175 of 175 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Book for Body and Head, April 5, 2006
This review is from: Understanding "Our Father": Biblical Reflections on the Lord's Prayer (Paperback)
Depending on who you talk to Scott Hahn is either a hero or a turncoat. He was raised Presbyterian, and was even on the fast track to be a president at a Presbyterian seminary when he began to doubt two protestant main stays: `by scripture alone' and `by faith alone'. So he did what any academically trained person would do, he decided to research and went back to school to do a masters in Roman Catholic thought, eventually converting to Catholicism. Since then he has been a prolific writer and speaker on things Catholic, and why the catholic faith is the one true valid faith.
This book is part academic treatise and part faith discovery. The book will lead you through each of the different petitions in the Lord's Prayer, both in historical perspective and in reflection for what it should mean for us today. The sections are:
Part 1 Contemporary Reflections by Scott Hahn
0. Introduction
1. Our Father
2. Our Father ... In Heaven
3. Hallowed Be Thy Name
4. Thy Kingdom Come
5. Thy Will Be Done
6. On Earth As It Is In Heaven
7. Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
8. Forgive Us ... As We Forgive
9. Lead Us Not Into Temptation
10. Temptation Part II
11. Deliver Us from Evil
12. The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory
13. Last Words
Part 2 Wisdom From The Fathers Of The Church
14. Saint Cyprian: Treatise on the Lord's Prayer
15. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem: Mystagogic Cathechesis
16. Saint John Chrysostom: Homily XIX o the Gospel of Matthew
17. Saint Augustine: Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount
Hahn open's up this prayer in ways you could never imagine. I have been serious about being a Christian for nearly 20 years and this little book helped me to see this prayer in a whole new light.
"Why Bother?
Still, it's fair to ask, Why Bother to pray, `Thy will be done'? Isn't it presumptuous, or even redundant? Isn't God's will what happens anyway? Why pray for God's will? It Seems like praying for gravity to continue.
The answer is simple. When we pray. `Thy will be done,' we do not change or strengthen the will of God, but we do change and strengthen ourselves. Such prayer disposes our hearts to de the will of the Father." p31,32
Hahn goes on to say later: "Often, it seems that people pray in order to change God's mind. But God is eternal, perfect, unchanging, and unchangeable. We pray so that God can change our minds." p74 what would our lives be like is we truly prayed for the fathers will to be done. Later Hahn states: "First in importance is the centrality of divine fatherhood and our share - our real participation - in Christ's divine sonship.
Next, notice how the Fathers insist that our goal is virtue, and not mere learning." p75 That is why the second part of the book goes into the writings of the church fathers. To show us that intellectual understanding is not enough, it must impact our hearts and move us to action and a deeper relationship with God. This book will help you move from your head to your heart, but it will feed both mind and spirit.
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56 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect book to deepen prayer for individuals and groups, May 10, 2003
This review is from: Understanding "Our Father": Biblical Reflections on the Lord's Prayer (Paperback)
Scott Hahn has helped so many of us grow in our appreciation of Scripture in Catholic life. He has done so again in a very practical way. His book on the Our Father will assist people not only in their personal spiritual life, but also in their praying together. I hope that this book will become part of a prayer movement in the Church to lead us to reform and renewal.
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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hahn has done it again!, December 28, 2002
This review is from: Understanding "Our Father": Biblical Reflections on the Lord's Prayer (Paperback)
Scott Hahn's "Understanding 'Our Father'" has arrived just as John Paul II has given the world another set of mysteries for the rosary, the Luminous Mysteries. The timing could not be better for a deeper understanding of the prayer of all prayers, the "Our Father," the prayer given to us by Our Lord, and the prayer which initiates each mystery of the rosary.
Why is Hahn's book so important? Don't we know the "Our Father" all too well? As Hahn quickly shows, there is nothing more unfamiliar as the all-too-familiar. Rather than rattling the "Our Father" off like the Pledge of Allegiance, Hahn has the reader go through it, line by line, and delve into its deep mysteries and alarming truths. By the end of the book, we realize why the "Our Father" is an ever-vibrant, fathomless source of theological reflection, and even more important, the prayer of all prayers.
If that weren't enough, Dr. Hahn appends some of the deepest theological reflections of the early fathers upon this great prayer--St. Cyprian, St. Cyril, St. John Chrysostom, and of course, St. Augustine.
In sum, just the book to fire up Catholics and Protestants alike, with the prayer which binds us all.
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