Pastor Justin Kizewski of Holy Ghost Parish in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin recently addressed his parishioners regarding understanding the Mass and the petition of “And lead us not into temptation.”

While the phrasing could trouble some by the implication of God leading leading the faithful into temptation, Kizewski counters that the true meaning lies in the ability of God to permit the faithful to be exposed to temptation.

He offers the example of God’s hardening of the Egyptian pharaoh's heart.

“Did God actually cause Pharaoh not to free his people? I would say no. However, God does allow the circumstances in which Pharaoh’s heart will be hardened,” Kizewski wrote. “Those circumstances, and Pharaoh himself, are what led to Pharaoh’s heart being hardened.”

The faithful can be denied God’s grace as the result of sin, and that lack of grace can lead then to further temptation to sin, Kizewski wrote.

“This is one reason why sinning once can lead more easily to committing that sin again or it can lead to other sins related to those sins,” he wrote. “Sin engenders more sin.”

From that, Kizewski takes that the petition in the "Our Father" is one of seeking God’s grace.

“It is difficult to translate the Greek verb used by a single English word: the Greek means both ‘do not allow us to enter into temptation’ and ‘do not let us yield to temptation,’” Kizewski quoted from the Catechism.

God does not actually tempt anyone, as He can neither be tempted to do evil, Kizewski shared from the Catechism.

And so the faithful seek the grace of God and the discernment of the Holy Spirit, Kizewski wrote.

“This guidance of the Holy Spirit comes especially through the Gifts, and the Gift of the Holy Spirit that is particularly associated with this petition is the gift of understanding,” he wrote. “Understanding gives us insight into the truths of the faith, the substance of things, hidden meanings of Sacred Scripture.”