On the Lord's Prayer

He, among His other saving admonitions and divine precepts by which He provides for the salvation of His people, also Himself gave the form of praying, Himself advised and instructed us what we should ask. He who made us live also taught us to pray, with that same kindness by which He deigned to give and bestow all other things; so that, while we speak before the Father in the prayer and supplication which the Son taught, we might be heard more readily.

He had already foretold that the hour was coming when the true worshippers would worship the Father in spirit and in truth, and He fulfilled what He had promised beforehand; so that we, who have received spirit and truth through His sanctification, might also worship truly and spiritually through His tradition. For what prayer can be more spiritual than that which was given to us by Christ, by whom the Holy Spirit was also sent to us? What supplication before the Father can be more true than that which was brought forth from the mouth of the Son, who is Truth?—so that to pray otherwise than He taught is not ignorance alone, but also fault, since He Himself has set down and said: You reject the commandment of God, that you may establish your own tradition.

Let us pray therefore, most beloved brethren, as God our teacher taught. It is a friendly and familiar prayer to ask God from His own words, to have Christ's prayer ascend to His ears. Let the Father recognize the words of His Son when we make our petition. Let Him who dwells within the breast also be in the voice. And since we have Him as our advocate with the Father for our sins, when we sinners petition for our transgressions, let us put forward the words of our advocate. For since He says that whatever we ask of the Father in His name He will give us, how much more effectively do we obtain what we ask in the name of Christ, if we ask with His own prayer?

Let the speech and prayer of those who pray be with discipline, maintaining quiet and modesty. Let us think that we stand in the sight of God. We must be pleasing to the divine eyes both in the bearing of the body and in the manner of the voice. For as it is the mark of an impudent person to make noise with clamors, so it befits a modest person to pray with restrained supplications. Finally, by His own teaching the Lord commanded us to pray in secret, in hidden and remote places, in our very chambers, which is more fitting for faith; so that we might know that God is present everywhere, hears and sees all things, and penetrates with the fullness of His majesty even into hidden and secret places, as it is written: I am a God who draws near, and not a God from afar. If a man shall be hidden in secret places, shall I therefore not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth?

And again: In every place the eyes of God look upon the good and the evil. And when we gather together with our brethren and celebrate the divine sacrifices with God's priest, we ought to be mindful of modesty and discipline, not to scatter our prayers abroad with disordered voices, nor to cast forth with tumultuous loquacity a petition that should be commended modestly to God, because God is the hearer not of the voice but of the heart. Nor does He need to be summoned by clamors, He who sees the thoughts of men, as the Lord proves and says: Why do you think evil in your hearts? And in another place: And all the churches shall know that I am the searcher of reins and hearts.

This Anna, bearing the type of the Church in the first book of Kings, observes and keeps; she who besought the Lord not with a clamorous petition, but silently and modestly within the very recesses of her breast. She spoke with hidden prayer, but with manifest faith; she spoke not with voice, but with heart, because she knew that God thus hears; and she effectively obtained what she asked, because she petitioned faithfully. The divine Scripture declares this, saying: She spoke in her heart, and her lips moved, and her voice was not heard; and God heard her. Likewise we read in the Psalms: Speak in your hearts and on your beds, and be pierced with compunction. Through Jeremiah also the Holy Spirit suggests and teaches these same things, saying: But in your mind God ought to be adored.

Moreover, let the one who worships, most beloved brethren, not be ignorant of how the Publican prayed in the temple together with the Pharisee—not lifting his eyes impudently to heaven, nor raising his hands insolently, but striking his breast and bearing witness to the sins enclosed within, he implored the aid of divine mercy. And while the Pharisee was pleased with himself, this man merited to be sanctified the more, who prayed in such a way, who placed his hope of salvation not in confidence in his own innocence—since no one is innocent—but confessing his sins prayed humbly, and He who forgives the humble heard him as he prayed. This the Lord sets forth in His Gospel and says: Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and one a publican. The Pharisee, standing, prayed thus within himself: God, I give you thanks that I am not as the rest of men, unjust, robbers, adulterers, as also this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

But the publican stood afar off, and would not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven, but struck 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. Because everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.

We, most beloved brethren, learning these things from divine reading, after we have come to know how we ought to approach prayer, let us learn, with the Lord as our teacher, also what we should pray. Thus, He says, pray: Our father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done as in heaven so on earth: Give us this day our daily bread, And forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors; And suffer us not to be led into temptation, But deliver us from evil. AMEN.

Before all else, the teacher of peace and master of unity did not wish prayer to be made singly and privately, so that when one prays, he should not pray for himself alone. For we do not say, My Father who art in heaven, nor Give me my bread today; nor does each one ask that his own debt alone be forgiven, or pray 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 master of peace and concord, who taught unity, willed that one should pray for all in such a way as He Himself bore all in one. The three young men enclosed in the fiery furnace observed this law of prayer, harmonious in prayer and concordant in unity of spirit.

This the authority of divine Scripture declares: and while it teaches how such men prayed, it gives an example which we ought to imitate in our prayers, so that we may be able to be such: Then those three, it says, as if from one mouth sang a hymn and blessed the Lord. They spoke as if from one mouth, and Christ had not yet taught them to pray. And therefore their speech was efficacious and effective for those who prayed, because a peaceful and simple and spiritual prayer merited the Lord's favor. So also we find the Apostles with the disciples praying 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 with His brethren.

They persevered in prayer with one mind, declaring at once the earnestness and the harmony of their prayer: because God, who makes those of one mind to dwell in a house, admits into the divine and eternal house none but those among whom there is unanimous prayer.

But what are the mysteries, most beloved brethren, of the Lord's Prayer—how many, how great, briefly gathered in speech, yet spiritually abundant in power—so that nothing at all is omitted that is not comprehended in our petitions and prayers by the compendium of heavenly teaching. Thus, He says, pray: Our father who art in heaven. The new man, reborn and restored to his God through His grace, says Father in the first place, because he has now begun to be a son. He came, it says, unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, He gave them power to become sons of God, to those who believe in His name.

He therefore who has believed in His name and has been made a son of God ought to begin from this point—both to give thanks and to profess himself a son of God—by naming God as his Father in heaven; and also to testify, among the very first words of his new birth, that he has renounced his earthly and carnal father, and has begun to know and have as father only Him who is in heaven, as it is written: They who say to their father and mother: I know you not, and did not acknowledge their sons, these kept your precepts and observed your covenant. Likewise the Lord in His Gospel commanded that we call no man father on earth, since there is one Father for us who is in heaven. And to the disciple who had made mention of his deceased father He replied: Let the dead bury their dead. For he had said his father was dead, whereas the Father of believers is living.

Nor ought we, most beloved brethren, only to observe and understand this—that we call upon the Father who is in heaven—but we join together 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 expression also strikes and wounds the Jews, who not only faithlessly despised Christ, announced to them by the Prophets and sent to them first, but also cruelly slew Him: who can no longer call God their Father, since the Lord confounds and refutes them, saying: You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth, because truth is not in him. And through the prophet Isaiah God cries out in indignation: I have begotten and exalted sons, but they have despised me.

The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel has not known me, and my people has not understood me. Woe! Sinful nation, people full of sins, wicked seed, iniquitous sons. You have forsaken the Lord, and have provoked to indignation the Holy One of Israel. In reproach of these, when we Christians pray, we say Our father, because He has begun to be ours and has ceased to be of the Jews who forsook Him. Nor can a sinful people be sons, but to those to whom forgiveness of sins is granted, to them the name of sons is ascribed, and to them eternity is promised, the Lord Himself saying: Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. But the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.

How great is the indulgence of the Lord, how great the abundance of his dignity and goodness toward us, who willed that we should celebrate prayer in the sight of God in such a way that we call God our Father, and that, as Christ is the Son of God, so we too should be called sons of God! This name none of us would dare to touch in prayer, had he not himself permitted us to pray in this way. We ought therefore to remember and to know, dearest brethren, that when we call God our Father, we ought to act as sons of God, so that, as we are pleased with God our Father, he likewise may be pleased with us.

Let us conduct ourselves as temples of God, so that it may be evident that God dwells in us; and let not our conduct be unworthy of the Spirit, so that we who have begun to be heavenly and spiritual may think and do nothing but what is spiritual and heavenly, for the Lord God himself said: Those who glorify me I will glorify, and he who despises me shall be despised. The blessed Apostle also wrote in his Epistle: You are not your own. For you were bought with a great price. Glorify and carry God in your body.

After this we say: Hallowed be thy name. Not that we desire God to be hallowed by our prayers, but that we ask of him that his name be hallowed in us. For by whom is God hallowed, who himself hallows? But because he himself said: Be holy, for I also am holy, we ask and pray that we who have been hallowed in Baptism may persevere in that which we have begun to be. And this we pray daily. For we have need of daily hallowing, so that we who daily fall short may cleanse our offences by continual hallowing. Now what that hallowing is which is conferred upon us by the grace of God, the Apostle declares, saying: Neither fornicators, nor servants of idols, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor thieves, nor the fraudulent, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.

And such indeed were some of you; but you were washed, but you were justified, but you were sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. He says we are 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 the Lord and our judge threatens him whom he has healed and made alive that he sin no more, lest something worse befall him, we make this petition in continual prayers, we ask this day and night, that the sanctification and quickening which is received from the grace of God may be preserved by his protection.

There follows in the prayer: Thy kingdom come. We ask also 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 which always was and does not cease to be begin with him? We ask that our kingdom, promised to us by God, sought by the blood and passion of Christ, may come; so that we who previously served in the world may afterward reign with Christ as Lord, as he himself promises and says: Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Indeed, dearest brethren, Christ himself may be understood as the kingdom of God, whose coming we daily desire, whose advent we hope may quickly be made present to us. For since he is himself our resurrection, because in him we rise again, so also the kingdom of God can be understood as himself, because in him we are to reign.

We rightly ask for the kingdom of God, that is the heavenly kingdom, for 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. Continual prayer and petition is needed lest we fall away from the heavenly kingdom, as the Jews, to whom this had first been promised, fell away, as the Lord makes plain and proves: Many, he says, shall come from the East and the West, and shall recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. He shows that the Jews were formerly children of the kingdom, when they also persevered in being children of God. After the name of Father ceased to apply to them, the kingdom also ceased.

And therefore we Christians, who have begun to call God Father in prayer, pray also that the kingdom of God may come to us.

We add also and say: Thy will be done as in heaven and in earth; not that God should do what he wills, but that we may be able to do what God wills. For who resists God so that he cannot do what he wills? But because we are resisted by the devil so that our mind and conduct may not in all things be obedient to God, we pray and ask that the will of God may be done in us; and for this to be done in us, the will of God is needed, that is, his aid and protection; for no one is strong by his own powers, but is kept safe by the indulgence and mercy of God. Indeed the Lord himself, showing the weakness of the man he bore, said: Father, if it be possible, 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 thou wilt.

And in another place he says: I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. If the Son obeyed so as to do the Father's will, how much more ought a servant to obey so as to do the will of his lord? As John also in his Epistle exhorts and instructs us to do the will of God, saying: Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the ambition of the world, which is not of the Father, but of the lust of the world: and the world shall pass away and the lust thereof; but he who doeth the will of God abideth for ever, even as God abideth for ever. We who wish to abide for ever 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, to know not how to do injury, and to be able to bear injury done; to keep peace with brethren; to love God with the whole heart, to love in him what is Father, to fear what is God; to prefer nothing whatsoever to Christ, because he preferred nothing to us; to cleave inseparably to his love, to stand by his cross bravely and confidently; when there is a contest for his name and honour, to show in speech the constancy by which we confess, in examination the confidence by which we contend, in death the patience by which we are crowned. This is to will to be a co-heir with Christ, this is to do the commandment of God, this is to fulfil the will of the Father.

We ask moreover that the will of God be done in heaven and in earth; which pertains in both respects to the completion of our welfare and salvation. For since we possess a body from earth and a spirit from heaven, we ourselves are earth and heaven; and we pray that in both, that is in body and spirit alike, the will of God may be done. For there is a struggle between flesh and spirit, and a daily conflict of the two striving against each other, so that we do not do the very things we will, while the spirit seeks heavenly and divine things, and the flesh lusts after earthly and worldly things. And therefore we earnestly ask that by the aid and help of God a harmony may be made between these two, so that while the will of God is carried out both in spirit and in flesh, the soul which has been reborn through him may be preserved.

This the Apostle Paul declares openly and plainly in his own words: The flesh, he says, lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye do not the very things ye would. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are adulteries, fornications, uncleannesses, filthiness, idolatry, sorceries, murders, enmities, contentions, emulations, animosities, provocations, quarrels, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkennesses, revellings, and such like, which I tell you beforehand as I have also told you in time past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is charity, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, faith, meekness, continence, chastity. And therefore in daily, nay continual prayers we ask this, that the will of God be done toward us in heaven and in earth, because this is the will of God, that earthly things yield to heavenly, and that spiritual and divine things prevail.

It can also be understood thus, dearest brethren, that since the Lord commands and admonishes us to love even our enemies and to pray also for those who persecute us, we should pray also for those who are still earth and have not yet begun to be heavenly, that the will of God may be done toward them also, which Christ accomplished in 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 also we, who ought to be like God the Father, who makes his sun to rise upon the good and the evil and rains upon the just and the unjust, thus, at Christ's admonition, pray and ask that we make petition for the salvation of all; so that, as in heaven, that is in us, the will of God was done through our faith that we might be of heaven, so also in earth, that is in those who do not believe, the will of God may be done, that they who are still earthly by their first birth may begin to be heavenly, born of water and spirit.

As the prayer proceeds, we ask and say: Give us this day our daily bread. This can be understood both spiritually and plainly, since each understanding profits unto salvation by divine benefit. For Christ is the bread of life; and this bread is not the bread of all, but is ours. And just 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 those who touch his body. Now we ask that this bread be given to us daily, lest we who are in Christ and receive the Eucharist daily as the food of salvation, should, through the intervention of some graver sin, while we are kept back and forbidden from the heavenly bread by not communicating, be separated from the body of Christ, as he himself declares and warns: I am the bread of life which came down from heaven. If any man eat of my bread, he shall live for ever.

And the bread which I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world. When therefore he says that those shall live for ever who eat of his bread, as it is manifest that those live who touch his body and receive the Eucharist by right of communion, so on the other hand it is to be feared and prayed against, lest, while anyone kept back is separated from the body of Christ, he remain far from salvation, as he himself threatens and says: Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye shall have no life in you. And therefore we ask that our bread, that is, Christ, be given to us daily, so that we who abide and live in Christ may not withdraw from his sanctification and his body.

But it can also be understood thus: that we who have renounced the world, and have cast away its riches and its pomps by the faith of spiritual grace, should ask only for food and sustenance for ourselves, since the Lord instructs and says: Whosoever doth not renounce all that he hath, cannot be my disciple. But he who has begun to be a disciple of Christ, renouncing all things according to the voice of his master, ought to ask for daily food and not to extend the desires of his petition to a long time, as the Lord himself again prescribes and says: Take no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for itself: sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Rightly therefore does the disciple of Christ ask sustenance for the day, who is forbidden to think of the morrow; because it is also contrary and repugnant to itself that we should seek to live long in the world, who ask that the kingdom of God should come quickly.

So also the blessed Apostle admonishes, forming and strengthening the firmness of our hope and faith: We brought nothing, he says, into this world, and neither can we carry anything out. Having therefore food and covering, let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evils; which some coveting, have made shipwreck of the faith and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

He teaches that riches are not only to be despised but also to be dangerous, that therein lies the root of alluring evils, deceiving the blindness of the human mind with hidden deception. Wherefore also God rebukes the rich fool who was thinking of his worldly abundance and boasting of the lavishness of his overflowing fruits, saying: Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Whose then shall those things be which thou hast prepared? The fool was rejoicing in his fruits, yet was to die that very night; and he who was already lacking life was thinking of an abundance of provisions. 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 for himself treasure in heaven.

He says that he can follow him and imitate the glory of the Lord's passion who, unencumbered and girt up, is entangled in no snares of household affairs, but, loosed and free, himself also accompanies his resources which he has sent on ahead to God. That each one of us may be able to prepare himself for this, let him thus learn to pray and from the rule of prayer come to know what manner of person he ought to be.

For daily bread cannot be lacking to the just man, since it is written: The Lord will not slay the soul of the just with hunger. And again: I have been young, and now am old; and I have not seen the just forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread. Likewise the Lord promises and says: Take no thought, saying: What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the nations seek. But your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. To those who seek the kingdom and righteousness of God he promises that all things shall be added. For since all things are God's, nothing shall be lacking to him who has God, if he himself be not lacking to God.

Thus for Daniel, shut up in the den of lions by the king's command, a meal is provided by divine care, and the man of God is fed among the hungry beasts that spare him. Thus Elias is fed in his flight; and in the wilderness, with ravens ministering and birds bringing him food, he is nourished in persecution. And, O detestable cruelty of human wickedness! Wild beasts spare, birds feed, and men lay snares and rage.

After these things, we also make supplication for our sins, saying: And forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. After the provision of food, pardon of sin is also sought, so that he who is fed by God may live in God, and that provision may be made not only for the present and temporal life but also for the eternal; to which one can come if sins are forgiven: which sins the Lord calls debts, as he says in his Gospel: I forgave thee all that debt, because thou besoughtest me. How necessary, how providently and wholesomely are we admonished that we are sinners, we who are compelled to pray for our sins! So that, while indulgence is sought from God, the mind may call to remembrance its own conscience. Lest anyone should please himself as though innocent and, by exalting himself, perish the more, he is instructed and taught that he sins daily, since he is bidden to pray daily for his sins.

So finally John also admonishes in his Epistle, 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 Epistle he has embraced both points: that we ought to pray for our sins, and that we obtain pardon when we pray. Therefore also he called the Lord faithful to forgive sins, as one who keeps faith with his promise; because he who taught us to pray for our debts and sins promised fatherly mercy and that pardon would follow.

He has plainly joined and added a law, binding us with a fixed condition and pledge, that we should ask our debts to be forgiven us in such manner as we ourselves also forgive our debtors, knowing that what we ask for our sins cannot be obtained unless we ourselves have done the like toward our debtors. Therefore also in another place he says: With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And the servant who, after his lord had forgiven him all his debt, was himself unwilling to forgive his fellow-servant, is cast into prison: because he was unwilling to forgive his fellow-servant, he lost what had been forgiven him by the Lord. This Christ sets forth yet more forcibly in his precepts with the greater vigour of his censure: When ye stand, he says, praying, forgive if ye have aught against any man, that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your sins.

But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive you your sins. No excuse remains for thee in the day of judgment, when thou art judged according to thine own sentence, and thou thyself sufferest what thou hast done. For God commands that those in his house be peaceable and concordant and of one mind, and he wills that those reborn should persevere as he made us by the second birth; so that we who have begun to be sons of God may abide in the peace of God, and that those who have one spirit may have also one mind and one feeling. Thus God does not receive the sacrifice of one who is at variance, and commands him who returns from the altar first to be reconciled to his brother, so that God also may be appeased by peaceful prayers. Our peace and brotherly concord is a greater sacrifice to God, and a people united in the unity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

For in the sacrifices which Abel and Cain first offered, God regarded not their gifts but their hearts, so that he who was pleasing in heart was pleasing in his gift. Abel, peaceful and just, while he sacrifices innocently to God, taught also the rest, when they offer a gift at the altar, to come thus with the fear of God, with a simple heart, with the law of righteousness, with the peace of concord. Deservedly, since he is such in the sacrifice of God, he himself is afterwards made a sacrifice to God, so that, by being the first to show martyrdom, he initiated with the blood of his glory the Lord's passion, he who had also possessed the righteousness of the Lord and peace. Such persons are at last crowned by the Lord, such shall judge with the Lord in the day of judgment.

But one who is discordant and at variance and has not peace with his brethren, according as the blessed Apostle and holy Scripture testify, even if he be slain for the name of Christ, will not be able to escape the guilt of fraternal dissension, because, as it is written, He that hateth his brother is a murderer, and a murderer neither comes to the kingdom of heaven nor lives with God; he cannot be with Christ who chose rather to be an imitator of Judas than of Christ. What a sin it is that cannot be washed away even by the baptism of blood! What a crime it is that cannot be expiated by martyrdom!

The Lord also necessarily admonishes us to say in prayer: And lead us not into temptation. In this part it is shown that the adversary can do nothing against us unless God first permit it; so that all our fear and devotion and observance may be turned toward God, since in our temptations nothing is permitted to the evil one unless power be granted from thence. The divine Scripture proves this, saying: Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it, and the Lord gave it into his hand. Now power is given against us to the evil one according to our sins, as it is written: Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to those who plunder him? Was it not God, against whom they sinned? And they would not walk in his ways nor hear his law, and he brought upon them the fury of his anger. And again, when Solomon sinned and departed from the commandments and ways of the Lord, it is set down: And the Lord stirred up Satan against Solomon himself.

Now power is given against us in two ways: either for punishment when we transgress, or for glory when we are proved; as we see was done in the case of Job, when God declared and said: Behold, all that he hath I give into thy hands; but take heed that thou touch not himself. And the Lord speaks in his Gospel at the time of the passion: Thou wouldest have no power against me, unless it were given thee from above. But when we pray that we come not into temptation, we are admonished of our weakness and feebleness by praying thus, lest anyone insolently exalt himself, lest anyone presumptuously and arrogantly claim anything for himself, lest anyone account to himself the glory of his confession or passion, since the Lord himself, teaching humility, said: Watch and pray, that ye come not into temptation.

The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak; so that, while a humble and submissive confession goes before and all is given to God, whatever is sought humbly with fear and honour of God may be granted by his goodness.

After all these things, at the conclusion of the prayer comes the closing clause, gathering together all our petitions and prayers in brief compass. For in the last place we set: But deliver us from evil, comprehending all the adversities which the enemy contrives against us in this world; against which there can be a sure and firm protection if God deliver us, if he afford his help to those who beseech and implore him. But when we say, Deliver us from evil, nothing remains that ought further to be asked, since once we have sought the protection of God against evil; which being obtained, we stand secure and safe against all that the devil and the world work. For what fear of the world has he for whom God is guardian in the world?

What wonder is it, dearly beloved brethren, if such is the prayer which God taught, who by His own teaching summed up all our prayer in a saving word? This had already been foretold before through the prophet Isaiah, when, full of the Holy Spirit, he spoke of the majesty and goodness of God: A word consummating, he says, and abridging in justice, because a shortened word shall God make upon all the earth. For when the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, came to all, and, gathering together the learned and unlearned alike, delivered the precepts of salvation to every sex and age, He made a great compendium of His precepts, so that the memory of those learning in the heavenly discipline should not be burdened, but should quickly learn what was necessary for simple faith. So also, when He taught what eternal life is, He encompassed the mystery of life in great and divine brevity, saying: Now this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

Likewise, when He drew out the first and greatest commandments from the Law and the Prophets: Hear, He said, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole Law and the Prophets. And again: Whatsoever good things you would that men should do to you, do you also to them. For this is the Law and the Prophets.

Nor did the Lord teach us to pray by words alone, but also by deeds, Himself praying frequently and making supplication, and showing by the witness of His own example what we ought to do, as it is written: But He was withdrawing into the wilderness and praying. And again: He went out into a mountain to pray, and He passed the whole night in the prayer of God. For if He who was without sin prayed, how much more ought sinners to pray? And if He prayed through the whole night, keeping vigil continually with unceasing supplications, how much more ought we to keep vigil in the night in the frequent practice of prayer?

Now the Lord prayed and made petition, not for Himself—for what would the innocent One pray for on His own behalf?—but for our sins, as He Himself declares when He says to Peter: Behold, Satan hath desired to sift you as wheat.

But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And afterwards He beseeches the Father for all, saying: And not for these only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. Great alike is the Lord's kindness and goodness toward our salvation, in that, not content with redeeming us by His blood, He went yet further and prayed for us. Consider what the desire of Him who prayed was: that, as the Father and the Son are one, so we also might abide in that same unity. From this too it may be understood how greatly he sins who rends unity and breaks peace, since for this very thing the Lord prayed, wishing, that is, His people to be saved and to live in peace, knowing that discord cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

When we stand at prayer, dearly beloved brethren, we ought to be watchful and intent upon our prayers with our whole heart. Let every carnal and worldly thought depart, nor let the mind at that time think of anything save only that which it is praying. For this reason also the priest, by a preface spoken before the prayer, prepares the minds of the brethren, saying: Lift up your hearts; so that, when the people respond, We have them lifted up to the Lord, they may be reminded that they ought to think of nothing other than the Lord. Let the breast be closed against the adversary, and open to God alone, and let it not suffer the enemy of God to approach it at the time of prayer.

For he creeps in frequently and penetrates, and by subtle deceit draws our prayers away from God, so that we have one thing in the heart and another in the voice, when it is the sincere intention of the mind and spirit, not the sound of the voice, that ought to pray to the Lord. What sloth it is to be distracted and carried away by foolish and profane thoughts while you are entreating the Lord, as though there were something else you ought more to think of than that you are speaking with God? How do you ask to be heard by God, when you do not hear yourself? Do you wish God to be mindful of you when you pray, when you yourself are not mindful of yourself?

This is to take no precaution at all against the enemy; this is, when you pray to God, to offend the majesty of God by negligence in prayer; this is to be watchful with the eyes and asleep in the heart, when a Christian ought, even when asleep with the eyes, to be watchful in heart, as it is written in the person of the Church speaking in the Song of Songs: I sleep, and my heart watcheth. Therefore the Apostle warns us carefully and cautiously, saying: Be instant in prayer, watching in it, teaching and showing, that is, that those can obtain what they ask of God whom God sees to be watchful in prayer.

Moreover, let those who pray not come to God with fruitless and bare prayers. A petition is ineffectual when a barren prayer entreats God. For since every tree that bringeth not forth fruit is cut down and cast into the fire, surely also a word that hath no fruit cannot merit God, because it is made fruitful by no work. And therefore the divine Scripture instructs us, saying: Prayer is good with fasting and almsgiving. For He who on the day of judgment will render reward for works and almsdeeds is also today a gracious hearer of one who comes to prayer with good works. Thus finally Cornelius the centurion, when he prayed, merited to be heard. For he was doing many almsdeeds among the people and always praying to God. To him, praying at about the ninth hour, an Angel stood by, bearing witness to his work and saying: Cornelius, thy prayers and thy alms have ascended for a memorial in the sight of God.

Prayers quickly ascend to God which the merit of our works sends up to God. So also the angel Raphael was a witness to Tobias, always praying and always working, saying: It is honourable to reveal and confess the works of God. For when thou didst pray, thou and Sara, I offered the memorial of your prayer in the sight of the glory of God. And when thou didst bury the dead simply, and because thou didst not hesitate to rise up and leave thy dinner, but wentest and didst bury the dead, I was sent to try thee; and again God sent me to heal thee and Sara thy daughter-in-law. For I am Raphael, one of the seven holy Angels who stand and minister before the glory of God. Through Isaiah also the Lord admonishes and teaches, bearing witness to like things: Loose, He says, every knot of injustice, undo the bonds of the oppressive dealings of the powerless. Let the bruised go free and break every unjust bond.

Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into thy house.

If thou see one naked, clothe him; and thou shalt not despise those of thy own household and seed. Then shall thy light break forth in due season and thy garments shall quickly arise, and justice shall go before thee, and the glory of God shall encompass thee. Then shalt thou cry out, and God will hear thee, and while thou art yet speaking He will say: Behold, I am here. He promises to be present and says He hears and protects those who, loosing the knots of injustice from their heart and doing almsdeeds toward the household of God according to His precepts, since they hear what God commands to be done, themselves also merit to be heard by God. The blessed apostle Paul, aided by the brethren in the necessity of his tribulation, called the good works that are done sacrifices of God: I am filled, he says, having received from Epaphroditus the things you sent, an odour of sweetness, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

For when one has mercy on the poor, he lends to God; and he who gives to the least gives to God, and spiritually sacrifices to God an odour of sweetness.

In the celebration of prayers, we find that the three young men together with Daniel, strong in faith and victorious in captivity, observed the third, sixth, and ninth hour, as a mystery, that is, of the Trinity, which was to be manifested in the last times. For the first hour coming to the third shows the completed number of the Trinity; and likewise the fourth advancing to the sixth declares another Trinity; and when from the seventh the ninth is completed, the Trinity is reckoned through three sets of three hours. Those who worshipped God, determining these spaces of hours spiritually long before, kept them as fixed and lawful times for prayer. And afterwards the reality was made manifest that what the just had thus prayed before were mysteries. For upon the disciples at the third hour the Holy Spirit descended, who fulfilled the grace of the Lord's promise.

Likewise Peter, going up to the upper room at the sixth hour, was instructed by a sign and likewise by the voice of God admonishing him to admit all to the grace of salvation, when he had previously doubted concerning the cleansing of the Gentiles. And the Lord, crucified at the sixth hour, at the ninth washed away our sins with His blood, and that He might be able to redeem and quicken us, then completed His victory by His passion.

But for us, dearly beloved brethren, beyond the hours observed of old, the times and mysteries of prayer have now increased. For we must also pray in the morning, so that the resurrection of the Lord may be celebrated by a morning prayer. This the Holy Spirit of old designated in the Psalms, saying: My King and my God, for to thee will I pray, O Lord, in the morning thou shalt hear my voice, in the morning I will stand before thee, and will see thee. And again the Lord speaks through the Prophet: They shall watch for me at break of day, saying: Let us go and return to the Lord our God. Likewise when the sun sets and the day ceases, we must necessarily pray again; for since Christ is the true sun and the true day, when the sun and day of this world depart, when we pray and ask that light may come upon us again, we pray for the coming of Christ who will bestow the grace of eternal light.

Now that Christ is called the day the Holy Spirit declares in the Psalms: The stone, He says, which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made, let us walk and rejoice in it. Likewise, that He is called the sun, the prophet Malachias testifies, saying: But unto you that fear the name of the Lord, the sun of justice shall arise, and healing is in his wings.

But if in the holy Scriptures Christ is the true sun and the true day, no hour is excepted by Christians in which God ought not frequently and always to be adored; so that we who are in Christ, that is in the true sun and true day, should persist in prayers throughout the whole day and pray, and when by the law of the world the night returning in alternating succession succeeds, there can be no loss to those who pray from the darkness of the night, because for the children of light even in the nights it is day. For when is he without light who has light in his heart? Or when is the sun and day not present to him for whom Christ is sun and day?

We who are always in Christ, that is in the light, let us not cease from prayer even in the nights. So Anna the widow, praying without ceasing and always watching, persevered in entreating God, as it is written in the Gospel: She departed not, it says, from the temple, serving with fastings and prayers night and day. Let the Gentiles, who are not yet enlightened, or the Jews, who, having forsaken the light, have remained in darkness, look to themselves. We, dearly beloved brethren, who are always in the light of the Lord, who remember and hold fast what we have begun to be by the grace received, let us count the night as day. Let us believe that we walk always in the light, let us not be hindered by the darkness which we have escaped.

Let there be no loss of prayers in the nocturnal hours, no slothful and sluggish waste of supplications. Refreshed spiritually and reborn by the indulgence of God, let us imitate what we are to be. Since we are to have in the kingdom day alone without the interruption of night, let us so keep vigil in the night as though in the light. Since we are always to pray and give thanks to God, let us not cease here also to pray and give thanks.