Lord's Prayer

The Lord's Prayer is the only prayer explicitly given by Christ Jesus to humanity, teaching us how to pray. It is unique also in the fact it as the most effective of prayers, it contains certain powers that make it an initiation prayer to develop spiritual faculties. It appears in the gospels of Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4.

It has seven petitions that correspond to the seven main bodily principles of Man, that mankind is developing in the current solar system evolution.

The fourth stage of the Earth corresponds to the fourth pivotal element of the I that gives self-consciousness. The principle that the Christ infused, pure love or budhi, is only for Mankind to develop fully on the planet Future Venus. However there will already be stages where this comes to the foreground, already on the next planetary stage of Future Jupiter, and even on Earth in the sixth epoch (after the 'war of all against all' that will conclude the fifth and Current Postatlantean epoch).

The guidelines in the Lord's Prayer pray to the divine spiritual realities and one's own higher self for the correct, appropriate, balanced, good development of all structural elements in our constitution, and it does this in the most simple form possible.

Aspects

• the Lord's Prayer is not just a mantra, rather it is a 'thought mantra' that does not lose its power even when translated into a thousand languages (1907-02-17-GA097)
• Everyone who prays the Lord's Prayer is affected by it, one does not need knowledge at all, however one who does will receive "an entirely different fruit" from it (1907-02-17-GA097)
• language: Prayers in the ancient languages lose their power when they are translated into more modern languages. The Latin words of the Lord's Prayer have much more power in them than our own version. The original language of this prayer was Aramaic. People who said it in Aramaic felt its magic powers. (1907-01-19-GA097 Q&A). See youtube version in Aramaic by Daskalos below.
• in past and future
  • In the Atlantean Mysteries, the seven peti­tions of the Lord's Prayer were given to disciples in the form of a scale of seven tones, together with seven specific colors and fragrances, to experience the sevenfold essence of the human being (1907-02-17-GA097)
  • In future times to come, the highness of the Lord's prayer will cause people not to allow themselves to pray it fully in one day. Man will have such a huge imagination of the working together of the seven petitions, that one will not deem oneself worthy to unfold this prayer in one's heart every day (1912-06-12-GA244 - Q&A 232.3)
• additional phrasings/versions
  • by Rudolf Steiner and Daskalos: both prayed the Lord's Prayer daily and aloud
  • by Wulfila or Ulfilas (ca 311–383), 4th century version in Gothic by the first Christian initiate (see 1921-05-15-GA325 below for extensive comments)
• other prayers by Christ-Jesus:
  • a prayer given by Christ-Jesus in the synagogue of the Essene brotherhood (as delivered by Daskalos)
  • the prayer given by Christ to the apostles after the resurrection (see 1916-01-02-GA165 below)
• related prayers
  • the reverse prayer that Jesus heard at age of about 24 from Bath Kol, the spirit that had inspired Jewish prophets (1913-10-05-GA148)
  • see also the Good Prayer delivered by Beinsa Douno, see Beinsa Douno#Good Prayer
• see also: the Sermon on the Mount

Inspirational quote

1912-06-12-GA244 - Q&A 232.3

The Lord's prayer is [the most effective of prayers] and most suited in the highest degree as a daily prayer to develop spiritual faculties. ... Times will come, when the highness of the Lord's prayer will cause people not to allow themselves to pray the whole Lord's Prayer in one day. Man will have such a huge imagination [and conscious awareness] of the working together of the seven petitions, that one will not deem oneself worthy to unfold this great initiation prayer in one's heart every day.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.095 below links the seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer to the seven principles of Man and the 'higher self' (triangle) and 'lower self', with short keywords of spiritual scientific concepts and meaning linked to each phrase. On the right the symbol of the rose cross. The Rosecrucian symbol shows the seven principles as roses (future evolution) arising against the background carrier of the black wooden cross (representing the dying).

Lecture coverage and references

Overview coverage

There are four key lectures dedicated to the Lord's prayer:

• [1] - 1907-01-28-GA096 - 'The Lord's Prayer, an esoteric study', Part I
• [2] - 1907-02-04-GA097
• [3] - 1907-02-18-GA096 - 'The Lord's Prayer, an esoteric study', Part II
• [4] - 1907-03-06-GA097

Note: the booklet: 'The Lord's prayer : an esoteric study' in EN, or in DE: 'Das Vaterunser : eine esoterische Betrachtung' by Rudolf Steiner was previously published separately, but now [1] and [3] are part of GA096.

Reference extracts

1904-10-20-GA053

SWCC

Prayer has been present throughout evolution. For the early Chris­tians, it signified something more than simply a means of uniting human beings with their God. It is precisely the mood that Tolstoy depicted as the mood of the human soul, feeling himself quite imbued with it, that should be invoked by Christians through prayer. The loftier the things a person prays for, the better it is. Praying for outer things is foreign to the sense of original Christianity: "Father, not my will but your will be done."

What is the Father's will in the original Christian sense? It is the will that represents the primal law governing all of cosmic evolution. I want all my successes and wishes to be so perfect that they corre­spond to the sense of the Father's will, that is, to the spiritual law of the cosmos; I want them not to deviate from this great spiritual law. If I aspire to some arbitrary request when I pray, to something that springs from my everyday nature, from personal preference, I am not praying in the sense of "not my will, but your will be done."

We pray in this sense, however, when our intent is not to pull down to us what we are praying for or to have our own will prevail, but when we and our will are lifted up, striving to become divine, for our soul's resur­rection in the divine, in the Christ element.

Since the intent of spiritual science is to understand all religious creeds, it can agree with that. People can come into conflict with spiritual science only by not understanding their own religion. Anyone familiar with the methods of Christianity, and prayer is one of its methods, since it is a means of uniting with the divine universal soul, knows that there is no contradiction between prayer and spiritual science.

1906-09-02-GA095

The primal Christian prayer is:

"Lord, let this cup pass from me; nev­ertheless, not my will but your will be done."

One should not pray in an egoistic way. Prayer should be a lifting of oneself into the spiritual world, a source of force and strength.

1907-01-19-GA097 Q&A

The further east we go the richer the language, the further west, the poorer it is, America is therefore the poorest, its vocabulary being most limited. Prayers in the ancient languages lose their power when they are translated into more modern languages. The Latin words of the Lord's Prayer have much more power in them than our own version. The original language of this prayer was Aramaic. People who said it in Aramaic felt its magic powers. We need to gain the right approach again that will allow the power of words to come alive in language again.

1907-02-17-GA097

The Lord's Prayer in its original language and as a thought mantra.

We find the basic spiritual scientific concepts in all religious formulas and confessions, just as we do in the Lord's Prayer.

...

During sleep, the astral bodies of all human beings are still somewhat similar; but during the Atlantean age, astral bodies were always the same. One could bring to all people one primal wisdom. After the great flood had passed over Atlantean humanity, a unified wisdom was no longer possible. One had to teach in India according to what the Indian body required, differently in Persia, differently in Egypt, differ­ently with the Greeks and Romans, and differently again with the ancient Germanic races. Nevertheless, within all true forms of reli­gion, the common element from which each had arisen continued to live. In Atlantis enlightenment meant imparting life, not teaching. The sign of the spiral awakened an immediate feeling sensation. Today feelings must first be awakened by thoughts.

The seven peti­tions of the Lord's Prayer were also once given in the form of a scale of seven tones, together with seven specific colors and fragrances. In this way, disciples in Atlantis experienced the sevenfold essence of the human being.

Christ, the greatest of the religious teachers, poured this into the Lord's Prayer. Everyone who prays the Lord's Prayer is affected by it. It is not really a mantra, though it may have mantric powers. It is a "thought mantra."

Of course, its greatest power was in the original human language, but because it is precisely a thought mantra, it will not lose its power even when translated into a thousand languages.

We can digest food without knowing the laws of digestion; similarly, we have the fruit of the Lord's Prayer without knowledge. One who has the higher knowledge, however, will receive an entirely different fruit from it.

1907-02-18-GA096 = [3]

mentions

the Lord's Prayer will still have meaning when thousands and thousands of years will have passed

1907-03-06-GA097 = [4]

also covers the 'for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory', explained as three stages in the realm of the spirit and specifically related (editor interpretation) to the three stages of a) SoW, SoM and SoF, b) the Cherubim and Seraphim, and c) the Godhead itself.

Note that as per FMC00.093, Power-Kingdom-Glory are the esoteric christian terms for CoC-CoL-CoF.

1910-02-17-GA059

is on the nature of prayer

1912-06-12-GA244 - Q&A 232.3

The Lord's prayer is in most suited in the highest degree as a daily prayer to develop spiritual faculties. It is the most effective of prayers. The more respect and devotion one has for this prayer, the better for one's consciousness oul.

Even when Man prays and knows nothing of all this, still at the basis of this prayer lie powers that are the forces of origin of Man. The one who taught mankind this prayer knew these forces, and the person who uses this prayer can have these forces living in one's self unconsciously.

The more one enters in this prayer, the more the respect for it grows ever more.

Times will come, when the highness of the Lord's prayer will cause people not to allow themselves to pray the whole Lord's Prayer in one day. Man will have such a huge imagination [and conscious awareness] of the working together of the seven petitions, that one will not deem one's self worthy to unfold this great initiation prayer in one's heart every day.

1913-03-11-GA110 (tbc)

Prayer should be a bowing down of the soul before the divine spirituality that enlivens and pervades the cosmos.

Prayer, indeed, loses its meaning if it is egotistical. The only prayer that is justified is one that ends with the words of the archetypal prayer, "Not my will, but Your will be done."

This postscript gives the prayer the right atti­tude, and then it is a real prayer, if it is not egotistical.

Otherwise, practical contradictions would arise immediately. What is the granter of wishes supposed to do, for example, when some farmers prayer for dryness while others in the same area pray for rain so that their newly sown seeds will sprout? Or when two armies—who certainly both want to win—pray for victory?

Do not be egotistical in praying! The question as to whether wishes can be granted or not actually has no real meaning, because real prayer cannot expect that wishes will be granted. I know that this will offend many souls, but if you simply look into the nature of the thing itself, you will certainly find that this is how things really are.

1921-05-15-GA325 - Wulfila translation

And so, in this fourth century of our era, we find the human mind involved in the complicated network of Western culture but also in an element which constitutes the starting-point of a new impulse. It is an impulse that mingles with what has come over from the East and from the seemingly barbarian peoples by whom Roman civilisation was gradually superseded, but whose instructors, after they had mingled with the peasantry and the landowning classes, were the priests of the Roman Church. In the depths, however, there is something else at work. Out of the raw, unpolished soul of these peoples there emerges an element of lofty, archaic spirituality.

There could be no more striking example of this than the bock that has remained as a memorial of the ancient Goths — Wulfila's translation of the Bible. We must try to unfold a sensitive understanding of the language used in this translation of the Bible.

The Lord's Prayer, to take one example, is built up, fragment by fragment, out of the confusion of thought of which Augustine was so typical a representative. Wulfila's translation of the Bible is the offspring of an archaic form of thought, of Arian Christianity as opposed to the Athanasian Christianity of Augustine.

Perhaps more strongly than anywhere else, we can feel in Wulfila's translation of the Bible how deeply the pagan thought of antiquity is permeated with Arian Christianity. Something that is pregnant with inner life echoes down to us from these barbarian peoples and their culture, to which the civilisation of ancient Rome was giving place.

The Lord's Prayer rendered by Wulfila, is as follows:

Atta unsar thu in himinam,

Veihnai namo thein;

Quimai thiudinassus theins.

Vairthai vilja theins, sve in himina, jah ana aerthai.

Hlaif unsarana thana sinteinan, gif uns himma daga.

Jah aflet uns, thatei skulans sijaima, svasve jah veis afletam thaim skulam unsaraim.

Jah ni briggais uns in fraistubnjai, ak lausei uns af thamma ubilin.

Unte theina ist thiu dangardi, jah mahts, jah vulthus in aivius. Amen.

Atta unsar thu in himinam,

veihnai namo thein;

Quimai thiudinassus theins.

Vairthai vilja theins, sve in himina, jah ana aerthai.

The words of this wonderful prayer cannot really be translated literally into our modern language, but they may be rendered thus:

We feel Thee above in the Spirit-Heights, All Father of men.

May Thy Name be hallowed.

May Thy Kingdom come to us.

May Thy Will be supreme, an the Earth even as it is in Heaven.

We must be able to feel what these words express. Men were aware of the existence of a primordial Being, of the All-sustaining Father of humanity in the heights of spiritual existence. They pictured Hirn with their faculties of ancient clairvoyance as the invisible, super-sensible King who rules His Kingdom as no earthly King. Among the Goths this Being was venerated as King and their veneration was proclaimed in the words : Atta unsar thu in himinam.

This primordial Being was venerated in His three aspects:

• May Thy Name be hallowed. ‘Name’ — as a study of Sanscrit will show — implied the outer manifestation or revelation of the Being, as a man reveals himself in his body.
• ‘Kingdom’ was the supreme Power: Veihnai namo thein; Quimai thiudinassus theins, Vairthai vilja theins, sve in himina, jah ana aerthai.
• ‘Will’ indicated the Spirit shining through the Power and the Name.

Thus as they gazed upwards, men beheld the Spirit of the super-sensible worlds in His three-fold aspect. To this Spirit they paid veneration in the words :

Jah ana aerthai. Hlaif unsarana thana sinteinan, gif uns himma daga.

So may it be on Earth. Even as Thy Name, the form in which Thou art outwardly manifest, shall be holy, so may that which in us becomes outwardly manifest and must daily be renewed, be radiant with spiritual light. We must try to understand the meaning of the Gothic word Hlaif, from which Leib (Leib=body) is derived. In saying the words, ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’ we have no feeling for what the word Hlaif denoted here: — Even as Thy ‘Name’ denotes thy body, so too may our body be spiritualised, subsisting as it does through the food which it receives and transmutes.

The prayer speaks then of the ‘Kingdom’ that is to reign supreme from the super-sensible worlds, and so leads on to the social order among men. In this super-sensible ‘Kingdom’ men are not debtors one of another. The word debt among the Goths means debt in the moral as well as in the physical, social life.

And so the prayer passes from the ‘Name’ to the ‘Kingdom’, from the bodily manifestation in the Spirit, to the ‘Kingdom’.

And then from the outer, physical nature of the body to the element of soul in the social life and thence to the spiritual.

Jah aflet uns, thatei skulans sijaima, svasve jah veis afletam thaim skulam unsaraim.

May we not succumb to those forces which, proceeding from the body, lead the Spirit into darkness; deliver us from the evils by which the Spirit is cast into darkness. Jah ni briggais uns in fraistubnjai, ak lausei uns af thamma ubilin.

Deliver us from the evils arising when the Spirit sinks too deeply into the bodily nature.

Thus the second part of the prayer declares that the order reigning in the spiritual heights must be implicit in the social life upon Earth. And this is confirmed in the words : We will recognise this spiritual Order upon Earth.

Unte theina ist thiu dangardi, jah mahts, jah vulthus in aivius. Amen.

All-Father, whose Name betokens the out er manifestation of the Spirit, whose Kingdom we will recognise, whose Will shall reign: May earthly nature too be full of Thee, and our body daily renewed through earthly nourishment. In our social life may we not be debtors one of another, but live as equals. May we stand firm in spirit and in body, and may the trinity in the social life of Earth be linked with the super-earthly Trinity. For the Supersensible shall reign, shall be Emperor and King. The Supersensible — not the material, not the personal — shall reign.

Unte theina ist thiu dangardi, jah mahts, jah vulthus in avius. Amen.

For on Earth there is no thing, no being over which the rulership is not Thine.

Thine is the Power and the Light and the Glory, and the all-supreme Love between men in the social life.

The Trinity in the super-sensible world is thus to penetrate into and find expression in the social order of the material world. And again, at the end, there is the confirmation: Yea, verily, we desire that this threefold order shall reign in the social life as it reigns with Thee in the heights: For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power and the revealed Glory.

Theina ist thiu dangardi, jah mahts, jah vulthus in aivius. Amen.

Such was the impulse living among the Goths. It mingled with those peasant peoples whose mental life is regarded by history as being almost negligible. But this impulse unfolded with increasing rapidity as we reach the time of the nineteenth century. It finally came to a climax and led on then to the fundamental change in thought and outlook of which we have heard in this lecture.

1921-09-30-GA343A

the Lord's Gospel as a true exchange communicating with the divine

DE version here - temporary internet translation:

I would like to discuss the inner experience of this Lord's Prayer here. The point here is that today we perhaps cannot begin at all with the feelings that primitive Christianity had when hearing or when inwardly bringing the Lord's Prayer to life; we must start from what the Man of the present can have, because we want to speak of the Lord's Prayer as something universally human.

[Our Father in the heavens]

But one must be aware of the following. Let's assume that we begin to say the Lord's Prayer and say the first sentence "Our Father in the heavens" in a certain way in our style. Now it is a question of what we feel and can feel with such a sentence, and what we can feel and feel with other sentences of the Lord's Prayer, for only through this does the Lord's Prayer become inwardly alive. In fact, the point is that with such a sentence we initially have something like an inner perception, really not just something that lives in us in the sign of the word, but something that lives in us in the actual word. The heavens are basically the entirety of the cosmos, and by saying "Our Father who art in the heavens" or "Our Father who art in the heavens" we make it clear that what we are talking about is about penetrated by a spiritual, we turn to the spiritual.

This is the perception, this is what we should bring to mind as clearly as possible when we utter such a sentence "Our Father in the heavens».

[Your kingdom come to us]

We must have a similar experience [when hearing the words] “Your kingdom come to us”, because the question must arise in us, even if more or less only felt and inwardly intuitive: What is this kingdom now?

And if we are Christians, we will be reminded of something that was spoken about here yesterday, just by trying to get at the perception of the kingdom - or rather: of the rich - we will be reminded of Christ's words, which echo the term "the kingdoms of heaven." It is precisely in the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew that Christ wants to speak to the people on the one hand and to the disciples on the other about what the kingdom of heaven is. So something must stir when you hear the sentence "Your kingdom" or "Your kingdom may come to us."

Well, when does the right thing stir in us? The right things only become active in us when we do not have such sentences as thoughts, but when we can bring them to life as if we really heard them inwardly, i.e. when we apply what I have shared with you several times in the last few days have discussed. The way must be made from the concept to the word, because there is a completely different inner experience when, without speaking externally, we have inwardly not just an abstract conceptual content, but the living experience of the sound, in whatever language it is first also be. The entire Lord's Prayer will, to a certain extent, already reduce what is specific to language, even if we do not represent the mere thought content of any language, but rather the sound content. In earlier times, when praying, great importance was attached to making the content of the sound come to life inwardly, for only when the content of the sound becomes inwardly alive does prayer transform itself into what it must be, into an exchange with the divine.

Prayer is never a real prayer if it is not an exchange with the divine, and the Lord's Prayer is made into such an exchange with the divine in the most eminent sense through its special structure.

We're kind of done ourselves by saying such phrases as "Our Father who art in heaven" or "may your kingdoms come unto us". We forget ourselves in the moment when we really bring these sentences to life in an audible way. With these sentences, we erase ourselves to a large extent simply through the content of the sentences, but we pick ourselves up again when we read sentences of a different structure or bring them to life internally.

[Hallowed be thy name]

We pick ourselves up again immediately when we say, "Hallowed be thy name." In fact, it is then a lively dialogue with the divine, because this "Sacred be your name" is immediately transformed into an inner act in us. On the one hand we have the perception "Our Father who art in heaven"; without something happening in the process, it is not possible to experience this sentence in its entirety. And as we tune in to the inward hearing, that inward hearing arouses in us the Christ name as it aroused the Jahve name in pre-Christian times, in the sense that I spoke about the beginning of the Gospel of John. So if we pronounce in ourselves the sentence “Our Father, who art in heaven” in the right way, then the name of Christ is mixed into this pronunciation for us in our day and age, and then we give the answer inwardly to what we feel to be a question: "May this name be sanctified through us."

You see that prayer takes on the form of an exchange with the divine because we live our way into the Lord's Prayer; also when we experience in the right way as perception "May your kingdoms come to us". At first we cannot absorb these realms into the intellectual consciousness; we can absorb them only into the will. And again, when we lose ourselves in the sentence "Let your kingdom come to us," we find ourselves, we take our hands and promise that the kingdom, when they come to us, will work in us, that really the divine Will be done as in the heavenly realms, so also where we are at Earth. You see, you have an interchange with the Divine in the Lord's Prayer.

This dialogue then prepares you to have the inner worthiness to bring what now belongs to Earth into relation with that with whom you came into the dialogue, also for the earthly conditions.

It might seem strange that I say that the words "Hallowed be thy name" arouse in us the name of Christ. But therein, my dear friends, lies the whole mystery of Christ. This Christ mystery will not be properly seen until the beginning of the Gospel of John is properly understood. At the beginning of the Gospel of John you read the words "Everything came into being through the Word, and there is nothing in that which came into being that did not come into being through the Word". By ascribing the creation of the world to the Father God, one infringes the Gospel of John. One only holds fast to the Gospel of John if one is certain that what came into being, what one has as a world around oneself, came into being through the Word, that is, in the Christian sense through Christ, through the Son, that the Father is what is essentially fundamental, what is subsisting, and that the Father has no name, but that his name is what lives in Christ. The whole mystery of Christ lies in this "Hallowed be thy name," for the name of the Father is given in Christ.

[Give our everyday bread ]

We shall have enough to say about this on other occasions, but today I wanted above all to point out that in prayer there must already be a real inner dialogue with the divine through the content of the prayer.

Then we can go further and say to ourselves: What we become everyday through the intake of our food, through bread, is not given to us by the mere natural world. We take the bread in from nature through the processes I have described to you; through our digestive processes, through the regeneration processes, we become what we are on Earth. Earth people are, but that must not really live in us, because the life of God is different, the life of God lives in spiritual events.

After we have come into the exchange with the divine in the first part of the Lord's Prayer, we can now, out of the mood that then gripped our inner being, leave out the negative and say the positive: "Give our everyday bread." What is meant by this is that what is otherwise only natural processes and works in us as natural processes should become a spiritual process through our consciousness, through our inner experience. And likewise our attitude shall be transformed. We should be able to forgive those who have harmed us, who have harmed us. We can only do that when we become aware that we have done a lot of damage to the divine-spiritual and that we therefore have to ask for the right attitude, so that what has damaged us on Earth, what is on us owed to the Earth can treat in the right way; we can only do that if we become aware that we are always doing damage to the divine through our mere being-natural and constantly need the forgiveness of that being to whom we have become guilty.

[Lead us not into temptation]

And then we can also bring forward the following, which is again an earthly thing, that is, what we want to send up to that with which we first established a relationship. “Lead us not into temptation”, that means: Let the connection with You be so active in us that we don’t experience the temptation to merge into mere being-natural, to simply surrender to being-natural, so that we can hold on to You in all our everyday life Food.

[deliver us from evil]

"And deliver us, deliver us from evil." The evil consists in Man's detachment from the divine; we ask that we be delivered and redeemed from this evil.

When, starting more and more from such feelings, we approach the Lord's Prayer, my dear friends, then the Lord's Prayer actually deepens into an inner experience that enables us, through the mood in which we put ourselves, to really create the possibility of working not just from physical people to physical people, but as human soul to human soul. Because then we have brought ourselves to a certain extent to connect to the divine and find the divine creation in the other human being, and only through this do we learn how to understand such a word: "What you did to one of the least of my brothers, you did it to Me». There we learned to feel the divine in everything that exists on Earth. But we must turn away from world existence in the real sense, not through a theory, but in the real sense, because we become aware that the world existence that is first given to us as human beings is not the real world existence at all, but the de-divine world existence , and that we only have the real world existence after we have turned to God in prayer and have found a connection to God in prayer.

With that, my dear friends, the stairway that can lead up to the awareness of the religious impulse in Man is only indicated in the most elementary stages. This religious impulse has been present in man from the beginning, so to speak, but the point is that Man becomes conscious of this impulse lying within him, and he can only do this when prayer becomes a real dialogue with the divine within him.

It is the first important discovery that one can make with the Lord's Prayer, that by its inner structure it is already so, that through it one can immediately, if one understands it, enter into a reciprocal relationship of the human and the divine.

This is, of course, only a beginning, my dear friends, but the fact is that if the beginning is experienced correctly, it will continue of its own accord, and precisely when the question is formulated religiously, then it is a question of us working on that Experiencing the first steps wanting to find the strength to take the following steps through our own inner being.

A version of The Lord's Prayer prayed by Rudolf Steiner

from 'The Christian Mystery':

Rudolf Steiner prayed the Lord's Prayer daily, upright, and aloud .. people reported that Steiner used to say the Lord's Prayer so loudly in his Berlin apartment that it could be understood in the neigh­boring room.

Ita Wegman states he even continued doing this whilst ill at the end of his life:

There were short periods of time when he got up twice a day; then again his strength left him to such an extent that she had to support him when he wanted to pray. He recited the Lord's Prayer in a loud voice, stand­ing upright, everyday, so that people passing by outside his studio heard him.

Several versions are known, ao two copies from Marie Steiner, another from Catholic priest Hugo Schuster. The version below is a version dated 1923 used with Ita Wegman whilst working on their book, Extending Practical Medicine.

Father, you who were, are, and will be in our inmost being,

May your name be glorified and praised in us.

May your kingdom grow in our deeds and inmost lives.

May we perform your will as you, Father, lay it down in our inmost being.

You give us spiritual nourishment, the bread of life, superabundantly in all the changing conditions of our lives.

Let our mercy toward others make up for the sins  done to our being.

You do not allow the tempter to work in us beyond the capacity of our strength.

For no temptation can live in your being, Father, and the tempter is only appearance and delusion, from which you lead us, Father. through the light of knowledge.

May your power and glory work in us through all periods and ages of time.

Amen.

same version with the seven statements numbered and central thematic keyword highlighed

Father, you who were, are, and will be in our inmost being,

[1] - May your name be glorified and praised in us.

[2] - May your kingdom grow in our deeds and inmost lives.

[3] - May we perform your will as you, Father, lay it down in our inmost being.

[4] - You give us spiritual nourishment, the bread of life, superabundantly in all the changing conditions of our lives.

[5] - Let our mercy toward others make up for the sins done to our being.

[6] - You do not allow the tempter to work in us beyond the capacity of our strength.

[7] For no temptation can live in your being, Father, and the tempter is only appearance and delusion, from which you lead us, Father. through the light of knowledge.

May your power and glory work in us through all periods and ages of time.

1959 - Sri Swami Sivananda

in 'Life and teachings of Lord Jesus'

If God’s Will is done here and His Grace alone fills and surrounds us on all sides, what are we to pray for?

Lord Jesus reminds you: “your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him.” The prayer is, therefore for His Grace, for constantly remembering Him, for making you a channel to do His Will, and for forgiveness.

There is a mysterious power in the universe— Satan —that tempts even the best of men, deludes even the wisest of them, and leads even the greatest of them astray. Prayer is offered to the Lord to guard you against this.

Therefore, Lord Jesus has framed a beautiful prayer:

Our Father which 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 debts,

As we forgive our debtors;

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom,

The power and the Glory,

For ever and ever, Amen.

The “daily bread” is not merely the physical bread or the food that we give the body to keep it alive. For, the Lord assures you that God knows your need and, even as He clothes the lilies in the field with rich and delightful colour and feeds the fowls of the air, He will feed you and clothe you without your praying for them.Meditate upon this and realise God’s Supreme Grace that gave you and that sustains your life. You will clearly understand the meaning of His Immortal Utterance:

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.”

By thus revolutionising the values alone can dispassion arise in the heart and the Kingdom of God realised in one’s own heart.

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Develop discrimination. Care not for the riches of this world; they are perishable and they cannot give you lasting peace and happiness.

Devote yourself to the acquisition of spiritual wealth by regular prayer, meditation and charity. This prayer to the Lord is, therefore, for spiritual bread, spiritual food, —in other words, for devotion to Him and for right discrimination. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you,” said He.

Daskalos

in 'The Esoteric Practice' - Christian meditations and exercises

After the Sermon on the Mount, Christ-Jesus [Joshua Emmanuel the Christ] was asked by a disciple: "in what way should we pray"? (re Matthew 6:9 and Luke 11:2). Then and on the other occasions, the God-Man gave us his prayer.

Our version of the Lord's prayer and the complete second stanza have been given to us by the spirit of John the Evangelist [Yohannan], an apostle of Christ-Jesus [Joshua].

Recitation of the Lord's Prayer, either silently or spoken aloud, is appropriate before beginning any sacred work.

and Daskalos' Lord's Prayer:

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 transgressions, as we forgive those who transgress against us

And lead us while in temptation

and deliver us from evil

for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Absolute infinite beingness, God

Everlasting Life, Love and Mercy

manifesting yourself in yourself,

as the total wisdom and almightiness

Enlighten our minds to understand you as the truth

Clean our hearts to reflect your love towards you, and towards all other human beings.

Amen

same version with the seven statements numbered and central thematic keyword highlighed

Our Father who art in heaven

[1] - Hallowed be thy name

[2] - Thy kingdom come,

[3] - thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven

[4] - Give us this day our daily bread

[5] - and forgive us our transgressions, as we forgive those who transgress against us

[6] - And lead us while in temptation

[7] - and deliver us from evil

for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Absolute infinite beingness, God

Everlasting Life, Love and Mercy

manifesting yourself in yourself,

as the total wisdom and almightiness

Enlighten our minds to understand you as the truth

Clean our hearts to reflect your love towards you, and towards all other human beings.

Media:

• Daskalos reciting Lord's prayer in Greek and Aramaic
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05LO9d5FGKw
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og5p8UByc3Y
• Daskalos reciting Lord's prayer in English
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObSExDBlIig
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viatVPNnE0A
• more
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pawse7vbKPU

The reverse prayer

1913-10-05-GA148

in the Fifth Gospel tells about a scene in Jesus life at about age 24, an experience of hearing Bath Kol (the spirit that had inspired Jewish prophets) with the words which represents the reverse of the Lord's Prayer.

Occult obligations exist.

And following one such occult obligation I disclose what Jesus of Nazareth heard from the transformed voice of Bath Kol.

He heard the words:

AUM, Amen!

Evil rules,

Witness of the severing I,

Selfhood's guilt by others owed,

In daily bread now felt,

In which heaven's will be not done,

For man deserted your kingdom,

And forgot your names,

You fathers in the heavens.

A prayer after MoG

1916-01-02-GA165

contains a prayer by Christ after the Mystery of Golgotha, as pointed out after the prayer text (for background see also the page 'After the resurrection'),

quote:

‘Oh, ye Powers in the spiritual world,

let me in my physical body be conscious in the world of Light,

let me be in the Light so as to perceive my own light-body,

and let not the power of the Ahrimanic forces be too strong for me,

so as to prevent me from beholding what takes place in my light-body.’

Once more I will repeat what a soul by whom these Powers are to some extent recognised in the spiritual world, might say in longing, in a kind of prayer:

‘Oh, ye Powers,

let me consciously, in the light,

from out of and by the light behold the occurrences within my own light-body;

weaken and take away the power of the Ahrimanic forces which obscure them.

Let me consciously by the light perceive my own light,

and remove the force that hinders me from seeing the light from out of and by the light.’

What I have just repeated to you is not simply an invented prayer, but it was thus that Christ taught those to pray who were able to understand Him after He had passed through the Mystery of Golgotha, during that time when He still lingered among His most intimate disciples.

..

These things were learnt by the intimate disciples of Jesus Christ during the time I have indicated. They were well aware how all things I have mentioned were brought about, and were instructed in all these matters during the time that Christ held intercourse with them after the Mystery of Golgotha.

An Essene prayer of Christ-Jesus

Daskalos

in 'The Esoteric Practice' - Christian meditations and exercises

In conclusion we present a meditation given by Christ-Jesus [Joshua Emmanuel the Christ, our Lord] in the synagogue of the Essene brotherhood, to his disciples before sending them into the world to work as teachers and healers. Relax completely. Visualize Joshua Emmanuel the Christ standing before you as you sit peacefully, listening. In perfect at-one-ment with His Divine Self, the Logos, and attuned with each and every human being, Joshua spreads out his arms and says:

All of you, listen. You are my children, my offspring. I am in you as God, as Absolute Beingness, your real Self, and you are always in me as gods. And I am also with you as a human being, as your loving father, within our loving Father.

Every breath you take, sustaining the life of your materialk body, is a fatherly kiss of mine for you. My beloved ones, I will not only speak to you in words of any language, but will also come to you as inspiration and as sensation.

I am the heat which keeps your body aline. I am the breeze, the fresh air, that caresses your face. I am in your eyes - as your sight, allowing you to enjoy my works around you, as phenomena of life. I am the sight and I see all.

I am continuously creating mind substance for you to keep your bodies thriving. I am the living 'bread of life' [1]. And I am the living water which you will drink and never thirst again [2]. I am the Mind vitality everywhere in the world. I am Spirit and I am Form. You are in my Omnipresence.

I am the wise voice in your minds that speaks to you when you are doing something which is not right, not rebuking but awakening you. For I am reason in your thoughts and I am love in your heart.

Cast away from your heart every bitter emotion, all enmity, and all cruelty you may harbour. I am the Life if you. Enjoy my Life. You are my offspring, you are my flesh and blood, part of myself.

I love you. Love all my expressions. Love all other human beings as your own self, and love all of life 'as I have loved you' and as I will always love you [3].

Notes:

• [1]: John 6:48
• [2]: John 4:10-14
• [3]: John 13:34
• Mind is used by Daskalos as: the bearer of all Life, an emanation of Absolute Beingness imbued with the total wisdom, love, power and purity of its creator. Everything that exists is made of Mind, it is substance eternally used in all creation. Mind is divine at its source, and holy in its expression.

Music

.

Gregorio Allegri

.

Gregorio Allegri (ca. 1582- 1652) put to music and into a haunting choral work the Latin text of 'Miserere mei, Deus' from Psalm 51.

More on wikipedia: Miserere (Allegri), from which is taken the translation in English below:

Have mercy upon me, O God: after Thy great goodness.

According to the multitude of Thy mercies, do away mine offences.

Wash me thoroughly from my wickedness: and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my faults: and my sin is ever before me.

Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified in Thy saying, and clear when Thou art judged.

Behold, I was shapen in wickedness: and in sin hath my mother conceived me.

But lo, Thou requirest truth in the inward parts: and shalt make me to understand wisdom secretly.

Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness: that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.

Turn Thy face from my sins: and put out all my misdeeds.

Make me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from Thy presence: and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.

O give me the comfort of Thy help again: and stablish me with Thy free Spirit.

Then shall I teach Thy ways unto the wicked: and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.

Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, Thou that art the God of my health: and my tongue shall sing of Thy righteousness.

Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord: and my mouth shall shew [show] Thy praise.

For Thou desirest no sacrifice, else would I give it Thee: but Thou delightest not in burnt-offerings.

The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, shalt Thou not despise.

O be favourable and gracious unto Sion: build Thou the walls of Jerusalem.

Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness, with the burnt-offerings and oblations: then shall they offer young bullocks upon Thine altar.

Related pages

• More on the Lord's Prayer
• Initiation
• Sermon on the Mount

References and further reading

• Adolf Arenson: 'Die zehn Gebote und das Vaterunser' in 'Ergebnisse aus dem Studien der Geisteswissenschaft Rudolf Steiners: Heft 1' (1980)
• Friedrich Rittelmeyer:
  • 'Das Vaterunser : zehn Kanzelreden' (1919)
  • 'Das Vaterunser - ein Weg zur Menschwerdung' (1935, 1985)
• Heinrich Ogilvie (1899–1988): 'The Lord's Prayer' (in EN 1978, original in NL 1938 'Beschouwingen over het Onze Vader')
• Fred Poeppig: Das Vaterunser als Menschheits- und Erkenntnisgebet (1956)
• Friedrich Husemann: 'Das Vaterunser' - two lectures in: 'Der Ewige Name : das Verhältnis des Menschen zum Göttlichen (1963)
• Alfred Hoppe: 'Betrachtungen zum Vaterunser' (1968)
• Karl Friedrich Althoff: 'Das Vaterunser : die Wortgestalt des Menschheitsgebetes auf ihrem Weg durch die Kulturen der Völker' (1978)
• Valentin Tomberg: The course on the Lord's Prayer, Vol. 1 to 4 (original 1940-1942, published in EN 2008-2016, more info on tombergbooks.com)
  • The Lord’s Prayer Course is a course in Christian esoteric schooling that was given originally by Valentin Tomberg to a small group of people in the Netherlands (Amsterdam) during the Second World War between 1940 and 1942. The English version is a translation from the edition published by initiate and Tomberg pupil Willi Seiss. It appeared in the 1980’s for distribution among friends, and from 2008 for a more general readership within the German-speaking world.
  • The Course on the Lord’s Prayer was formed in such a way, that the address and the Petitions of this prayer communicated by Christ were studied and meditated in weekly rhythms. In this process, the Petitions determined in each case [make up] the course of the exercise, while the corresponding days of the week were used for ongoing deepening in study and meditation. The Course begins with an overview of the entire content. This overview includes at the same time daily work involving a first reading through the whole Prayer. The pupil takes his orientation every time anew from this overview, when a further week’s work is about to begin.
• Paul W. Scharff: 'The Lords Prayer and the Beatitudes' (1998, online here)
• Judith von Halle: 'The Lord's Prayer: The Living Word of God (2007, original in DE 2006 as 'Das Vaterunser. Das lebendige Wort Gottes', also in NL 2008 as 'Het Onze Vader : het levende woord van God')
• Peter Selg: 'The Lord's Prayer and Rudolf Steiner' (2014 in EN, original 2009 in DE: 'Das Vaterunser in der Darstellung Rudolf Steiners')
• Viktor Stracke: 'Das Vaterunser und die Figuren der Rosenkreuzer' (2015)

Various

• John Frederick Denison Maurice (1805–1872), known as F. D. Maurice:
  • The Lord's Prayer: Nine Sermons (1848)
  • The Lord's Prayer, a Manual (1870)