On the Lord's Prayer 1–22

The precepts of the gospel, dearest brothers, are nothing other than divine teachings, foundations for building up hope, supports for strengthening faith, nourishment for warming the heart, rudders for directing the journey, safeguards for obtaining salvation; which, while they instruct the teachable minds of believers on earth, lead them to the heavenly kingdom. God willed that many things should be spoken and heard through the prophets, his servants; but how much greater are the things that the Son speaks, which the Word of God, who was in the prophets, testifies with his own voice, no longer commanding that the way be prepared for one who is coming, but himself coming and opening and showing the way to us, so that we, who formerly wandered heedless and blind in the darkness of death, might, enlightened by the light of grace, keep to the road of life with the Lord as our guide and ruler.

Among his other saving warnings and divine precepts by which he provides for his people's salvation, he himself also gave a form of prayer; he himself advised and instructed us what to pray for. He who made us live taught us also to pray, with that same kindness, of course, with which he has deigned to give and bestow everything else, so that, while we speak to the Father in the petition and prayer that the Son taught, we may be more readily heard. He had already foretold that the hour was coming when true worshippers would worship the Father in spirit and in truth; and he fulfilled what he had promised before, so that we, who have received the Spirit and the truth from his sanctification, may also worship truly and spiritually by his tradition. For what prayer can be more spiritual than that which was given us by Christ, by whom the Holy Spirit too was sent to us? What petition more true before the Father than that which was uttered by the mouth of the Son, who is the truth? So that to pray otherwise than he taught is not only ignorance but also a fault, since he himself laid it down and said: "You reject the commandment of God, so as to establish your own tradition."

Let us pray, then, dearest brothers, as God our Master taught. It is a friendly and intimate prayer to ask God with his own words, to let the prayer of Christ rise to his ears. Let the Father recognize his Son's words when we make our petition; let him who dwells within in our heart be also in our voice; and since we have him as our advocate with the Father for our sins, when we sinners ask on behalf of our offences, let us bring forth the words of our advocate. For since he says, "Whatever we ask of the Father in his name, he will give us," how much more effectively do we obtain what we ask in Christ's name if we ask in his own prayer?

And let those who pray have speech and petition marked by discipline, keeping quietness and modesty. Let us think that we stand in the sight of God. We must please the divine eyes both by the posture of the body and by the manner of the voice. For as it is the mark of the shameless to make a din with shouting, so, on the contrary, it befits the modest to pray with restrained petitions. Indeed, the Lord in his teaching commanded us to pray in secret, in hidden and remote places, in our very bedrooms, which is more in keeping with faith, so that we may know that God is present everywhere, hears and sees all, and in the fullness of his majesty penetrates even hidden and secret places, as it is written: "I am a God at hand, and not a God far off. If a man hides himself in hiding places, shall I then not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth?" And again: "In every place the eyes of God behold the good and the evil." And when we meet together with the brothers and celebrate the divine sacrifices with God's priest, we ought to be mindful of modesty and discipline, not to throw our prayers about at random with unruly voices, nor to hurl with tumultuous talkativeness a petition that should be commended to God with modesty; because God is a hearer not of the voice but of the heart. Nor need he be reminded by shouting who sees our thoughts, as the Lord proves, saying: "Why do you think evil in your hearts?" And in another place: "And all the churches shall know that I am the searcher of the reins and the heart."

This Hannah, in the first book of Kingdoms, bearing a figure of the church, keeps and observes: she prayed to God not with a clamorous petition but silently and modestly within the very recesses of her heart. She spoke with a hidden prayer but with manifest faith; she spoke not with her voice but with her heart, because she knew that so the Lord hears; and she effectively obtained what she asked, because she asked faithfully. The divine Scripture declares it, saying: "She spoke in her heart, and her lips moved, and her voice was not heard, and the Lord heard her." Likewise we read in the psalms: "Speak in your hearts, and be pierced with sorrow in your beds." Through Jeremiah too the Holy Spirit suggests and teaches these same things, saying: "But in the mind, O Lord, you ought to be worshipped."

And let the worshipper, dearest brothers, not be ignorant of how the tax collector prayed with the Pharisee in the temple. Not lifting his eyes shamelessly to heaven, nor raising his hands insolently, but beating his breast and bearing witness to the sins shut up within, he implored the help of the divine mercy; and while the Pharisee was pleased with himself, the one who asked in this way rather deserved to be sanctified, who did not place his hope of salvation in confidence in his own innocence, since no one is innocent, but, confessing his sins, prayed humbly; and he who pardons the humble heard him as he prayed. The Lord sets this down in his gospel and says: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing, prayed thus with himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, unjust, robbers, adulterers, as is also this tax collector. I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' But the tax collector stood far off and would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying: 'God, be merciful to me a sinner.' I say to you, this man went down to his house justified rather than that Pharisee; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Having learned these things, dearest brothers, from the divine reading, now that we know how we ought to approach prayer, let us learn also, with the Lord teaching us, what to pray. "Thus," he says, "pray: Our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed be your name; your kingdom come; your will be done in heaven and on earth; give us today our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors; and do not allow us to be led into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

Before all things, the teacher of peace and master of unity did not want prayer to be made individually and privately, so that one who prays should pray only for himself. We do not say, "My Father, who are in heaven," nor, "Give me today my bread"; nor does each one ask that only his own debt be forgiven him, or ask for himself alone that he not be led into temptation and be delivered from evil. Our prayer is public and common; and when we pray, we pray not for one but for the whole people, because we, the whole people, are one. The God of peace and master of concord, who taught unity, willed that one should pray thus for all, just as he himself bore all in one. This law of prayer the three youths observed, shut up in the furnace of fire, harmonious in prayer and concordant in the agreement of spirit. The faithful word of divine Scripture declares it, and, while it teaches how such men prayed, it gives an example that we should imitate in our prayers, so that we may be such as they. "Then," it says, "those three, as from one mouth, sang a hymn and blessed God." They spoke as from one mouth, and Christ had not yet taught them to pray. And therefore their speech was prevailing and effective as they prayed, because a peaceful, simple, and spiritual prayer won the Lord's favour. So too we find that the apostles prayed with the disciples after the Lord's ascension: "They were all," it says, "persevering with one mind in prayer, with the women and Mary, who had been the mother of Jesus, and his brothers." They persevered with one mind in prayer, showing by both the urgency and the concord of their prayer that God, "who makes those of one mind to dwell in a house," does not admit into the divine and eternal house any but those among whom prayer is of one mind.

And what are the sacraments of the Lord's Prayer, dearest brothers, how many, how great, briefly gathered in words but spiritually rich in power, so that nothing at all is left out that is not included in our petitions and prayers in this summary of heavenly teaching! "Thus," he says, "pray: Our Father, who are in heaven." The new man, reborn and restored to his God by his grace, says "Father" in the first place, because he has now begun to be a son. "He came," it says, "to his own, and his own did not receive him. As many as received him, he gave them power to become sons of God, who believe in his name." He, then, who has believed in his name and become a son of God ought to begin here, both to give thanks and to profess himself a son of God, since he names God his Father in heaven; and also to bear witness, among the very first words of his new birth, that he has renounced his earthly and fleshly father and has begun to know and have as father only him who is in heaven, as it is written: "Those who say to their father and mother, 'I do not know you,' and have not acknowledged their own children, these have kept your precepts and observed your covenant." Likewise the Lord in his gospel commanded that we call no one on earth our father, because, of course, we have one Father, who is in heaven. And to the disciple who had mentioned his dead father he answered: "Let the dead bury their dead." For he had said that his father was dead, whereas the Father of believers is living.

Nor ought we to notice and understand only this, dearest brothers, that we call him Father who is in heaven; but we add and say "our Father," that is, of those who believe, of those who, sanctified through him and restored by the birth of spiritual grace, have begun to be sons of God. This word also rebukes and strikes the Jews, because they not only faithlessly spurned the Christ who had been announced to them through the prophets and sent to them first, but also cruelly killed him. They can no longer call the Lord Father, since the Lord confounds and refutes them, saying: "You are born of the devil as father, and you want to do the desires of your father. For he was a murderer from the beginning and did not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him." And through the prophet Isaiah God cries out in indignation: "I have begotten and raised up sons, but they have despised me. The ox has known its owner, and the ass its master's manger; but Israel has not known me, and my people has not understood me. Woe to the sinful nation, a people full of sins, a wicked seed, lawless sons. You have forsaken the Lord and provoked the Holy One of Israel to indignation." In reproach of them we Christians, when we pray, say "our Father," because he has now begun to be ours and has ceased to be the Father of the Jews who forsook him. Nor can a sinful people be a son; but to those to whom remission of sins is given the name of sons is assigned, and to them eternity too is promised, as the Lord himself says: "Everyone who commits sin is a slave. And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever."

How great is the Lord's indulgence, how great the abundance of his condescension and goodness toward us, that he willed us to celebrate prayer in the sight of God in such a way as to call the Lord Father, and that, as Christ is the Son of God, so we too should be called sons of God! None of us would dare to touch this name in prayer unless he himself had allowed us to pray so. We ought, then, to remember and know, dearest brothers, that when we call God Father we ought to act as sons of God, so that, as we are pleased with God the Father, so he may be pleased with us. Let us live as temples of God, so that it may be evident that the Lord dwells in us. Let not our conduct be unworthy of the Spirit, so that we who have begun to be spiritual and heavenly may think and do only spiritual and heavenly things; because the Lord God himself has said: "Those who glorify me I will glorify, and those who despise me shall be despised." The blessed apostle also has set down in his letter: "You are not your own, for you were bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body."

After this we say, "Hallowed be your name": not that we wish for God that he be hallowed by our prayers, but that we ask of the Lord that his name be hallowed in us. Besides, by whom is God hallowed, who himself hallows? But because he himself said, "Be holy, since I too am holy," we ask and entreat that we, who were sanctified in baptism, may persevere in what we have begun to be. And this we pray for daily. For we have need of daily sanctification, so that we, who sin daily, may cleanse our sins by constant sanctification. What that sanctification is which is conferred on us by God's condescension, the apostle proclaims, saying: "Neither the sexually immoral, nor idol-worshippers, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor those who lust after males, nor thieves, nor the fraudulent, nor drunkards, nor the abusive, nor robbers will obtain the kingdom of God. And such indeed you were; but you have been washed, but you have been justified, but you have been sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." He says that we have been sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. We pray that this sanctification may remain in us; and because our Lord and Judge warns the man he had healed and given life to sin no more, lest something worse happen to him, we make this petition in continual prayers, we ask this day and night, that the sanctification and quickening received from God's grace may be kept by his protection.

There follows in the prayer: "Your kingdom come." We ask that the kingdom of God be made present to us, just as we ask that his name be hallowed in us. For when does God not reign, or when does that begin with him which always has been and never ceases to be? We ask that our kingdom come, promised us by God, won by Christ's blood and passion, so that we who were formerly servants in the world may afterwards reign under Christ's rule, as he himself promises and says: "Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom that has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world." But Christ himself too, dearest brothers, can be the kingdom of God, whom we long daily to come, whose coming we desire to be made present to us quickly. For since he is himself the resurrection, because in him we rise again, so too he can be understood as the kingdom of God, because in him we are to reign. And rightly do we ask for the kingdom of God, that is, the heavenly kingdom, because there is also an earthly kingdom. But he who has already renounced the world is greater than its honours and its kingdom. And therefore he who dedicates himself to God and Christ desires not earthly but heavenly kingdoms. But there is need of continual prayer and petition, lest we fall away from the heavenly kingdom, as the Jews, to whom it had first been promised, fell away, as the Lord makes plain and proves: "Many," he says, "will come from the east and the west and will recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." He shows that the Jews were formerly sons of the kingdom, when they continued also to be sons of God; after the name of Father ceased for them, the kingdom ceased too. And therefore we Christians, who in prayer have begun to call God Father, pray also that the kingdom of God may come to us.

We add also and say: "Your will be done in heaven and on earth"; not that God may do what he wills, but that we may be able to do what God wills. For who resists God so that he may not do what he wills? But because we are resisted by the devil so that our mind and conduct may not obey God in all things, we pray and ask that God's will be done in us; and that it may be done in us, there is need of God's will, that is, of his help and protection, because no one is strong by his own powers, but he is safe by God's indulgence and mercy. Indeed, the Lord too, showing the weakness of the humanity he bore, said: "Father, if it can be, let this cup pass from me"; and, giving an example to his disciples that they should do not their own will but God's, he added, saying: "Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will." And in another place he says: "I did not come down from heaven to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me." But if the Son obeyed so as to do the Father's will, how much more ought the servant to obey so as to do the master's will! So John too, in his letter, exhorts and instructs us to do the will of God, saying: "Do not love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; because all that is in the world is the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the ambition of the world, which is not from the Father but from the desire of the world. And the world will pass away and its desire; but he who does the will of God remains forever, as God also remains forever." We who wish to remain forever ought to do the will of God, who is eternal.

Now the will of God is what Christ both did and taught: humility in conduct, steadfastness in faith, modesty in words, justice in deeds, mercy in works, discipline in morals; not to know how to do an injury and to be able to bear one done; to keep peace with the brothers; to love the Lord with all the heart; to love in him that he is Father, to fear that he is God; to put nothing at all before Christ, because he put nothing before us; to cling inseparably to his love; to stand bravely and faithfully by his cross; when there is a contest over his name and honour, to show in speech the constancy with which we confess, under questioning the confidence with which we engage, in death the patience by which we are crowned. This is to wish to be a co-heir of Christ; this is to do God's command; this is to fulfil the Father's will.

We ask that God's will be done in heaven and on earth, both of which pertain to the completion of our safety and salvation. For since we have the body from the earth and the spirit from heaven, we ourselves are earth and heaven, and we pray that God's will be done in both, that is, both in body and in spirit. For there is a struggle between flesh and spirit, and a daily conflict between them as they disagree with each other, so that we do not do the very things we want, while the spirit seeks heavenly and divine things and the flesh desires earthly and worldly things. And therefore we ask that by God's help and aid there may be concord between these two, so that, while God's will is done both in the spirit and in the flesh, the soul that has been reborn through him may be preserved. The apostle Paul declares this openly and plainly in his own words: "The flesh," he says, "desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, so that you do not do the very things you want. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are adulteries, fornications, impurities, filthiness, idolatries, sorceries, murders, enmities, strifes, jealousies, animosities, provocations, feuds, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and things like these: those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, magnanimity, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control, chastity." And therefore in daily, indeed continual, prayers we ask that God's will concerning us be done both in heaven and on earth; because this is the will of God, that earthly things give way to heavenly, and that spiritual and divine things prevail.

It can also be understood thus, dearest brothers: since the Lord commands and warns us to love even our enemies and to pray also for those who persecute us, we should ask also for those who are still earth and have not yet begun to be heavenly, that God's will may be done concerning them too, which Christ accomplished by preserving and restoring man. For since the disciples are called by him no longer earth but the salt of the earth, and the apostle calls the first man from the clay of the earth but the second from heaven, rightly do we too, who ought to be like God the Father, who makes his sun rise on the good and the bad and sends rain on the just and the unjust, so pray and ask, as Christ warns us, that we may make our petition for the salvation of all; so that, as in heaven, that is, in us, God's will has been done through our faith, so that we are of heaven, so also on earth, that is, in those who will not believe, God's will may be done, so that those who are still earthly by their first birth may begin to be heavenly, born of water and the Spirit.

As the prayer proceeds, we ask and say: "Give us today our daily bread." This can be understood both spiritually and literally, because each understanding, by divine usefulness, avails for salvation. For Christ is the bread of life, and this bread is not everyone's but ours. And as we say "our Father," because he is the Father of those who understand and believe, so also we call it "our bread," because Christ is the bread of us who touch his body. And we ask that this bread be given us daily, lest we, who are in Christ and daily receive his Eucharist as the food of salvation, should, by the intervention of some graver sin, while we are kept from communion and, not communicating, are barred from the heavenly bread, be separated from Christ's body; as he himself proclaims and says: "I am the bread of life, who came down from heaven. If anyone eats of my bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world." Since, then, he says that whoever eats of his bread will live forever, as it is plain that those live who touch his body and receive the Eucharist by the right of communion, so, on the contrary, we must fear and pray lest anyone, while he is kept from communion and separated from Christ's body, should remain far from salvation, as he himself threatens, saying: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you." And therefore we ask that our bread, that is, Christ, be given us daily, so that we who abide and live in Christ may not withdraw from his sanctification and body.

It can also be understood thus: that we, who have renounced the world and cast away its riches and pomps by the faith of spiritual grace, should ask only for food and sustenance for ourselves, since the Lord instructs us and says: "He who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." But he who has begun to be Christ's disciple, renouncing all things according to the word of his Master, ought to ask for daily food, and not extend the desires of his petition far ahead, as the Lord again prescribes and says: "Do not think about tomorrow; for tomorrow will think about itself. Sufficient for the day is its own evil." Rightly, then, does Christ's disciple ask for his sustenance for the day, since he is forbidden to think about tomorrow; because it becomes contradictory and inconsistent for us to seek to live long in the world when we ask that the kingdom of God come quickly. So too the blessed apostle warns us, forming and strengthening the firmness of our hope and faith: "We brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything out. Having, then, sustenance and covering, we are content with these. But those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and snares and many harmful desires, which plunge a man into ruin and destruction. For covetousness is the root of all evils, which some, seeking after, have made shipwreck of the faith and have entangled themselves in many sorrows."

He teaches that riches are not only to be despised but also dangerous; that in them is the root of alluring evils, deceiving the blindness of the human mind with hidden deception. Hence God rebukes the foolish rich man who thought of his worldly wealth and boasted of the abundance of his overflowing crops, saying: "Fool, this night your soul is required of you. Whose, then, will be the things you have prepared?" The fool rejoiced in his crops when he was to die that night, and he whose life was already failing was thinking of abundance of food. On the other hand, the Lord teaches that he becomes perfect and complete who, having sold all his goods and distributed them for the use of the poor, lays up treasure for himself in heaven. He says that that man can follow him and imitate the glory of the Lord's passion who, unencumbered and girded up, is entangled in no snares of household property, but, loosed and free, himself also accompanies his possessions, which he has sent ahead to the Lord. That each of us may be able to prepare himself for this, he thus learns to pray and to know from the law of prayer what he ought to be.

For daily food cannot be lacking to the righteous man, since it is written: "The Lord will not kill the righteous soul with hunger"; and again: "I have been young and have grown old, and I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread"; and the Lord likewise promises and says: "Do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the nations seek these things. But your Father knows that you need all these things. Seek first the kingdom and righteousness of God, and all these things will be added to you." He promises that all things will be added to those who seek the kingdom and righteousness of God. For since all things are God's, nothing will be lacking to him who has God, if he himself is not lacking to God. So a meal was divinely provided for Daniel when he was shut up in the lions' den by the king's command, and the man of God was fed among wild beasts that were hungry and yet spared him. So Elijah was fed in his flight and solitude, the ravens serving him, and in persecution he was nourished by birds bringing him food. And (O detestable cruelty of human malice!) the wild beasts spare, the birds feed, and men lie in wait and rage!

After this we also pray for our sins, saying: "And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." After the support of food, pardon for sin is asked, so that he who is fed by God may live in God, and provision may be made not only for the present and temporal life but for the eternal, to which one can come if sins are forgiven, which the Lord calls debts, as he says in his gospel: "I forgave you all the debt, because you asked me." How necessarily, how providently and wholesomely we are reminded that we are sinners, who are compelled to ask for our sins, so that, while pardon is sought from God, the soul may remember its own conscience! Lest anyone should be pleased with himself as if innocent, and by exalting himself perish the more, he is instructed and taught that he sins daily, since he is commanded to pray daily for his sins. So finally John too warns in his letter, saying: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, the Lord is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." In his letter he has included both: that we ought to pray for our sins, and that we obtain pardon when we pray. Therefore he called the Lord faithful to forgive sins, keeping faith with his promise; because he who taught us to pray for our debts and sins has promised fatherly mercy and the pardon that will follow.