Friday, December 8, 2017

Sounds of Praise: The Lord's Prayer (1973)

In 1973, Sister Janet Mead cracked the top 10 with a musical interpretation of "The Lord's Prayer". As a result, she became the first female artist from Australia, about a year or two ahead of Olivia Newton-John, to sell over a million copies here in the US.



Sister Mead gave her proceeds for the single to charity, and I wonder, nearly 45 years later, how many people's lives were touched with this recording.

I bring it up because in the news today, Pope Francis has said he'd like to amend one line from the Prayer, as it is written in the Bible. Allow me, then, to quote it for you from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, in the King James Bible:

"Our father, which art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive our debts, as we forgive our debtors,
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

I emboldened the line the Pope wishes to amend. He believes that as it is presently interpreted, it would suggest in error that God would lead us into sin, which is not His intention. In France, the Catholic Church there has amended it to "do not let us fall into temptation", which Pope Francis believes may be an appropriate alternative.

The question then is, what do you believe is appropriate?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Cradle Catholic speaking here:

Growing up as a Chicago South side Irish Catholic, I learned the previous line somewhat differently (Douay version):

... and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us ...

To be honest, as kids I'm pretty sure that we had no idea what exactly 'trespasses' were;
even, I don't think 'debt' and 'debtors' carry the same meanings.

When we got to be 'tweens', we had some fun with the words, thusly:

... and forgive us our press passes ...

and

... and lead us not into Penn Station ...

... you know, sophisticated humor like that ...
... like this one, from the Pledge of Allegiance :

... one nation, in a window sill ...

Anyway since the Lord's Prayer was originally in Aramaic, and offhand I don't know anybody who speaks that language, so there too.

hobbyfan said...

Ah, yeah, misunderstood lyrics. Good laughs to start the day. I've used the King James as a resource and a go-to Bible since I got my first one at 12.