The Our Father is a prayer composed by Our Lord Himself for our happiness on earth and in heaven.

Because I go to the Father: and whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My name, that will I do: that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you shall ask Me anything in My name, that I will do.[1]

Amen, amen I say to you: If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it you.[2]

The Our Father is the best of all prayers because it is the Lord’s Prayer, taught us by Jesus Christ Himself, a prayer of perfect and unselfish love.[3]

When the apostles asked Him to "teach us how to pray," He gave them a prescribed form of prayer.[4]

The following are points that may help you to pray the Our Father more efficaciously.

OUR FATHER

When we invoke the Father and when each one of us calls Him our Father, we are to understand thereby that from the privilege and gift of divine adoption, it necessarily follows that all the faithful [viz., those in the state of sanctifying grace] are brethren.[5]   

WHO ART IN HEAVEN

All who have a correct idea of God will grant that He is everywhere and in all places.[6]

HALLOWED BE THY NAME

In praying that the name of God may be hallowed (venerated), our meaning is that the sanctity and glory of the divine name may be increased.[7]

THY KINGDOM COME

Our Lord says: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you."  So great and so abundant are the heavenly gifts contained in this petition, that it includes all things necessary for the security of soul and body.[8]

THY WILL BE DONE

Whoever desires to enter into the kingdom of heaven should ask of God that His will may be done.  For Christ the Lord has said: “Not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doth the will of My Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.”[9]

ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

We pray that our conformity to the will of God be regulated according to the rule observed in heaven by the blessed angels.[10]

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

We particularly and expressly pray for the needs of soul and body.[11]

AND FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US

Where before we asked God not only for eternal and spiritual goods, but also for fleeting and temporal favors, we now ask for God’s forgiveness for offending Him and pledge to forgive those who have harmed us.[12]

AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION

When we have earnestly sought pardon of our sins and are longing for the kingdom of heaven, then it is that the devil employs all his resources and efforts to entice us to relapse into sin, and thus become far worse than before.[13]

BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL

On the eve of Our Lord’s Passion, He prayed to His Father for the salvation of mankind. "I pray," He said, "that Thou keep them (i.e., us) from evil.!" (St. Cyprian remarks, "Nothing more remains to be asked.")[14]

Thus, it is easy to see that there is so much more packed into the Our Father than is apparent to those who mumble their way through this priceless prayer.  Hopefully, these few points above might awaken in us a greater appreciation of Christ’s beneficence in personally instructing us in this best of all prayers.  Say it very slowly and devoutly, contemplating every word.  After that, we could incorporate this mediation on the Our Father into a slow and reverent Spiritual Communion.

Lastly, we can aid our prayerful contemplation of these subjects, by using a loving picture of Our Lord (such as the one below, which was derived from the Shroud):