Why is the Lord’s Prayer important?

St. Augustine says, “The Son Himself, as you heard when the Gospel was read, taught His disciples and His faithful ones this Prayer. Good hope have we of obtaining our cause, when such an Advocate has dictated our suit. The Assessor of the Father, as you have confessed, who sits on the right hand of the Father; He is our Advocate who is to be our Judge. For from thence will He come to judge the living and the dead. Learn then, this Prayer also which you will have to repeat.”¹⁶³

St. Cyprian says, “Let us, therefore, beloved brethren, pray as God our Teacher has taught us. It is a loving and friendly prayer to beseech God with His word, to come up to His ears in the prayer of Christ. Let the Father acknowledge the words of His Son when we make our prayer, and let Him also who dwells within in our breast Himself dwell in our voice. And since we have Him as an Advocate with the Father for our sins, let us, when as sinners we petition on behalf of our sins, put forward the words of our Advocate. For since He says, that whatsoever we shall ask of the Father in His name, He will give us (John 16:23), how much more effectually do we obtain what we ask in Christ’s name, if we ask for it in His prayer! (cf. John 14:6)”[164 ]