"For if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

Matthew 6:14-15

In his teaching on prayer, our Lord stresses the simplicity and sincerity with which we should turn to God: “What we think should conform with what we say” (St Benedict, Rule, 19). Our Lord then teaches the Our Father as the distinctive prayer of the Christian. The tradition of the Church never ceases to sing the praises of this prayer: “The Lord’s Prayer truly is a summary of the whole Gospel” (Tertullian, De oratione, 1). As St. Thomas Aquinas puts it, “The Lord’s Prayer is the most perfect of prayers. In it we ask, not only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired. This prayer teaches us not only to ask for things, but also in what order we should desire them” (Summa theol., 2-2, 83,9). The Navarre Bible New Testament Compact Edition

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Thus, the Lord’s words on forgiveness—the love that loves to the end—become a living reality. The parable of the merciless servant, which crowns the Lord’s teaching on ecclesial communion, ends with these words: “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” It is there, in fact, “in the depths of the heart,” that everything is bound and loosed. It is not within our power to simply erase or forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the heart into intercession.

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The fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer begs God’s mercy for our offenses—a mercy that can penetrate our hearts only if we have learned to forgive our enemies, following the example and help of Christ.