In the footprints
of our
Faith
Jerusalem: The Grotto of the Our Father
Sanctuary of the unfinished basilica, over the Grotto of the Our Father. Photo: Alfonso Puertas
In the Gospel we can relive the scene in which Jesus retires to pray and his disciples are
nearby, probably watching him. When Jesus has finished, one of them boldly asks him: “‘Lord,
teach us how to pray, as John did for his disciples.’ And he told them, ‘When you pray, you are
to say, Father, hallowed be thy name’ (Lk 11:1-2)” (Friends of God, 145.)
Contemplate this fact slowly: the disciples had the opportunity of talking to Jesus and in
their conversations with him the Lord taught them by his words, and deeds, how they should
pray. And he taught them this amazing truth of God’s mercy: that we are God’s children and that
we can address Him as a child addresses his Father (The Forge, 71).
During his three years of public life Jesus travelled around Palestine and the neighbouring
districts, announcing God’s Kingdom. The Evangelists explained in detail where some of the
events in his itinerant preaching took place, such as the synagogues of Nazareth and Capernaum,
the Well of Sychar, the porticoes of the Temple, and the house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus at
Bethany. The exact locations of other events, however, have been preserved only in local
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The garden which occupies the site of the
naves of the former Byzantine basilica.
Photo: Mattes (Wikimedia Commons).
traditions handed down through the generations of Christians in the Holy Land. This is the case
of the teaching of the Our Father, which St Matthew includes in the Sermon on the Mount, while
St Luke presents it as being given in a certain place (Lk 11:1) as our Lord went up to Jerusalem.
The road to Jerusalem
There is a cave beside the road leading from Bethany and Bethphage to Jerusalem which
has been venerated from ancient times. It is at the top of the Mount of Olives, very close to the
place where the Ascension is commemorated. According to tradition, Jesus, with his Apostles,
frequently withdrew to this cave with his Apostles, and spent time instructing them on many
mysteries, including his prophecies about the end of the world and the destruction of Jerusalem.
Here, too, he gave them the prayer of the “Our Father”. This tradition was strong enough for St
Helena to decide to build a basilica on this spot in 326. It was called the Basilica of Eleona – the
name of the locality – and it had three naves, as well as a large atrium with four porticoes at the
entrance. The cave itself formed the crypt under the sanctuary. Some decades later, and just a
few metres away, the church known as “Imbomon” was built around the rock from which our
Lord was believed to have ascended to Heaven.
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The pilgrim Egeria or Aetheria, describing various ceremonies held there at the end of the
fourth century, wrote that on Tuesday in Holy Week “all proceed (…) to the church, which is on
the mount Eleona. And when they have arrived at that church the bishop enters the cave where
the Lord was wont to teach His disciples, and after receiving the book of the Gospel, he stands
and himself reads the words of the Lord which are written in the Gospel according to Matthew,
where He says: ‘Take heed that no man deceive you.’ And the bishop reads through the whole of
that discourse”, Itinerarium Egeriæ, 33, 1-2 (CCL 175, 78).
The tradition that this was the place of the Our Father was confirmed by later witnesses and
has been maintained unbroken to this day. Of the ancient buildings and mediaeval restorations,
nothing but ruins remain. In 1872, during the Ottoman period, a French Carmelite community
was established on this site, and they built the present church and the priory next to it. After the
First World War, in 1920, building work began on a new basilica to be raised over the cave,
dedicated to the Sacred Heart. However, after demolishing one wing of the priory and working
on the original crypt the building works were interrupted, and have not been resumed.
The Church of the Eleona. Next to the Grotto of the Our Father is a priory of French Carmelites, who look
after the church. Photo: Mattes (Wikimedia Commons)
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Entrance to the church of the Eleona is on the Bethphage road. On the right is a flourishing
garden, on the spot where the portico of the Byzantine basilica once stood. On the left, a flight of
steps leads down to the priory of the Discalced Carmelites, with the church behind it. In the
centre, beneath the sanctuary of the unfinished basilica, lies the grotto of the Our Father. It is a
small space, with a double entrance, reminiscent of the Basilica of the Nativity, dating from the
time of the Crusades. It has two sections, one of which has been restored, and the other, at the
back, still in a state of ruins. In this back section some graves were found that could date back to
the first centuries of the Christian era.
The walls surrounding the whole shrine are covered in ceramic panels with the Our Father
written on them in more than seventy languages. As we know, the traditional form of this prayer
is taken from our Lord’s teaching as reported by St Matthew: “In praying, do not heap up empty
phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be
like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: ‘Our
Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy 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’” (Matt 6:7-13).
The Our Father
The Our Father is the main prayer of every Christian. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church, quoting Tertullian, St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas, calls it the summary of the
whole Gospel, which contains and includes all our petitions, and the most perfect of prayers (cf.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 2761-2763). It has traditionally been called the Lord’s
Prayer since it comes to us from our Lord: Jesus, as Teacher, gives us the words he has received
from his Father; and at the same time, as our Model, he reveals to us how to pray for our needs
(cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2765).
The Our Father was taken as the basis for all prayer from the very beginnings of the Church.
It was said in the place of other traditional Jewish prayers, it was incorporated into the liturgy,
and it became a necessary part of catechetical instruction in preparation for the Sacraments. In
the course of the centuries the great masters of the spiritual life have composed commentaries on
this prayer, unpacking the theological riches it contains. St Teresa of Avila wrote:
“In so few words, all contemplation and all perfection is contained, so that it seems that we
need to study no other book, but only this one. Because here our Lord has taught us the whole
method of prayer and high contemplation, from the beginnings of mental prayer, to the prayer of
quiet and the prayer of union. If I may so express it, a great book of prayer could be constructed
on such a truthful foundation”. (St Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection, Valladolid ms, 37, 1)
To say the Our Father fruitfully we should recall that:
“Jesus does not give us a formula to repeat mechanically. As in every vocal prayer, it is
through the Word of God that the Holy Spirit teaches the children of God to pray to their Father.
Jesus not only gives us the words of our filial prayer; at the same time he gives us the Spirit by
whom these words become in us “spirit and life” (Jn 6:63). Even more, the proof and possibility
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The stairway leading down
to the Grotto of the Our Father.
Photo: Mattes (Wikimedia Commons)
of our filial prayer is that the Father “sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba!
Father!’” (Gal 4:6). (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2766)
One way of increasing our awareness of our divine filiation – the fact that God is our Father
– is to make the Our Father the subject of our conversation with God. St Josemaria did this from
time to time. Concerning some of the things that took place in his spiritual life around 1930, he
wrote:
I had the custom, not infrequently, when I was young, of not using any book for my
meditation. I used to recite the words of the Our Father, one by one, savouring them, and I used
to dwell particularly on the consideration that God was Pater, my Father, which made me feel
that I was a brother of Jesus Christ and brother to all men.
I just couldn’t get over it, astonished to contemplate the fact that I was a son of God! After
each time of reflection I found my faith firmer, my hope more secure, my love more ardent. And,
given that I was a child of God, there was born in my soul the necessity of being a very small
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child, a needy child. This was the origin of living a life of childhood in my interior life for as
long as I could – for as long as I can; and this is what I have always recommended to my
children, while leaving them free. (St Josemaria, letter dated 8 December 1949, no. 41)
It is marvellous to see how the Founder of Opus Dei was still recommending that same
lived experience years later. In a gathering with all sorts of people held during his extensive
catechetical journey through Spain and Portugal in 1972, someone asked him: “Father, how can
we improve our prayer? Because very often I just say the Our Father off by heart.”
St Josemaria answered, “That happens to all of us. Even St Teresa says that sometimes she
was as dry as a stick, and couldn’t keep her mind on her prayers for the length of an Our Father.
Tell our Lord that. Tell him, ‘I’m going to pray, and I would like to do it well; I beg you to
enlighten me, to help me, so that I realize what I’m saying in the Our Father.’ Then you begin:
‘Father’. And you pause for a moment to consider what that word means. You think what your
own father means to you, and that as well as that father on earth, you have another in Heaven –
God. And you will be filled with holy pride.
‘Our Father.’ Not only yours: he is ours, everyone’s. So that you are a brother to everyone
else on this earth. Therefore you should love people, and you should help them to be good
children of God, because all together we make up the family of our Father in Heaven.
‘Who art in Heaven…’ And straight away you remember what you’ve heard me say: that he
is also in the Tabernacle, and also in our souls in grace…” (St Josemaria, notes taken in a family
gathering, 27 October 1972)
J. Gil
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