Praise for Understanding “OurFather”

“In Understanding ‘Our Father,’ Dr.Scott Hahn removes the veil andreveals to us the deep significanceof the prayer Jesus gave us, the OurFather. With elegance, eloquence,and erudite scholarship, Dr. Hahnunpacks each phrase of this perfectprayer and shows us our relationshipwith God the Father, Hisprovidential care for us, and ourown call to be divinized byfollowing His holy will. This bookhas increased my understanding andenriched my appreciation of the OurFather, and I am sure this will bethe case for everyone who reads thisinsightful and inspiring book.”

JOHNETTE S. BENKOVICPresident, Living His LifeAbundantly International

“The indefatigable Dr. Hahn has comeup with a miniature masterpiece,miniature in its winsome simplicity,a masterpiece in its insight anddepth. It merits a myriad of readers—and a miniature doxology.’”

REV. ROBERT I. BRADLEY, S.J.Advisor, Catholics United for the

Faith

“In this wonderful exposition of themost beautiful of human prayers,that prayer which came from thedivine lips of Jesus Christ Himself,Dr. Scott Hahn has, once again,provided the Catholic and theChristian with a splendid work oftheological research. Understanding‘Our Father’ will definitely serveto enrich spiritually all who areprivileged to read and meditate onit. By coordinating his commentaryand meditation on the Lord’s Prayerwith those of four great doctors ofthe Church, Dr. Hahn provides anongoing connection with the longcontinuity of Christian tradition.It is a book that the reader willfind as intellectually satisfying asit is grace-filled and consoling.”

MOST REV. FABIAN W. BRUSKEWITZ, D.D.,S.T.D.

Bishop of Lincoln

“Understanding ‘Our Father’ offersinspiration and encouragement to aculture suffering a crisis of humanfatherhood that often flows from an

increasing denial of divinefatherhood. By blending his ownscriptural insights on the Lord’sPrayer with the thoughts of fourgreat Church Fathers, Professor Hahnwrites a prescription for what ailsmany of our families—too littleprayer. I urge husbands and wives toread and discuss this book and shareits wisdom with their children bydevotedly praying the Our Father asa family every day. Immeasurableblessings will follow.”

MOST REV. CHARLES J. CHAPUT, O.F.M.CAP., D.D.

Archbishop of Denver

“Dr. Hahn has performed yet anothergreat service for the Church (andthe whole world, for that matter).The Our Father is a Gospel prayer,the prayer that Jesus Himself gaveto us. If prayer is oxygen for thesoul, then Dr. Hahn has helped tobreathe life into our prayer. TheOur Father, being the Gospel prayer,reminds us that the Gospel is theGood News, and the Good News is notmerely ‘something,’ but in reality‘Somebody,’ and that ‘Somebody’ isJesus Christ. In the light of fourFathers of the Church, as well as

his own excellent insights, Dr.Hahn, a teacher in the Teacher,teaches us how to pray.”

REV. JOHN CORAPI, S.O.L.T.

“With remarkable clarity, keenpersonal insight, and solidcatechesis, Dr. Scott Hahn once moretakes the reader into a criticalelement of the faith: the nature andimportance of prayer. His personalmeditations on the Lord’s Prayer,combined with theologicalreflections from four saints andFathers of the Church, arerefreshing to the soul—nearly asrefreshing as prayer itself! Thoseof us who so enjoyed Scott’s earlierworks were eager for his next one,and his newest book is worth thewait!”

MOST REV. TIMOTHY M. DOLAN, D.D.,PH.D., S.T.L.

Archbishop of Milwaukee

“In a world that is often confusedabout prayer, any book that helpsCatholics to pray is a boon to theChurch. Scott Hahn, in the firstpart of this book, draws on theexperience of his own journey of

faith, which led him to the CatholicChurch, and on the wisdom of theChurch Fathers to throw light on theessential spirit of prayer found inthe Our Father. He also gently setsaside false approaches. The extractsfrom Saints Cyprian, Cyril ofJerusalem, John Chrysostom, andAugustine, which make up the secondpart of the book, are a precioussource of insight into Christianprayer. I hope the book will be usedby many families, for those who useit will find their life with Godstrengthened and enriched.”

FRANCIS CARDINAL GEORGE, O.M.I., D.D.,PH.D., S.T.D.

Archbishop of Chicago

“My own journey into the CatholicChurch involved an exponentialincrease in praying the Lord’sPrayer, from once a week on Sundaysto multiple times every day: theDivine Office, rosaries, and Mass.But I must admit that too often thebusyness and distractions of my lifehave made my recitation of thisprecious prayer exactly what Jesuswarned against: ‘vain repetitions.’In this sense, therefore, Scott’sbook was a godsend. His theological,

biblical, and spiritually informedreflections (petition by petition)on this intimate family prayer ofthe Body of Christ have instillednew life into this dead old soul.What an awesome privilege it is topray these words as an adopted sonof God, taught by our adoptedBrother, Jesus, Who is also our Lordand God, Savior and King.”

MARCUS GRODIPresident, Coming Home Network

International

“Scott Hahn, who has helped so manyof us grow in our appreciation ofthe Scriptures in Catholic life, hasdone so again in a very practicalway. His book will assist people notonly in their personal spirituallife, but also in their prayingtogether. I hope that this book willbecome part of a prayer movement inthe Church to lead us to reform andrenewal.”

REV. BENEDICT J. GROESCHEL, C.F.R.

“Against the background ofcontemporary misunderstandings ofGod and Christian revelation, it isgratifying to see how a modern

Scripture scholar, Professor ScottHahn, contributes concise andprofound insights into the mostfamiliar prayer in all history, theLord’s Prayer. His meditations,enriched by covenant theology, willinspire souls with greater knowledgeand love of God, Who is the BlessedTrinity, and will stimulate in thema greater zeal to spread Christ’sKingdom, the Church, on earth.Readers victimized by a spirituallydecadent culture to ignore theirsupernatural destiny are reminded,‘If He Who was without sin prayed,how much more ought sinners topray.’ The value of this volume isenhanced by inclusion of the textsof timeless commentaries on theLord’s Prayer by Saints Cyprian,Cyril of Jerusalem, John Chrysostom,and Augustine.”

JAMES LIKOUDISPresident Emeritus, Catholics United

for the Faith

“Scott Hahn brings excitement andscholarship to his inspirationalwork on the Lord’s Prayer. Onceagain, Scott takes what is familiarto us and, with refreshing insight,inspires us to renewed zeal.”

REV. MICHAEL SCANLAN, T.O.R.Chancellor, Franciscan University of

Steubenville

“This is a great book for allCatholics, but it is an essentialbook for Catholic fathers. At thecenter of the modern crisis infamily life is a crisis of genuinefatherhood. The essence of restoringfatherhood is turning the hearts offathers back to God the Father. Therenewal of family life will proceedfrom the renewal of our life withthe Father. Read this important bookslowly and prayerfully. It willdeepen your faith and transform yourfamily life.”

STEVE WOODFounder, St. Joseph’s Covenant

Keepers

OTHER BOOKS BY SCOTT HAHN

AuthorA Father Who Keeps His Promises:God’s Covenant Love in Scripture

(Charis Books)

The Lamb’s Supper: The Mass asHeaven on Earth(Doubleday)

Hail Holy Queen:The Mother of God in the Word of God

(Doubleday)

First Comes Love:Finding Your Family in the Church

and the Trinity(Doubleday)

Coauthor and coeditor

Catholic for a Reason:Scripture and the Mystery of the

Family of God(Emmaus Road Publishing)

Coauthor

With Kimberly HahnRome Sweet Home:

Our Journey to Catholicism(Ignatius Press)

Catholic for a Reason II:

Scripture and the Mystery of theMother of God

(Emmaus Road Publishing)

General editor and coauthor(biblical commentary)

With Curtis MitchThe Ignatius Catholic Study Bible:

The Gospel of MatthewThe Ignatius Catholic Study Bible:

The Gospel of MarkThe Ignatius Catholic Study Bible:

The Gospel of Lukeadditional volumes forthcoming

(Ignatius Press)

Emmaus Road Publishing827 North Fourth StreetSteubenville, Ohio 43952

“Contemporary Reflections” copyright 2002 byScott Walker Hahn

“Wisdom from the Fathers of the Church”copyright 2002

by Emmaus Road PublishingAll rights reserved. Published 2002

Printed in the United States of AmericaFirst impression 2002

Library of Congress Control Number: 2002111427ISBN 1-931018-15-4

ISBN 978-1-931018-15-9

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripturequotations are taken

from the Catholic Edition of the RevisedStandard Version of the Bible,

copyright 1965, 1966 by the Division ofChristian Education of the

National Council of the Churches of Christ inthe

United States of America. Used by permission.All rights reserved.

Excerpts from the English translation of theCatechism of the Catholic Church for the

United States of Americacopyright 1994, United States Catholic

Conference, Inc.—Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

English translation of the Catechism of theCatholic Church:

Modifications from the Editio Typica copyright1997,

United States Catholic Conference, Inc.—Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Cited in the text

as “Catechism.”

Cover design and layout byBeth Hart

Cover artwork:Pompeo Batoni, God the Father

Nihil obstat: Rev. James Dunfee, CensorLibrorum

Imprimatur: R. Daniel Conlon, D.D., J.C.D.,Ph.D.

Bishop of SteubenvilleAugust 29, 2002

The nihil obstat and imprimatur are officialdeclarations

that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinalor moral error.

No implication is contained therein that thosewho have

granted the nihil obstat and imprimatur agreewith

the contents, opinions, or statementsexpressed.

“Wisdom from the Fathers of the Church” is amodernized adaptation of selections of fourworks in the public domain: Saint Cyprian,Treatise IV (On the Lord’s Prayer), in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5, ed. Alexander Robertsand James Donaldson (1886); Saint Cyril ofJerusalem, Lecture XXIII, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2d ser., vol. 7, ed. PhilipSchaff and Henry Wace (1894); Saint JohnChrysostom, Homily XIX on the Gospel of St.Matthew, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,1st ser., vol. 10, ed. Philip Schaff (1888);and Saint Augustine, Our Lord’s Sermon on theMount, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1stser., vol. 6, ed. Philip Schaff (1888). Theseworks are available online athttp://www.ccel.org.

CONTENTSACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABBREVIATIONS

— PART I —CONTEMPORARY REFLECTIONS BY SCOTT HAHN

INTRODUCTION A Gospel Prayer

CHAPTER 1Our Father

CHAPTER 2Our Father . . . in Heaven

CHAPTER 3Hallowed Be Thy Name

CHAPTER 4Thy Kingdom Come

CHAPTER 5Thy Will Be Done

CHAPTER 6On Earth As It Is in Heaven

CHAPTER 7Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

CHAPTER 8Forgive Us . . . As We Forgive

CHAPTER 9Lead Us Not into Temptation

CHAPTER 10Temptation, Part II

CHAPTER 11Deliver Us from Evil

CHAPTER 12The Kingdom, the Power, and theGlory

CHAPTER 13Last Words

— PART II —WISDOM FROM THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH

CHAPTER 14Saint Cyprian: Treatise on the Lord’s Prayer(selection)

CHAPTER 15Saint Cyril of Jerusalem: Mystagogic Catechesis V (selection)

CHAPTER 16Saint John Chrysostom: Homily XIX on the Gospel of SaintMatthew (selection

CHAPTER 17Saint Augustine: Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount(selection)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSI feel obligated here to thankseveral people whom God has sent inanswer to my prayers. Without them,I could not have completed thisvolume; nor could you be holding itnow. Thank you, Jeff Ziegler, forediting the translations of thepatristic texts; Mike Aquilina, forediting my manuscript; and BethHart, for designing a beautifulbook.

ABBREVIATIONS

The Old TestamentGen./GenesisEx./ExodusLev./LeviticusNum./NumbersDeut./DeuteronomyJosh./JoshuaJudg./JudgesRuth/Ruth1 Sam./1 Samuel2 Sam./2 Samuel1 Kings/1 Kings2 Kings/2 Kings1 Chron./1 Chronicles2 Chron./2 ChroniclesEzra/EzraNeh./NehemiahTob./TobitJud./JudithEsther/EstherJob/JobPs./PsalmsProv./ProverbsEccles./EcclesiastesSong/Song of SolomonWis./WisdomSir./Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)Is./IsaiahJer./Jeremiah

Lam./LamentationsBar./BaruchEzek./EzekielDan./DanielHos./HoseaJoel/JoelAmos/AmosObad./ObadiahJon./JonahMic./MicahNahum/NahumHab./HabakkukZeph./ZephaniahHag./HaggaiZech./ZechariahMal./Malachi1 Mac./1 Maccabees2 Mac./2 Maccabees

The New TestamentMt./MatthewMk./MarkLk./LukeJn./JohnActs/Acts of the ApostlesRom./Romans1 Cor./1 Corinthians2 Cor./2 CorinthiansGal./GalatiansEph./EphesiansPhil./PhilippiansCol./Colossians1 Thess./1 Thessalonians

2 Thess./2 Thessalonians1 Tim./1 Timothy2 Tim./2 TimothyTit./TitusPhilem./PhilemonHeb./HebrewsJas./James1 Pet./1 Peter2 Pet./2 Peter1 Jn./1 John2 Jn./2 John3 Jn./3 JohnJude/JudeRev./Revelation (Apocalypse)

INTRODUCTION

A GOSPEL PRAYERThe prayer at hand has been called

many things: the Pater Noster, theOur Father, the Model Prayer, theLord’s Prayer. Some people object tocalling it the Lord’s Prayer becauseJesus committed no trespasses, andso He could not ask forgiveness, Hecould not pray this prayer as Hisown. They call it the Disciple’sPrayer.Whatever you choose to call it,

one thing is certain: It’s a prayerof paramount importance. It is thecenterpiece of “the most famoussermon ever preached”—the Sermon onthe Mount. Not only is this the mostfamous sermon, it’s also the firstwe find Jesus preaching when we readthe Gospel. It’s three chapters long(Mt. 5-7)—no typical homily here!And those three chapters contain onething we won’t find anywhere in thefirst four chapters of Matthew: thatis, God’s fatherhood. From noreferences at all, Jesus proceeds,in the course of His sermon, to makeseventeen references to God asFather. He evokes many other familyimages as well: marriage, wife,brother, children, house-building,

and so on.It should come as no surprise,

then, that the opening words of thecenterpiece prayer of the mostfamous sermon in history are “OurFather.”Fatherhood is just the beginning;

family is the context. All of thatis quite familiar to us. Indeed, wemay have heard it too much—or, moreprecisely, we may have pondered ittoo little. If so, then we have tochange.Often we’re tempted to consider

the Lord’s Prayer as a kind ofinspired but ad hoc arrangement,improvised by our Lord on the spotas a quick reply to an unexpectedrequest. We grant that it’s verygood, of course—since it came fromJesus Himself—but we don’t troubleourselves to find a structure or aninner logic in something sospontaneous.That approach, however, is

completely mistaken. The Lord’sPrayer reflects Jesus’ deepestpreoccupation on earth: talking withHis Father. It moves smoothly fromthere to His second deepestpreoccupation: making His Father ourFather too, enabling us to share His

intimate conversation, which isconstant and habitual. Without adoubt, the Lord’s Prayer is morethan a sudden inspiration on Jesus’part. It’s a long-awaited gift.Indeed, this prayer is itself ananswer to a sustained request on thepart of humanity: “Lord, teach us topray” (Lk 11:1).Indeed, the very desire to pray,

and the request for instruction,were assuredly answers to Jesus’ ownprayers. If Jesus prayed all nightbefore choosing the twelve followerswho would be His inner circle ofdisciples, then He must have beenpraying for days and weeks thatthese men would become truedisciples. That couldn’t happenwithout a lot of prayer, and notjust Jesus’ prayers, but theirs,too. The disciples needed prayermore than they needed a walkingstaff, or sandals, or clothing, or awallet, or fish, or food, or drink.So they had to learn to pray likeJesus, in the very words that Jesuswould have them pray, in the veryway that Jesus Himself prayed.And that brings us back to the Our

Father.The Lord’s Prayer is one unified,

compact, model prayer consisting ofseven petitions, divisible into twoparts: the first “God-ward,” thesecond “us-ward.” No work of poeticart was ever more perfectly crafted.If we had more time, we couldconsider how the prayer’s sevenfoldpattern is reflected in the sevenparables of Matthew 13, in the sevenwoes of Matthew 23, and in theBeatitudes.1 But such a discussionwould turn this book into ascholarly monograph and not ameditation.Still, if you want to see how the

Our Father changes the souls who useit in prayer, take a closer look atits structure. The first part isclearly “God-ward,” focused on “Thyname,” “Thy Kingdom,” “Thy will.”The second half, however, turnsattention to us and our needs: “giveus,” “forgive us,” “lead us,”“deliver us.” The sequence issignificant, because it reverses theinstinctive order of our petitions.When we pray spontaneously, we tendto begin with our troubles, ourfrustrated desires, and our personalwish list. But Jesus shows us thatwe need to be less self-centered inprayer and more God-centered—notbecause God needs our praise, and

His ego is fragile, but because He’sGod, and we aren’t. In its verysequence, the Our Father is a much-needed orientation-to-realityprogram.I hope this book is an answer to

your prayers and our Lord’s prayerfor you. For He still wants the samethings for His disciples: He wantsto make His Father our Father.

1 ^Cf. Saint Augustine, Our Lord’s Sermon onthe Mount, bk. 1, chap. 1-5.

CHAPTER ONE

OUR FATHERI was a college student, still a

teenager, and still savoring myrecent experience of conversion. Ihad been “born again,” saved byChrist from sins that would havedestroyed me, and I was eager toshare my faith with other kids whoseemed headed for delinquency.So I jumped at the chance for a

summer internship in the inner city,helping to run youth programs foradolescents who lived in poverty.The ministry was run by two toughyoung men who had themselvesconverted after spending years instreet gangs. One had been a memberof the militant Black Panthers.Their misspent youth was a

providential preparation forministry in that part of town—wheremost storefronts were boarded up,and drug dealers and police cruiserswere the most frequent visitors.They talked tough to me on my firstday and showed me to the spartanroom where I’d be spending mynights. On one particular night,fairly early in the summer, I was onmy knees praying in that room, whenI heard gunfire outside and bullets

whizzing by my window. Still, I haveto say that I was happy to be there.The squalor and the danger made meall the more aware of theneighborhood’s need for JesusChrist.

Father-HungerWeeks passed before the directors

of the ministry felt confidentenough to let me give inspirationaltalks to the boys. They prepped meonce more by making sure I was trulyaware of the boys’ home lives. Most,they said, came from single-parenthouseholds. Many didn’t even knowthe names of their fathers. Some hadfathers who were in prison—or dead,the victims of their own criminallifestyle.My directors had spent their

entire lives in neighborhoods likethis. They evoked a bleak picture ofa subculture that had no experienceor recent memory of fathers beinginvolved in family life. And theybrought all this to a practicalpoint: “When you talk to these kids,don’t talk about God as theirFather. That’s something they can’trelate to. It can only turn themoff.”I was stunned. How could a

Christian talk about God withoutmentioning His fatherhood?I had finally arrived at the

moment I was dreaming of—the daywhen I could preach the Gospel tokids who were “at risk”—and I knew

that I couldn’t do it the way mydirectors wanted me to do it.So I asked them, How could I lead

our group to the Son of God withoutmentioning His eternal Father? Andhow could I lead them to pray exceptin the way that Jesus had taught us:“Our Father”?I made an impassioned case, and I

guess I convinced them, because theyagreed to let me try it my way.I did, and my directors had to

acknowledge that I succeeded. When Ispoke of God as Father, I spoke notto the memories of my audience, butto their need. They hungered for afather more than they hungered for agood meal. They knew what they’dbeen missing, and they were eager tofind it in God.There is only one God. He is the

God Whom Jesus revealed to us, andHe is the God Who made the hearts ofthose adolescent boys. God made usfor Himself, said Saint Augustine,and our hearts are restless tillthey rest in Him—the only true God.1

Father ForeverAs a young Evangelical Protestant,

I had read the words of the Anglicantheologian J. I. Packer: “Foreverything that Christ taught . . .is summed up in the knowledge of theFatherhood of God. ‘Father’ is theChristian name for God.”2

As a superannuating Catholic, Iturn to the words of Tertullian.This third-century African Christianwrote that before Jesus Christ“[t]he expression God the Father hadnever been revealed to anyone. WhenMoses himself asked God who he was,he heard another name. The Father’sname has been revealed to us in theSon, for the name ‘Son’ implies thenew name ‘Father.’”3

Since the name lay hidden tillJesus, it was new to mankind withthe New Testament. But it was notnewly coined. For God’s name, fromall eternity, is Father.Jesus revealed this at the end of

His earthly ministry, when Hecommanded His disciples to baptize“in the name of the Father and ofthe Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt.28:19).What Jesus named here was

radically different from anythingthe world has seen, before or since.Other religions have invoked theirgods as father, but they have usedthe title only in a metaphoricalsense—meaning that their god is likea father, because he begets them,guides them, and provides for them.Jesus praised God as Begetter,

Guide, and Provider, but He also—byHis own eternal sonship—named God aseternally Father. For Father can beGod’s name, His personal identity,only if God is Father eternally.Think about the other titles we

give God—Creator, Lawgiver, andPhysician. He is Creator only afterHe has created something; so Creatoris not God’s personal identity. Heis Lawgiver only after He has givena law; so He is not an eternallawgiver. He is Physician only afterHe has creatures in need of healing.Yet He is Father forever, because

He eternally generates the Son, andtogether They breathe forth theSpirit, the bond of Their love.4

A Family AffairThe eternal relation of the Father

and the Son is not a metaphor.Indeed, human fatherhood is morelike a metaphor for God’s eternalfatherhood. Human fatherhood is acreated image of God’s eternalfatherhood—an image more or lessvivid, depending on the sins of thedad.Saint Ephrem of Syria put it well.

Earthly fathers, he said, “arecalled fathers, but He is the trueFather. . . . The terms ‘father’ and‘son’ by which they have been calledare borrowed names that throughgrace have taught us that there is asingle true Father and that He has asingle true Son.”5

God is Father to Jesus, Who sharesHis sonship with us. In the Church’sancient phrase, we are made “sons inthe Son” through baptism. We become,quite literally, partakers of thedivine nature (cf. 2 Pet. 1:4). Weare made godlike. We are made toshare in the love Christ shares withthe Father. Only when we grasp thiscan we truly pray, “I shall notwant” (Ps. 23:1). We’ll want fornothing because the Lord is not justour Shepherd, but also our Father.

And someone who lives the life ofGod ultimately needs nothing otherthan that life.God is our Father because we share

in Jesus’ sonship. Note that we donot address Him as “my Father,” butas “our Father.” By gathering ustogether in Christ, God hasestablished a universal human familyin the Church. In the words of PopeJohn Paul II, “The Father, Creatorof the universe, and the WordIncarnate, the Redeemer of humanity,are the source of this universalopenness to all people as brothersand sisters, and they impel us toembrace them in the prayer whichbegins with the tender words: ‘OurFather.’”6 It is our common sonshipthat gives us the right to addressGod as a common Father, as ourFather.All the remaining words in the

Lord’s Prayer—indeed, all the truthsof the Christian faith—can beunderstood as an elaboration of thatcompact opening phrase: “OurFather.”

1 ^Cf. Saint Augustine, Confessions, bk. 1,chap. 1, no. 1.

2 ^J. I. Packer, Evangelical Magazine 7: 19ff., quoted in J. I. Packer, Knowing God

(Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press,1973), 182.

3 ^Tertullian, De Oratione (On Prayer),chap. 3, quoted in Catechism, no. 2779.

4 ^See my First Comes Love: Finding YourFamily in the Church and the Trinity (NewYork:?Doubleday, 2002), chap. 3-5.

5 ^Saint Ephrem, Hymn 46 on the Faith,quoted in Andrew Louth, Denys the Areopagite(Wilton, Conn.: Morehouse-Barlow, 1989), 80.

6 ^Pope John Paul II, Letter to FamiliesGratissimam Sane (February 2, 1994), no. 4,emphasis in original.

CHAPTER TWO

OUR FATHER . . . INHEAVEN

If we want to be Christians, wehave no choice but to pray, “OurFather.” When the first disciplesasked Jesus to teach them to pray,He taught them using those verywords. To pray as a Christian meansto pray, “Our Father.”Yet, as I learned in my first days

of ministry, the word father hasbecome a stumbling block for somepeople. Divorce is common, as isbirth outside wedlock. I live in acountry that one popular bookdescribed as fatherless America.1

So, for a growing number of people,father has never meant provider,teacher, or guardian. It has meantonly an aching absence—or an abusivepresence.Moreover, even children who have

grown up with a good father are alltoo aware of his defects, problems,and sins. The best intentions of themost virtuous dads too often getbotched in execution. What we humanfathers wouldn’t give our kids! Butwe don’t always have what they wantor need; and, when we do have it, we

don’t know how to give it to themwithout spoiling them.

The “Our” of PowerThis is why Tradition tells us we

must go beyond our earthlyexperiences and memories offatherhood when we pray, “OurFather.” For though He is aprovider, begetter, and protector,God is more unlike than like anyhuman father, patriarch, or paternalfigure. The Catechism puts it thisway: “God our Father transcends thecategories of the created world. Toimpose our own ideas in this area‘upon him’ would be to fabricateidols to adore or pull down. To prayto the Father is to enter into hismystery as he is and as the Son hasrevealed him to us” (no. 2779).How has Jesus, God the Son,

revealed the Father to us? As “[o]urFather who art in heaven” (Mt. 6:9).By adding that prepositional phrase“in heaven,” Jesus emphasizes thedifference in God’s fatherhood. TheFather to Whom we pray is not anearthly father. He is “above” us; Heis the One we profess in the creedas “Father Almighty”—that is, allpowerful. Though we are weak,limited, and prone to mistakes,nothing is impossible for God (cf.Lk. 1:37).

God’s power, then, sets Hisfatherhood apart from any fatherhoodwe have known or imagined. His“fatherhood and power shed light onone another” (Catechism, no. 270).Unlike earthly fathers, He alwayshas the best intentions for Hischildren, and He always has theability to carry them out. Jesuswanted us to know this, so that wecould always approach our heavenlyFather with childlike trust andconfidence: “[W]hatever you ask inprayer, you will receive, if youhave faith” (Mt. 21:22).The Catechism teaches that “God

reveals his fatherly omnipotence bythe way he takes care of our needs”(no. 270). We know God as Fatherbecause, over a lifetime of prayer,we experience His care for us. Wecome to see for ourselves that He ismighty, and that He will deny usnothing that is good for us.

From Heir to PaternityEarthly fatherhood sometimes

reflects these characteristics, asdo those offices that assumefatherly roles in society: thepriesthood, for example, and thegovernment. Yet earthly fathers canperfect their fatherhood only bypurifying themselves of earthlymotives—such as greed, envy, pride,and the desire to control. They canbecome true fathers only byconforming themselves to the imageof their heavenly Father, and thatImage is His firstborn Son, JesusChrist.In governing, in parenting, or in

priesthood, we come to exercise amore perfect fatherly role as we“grow up” in the Family of God:“[W]e are children of God, and ifchildren, then heirs, heirs of Godand fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom.8:16-17). This process is a divinecorrective to the world’s distortednotions of patriarchy and hierarchy.An ancient Christian writer,

Dionysius the Areopagite, describedhierarchy as something thatoriginates in heaven, where divinelight passes through the angels andthe saints as if all were

transparent.2 God’s gifts, then, arepassed from one person to the next,undiluted. Those who are closest toGod—and so higher in the hierarchy—serve those who are lower. At eachstage, they give as God gives,keeping nothing to themselves.Notice, here, how spiritual goods

differ from material goods. If Ihave sole ownership of something—say, a sport coat or a tie—someoneelse can’t own it and use it at thesame time. The higher goods,however, are spiritual; andspiritual goods—such as faith, hope,love, liturgy, the merits of thesaints—can be shared and ownedcompletely by all. That’s how thehierarchy works with the angels andsaints in heaven.For this sharing to take place “on

earth as it is in heaven” requiresthe perfection of earthlyfatherhood, which can take placeonly if we earnestly pray, “OurFather who art in heaven.” God isthe primordial Father, “of whom allpaternity in heaven and earth isnamed” (Eph. 3:15, Douay RheimsVersion). He is the eternal model bywhich all human fathers must bemeasured.

Why in the Sky?Down through the ages, skeptics

have asked whether praying to “OurFather . . . in heaven” isconsistent with our belief that “Godis everywhere” and that He dwellswithin us (cf. Jn. 14:16, 23).Yes, God is everywhere, on earth

as He is in heaven. He is alwayspresent with us, and He lives withinus when we are in the state ofgrace, free of mortal sin. Yet Jesusteaches us to pray to “Our Father .. . in heaven” because He wants usto lift our sights from our earthlyexile to our true home—in heaven.Saint John Chrysostom said it well:Jesus taught us to pray this way notin order to “limit God to theheavens,” but rather to lift us upfrom earth and set us “in the highplaces and in the dwellings above.”3

God made us for Himself; He madeus for heaven. Heaven is separatedfrom us not by light-years of space,but by our sins. Yet God Himselfcreated our place of exile, and it’sa good place. Thus, it’s easy for usto get comfortable in our earthlylives and to forget our eternaldestiny. Think of the Israeliteswandering in the wilderness; after a

few years of hardship, they grewnostalgic for their years of slaveryin Egypt, where at least theirbellies were full.We, too, can think that way. When

earthly troubles close in on us,heaven’s promises seem unreal andremote. When we fix our gaze on thenear horizon, envious thoughts,resentments, and greedy impulsesseem to make sense to us. After all,if we follow their enticing logic,maybe we can grab hold of the thingswe want right now.The remedy to this, of course, is

to set our sights on high, toheaven, our promised home. By God’smercy and power—by His fatherhood!—He has promised us great things. Nowwe live in a state of grace, butthen, when we are with “Our Father .. . in heaven,” we will live in astate of glory. Now we are Histemples; but then He will be ourTemple (cf. Rev. 21:22). Now, Helives in us; but then, we will livein Him.Though we’re not home yet, God the

Father is with us, and He has thepower to lead us through the desertand across the Jordan. Though wehave a long journey ahead, He is

always in our midst.

1 ^David Blankenhorn, Fatherless America:Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem(New York: Harper Collins, 1996).

2 ^Dionysius the Areopagite, The CelestialHierarchy, chap. 13.

3 ^See p. 113.

CHAPTER THREE

HALLOWED BE THYNAME

Whenever we pray the Lord’sPrayer, we acknowledge God’s name as“[h]allowed” (Mt. 6:9)—that is, asholy or sanctified. But what do wemean by this? Do we mean what Jesusmeant?Most people associate the word

holy with things that aretranscendent—“wholly other,” in thedefining phrase of the twentieth-century scholar Rudolf Otto.1 Theholy is something entirely differentfrom what we experience in ordinarylife. “Holy, holy, holy” is whateven the angels cry in the presenceof a Power and a Mystery thatinspires fear and awe (Is. 6:2-3;cf. Rev. 4:8).Some scholars suggest that when

biblical authors invoke the name ofthe Lord, rather than the Person ofthe Lord, they are consciouslyavoiding any language that mightsuggest intimacy. They point outthat the psalmist says, “Our help isin the name of the LORD, who madeheaven and earth” (Ps. 124:8),rather than just, “Our help is in

the LORD.” Here, they believe thatDavid is verbally distancing himselffrom a transcendent God.By itself, that idea is half true.

God is transcendent, powerful,mysterious, and fearsome. Our God isan awesome God. When we speak of Hisname as “hallowed,” however, we aredoing much more than expressing awe,or stating a supernatural fact. Thisis not the devotional counterpart toa scientist’s evocation of “billionsand billions” of light-years.For Jesus’ idea of holiness was

almost the opposite of RudolfOtto’s. The scholar sees holinessmeasured in the awe or the fear feltby a believer. Jesus, however, sawholiness as something belonging toGod from all eternity, beforecreation, and so before there waseven a single angel or human beingto be awestruck by the Almighty.It’s not that Jesus considered God

to be anything less than mysteriousor powerful; but God’s mystery andpower were not what made Him holy.“Holy” is His name—that is, Hisessential identity, independent ofwhether we exist in order to senseHis wonder.Moreover, what made Him holy was

not intended to distance Him from usso much as to draw us near to Him inintimacy.

Blessing or Curse?The Hebrew word for holiness is

kiddushin, which also meansmarriage. When something is holy, itis consecrated, set apart fromeverything else—in that sense, it istranscendent. Yet it is set apart,not for isolation, but for apersonal and interpersonal purpose;not for distance, but for intimacy.In the ancient world, this

consecration was achieved by meansof a covenant. More than a contract,more than a treaty, a covenantcreated a family bond betweenpersons or between nations. Awedding took the form of a covenantoath; so did the adoption of a childor the naming of a newborn. Thesenew family relationships broughtwith them certain privileges andduties. The parties of a covenantinvoked God’s name as they swore tofulfill their responsibilities.Should they fail, they accepted themost dire penalties, because theyhad placed themselves under God’sjudgment. By entering into acovenant relationship, they were, ineffect, calling down a blessing or acurse (cf. Deut. 11:26). If theywere faithful, they would receive

God’s blessing. If they wereunfaithful, they drew down their owncurse.God’s name itself served as an

oath. To invoke His name was to callupon Him and place oneself under Hisjudgment. The name of God is thepower behind the covenant.The name of God, then, is His own

covenant identity, His personalidentity. It’s what proves ourpersonal relationship with Him. Whenwe call upon that name—“OurFather!”—God responds as a Father,and we receive His help. We alsobring on His judgment, but thatjudgment is a blessing to those whoavail themselves of His help.When Jesus teaches us to pray,

“Hallowed be thy name” (Mt. 6:9), Heshows us that the name of God isconsecrated. It is holy. God’s nameis not merely transcendent andmysterious; it is intimate andpersonal and interpersonal. It isthe basis for the covenant.

The Claim to NameThis is an astounding fact—even

more astounding when we consider Godas awesome and transcendent. He isall these things, and yet He isours. He is our Father!Consider the following passage

from Exodus, when God isestablishing the terms of Hiscovenant with Israel: “Nowtherefore, if you will obey my voiceand keep my covenant, you shall bemy own possession among all peoples;for all the earth is mine” (Ex.19:5). That seems a paradoxicalclaim. God first says that Israel isHis possession; then He goes on tosay that all the world is His. What,then, makes Israel so different?God was, however, expressing a

special relationship with Israel,and He did so by using the wordsegullah, which denoted somethingset apart, reserved for the use of aking. A king, after all, legallyowns all the real estate in hiskingdom; but the palace is set apartfor his private use. He owns all thejewels in the realm; but the crownjewels are his special possession.We recognize, then, that we are

God’s special possession, and God is

ours. We are His children and notjust His creatures. All creaturespossess God as their Beginning andEnd, but we possess Him as childrenof the King, children who live inthe palace and are heirs to thethrone.God’s name is set apart—segullah—

as the possession of the King ofheaven, and of those who are, bycovenant, the children of the King.In possessing God, we recognize thatHis name is holy, consecrated, setapart for intimate conversationwithin the Family of God.The Virgin Mary said, “[H]oly is

his name” (Lk. 1:49). He is not holymerely in relation to human beingswho hold Him in awe. Holy is Hisname from all eternity, for weinvoke Him with the proper name“Holy Spirit.” As God’s Family onearth, we share in His holinessbecause we are called by His nameand are children of His covenant,which we invoke whenever we say,“Our Father.”This is why we must never (in the

words of the commandment) “take thename of the LORD your God in vain”(Ex. 20:7). When we call upon thename of the Lord, we are reminding

God of the special relationship Hehas with us. We do this not for Hissake, but for our own. He, afterall, does not forget, though we doagain and again.When we call upon God’s holy name,

we must be prepared to approach Himas “our Father.” That means we mustplace ourselves under judgment,calling down a great blessing or agreat curse. For a father asks morefrom his children than a judge asksfrom a defendant, a teacher from apupil, or a boss from an employee.When we speak of the name of the

Lord, we’re not getting less of Godor putting a greater distancebetween ourselves and Him. The Lordhas revealed His name so that wemight call upon His power and drawcloser to Him in communion. That’sthe most awesome mystery we’ll everknow.

1 ^Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy: AnInquiry into the Non-Rational Factor in theIdea of the Divine and Its Relation to theRational, trans. John W. Harvey, 2d ed.(London: Oxford University Press, 1950), 26.

CHAPTER FOUR

THY KINGDOM COMEIf some people find it difficult

to identify with God as Father—because of their own troubledrelationships with earthly fathers—how much more must they miss therelevance of God as King. If humanfathers are a vanishing breed, thenhuman monarchs are practicallyextinct.My country is proud that its

history began with the overthrow ofa king, and that no sovereign hasever ruled our land since then. Manyother countries, in Europe forexample, have retained monarchs, butonly as ceremonial figures withlittle authority or power. As wegrew up, most of us learned aboutthe ancient ideal of kingship, forthe most part, from fairy tales.I dare say we’re missing something

here. We’re missing an idea thatbeats as the heart of the Gospel.For Jesus came for nothing if not toestablish a Kingdom: “The kingdom ofheaven is at hand” (Mt. 10:7).The idea of the Kingdom is

obviously important to Jesus and tothe sacred writers of the NewTestament. In Matthew’s Gospel

alone, there are almost fortyreferences to the “Kingdom of God”and the “Kingdom of heaven.”Throughout the Gospels, Jesusdevelops the idea, mostly inparables, though sometimes He putsthe matter quite plainly: “[T]hekingdom of God is in the midst ofyou” (Lk. 17:21).Yet, for us today, the meaning of

even these seemingly simplestatements can be elusive. In orderfor us to understand what Jesusmeant by “Kingdom,” we need tounderstand what “Kingdom” meant inHis language and His nation.

Send in the CrownsThe word “Kingdom” had a concrete

historical meaning for the People ofIsrael. Indeed, the twelve tribes ofIsrael considered themselves,collectively, to be the “Kingdom ofGod.”For many centuries, from the

Exodus until around 1000 B.C., thetribes lived in the promised land,recognizing no king but Yahweh (cf.Deut. 33:5). That was the theory, atleast. The truth, however, is thatthe people still had something of aninferiority complex, and they wantedtheir nation to be like othernations, with the same symbols ofworldly power. They wanted to have aking, a throne, a royal dynasty. Inthe Book of Judges, we see that thepeople clamored to crown the greatwarrior, Gideon. But Gideon said tothem, “I will not rule over you, andmy son will not rule over you; theLORD will rule over you” (Judg.8:23). Still, the cry arose again inanother generation: “[A]ppoint forus a king to govern us like all thenations” (1 Sam. 8:5).God let them have their way—

though, in the long run, He wasletting them have His way. For the

dynasty that would soon establishitself was the line of King David,who was “a man after [God’s] ownheart” (1 Sam. 13:14); and from theline of David would come a King Whowould bring all the nations of theworld under the kingship of God. Godsaid to David: “Ask of me, and Iwill make the nations your heritage”(Ps. 2:8). And David’s house wouldreign not only universally, buteverlastingly. That promise was thesubstance of God’s covenant withDavid: “I will raise up youroffspring after you. . . . I will behis father, and he shall be my son.. . . And your house and yourkingdom shall be made sure for everbefore me; your throne shall beestablished for ever” (2 Sam. 7:12,14, 16). Even when the Davidic linewas in its apparent downfall—whenthe lands of the kingdom wereshattered by rebellion, and when thepeople were scattered in exile—eventhen, Israel’s prophets predictedthat the kingdom of Israel (and so,the Kingdom of God) would berestored by a righteous descendentof David (cf. Jer. 23:5).

Kingdom by CovenantThe righteous King, the Son of

David, the King of Kings would beJesus Christ. The first words of theNew Testament establish Jesus’ royalpedigree: “The book of the genealogyof Jesus Christ, the son of David”(Mt. 1:1). Many times He isaddressed as “Son of David,” eventhough most Jews considered David’sline to have been extinct forcenturies.The evangelists are careful to

depict Jesus’ Davidic royalty, evenfrom His earliest days. He is bornin the city of King David. He isoften shown “with Mary his mother”(Mt. 2:11), just as the ancient kingof Israel always ruled, not with his(multiple) wives, but beside hismother, the gebirah or queen mother.Thus, the reign of God is not

merely His governance over creation.God has always governed theuniverse, which He created andcontinues to hold in existence.No, the Kingdom of God refers,

rather, to a specific historicalreality: the reign that Godestablished by covenant with David,and which He renewed by JesusChrist. With the coming of Jesus,

“the kingdom of heaven is at hand”(Mt. 3:2). The Kingdom of heaven hascome to earth.Some people recognized this.

Nathanael proclaimed Jesus’ divineand Davidic kingship upon firstmeeting Him: “Rabbi, you are the Sonof God! You are the King of Israel!”(Jn. 1:49).Christian tradition goes so far as

to identify the Kingdom with JesusHimself (cf. Catechism, no. 2816).This, however, raises a difficulty:If the Kingdom has come with JesusChrist, why did Jesus Himself teachus to pray for the coming of theKingdom? Why should we pray, “Thykingdom come” (Mt. 6:10)?Jesus taught His disciples to pray

for the Kingdom because, even thoughthe King has come among us, He hasnot yet manifested Himself fully.Even in Jesus’ lifetime, most peopledid not see His kingship. He did notmatch their worldly idea of a king.Remember, the Israelites had firstwanted a king because they werejealous of the Gentiles, whose kingswere symbols of power (cf. 1 Sam.8:4-5). Pontius Pilate used Jesus’unkingliness as the basis for hisinterrogation. “My kingship,” Jesus

replied, “is not of this world” (Jn.18:36).His Kingdom has entered the world.

It is here. Yet it is not fullymanifest. It is present invisiblyand veiled sacramentally. In thatsense, it is like Jesus Himself, Whopossessed all the glory of God,though He revealed this glorythrough humble, human flesh.

The Royal RoadJesus promised us a Kingdom, and

He kept His promise. When His Fatherraised Him from the dead, Heestablished through His ownresurrected Body (which is theEucharist) His Mystical Body (whichis the Kingdom). He said, “[T]hekingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt.3:2). And so it is—it is as near asour local parish. For where the Kingis present, there is the Kingdom.And where the Eucharist is, there isthe King.“The Kingdom of God has been

coming since the Last Supper,” saysthe Catechism, “and, in theEucharist, it is in our midst” (no.2816). That’s why we pray the OurFather at the climactic moment inthe Mass, just before we receiveJesus in Holy Communion. “In theEucharist, the Lord’s Prayer . . .is the proper prayer of ‘the end-time,’ the time of salvation thatbegan with the outpouring of theHoly Spirit and will be fulfilledwith the Lord’s return” (Catechism,no. 2771).The Kingdom is here, and the King

is among us. He is here in all Hisglory, and He reigns in mystery, in

the Eucharist, in the Church. SaintAugustine put it plainly: “Now theChurch is the Kingdom of Christ andthe Kingdom of heaven.”1 Even now,in the Church, Christ rules in allHis glory, though we lack the visionto see such glory in its fullness.We walk by faith, for now; butlater, God willing, we will walk bysight.When we pray, “Thy kingdom come,”

we ask for an ever-increasingmanifestation of the glory of Jesus’real presence. The Kingdom has cometo us: in the past, in theIncarnation; in the present, in theEucharist; and it will come to us infullness in the future, in theunveiling of divine glory atChrist’s Second Coming.

1 ^[N]unc Ecclesia Regnum Christi estRegnumque caelorum (Saint Augustine, City ofGod, bk. 20, chap. 9).

CHAPTER FIVE

THY WILL BE DONEWe pray, “Thy will be done” (Mt.

6:10), and it flows pretty easilyfrom our lips. But do we really havea choice?Indeed, we do. God leaves us free.

We may choose to accept His will anddo His will. Or we may choose toresist. Our resistance, however,brings for us its own pains. For thewill of God is inexorable. It’sgoing to be accomplished, no matterhow much we push back against it.And just as physical resistance to amighty force can leave us bruisedand brush burned, so our resistanceto God’s almighty will can leave usweary in spirit, sad, and weak. ForGod wills our joy, though it may notcome easily; and so, to oppose Hiswill is to oppose our own happiness.Our freedom of choice, then, is a

relative sort of freedom. We maychoose whom we will serve: God orourselves. Either way, we can counton a struggle, but only one wayleads to happiness.

Why Bother?Still, it’s fair to ask, Why

bother to pray, “Thy will be done”?Isn’t it presumptuous, or evenredundant? Isn’t God’s will whathappens anyway? Why pray for God’swill? It seems like praying forgravity to continue.The answer is simple. When we

pray, “Thy will be done,” we do notchange or strengthen the will ofGod, but we do change and strengthenourselves. Such prayer disposes ourhearts to do the will of the Father(cf. Catechism, no. 2611). Ourprayer conditions us to say, “Thywill,” when the pull of our naturesays, “My will.” In the Garden ofGethsemane, we see Jesus Himselfstruggling against the natural humaninstinct for self-preservation, thenatural human dread of pain anddeath. “My Father, if it bepossible, let this cup pass from me;nevertheless, not as I will, but asthou wilt” (Mt. 26:39).Earthly life is good, but we must

reach beyond it if we want to reachheaven. Our human will is good, butwe must reach beyond it if we wantto be divine—if we want to be holy—if we want to be saints. And make no

mistake about it: Only saints canlive in heaven, only those who say,“Thy will be done.” Jesus said, “Notevery one who says to me, ‘Lord,Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom ofheaven, but he who does the will ofmy Father who is in heaven” (Mt.7:21).What gets us to heaven is our

ability to share in the divine life,to be “partakers of the divinenature” (2 Pet. 1:4). How do merehumans become divine? By sharing inthe life of God, Who became human.Jesus Christ—God incarnate, the Wordmade flesh—established a “newcovenant” that enables the communionbetween us and God to occur (Lk.22:20). It’s important that weunderstand what Jesus was doing. Acovenant is not a businesstransaction, not a deal, and not acontract. All those things exchangegoods and services, but a covenantexchanges persons. That’s whymarriage is a covenant, and so isthe adoption of a child. A covenantdraws people not into a businesspartnership, but into a familyrelationship. Thus, a covenant is aunion of wills. I don’t lose my willin God’s, any more than I lose mywill in my wife’s. I unite my will

to His. In doing so, I begin to livemore perfectly in Jesus, the eternalSon of the Father, for He said, “Iseek not my own will but the will ofhim who sent me” (Jn. 5:30). I beginto live more perfectly the life ofthe Trinity.The covenant is what makes us part

of God’s Family, and all covenantsrequire a union of wills. Jesussaid: “[W]hoever does the will of myFather in heaven is my brother, andsister, and mother” (Mt. 12:50). Asbrothers and sisters of Christ, weare, in the words of Tradition,“sons in the Son.”

Between the PolesThus, what we’re praying for is

not fatalistic resignation, but towill what He wills, as forcefully asHe wills it—with filial boldness.There are many ways we can

misunderstand this petition. Somepeople look upon it as fatalisticresignation: “Well, God, You’regoing to do what You want anyway;I’d better just grit my teeth andaccept it!” Others find it a sourceof agonizing scruples and endless,troubled inquiry: They wring theirhands and say, “Thy will be done,Lord . . . but how can I ever knowThy will?”—as if they dare not thinkfor themselves in the presence of aPower so mighty. In neither of thesedo we find the attitude of a childtoward his father.Both fatalism and pietism are, at

root, denials of God’s fatherhood.They both see God the way a slavesees His master: either withresentment or with servile fear.Yet, between these two extremes wefind the attitude that isappropriate: the trusting love of ason for his father. Jesus taught usto pray, “Our Father,” so that wemay, even now, begin to share in the

life of the Trinity. And this is thelife of the Trinity: The Fathereternally pours Himself out in lovefor the Son; the Son eternallyreturns all His love to the Father;and the love they share is the HolySpirit. When we unite our will withthe Father’s will, we begin to loveas the Father loves and giveourselves as the Father gives—andwill as the Father wills.There is nothing anxious in this

attitude. There is no sigh ofresignation. This is the deep peaceof which Saint Augustine spoke whenhe summed up the Christian life:“Love, and do what you will.”1 Forthe child of God, doing God’s willshould be as natural as eating.Think of Jesus’ words: “My food isto do the will of him who sent me”(Jn. 4:34).

Will to PowerI have often thought that this is

the reason why Jesus taught us tobegin our prayers by invoking God as“Father,” rather than with thetraditional invocation of God as“Lord” or “King of the Universe.”It’s not that God’s will isn’tsovereign, like a king’s—surely itis!—but it is, above all, loving andmerciful, like a father’s.We begin by praying, “Our Father,”

but we press on, we persevere, bylovingly accepting and doing thewill of God. Again, it is this unionof wills that perfects us aschildren of God. And such a divinerelation is, in a sense, exactlywhat we’re praying for when we say,“Thy will be done.” For, in thewords of Saint Paul, “this is thewill of God, your sanctification” (1Thess. 4:3).God’s will means more for us than

merely following the law. Thecommandments express His will, butthey do not exhaust it. His will forus is much greater. It’s nothingshort of a sharing in His own life,which is the deepest freedom we canknow.

1 ^Saint Augustine, Homily VII on the FirstEpistle of John, no. 8.

CHAPTER SIX

ON EARTH AS IT IS INHEAVEN

We know we’re not in heaven now.Yet we know that heaven is all thatmatters. So what should we be doingon earth, for heaven’s sake?We should be manifesting God’s

Kingdom and fulfilling His will asperfectly on earth as the angels doin heaven.

Celestial Voices ImpersonatedThis idea was not “news” with the

Gospel. The people of ancient Israelconsidered their earthly liturgy tobe a divinely inspired imitation ofheavenly worship. Both Moses andSolomon constructed God’s earthlydwellings—the tabernacle and theTemple—according to a heavenlyarchetype revealed by God Himself(cf. Ex. 25:8-27:21; 1 Chron. 28:19;Wis. 9:8). The prophets expressedthis belief in a mystical way, asthey depicted the angels worshipingamid songs and trappings that wereclearly recognizable from theJerusalem Temple (cf. Is. 6:1-7;Ezek. 1:4-28). The hymns sung by theangels were the same songs theLevites sang before the earthlysanctuary.We find the idea in full flower at

the time of Jesus Christ andexpressed in the apocryphal books ofEnoch and Jubilees and in therecently discovered Dead SeaScrolls.1 What the priests did inthe Temple sanctuary was an earthlyimitation of what the angels did inheaven.And none of this was mere

pageantry. Both the heavenly and

earthly liturgies had more than aceremonial purpose. The angelicliturgy preserved a certain ordernot only in the courts of theAlmighty, but also in the entireuniverse. God had given over thegovernance of creation to Hisangels, and so the world itself wascaught up in a cosmic liturgy:“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD ofhosts; the whole earth is full ofhis glory” (Is. 6:3; cf. Rev. 4:8).As Israel’s priests performed theirTemple liturgy, they—like theircounterparts in heaven—preserved andsanctified the order of the cosmos.Thus, Israel’s worship overflowed

to form Israel’s culture. This iswhat made David a man after God’sown heart. He wanted to configureearthly space and time so that allof the kingdom’s temporal worksflowed from worship and returned toGod as a sacrifice of praise andthanksgiving. He moved the ark ofthe covenant to rest at the centerof his capital city, and he planneda magnificent temple as its home. Heendowed the priests and theirattendants richly, and he himselfcomposed beautiful liturgies fortheir use. His successor son,Solomon, followed suit (cf. 2 Chron.

1-7).

The Big BreakthroughWith all of that in their cultural

and historical background, the Jewsof Jesus’ time would have recognizedthe beauty of His petition, “Thywill be done, [o]n earth as it is inheaven” (Mt. 6:10), in a way thatmany of us today do not.To the ancient People of God,

heaven and earth were distinct, butearth traced the motions of heavenmost clearly in the rites of theTemple. They recognized that toworship God in this way was anawesome gift. Yet it was still onlya shadow of the angels’ worship—andonly a shadow of the earthly worshipthat would be inaugurated by JesusChrist.By assuming human flesh, Jesus

brought heaven to earth. Moreover,with His very flesh, He hasfulfilled and perfected the worshipof ancient Israel. No longer mustthe People of God worship inimitation of angels. In the liturgyof the New Covenant, the renewedIsrael—the Church—worships togetherwith the angels. In the NewTestament, the Book of Revelationshows us the shared liturgy ofheaven and earth. Around the throne

of God, men and angels bow down andworship together (cf. Rev. 5:14); anangel lifts the seer up to standbeside him (cf. Rev. 19:10).Moreover, the renewed Israel is anation of priests (cf. Rev. 5:10;20:6), so that all are admitted tothe holiest inner sanctum of theTemple. It’s no wonder that Easternwriters say that the Book ofRevelation is an “icon of theliturgy.”2

Christ has broken down all thebarriers—between man and angel, Jewand Gentile, priest and people. Inthe worship of the New Covenant,Christ Himself presides, and we notonly imitate the angels—weparticipate with them.Today, we know this worship as the

Mass. There, Christ Himself presidesas High Priest. The liturgy is themanifestation in time of His perfectoffering in eternity.Saint John Chrysostom spoke of

this mystery in the most dazzlingterms, all of them drawn from theBook of Revelation:

What are the heavenly things hespeaks of here [in Hebrews 10]?The spiritual things. Foralthough they are done on

earth, yet nevertheless theyare worthy of the [h]eavens.For when our Lord Jesus Christlies slain (as a sacrifice),when the Spirit is with us,when He who sitteth on theright hand of the Father ishere, when sons are made sonsby the [w]ashing, when they arefellow-citizens of those in[h]eaven, when we have acountry, and a city, andcitizenship there, when we arestrangers to things here, howcan all these be other than“heavenly things”? But what!Are not our [h]ymns heavenly?Do not we also who are belowutter in concert with them thesame things which the divinechoirs of bodiless powers singabove? Is not the altar alsoheavenly?3

Making HistoryOnce again, though, we have to be

very clear. This is not mereceremonial of the royal court. Thisis the cosmic liturgy, perfected forthe children of God who reign inChrist. Since the coming of Christ,the heavenly-earthly liturgy is theinstrument par excellence of God’swill; it is the fullestmanifestation of His Kingdom.Nowhere else is our prayer so richlyfulfilled: “Thy kingdom come, Thywill be done, on earth as it is inheaven.” We see, in Revelation, thatwhen the angels and the saintspresent their prayers to AlmightyGod, the earth quakes and thunderpeals, and the angelic powersunleash war, economic depression,famine, and death upon the earth.W. H. Auden was famous for saying

that “poetry makes nothing happen.”4

If that’s so, then liturgy iscertainly not what he’d call poetry.For John the seer, the author ofRevelation, shows us that theprayers of the Church—of the living,the dead, and the angels—direct notonly the course of history, but thephenomena of nature as well.All of that is what takes place

when we go to Mass. There, the powerof God works through His angels andHis saints, who are His adoptedchildren—and that means you and me.

1 ^Cf. Carol Newsom, ed., Songs of theSabbath Sacrifice: A Critical Edition(Atlanta, Ga.: Scholar Press, 1985).

2 ^Cf. G. A. Gray, “The Apocalypse of SaintJohn the Theologian:?Verbal Icon of Liturgy”(master’s thesis, Mount Angel Seminary,1989).

3 ^Saint John Chrysostom, Homily XIV on theEpistle to the Hebrews, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1st ser., vol. 14, ed.Philip Schaff (Peabody, Mass.: HendricksonPublishers, 1994), 434.

4 ^“In Memory of W. B. Yeats,” in TheCollected Poetry of W. H. Auden (New York:Random House, 1945), 50.

CHAPTER SEVEN

GIVE US THIS DAY OURDAILY BREAD

There’s something childlike aboutthe turn we take with the fourthpetition of the Lord’s Prayer. Inthe first three petitions, we prayedto God for the sake of His name, Hiswill, His Kingdom.Now we turn, like children, to ask

Him for “our” bread. It isinteresting to note that we ask Himfor food as if it already belongedto us—as if He had an obligation toprovide it—as if He were our Father.

Bread for GreatnessThis is the filial boldness of

God’s children. We ask, and we knowwe shall receive. For what father,“if his son asks him for bread, willgive him a stone?” (Mt. 7:9).We ask for our bread because we

address our Father, and fathersproduce families, not individuals.It’s interesting, too, that we ask

for “our” bread and not “my” bread.Jesus teaches us that even when wepray in private (cf. Mt. 6:6), we donot pray alone. We pray insolidarity with all the children ofGod, the Church of the living andthe saints in heaven. And we prayfor the whole Church, that all mayhave the bread they need today. Thisprayer is something intimate, yetsomething shared. It’s familial.In the ancient world, the

dispensation of daily bread was asign of a kingdom’s prosperity. Whenthe nation was doing well, winningits wars, and selling its goods, itscitizens received an ample ration ofbread, “without money and withoutprice” (Is. 55:1). Even greater wasIsrael’s vision of the ongoingbanquet that would come with thereign of the anointed Son of David,

the Messiah (cf. Is. 65:13-14).The first Christians recognized

that the Son of David had begun Hisreign—and His banquet. Moreover, Hisbanquet had spiritual benefits thatsurpassed the most sumptuous worldlyfeast. For all the early Christiancommentators, “our bread” meant notonly their everyday material needs,but also their need for communionwith God. “Our bread,” in commonspeech, meant the Eucharist. “[T]heydevoted themselves to the apostles’teaching and fellowship, to thebreaking of bread and the prayers. .. . And day by day, attending thetemple together and breaking breadin their homes” (Acts 2:42, 46).In the generations after the death

of the apostles, we find that thecommon practice of Christians was toreceive the Eucharist every day.Tertullian attests to this in NorthAfrica, and Saint Hippolytus inRome.1 Saint Cyprian of Carthage, in252, speaks at length about thespiritual meaning of this petition:“And as we say, ‘Our Father,’because He is the Father of thosewho understand and believe, so alsowe call it ‘our bread,’ becauseChrist is the Bread of those who are

in union with His Body. And we askthat this Bread be given to usdaily, that we who are in Christ anddaily receive the Eucharist for thefood of salvation may not, by theinterposition of some heinous sin,be prevented from receivingCommunion and from partaking of theheavenly Bread and be separated fromChrist’s Body.”2

That Says It AllHow succinctly this petition

expresses all our needs in life,both individual and corporate, bothmaterial and spiritual. SaintAugustine said that there are threelevels of meaning to the bread weask for: (1) all those things thatmeet the wants of this life; (2) theSacrament of the Body of Christ,which we may daily receive; and (3)our spiritual Food, the Bread oflife, Who is Jesus.3

Our bodies hunger after food; oursouls hunger after God. God willfulfill both hungers because He isour Father. He can fulfill bothhungers because He is almighty—“OurFather . . . in heaven.” We pray tothe God who loves us so much that Hehas counted the hairs of our heads(cf. Lk. 12:7). This is the God whocan “spread a table in thewilderness” (Ps. 78:19), the God whodrew water from a dry desert rock.A child trusts his father to

provide for his needs as they arise.A little child has no clear conceptof the future, and so has littleworry about tomorrow. The Lord’sPrayer teaches us to desire achild’s life of humility, trust, and

dependence on God. We ask not forriches, but only for what we needfor the day. We are confident thatGod will provide. This is a valuablelesson for us grown-ups to learn. Wepride ourselves on self-reliance; wetend to want to control our livesand the lives of others. But, saysSaint Augustine, “no matter how richa man is on earth, he is still God’sbeggar.”4

Praying this way, we cultivate “asaintlike poverty,” says Saint Cyrilof Alexandria. “For to ask is notthe part of those who have, but ofthose rather who are in need . . .and cannot do without.”5

Unsolved MysteriesOne word of this petition has

baffled both scholars and saintssince the early days of the Church.It is the word epioúsios, which weusually translate as “daily.” SomeEnglish translations have us prayfor our “daily bread”; others, forour “bread for tomorrow”; stillothers, for our “supersubstantialbread.” The truth is that the wordis impossible to translate, since itappears nowhere else in all ofancient Greek literature; nor doesit appear in personalcorrespondence, legal documents, orbusiness records that have survivedfrom the time of Christ. Thegreatest Fathers of the Churchwrestled with the mystery—Cyril ofAlexandria and Jerome are among thegiants who have left us studies—andadmitted the possibility of all themodern readings. But they could cometo no final agreement aboutepioúsios.Tradition, however, leaves us with

a solution: It’s all true. We prayfor our daily bread, for thematerial needs of the day. We prayfor our daily spiritual communionwith Jesus. We pray that God will

give us grace in superabundance. Andwe pray even today for our “breadfor tomorrow”—our share, right now,in the heavenly banquet of JesusChrist, every time we go to Mass.

1 ^Tertullian, Ad Uxorem (To His Wife), bk.2, chap. 5; The Apostolic Tradition of SaintHippolytus, ed. Gregory Dix (London: SPCK,1937), 58.

2 ^See pp. 92-93.3 ^See pp. 143-44.4 ^Saint Augustine, Sermon VI on NewTestament Lessons, in Nicene and Post-NiceneFathers, 1st ser., vol. 6, ed. Philip Schaff(Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers,1994), 276.

5 ^Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Homily 75, inCommentary on the Gospel of St. Luke (n.p.:Studion Publishers, 1983).

CHAPTER EIGHT

FORGIVE US . . . AS WEFORGIVE

The Our Father is a prayer oflimitless depth. Taken all at once,it can be overwhelming. So it’s goodfor us to take the time, as we havebeen doing, to meditate upon each ofthe prayer’s petitions individually.We must, however, avoid the

temptation to look at each petitionas if it were thematically separatefrom the others. There is a unity tothe Lord’s Prayer, and its petitionsfollow a certain logicalprogression. We can see this mostvividly as we move from “[g]ive usthis day our daily bread” (Mt. 6:11)to “forgive us our trespasses” (cf.Mt. 6:12).It is no accident that Jesus

paired these petitions in a singlesentence. There is a logical linkbetween “our daily bread” and ourforgiveness. For among the chiefeffects of the “daily bread” Christhas given us in Holy Communion isthe complete remission of all ourvenial sins.The Mass is a sacrifice, and so

the “daily bread” is a daily

offering for sin, like thoseprefigured in the Temple of ancientIsrael. Saint Justin Martyr spelledthis out clearly, around A.D. 150,in language that echoes the Lord’sPrayer. Israel’s offering of fineflour, he wrote, “which wasprescribed to be presented on behalfof those purified from leprosy, wasa type of the bread of theEucharist, the celebration of whichour Lord Jesus Christ prescribed, inremembrance of the suffering whichHe endured on behalf of those whoare purified in soul from alliniquity, in order that we may atthe same time thank God . . . fordelivering us from the evil.”1

As Above, So BelowOur bodies long for food; our

souls long for God, and this Breadis both food and God. Thus, It meetsthe needs of both the bodies and thesouls of God’s children. How doesthis happen? The Catechism gives usinsight: “As bodily nourishmentrestores lost strength, so theEucharist strengthens our charity,which tends to be weakened in dailylife; and this living charity wipesaway venial sins” (no. 1394,emphasis in original).This is more than a mere absolving

of debts. This “living charity” isthe gift of God’s life. In HolyCommunion, we are made holy becausewe are “partakers of the divinenature” (2 Pet. 1:4). For holinessis not just obedience. Only God isholy. Any holiness we have, we havethrough the life we share incommunion with the Trinity. JesusHimself quoted the psalm: “[Y]ou aregods” (Jn. 10:34; cf. Ps. 82:6)!This divine life we could neverachieve on our own; we can onlyreceive it as a gift from God. “Youshall be holy, for I am holy” (1Pet. 1:16; cf. Lev. 11:44-45).Sin is incompatible with this

life, this holiness, this livingcharity. We cannot live the life ofthe Trinity, as “sons in the Son,”unless we become sinless as He issinless. Said Saint John Chrysostom:“[T]o call God ‘Father’ is theprofession of a blameless life.”2

Thus, when grace encounters sin inour souls, something has to giveway. The grace of our “daily bread”takes out our sin from above.Our Lord would have us take out

sin from below as well. Thus, Heteaches us to place a condition onGod’s forgiveness: “[F]orgive us . .. as we forgive those who trespassagainst us” (cf. Mt. 6:12). We mustnot pray too quickly here; it’s alltoo easy for us to miss the sheerimpossibility of this condition.For, as we read in the Gospel,“[w]ho can forgive sins but Godalone?” (Mk. 2:7). Forgiveness is anaction that is purely divine.Jesus is asking us here to live

the divine life that we havereceived. “[A]s he who called you isholy, be holy yourselves” (1 Pet.1:15). To forgive is what it meansto be divinized. We’re not justforgiving because we believe ouroffenders’ apologies are sincere,

and they won’t trouble us again—because sometimes they’re notsincere, sometimes they don’t evenbother to say they’re sorry, andoften they sin against us again andagain. But God forgives us when weapologize halfheartedly and when webecome repeat offenders.So we forgive as God forgives, in

imitation not only of the quantitybut also the quality of Hisforgiveness. Like God, we forgive,not merely by forgetting, but byloving. It is the heat of God’s lovethat melts the ice of our sin; andso it is the heat of our love thatwill bring about the forgiveness ofthose who trespass against us. Wedon’t just remit their debts; welove our enemies into wholeness, asGod has loved us into wholeness. Wemelt their cold hearts, the ice oftheir sin. Such forgiveness is anaction purely divine, even when it’sdone by humans. Such forgiveness ispossible only by humans who arebeing divinized.We forgive as we’ve been forgiven.

We forgive as God forgives. Onlythen should we ask God to forgive usas we forgive others.This is how we take out sin from

below: by extending the divine lifewe have received from above.

Sin HappensThis petition of the Lord’s Prayer

helps us to acquire the rightattitude about ourselves and ourfallen humanity, our need forforgiveness, and our potential fordivinization.Sin is something that afflicts all

of us. We all sin; we are all thevictims of the sins of others. Adam,the original sinner, was himselfsinned against by the serpent. TheScriptures tell us that even thejust man falls seven times a day(cf. Prov. 24:16).By placing a plea for forgiveness

on our lips, the Lord’s Prayerhumbles us and forces us to confronta truth that we’d rather avoid. Forit can be as difficult for us tonotice our own sins as it is easyfor us to see the sins of others.Our own faults are trifling (or sowe like to think), but others’faults are glaring. “Why,” askedJesus, “do you see the speck that isin your brother’s eye, but do notnotice the log that is in your owneye?” (Mt. 7:3)We cannot pray the Our Father

honestly without acknowledging thelogs in our own eyes—and promising

to overlook the specks in ourbrother’s eye. We should makeexcuses for the faults of others atleast as much as we do for our ownfaults.To err is human—that is certainly

true—but to forgive is divine. Whenwe forgive, we act as God acts. Weforgive others as we have beenforgiven first.

1 ^Saint Justin Martyr, Dialogue withTrypho, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, ed.Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson(Peabody, Mass.:?Hendrickson Publishers,1994), 215.

2 ^See p. 118.

CHAPTER NINE

LEAD US NOT INTOTEMPTATION . . .

The Lord’s Prayer is like amarathon course whose last milewinds up a steep hill. Or it’s likea Himalayan mountain whose ultimatepeak crowns a sheer, vertical rockface.We approach the end of the Our

Father, and still we face thepetition that has proven a stumblingblock to many great minds inChristian history. The psychoanalystC. G. Jung’s misinterpretation ofthis petition was a major factor inhis break with orthodoxChristianity. He cited Jesus’ wordsas evidence that God is not merely“love and goodness,” but also “thetempter and destroyer.”1

Why, after all, would God lead usinto temptation? When the Scripturesspeak of a “tempter,” they alwaysmean the Devil (cf. Mt. 4:3; 1Thess. 3:5). Temptation is thehallmark of Satan’s action in ourlives. Why, then, are we prayingthat God—“Our Father . . . inheaven”—will not lead us intotemptation?

God Does Not TemptWe must read Jesus’ words with

utmost care, for He chose them witha precision that is perfect and all-knowing.The Lord’s Prayer is not the only

time Jesus directed His followers topray against temptation. Twice inthe Garden of Gethsemane, He urgedthe apostles, “Pray that you may notenter into temptation. . . . Riseand pray that you may not enter intotemptation” (Lk. 22:40, 46).We may conclude, then, that

temptations are something to bestrenuously avoided. However, Jesusalso said that temptations areinevitable: “For it is necessarythat temptations come, but woe tothe man by whom the temptationcomes!” (Mt. 18:7). It is clear, inthis last context, that God is notthe originator of temptations. Goddoes not tempt us. “Let no one saywhen he is tempted, ‘I am tempted byGod’; for God cannot be tempted withevil and he himself tempts no one”(Jas. 1:13). But temptations do come—from our fellowmen, as Jesusimplies above; from the Devil, as wesee in Jesus’ encounter with Satanin the desert (cf. Mt. 4:1-11); and

from adverse circumstances in life,such as physical illness, failure,or humiliation.God does not will our pain; nor

does He will the sins of others,which cause us pain. Suffering anddeath came into the world as aresult of the sin of Adam and Eve.Yet God’s will is accomplished inspite of these things; and He hasordained every occasion oftemptation to be an occasion ofgrace as well. It all turns on howwe respond.

Freedom’s GuaranteeThis is a subtle matter, but a

very important one, and it is easyto see how it has scandalized evengreat minds such as Jung’s—for itinvolves the cooperation of God’somnipotent will and our humanfreedom.God did not force Adam and Eve to

love or obey Him. He allowed them achoice. He placed them in a gardenfull of delights and invited them topartake of any tree but one. “[O]fthe tree of the knowledge of goodand evil you shall not eat,” Godcommanded, “for in the day that youeat of it you shall die” (Gen.2:17).Temptation came to the primal

couple in the form of a serpent—adeadly beast with an angelicintelligence. He posed veiledthreats as, with crafty words, heundermined Adam and Eve’s trust inGod. Fearing for their lives, andtoo proud to cry out for help, theyconsented to the temptation. Theysinned, and in sinning they failedthe test that God had permitted fortheir good. If they had feared Godmore than they feared the serpent,they would have chosen martyrdom at

that moment, and they would haveentered into a life even greaterthan paradise. By offering acomplete sacrifice of their lives,they would have begun to live thelife of glory. For God is love, andlove demands a total gift of self.In eternity, the complete gift ofself is the Trinity’s inner life. Intime, the image of divine life issacrificial, life-giving love. Wemust die to ourselves for the sakeof another. And that’s what Adam andEve failed to do.2

Why would God allow this? TheCatechism quotes the ancient scholarOrigen in this regard: “God does notwant to impose the good, but wantsfree beings” (no. 2847). God mademan and woman to be free. That freechoice is what made temptationpossible. But it is also what madelove possible. For love cannot becoerced; love requires a freemovement of the will. With freedomcame the potential for the highestlove, but also for the gravestperil.

What’s the Use?Origen says that “[t]here is a

certain usefulness to temptation”(quoted in Catechism, no. 2847).Temptation, when resisted,strengthens the believer. Indeed,God permits trials for this reason.Temptation makes us face the starkchoice: for God or against God. Whenwe make the decision for God, wegrow stronger in faith, hope, andlove.Contrary to popular belief, then,

temptation is not a sign of God’sdisfavor or punishment. Indeed, downthrough history, all of God’s“favorites” were led to be temptedby severe trials. Consider Abraham,who was asked to sacrifice his onlyson. Consider Joseph, who was beatenand sold into slavery by his ownbrothers. Consider Job, whose familyand property perished in Satan’smurderous rampage. Above all,consider Jesus, for God did notspare Him the most severetemptations. “Then Jesus was led upby the Spirit into the wilderness tobe tempted by the devil” (Mt. 4:1,emphasis added). The Greek verb for“lead” is different here from theverb in the Lord’s Prayer, but the

idea is more emphatic. When Marktells the same story, he says that“[t]he Spirit immediately drove[Jesus] out into the wilderness”(Mk. 1:12). The Greek verbtranslated as “drove” means,literally, “threw”! If Jesus Himselfwas “thrown” into severe temptation,we should not complain that we areunloved by God when He “leads” usinto temptation. For, like God’sother beloved, we will shine morebrightly when we, with God’s help,have struggled successfully.“God tested them and found them

worthy of himself; like gold in thefurnace he tried them, and like asacrificial burnt offering heaccepted them. In the time of theirvisitation they will shine forth”(Wis. 3:5-7).Temptation, then, is something

useful in God’s providence, becauseof God’s grace.

Tempted to Be Tempted?Trials are useful, but still we

should not seek them out. In fact,we should avoid them as much as wecan. Note that Jesus did not teachus to pray, “Lead us intotemptation.” For that would surelybe presumptuous of our own power ofendurance.Adam learned the hard way that, on

our own, we do not have the strengthto overcome temptation. Those whothink they can prevail are usuallyin for a fall, as Adam was.For who among us is better

prepared than were Jesus’ apostles?They enjoyed a privileged schooling,at the feet of the Master Himself.They received the Eucharist fromJesus’ own hand. Moreover, on thatvery night, just hours after theirFirst Communion, our Lord warnedthem in no uncertain terms—twice!—that they were about to face theirmost fearsome temptation. Yet, likeAdam, they failed. They feared. Theyfled their Master’s side. Will ourfaith stand better under fire?This is why Jesus urged the

apostles to “[p]ray that you may notenter into temptation” (Lk. 22:40,46). Temptations may be inevitable,

but a realistic Christian knows he’snot ready for them.The inner logic of the Our Father

should tell us so. To the extentthat we don’t advance the Kingdom ofGod, to the extent that we don’t doGod’s will, to the extent that wedon’t worthily and gratefullyreceive our daily bread, to theextent that we don’t seekforgiveness, to the extent that wedon’t forgive—to that same extentwill we be vulnerable to temptation.Trial is necessary, but if we

enter trial with unforgiven sin orwith an unforgiving spirit, we willbe unprepared. We’ll lose. What isit that causes a difficulty tobecome a temptation? It is our owninability to bear it—because we havefailed to live out the otherpetitions of the Lord’s Prayer.3

1 ^C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams,Reflections, ed. Aniela Jaffé, trans.Richard and Clara Winston (New York:Pantheon Books, 1963), 56.

2 ^See my A Father Who Keeps His Promises:God’s Covenant Love in Scripture (Ann Arbor,Mich.: Charis Books, 1998), chap. 3, andFirst Comes Love: Finding Your Family in theChurch and the Trinity (New York: Doubleday,2002), chap. 6.

3 ^See pp. 137-38.

CHAPTER TEN

TEMPTATION, PART IIThough we often pray, “Lead us not

into temptation,” we know thattemptations are inevitable.Moreover, we know that God permitsthese trials for our good. In thelast chapter, we saw thattemptations serve to refine us,“like gold in the furnace” (Wis.3:6). Now, we’ll examine how thatworks.It’s fair for us to ask, after

all, why God leads us to face suchsevere trials. If He wants to knowthe strength of our faith, Hedoesn’t need to test us to measureit. He knows everything. He knowshow weak we are. So temptationsdon’t uncover anything for Him. Hedoesn’t learn anything through theprocess of our trials.We, however, have much to learn

about ourselves—especially in thearea of our most besetting sins. Forwe’re only too willing to overlookour own faults, weaknesses, andhabits of sin. Pride and vanityblind us to all but our virtues andearthly accomplishments, feeble asthey are.But our trials often turn out to

be our most teachable moments.They’re the times when we mostkeenly sense our weakness and need.In fact, we usually discover ourdeepest need through our weakness.If we don’t feel pain acutely, wedon’t have the sense to cry out fora doctor. Until we feel hungerintensely, we probably won’t gobegging for food. Our times of trialare the times when we know ourinadequacy, and we’re most likely tocall upon our Father God.In his First Letter to the

Corinthians (10:12-16), Saint Paultells us, in four steps, howtemptation works to a Christian’sadvantage.

1. “[L]et any one who thinks that he stands takeheed lest he fall.” Paul begins by pointing outour weakness and our need for humility.Remember Saint Peter’s bluster: “Lord, I amready to go with you to prison and to death”(Lk. 22:33). He thought he was strong; but,within a few hours, he would commit the mostcowardly denial of his Master—three times! Hethought he would stand tall, and instead he fellhard. He would have been better off prayingthat God spare him the temptation.

2. “No temptation has overtaken you that is notcommon to man.” Paul says this not to minimizeour pain, but to give us comfort. We should take

heart, because others have faced our trials (andworse) and persevered. The history of God’sdealings with the saints is full of good, practicalexamples we can follow, in prayer, in patience,and in acting courageously.

3. “God is faithful,” Paul says, “and he will not letyou be tempted beyond your strength, but withthe temptation will also provide the way ofescape, that you may be able to endure it.” Thispromise should give us great hope. For nobodycan make it through life’s “common”temptations, at least not without God’s help. Butthe good news is that God will never abandonus, and He is greater than any power that afflictsus. Even if Satan himself should attack us, wewill prevail if we remain faithful. Saint Cypriansaid, “[T]he Adversary can do nothing againstus unless God has previously permitted it.”1 Godknows the limits of our strength, and He isalways willing to share His own omnipotence, sothat we can endure even the most severe trialswithout sinning.

4. “Therefore, my beloved, shun the worship ofidols. . . . The cup of blessing which we bless, isit not a participation in the blood of Christ? Thebread which we break, is it not a participation inthe body of Christ?” Ah, there it is, our “way ofescape,” and it is nothing less than “our dailybread.” Paul demonstrates that the Eucharist isour help and our hope, because it is ourcommunion with the Flesh and Blood of theGod-man. Through the Sacrament, we growstrong with a godlike strength. And what are the

idols we must shun? Idols are the things wethink will get us through the trials, though theynever can. They’re the things of this world—sometimes very good things—that we’ve cometo place before God in our lives. Idols maketemptations necessary for us. For temptationsserve to wean us from our dependence onanything less than God. Nothing less than Godcan really save us. What’s the opposite ofidolatry? It’s Eucharistic dependence, our holyneed for all of God. The temptations that weface are meant to humble us and make usdepend on God to the utmost.

That’s why “lead us not intotemptation” is the prayer of aChristian with a healthful sense ofreality. It’s a good prayer forweaklings—like you and me—who knowtheir strength, and know God’s.2

1 ^See p. 98.2 ^See p. 141.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

DELIVER US FROM EVIL“Deliver us from evil” is a

somewhat misleading translation. Inthe Greek of the New Testament,there is a definite article beforethe word evil. So Jesus actuallycommanded us to pray for deliverancefrom “the evil” or, more precisely,“the evil one.”It makes a difference, and a

rather large one at that. For thereis only one evil, and that is sin. Idon’t mean to be dismissive of othersufferings—loneliness, rejection,grief, cancer, physical debility,mental illness. These can behorrific trials. But they cannotdefeat us if we remain strong withGod’s own strength. Even if diseaseor murderers should take our lives,we will not die—indeed, we willnever die—as long as we keep faith.The only real danger, the only

reality that deserves the namedeath, is evil. The only thing wereally need to be delivered from isnot trial, temptation, suffering, orthe grave. The only real enemy issin.

The Futile SystemAll sin traces its ancestry to the

sin of Satan, the fallen prince ofangels. Before Adam and Eve facedhim in the garden, he had alreadymade his vain refusal to serve God,enticing a third of heaven’s angelsto follow him in rebellion. Everafter, he has raged in vain warfareagainst God and all His works. Hetempted our first parents and socooperated in bringing the curse ofdeath upon the world. Till now, hehas never ceased perpetrating liesand murder against God’s children.“Your adversary the devil prowlsaround like a roaring lion, seekingsome one to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).The Devil lives to oppose God’s

will. He tempts us at every turn sothat we might follow him inrebellion. For God does not willthat anyone should ever sin. Wedon’t have to look long or far tosee that the Devil succeeds often intemptation. Perhaps he also succeedsoften in the final devouring ofsouls.Yet his work is perpetually

futile. For God is omnipotent, andso His will is inexorable. God’splan will be accomplished. Almighty

God, says Saint Augustine, “wouldnever allow any evil whatsoever toexist in his works if he were not soall-powerful and good as to causegood to emerge from evil itself.”1

Even the greatest evil in history,the torture and murder of God’s onlySon, “brought the greatest of goods:the glorification of Christ and ourredemption” (Catechism, no. 312). Inthe words of Saint Paul, “where sinincreased, grace abounded all themore” (Rom. 5:20).Thus, the Devil’s works are worse

than futile. They are self-defeating. For when we struggleagainst his temptations, we growstronger in virtue, and we gaindivine life through grace. Even ifwe succumb to his empty promises,but then return to God in sorrow, wegrow stronger still. As long as weremain united to Christ, we needfear nothing from our trials. Forthey can only work to our benefit.Pope John Paul II summed it up

well in his August 20, 1986, generalaudience. Satan, he said, “cannotblock the construction of theKingdom of God. . . . Indeed, we cansay with St. Paul that the work ofthe evil one cooperates for the good

(cf. Rom. 8:28) and that it helps tobuild up the glory of the ‘chosen’ones (cf. 2 Tim. 2:10).”The Scriptures give us proof

positive in the Book of Job. TheDevil afflicts Job with disease andpoverty, and he brutally takes thelives of Job’s children and hislivestock. But Job remains steadfastin his faith in God’s goodness.Through the ordeal, Job grows inwisdom, and he proves his love forGod when such love seems, by apurely human standard, mostdifficult to give.In the end, Job is holier, wiser,

and even richer than he had everbeen before; and so he is happier.Who gets the credit? Should we givethe Devil his due? Except for GodAlmighty, no one worked harder tobring holiness to Job than did theDevil, and no one wanted it less.

The Best PolicyThe “evil one” works no

differently in your life than inJob’s. No one is working harder foryour holiness than the Devil, but noone wants it less. His work in anindividual life is always a gamble.If he succeeds in tempting us todespair or to commit other mortalsins, we consent to our own truedeath, the death of our soul. But ifwe, like Job (and more, like Jesus),cling to “Our Father . . . inheaven”—rejecting Satan and all hisworks and all his pomps—we, too,will be holier, wiser, and richer inthe end.Again, this does not mean we

should seek to do individual combatwith the Devil. He is an angel ofthe highest order, with anintelligence that is far superior tothe combined intelligence of allhumanity. On our own, we do not havethe strength to defeat him, andindeed he has been the downfall ofmany exalted minds and soulsthroughout history.We pray for deliverance from Satan

because we know that we cannotdefeat him in a game of one-on-one;nor do we trust the weakness of our

faith. We gladly pray the prayer ofrealists, the prayer of weaklings;for that is what we are. “Lead usnot into temptation, but deliver usfrom evil.” Amen!Saint Cyprian points out that

these petitions are comprehensiveinsurance policies, providingcoverage against every moral andphysical evil. “When we have onceasked for God’s protection againstevil and have obtained it, then westand secure and safe againsteverything which the Devil and theworld work against us. For what feardoes a man have in this life, if hisguardian in this life is God?”2

And He is not merely our Guardian,but our Father.

1 ^Saint Augustine, Enchiridion on Faith,Hope, and Love, chap. 3, no. 11, quoted inCatechism, no. 311.

2 ^See p. 100.

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE KINGDOM, THEPOWER, AND THE

GLORYThe Our Father is a prayer full of

hope. Indeed, it is so hopeful as tosound audacious. The Mass of PopePaul VI introduces the Lord’s Prayerwith these words in Latin:Praeceptis salutaribus moniti, etdivina institutione formati, audemusdicere—literally, “admonished bysaving precepts, and formed bydivine instruction, we dare to say .. .”The official English translation

is simpler, but also beautiful: “Letus pray with confidence to theFather in the words our Savior gaveus” (emphasis added).Our prayer is confident and daring

because our hope is supernatural,surpassing anything that might limitour expectation of fulfillment. Godis almighty, so He can deliver. Godis our loving Father, so He wants toshow us His love. We approach Himwith confidence. We speak to Himwith the fearlessness of smallchildren before their daddy.

To the unbeliever, or the waveringbeliever, such hope will surely seemtoo bold, too ambitious. Yet we mustunderstand it as the very foundationof our Christian life, ourspirituality. We are children atplay in the courts of our Father,the mighty King. We are, in thetraditional formula, “sons in theSon.” We share in the life of theTrinity. We are God’s children.If divine filiation is the stuff

of our life in Christ, then hope isthe substance of the Good News wehave to tell the world. “Always beprepared,” says Saint Peter, “tomake a defense to any one who callsyou to account for the hope that isin you” (1 Pet. 3:15).What is the reason for our hope—

our confidence, our audacity?

A “Because” for Our “Why”The most ancient liturgical texts

of the Lord’s Prayer make thereasons clear in a prayerfulpostscript that the Church calls thedoxology (literally, “word ofglory”).Why do we dare to pray the Our

Father?The answer begins with the word

for, a conjunction that means“because” or “since.”“For the kingdom, the power, and

the glory are yours now and forever”(Mt. 6:13).1

Most Catholics in the West knowthis doxology from the Mass, andalso from the devotional prayer ofProtestants. When most Protestantspray the Lord’s Prayer, they includethe doxology.The doxology is missing from the

earliest manuscripts of the NewTestament. We find it, however,appended to the Our Father in almostall the ancient liturgies, datingback to the time of the apostles. Itappears, for example, in the Didache(The Teaching of the TwelveApostles), a manual of instructionwhich many scholars believe was

written in Antioch in A.D. 60-90.It is significant that the

doxology, though absent fromScripture, is omnipresent in theMass of the ancient Church. For theMass sums up the reasons for thehope of Christians, then and now.Why do we pray with confidence?

Because we know God is almighty.We can pray that His name will be

holy because we know that His nameis holy from all eternity.We can pray for the coming of His

Kingdom because we know that HisKingdom is already here.We can pray with assurance that

His will be done because we know Hiswill is inexorable, in spite of ourfree choices against Him.

You Call This a Kingdom?To those who lack faith, all of

this will seem absurd. The mockingcry of the critic has always been,“Jesus promised you a Kingdom, butall He left you was the Church.”But few people recognized the Son

of God when He came incarnate asJesus of Nazareth. Why should weexpect them to notice Him today,when He reigns as King of Kings andLord of Lords?Jesus promised His first disciples

He would return within theirlifetime, and that He would thenreign gloriously on the earth. Hekept that promise, as He keeps allHis promises, though we lack thevision to see their fulfillment.He promised us a glorious Kingdom

within His own generation—and weboldly proclaim that He made good onthat promise. For all time, He hasestablished His Eucharistic Kingdom,the Church.We know, however, that the Kingdom

doesn’t always appear so glorious.Jesus never said it would beparadise. His parables speak insteadof wheat growing alongside weeds,and of dragnets taking in both holymackerel and unholy muck. Only at

the end of time will we have thevision to see “the kingdom, thepower, and the glory” as they havebeen from all eternity.But our Lord promised us a Kingdom

now—and He left us the Church!There’s no contradiction, nounfulfilled promise. What Jesuspromised and what He delivered areone and the same. He said theKingdom is near, and it is. It’s asnear as your local parish.The Kingdom comes where the King

is present. Where the Eucharist is,there is the King. The “kingdom, thepower, and the glory” are alreadyhere on earth, because the Church,the Eucharistic Kingdom, is alreadyin heaven.Forever and ever. Amen!

1 ^Alternative reading in footnote n ofRSVCE.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

LAST WORDSPrayer is necessary, but it’s not

easy. “[F]or we do not know how topray as we ought” (Rom 8:26). Weknow how to pray in a superficialway, but not as we ought. The goodnews is that our Father knows this,and so He has sent His Son to teachus and has sent His Spirit totransform our moans, groans, andsighs into the profoundest prayersthat reach the depths of God’sheart. “The Spirit helps us in ourweakness. . . . [T]he Spirit himselfintercedes for us with sighs toodeep for words” (Rom. 8:26).We need to pray better, because

that is the only way we can livebetter. It is sometimes said thatprayer is the breath of thespiritual life. That’s partiallytrue. It would be more true to saythat it is the breath, food, rest,shelter, and means of begetting inthe spiritual life. Prayer, then, isthe very life of the soul. And,since the soul is immortal, theprayer that we build up on earthwill be more permanent than anybuildings, memorials, cathedrals, orskyscrapers we can raise with

bricks, steel, glass, or marble.Prayer is the way we live our

relationship with God. Covenant isthe word Jesus used to describe thisrelationship. In the ancient world,a covenant was the legal and ritualmeans of establishing a family bond.Marriage was considered a covenant;so was adoption. Covenant, then,makes us share in the life of theeternal Family of God, the BlessedTrinity.We often pray so that something

will change. We pray for a healing,a promotion, a reconciliation, adeliverance. All of these arechanges.A covenant, indeed, always changes

something. It changes a relationshipby changing the status of one of theparties. And what is it that changeswhen we pray? Often, it seems thatpeople pray in order to change God’smind. But God is eternal, perfect,unchanging, and unchangeable. Wepray so that God can change ourminds.Prayer is the way we live our

covenant, and so every prayerchanges something. It changes usbecause it intensifies ourrelationship with God. If the Spirit

can change our moans and groans intoprayer, then the Spirit can alsochange our minds, hearts, and willsthrough prayer—and He’ll do this ina way that cannot happen apart fromprayer.We pray in order to become saints.

That’s what it means to have anintense relationship with God.Sainthood is the one thing we’rehere on earth to acquire. It’s theonly thing we can take away fromhere.So learn from the saints who have

gone before us. They’ve prayed theLord’s Prayer and have enjoyed itseffects most abundantly. We have theChurch’s infallible word on that.But which saints should we study?The best place to start is at thebeginning, with our very eldestbrothers in Christ, the brothers wecall our fathers: the Fathers of theChurch. I would rather lead you tolearn from them than from me.It’s humbling to have my thoughts

included within the same covers astheirs. But it will be well worththe humiliation if the end result isthat you keep reading—and that youdiscover the giants upon whoseshoulders I stand. Every great

boxing match or concert begins witha warm-up act before the main event.I’d like to draw your attention to

three themes that recur in thefollowing pages from the Fathers.First in importance is the

centrality of divine fatherhood andour share—our real participation—inChrist’s divine sonship.Next, notice how the Fathers

insist that our goal is virtue, andnot mere learning. They’re speaking,moreover, not just of the virtuesthat make us more prosperous:honesty, diligence, thrift,patience, and so on. They want usespecially to grow in the possessionand practice of the theologicalvirtues: faith, hope, and charity.To live these virtues means, quitesimply, to live as a child of God.Finally, learn to appreciate the

unity of the Old and New Covenants.Note that all the texts included inthis volume are biblicalreflections, not merely NewTestament reflections. The NewCovenant is promised in the old, andthe old is fulfilled in the new.Typology is the principle by whichwe see this most clearly (cf.Catechism, nos. 128-130). Typology

shows us that passing from the Oldto the New is more than just turninga page from Second Maccabees toMatthew. Typology shows us howJesus’ coming, in the fullness oftime, represents the hinge ofhistory—world history and personalhistory, your life and mine.Typology is not just a literarydevice, not just an interpretive keyto a difficult book. Typology meanssomething intimate for all of us,our movement from servitude tosonship, from time to eternity, fromthe natural to the supernatural,from earth to heaven . . . from ourCreator to our Father.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

SAINT CYPRIANTreatise on theLord’s Prayer(selection)

The evangelical precepts, belovedbrethren, are nothing else thandivine teachings—foundations onwhich hope is to be built, supportsto strengthen faith, nourishmentsfor cheering the heart, rudders forguiding our way, guards forobtaining salvation. While theseprecepts instruct the docile mindsof believers on earth, they leadthem to heavenly kingdoms. God,moreover, willed many things to besaid and heard by means of Hisservants, the prophets; but how muchgreater are those precepts which theSon speaks, which the Word of God,Who was in the prophets, testifieswith His own voice. He does not nowbid us prepare the way for Hiscoming, but He Himself comes,opening and showing us the way, sothat we, who have previously beenwandering blindly and withoutforethought in the darkness ofdeath, might be enlightened by the

light of grace and keep the way oflife, with the Lord as our Ruler andGuide.Among His salutary admonitions and

divine precepts with which Hecounsels His People for theirsalvation, He Himself also revealeda form of praying, and He advisedand instructed us about what weshould pray for. He Who made us tolive also taught us to pray, withthat same benignity with which Hehas condescended to give and conferall other things, in order thatwhile we speak to the Father in thatprayer and supplication which theSon has taught us, we may be morereadily heard. Already He hadforetold that the hour was coming“when the true worshipers willworship the Father in spirit and intruth” (Jn. 4:23), and He thusfulfilled what He previouslypromised, so that we who by Hissanctification have received theSpirit and truth may also by Histeaching worship truly andspiritually. For what can be a morespiritual prayer than that which wasgiven to us by Christ, by Whom alsothe Holy Spirit was given to us?What praying to the Father can bemore truthful than that which was

delivered to us by the Son, Who isthe Truth, out of His own mouth? Topray in another manner than Hetaught is not only ignorance, butalso sin, since He Himself hasestablished, “You have a fine way ofrejecting the commandment of God, inorder to keep your tradition” (Mk.7:9).Let us, therefore, beloved

brethren, pray as God our Teacherhas taught us. It is a loving andfriendly prayer to beseech God withHis own words, for the prayer ofChrist to ascend to His ears. Letthe Father acknowledge the words ofHis Son when we make our prayer, andlet Him Who dwells within our breastalso dwell in our voice. And sincewe have Him as an Advocate for oursins with the Father, let us, whenas sinners we petition on behalf ofour sins, put forward the words ofour Advocate. Since He says that “ifyou ask anything of the Father, hewill give it to you in my name” (Jn.16:23), how much more effectually dowe obtain what we ask in Christ’sname, if we ask for it in His ownprayer!But let our speech and petition

when we pray be under discipline,observing quietness and modesty. Let

us consider that we are standing inGod’s sight. We must please thedivine eyes both with the habit ofbody and with the measure of voice.For as it is characteristic of ashameless man to be noisy with hiscries, so, on the other hand, it isfitting for the modest man to praywith moderated petitions.Moreover, in His teaching the Lord

has bidden us pray in secret—inhidden and remote places, in ourvery bedchambers—which is bestsuited to faith, that we may knowthat God is present everywhere,hears and sees all, and penetrateseven into hidden and secret placesin the plenitude of His majesty, asit is written: “Am I a God at hand,says the LORD, and not a God faroff? Can a man hide himself insecret places so that I cannot seehim? says the LORD. Do I not fillheaven and earth?” (Jer. 23:23-24).And again, “The eyes of the LORD arein every place, keeping watch on theevil and the good” (Prov. 15:3).When we meet together with the

brethren in one place and celebratedivine sacrifices with God’s priest,we ought to be mindful of modestyand discipline—not to scatter ourprayers indiscriminately, with

unsubdued voices, nor to offer toGod with tumultuous wordiness apetition that ought to be commendedto Him by modesty (for God is theHearer, not of the voice, but of theheart). Nor need He be remindedclamorously, since He sees men’sthoughts, as the Lord proves to uswhen He says, “Why do you think evilin your hearts?” (Mt. 9:4), and inanother place, “And all the churchesshall know that I am he who searchesmind and heart” (Rev. 2:23).And in the First Book of Samuel,

Hannah, who was a type of theChurch, maintains and observes thisdiscipline of prayer, in that sheprayed to God not with clamorouspetition, but silently and modestly,within the very recesses of herheart. She spoke with hidden prayer,but with manifest faith. She spokenot with her voice, but with herheart, because she knew that in thisway God hears; and she effectuallyobtained what she sought, becauseshe asked for it with belief. DivineScripture asserts this when it says,“Hannah was speaking in her heart;only her lips moved, and her voicewas not heard. . . . and the LORDremembered her” (1 Sam. 1:13, 19).We read also in the Psalms,

“[C]ommune with your own hearts onyour beds, and be silent” (Ps. 4:4).The Holy Spirit, moreover, suggeststhese same things by Jeremiah andteaches, “But say in your heart, ‘Itis thou, O Lord, whom we mustworship’” (Bar. 6:6).And let not the worshiper, beloved

brethren, be ignorant of the mannerin which the tax collector prayedwith the Pharisee in the Temple. Notwith eyes lifted up boldly toheaven, nor with hands proudlyraised, but beating his breast andtestifying to the sins within, heimplored the help of the DivineMercy. And while the Pharisee waspleased with himself, the man whoasked in this manner insteaddeserved to be sanctified, since heplaced the hope of salvation not inthe confidence of his innocence(because there is none who isinnocent), but he confessed hissinfulness as he humbly prayed, andHe who pardons the humble heard thepetitioner. And these things theLord records in His Gospel:

Two men went up into the templeto pray, one a Pharisee and theother a tax collector. ThePharisee stood and prayed thus

with himself, “God, I thankthee that I am not like othermen, extortioners, unjust,adulterers, or even like thistax collector. I fast twice aweek, I give tithes of all thatI get.” But the tax collector,standing far off, would noteven lift up his eyes toheaven, but beat his breast,saying, “God, be merciful to mea sinner!” I tell you, this manwent down to his housejustified rather than theother; for every one who exaltshimself will be humbled, but hewho humbles himself will beexalted (Lk. 18:10-14).

Beloved brethren, when we haveunderstood from the sacred readingin what way we ought to approachprayer, let us know also from theLord’s teaching how we should pray:

Pray then like this:Our Father who art in heaven,Hallowed be thy name.Thy kingdom come,Thy will be done,On earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our dailybread;

And forgive us our debts,As we also have forgiven ourdebtors;And lead us not intotemptation,But deliver us from evil (Mt.6:9-13).

Before all things, the Teacher ofpeace and the Master of unity wouldnot wish prayer to be madeindividually; He would not wish onewho prays to pray for himself alone.For we do not say, “My Father whoart in heaven,” nor, “Give me thisday my daily bread,” nor does eachone ask that only his own debtshould be forgiven him, nor does herequest for himself alone that hemay not be led into temptation anddelivered from evil. Our prayer ispublic and common; and when we pray,we pray not for one, but for thewhole People, because we the wholePeople are one. The God of peace andthe Teacher of concord, Who taughtunity, willed that one should thuspray for all, even as He Himselfbore us all in one.The three young men observed this

law of prayer when they were shut upin the fiery furnace, speakingtogether in prayer, and being of one

heart in the agreement of theSpirit. The teaching of SacredScripture assures us of this, and intelling us how such men as theseprayed, it gives an example that weought to follow in our prayers, inorder that we may be like them:“Then the three,” it says, “as withone mouth, praised and glorified andblessed God” (Dan. 3:28). They spokeas if from one mouth, althoughChrist had not yet taught them howto pray. And therefore, as theyprayed, their speech was availingand effectual, because the Lorddeserved a peaceful, sincere, andspiritual prayer.We also find that the apostles,

with the disciples, prayed in thisway after the Lord’s Ascension: “Allof these,” says the Scripture, “withone accord devoted themselves toprayer, together with the women andMary the mother of Jesus, and withhis brethren” (Acts 1:14). Theycontinued with one accord in prayer,declaring both by the urgency and bythe agreement of their praying thatGod, “who maketh men of one mannerto dwell in a house” (Ps. 67:7,Douay Rheims Version), only admitsinto the divine and eternal homethose whose prayer is unanimous.

But what matters of deepimportance are contained in theLord’s Prayer! So many and suchgreat matters, briefly collected inwords, but spiritually abundant invirtue—so that there is absolutelynothing passed over that is notcomprehended in these our prayersand petitions, as in a compendium ofheavenly doctrine. “Pray then likethis: Our Father who art in heaven”(Mt. 6:9). The new man, born againand restored to his God by Hisgrace, says, “Father,” in the firstplace because he has now begun to bea son. He says, “He came to his ownhome, and his own people receivedhim not. But to all who receivedhim, who believed in his name, hegave power to become children ofGod” (Jn. 1:11-12).The man, therefore, who has

believed in His name and has becomeGod’s son ought from this point tobegin both to give thanks and toprofess himself God’s son bydeclaring that God is his Father inheaven. He also ought to bearwitness, among the very first wordsof his new birth, that he hasrenounced an earthly and carnalfather, and that he has begun toknow as a Father (as well as to have

as a Father) only Him Who is inheaven, as it is written: “Levi . .. who said of his father and mother,‘I regard them not’; he disowned hisbrothers, and ignored his children.For they observed thy word, and keptthy covenant” (Deut. 33:8-9). Also,the Lord in His Gospel has commandedus to “call no man your father onearth, for you have one Father, whois in heaven” (Mt. 23:9). And to thedisciple who had made mention of hisdead father, He replied, “[L]eavethe dead to bury their own dead”(Mt. 8:22); for he had said that hisfather was dead, while the Father ofbelievers is living.Nor ought we, beloved brethren,

only to observe and understand thatwe should call Him Father Who is inheaven; but we add to it and say,“Our Father,” that is, the Father ofthose who believe—of those who,being sanctified by Him, andrestored by the birth of spiritualgrace, have begun to be sons of God.. . .Nor can a sinful people be a son,

but the name of sons is attributedto those to whom remission of sinsis granted, and to them immortalityis promised anew, in the words ofour Lord Himself: “[E]very one who

commits sin is a slave to sin. Theslave does not continue in the housefor ever; the son continues forever” (Jn. 8:34-35).But how great is the Lord’s

indulgence! How great Hiscondescension and abundance ofgoodness towards us, seeing that Hehas wished us to pray in the sightof God in such a way as to call God“Father,” and to call ourselves sonsof God, even as Christ is the Son ofGod—a name which none of us woulddare to venture in prayer, unless HeHimself had allowed us thus to pray.We ought then, beloved brethren, toremember and know that when we callGod “Father,” we ought to act asGod’s children, so that in themeasure in which we find pleasure inconsidering God as a Father, Hemight also be able to find pleasurein us.Let us converse as temples of God,

that it may be plain that God dwellsin us. Let not our doings bedegenerate from the Spirit, so thatwe who have begun to be heavenly andspiritual may consider and donothing but spiritual and heavenlythings. The Lord God Himself hassaid, “[T]hose who honor me I willhonor, and those who despise me

shall be lightly esteemed” (1 Sam.2:30). The blessed apostle also haslaid down in his epistle: “You arenot your own; you were bought with aprice. So glorify God in your body”(1 Cor. 6:19-20).After this, we say, “Hallowed be

thy name” (Mt. 6:9)—not that we wishfor God that He may be hallowed byour prayers, but that we beseech Himthat His name may be hallowed in us.But by whom is God sanctified, sinceHe Himself sanctifies? Because Hesays, “Consecrate yourselvestherefore, and be holy; for I am theLORD your God” (Lev. 20:7), we dowell to ask and entreat that we whowere sanctified in baptism maycontinue in that which we have begunto be. And we daily pray for this,for we have need of dailysanctification, that we who dailyfall away may wash out our sins bycontinual sanctification. And theapostle declares what thesanctification is which is conferredupon us by the condescension of God:“[N]either the immoral, noridolaters, nor adulterers, norhomosexuals, nor thieves, nor thegreedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers,nor robbers will inherit the kingdomof God. And such were some of you.

But you were washed, you weresanctified, you were justified inthe name of the Lord Jesus Christand in the Spirit of our God” (1Cor. 6:9-11).He says that we are sanctified in

the name of our Lord Jesus Christand by the Spirit of our God. Wepray that this sanctification mayabide in us. Because our Lord andJudge warns the man who was healedand revived by Him to sin no more,lest a worse thing happen to him, wemake this supplication in ourconstant prayers—we ask it day andnight—that the sanctification andrevival that is received from thegrace of God may be preserved by Hisprotection.Then “Thy kingdom come” follows in

the prayer (Mt. 6:10). We ask thatthe Kingdom of God may be manifestedto us, even as we also ask that Hisname may be sanctified in us. Forwhen does God not reign, or whendoes anything begin with Him, Whoboth always has been and neverceases to be? We pray that ourKingdom, which has been promised usby God, and which was acquired bythe Blood and Passion of Christ, maycome, so that we who first are Hissubjects in the world may hereafter

reign with Christ when He reigns, asHe Himself promises: “Come, Oblessed of my Father, inherit thekingdom prepared for you from thefoundation of the world” (Mt.25:34).Christ Himself, dearest brethren,

may be the Kingdom of God, Whom weday by day desire to come, WhoseAdvent we crave to be quicklymanifested to us. For since He isHimself the Resurrection (for in Himwe rise again), so also the Kingdomof God may be understood to beHimself, since in Him we shallreign.But we do well in seeking the

Kingdom of God, that is, theheavenly Kingdom, because there isalso an earthly kingdom. He who hasalready renounced the world is,moreover, greater than its honorsand its kingdom. And therefore, hewho dedicates himself to God andChrist desires not earthly butheavenly kingdoms. But there is needof continual prayer andsupplication, that we may not fallaway from the heavenly Kingdom, asthe Jews, to whom this promise hadfirst been given, fell away—even asthe Lord sets forth: “[M]any willcome from east and west and sit at

table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacobin the kingdom of heaven, while thesons of the Kingdom will be throwninto the outer darkness; there menwill weep and gnash their teeth”(Mt. 8:11-12).He shows that the Jews were

previously children of the Kingdom,so long as they continued also to bechildren of God; but after the nameof Father ceased to be recognizedamong them, the Kingdom also ceased.Therefore, we Christians, who in ourprayer begin to call God our Father,pray also that God’s Kingdom maycome to us.1

We add, “Thy will be done, [o]nearth as it is in heaven” (Mt. 6:10)—not that God should do what Hewills, but that we may be able to dowhat God wills. For who resists God,that He may not do what He wills?But since we are hindered by theDevil from obeying God’s will in allthings, in our thoughts and deeds,we pray and ask that God’s will maybe done in us. And that it may bedone in us, we have need of God’sgood will, that is, of His help andprotection, since no one is strongin his own strength, but one is safeonly by the grace and mercy of God.

And further, the Lord, manifestingthe infirmity of the humanity whichHe bore, says, “My Father, if it bepossible, let this cup pass from me”(Mt. 26:39), and affording anexample to His disciples that theyshould do not their own will, butGod’s, He went on to say,“nevertheless, not as I will, but asthou wilt” (Mt. 26:39). And inanother place He says, “I have comedown from heaven, not to do my ownwill, but the will of him who sentme” (Jn. 6:38).Now if the Son was obedient to do

His Father’s will, how much moreshould the servant be obedient to dohis Master’s will! In his epistle,John also exhorts and instructs usto do the will of God: “Do not lovethe world or the things in theworld. If any one loves the world,love for the Father is not in him.For all that is in the world, thelust of the flesh and the lust ofthe eyes and the pride of life, isnot of the Father but is of theworld. And the world passes away,and the lust of it; but he who doesthe will of God abides for ever” (1Jn. 2:15-17). We who desire to abidefor ever should do the will of God,Who is everlasting.

Now this is the will of God whichChrist both did and taught: humilityin conversation; steadfastness infaith; modesty in words; justice indeeds; mercifulness in works;discipline in morals; to be unableto do a wrong, and to be able tobear a wrong when done; to keeppeace with the brethren; to love Godwith all one’s heart; to love Himbecause He is a Father, to fear Himbecause He is God; to prefer nothingwhatever to Christ, because He didnot prefer anything to us; to adhereinseparably to His love; and tostand by His Cross bravely andfaithfully. When there is anycontest on behalf of His name andhonor, we ought to show in discoursethat constancy with which we confessour faith; in torture, to show thatconfidence with which we do battle;in death, to show that patience withwhich we are crowned. All this is todesire to be fellow heirs withChrist, to do the commandment ofGod, and to fulfill the will of theFather.Moreover, we ask that the will of

God may be done both in heaven andon earth, each of which pertains tothe fulfillment of our safety andsalvation. For since we possess the

body from the earth and the spiritfrom heaven, we ourselves are earthand heaven; and in both—that is,both in body and in spirit—we praythat God’s will may be done. Forbetween the flesh and spirit thereis a struggle, and there is a dailystrife as they disagree with oneanother, so that we cannot do thosevery things that we would. Thespirit seeks heavenly and divinethings, while the flesh lusts afterearthly and temporal things.Therefore, we ask that by the helpand assistance of God, agreement maybe made between these two natures,so that while the will of God isdone both in the spirit and in theflesh, the soul which is newborn ofHim may be preserved. This is whatthe apostle Paul openly andmanifestly declares:

For the desires of the fleshare against the Spirit, and thedesires of the Spirit areagainst the flesh; for theseare opposed to each other, toprevent you from doing what youwould. But if you are led bythe Spirit you are not underthe law. Now the works of theflesh are plain: immorality,

impurity, licentiousness,idolatry, sorcery, enmity,strife, jealousy, anger,selfishness, dissension, partyspirit, envy, drunkenness,carousing, and the like. I warnyou, as I warned you before,that those who do such thingsshall not inherit the kingdomof God. But the fruit of theSpirit is love, joy, peace,patience, kindness, goodness,faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal. 5:17-23).

And therefore, we make it our prayerin daily, and even in continualsupplications, that the will of Godconcerning us should be done both inheaven and on earth; for this is thewill of God, that earthly thingsshould give place to heavenly, andthat spiritual and divine thingsshould prevail.And it may be thus understood,

beloved brethren, that since theLord commands and admonishes us tolove even our enemies, and to prayeven for those who persecute us, weshould ask, moreover, for those whoare still earthly and have not yetbegun to be heavenly, that even inthem God’s will may be done, which

Christ accomplished in preservingand renewing humanity. For since thedisciples are not now called by Him“earth,” but the salt of the earth,and the apostle designates the firstman as being from the dust of theearth, but the second from heaven,we reasonably, who ought to be likeGod our Father (Who makes His sun torise upon the good and bad, andsends rain upon the just and theunjust), pray and ask by theadmonition of Christ in such amanner as to make our prayer for thesalvation of all men. Thus, just “asin heaven”—that is, in us by ourfaith—the will of God has been done(so that we might be of heaven), soalso “on earth”—that is, in thosewho do not believe—may God’s will bedone, that they who as yet areearthly may be born of water and ofthe Spirit and begin to be heavenly.As the prayer goes forward, we

ask, “Give us this day our dailybread” (Mt. 6:11). And this may beunderstood both spiritually andliterally, because either way ofunderstanding it is rich in divineusefulness for our salvation. ForChrist is the Bread of life; andthis Bread does not belong to allmen, but is ours. And as we say,

“Our Father,” because He is theFather of those who understand andbelieve, so also we call it “ourbread,” because Christ is the Breadof those who are in union with HisBody. And we ask that this Bread begiven to us daily, that we who arein Christ and daily receive theEucharist for the food of salvationmay not, by the interposition ofsome heinous sin, be prevented fromreceiving Communion and frompartaking of the heavenly Bread andbe separated from Christ’s Body. HeHimself warns, “I am the bread oflife. . . . This is the bread whichcomes down from heaven, that a manmay eat of it and not die. . . .[I]f any one eats of this bread, hewill live for ever; and the breadwhich I shall give for the life ofthe world is my flesh” (Jn. 6:48,50-51). When, therefore, He saysthat whoever shall eat of His Breadshall live forever, it is manifestthat those who partake of His Bodyand receive the Eucharist by theright of Communion are living. Onthe other hand, we must fear andpray lest anyone who, being withheldfrom Communion, be separated fromChrist’s Body and remain at adistance from salvation, for He

Himself threatens, “[U]nless you eatthe flesh of the Son of man anddrink his blood, you have no life inyou” (Jn. 6:53). And therefore, weask that our Bread—that is, Christ—may be given to us daily, that wewho abide and live in Christ may notdepart from His sanctification andBody.But it may also be understood in

this way, that we who have renouncedthe world and who, in the faith ofspiritual grace, have cast away itsriches and pomps, should only askfor ourselves food and support,since the Lord instructs us,“[W]hoever of you does not renounceall that he has cannot be mydisciple” (Lk. 14:33). But he whohas begun to be Christ’s disciple,renouncing all things according tothe word of his Master, ought to askfor his daily food, and not toextend the desires of his petitionover a long period, as the Lordagain commands, “Therefore do not beanxious about tomorrow, for tomorrowwill be anxious for itself. Let theday’s own trouble be sufficient forthe day” (Mt. 6:34). With reason,then, does Christ’s disciple askfood for himself for the day, sincehe is prohibited from thinking of

the morrow. It becomes acontradiction and a repugnant thingfor us to seek to live long in thisworld, since we ask that the Kingdomof God should come quickly. So alsothe blessed apostle admonishes us,giving substance and strength to thesteadfastness of our hope and faith:“[F]or we brought nothing into theworld, and we cannot take anythingout the world; but if we have foodand clothing, with these we shall becontent. But those who desire to berich fall into temptation, into asnare, into many senseless andhurtful desires that plunge men intoruin and destruction. For the loveof money is the root of all evils;it is through this craving that somehave wandered away from the faithand pierced their hearts with manypangs” (1 Tim. 6:7-10).He teaches us not only that riches

are to be condemned, but also thatthey are full of peril, and that inthem is the root of seductive evilsthat deceive the blindness of thehuman mind by a hidden deception.God also rebukes the rich fool whothinks of his earthly wealth andboasts of himself in the abundanceof his overflowing harvests: “Fool!This night your soul is required of

you; and the things you haveprepared, whose will they be?” (Lk.12:20). The fool who was to die thatvery night was rejoicing in hisstores, and he to whom life alreadywas failing was thinking of theabundance of his food. But on theother hand, the Lord tells us thathe who sells all his goods anddistributes them for the use of thepoor becomes perfect and completeand lays up for himself treasure inheaven. The Lord says that a man isable to follow Him and to imitatethe glory of His Passion when he isfree from hindrance, his loins aregirt, and he is involved in noentanglements of worldlypossessions. Such a man, when he hasgiven his possessions to God, is nowfree. Let us thus prepare ourselvesand learn to pray, and know from thecharacter of the prayer what weought to be.For daily bread cannot be wanting

to the righteous man, since it iswritten, “The LORD does not let therighteous go hungry” (Prov. 10:3),and again, “I have been young, andnow am old; yet I have not seen therighteous forsaken or his childrenbegging bread” (Ps. 37:25). And theLord moreover promises: “Therefore

do not be anxious, saying, ‘Whatshall we eat?’ or ‘What shall wedrink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ Forthe Gentiles seek all these things;and your heavenly Father knows thatyou need them all. But seek firsthis kingdom and his righteousness,and all these things shall be yoursas well” (Mt. 6:31-33).To those who seek God’s Kingdom

and righteousness, He promises thatall things shall be added. For sinceall things are God’s, nothing willbe lacking to him who possesses God,if God Himself be not lacking tohim. Thus a meal was divinelyprovided for Daniel; when he wasshut up by the king’s command in theden of lions, and in the midst ofwild beasts who were hungry, theyspared him, and the man of God wasfed. Thus Elijah in his flight wasnourished both by ravens ministeringto him in his solitude and by birdsbringing him food in hispersecution. And—detestable crueltyof the malice of man—the wild beastsspare, the birds feed, while men laysnares and rage!After this, we also entreat pardon

for our sins, saying, “And forgiveus our debts, [a]s we also haveforgiven our debtors” (Mt. 6:12).

After the supply of food, pardon ofsin is also asked for, that he whois fed by God may live in God, andthat not only the present andtemporal life may be provided for,but the eternal life also, to whichwe may come if our sins areforgiven. The Lord calls these sins“debts,” as He says in His Gospel,“I forgave you all that debt becauseyou besought me” (Mt. 18:32). Andhow necessarily, how providently andsalutarily, are we admonished thatwe are sinners, since we arecompelled to entreat pardon for oursins, and while pardon is asked forfrom God, the soul recalls its ownconsciousness of sin! Lest anyoneshould flatter himself that he isinnocent, and by exalting himselfshould more deeply perish, all areinstructed and taught that each mansins daily, since each is commandedto entreat pardon daily for hissins.Moreover, John in his epistle

warns us, “If we say we have no sin,we deceive ourselves, and the truthis not in us. If we confess oursins, he is faithful and just, andwill forgive our sins” (1 Jn. 1:8-9). In his epistle, he has writtenboth that we should entreat pardon

for our sins and that we shouldobtain pardon when we ask.Therefore, he said that the Lord wasfaithful to forgive sins, keepingthe faith of His promise, because Hewho taught us to pray for our debtsand sins has promised that Hisfatherly mercy and pardon shallfollow.He has clearly added a provision

to this promise and has bound us bya certain condition: that we shouldask that our debts be forgiven us insuch a manner as we ourselvesforgive our debtors. We know thatwhat we seek for our sins cannot beobtained unless we ourselves haveacted in a similar way to ourdebtors. Therefore, He says inanother place, “[W]ith the judgmentyou pronounce you will be judged,and the measure you give will be themeasure you get” (Mt. 7:2). And theservant who, after having had allhis debt forgiven him by his master,would not forgive his fellow servantis cast back into prison; because hewould not forgive his fellowservant, he lost the indulgence thathad been shown to himself by hislord.Christ still more urgently sets

forth these things in His precepts.

“And whenever you stand praying,” Hesays, “forgive, if you have anythingagainst any one; so that your Fatheralso who is in heaven may forgiveyou your trespasses” (Mk. 11:25).There remains no ground of excuse onthe Day of Judgment, when you willbe judged according to your ownsentence; and whatever you havedone, you also will suffer. For Godcommands us to be peacemakers, andin agreement, and of one mind in Hishouse (cf. Ps. 67:7, Douay RheimsVersion). In the same manner, Hemakes us by a second birth, and Hewishes us when newborn to continue,that we who have begun to be sons ofGod may abide in God’s peace, andthat, having one Spirit, we shouldalso have one heart and one mind.Thus, God does not receive thesacrifice of a person who is indisagreement, but commands him to goback from the altar and first bereconciled to his brother, so thatGod also may be appeased by theprayers of a peacemaker. Our peaceand brotherly agreement are thegreater sacrifice to God—being aPeople united in one, in the unityof the Father, and of the Son, andof the Holy Spirit.For even in the sacrifices which

Abel and Cain first offered, Godlooked not at their gifts, but attheir hearts; so he who wasacceptable in his heart wasacceptable in his gift. Abel,peaceable and righteous insacrificing in innocence to God,taught others also that when theybring their gift to the altar, theyshould come with the fear of God,with a simple heart, with the law ofrighteousness, and with the peace ofconcord. With reason, Abel, who sopleased God by his sacrifice, becamesubsequently himself a sacrifice toGod, so that he who first manifestedmartyrdom and initiated the Lord’sPassion by the glory of his bloodhad both the Lord’s righteousnessand His peace.Finally, such are crowned by the

Lord, such will be avenged by theLord on the Day of Judgment; but thequarrelsome and disunited, and hewho has not peace with his brethren,in accordance with what the blessedapostle and the Holy Scripturetestify—even if he is slain for thename of Christ—shall not be able toescape the crime of fraternaldissension. It is written, “Any onewho hates his brother is a murderer”(1 Jn. 3:15), and no murderer

attains the Kingdom of heaven, nordoes he live with God. He who wouldrather be an imitator of Judas thanof Christ cannot be with Christ. Howgreat is the sin which cannot evenbe washed away by a baptism of blood—how heinous the crime which cannotbe expiated by martyrdom!Moreover, the Lord admonishes us

to say in prayer, “And lead us notinto temptation” (Mt. 6:13). Inthese words, it is shown that theAdversary can do nothing against usunless God has previously permittedit. All our fear, devotion, andobedience should be turned towardGod, since in our temptations toevil nothing is permitted unlesspower is given from Him. This isproved by divine Scripture, whichsays, “And Nebuchadnezzar king ofBabylon came to the city, while hisservants were besieging it” (2 Kings24:11), and the Lord delivered itinto his hand. But power is given toevil against us according to oursins, as it is written, “Who gave upJacob to the spoiler, and Israel tothe robbers? Was it not the LORD,against whom we have sinned, inwhose ways they would not walk, andwhose law they would not obey?” (Is.42:24). And again, when Solomon

sinned and departed from the Lord’scommandments and ways, it isrecorded, “And the LORD raised up anadversary against Solomon, Hadad theEdomite” (1 Kings 11:14).Now power is given against us in

two modes: either for punishmentwhen we sin, or for glory when weare tested, as we see was done withJob, as God Himself says: “Behold,all that he has is in your power;only upon himself do not put forthyour hand” (Job 1:12). And the Lordin His Gospel, at the time of HisPassion, says, “You would have nopower over me unless it had beengiven you from above” (Jn. 19:11).But when we ask that we may not beled into temptation, we are remindedof our infirmity and weakness, lestany should insolently vaunt himself,or proudly and arrogantly assumeanything to himself, or take tohimself as his own the glory ofprofession of faith or of suffering,when the Lord Himself teacheshumility: “Watch and pray that youmay not enter into temptation; thespirit indeed is willing, but theflesh is weak” (Mk. 14:38). When ahumble and submissive confessioncomes first, and all is attributedto God, whatever is sought for

suppliantly, with fear and honor ofGod, is granted by His own loving-kindness.After all these things, in the

conclusion of the prayer, comes abrief clause, which briefly andcomprehensively sums up all ourpetitions and our prayers. For weconclude by saying, “But deliver usfrom evil” (Mt. 6:13), embracing alladverse things which the Enemyattempts against us in this world.There may be a faithful and sureprotection from all this adversityif God delivers us, if He affordsHis help to us who pray for andimplore it. And when we say,“Deliver us from evil,” thereremains nothing further which oughtto be asked. When we have once askedfor God’s protection against eviland have obtained it, then we standsecure and safe against everythingwhich the Devil and the world workagainst us. For what fear does a manhave in this life, if his guardianin this life is God?What wonder is it, beloved

brethren, if such is the prayerwhich God taught, since in histeaching He condensed all our prayerinto one saving sentence? This hadalready been foretold by Isaiah the

prophet, when, being filled with theHoly Spirit, he spoke of the majestyand loving-kindness of God,“consummating and shortening Hisword,” he says, “in righteousness,because a shortened word will theLord make in the whole earth” (SaintCyprian’s version of Isaiah 10:22-23). For when the Word of God, ourLord Jesus Christ, came to all,gathered alike the learned andunlearned, and proclaimed to everysex and every age the precepts ofsalvation, He made a largecompendium of His precepts, that thememory of scholars might not beburdened in celestial learning, andthat they might quickly learn whatwas necessary for simple faith.Thus, when He taught what eternallife is, He embraced the sacramentof life in a large and divinebrevity, saying, “And this iseternal life, that they know theethe only true God, and Jesus Christwhom thou hast sent” (Jn. 17:3).Also, when He gathered from the Lawand the Prophets the first andgreatest commandments, He said: “Youshall love the Lord your God withall your heart, and with all yoursoul, and with all your mind. Thisis the great and first commandment.

And a second is like it, You shalllove your neighbor as yourself. Onthese two commandments depend allthe law and the prophets” (Mt.22:37-40). And again: “So whateveryou wish that men would do to you,do so to them; for this is the lawand the prophets” (Mt. 7:12).The Lord taught us to pray not

only by words, but also by deeds. Heprayed and besought frequently andthus showed us, by the testimony ofHis example, what we ought to do, asit is written, “But he withdrew tothe wilderness and prayed” (Lk.5:16). And again: “In these days hewent out into the hills to pray; andall night he continued in prayer toGod” (Lk. 6:12). But if He Who waswithout sin prayed, how much moreought sinners to pray; and if Heprayed continually, watching throughthe whole night in uninterruptedpetitions, how much more ought we towatch nightly in constantly repeatedprayer!But the Lord prayed and besought

not for Himself—for why should HeWho was guiltless pray on His ownbehalf?—but for our sins, as HeHimself declared when He said toPeter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satandemanded to have you, that he might

sift you like wheat, but I haveprayed for you that your faith maynot fail” (Lk. 22:31-32). Andsubsequently He beseeches the Fatherfor all, saying, “I do not pray forthese only, but also for those whobelieve in me through their word,that they all may be one; even asthou, Father, art in me, and I inthee, that they also may be in us”(Jn. 17:20). The Lord’s loving-kindness, no less than His mercy, isgreat with regard to our salvation.Not content to redeem us with HisBlood, He also prayed for us. Thiswas the desire of His petition: thatas the Father and Son are one, soalso we should abide in absoluteunity, so that from this it may beunderstood how greatly he whodivides unity and peace sins, sincethis unity even the Lord besought,desiring that His People should thusbe saved and live in peace. He knewthat discord cannot come into theKingdom of God.Moreover, when we stand praying,

beloved brethren, we ought to bewatchful and earnest with our wholeheart, intent on our prayers. Letall carnal and worldly thoughts passaway, and do not let the soul atthat time think about anything but

the object of its prayer. For thisreason, the priest, by way ofpreface before his prayer, preparesthe minds of the brethren by saying,“Lift up your hearts,” that so uponthe people’s response, “We lift themup to the Lord,” he may be remindedthat he himself ought to think ofnothing but the Lord.Let the breast be closed against

the Adversary and be open to Godalone; do not let it permit God’sEnemy to approach it at the time ofprayer. For frequently he stealsupon us and penetrates within, andby crafty deceit calls away ourprayers from God, that we may haveone thing in our heart and anotherin our voice, when not merely thesound of the voice, but also thesoul and mind, ought to be prayingto the Lord with a simple intention.What carelessness it is to bedistracted and carried away byfoolish and profane thoughts whenyou are praying to the Lord—as ifthere were anything which you shouldbe thinking of except that you arespeaking with God! How can you askto be heard by God, when you do nothear yourself? Do you wish that Godshould remember you when you ask, ifyou do not remember yourself? This

is absolutely to take no precautionagainst the Enemy; to pray to God inthis way is to offend the majesty ofGod by the carelessness of yourprayer. It is to be watchful withyour eyes and to be asleep with yourheart, while the Christian, eventhough he is asleep with his eyes,ought to be awake with his heart, asit is written in the person of theChurch speaking in the Song ofSolomon, “I slept, but my heart wasawake” (Song 5:2). Therefore, theapostle anxiously and carefullywarns us, “Continue steadfastly inprayer, being watchful in it withthanksgiving” (Col. 4.2)—teachingand showing that those whom God seesto be watchful in their prayer areable to obtain from God what theyask.Moreover, those who pray should

not come to God with fruitless ornaked prayers. Petition isineffectual when a barren entreatybeseeches God. For as every treethat does not bring forth fruit iscut down and cast into the fire,words that do not bear fruit cannotdeserve anything from God, becausethey are fruitful in no result. Andthus Holy Scripture instructs us,“Prayer is good when accompanied by

fasting, almsgiving, andrighteousness” (Tob. 12:8). He Whowill give us in the Day of Judgmenta reward for our labors and alms iseven in this life a merciful hearerof one who comes to Him in prayerassociated with good works. Thus,for instance, when Cornelius thecenturion prayed, he had a claim tobe heard. For he was in the habit ofgiving many alms to the people andof ever praying to God. When thisman prayed at about the ninth hour,an angel bearing testimony to hislabors appeared to him and said,“Your prayers and your alms haveascended as a memorial before God”(Acts 10:4).Those prayers that the merits of

our labors urge upon God quicklyascend to Him. Thus also Raphael theangel was a witness to the constantprayer and the constant good worksof Tobit:

I will not conceal anythingfrom you. I have said, “It isgood to guard the secret of aking, but gloriously to revealthe works of God.” And so, whenyou and your daughter-in-lawSarah prayed, I brought areminder of your prayer before

the Holy One; and when youburied the dead, I was likewisepresent with you. When you didnot hesitate to rise and leaveyour dinner in order to go andlay out the dead, your gooddeed was not hidden from me,but I was with you. So God sentme to heal you and yourdaughter-in-law Sarah. I amRaphael, one of the seven holyangels who present the prayersof the saints and enter intothe presence of the glory ofthe Holy One (Tob. 12:11-15).

The Lord also teaches similar thingsby Isaiah:

Is not this the fast that Ichoose: to loose the bonds ofwickedness, to undo the thongsof the yoke, to let theoppressed go free, and to breakevery yoke? Is it not to shareyour bread with the hungry, andbring the homeless poor intoyour house; when you see thenaked, to cover him, and not tohide yourself from your ownflesh? Then shall your lightbreak forth like the dawn, andyour healing shall spring up

speedily; your righteousnessshall go before you, the gloryof the LORD shall be your rearguard. Then you shall call, andthe LORD will answer; you shallcry, and he will say, Here I am(Is. 58:6-9).

He promises that He will be near andsays that He will hear and protectthose who, in hearing what Godcommands to be done, loosen theknots of unrighteousness from theirhearts and give alms among themembers of God’s Household accordingto His commands, and thus themselvesdeserve to be heard by God. Theblessed apostle Paul, when aided byhis brethren in his necessity, saidthat good works that are performedare sacrifices to God. “I amfilled,” he says, “having receivedof Epaphroditus the gifts you sent,a fragrant offering, a sacrificeacceptable and pleasing to God”(Phil. 4:18). When one has pity onthe poor, one lends to God; and hewho gives to the least gives to God—he sacrifices spiritually to God afragrant offering.And in discharging the duties of

prayer, we find that the three youngmen with Daniel, who were strong in

faith and victorious in captivity,observed the third, sixth, and ninthhours, which were a sacrament (as itwere) of the Trinity, Which in thelast times was to be manifested.2

For the first hour in its progressto the third manifests theconsummated number of the Trinity,and the fourth proceeding to thesixth declares another Trinity; andwhen from the seventh, the ninth iscompleted, the perfect Trinity isnumbered every three hours. Theworshipers of God in time pastspiritually decided on these spacesof hours as determined and lawfultimes for prayer. And subsequentlyit was manifested that these thingswere sacraments of old, since inolden times righteous men prayed inthis manner. The Holy Spirit, Whofulfilled the grace of the Lord’spromise, descended upon thedisciples at the third hour.Moreover, at the sixth hour, Peter,going up to the housetop, wasinstructed both by a sign and by theword of God, which admonished him toreceive all men into the grace ofsalvation, whereas he was previouslydoubtful about receiving theGentiles into baptism. And from thesixth hour to the ninth, the Lord,

being crucified, washed away oursins by His Blood, and that He mightredeem us and bring us to life, Hethen accomplished His victory by HisPassion.But for us, beloved brethren, in

addition to the hours of prayerobserved of old, both the times andthe sacraments have now increased innumber. For we must also pray in themorning, that the Lord’sResurrection may be celebrated bymorning prayer. And the Holy Spiritpreviously revealed this in thePsalms: “[M]y King, and my God, forto thee do I pray. O LORD, in themorning thou dost hear my voice; inthe morning I prepare a sacrificefor thee, and watch” (Ps. 5:2-3).And again, the Lord speaks by themouth of the prophet: “Early in themorning shall they watch for me,saying, ‘Let us go, and return untothe Lord our God’” (Saint Cyprian’sversion of Hosea 6:1). Also, at thesetting of the sun and at thedecline of day, we must of necessitypray again. Since Christ is the trueSun and the true Day, when we prayand ask that light may return to usagain as the worldly sun and worldlyday depart, we pray for the Adventof Christ, which shall give us the

grace of everlasting light.Moreover, the Holy Spirit in thePsalms manifests that Christ iscalled the Day: “The stone which thebuilders rejected has become thehead of the corner. This is theLORD’s doing; it is marvelous in oureyes. This is the day which the LORDhas made; let us rejoice and be gladin it” (Ps. 118:22-24).The prophet Malachi testifies also

that He is called the Sun: “But foryou who fear my name the sun ofrighteousness shall rise, withhealing in its wings” (Mal. 4:2).But if in the Holy Scriptures Christis the true Sun and the true Day,there is no hour when Christiansought not frequently and alwaysworship God, so that we who are inChrist—that is, in the true Sun andthe true Day—should be constantthroughout the entire day inpetitions and should pray. When, bythe law of the world, the revolvingnight, recurring in its alternatechanges, takes place, there can beno harm arising from the darkness ofnight to those who pray, because thechildren of light have the Day evenin the night. For if one has lightin his heart, when is one not tohave light? Or when does he, whose

Sun and Day is Christ, not have theSun and the Day?Let us not, then, who are in

Christ—that is, always in the light—cease from praying even duringnight. Thus, the widow Anna,constantly praying and watching,persevered in deserving well fromGod, as it is written in the Gospel:“She did not depart,” it says, “fromthe temple, worshiping with fastingand prayer night and day” (Lk.2:37). Let the Gentiles who are notyet enlightened look to this, aswell as the Jews, who have remainedin darkness because they forsook thelight. Beloved brethren, let usreckon rightfully—we who are alwaysin the light of the Lord and whoremember and hold fast to what wehave begun to be by the grace wehave received. Let us believe thatwe always walk in the light and notbe hindered by the darkness which wehave escaped. Let there be nofailure of prayers in the hours ofnight, no idle and reckless waste ofthe occasions of prayer. Newlycreated and newborn of the Spirit bythe mercy of God, let us imitatewhat we shall one day be. Since inthe Kingdom we shall possess Dayalone, without intervention of

night, let us so watch in the nightas if it were the daylight. Since weare to pray and give thanks to Godforever, let us also not cease inthis life to pray and give thanks.

1 ^Far from evoking anti-Semitism, thispassage should lead us to realize that ifGod did not spare the Chosen People ofIsrael and their beloved capital (Jerusalem,the holy city), we Gentiles will not bespared the same judgment that befell oureldest brother, Israel (cf. Ex. 4:22).

2 ^The hours of the day were numbered fromdawn until dusk. The third hour markedmidmorning; the sixth, midday; and theninth, midafternoon.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

SAINT CYRIL OFJERUSALEM

Mystagogic CatechesisV (selection)

We say the prayer that the Saviordelivered to His own disciples. Witha pure conscience, we call God ourFather and say, “Our Father who artin heaven” (Mt. 6:9). O mostsurpassing loving-kindness of God!On those who revolted from Him andwere in very extreme misery, He hasbestowed such a complete forgivenessof evil deeds, and such a greatparticipation of grace, that theycould even call Him “Father.”“Our Father who art in heaven”

(Mt. 6:9). Those who bear the imageof the heavenly (cf. 1 Cor. 15:49),in whom God dwells and walks (cf.Is. 52; Rom. 2:24), are a heaven.“Hallowed be thy name” (Mt. 6:9).

The name of God is in its natureholy, whether we say so or not.Since it is sometimes profaned amongsinners (according to the words,“The name of God is blasphemed amongthe Gentiles because of you” [Rom.2:24]), we pray that in us God’s

name may be hallowed—not that itcomes to be holy from not beingholy, but because it becomes holy inus, when we are made holy and dothings worthy of holiness.“Thy kingdom come” (Mt. 6:10). A

pure soul can say with boldness,“Thy kingdom come,” for he who hasheard Paul saying, “Let not sintherefore reign in your mortalbodies” (Rom. 6:12), and hascleansed himself in deed, thought,and word, will say to God, “Thykingdom come.”“Thy will be done, [o]n earth as

it is in heaven” (Mt. 6:10). God’sdivine and blessed angels do thewill of God, as David said in thepsalm, “Bless the LORD, O you hisangels, you mighty ones who do hisword” (Ps. 103:20). So in effect youmean this by your prayer: “As in theangels Thy will is done, so likewisebe it done on earth in me, O Lord.”“Give us this day our substantial

bread” (cf. Mt. 6:11). Common breadis not substantial bread, but holyBread is substantial, that is,intended for the substance of thesoul. For this Bread goes not intothe belly and is cast out into thesewer (cf. Mt. 15:17), but is

distributed into your whole personfor the benefit of body and soul. By“this day,” he means, “each day,” asalso Paul said, while it is calledtoday (cf. Heb. 3:15).“And forgive us our debts, [a]s we

also have forgiven our debtors” (Mt.6:12). We have many sins; we offendboth in word and in thought; we dovery many things worthy ofcondemnation; and if we say that wehave no sin, we lie, as John says(cf. 1 Jn. 1:8). And we make acovenant with God, entreating Him toforgive us our sins, as we alsoforgive our neighbors their debts.Considering, then, what we receiveand what we attain in return, let usnot put off, nor delay, forgivingone another. The offenses committedagainst us are slight and trivial,and easily settled; but those whichwe have committed against God aregreat and require such mercy as onlyHe can offer. Take heed, therefore,lest for the slight and trivial sinsagainst you, you shut outforgiveness from God for your verygrievous sins.“And lead us not into temptation”

(Mt. 6:13), O Lord. Does the Lordteach us to pray, that we may not betempted at all? Why, then, is it

said elsewhere, “What doth he know,that hath not been tried?” (Sir.34:9, Douay Rheims Version); andagain, “Count it all joy, mybrethren, when you meet varioustrials” (Jas. 1:2)? But doesentering into temptation mean beingoverwhelmed by the temptation? Fortemptation is, as it were, like araging winter stream that isdifficult to cross. Those,therefore, who are not overwhelmedin temptations pass through thestream and prove themselvesexcellent swimmers, not being sweptaway by them at all; while those whoare not excellent swimmers enterinto temptations and areoverwhelmed. For example, Judasentered into the temptation of thelove of money and did not swimthrough it, but was overwhelmed andwas strangled both in body and inspirit. Peter entered into thetemptation of the denial; but havingentered, he was not overwhelmed byit, but manfully swam through it,and was delivered from thetemptation. Listen again, in anotherplace, to a company of saints, whogive thanks for deliverance fromtemptation: “For thou, O God, hastproved us: thou hast tried us by

fire, as silver is tried. Thou hastbrought us into a net, thou hastlaid afflictions on our back: thouhast set men over our heads. We havepassed through fire and water, andthou hast brought us out into arefreshment” (Ps. 65:10-12, DouayRheims Version). You see themspeaking boldly, because they havepassed through and have not beenpierced. But “Thou hast brought usout into a refreshment.” Theircoming into a refreshment is theirbeing delivered from temptation.“But deliver us from evil” (Mt.

6:13). If “lead us not intotemptation” implied not beingtempted at all, He would not havesaid, “But deliver us from evil.”Now “evil” is our Adversary, theDevil, from whom we pray to bedelivered.Then after completing the prayer,

you say, “Amen”; by this “Amen,”which means “so be it,” you set yourseal to the petitions of thisdivinely taught prayer.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

SAINT JOHNCHRYSOSTOM

Homily XIX on theGospel of Saint

Matthew (selection)

“Pray then like this,” He says:“Our Father who art in heaven” (Mt.6:9). See how He immediatelyattracted the attention of thehearer and reminded him of all God’sbounty. For to call God “Father” isto acknowledge the remission of sinsand the taking away of punishment,as well as righteousness,sanctification, redemption,adoption, inheritance, brotherhoodto the Only-begotten, and the giftof the Spirit. For one cannot callGod “Father” without having attainedto all those blessings. He awakensthe spirits of His hearers,therefore, in two ways: He remindsthem of the dignity of Him Who iscalled upon, and He reminds them ofthe greatness of the benefits theyhave enjoyed.But when He says, “. . . in

heaven,” He says this not to limit

God to the heavens, but to withdrawfrom the earth the one who is inprayer, and to fix him in the highplaces and in the dwellings above.He teaches us, moreover, to make

our prayer common, on behalf of ourbrethren also. For He does not say,“My Father who art in heaven,” but,“Our Father . . .” He teaches eachof us to offer up his supplicationsfor the Body in common and in no wayto look to our own good, buteverywhere to our neighbor’s good.And by this petition, He at oncetakes away hatred, quells pride,casts out envy, brings in the motherof all good things (charity),exterminates the inequality of humanthings, and shows how far theequality reaches between the kingand the poor man. For in thosethings that are greatest and mostindispensable, all of us are equal.What harm comes to our kindredbelow, when in what is on high allof us are knit together, and no onehas anything more than another—neither the rich more than the poor,nor the master than the servant,neither the ruler than the subject,nor the king than the commonsoldier, neither the philosopherthan the barbarian, nor the skillful

than the unlearned? For to all menHe has given one nobility, havinggranted us all alike the privilegeof calling Him “Father.”When, therefore, He has reminded

us of this nobility, of the giftfrom above, of our equality with ourbrethren, and of charity, and whenHe has removed us from earth andfixed us in heaven, let us see whatHe commands us to ask after this—even though that saying alone issufficient to implant instruction inall virtue. For he who has calledGod “Father,” and a common Father,would be justly bound to show forthsuch a way of life so as not toappear unworthy of this nobility andto exhibit a diligence proportionateto the gift.“Hallowed be thy name” (Mt. 6:9).

It is worthy of him who calls God“Father” to ask nothing before theglory of His Father and to accountall things secondary to the work ofpraising Him. “Hallowed” meansglorified. God’s own glory iscomplete and ever continues thesame, but He commands him who praysto seek that He may be glorifiedalso by our lives. He had said thisvery thing before: “Let your lightso shine before men, that they may

see your good works and give gloryto your Father who is in heaven”(Mt. 5:16). The seraphim, too, giveglory: “Holy, holy, holy” (Is. 6:3;Rev. 4:8). “Hallowed,” then, means“glorified.” In other words, Hesays, “Grant that we may live sopurely, that through us all mayglorify You.” Living such a life isthe result of perfect self-control—to manifest to all a life soblameless that everyone who sees ourlife may offer to the Lord thepraise due to Him for thisblamelessness.“Thy kingdom come” (Mt. 6:10).

This, too, is the language of aright-minded child of God, not to beattached to things that are seen,nor to account present things assome great matter, but to hasten toour Father and to long for thethings to come. This petitionsprings from a good conscience and asoul set free from earthly things.Paul himself, for instance, waslonging after this every day.Therefore, he also said that “weourselves who have the first fruitsof the Spirit groan inwardly as wewait for adoption as sons, theredemption of our bodies” (Rom.8:23). For he who has this desire

can neither be puffed up by the goodthings of this life nor abashed byits sorrows. As though dwelling inthe very heavens, such a man isfreed from all kinds of unreasonabledesires.“Thy will be done, [o]n earth as

it is in heaven” (Mt. 6:10). Beholda most excellent train of thought!He commanded us indeed both to longfor the things to come and to hastenon that journey to heaven. Untilthat day, while we abide here, Hecommands us to be earnest inmanifesting the same way of life asthose above. For you must long, Hesays, for heaven, and the things inheaven; however, even before heaven,He has commanded us to make theearth a heaven and do and say allthings, even while we are continuingto live on earth, as if we wereliving in heaven. This, too, shouldbe an object of our prayer to theLord. For there is nothing to hinderour reaching the perfection of thepowers above, simply because weinhabit the earth; but it ispossible, even while abiding here,to do everything as if we werealready placed on high. What Hemeans, therefore, is this: “As inheaven all things are done without

hindrance, and the angels are notpartly obedient and partlydisobedient, but in all things yieldand obey (for He says, ‘Mighty instrength, performing His word’ [cf.Ps. 103:20]), so grant that we menmay not do Your will by halves, butdo all things as You will.”Do you see how He has taught us

also to be modest, by making itclear that virtue comes not onlyfrom our endeavors, but also fromthe grace from above? And again, Hehas enjoined each one of us whoprays to take upon himself the careof the whole world. For He did notat all say, “Thy will be done in me”or “in us,” but everywhere on theearth, so that error may bedestroyed, truth may be implanted,all wickedness may be cast out,virtue may be returned, and there beno difference in these respects,henceforth, between heaven andearth. “For if this comes to pass,”He says, “there will be nodifference between things below andabove, separated as they are innature; the earth will exhibit to usanother set of angels.”“Give us this day our daily bread”

(Mt. 6:11). What is “daily bread”?Enough bread for one day.

Because He had said, “Thy will bedone, [o]n earth as it is in heaven”(Mt. 6:10), and was conversing withmen made of flesh, subject to thenecessities of nature, and incapableof the same impassibility as theangels possess—and He enjoins thecommands to be fulfilled by us also,even as the angels perform them—Healso takes into account, in thepetition that follows, the infirmityof our nature. Thus, He says, “Irequire as great perfection ofconduct from men as I do fromangels, but not freedom frompassions—no, for the tyranny ofnature, which requires necessaryfood, permits it not.” But note howeven in things that are bodily, thatwhich is spiritual abounds. It isneither for riches, nor for delicateliving, nor for costly raiment, norfor any other such thing, but forbread only that He has commanded usto make our prayer. And we pray for“daily bread,” so as not to “beanxious about tomorrow” (Mt. 6:34).Because of this He added “dailybread,” that is, bread for one day.He is not satisfied even with this

expression, but adds another—“Giveus this day” (Mt. 6:11)—so that wemay not wear ourselves out with

anxiety for the following day. Forwhy are you anxious about a futureday, when you do not know whetheryou should see it?He admonishes us more fully about

this matter: “[D]o not be anxiousabout tomorrow” (Mt. 6:34). He wouldhave us be on every handunencumbered and winged for flight,have us yield only so much to natureas the compulsion of necessityrequires of us.Then, when it comes to pass that

we sin even after the washing ofregeneration, even then He shows Hislove for man to be great. Hecommands us for the remission of oursins to come to God, Who loves man,and to say, “And forgive us ourdebts, [as] we also have forgivenour debtors” (Mt. 6:12).Do you not see surpassing mercy

here? After taking away such greatevils, and after the unspeakablegreatness of His gift, He is willingto forgive men who sin again.That this prayer belongs to

believers is taught both by the lawsof the Church and by the beginningof the prayer, for the unbaptizedcould not call God “Father.” If,then, the prayer belongs to

believers, and they pray, entreatingthat sins may be forgiven them, itis clear that not even after the sinis the profit of repentance takenaway; indeed, had He not meant tosignify this, He would not have madea law that we should so pray. Hebrings sins to remembrance, bids usask forgiveness, teaches how we mayobtain remission, and so makes theway easy. It is perfectly clear,then, that He introduced this ruleof supplication, knowing andsignifying that it is possible evenafter the font of Baptism to washourselves from our offenses. Byreminding us of our sins, Hepersuades us to be modest; by thecommand to forgive others, He setsus free from all vengeful passion;by promising in return for this topardon us also, He holds out goodhope and instructs us to recognizethe depth of the unspeakable mercyof God towards man.But what we should most observe is

that in each of the clauses He hadmentioned the whole of virtue. Inthis way, He had included also theforgetfulness of injuries—for “Hisname be hallowed” implies a perfectway of life, and “His will be done”declares the same thing again, and

to be able to call God “Father” isthe profession of a blameless life.In all these things is included theduty of remitting our anger againstthose who have transgressed. Still,He was not satisfied with only thesepetitions, but meaning to signifyhow earnest He is in the matter, Hesets down this admonition inparticular, and after the prayer, Hementions no other commandment thanthis: “For if you forgive men theirtrespasses, your heavenly Fatheralso will forgive you” (Mt. 6:14).Thus, forgiveness begins with us,

and we ourselves have control overthe judgment that is to be passedupon us. In order that no one, eventhe foolish, might have anycomplaint to make, either great orsmall, when brought to judgment, Hecauses the sentences to depend onyou who are to give an account.“[I]f you do not forgive men theirtrespasses, neither will your Fatherforgive your trespasses” (Mt. 6:15).And if you forgive your fellowservant, you will obtain the samefavor from Me—though indeed the onebe not equal to the other. For youforgive in your need, but God hasneed of nothing; you forgive yourfellow slave, God forgives His

slave; you are liable for unnumberedcharges, God is without sin. Thus,He shows forth His loving-kindnesstowards man.He might indeed, even without

this, forgive you all your offenses.But He wills you also to receive abenefit, for He affords you on allsides innumerable occasions ofgentleness and love to man, in orderto cast out what is brutish in you,quench wrath, and in all ways cementyou to Him.For what can you say—that you have

wrongfully endured some ill fromyour neighbor? These only aretrespasses; if an act be done withjustice, the act is not a trespass.But you, too, are drawing near toreceive forgiveness for such things,and for much greater things. Evenbefore the forgiveness, you havereceived no small gift; you havebeen taught that you have a humansoul and have been trained to allgentleness. A great reward is herebyalso laid up for you, in that youare called to account for none ofyour offenses.What sort of punishment, then, do

we not deserve, when after havingreceived the privilege, we betray

our salvation? And how shall weclaim to be heard in the rest of ourpetitions, if we will not in thosepetitions which depend on us spareourselves?“And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from [the] evil[one]. For thine is the kingdom andthe power and the glory, for ever.Amen” (Mt. 6:13).1

Here, He teaches us plainly thatwe are vile, He quells our pride,and He instructs us to seek to avoidall conflicts instead of rushinginto them. Thus, our victory will bemore glorious, and the Devil’soverthrow will be more derided. Imean that when we are dragged forth,we must stand nobly; when we are notsummoned, we should be quiet andwait for the time of conflict, thatwe may show both freedom fromvainglory and nobleness of spirit.And He here calls the Devil “the

evil one” and commands us to wageagainst him a war that knows notruce. He also implies that theDevil is not evil by nature. Forwickedness is not of those thingsthat are from nature, but of thosethings that are added by our ownchoice. And he is called “evil”

preeminently by reason of the excessof his wickedness and because he, inno matter injured by us, wagesimplacable war against us.Therefore, He did not say, “Deliverus from the evil ones,” but He said,“Deliver us from the evil one,”instructing us in no case toentertain hatred for our neighborsfor whatever wrongs we may suffer attheir hands, but to transfer ourenmity from these neighbors to theDevil, since he himself is the causeof all our wrongs.Having then made us prepared for

conflict by recalling to our mindsthe Enemy, and having cut away fromus all our negligence, He againencourages us and raises our spiritsby bringing to our remembrance theKing under Whom we are arrayed andby describing Him as more powerfulthan all. “For thine,” He says, “isthe kingdom and the power and theglory” (Mt. 6:13).2

Does it not then follow that ifthe Kingdom be His, we should fearno one, since none can withstand Himand divide the empire with Him? Forwhen He says, “[T]hine is thekingdom,” He sets before us the onewho is warring against us as one

brought into subjection, God for awhile permitting him to oppose us.For in truth he, too, is among God’sservants, though of the degradedclass, and those guilty of offense;and he would not dare attack any ofhis fellow servants, if he had notfirst received permission fromabove. And why do I say “his fellowservants”? Not even against swinedid he venture any outrage, until HeHimself allowed him (cf. Mt. 8:28-32; Mk. 5:1-13; Lk. 8:26-33); noragainst flocks, nor herds, until hehad received permission from above.“And the power,” He says.

Therefore, manifold as your weaknessmay be, you may rightly beconfident, since you have Someone toreign over you Who is able fully toaccomplish all—and easily—even byyou.“And the glory, for ever. Amen.”

Thus, He not only frees you from thedangers that are approaching you,but also can make you glorious andillustrious. For as His power isgreat, so also is His gloryunspeakable, and His power and gloryare all boundless and without end.Do you see how He has by every meansanointed His Champion and hasappointed Him to be fully worthy of

confidence?Of all the things He loathes, He

hates malice most, and He most ofall accepts the virtue that isopposed to that vice. Therefore,after the Lord’s Prayer, He againrecalls this same point of goodness,both by setting a punishment and byappointing a reward, and so urgesthe hearer to obey this command.“For if you forgive men their

trespasses,” He says, “your heavenlyFather also will forgive you; but ifyou do not forgive men theirtrespasses, neither will your Fatherforgive your trespasses” (Mt. 6:14-15).. . . . Not only by grace, but

also by works, ought we to becomeHis children. And nothing makes usso like God as being ready toforgive the wicked and wrongdoers,even as indeed He had taught beforewhen He spoke of His Father, Who“makes his sun rise on the evil andon the good” (Mt. 5:45).

1 ^Alternative reading in footnote n ofRSVCE.

2 ^Alternative reading in footnote n ofRSVCE.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

SAINT AUGUSTINEOur Lord’s Sermon onthe Mount (selection)

But now we have to consider whatwe are taught to pray for by Himthrough Whom we both learn what weare to pray for and obtain what wepray for. “Pray then like this,” Hesays:

Our Father who art in heaven,Hallowed be thy name.Thy kingdom come,Thy will be done,On earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our dailybread;And forgive us our debts,As we also have forgiven ourdebtors;And lead us not intotemptation,But deliver us from evil (Mt.6:9-13).

In all prayer, we have to gain thegoodwill of Him to Whom we pray;next, we say what we pray for.Goodwill is usually gained when weoffer praise to Him to Whom the

prayer is directed, and this praiseis usually put at the beginning ofthe prayer. And in this particular,our Lord has commanded us to saynothing else but “Our Father who artin heaven” (Mt. 6:9). For manythings are said in praise of God,which, being scattered variously andwidely over all the Holy Scriptures,everyone will be able to considerwhen reading them; yet nowhere isthere found a precept for the peopleof Israel that they should say, “OurFather,” or that they should pray toGod as a Father. For He was revealedto them as Lord, since they were yetservants, that is, still livingaccording to the flesh.I say they were servants inasmuch

as they received the commands of theLaw, which they were ordered toobserve. For the prophets often showthat this same Lord of ours mighthave been their Father also, if theyhad not strayed from Hiscommandments. For instance, we havethe statement, “Sons I have rearedand brought up, but they haverebelled against me” (Is. 1:2); and,“I say, ‘You are gods, sons of theMost High, all of you’” (Ps. 82:6);and, “If then I am a father, whereis my honor? And if I am a master,

where is my fear?” (Mal. 1:6). Inthese and very many otherstatements, the Jews are accused ofshowing by their sin that they didnot wish to become sons. Thosethings are said in prophecy of afuture Christian People, that theywould have God as a Father,according to that Gospel statement,“to all who received him . . . hegave power to become children ofGod” (Jn. 1:12). Again, the apostlePaul says, “[T]he heir, as long ashe is a child, is no better than aslave” (Gal. 4:1), and mentions thatwe have received the Spirit ofadoption, “crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”(Gal. 4:6).Because our call to an eternal

inheritance—that we might be fellowheirs with Christ and attain to theadoption of sons—is not something wedeserve, but is from God’s grace, weput this very same grace in thebeginning of our prayer when we say,“Our Father.” By that appellation,both love (what ought to be dearerto sons than a father?) and asuppliant disposition are stirredup, as is a certain presumption ofobtaining what we are about to ask.Indeed, before we ask anything, we

have received the great gift of

being allowed to call God ourFather. What would He not now giveto sons when they ask, when He hasalready granted this very thing,namely, that they might be sons?What great solicitude takes hold

of the mind, that he who says, “OurFather,” should not prove unworthyof so great a Father! For if anyplebeian should be permitted to calla senator of more advanced age“father,” without a doubt he wouldtremble and would not readilyventure to do it; he would reflecton the humbleness of his origin, thescantiness of his resources, and theworthlessness of his plebeianperson. How much more, therefore,ought we to tremble to call God“Father,” if there is so great astain and so much baseness in ourcharacter that God might much morejustly drive forth these fromcontact with Himself than a senatormight drive forth the poverty of anybeggar! Indeed, the senator despisesthe beggar’s poverty, to which evenhe himself may be reduced by thevicissitude of human affairs, butGod never falls into baseness ofcharacter. And thanks be to themercy of Him Who requires this ofus, that He should be our Father—a

relationship which can be broughtabout by no expenditure of ours, butsolely by God’s goodwill. Here alsothere is an admonition to the richand to those of noble birth, so faras this world is concerned, thatwhen they have become Christiansthey should not comport themselvesproudly towards the poor and thelowly born, since together with themthey call God “our Father”—anexpression which they cannot trulyand piously use, unless theyrecognize that they themselves arebrethren.Let the new People, therefore, who

are called to an eternalinheritance, use the word of the NewTestament, and say, “Our Father whoart in heaven,” that is, in the holyand the just. For God is notcontained in space. The heavens areindeed the higher material bodies ofthe world, but yet material, andtherefore cannot exist except insome definite place; but if God’splace is believed to be in theheavens, as meaning the higher partsof the world, the birds are ofgreater value than we, for theirlife is nearer to God. But it is notwritten, “The LORD is near to tallmen, or to those who dwell on

mountains”; but it is written, “TheLORD is near to the brokenhearted”(Ps. 34:18), which refers rather tohumility. But as a sinner is calleddust, when it is said to him, “[Y]ouare dust, and to dust you shallreturn” (Gen. 3:19), so, on theother hand, a righteous man may becalled “heaven,” for it is said tothe righteous, “For God’s temple isholy, and that temple you are” (1Cor. 3:17). Therefore, if God dwellsin His temple, and the saints areHis temple, the expression “who artin heaven” is rightly used in thesense of “who art in the saints.”And most suitable is such acomparison, so that spirituallythere may be seen to be as great adifference between the righteous andsinners as there is materiallybetween heaven and earth.In order to show this, we turn to

the east, whence the heaven rises,when we stand at prayer. It is notas if God also were dwelling there,in the sense that He Who iseverywhere present (not as occupyingspace, but by the power of Hismajesty) had forsaken the otherparts of the world. But we turn tothe east in order that our minds maybe admonished to turn to a more

excellent nature, that is, to God,when our own bodies, which areearthly, are turned to a moreexcellent body, that is, to aheavenly one.1

It is also suitable for thedifferent stages of religion andexpedient in the highest degree thatin the minds of all, both small andgreat, there should be cherishedworthy conceptions of God. Andtherefore, as regards those who asyet are taken up with the beautiesthat are seen and cannot think ofanything incorporeal—inasmuch asthey must necessarily prefer heavento earth—their opinion is moretolerable, if they believe God, Whomas yet they think of after acorporeal fashion, to be in heavenrather than upon earth. Thus, whenat any future time they have learnedthat the dignity of the soul exceedseven that of a celestial body, theymay seek Him in the soul rather thanin a celestial body. When they havelearned as well how great a distancethere is between the souls ofsinners and of the righteous, justas they did not venture when as yetthey were wise only after a carnalfashion to place Him on earth, butin heaven, so afterwards with better

faith or intelligence they may seekHim again in the souls of therighteous rather than in those ofsinners. Hence, when it is said,“Our Father who art in heaven,” itis rightly understood to mean in thehearts of the righteous, as it werein His holy temple. At the sametime, he who prays wishes Him Whomhe invokes to dwell in himself also;when he strives after this, hepractices righteousness—a kind ofservice by which God is attracted todwell in the soul.Let us see now what things are to

be prayed for. For it has beenstated to Whom one prays, and whereHe dwells.The first thing prayed for is

mentioned in the petition “Hallowedbe thy name” (Mt. 6:9). And this isprayed for, not as if the name ofGod were not holy already, but thatit may be held holy by men—that is,that God may so become known to themthat they shall reckon nothing moreholy, and that there be nothing theyare more afraid of offending.Because it is said, “In Judah God isknown, his name is great in Israel”(Ps. 76:1), we are not to understandthe statement as if God were less inone place, greater in another; but

His name is great in that placewhere He is named according to thegreatness of His majesty. And so Hisname is said to be holy in thatplace where He is named withveneration and the fear of offendingHim. And this is what is now goingon as the Gospel, by becoming knowneverywhere throughout the differentnations, commends the name of theone God by means of the ministry ofHis Son.In the next place there follows,

“Thy kingdom come” (Mt. 6:10). TheLord Himself teaches in the Gospelthat the Day of Judgment will takeplace at the very time when theGospel will have been preached amongall nations (cf. Mt. 24:14)—anaction that belongs to the hallowingof God’s name. For here also theexpression “Thy kingdom come” is notused in such a way as if God werenot now reigning. But someoneperhaps might say the expression“come” meant “come upon earth”—asif, indeed, He were not even nowreally reigning upon earth, and hadnot always reigned upon it from thefoundation of the world. “Come,”therefore, is to be understood inthe sense of “be manifested to men.”For in the same way that a light

which is present is absent to theblind and to those who shut theireyes, so the Kingdom of God, thoughit never departs from the earth, isyet absent to those who are ignorantof it. But no one will be allowed tobe ignorant of the Kingdom of Godwhen His Only-begotten comes fromheaven, not only in a way to beapprehended by the understanding,but also visibly in the Person ofthe Divine Man, in order to judgethe living and the dead. And afterthat judgment, when the process ofdistinguishing and separating therighteous from the unrighteous hastaken place, God will so dwell inthe righteous that there will be noneed for anyone to be taught by man,but all will be, as it is written,“taught by the LORD” (Is. 54:13; cf.Jn. 6:45). Then will the blessedlife in all its parts be perfectedin the saints unto eternity, just asnow the most holy and blessedheavenly angels are wise andblessed, since God alone is theirLight. The Lord has promised thisalso to His own: “For in theresurrection,” He says, “they . . .are like angels in heaven” (Mt.22:30).And therefore, after that petition

when we say, “Thy kingdom come,”there follows, “Thy will be done,[o]n earth as it is in heaven” (Mt.6:10). In other words, just as Yourwill is in the angels who are inheaven, so that they wholly cleaveto You and thoroughly enjoy You—noerror beclouding their wisdom, nomisery hindering their blessedness—so let it be done in Your saints whoare on earth and made from theearth, so far as the body isconcerned, and who, although it isinto a heavenly habitation andexchange, are yet to be taken fromthe earth. To this there is areference also in that doxology ofthe angels, “Glory to God in thehighest, and on earth peace amongmen with whom he is pleased!” (Lk.2:14). When our goodwill, whichfollows Him Who calls, has gonebefore, the will of God is perfectedin us as it is in the heavenlyangels. Thus, no antagonism standsin the way of our blessedness, andthis is peace.“Thy will be done” is also rightly

understood in the sense of “letobedience be rendered to Thyprecepts,” as in heaven, so onearth, that is, as by the angels, soby men. For the Lord Himself says

that the will of God is done whenHis precepts are obeyed: “My food isto do the will of him who sent me”(Jn. 4:34), and “I have come downfrom heaven, not to do my own will,but the will of him who sent me”(Jn. 6:38), and “Here are my motherand my brethren! For whoever doesthe will of my Father in heaven ismy brother, and sister, and mother”(Mt. 12:49-50). Therefore, the willof God is accomplished in those whodo the will of God, not because theycause God to will, but because theydo what He wills, that is, they doaccording to His will.There is also that other

interpretation of “Thy will be done,[o]n earth as it is in heaven”: asin the holy and just, so also insinners. And this, besides, may beunderstood in two ways. First, weshould pray even for our enemies(for what else are they to becalled, since the Christian andCatholic name still spreads in spiteof them?), so that it is said, “Thywill be done, [o]n earth as it is inheaven”—as if the meaning were “asthe righteous do Thy will, in likemanner let sinners also do it, sothat they may be converted to You,”or “let Thy will be done, on earth

as it is in heaven, so that everyonemay get his own,” which will takeplace at the Last Judgment, therighteous being requited with areward, sinners with condemnation—when the sheep shall be separatedfrom the goats (cf. Mt. 25:33, 46).An additional interpretation is

not absurd—indeed, it is thoroughlyin accord with both our faith andour hope—that we are to take heavenand earth in the sense of spirit andflesh. And since the apostle says,“I of myself serve the law of Godwith my mind, but with my flesh Iserve the law of sin” (Rom. 7:25),we see that the will of God is donein the mind, that is, in the spirit.But when death shall have beenswallowed up in victory and thismortal body shall have put onimmortality, which will happen atthe resurrection of the flesh and atthat change which is promised to therighteous (according to theprediction of the same apostle [cf.1 Cor. 15:42, 45]), then let thewill of God be done on earth, as itis in heaven. In other words, let itfollow in such a way that as thespirit does not resist God, butfollows and does His will, so thebody also may not resist the spirit

or soul, which at present isharassed by the weakness of the bodyand is prone to fleshly habit.This will be an element of the

perfect peace in the life eternal:that not only shall the will bepresent with us, but also theperformance of what is good. “I canwill what is right,” He says, “but Icannot do it” (Rom. 7:18), for notyet on earth as in heaven (that is,not yet in the flesh as in thespirit) is the will of God done.Even in our misery, the will of Godis done, when we suffer those thingsthrough the flesh that we deserve invirtue of our mortality and whichour nature has deserved because ofits sin. But we are to pray that thewill of God may be done on earth asin heaven, that as with the heart wedelight in the law after the inwardman (cf. Rom. 7:22), so also, whenthe change in our body has takenplace, no part of us may, on accountof earthly griefs or pleasures,stand opposed to this, our delight.Nor is still another view

inconsistent with truth: that we areto understand the words “Thy will bedone, [o]n earth as it is in heaven”as “in our Lord Jesus ChristHimself, so also in the Church”—as

if one were to say, “as in the ManWho fulfilled the will of theFather, so also in the woman who isbetrothed to Him.” Heaven and earthare suitably understood as if theywere man and wife, since the earthis fruitful from the heavenfertilizing it.The fourth petition is “Give us

this day our daily bread” (Mt.6:11). “Daily bread” may mean allthose things that meet the wants ofthis life, in reference to which Heteaches, “[D]o not be anxious abouttomorrow” (Mt. 6:34)—so that on thisaccount there is added, “Give usthis day.” It may also mean theSacrament of the Body of Christ,which we daily receive, or it couldmean spiritual food, of which thesame Lord says, “Do not labor forthe food which perishes” (Jn. 6:27),and, “I am the bread which came downfrom heaven” (Jn. 6:41).But which of these three views is

the more probable is a question forconsideration. Perhaps someone maywonder why we should pray that wemay obtain the things that arenecessary for this life—forinstance, food and clothing—when theLord Himself says, “[D]o not beanxious about your life, what you

shall eat or what you shall drink,nor about your body, what you shallput on” (Mt. 6:25). Can anyone notbe anxious for a thing which heprays that he may obtain? Prayer isto be offered with such greatearnestness of mind that all thathas been said about shutting ourclosets applies to prayers (cf. Mt.6:6), as does the command, “But seekfirst his kingdom and hisrighteousness, and all these thingsshall be yours as well” (Mt. 6:33).Certainly He does not say, “Seekfirst the Kingdom of God, and thenseek those other things”; but “allthese things,” He says, “shall beyours as well,” that is to say, eventhough you are not seeking them. ButI do not know whether this can befound out—how one is rightly saidnot to seek what he most earnestlypleads with God to receive. . . .It remains, therefore, that we

should understand the daily bread asspiritual, divine precepts, which weought daily to meditate upon andlabor after. With respect to these,the Lord says, “Do not labor for thefood which perishes, but for thefood which endures to eternal life”(Jn. 6:27). That food, moreover, iscalled daily food at present, so

long as this temporal life ismeasured by means of days thatdepart and return. So long as thedesire of the soul is directed byturns, now to what is higher, now towhat is lower, now to spiritualthings, now to carnal—as is the casewith him who at one time isnourished with food, and at anothertime suffers hunger—bread isnecessary daily in order that thehungry man may be restored, and inorder that he who is falling downmay be raised up. As our body inthis life, before that great change,is replenished with food because itfeels loss, so may the soul also bereinvigorated by the food of theprecepts, since by means of temporaldesires it sustains a loss, as itwere, in its striving after God.Moreover, it is said, “Give us

this day,” as long as it is calledtoday, that is, in this temporallife. For we shall be so abundantlyprovided with spiritual food afterthis life, in eternity, that it willnot then be called daily bread.There, the flight of time, whichcauses days to succeed days (whenceit may be called “today”), will notexist. But as it is said, “O thattoday you would hearken to his

voice!” (Ps. 95:7), which theapostle interprets in the Epistle tothe Hebrews, “as long as it iscalled ‘today’” (Heb. 3:13), so herealso the expression “Give us thisday” is to be understood. But ifanyone wishes to understand thesentence before us also as meaningfood necessary for the body, or ofthe Sacrament of the Lord’s Body, wemust take all three meaningsconjointly. We are to ask for allthree at once as daily bread: thebread necessary for the body, thevisible hallowed Bread, and theinvisible bread of the word of God.The fifth petition follows: “And

forgive us our debts, [a]s we alsohave forgiven our debtors” (Mt.6:12). It is manifest that by“debts,” sins are meant, since theLord Himself makes the statement,“[Y]ou will never get out till youhave paid the last penny” (Mt.5:26), and He called those men“debtors” who were reported to Himas having been killed: those on whomthe tower fell, or those whose bloodHerod had mingled with thesacrifice. He said that men supposedthey died because they were sinners—debtors above measure—and added, “Itell you, No; but unless you repent

you will all likewise perish” (Lk.13:3).Here, therefore, “debts” is not a

money claim that one is urged toforgive, but whatever sins anothermay have committed against him. Forwe are enjoined to forgive a moneyclaim by another precept that hasbeen given earlier: “[I]f any onewould sue you and take your coat,let him have your cloak as well”(Mt. 5:40). Nor is it necessary toforgive a debt to every moneydebtor, but only to him who isunwilling to pay, to such an extentthat he wishes even to go to court.“[T]he Lord’s servant,” as says theapostle, “must not be quarrelsome”(2 Tim. 2:24). Therefore, to him whoshall be unwilling, eitherspontaneously or when requested, topay the money which he owes, it isto be forgiven. His unwillingness topay will arise from one of twocauses: either that he does not haveit or that he is avaricious andcovetous of the property of another.Both of these belong to a state ofpoverty, for the former is povertyof substance, the latter poverty ofdisposition. Whoever, therefore,forgives such a man’s debts forgivesone who is poor and performs a

Christian work, while the ruleremains in force that he should beprepared in his mind to lose what isowed to him. If he has made everyattempt, quietly and gently, to havethe debt paid back to him, not somuch aiming at a money profit asattempting to bring the man round towhat is right—without a doubt it ishurtful to him to have the means ofpaying, and yet not to pay—not onlywill he not sin, but he will even doa very great service in trying toprevent that other man who iswishing to make gain of another’smoney from making shipwreck of thefaith (and this is so much moreserious a thing that there is nocomparison).And hence it is understood that in

this fifth petition also when wesay, “Forgive us our debts,” thewords are spoken not indeed inreference to money, but in referenceto all the ways in which anyone sinsagainst us, and by consequence inreference to money also. For the manwho refuses to pay you the moneywhich he owes, when he has the meansof doing so, sins against you. Andif you do not forgive this sin, youwill not be able to say, “Forgiveus, as we also forgive”; but if you

pardon it, you see how he who isenjoined to offer such a prayer isadmonished also to forgive amonetary debt.This petition may indeed be

construed in another way. When wesay, “Forgive us our debts, as wealso have forgiven,” then we areconvicted of having acted contraryto this rule only if we do notforgive those who ask pardon,because we also wish to be forgivenby our most gracious Father when weask His pardon. But, on the otherhand, by that precept whereby we areenjoined to pray for our enemies, itis not for those who ask pardon thatwe are enjoined to pray, for thosewho are already in such a state ofmind are no longer enemies. It isimpossible, however, that one couldtruthfully say that he prays for onewhom he has not pardoned. Andtherefore we must confess that allsins committed against us are to beforgiven, if we wish those sinswhich we commit against our Fatherto be forgiven by Him.The sixth petition is “And bring

us not into temptation” (cf. Mt.6:13). Some manuscripts have theword “lead,” which is, I judge,equivalent in meaning, for both

translations have arisen from theone Greek word that is used. Butmany who pray express themselvesthus: “Allow us not to be led intotemptation,” explaining in whatsense the word “lead” is used. ForGod does not Himself lead, butallows that man whom He has deprivedof His assistance to be led intotemptation, in accordance with amost hidden arrangement, and withwhat he deserves. Often, formanifest reasons, He also judges himworthy of being so deprived andallowed to be led into temptation.But it is one thing to be led into

temptation, another to be tempted.For without temptation, no one canbe proved—whether to himself, as itis written, “He that isinexperienced knows few things”(Sir. 34:10)—or to another, as theapostle says, “[A]nd though mycondition was a trial to you, youdid not scorn or despise me” (Gal.4:14). From this circumstance, SaintPaul learned that they weresteadfast; they were not turnedaside from charity by thosetribulations which had happened tothe apostle according to the flesh.For even before all temptations, weare known to God, Who knows all

things before they happen.When, therefore, it is said,

“[T]he LORD your God is testing you,to know whether you love the LORDyour God with all your heart andwith all your soul” (Deut. 13:3),the words “to know” are employed forwhat is the real state of the case,that He may make you know—just as wespeak of a joyful day, because itmakes us joyful; of a sluggishfrost, because it makes us sluggish;and of innumerable things of thesame sort, which are found inordinary speech, in the discourse oflearned men, or in the HolyScriptures. And the heretics who areopposed to the Old Testament, notunderstanding this, think that thebrand of ignorance, as it were, isto be placed upon Him of Whom it issaid, “[T]he LORD your God istesting you”—as if in the Gospel itwere not written of the Lord, “Thishe said to test him, for he himselfknew what he would do” (Jn. 6:6).For if He knew the heart of him whomHe was tempting, what is it that Hewished to see by tempting him? Butin reality, the temptation wasallowed in order that he who wastempted might become known tohimself and that he might condemn

his own despair on the multitudesbeing filled with the Lord’s bread,while he had thought they did nothave enough to eat.Here, therefore, the prayer is not

that we should not be tempted, butthat we should not be brought intotemptation, as if, were it necessarythat anyone should be examined byfire, he should not pray that heshould not be touched by the fire,but that he should not be consumed.For “[t]he kiln tests the potter’svessels; so the test of a man is inhis reasoning” (Sir. 27:5). Joseph,therefore, was tempted with theallurement of debauchery, but he wasnot brought into temptation (cf.Gen. 39:7-12). Susanna was tempted,but she was not led or brought intotemptation (cf. Dan. 13:19-23), andso also many others of both sexes.But Job was tempted most of all. Inregard to his admirablesteadfastness in the Lord his God,those heretical enemies of the OldTestament, when they wish to mock itwith sacrilegious mouth, brandishone passage above other weapons:Satan begged that Job should betempted (cf. Job 1:11). Then theseheretics put the question tounskillful men—who are by no means

able to understand such things—howSatan could speak with God. Theseheretics do not understand (for theycannot, inasmuch as they are blindedby superstition and controversy)that God does not occupy space bythe mass of His bodiliness. God doesnot exist in one place, and not inanother, or at least have one parthere, and another elsewhere, but Heis everywhere present in Hismajesty, not divided by parts, buteverywhere complete.But if they take a fleshly view of

what is said (“Heaven is my throneand the earth is my footstool” [Is.66:1])—to which passage our Lordalso bears testimony, when He says,“Do not swear at all, either byheaven, for it is the throne of God,or by the earth, for it is hisfootstool” (Mt. 5:34-35)—why wonderif the Devil, being placed on earth,stood before the feet of God andspoke something in His presence?When will they be able to understandthat there is no soul, howeverwicked, in whose conscience God doesnot speak, as long as they can yetreason in any way? For who but Godhas written the law of nature in thehearts of men? The apostle says ofthat law: “When Gentiles who have

not the law do by nature what thelaw requires, they are a law tothemselves, even though they do nothave the law. They show that whatthe law requires is written on theirhearts, while their conscience alsobears witness and their conflictingthoughts accuse or perhaps excusethem on that day when, according tomy gospel, God judges the secrets ofmen by Christ Jesus” (Rom. 2:14-16).And therefore, as in the case of

every rational soul that thinks andreasons, even though blinded bypassion, we attribute whatever inits reasoning is true, not toitself, but to the very light oftruth by which, however faintly, itis illuminated according to itscapacity so as to perceive somemeasure of truth by its reasoning.Why wonder, then, if the depravedspirit of the Devil, pervertedthough it be by lust, should berepresented as having heard from thevoice of God Himself (from the voiceof the very Truth) whatever truethought it has entertained about arighteous man whom it was proposingto tempt? But whatever is false isto be attributed to that lust fromwhich he has received the name ofDevil.

It is also the case that God, asbeing Lord and Governor of all andDisposer according to the merits ofevery deed, has often spoken bymeans of a corporeal and visiblecreature, whether to good or bad,as, for instance, by means ofangels, who appeared also under theaspect of men, and by means of theprophets, saying, “Thus says theLord.” Why wonder, then, if, thoughnot in mere thought, at least bymeans of some creature fitted forsuch a work, God is said to havespoken with the Devil?And let them not imagine it

unworthy of God’s dignity (and, asit were, of His righteousness) thatHe spoke with Satan, for He spokewith an angelic spirit, although onefoolish and lustful, just as if Hewere speaking with a foolish andlustful human spirit. Or let suchparties themselves tell us how Hespoke with that rich man whose mostfoolish covetousness He wished tocensure, saying, “Fool! This nightyour soul is required of you; andthe things you have prepared, whosewill they be?” (Lk. 12:20).Certainly, the Lord Himself says soin the Gospel, to which thoseheretics, whether or not they wish

to do so, bend their necks. But ifthey are puzzled that Satan asksfrom God that a righteous man shouldbe tempted, I do not explain how ithappened, but I compel them toexplain why it is said in the Gospelby the Lord Himself to thedisciples, “[B]ehold, Satan demandedto have you, that he might sift youlike wheat” (Lk. 22:31), and why Hesays to Peter, “[B]ut I have prayedfor you that your faith may notfail” (Lk. 22:32). And when theyexplain this to me, they explain tothemselves at the same time whatthey question me about. But if theyshould not be able to explain this,let them not dare with rashness toblame in any book what they read inthe Gospel without offense.Temptations, therefore, take place

by means of Satan—not by his power,but by the Lord’s permission—eitherfor the purpose of punishing men fortheir sins, or of proving andexercising them in accordance withthe Lord’s compassion. And there isa very great difference in thenature of the temptations into whicheach one may fall. For Judas, whosold his Lord, did not fall into atemptation of the same nature asPeter fell into when, under the

influence of terror, he denied hisLord. There are also temptationscommon to man, I believe, wheneveryone, though well disposed, yetyielding to human frailty, fallsinto error in some plan or isirritated against a brother a littlemore than Christian calmness demandsin the earnest endeavor to bring himround to what is right. Concerningthese temptations, the apostle says,“No temptation has overtaken youthat is not common to man,” while hesays at the same time, “God isfaithful, and he will not let you betempted beyond your strength, butwith the temptation will alsoprovide the way of escape, that youmay be able to endure it” (1 Cor.10:13). In that sentence, he makesit sufficiently evident that we arenot to pray that we may not betempted, but that we may not be ledinto temptation. For we are led intotemptation if such temptations havehappened to us that we are not ableto bear. But when dangeroustemptations, into which it isruinous for us to be brought andled, arise either from prosperous oradverse temporal circumstances, noone is broken down by theirksomeness of adversity, unless he

is led captive by the delight ofprosperity.The seventh and last petition is

“But deliver us from evil” (Mt.6:13). We are to pray not only thatwe may not be led into the evil fromwhich we are free, which is asked inthe sixth petition, but that we mayalso be delivered from that intowhich we have been already led. Andwhen this has been done, nothingfrightening will remain, nor willany temptation at all have to befeared. And yet in this life, solong as we carry about our presentmortality, into which we were led bythe persuasion of the serpent, it isnot to be hoped that this can be thecase, yet we are to hope that atsome future time it will take place.And this is the hope which is notseen, of which the apostle said,“Now hope that is seen is not hope”(Rom. 8:24). Yet the wisdom which isgranted in this life also is not tobe despaired of by the faithfulservants of God. With the most waryvigilance, we should shun what wehave understood (from the Lord’srevealing it) is to be shunned; andwith the most ardent love, we shouldseek what we have understood (fromthe Lord’s revealing it) is to be

sought after. Thus, after theremaining burden of this mortalityhas been laid down in the act ofdying, there shall be perfected inevery part of man at the fit timethe blessedness which has begun inthis life, and which we have fromtime to time strained every nerve tolay hold of and secure.The distinction among these seven

petitions ought to be considered andcommended. Our temporal life isbeing spent now, and what is eternalis being hoped for; eternal thingsare superior in dignity, even if itis only when we are finished withtemporal things that we pass toeternal things. The first threepetitions begin to be answered inthis life, which is spent in thepresent world. The hallowing ofGod’s name begins with the coming ofthe Lord of humility; the coming ofHis Kingdom, to which He will comein splendor, will be manifested notafter the end of the world, but inthe end of the world; and theperfect doing of His will on earthas in heaven (whether you understandby “heaven and earth” the “righteousand sinners,” or “spirit and flesh,”or the “Lord and the Church,” or allthese things together) will be

brought to completion with theperfecting of our blessedness, andtherefore at the close of the world.Yet all three will remain even ineternity. The hallowing of God’sname will go on for ever; there isno end of His Kingdom; and eternallife is promised to our perfectedblessedness. Hence, those threethings will remain consummated andthoroughly completed in that lifewhich is promised us.But the other four things which we

ask seem to me to belong to thistemporal life. The first of them is“Give us this day our daily bread”(Mt. 6:11). Whether by this thingwhich is called daily bread is meantspiritual bread, or what is visiblein the Sacrament, or our sustenance,“daily bread” belongs to the presenttime, which He has called “today,”not because spiritual food is noteverlasting, but because what iscalled daily food in the Scripturesis made present to the soul eitherby the sound of the expression or bytemporal signs. Such temporal signswill certainly no longer exist whenall will be “taught by God” (Jn.6:45; cf. Is. 54:13), and thus allwill no longer teach others bymovement of their bodies, but each

one for himself by the purity of hismind will drink in the ineffablelight of Truth Itself. Perhaps thereis another reason why it is calledbread, not drink: because bread isconverted into nourishment bybreaking and masticating it (just asthe Scriptures feed the soul bybeing opened up and made the subjectof discourse), but drink, whenprepared, passes as it is into thebody. At present, then, the truth isbread, when it is called “dailybread”; but it will be drink whenthere will be no need of the laborof discussing and discoursing (as itwere of breaking and masticating),but merely of drinking unmingled andtransparent truth.And sins are at present forgiven

us, and at present we forgive them—this is the second petition of thefour that remain—but then there willbe no pardon of sins, because therewill be no sins. And temptationsassault us in this temporal life,but they will have no existence whenthe words “Thou shalt hide them inthe secret of thy face” (Ps. 30:21,Douay Rheims Version) will be fullyrealized. And the evil from which wewish to be delivered, as well as thedeliverance from evil itself,

belongs certainly to this life.Being mortal, we have deserved evilat the hand of God’s justice, and weare delivered from it by His mercy.The sevenfold number of these

petitions also seems to me tocorrespond to that sevenfold numberout of which the whole sermon beforeus [the Sermon on the Mount] hasarisen. If the poor in spirit areblessed through the fear of God,inasmuch as theirs is the Kingdom ofHeaven, then let us ask that thename of God be hallowed among menbecause “the fear of the LORD isclean, enduring for ever” (Ps.19:9).If the meek are blessed through

piety, inasmuch as they shallinherit the earth, then let us askthat His Kingdom come, whether it beover ourselves (that we may becomemeek, and not resist Him), orwhether it be from heaven to earthin the splendor of the Lord’sAdvent, in which we shall rejoiceand be praised when He says, “Come,O blessed of my Father, inherit thekingdom prepared for you from thefoundation of the world” (Mt.25:34). For the prophet says, “Mysoul makes its boast in the LORD;let the afflicted hear and be glad”

(Ps. 34:2).If those who mourn are blessed

through knowledge, inasmuch as theyshall be comforted, then let us praythat His will be done on earth as itis in heaven, because when the body(which is, as it were, the earth)shall agree in a final and completepeace with the soul (which is, as itwere, heaven), we shall not mourn,for there is no other mourningbelonging to this present time,except when these contend againsteach other and compel us to say, “Isee in my members another law at warwith the law of my mind,” and compelus to testify our grief with tearfulvoice, “Wretched man that I am! Whowill deliver me from this body ofdeath?” (Rom. 7:23, 24).If those who hunger and thirst

after righteousness are blessedthrough fortitude, inasmuch as theyshall be filled, then let us praythat our daily bread may be given tous today; may we, supported andsustained by this bread, be able toreach that most abundant fullness.If the merciful are blessed

through prudence, inasmuch as theyshall obtain mercy, then let usforgive our debtors their debts, and

let us pray that ours may beforgiven us.If the pure in heart are blessed

through understanding, inasmuch asthey shall see God, then let us praynot to be led into temptation, lestwe should have a double heart in notseeking after a single good to whichwe may refer all our actions, butinstead in pursuing things temporaland earthly. For temptations arisingfrom those things that seem to menburdensome and calamitous have nopower over us, if those othertemptations that befall us throughthe enticements of things that mencount as good and cause forrejoicing have no power.If the peacemakers are blessed

through wisdom, inasmuch as theyshall be called the children of God,then let us pray that we may befreed from evil, for that veryfreedom will make us free, that is,sons of God, so that we may cry inthe spirit of adoption, “Abba!Father!” (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6).Nor indeed are we to pass

carelessly by the circumstance thatof all those petitions in which theLord has taught us to pray, He hasjudged that the one which has

reference to the forgiveness of sinsis chiefly to be commended. In it,He would have us be merciful,because mercy is the only wisdom forescaping misery. In no otherpetition do we pray that we, as itwere, enter into a covenant withGod, for we say, “[F]orgive us ourdebts, [a]s we also have forgivenour debtors” (Mt. 6:12). And if welie in that covenant, the wholeprayer is fruitless. He says, “Forif you forgive men their trespasses,your heavenly Father also willforgive you; but if you do notforgive men their trespasses,neither will your Father forgiveyour trespasses” (Mt. 6:14).

1 ^According to Saint Basil the Great (Onthe Holy Spirit, no. 66), Christians haveprayed facing the east ever since the timeof the apostles. See also Joseph CardinalRatzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy, trans.John Saward (San Francisco: Ignatius Press,2000), 74-84.