Notre Pere – Pierre Villette
Translation:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
I first heard this beautiful setting of the Lord’s Prayer in French in 2012, and it has been one of my favorite settings ever since. This piece is so full of these subtle influences on the composer – the speechlike rhythms of it reflect Gregorian Chant, certain chords have the spice of jazz while other moments are hymnlike in their innocence. It tells the story of a composer that really listened to the musical world around him and borrowed from all that struck him as beautiful.
Another reason I love the piece is that it seems familiar to me in the same way that the Lord’s Prayer is familiar. Perhaps that’s because I’ve lived with it for some years, now, but, nonetheless I am struck by the familiarity of a prayer I’ve said all my life said in a language that I cannot speak.
The beauty of the Lord’s Prayer to me is that even within something so familiar, at different times in my life I have found that I am convicted by a different phrase in this 4 sentence model.
Recently, that phrase has been “Your kingdom come, Your will be done” because in these times like these when our needs and concerns seem perhaps greater than usual, I find myself praying more for my kingdom than God’s.
It’s funny how even with such a clear model of prayer, we still manage to sometimes do the exact opposite of that which was modelled for us.
Though there is a point and some merit in these supplications, when we attach a desired result to our prayer requests we shift the focus back to our kingdom. But God is not a wishing well into which we throw our tokens of prayer, nor is prayer the way we ask “Daddy God” to make the world go our way.
The supplications modelled in the quintessential prayer are only that we receive enough.
“Daily Bread.” That’s all.
Many of us are so far removed from just needing “enough” that we have created our own versions of “enough” that far exceed the given quota of “daily bread.”
So let us revel in the provision of enough for today. Let us find peace not in the comforts of our own kingdoms, and let us work to pray like our Savior taught us.
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
Romans 8:26
Andy Eaton
Director of Music
First Presbyterian Church