Portraits

The Our Father, and the Father Who Hears It

73 words, and the child who learns to say them

A layered, cinematic commentary on the prayer the Lord himself gave, read petition by petition as the movement of a child coming home: it learns to speak and says nothing about itself first but about its Father — his name, his kingdom, his will; it eats at his table; it is brought up — forgiven, tested under his eye, kept from the evil one; and it gives everything it asked back to Him. Then it watches the Son do all of this first, up to the cross; it holds on through the night in which the seven petitions become literal; and it comes home, where the opening word is reversed. A prologue, 19 chapters in eight parts, and an apparatus that makes every count in the book checkable — with the panels (Kenner · Dossier · Excursus · Heart), the three marks CALCULATED · DOCUMENTED · CONSTRUED, and the source text one click deeper.