] Speaker 2: But I want to stay with this peculiar expression.
[7:06] Speaker 1: At the heart of the Lord's Prayer, give us each
[7:09] Speaker 1: day our super substantial bread. Are we praying just for
[7:14] Speaker 1: ordinary sustenance? No, it seems to me. That would be
[7:17] Speaker 1: ordinary bread. You know, Lord, help us to have enough
[7:20] Speaker 1: to live on.
[7:21] Speaker 2: Okay, okay. But we're not asking for that.
[7:24] Speaker 1: We're asking for the panem super substantialem, the super substantial bread.
[7:32] Speaker 1: Catholics begin to hear an overtone, don't we?
[7:36] Speaker 2: What's the Eucharist? Not ordinary bread, but.
[7:41] Speaker 1: Bread that has been transubstantiated into the body and.
[7:47] Speaker 2: Blood of Christ. No longer ordinary bread.
[7:51] Speaker 1: But now the body and blood of Christ under the
[7:53] Speaker 1: appearances of bread and wine. The super substantial bread for
[7:57] Speaker 1: which we pray every time we pray the Lord's Prayer
[8:00] Speaker 1: is precisely Christ in his Eucharistic form.
[8:05] Speaker 2: See, we pray that his kingdom might come, his reign, yes.
[8:09] Speaker 1: And we want to be fed because we're not just
[8:12] Speaker 1: following a guru or a leader.
[8:15] Speaker 2: We want to be drawn into him. How's that happen?
[8:20] Speaker 1: Through the super substantial bread that we pray for every
[8:26] Speaker 1: time we pray this prayer. Then forgive us our sins. Oh,
[8:33] Speaker 1: it's extraordinary, everybody, isn't it? I mean, Jesus, great teacher,
[8:36] Speaker 1: of course. Prince of Peace, of course. The one who's
[8:41] Speaker 1: established this new way of life.
[8:43] Speaker 2: Yes, all that's true.
[8:47] Speaker 1: I think you could argue the most important thing that
[8:50] Speaker 1: Jesus does is he forgives our sins. Go and sin
[8:55] Speaker 1: no more to the woman caught in adultery. Pick up
[8:59] Speaker 1: your mat and walk. Your sins have been forgiven. Neither
[9:04] Speaker 1: do I condemn you. The forgiveness of sins is at
[9:10] Speaker 1: the very heart of what Jesus is about.
[9:12] Speaker 2: Now, why?
[9:13] Speaker 1: Why?
[9:13] Speaker 2: Well, C.S. Lewis saw this.
[9:16] Speaker 1: At the limit, if you've offended me, I could forgive you.
[9:19] Speaker 2: I could say, look, I'm not going to hold that
[9:21] Speaker 2: against you. I forgive you.
[9:24] Speaker 1: But if I were to walk up to you and say,
[9:25] Speaker 1: I forgive all your sins, you'd think I was out
[9:29] Speaker 1: of my mind, and you'd be right. Because I have
[9:32] Speaker 1: no business forgiving all of your sins. Who's the only
[9:37] Speaker 1: one who could reasonably do that or say that? Who
[9:41] Speaker 1: could say, my son, your sins are forgiven you? Who
[9:44] Speaker 1: could say that? No ordinary human being. But only, as
[9:49] Speaker 1: Lewis saw, the one who is indeed offended in every sin.
[9:57] Speaker 1: If I'm offended by you, I could, in principle, forgive you.
[10:00] Speaker 1: But I can't forgive you for all your sins. But
[10:03] Speaker 1: the God who is offended in every sin can say
[10:09] Speaker 1: to us, my son, my daughter, your sins are forgiven. See,
[10:16] Speaker 1: this is how we're drawn into the kingdom of God.
[10:19] Speaker 1: This is how we're drawn to the power of Jesus,
[10:21] Speaker 1: is he forgives our sins.
[10:23] Speaker 2: And so in this.
[10:24] Speaker 1: Great prayer, that's what we're asking for. Lord, please forgive
[10:28] Speaker 1: our sins. Do that which you alone, as the Son
[10:33] Speaker 1: of God, can do. And then, right away, the implication,
[10:40] Speaker 1: the next thing we ask for. As we forgive those
[10:44] Speaker 1: who trespass against us, It's been said, I remember a
[10:48] Speaker 1: grade school teacher of mine, a sister long, long ago,
[10:53] Speaker 1: reminding us that every time we pray this prayer, that
[10:55] Speaker 1: this challenge.
[10:56] Speaker 2: Is right in our face. Lord, please forgive me for
[11:00] Speaker 2: my sins.
[11:02] Speaker 1: Yes, yes, this incomparable grace comes of the forgiveness of
[11:06] Speaker 1: my sins.
[11:08] Speaker 2: Well, now.
[11:09] Speaker 1: I've got to be about the business of forgiving those
[11:12] Speaker 1: who've offended me. Otherwise, I've not imbibed the forgiveness of Christ.
[11:18] Speaker 1: I put it on like a garment that I can
[11:20] Speaker 1: take off. If I've really taken it on, I've imbibed it.
[11:24] Speaker 1: It's become part of my life. Well, then I become
[11:27] Speaker 1: a Christ to others. Think of someone who has trespassed
[11:33] Speaker 1: against you right now. I mean specifically. What you're praying
[11:39] Speaker 1: for is the grace now to forgive that person as
[11:43] Speaker 1: you've been forgiven.
[11:45] Speaker 2: I don't know, it's one of.
[11:47] Speaker 1: The most challenging elements in the whole spiritual life, I think.
[11:52] Speaker 1: And then one last detail, as Luke tells us, do
[11:56] Speaker 1: not subject us to the final test.
[11:59] Speaker 2: Now to understand this, we have to go back to
[12:01] Speaker 2: the first century.
[12:01] Speaker 1: There was a presupposition that before the Messiah came, There'd
[12:07] Speaker 1: be a period of testing and of trial. Some of
[12:11] Speaker 1: the apocalyptic language of the New Testament reflects this idea
[12:15] Speaker 1: that before the Messiah comes to set things right, there'll
[12:18] Speaker 1: be a terrible time of trial.
[12:20] Speaker 2: Now, here's, I think, how we understand this.
[12:23] Speaker 1: Yes, when Jesus comes into our dysfunctional world, that's what
[12:27] Speaker 1: the kingdom means. And we're praying for it. May your
[12:30] Speaker 1: kingdom come. Your will be done. Give us the super
[12:33] Speaker 1: substantial bread. Come into this dysfunctional world of ours. What
[12:37] Speaker 1: will happen is the dysfunctional world is going to rise
[12:40] Speaker 1: up in resistance. Now, I can see that in the
[12:44] Speaker 1: grand scale, but I can feel it in my own life, right?
[12:49] Speaker 1: Fellow sinners, you can do that too. As Christ comes
[12:52] Speaker 1: into my life, I start resisting. I don't want that.
[12:58] Speaker 1: I don't want him to be Lord of my life.
[13:00] Speaker 1: I don't want to change. I'm like the Israelites in
[13:04] Speaker 1: the desert. I mean, take me back to the flesh
[13:06] Speaker 1: pots of Egypt. I don't like this new spiritual liberty.
[13:11] Speaker 2: So expect it. That's the point here.
[13:13] Speaker 1: Every time we pray the Our Father, we're expecting a
[13:16] Speaker 1: resistance to Christ.
[13:18] Speaker 2: Lead us not into temptation, right? In other versions of this.
[13:23] Speaker 2: Expect it. Don't be shocked.
[13:25] Speaker 1: Don't be surprised when a resistance to Christ rises up
[13:29] Speaker 1: in you.
[13:30] Speaker 2: That's the old sinful self. And so the.
[13:32] Speaker 1: Last thing we ask for is, Lord, do not subject
[13:37] Speaker 1: us to the final test. Lead us not into temptation. Lord,
[13:41] Speaker 1: protect me from my resistant self. There's so much more
[13:48] Speaker 1: we could say. Read so many of the spiritual masters
[13:50] Speaker 1: as they talk about the Lord's Prayer.
[13:52] Speaker 2: But every step of it is opening up a window
[13:56] Speaker 2: and a door to the spiritual life.
[13:59] Speaker 1: Next time you pray it, whether it's the liturgy or
[14:01] Speaker 1: just privately, I'd invite you to do it very slowly.
[14:06] Speaker 1: As you do, meditate on each of these phrases. You'll
[14:10] Speaker 1: find the whole spiritual life is displayed before you.

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