A Homily for the Tuesday of the Twenty-Third Week: An Explanation of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father” (Part 2)

The Lord’s Prayer does not eliminate prolonged remaining in prayer: the example of both prolonged and all-night prayers, so necessary and beneficial for us, was set by the Lord Himself (Lk 11:1, 9:18, 6:12). The Lord’s Prayer does not make unnecessary or superfluous the other prayers accepted and established by the holy Church: it constitutes their essence; it serves as a rule for them; it teaches us that in our other prayers too we must ask God for spiritual goods alone. All prayers written by the holy Fathers, used in the holy Church, fulfill this holy requirement: the source of all of them is the Holy Spirit, speaking abundantly in the Lord’s Prayer. It is not pleasing to our Redeemer, who has redeemed us at the price of His priceless blood for blessed eternity, that we should trouble Him about anything perishable and temporal. If necessity forces us to approach the majesty of Godhead with a petition about our temporal need, let us do this with caution and reverence, without excitement and heat, without eloquence, in few humble words, concluding the prayer by entrusting ourselves and our petition to God’s will. We are forbidden fleshly verbosity and oratory in prayer; we are forbidden petitions for earthly goods and advantages, petitions with which alone the prayers of pagans and those like pagans in the flesh are filled, who care for one thing only – the earthly and temporal, having forgotten concern for the eternal. “When praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do”, the Lord commanded us, establishing and giving us the Lord’s Prayer, “for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Mt 6:7–8). “Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness”, that divine justice which introduces into it, “and all these things”, all the needs of earthly life, “will be given to you as well” (Mt 6:33). Amen.

The Ladder, Word 28, Ch. 64

(Mt 6:33); Saint Cassian

Saint Barsanuphius the Great, Reply 71

Word 7, Ch. 11, 12

The Ladder, Word 28, Ch. 61

“The flesh has its own will,” that is, its own desire, said Saint Mark the Ascetic, referring to the Apostle (Eph 2:3). Word 4

Saint Cassian, Coll. 9, cap. 21

Saint Cassian, Coll. 9, cap. 21. Such an understanding of daily bread does not at all make strange the reading of the Lord’s Prayer before meals, according to monastic practice: material bread serves as an image of the bread “descended from heaven”.

Saint Macarius the Great, Homily 7, Ch. 4

Saint Cassian, Coll. 9, cap. 23; Saint Isaac the Syrian, Word 5

Spiritual freedom has no relation to freedom in the flesh; civil slavery has no effect on spiritual freedom, and conversely, civil freedom does not prevent one from being a slave in the spiritual sense.

Saint Cassian, Coll. 9, cap. 24

Saint Cassian, Coll. 9, cap. 24

The Commentary