Dear Reader,

What follows is a personal and transparent sharing of the thinking behind each part of the revision. To be clear: I have no formal theological training, so I don't present the revision as a scholarly-accurate translation. I also acknowledge that for some of you, it may be offensive that I've taken liberties with arguably the most famous prayer in Christianity, one that appears in two of the four Gospels.

With those caveats, please see below for the stanzas of the original prayer ("O") the revision ("R") and an ordinary layman's commentary ("C") on what was behind the change.

O: Our Father
R: Higher Power
C: Puts it in the terminology of the 12 step program, as well as makes it gender neutral

O: Who Art in Heaven
R: Who is always with me
C: One of the most significant revisions for me. The original language reinforces the image of the bearded old man "up there," distant and set apart. The revised language reflects the true nature of our Higher Power.

O: Hallowed Be Thy Name
R: Blessed be Your name.
C: Although I tried to find language that communicated love and respect for the entirety of God and/or our Higher Power, I ultimately decided to keep the very poetic wording of the original. Plus, the following explanation from Wikipedia is helpful:
"In Judaism the name of God is of extreme importance, and honouring the name central to piety. Names were seen not simply as labels, but as true reflections of the nature and identity of what they referred to."

O: Thy Kindom Come, Thy Will Be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
R: Come into my life, Let me know Your Will, and help me to live it out each day.

O: Give us this day our daily bread
R: Give me today that which I need
C: I know the original is not meant to be literal, but the revision feels like such a more elegant way to communicate this sentiment. We CAN ask our Higher Power for help, and we CAN ask him to sustain us during difficult times. But it also reflects an acknowledgement that our Higher Power knows best what we truly need. What we want is often (usually?) not something we need. And what we need is not necessarily what we may want at any given time.

O: And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
R: And help me show forgiveness to others just as You show forgiveness to me.
C: This and the following stanza in the original.. well, they just BUG me! Once I started thinking about writing a revision, I found myself asking "How in the world did this ever get written this way?" The original seems to say "God, please model yourself after us, follow our role model for this behavior." Ha! If God forgave trespasses as we forgave others, it'd be a sorry, sorry state. The revision reflects what I think we're really praying for here.

O: And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
R: Please protect me from temptation and restore me when I fall.
C: Again, I find the original language ridiculous. Do we really need to ask God not to lead us into temptation? As though it's something God would contemplate doing? No, but we certainly can use help being protected from the multiple temptations that face us each day.   Since I personally don't like the word evil, I chose to use language that I think more accurately reflects the fact that we do often fall and thus need our Higher Power's help in saving us from shame, embarrassment, guilt and letting us feel the grace to begin anew.

O: For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, Forever and ever. Amen.
R: For Everything I have comes from You and all good things are Yours. As it has always been, and will always be, Forever and Ever. Amen.
C: This was the hardest part to revise because the original language is so poetic and so ingrained in us as a powerful way to end this prayer. But the original language to me again reinforces this notion of distance and separateness (ie "You are all powerful and I am merely a tiny human speck on this planet.") I wanted to inject a greater air of gratitude, as well as honor the reality of the very personal and ever-present role of our Higher Power in our daily lives.