| From the treatise On the Lord's Prayer by Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr
of Carthage [258]
The prayer continues: "Your kingdom come." We pray that God's kingdom will
become present for us in the same way that we ask for his name to be
hallowed among us. For when does God not reign, when could there be in him
a beginning of what always was and what will never cease to be? What we
pray for is that the kingdom promised to us by God will come, the kingdom
won by Christ's blood and passion. Then we who formerly were slaves in
this world will reign from now on under the dominion of Christ, in
accordance with his promise: "Come, O blessed of my Father, receive the
kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
However, my dear friends, it could also be that the kingdom of God whose
coming we daily wish for is Christ himself, since it is his coming that we
long for. He is our resurrection, since we rise again in him; so too he
can be thought of as the kingdom of God because we are to reign in him.
And it is good that we pray for God's kingdom; for though it is a heavenly
kingdom, it is also an earthly one. But those who have already renounced
the world are made greater by holding positions of authority in that
kingdom.
After this we add: "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven"; we pray
not that God should do his will, but that we may carry out his will. How
could anyone prevent the Lord from doing what he wills? But in our prayer
we ask that God's will be done in us, because the devil throws up obstacles
to prevent our mind and our conduct from obeying God in all things. So if
his will is to be done in us we have need of his will, that is, his help
and protection. No one can be strong by his own strength or secure save by
God's mercy and forgiveness. Even the Lord, to show the weakness of the
human nature which he bore, said: "Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me," and then, by way of giving example to his disciples that
they should do God's will and not their own, he added: "Nevertheless, not
as I will, but as you will."
All Christ did, all he taught, was the will of God. Humility in our daily
lives, an unwavering faith, a moral sense of modesty in conversation,
justice in acts, mercy in deed, discipline, refusal to harm others, a
readiness to suffer harm, peaceableness with one another, a wholehearted
love of the Lord, loving in him what is of the Father, fearing him because
he is God, preferring nothing to him who preferred nothing to us, clinging
tenaciously to his love, standing by his cross with loyalty and courage
whenever there is any conflict involving his honor and his name,
manifesting in our speech the constancy of our profession and under torture
confidence for the fight, and in dying the endurance for which we will be
crowned -- this is what it means to wish to be a fellow heir with Christ,
to keep God's command; this is what it means to do the will of the Father.
On the Lord's Prayer 13-15; CSEL 3, 275-278
|
| From the treatise on the Lord's Prayer by Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr
of Carthage [258]
As the Lord's Prayer continues, we ask: "Give us this day our daily bread."
We can understand this petition in a spiritual and in a literal sense. For
in the divine plan both senses may help toward salvation. For Christ is
the bread of life; this bread does not belong to everyone, but is ours
alone. When we say, our Father, we understand that he is the father of
those who know him and believe in him. In the same way we speak of our
daily bread, because Christ is the bread of those who touch his body.
Now, we who live in Christ and receive his eucharist, the food of
salvation, ask for this bread to be given us every day. Otherwise we may
be forced to abstain from this communion because of some serious sin. In
this way we shall be separated from the body of Christ, as he taught us in
the words: "I am the bread of life which has come down from heaven. Anyone
who eats my bread will live for ever and the bread that I will give is my
flesh for the life of the world." Christ is saying, then, that anyone who
eats this bread will live forever. Clearly they possess life who approach
his body and share in the eucharistic communion. For this reason we sould
be apprehensive and pray that no one has to abstain from this communion,
lest they be separated from the body of Christ and be far from salvation.
Christ has warned of this: "If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood you will have no life in you." We pray for our daily
bread, Christ, to be given to us. With his help, we who live and abide in
him will never be separated from his body and his grace.
After this we ask pardon for our sins, in the words: "and forgive us our
trespasses." The gift of bread is followed by a prayer for forgiveness.
To be reminded that we are sinners and forced to ask forgiveness for our
faults is prudent and sound. Even while we are asking God's forgiveness,
our hearts are aware of our state! This command to pray daily for our sins
reminds us that we commit sin every day. None should complacently think
themselves innocent, lest their pride lead to further sin. Such is the
warning that John gives us in his letter: "If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, the
Lord is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins." His letter includes
both points, that we should beg for forgiveness for our sins, and that we
receive pardon when we do. He calls the Lord faithful, because he remains
loyal to his promise, by forgiving us our sins. He both taught us to pray
for our sins and our faults, and also promised to show us a father's mercy
and forgiveness.
On the Lord's Prayer 18-22, CSEL 3, 280-281, 283-284. Daily Readings from
the Early Church, Church Hymnal Corporation, ECUSA, Proper 15, Saturday
|
| From the treatise on the Lord's Prayer by Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr
of Carthage [258]
The Master of peace and unity would not have each of us pray singly and
severally, since when we pray we are not to pray only for ourselves. For
we neither say: "My Father, who art in heaven" nor "Give me this day my
bread"; nor does each one of us individually pray for our own debt to
be forgiven, nor do we ask that we ourselves alone should not be led
into temptation, nor that we only should be delivered from evil.
Our prayer is general and for all; and when we pray, we pray not for
one person but for us all, because we are all one. God, the Master of
peace and concord, so willed that one should pray for all, even as he
himself bore us all.
The three youths in the fiery furnace kept this rule of prayer, being in
unison in prayer and agreeing in spirit. The authority of the Scriptures
tells us this, and in teaching how they prayed it gives an example which
we ought to imitate in our prayers, so that we might become like them.
"Then these three," it says: "with one voice sang, glorifying and blessing
God." They sang with one voice although Christ had not yet taught them
to pray. Hence their words in prayer were effectual, because the Lord
was gained by simple, peaceful, and spiritual praying.
We find that the apostles too prayed in this way after the Lord's ascension:
"Together," we are told: "they devoted themselves: with one accord to constant
prayer."
"This is how you are to pray," Christ said: "Our Father in heaven." This
new person, born again, restored to God by grace, says first of all "Father"
because this one has now become an heir. "To his own he came, yet his own
did not accept him. Any who did accept him he empowered to become children
of God." So any who have believed in his name and have become children of
God ought now to begin to offer thanks and to declare themselves God's
children, when they speak of God as their Father in heaven.
How indulgent it is of the Lord, what exuberance of condescension and
goodness toward us, to permit us when praying in God's presence to
address ourselves to God as Father, and name ourselves children of God,
even as Christ is Son of God -- a name which none of us would have dared
to reach in prayer, had he himself not allowed us so to pray.
We should therefore recollect and feel that, when we call God a Father,
we ought to act like children of God, and if it comforts us to regard him
as our Father, let us so act that he may be comforted in us. Let us conduct
ourselves as temples of God, and God will remain in us.
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