The Lord’s Prayer, First Petition: The Soul’s Adoption and Ascent

After teaching the Beatitudes and the virtues that prepare the soul for communion with God, the Lord next teaches how that soul should pray. The order is deliberate: one must be made new before one can rightly speak to God. The prayer therefore begins with the words, “Our Father who art in heaven.”

By this address, we confess both God’s mercy and our own adoption. We call Him Father, not as creatures only, but as children reborn by grace. For the humble and purified heart, which has ascended through the Beatitudes, is now made fit to speak as a son rather than a slave.

When we say “in heaven,” we do not mean that God is confined to a place. Heaven signifies the hearts of the righteous, where God dwells by faith. Thus we are taught to lift our hearts, that we too may become His dwelling. The prayer begins not with petition, but with praise — to remind us that prayer’s first movement is love, not request.

The plural “our” teaches that this prayer belongs not to one alone, but to the whole body of Christ. No one prays rightly in isolation; the charity of the Church gives meaning to every “Our Father.” In saying these words, we enter into communion with all who share the same adoption.

So the prayer begins as the Beatitudes began — with humility and poverty of spirit. We do not presume upon our worth, but upon His mercy. By calling Him Father, we are already lifted from fear to love, and by remembering that He is in heaven, we are drawn upward in desire to where our Father reigns.

Source: St. Augustine, On the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Book II, Chapters 4–5.