As Jesus is the cornerstone upon which the Church is built, so are his teachings the unifying cornerstone of Christian doctrine.

...but deliver us from evil

Although we may be aware of many of life’s traps, we need God’s help to avoid the majority of those ambushes which seduce us to sin. We could live ascetic and isolated lives like monks, or some very exclusive religious sects, or we could just hang out with Christians and never go anywhere with non-Christians. But even monks fall into temptations and sin. In any case, such a radical approach makes being a light and spreading the good news very difficult. We are called to be “in the world, but not of the world,” and as a result we fall into many doing the wrong thing, we sin. It’s almost inevitable. That’s where a second petition is needed. Jesus’ encouragement in the Our Father, the Lord’s Prayer, is to pray for God’s deliverance. Deliver us from evil (Matthew 6:13).

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