Meditations on the Lord's Prayer

From Ludovicus de Ponte, Lessius, and others.

Our Father.

By a multiplicity of rights and of titles, Father.

1. By title of creation, whereby he made us to his own image.

2. Of adoption, through the grace, whereby he made us his heirs, and joint-heirs of his only-begotten Son. Oh, how justly we call him Father, who is so many times ready to receive us, when we sin, into the same favour as before, that he may at length admit us also to the glory, which is the inheritance of the sons of God! Dearly bought, indeed, was this relationship of Father by the Son of God, who only secured it for us by the death of the cross, and with the price of his blood.

3. He is Father by his providence, in sustaining the body with so many creatures given us for food and medicine; and in so lovingly providing for the soul by so many aids of grace and salvation; so that, on this single account, he alone truly deserves to be called Father. Therefore he says, Call none your Father upon earth; for One is your Father, who is in heaven. And rightly, for my father and my mother have forsaken me; (since without God, what assistance can they afford to my soul, or even to my body?) but the Lord hath taken me up; he never forsakes us but when we forsake him.

4. By discipline and correction. For a father reproves and chastises the son whom he loves.

5. He is Father by his indulgence and love. As a father has compassion on his children, so has the Lord compassion on them that fear him. So, then, if he is a Father, I am indeed a son. Oh, how great a dignity is this! It is but just, then, that I should render him the duty of a true son, by love, obedience, and respect. How base would it be, if I, who have been thus promoted from the bondage of so vile a slavery, should become degenerate, and offend so good a Father!

He would have us, moreover, begin our prayer to him with this address, to assure us of obtaining what we ask, in approaching God as a Father; and because he glories in this name of Father, he delights in being so addressed. Let us, then, approach him with the affection of sons, endeavour to please him in all things, and ask those things which it becomes such a Father to give.

Our.

We say our, not my Father, 1st. Because, though he has one Son only by nature, he would have as many sons as possible by adoption, both angels and men; and this in such a way, that each may rejoice as much in the gift of sonship as if he had no fellow. For the gifts of God are not lessened by being communicated to many.

2d. Although he is not only generally the Father of all, but also of each particularly, he would, nevertheless, be called our Father, to remind us of brotherly charity, without distinction of rank, dignity, or age; to love one another as brothers, and to pray for all in common, despising none. So speaks Malachias. Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why, then, does every one of us despise his brother? Yet nothing forbids me at times, as my affection may lead me, thus to address God in private, because I am with as full right his adopted son, as if I were the only one.

Who art in heaven.

Although God is in every place, we name heaven in particular,

1st. To excite in ourselves a reverence for his Majesty, which resides in heaven as its throne.

2d. To raise our minds to heaven, where is the home and the inheritance of the sons of God:

3d. That we may understand that here we are exiles and pilgrims, and that we ought to live in such a way that our conversation may be in heaven.

4th. To remind myself, thither to raise my eyes and my heart, from whence only help shall come to me.

Again, heaven, and the peculiar seat of God, are those holy souls that are raised above the earth, in which God dwells by grace, and specially illuminates them with the light of his knowledge.

So far the introduction; now follow the petitions.

I. Hallowed be thy name.

Be thou esteemed, as thou art, holy, pure, just, true, and good. God holds nothing so high as to be esteemed and proclaimed holy. Hence he so often says, Be holy, because I am holy. Hence he was angry with Moses and Aaron, because they had not sanctified him at the waters of contradiction before the children of Israel. Again, the only song of the blessed is, Holy, holy, holy.

2. He says not, thy power, or thy majesty, but thy name; to comprehend in one all that is named by us which belongs to God, as being all holy, and to be celebrated accordingly. For he is named almighty, wise, creator, and so forth.

3. He says, thy name; for it is thy name only which is holy in itself, whence comes the drop of which the just partake. Therefore not our, but thy. To the king eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever; but to us confusion of face. Why, then, do we so anxiously seek our own glory, and a great name, who ought rather to desire to be unknown and despised?

4. He says, hallowed be, simply, with no restriction to particular persons, because we should wish this done by every creature of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth; nor to a particular time, because it is right that the name of the Lord should be praised throughout all time.

5. Again, the name of God is hallowed when men believe what he reveals, hope for what he promises, do what he commands, worship him as he has taught, love him with their whole heart, and attest their love by their works; that they who see our good deeds may glorify their Father who is in heaven. It is a prayer worthy of a true and virtuous son, to desire nothing before or beyond the glory of his father, and to prefer his honour to all things. Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to thy name give glory. Blessed be the name of the Lord, from henceforth, now, and for ever.

II. Thy kingdom come.

Yet he reigns in heaven and in earth, in the sea, and every where; all things, whether they will or not, serve him, and under his dominion are all things. We pray, therefore,

1. For that kingdom, by which he now reigns in the just by grace, who are in all things subject to him.

2. For that by which he reigns in the blessed by glory. This last will come to us if we continue to the end in the former.

3. And therefore he says, thy kingdom come, as if of its own accord. And indeed all long for this last kingdom; but not for the first, because that is connected with hardship. For justice is acquired and preserved by mortification of the flesh, and by restraint of the concupiscence which reigns in our members.

4. That kingdom, which shall be consummated and made perfect, when God shall be all in all, in the resurrection of the dead, which the souls of the blessed expect.

5. Thy kingdom, not the kingdom of the world, which the children of this world seek after, and which consists in nothing but perishable goods, endless cares, and numberless dangers; much less the kingdom of sin, the utter overthrow of which I long for. It is for sons to sigh continually for their country, and, in preference to all other things, to seek their paternal inheritance. Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged! I desired to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. As the hart panteth after the fountains of water, so my soul panteth after thee, O God.

III. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

1. Thy will alone is ever good, and just, and perfect, in all things. To the knowledge of this he gently leads us by counsel, by precept, and by inspiration, as well as by the commands of those who are set over us in God's name. To do this will it is enough for us that God wills and enjoins what we are to perform, so that if I obey him, and keep his commandments, I shall merit life, but if otherwise, death.

2. Not my will, which is perverse, but thine. Nor yet the flesh's, which is contrary to the spirit; nor the world's, which is vain; nor the devil's, which is malignant; but thy will only, which is the rule of uprightness. For what is thy will but our sanctification? Since thou requirest nothing of us but what is for our benefit; not thine, for thou needest not our goods.

3. As the will of God is done by the angels in heaven, where there is no rebellion of a perverse will, so also may it be done on earth, perfectly, promptly, speedily, courageously, lovingly, and readily; where to resist thy will is to be unwilling to be led on sweetly with the cords of love, that is, of a man; but to prefer to be driven like a beast of burden by the force of thy power, or to be dragged by the chains of thy justice. Teach me, O Lord, to do thy will; for thou art my God. Behold, O Lord, I am thy servant. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.

IV. Give us this day our daily bread.

1. The bread of grace and of the word of God. For man does not live by bread alone, but his soul also has need of sustenance. For, as the life of man is twofold, so is the food or bread twofold, whereby he is sustained.

2. Chiefly, and principally, the living bread, which came down from heaven, the super-substantial bread of the Eucharist, which strengthens the heart of man, and confirms his spirit.

3. Corporal bread, which is necessary for sustaining life; for which, however, he would not have us solicitous, or over anxious, since he bids us look for it from the divine blessing.

4. Our, not my, because it is common, and to be shared among our brethren, who all acknowledge the same God and Father of all; who would have his gifts supply the necessity, not of one, or of a few, but of all.

5. Daily: if meant of spiritual food, not that which is the portion of the few singularly beloved, of which I count myself unworthy, but that common, and, as it were, necessary portion, without which we cannot live. If of bodily food, not that which abounds for the supply of luxury and merriment, nor to be laid up for many years, but for our daily use and necessity.

6. Give us; for we must pray for all as our brethren, even although they hate us. Pray for them that persecute and calumniate you. And if thou see thine enemy hungry, feed him.

7. This day, because he would have us ask every day, and be always dependent on his providence. He also calls us off from an unnecessary anxiety for to-morrow, after the example of the manna which, of old, was given day by day. The eyes of all hope in thee, O Lord. Give thou them food in due season. Open thy hand, and fill with blessing every living creature.

V. Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.

1. Many are the debts we owe to God: in many things we offend all, both by evil done, and by good left undone, which we ought to have done. Unless God of his mercy forgive, who can endure? If he will deal with us in the rigour of justice, who will answer one of a thousand? So that our only refuge is his mercy.

2. But this will fail us, if we do not forgive our neighbours their offences, which are small, however compared with our debt of ten thousand talents, which we owe to God. Yet such is the goodness of God, that he is ready to forgive ten thousand, if we remit the thousand.

3. But see and beware. He will forgive as thou forgivest, and this conditional clause thou addest to thy prayer. If thou forgivest grudgingly, slowly, insincerely, and imperfectly, expect and fear to receive the same measure from God. He merely pronounces sentence against himself, who asks for his debts to be forgiven him, while he does not forgive his own debtors, and that from his heart. If thou wilt mark iniquities, O Lord, Lord, who shall endure it?

VI. And lead us not into temptation.

We do not pray not to be tempted, because it is often good for us to be so, and God therefore wisely permits it. But we pray not to yield to temptation, and also that he may not suffer us to be tempted, when he sees that we shall give way. Temptation is often the occasion and ground for the exercise of virtue; but it belongs to God so to moderate temptation, and to help our weakness, that we may not be tempted above that we are able, but may come off unhurt. Prove me, O Lord, and try me; burn my reins and my heart, and see if there is in me the way of iniquity, and lead me in the eternal way.

VII. But deliver us from evil.

From evils of every kind. As the Church prays in the Mass: Deliver us, O Lord, we beseech thee, from all evils, past, present, and to come; that is, temporal and eternal, both of soul and body.

Secondly, from the evil one; that is, the malignant spirit; that he may have no power of exercising his envy and malice upon us.

Not only those things which influence the soul are here reckoned as evils; but those also which so affect the body, the fortune, and the character, that evil and injury may be feared from them also to the soul. Though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for thou art with me. Enlighten mine eyes, that I may never sleep in death, lest at any time my enemy say, I have prevailed against him.

VIII. Amen. So be it, so be it.

This should be pronounced with fervent desire. For the Lord hath heard the desire of the poor. Likewise with great confidence, as asking those things which he has enjoined us to pray for. As St. John says: This is our confidence which we have towards GOD, that, whatsoever we shall ask according to his will, he heareth us, and we know that we have the petitions which we request of him.