According to the General Instruction for the Roman Missal, pastors should take care that their flocks know how to chant the Pater Noster or Oratio Dominica (Lord’s Prayer) and the Credo in Latin. In case your pastor has been deterred from doing that by other and more pressing responsibilities, we are here to help out.
The Pater Noster (Our Father) is the Lord’s Prayer (Oratio Dominica) in Latin.
All of the following are YouTube videos.
We all know the words of the “Our Father” (the Lord’s Prayer) in English, so it is not hard to have a general sense of what “Pater noster, qui es in caelis” means. Still, schola members requested a word by word translation; and it’s good to pay attention to each of the words, so we have a more precise understanding.
Here we go:
Pater(Father) noster(our), qui(who) es(you are) in(in) caelis(heavens)
Latin verbs take different forms to show who or what is performing the action; es is the form of the verb for “to be” which is used for the second person singular: “you are.” Latin does not have words corresponding to our “a”, “an”, and “the,” so we often supply these in our English translations, and caelis is plural, so strictly speaking, in caelis is “in the heavens.” But our usual English translation, “Our Father, who art in heaven,” conveys the same idea.
sanctificetur(let it be made holy) nomen(name) tuum(your)
Hallowed by thy name
adveniat(let it come) regnum(kingdom) tuum(your)
Thy kingdom come
fiat(let it be done) voluntas(will) tua(your), sicut(as, in the same way) in(in) caelo(heaven) et(and) in(in) terra(earth).
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Panem(bread) nostrum(our) cotidianum(of every day, daily, usual, common) da(give) nobis(to us) hodie(today)
Give us this day our daily bread
et(and) dimitte(send away, discharge, release, relinquish) nobis(to us, for us) debita(debts, what is owed) nostra(our), sicut(as) et(also) nos(we) dimittimus(send away, discharge, release, relinquish) debitoribus(debtors, those who owe) nostris(our)
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us
et(and) ne(do not) nos(us) inducas(lead in) in(into) tentationem(trial, attack, temptation)
And lead us not into temptation
sed(but) libera(set free, liberate) nos(us) a(from) malo(evil).
malo is a form of the adjective malus, which can also be understood as a noun, meaning evil things, or the Evil One. So: But deliver us from evil.
Here, the Lord’s prayer ends, according to the most ancient manuscripts and the Catholic liturgical tradition. But in the new order of mass of Paul VI, the priest goes on with an “embolism” elaborating on the last petition, and then we conclude with
Quia(for, because) tuum(yours) est(it is) regnum(kingdom) et(and) potestas(power) et gloria(glory) in(in) saecula(ages).
“For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.” Or in an older form familiar to Protestants, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.”
According to Leanda de Lisle’s book After Elizabeth: The Rise of James of Scotland and the Struggle for the Throne of England, King James added this phrase to the prayer as head of the Church of England, because he thought it was too depressing to end with “deliver us from evil.” The revisers of the Catholic mass decided to add it, apparently as an ecumenical gesture.
King James was not making up something altogether new. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states (#2760):
Very early on, liturgical usage concluded the Lord’s Prayer with a doxology. In the Didache, we find, “For yours are the power and the glory for ever.” The Apostolic Constitutions add to the beginning: “the kingdom,” and this is the formula retained to our day in ecumenical prayer. The Byzantine tradition adds after “the glory” the words “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” The Roman Missal develops the last petition in the explicit perspective of “awaiting our blessed hope” and of the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then comes the assembly’s acclamation or the repetition of the doxology from the Apostolic Constitutions.
But since this doxology was not in the 1962 Roman Missal, while it can be said to be “retained” in ecumenical prayer, it would seem better to say it was either “restored” or, perhaps, “inserted,” in the mass.
Gregory D. Weber, revised 2025 January 12.