The Lord’s Prayer is the norm for every prayer. That’s true, especially, for the Eucharistic Prayer  in which we thank God, our Father, for blessing us “always and everywhere.”  The Eucharistic Prayer is the Lord’s Prayer in another form.

As we do in the Lord’s Prayer, we call God “Our Father” at Mass and thank him for the blessings we receive as his children.

God’s blessings are symbolized in bread and wine. At Mass bread has the same manifold meaning  it has in the Lord’s Prayer.  “Give us this day our daily bread.” Daily Bread stands for the whole of creation, the bread of everything,  It also stands for “the True Bread come down from heaven,” Jesus Christ. 

Bread and wine are signs of God’s past and present blessings. They also promise of a new creation and new life to come.

In bread and wine, we bring to the Father everything that’s  given to us. At Mass, Jesus Christ, our priest, takes them in his hands as he did at the Last Supper and gives them new meaning. Giving thanks to his Father he gives himself to us as God’s supreme Gift.  “Take, eat and drink, this is my body; this is my blood.”

He gives us all the gifts of creation as well as the promise of a new creation surpassing this one.  “God’s kingdom is coming,” he said and he himself is the way to it.

“Your will be done.” Jesus fulfilled God’s will when he came as God’s love “poured out” for the forgiveness of sins. In his death and resurrection we’re promised a way to a kingdom to come.

The Lord’s Prayer is at the heart of the Eucharistic Prayer. With Jesus we pray to Our Father in heaven, whose gifts are without measure. With Jesus we ask to do his will and work that his kingdom come. We receive Jesus Christ as our daily bread, our food and drink, our teacher and Lord. He is the shepherd who leads us through the temptations of this life.

After the Eucharistic Prayer said by the priest, we pray the Lord’s Prayer together, to prepare for receiving the Bread of Life.