“For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever, Amen.”
If you grew up in the Roman Catholic Church, you were probably surprised the first time you heard this last part of The Lord’s Prayer. And rightly so, because these final words are not actually part of the prayer that Jesus taught the disciples. Instead, they are a “doxology” that was added to the end of the prayer very early in the history of the Christian church.
A “doxology” is a hymn that gives praise to God. The doxology that most people are familiar with is the one we sing right after the offering, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…” (More on that some other time!)
This doxology on the end of the Lord’s Prayer sums up our response to God in light of what we have prayed. We prayed for God’s kingdom to come – and we affirm that God is indeed King. We prayed for help and sustenance. We affirm that God has the power to meet our needs. We prayed for forgiveness, and the forgiveness of others. We affirm that it is God who is glorified when we live out God’s grace – not just today, or even tomorrow, but forever!
It's in the King James version of the prayer in Matthew; that's probably why Protestants say it. It was in the King James because it was included in some pretty old manuscripts. But not old enough to make it into modern translations. Perhaps it was some scribe piously adding a shortened version of 1 Chronicles 29:11 to Jesus' prayer.
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