About

PATER NOSTER

The opening words of the Lord’s Prayer have become a single word in English – paternoster – with several meanings:

a rosary
every tenth (large) bead on the rosary, at which the Lord’s Prayer is recited
anything strung like a rosary, e.g. a fishing line on which a series of small hooks is strung at intervals
a lift made of a number of platforms on a continuously moving cable; you jump on while it is still moving
there is a street in London called Paternoster Row

This word-square appears at several sites. Whichever way you read it you get the same message:

sator (The sower) Arepo (Arepo) tenet (holds) rotas (the wheels) opera (carefully).

SATOR

AREPO

TENET

OPERA

ROTAS

This doesn’t seem to make much sense but is thought to contain a Christian cryptogram. The letters can be arranged to make a cross. leaving four letters of special significance if written as Greek alpha A and omega W (cf Rev 22.13).

APATERNOSTERO