Therefore when thou prayest thou hast need of piety, not of wordiness. “For your Father
knoweth what is needful for you, before ye ask Him.”1973 Be ye loth then to use many words,
for He knoweth what is needful for you. But lest peradventure any should say here, If He
know what is needful for us, why should we use so much as a few words? why should we
pray at all? He knoweth Himself; let Him then give what He knoweth to be needful for us.
Yes, but it is His will that thou shouldest pray, that He may give to thy longings, that His
gifts may not be lightly esteemed; seeing He hath Himself formed this longing desire in us.
The words therefore which our Lord Jesus Christ hath taught us in His prayer, are the rule
and standard of our desires. Thou mayest not ask for anything but what is written there.
5. “Do ye therefore say,” saith he, “Our Father, which art in heaven.” Where ye see ye
have begun to have God for your Father. Ye will have Him, when ye are new born. Although
even now before ye are born, ye have been conceived of His seed, as being on the eve of being
brought forth in the font, the womb as it were of the Church. “Our Father, which art in
heaven.” Remember then, that ye have a Father in heaven. Remember that ye were born of
your father Adam unto death, that ye are to be born anew of God the Father unto life. And
what ye say, say in your hearts. Only let there be the earnest affection of prayer, and there
will be the effectual1974 answer of Him who heareth prayer. “Hallowed be thy Name.” Why
dost thou ask, that God’s Name may be hallowed? It is holy. Why then askest thou for that
which is already holy? And then when thou dost ask that His Name may be hallowed, dost
thou not as it were pray to Him for Him, and not for thyself? No. Understand it aright, and
it is for thine own self thou askest. For this thou askest, that what is always in itself holy,
may be hallowed in thee. What is “be hallowed?” “Be accounted holy,” be not despised. So
then you see, that the good thou dost wish, thou wishest for thine own self. For if thou despise
the Name of God, for thyself it will be ill, and not for God.
6. “Thy kingdom come.”1975 To whom do we speak? and will not God’s kingdom come,
if we ask it not. For of that kingdom do we speak which will be after the end of the world.
For God hath a kingdom always; neither is He ever without a kingdom, whom the whole
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creation serveth. But what kingdom then dost thou wish for? That of which it is written in
the Gospel, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom which is prepared for you
from the beginning of the world.” 1976 Lo here is the kingdom whereof we say, “Thy kingdom
come.” We pray that it may come in us; we pray that we may be found in it. For come it
certainly will; but what will it profit thee, if it shall find thee at the left hand? Therefore, here
again it is for thine own self that thou wishest well; for thyself thou prayest. This it is that
1973 Matt. vi. 8.
1974 Exaudientis effectus.
1975 Matt. vi. 10.
1976 Matt. xxv. 34.
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On the Lord’s Prayer in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chap. vi. 9, etc. to the …