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Copyright 2003 by Andrew Flaxman

The Lord's Prayer: Its Great Power, Meaning and Structure

Lecture by Rudolf Steiner 1

The deep secrets of existence can be found everywhere in the formulas for prayer, wisdom verses,
and so on. They have come down to us from the great religions. We must be clear that all the various
religions have had prayer, that they naturally differ in certain ways. In some cases prayer is more of a so-
called meditation. On the other hand, Christianity and several other religions had genuine prayer as we
know it today. The Eastern religions have meditations mainly. Meditation involves immersing oneself in a
spiritual content in such a way that one unites with the spiritual-divine ground of the world, or the spiritual
content.
Please understand this correctly: there are religions that provide their followers with forms of
meditationfor example, certain prayer-like formulas in which one is immersed and, in such immersion,
feels a river of divine-spiritual life flowing through the soul. The individual rises during such moments to
the divine ground of the spiritual world. Those formulas, however, are primarily made up of thought.
Essentially, Christian prayer is no different than this; its content, however, is oriented more toward feeling.
Christians are immersed more in a path of feeling in the Divine Being that flows through the world.
We should not think that Christian prayer was always understood or even can be understood
as it is so often today. There is a prayer that is fundamental to Christianity, in which Jesus Christ himself
indicated as clearly as possible the mood needed by Christians while praying. That essential prayer is this:

Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me;

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

Let us look carefully at these words. To begin with, we are dealing with a genuine requestthe
cup's passing; but at the same time there is complete surrender to the will of the divine-spiritual:
"nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." This moodthat we allow the will of the divine-spiritual to
work through us during prayer, that we seek nothing for ourselves, but allow God to will within usmust
permeate our prayer as a basic background tone if our prayer is to be Christian.
In this way, it is clearly impossible to have an egoistic prayer. In fact, it is impossible to send God
an egoistic prayer for other reasons. If it were possible, one person would pray for rain while a neighbor
prays for sunshine; both would be praying out of egoism. This also completely excludes a situation where

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FEBRUARY 4, 1907, KARLSRUHE
two armies are prepared to face one another for war, each praying for victory. But when the prevailing
mood is "not my will, but rather your will" we can pray for anything, and our prayer is derived from the
will of the divine-spiritual. I would like to pray for this, but I leave it to the divine-spiritual to decide
whether or not it should come to me.
This is the fundamental mood of Christian prayer, and from this perspective arose the most
comprehensive, universal prayer in Christian tradition: the Lord's Prayer, which according to Christian
tradition was taught by Jesus Christ himself. It is one of the deepest prayers found anywhere in the world.
Today we can no longer measure the entire depth of the Lord's Prayer as taught in the original language. Its
thought content is so powerful, however, that it cannot in any way be reduced by any language.
If you look at the prayers of other peoples and nations where religions are in full blossom, those
that have reached their peak, you will find prayers such as I have characterized. But once these various
religions have descended from their highest development, their prayers assume a character that is less
correct; they become magic formulas and means of idol worship. When Jesus taught his disciples how to
pray, there were many such magic formulas in use (all of which were, of course, profoundly significant
when they first came into existence). Such formulas always related to something external that an individual
desired; they were concerned with a request filled with egoistic, personal wishes. The Lord taught that
Christians should not pray in that way. That is a prayer tied to something external. A Christian should pray
in a "quiet chamber," which is the innermost part of the human soul, the place where the human being can
unite with a divine-spiritual being.
We must be clear that there is something living in every human being that may be characterized
as a drop from the ocean of the Divine. There is something in every human being that is like God. But it
would be entirely wrong to think that any human being is therefore equal to God. When it is said that there
is something in the human being like God, this does not mean that we are equal to God, for a drop from the
ocean, in its substance, is like the ocean, but the drop is in no way the ocean itself. The human soul is a
drop from the ocean of divinity, but it is not God. Just as a drop with its own substance can unite with the
ocean when poured into it, so can the soul unite as a drop of God with God in a spiritual way through
prayer or meditation. Jesus Christ calls this union of the soul with its God, prayer in a quiet chamber.
Questions and Thoughts for Contemplation:

1. What distinction does Steiner make between meditation and prayer?

2. What is the fundamental characteristic of Christian prayer? Is this what you
practice? What does this attitude prevent?
3. What is the sign in prayer that a religion has gone beyond its peak?
4. Where should a Christian pray? According to what Authority?
5. How does the human soul relate to God according to Steiner? Do you agree or
disagree? Explain.
6. List your own questions and thoughts.

Please email your responses to flaxman@onlinehumanities.com.

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