Part 8 of “Learning to Pray to Our Father”

Petitioning God to forgive our sins entails a double confession for disciples: it is a confession of our own sinfulness and a confession of God’s merciful love.

To beg for forgiveness is to tell the truth. As St. Augustine proclaimed in the first line of his Confessions, “Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise” (I.1). We accept our own need and lowliness in proclaiming God’s greatness, and we give praise to God by asking for his mercy. Our request for the mercy of forgiveness puts us in the position of accepting God for who God has revealed himself to be: “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy and faithfulness, keeping merciful love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6–7).

There is no blank to fill in with this plea. We do not merely ask to be forgiven for the sins we recognize and name. Christ teaches his disciples to seek forgiveness for all trespasses: for what we have done and what we have failed to do; for the sins we know and the sins we ignore; for the sins against God and the ways in which we harm our neighbors, which God absorbs as being done against him in Christ (see Matthew 25:41–45). Disciples must err on the side of asking forgiveness, even when we are unaware of our sins.

This plea for forgiveness is an act of trust that God, who in his Word created all things, will also mend and restore all things; that God, who said “let there be light,” will probe the depths of our hearts and reveal what is hidden; that the Son of God, who said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do,” was speaking about us (Luke 23:34). Christ prays for our forgiveness, and we join in his prayer when we ask to receive it.

Practice praying: I invite and challenge you to pray the Lord’s Prayer each day this week. In fact, pray it twice each day. Pray it once, then spend several minutes calling to mind your own sins, preparing, if you so desire, to bring them to the Sacrament of Confession. Call to mind, also, the mercy of God, which never fails. With His mercy in mind, offer Him even the sins that you are not mindful of, perhaps praying the devotional prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Then pray the Lord’s prayer again.

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Find more: This series draws on sections of my book Into the Heart of the Father: Learning from and Giving Yourself through Christ in Prayer. I am grateful to my publisher, Word Among Us Press, for allowing me to share these sections with you here. If you are interested, I hope you will check out the book – I think you’ll like it.

Study and pray with others: I have also designed a reading, prayer, and discussion guide for groups that would like to read the book and learn how to pray better together. This is ideal for parishes, schools, and families.