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Q:My husband is in RCIA. One of the questions that has come up now for three weeks concerns the Our Father. Some people use the ending, "for Thine is the kingdom, the power etc." Roman Catholics do not. We have not been able to find any proof of this 'extra line', if you will, in any Bible and the deacon teaching the classes has no idea where it came from. Where did it come from?
(Bridgid)
Dear Bridgid:
The phrase you are referring to is what is known as a 'doxology'. A doxology is a form of praise to God usually said at the end of a prayer or an important part of a ceremony. During the Mass, for example, after the bread and wine have been consecrated by the priest and become the Sacred Body and Blood of Our Lord, the priest holds them aloft and recites a doxology: "Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours, almighty Father, for ever and ever." Doxologies originated with the Jewish people in ancient times and became part of Jewish tradition. We see an example of a doxology in the Old Testament (I Chronicles 29: 10-15), when King David gives instructions to the people for the building of the Temple, and concludes with a prayer of praise.
The words "For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, now and forever" came at the conclusion of the Lord's Prayer in some parts of the early Church, mainly in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. (See Catechism: 2760). Most Christians today, both Catholics and Protestants, would probably agree that these are inspired words, yet added on to the words of Jesus by the sacred writer as a doxology, a prayer of praise and thanksgiving. Catholic Bibles do not include such words as part of the Our Father, but sometimes refer to them in a footnote. During the Reformation, as part of a larger effort to draw distinctions between the teachings of Rome and those of the church in Elizabethan England, Protestants included the doxology with all versions of the Our Father.
As part of the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the Church added the Our Father doxology as part of the Communion rite. Following the recitation of the Our Father, the priest recites the prayer beginning, "Deliver us, Lord, from every evil...", after which the people respond with a version of the doxology similar to that recited at the end of the Protestant version of the Lord's Prayer: "For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and for ever."
More information on doxologies can be found in the Catechism (see 1103, 2639-49, and 2855).
God bless,
Father Norbert