Forgive us our trespasses

"There is no one, among the number of those created, except for my Mother, who has not had to seek the Father's forgiveness for more or less serious sins, according to each one's capacity to be a child of God. Ask the Father to erase you from the list of his debtors. If you do so in a humble, sincere, and contrite spirit, you will incline the Eternal in your favor. But an essential condition to receive, to be forgiven, is to forgive. If you only seek mercy and do not grant it to your neighbor, you will not experience God's forgiveness. God does not like the hypocritical and the cruel, and whoever refuses to forgive his brother refuses the Father's forgiveness for himself."

In the work of Maria Valtorta

"Forgive, O Good Father, the sins of Your children. Forgive the sins of Your people, which are the most serious, the sins of those who want to persist in error, whilst Your predilection and love gave Light just to this people. And forgive those who are brutalised by corrupt paganism that teaches vice, and are drowned in the idolatry of such dull mephitic heathenism, whereas there are valuable souls among them, whom You love having created them. We forgive, I am the first to forgive, so that You may forgive, and we implore Your protection over the weakness of men, that You may free Your creatures from the Principle of Evil, from whom all crimes, idolatries, sins, temptations and errors come. Free them, O Lord, from the dreadful Prince, so that they may come to Your eternal Light."

To go further

• Our Father
• 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
• Lead us not into temptation
• But deliver us from evil

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church

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

2838 This petition is astonishing. If it only contained the first phrase – "Forgive us our trespasses" – it could be implicitly included in the first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer, since Christ's Sacrifice is "for the remission of sins". But, since it has a second phrase, our petition will only be granted if we have first responded to a requirement. Our petition is directed toward the future, our response must have preceded it; one word connects them: "as".

Forgive us our trespasses...

2839 With bold trust, we began praying Our Father. By begging that His Name be sanctified, we asked to become ever more holy. Yet, although we are clothed in the baptismal robe, we continue to sin, to turn away from God. Now, in this new petition, we return to Him, like the prodigal son (cf. Lk 15:11-32), and we acknowledge ourselves sinners before Him, like the tax collector (cf. Lk 18:13). Our petition begins with a "confession" where we confess both our misery and His Mercy. Our hope is firm, since in His Son, "we have redemption, the remission of our sins" (Col 1:14; Eph 1:7). The effective and indisputable sign of His pardon, we find in the Sacraments of His Church (cf. Mt 26:28; Jn 20:23).

2840 But, and this is fearsome, this flood of mercy cannot penetrate our Heart as long as we have not forgiven those who have offended us. Love, like the Body of Christ, is indivisible: we cannot love the God we do not see if we do not love the brother or sister whom we see (cf. 1 Jn 4:20). In the refusal to forgive our brothers and sisters, our Heart closes, its hardness makes it impermeable to the merciful love of the Father; in the confession of our sin, our Heart is opened to His Grace.

2841 This petition is so important that it is the only one on which the Lord returns and elaborates in the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Mt 6:14-15; 5:23-24; Mk 11:25). This crucial requirement of the mystery of the Covenant is impossible for man. But "all things are possible with God".

...as we forgive those who trespass against us

2842 This "as" is not unique in Jesus’ teaching: "You shall be perfect ‘as’ your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48); "Be merciful ‘as’ your Father is merciful" (Lk 6:36); "A new commandment I give you: love one another ‘as’ I have loved you" (Jn 13:34). Observing the Lord’s command is impossible if it is just to imitate externally the divine model. It is a vital participation coming "from the depth of the Heart" to the Holiness, Mercy, and Love of our God. Only the Spirit who is "our Life" (Ga 5:25) can make the same feelings that were in Christ Jesus "ours" (cf. Phil 2:1,5). Then the unity of forgiveness becomes possible, "forgiving one another ‘as’ God forgave you in Christ" (Eph 4:32).

2843 Thus come to life the words of the Lord on forgiveness, that Love which loves to the extreme of love (cf. Jn 13:1). The parable of the unforgiving servant, which crowns the Lord’s teaching on ecclesial communion (cf. Mt 18:23-35), ends with this word: "So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from the heart." It is there, indeed, "in the depth of the Heart," that everything knots and unknots. It is not in our power to no longer feel and to forget the offense; but the Heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns the wound into compassion and purifies memory by transforming the offense into intercession.

2844 Christian prayer even goes to the forgiveness of Enemies (cf. Mt 5:43-44). It transfigures the disciple by conforming him to his Master. Forgiveness is a summit of Christian prayer; the gift of prayer can only be received in a Heart attuned to divine compassion. Forgiveness also testifies that, in our world, love is stronger than sin. Martyrs, of yesterday and today, bear this testimony of Jesus. Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of Reconciliation (cf. 2 Cor 5:18-21), of God's children with their Father and of men among themselves (cf. John Paul II, DM 14).

2845 There is no limit or measure to this essentially divine forgiveness (cf. Mt 18:21-22; Lk 17:3-4). If these are offenses (of "sins" according to Lk 11:4 or of "debts" according to Mt 6:12), the fact is that we are always debtors: "Owe no one anything, except to love one another" (Rm 13:8). The Communion of the Holy Trinity is the source and criterion of the truth of every relationship (cf. 1 Jn 3:19-24). It is lived in prayer, especially in the Eucharist (cf. Mt 5:23-24):

God does not accept the sacrifice of those who cause division, He sends them away from the altar so that first they may reconcile with their brothers: God wants to be pacified with prayers of Peace. The most beautiful obligation for God is our Peace, our concord, the unity in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit of the entire faithful people (St. Cyprian, Dom. orat. 23: PL 4, 535C-536A).

Harmful, toxic. That corrupts the soul, the spirit.