The Lord’s Prayer

GREGORY OF NYSSA

OUR FATHER

Anyone with a bit of good sense would not make so bold as to call God by the name of Father until he had come to be like him.

It is impossihle for God who is goodness in his very being to be father to someone of evil will. It is impossible for the Holy One to be father of a depraved person. It is impossible for the Giver of life to have as a child one whose sin has subjected him to death.

So if one of us, in examining himself, discovers that his conscience is covered in mud and needs to be cleansed, he cannot allow himself such familiarity with God. First he must be purified.

Then why, in this prayer of his, does the Lord Jesus teach us to call God by the name of Father? I suppose that, in suggesting this word, he is only putting before our eyes the holiest life as the criterion of our behaviour.

Gregory of Nyssa, On the Lord’s Prayer (PG44, 1141)

ORIGEN

HALLOWED BE THY NAME

What is the meaning of the words “name” and “hallow”? Name denotes the proper and exclusive nature of the being that carries it and indicates the general effect of its qualities. In human beings these qualities can change, and with them their names too. Abram came to be called Abraham, Simon became Peter, and Saul’s name was changed to Paul. By contrast in the case of God who is immutable, who never changes, there is but one name, the ‘I am’ that was given him in Exodus. Exod. 3:14 We all endeavour to reflect on God to understand his nature, but they are few indeed that succeed in sensing his holiness.

Jesus’ prayer teaches us that God is holy. It helps us to discover the holiness of the Being that creates, provides, judges, chooses and abounds in generosity, welcomes and rejects, rewards and punishes equally. This is what characterizes the quality that belongs to God, the quality that the Scriptures call by the name of God.

Therefore in the Scriptures we read: ‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,’ Exod. 20:7 and again ‘May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distil as the dew, as the gentle rain upon the tender grass, and as the showers upon the herb, for I will proclaim the name of the Lord.’ Deut. 32:2

Anyone who.prays ought therefore to ask that the name of God may be hallowed, as is said also in the Psalms: ‘Let us exalt his name together.’ Ps. 34:3 The Psalmist hopes that we may arrive, in harmony of spirit, at a true understanding of the nature of God.

Origen On Prayer 24, I (PG11, 492)

ORIGEN

THY KINGDOM COME

‘The kingdom of God is within us,’ that is, on our lips and in our hearts. Luke 17:21 Therefore anyone who prays that the kingdom of God may not delay its coming is praying that it may be consolidated, extended, and reach its fullness within him. Our Lord in fact dwells in all holy people who recognize God as their king and obey his spiritual laws. The Father is present in the perfect soul and Christ reigns together with the Father, according to his own actual word ‘If someone loves me ... we will come to him and make our home with him.’ John 14:23

The kingdom will not reach its fullness in each of us until wisdom and the other virtues are perfected in us. Perfection is reached at the end of a journey, so we ought to be ‘forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.’ Phil: 3:13

In other words, on the one hand the believer is a tireless traveller and on the other hand the kingdom of God will reach its completion in us only when the words of the Apostle are fulfilled: ‘When he has subjected all things, Christ will deliver up the kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all,’ cf. 1 Cor. 15:24-28

Let us subdue our members to produce the fruits of the Spirit. Then the Lord will walk with us as in a spiritual paradise. He alone will reign in us, together with Christ. And we shall already possess the benefits of the new birth and of the resurrection.

Origen On Prayer, 25 (PG11, 498ff)

ORIGEN

THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

We who are praying are still on earth ourselves. And since we reckon that all the inhabitants of heaven fulfil the will of God in heaven, it comes naturally to us to ask that we too on earth should succeed in fulfilling the divine will. That will come about, logically, if we do nothing outside that will.

When we have perfectly accomplished it, although we are still remaining on earth we shall be like the heavenly beings and will bear equally with,them the image of the heavenly Being. cf. 1 Cor. 15;49

In the end we shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. Those who come to take our place on earth will ask that they too may become like us who are then in heaven.

In addition it is recorded that our Lord after his resurrection said to the twelve Apostles: ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’ Matt: 28:18

Jesus claimed in short to have received authority on earth equal to that which he has in heaven. The things of heaven, at the beginning, have been illuminated by the Word. And at the end of time, thanks to the authority granted to the Son of God, the things of earth will be like those of heaven which is already perfect.

So then it is clear that Christ is calling his disciples to work faithfully with him by means of their prayers. That all earthly events may come to be transformed by the authority that Christ has received both in heaven and on earth, this ought to be our prayer.

Origen On Prayer, 26, I (PG11, 500)

CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE

BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL

The Lord’s Prayer has an ending which neatly summarizes the different requests. We say actually at the end: “But deliver us from evil,” understanding by such an expression everything that the Enemy can devise against us in this world.

One certain conviction we have: that God is a powerful support since he grants his help to anyone who asks for it.

Consequently, when we say: “Deliver us from evil,” there is nothing else left for us to ask. Invoking the protection of God against evil means asking for everything we need.

This prayer secures us against any kind of machination of the devil and of the world. Who could be afraid of the world if he has God as his protector?

You see, brothers and sisters, how amazing the Lord’s Prayer is. It is truly a compendium of all the requests we could possibly make.

Oer Lord Jesus Christ who came for all people, for the wise as for the ignorant, without distinction of sex or age, reduces the precepts of salvation to the essential minimum. He wants even the simplest to be able to understand and remember them.

Cyprian of Carthage On the Lord’s Prayer (PL 4, 538)

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