The Third Petition: “Your Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven”

The Compiler (St. Theophan the Recluse). The will of God is our “holiness” (1 Thess. 4:3). God wills that, fulfilling His holy will expressed in the commandments, we may all be made holy and thus be saved (1 Tim. 2:4). When we pray “Your will be done,” we ask that our Heavenly Father grant us to understand His holy will—good, pleasing, and perfect (Rom. 12:2)—and supply us with strength for the performance of everything “that is true, that is honorable, that is just, that is pure, that is lovely, that is of good report; if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy” (Phil. 4:8), so that we may prove as perfect on earth as God’s Angels are in heaven—“mighty in strength, always doing the will of God” (Ps. 102:20–21). Of the two preceding petitions, the first, through the fear of God, awakens from slumber; the second, through the desire for the kingdom, arouses energy; while this, the third, points to the very work toward which the awakened and strained powers should be directed. Since all of this is from the Lord, we pray that He may accomplish all this in us according to His good will, surrendering ourselves entirely to His all-working and governance.

Tertullian. We cry “Your will be done” not because anyone could hinder the will of God from being, but we pray that His will may be fulfilled in all of us. But what else does God will, if not that we walk according to His commandments? Therefore we pray that He both show us His will and give us strength to fulfill it, that we may appear saved both in heaven and on earth. For the substance of His will is the salvation of those whom He has adopted. And that is the will of God which the Lord accomplished through preaching, deeds, and suffering. Thus He Himself said that He does not His own will, but the will of His Father (John 6:39). And there is no doubt that everything He did, He did by the will of the Father. And now He invites us to follow His example and to remain in the will of God even to death. But in order that we may be able to do this, we need the will of God—His good will and help. Therefore, saying “Your will be done,” we express the desire that it may be accomplished in us, with the assurance that in the will of God there is nothing harmful for us, even if it should be necessary to suffer for it. And the Lord, before the onset of His sufferings, wishing to show the weakness of human flesh even in His own flesh, said: “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me!” (Luke 22:42). But He immediately added: “nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” He Himself is the will and power of the Father, and yet He was pleased to deliver Himself to the Father’s will, showing the necessity of the impending suffering.

St. Cyprian of Carthage. Saying “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”—not that God should do what He wills as a result of our prayer, but that we might be able to do what is pleasing to Him. For who would prevent God from doing what is pleasing to Him? But since the devil puts obstacles in the way of our rendering full obedience to God in spirit and body, we ask and pray that the will of God may be in us. And for it to be in us, the pleasure of God is necessary—that is, God’s help and protection—because no one is strong by his own powers, but everyone finds safety only in God’s condescension and mercy. Even the Lord, showing human weakness which He bore in Himself, said: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me”—and then, giving the disciples an example to fulfill not their own will but God’s, added: “nevertheless not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39). And in another place He says: “I came down from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 6:38). If the Son was so obedient as to fulfill the Father’s will, how much more must a servant be obedient and fulfill the will of his Lord? John in his Epistle admonishes and instructs us toward the fulfillment of the will of God: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15–17), as God also abides forever. Therefore, desiring to abide forever, we must do the will of God who is eternal. The will of God is shown to us in the deeds and teaching of Christ: humility in conduct, steadfastness in faith, modesty in words, righteousness in actions; in deeds—mercy; in morals—decorum; inability to inflict injury, ability to bear injury inflicted on us; to keep peace with brothers; to love God with all our heart, to love Him as a Father, to fear Him as God; to prefer nothing above Christ, just as He preferred nothing above us; to stand courageously and faithfully by His cross when there is contest over His name and honor; to express in speech the steadfastness of confession, in interrogation the boldness with which we enter the fight, in death the patience with which we are crowned—this means desiring to be a co-heir with Christ! This means fulfilling the commandment of God, doing the will of the Father!

St. Gregory of Nyssa. The health of the soul is the fulfillment of the divine will, just as, conversely, departure from the good will is a sickness of the soul ending in death. Therefore, since we became weak when, in paradise, we abandoned the right way of life and tasted without measure the poison of disobedience—so that a harsh and deadly disease took hold of our nature—the true Physician came, one who, in accordance with the law of the healing art, cures evil by its opposite, and frees from their affliction those seized by illness because they turned away from God’s will, restoring them again to health through union with God’s will. For the words of the prayer serve as a remedy for the illness that has befallen the soul. Whoever has a soul seized, as it were, by certain diseases prays and says: “Your will be done.” And the will of God is the salvation of mankind.

Therefore, when we come to be able to say to God: “Your will be done”—and on me—then it is absolutely necessary first to condemn that former life which was not in accord with God’s will, and to express this in confession: “Because during the time of my past life the will opposed to Yours worked evil in me, I became a servant of a malicious tyrant and, as it were, an executioner carrying out upon myself the verdict of the enemy; therefore, moved by compassion for my ruin, grant that from this time forward Your will may be accomplished in me as well. For as in dark caves, when light is brought in, the darkness vanishes, so when Your will is accomplished in me, every evil and unfitting movement of free will shall come to nothing. Chastity will extinguish the intemperate and passionate impulse of the mind; humility will destroy arrogance; modesty will heal the disease of pride; and the goodness of love will drive from the soul the numerous host of opposing evils. Let hatred, envy, indignation, the impulse of anger, the irritable disposition, malice, deceit, the remembrance of grievances, the thirst for vengeance, the boiling of blood in the chest, the evil eye—let all this flock of such evils be annihilated by a disposition full of love.” Thus the efficacy of God’s will uproots a twofold idolatry; I call it twofold: frenzied attachment to idols, and the craving for silver and gold—these idols of the “nations,” as the prophetic word named them (Ps. 113:12). Therefore, “Your will be done,” that the will of the devil may be rendered without effect.

But why do we ask God that our free choice may become good? Because human nature, once weakened by vice, is powerless for good. For a person does not return from evil to good with the same ease with which he falls into evil—a similar law we can observe in bodies as well, since a healthy body does not fall ill with the same ease and convenience with which a sick one recovers its health. One who has been healthy until now has often fallen into extreme danger from a single wound, and a single spell or attack of fever has destroyed all the strength in the body; a small dose of poison has either completely destroyed the body or done so gradually; and from the bite of a reptile, or the sting of one of the venomous creatures, or a slip of the foot, or a fall, or the greedy eating of something beyond one’s strength, or something else of the kind, illness or death has followed instantly; whereas recovery from sickness, when it does occur, requires how many contrivances, difficulties, and artificial medical remedies? Therefore, when the inclination toward evil is active in us, no assistance is needed, because vice by itself accomplishes itself in our will. But when an inclination toward what is better arises, God must bring the desire to fulfillment. Therefore we say: since chastity is Your will, yet “the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin” (Rom. 7:14), by Your power let this good will prevail in me. The same we say of justice, of piety, of freedom from the passions. The word “will” embraces all virtues in general, and by the phrase “the will of God” each good thing that is understood under the name of good is individually signified.

But what does this addition mean: “as in heaven, so on earth”? This word, as it seems to me, points perhaps to one of the deeper dogmas and constitutes a teaching of God-befitting understanding when looking at creation. The meaning of what I am saying is this: all rational creation is divided into incorporeal nature and nature clothed with a body. The incorporeal nature is the angelic, and the other kind of nature is we human beings. The first, therefore, being spiritual, as released from the burden of body (I mean this coarse body that gravitates toward the earth), travels the higher lot, dwelling by reason of its light and easily moved nature in realms light and ethereal. The other, by kinship of our body with what is earthly, has by necessity received as its portion a kind of sediment of mud, as it were—earthly life. I do not know what God’s will arranged by this—perhaps that it was to bring all creation closer together, so that the lower lot might not be without a share in the heavenly heights and heaven might not be entirely without a share in what is on earth, but through the formation of human nature from both elements there would arise a certain communion of what is seen in each element, since the spiritual part of the soul, which appears to be something akin and kindred to the heavenly powers, dwells in earthly bodies, and this earthly flesh, at the transformation of the corruptible and the catching up of the righteous, will together with the soul migrate to the heavenly realm. For “we shall be caught up,” as the Apostle says, “in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17). Therefore, whether this or something else was arranged by divine wisdom—all rational nature, by this twofold life, is divided into parts: the incorporeal nature has received the heavenly blessedness as its lot, while the other, on account of the flesh, dwells on earth by reason of kinship with it. Although the longing for what is beautiful and good is equally realized in both natures, and the Ruler of the Universe has made free will, sovereignty, and freedom from all necessity equal in both—so that all endowed with word and understanding might govern themselves by a kind of self-legislating free choice—yet the heavenly life preserves itself in all things pure from vice, and nothing that appears to be its opposite is compatible with it; but every passionate movement and disposition to which the human race is subject keeps earthly life spinning in confusion. Therefore, the God-inspired word holds that the life of the holy powers in heaven has no admixture of vice and is pure from every defilement of sin. But all that, through the contrivance of evil and departure from good, is converted into wickedness flows down like some kind of sediment or mud into this ordinary life, and the human race is defiled, finding in this darkness an obstacle to perceiving the divine light of truth. Therefore, if the higher life is passionless and pure, while this present wretched life is plunged into every passion and suffering, it is clear that the heavenly life, as being pure from all evil, advances in the good will of God—for where there is no evil, there is of all necessity good. But our life, having lost communion in good, has also fallen away from God’s will. Therefore, we are taught in prayer to purify our life from evil to such a degree that, just as in the heavenly dwelling, God’s will may govern without hindrance in us too—so that one might say: “As in thrones, principalities, powers, dominions, and in every supramundane force Your will is accomplished and no vice hinders the action of good, so also in us may the good be accomplished, that through the destruction of every vice in our souls Your will may be successfully fulfilled in all things.”

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. The divine and blessed Angels of God do the will of God, as the Psalmist David said: “Bless the Lord, all you His Angels, mighty in strength, who fulfill His word” (Ps. 102:20). Therefore, when praying “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” say inwardly: as Your will is accomplished in the Angels, O Lord, so let it be also in me on earth.

St. John Chrysostom. “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Do you see the beautiful connection? He first commanded us to desire the future and to strive toward our homeland; but until that comes about, those living here must strive to lead a life befitting the inhabitants of heaven. We must desire heaven and heavenly things, He says. Nevertheless, even before we attain heaven, He commands us to make earth into heaven and, while living on it, to conduct ourselves in everything as if we were in heaven, and to pray to the Lord for this. Indeed, our living on earth is no obstacle whatsoever to attaining the perfection of the heavenly powers. But it is possible, even dwelling here, to do everything as if we lived in heaven. Thus the meaning of the Savior’s words is this: just as everything in heaven is accomplished without hindrance, and it does not happen that the angels in some things obey while in others they do not obey, but they obey and submit in all things (for it is said: “mighty in strength, who fulfill His word” (Ps. 102:20))—so also us, human beings, count worthy to do Your will not only halfway, but to fulfill everything as it pleases You. Do you see? Christ also taught humility, when He showed that virtue depends not on our zeal alone but also on heavenly grace; and at the same time He commanded each one of us during prayer to take upon himself concern for the whole world—He did not say “Your will be done” in me, or in us, but on all “the earth”—that is, that every error may be destroyed and the truth planted, that every evil may be driven out and virtue return, and that in this way heaven may be no different from earth. If this comes about, He says, the earthly will differ in nothing from the heavenly, though in their properties they are distinct; then the earth will show us other angels.

Having aroused in us before this a love for the future and a desire for the kingdom and pierced us with this desire, He commands us to say: “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Grant us, O Lord, He says, to imitate the heavenly life, that we too may desire what You Yourself desire; help our will that is weak, though willing to do Your works yet restrained by the weakness of the flesh; stretch out Your hand to those striving to go forward but compelled to limp; the soul is light (the spirit is willing), but the flesh weighs it down; the former rushes swiftly toward the heavenly, while the latter gravitates toward the earthly; but with Your help even what is impossible will be possible: “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

St. Cassian. No prayer can be higher than that in which we desire that the earthly should be counted worthy of being equated with the heavenly. For what does “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” mean, if not this: “May people become like the Angels, and as the Angels fulfill God’s will in heaven, so may all who live on earth do not their own will but His.” (Another thought) And no one can pronounce this petition with full feeling except one who believes that God arranges everything that seems to us misfortune or good fortune for our benefit, and that He cares and watches over our salvation and well-being more than we ourselves do.

Blessed Augustine. “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The Angels serve You in heaven—may we also serve You on earth. The Angels do not offend You in heaven—may we also not offend You on earth. As they do Your will, so may we do it as well. — And what are we praying for here, if not to be good? For the will of God is in us when we do it; and that is what it means to be good.

When we say “Your will be done,” we ask of our heavenly Father the very obedience to His will, that it may be fulfilled by us as well, just as it is fulfilled in heaven by His Angels.

“Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”—that is, just as with the Angels who are in heaven it is Your will that they cling to You in every way and enjoy You, so that no cloud of error darkens their wisdom and no sorrow disturbs their blessedness: so may it be also with Your saints who are on earth, created from earth according to the body and, though destined for a heavenly dwelling, yet to be taken from the earth. — “Your will be done” can also be understood as: may obedience to Your commandments be rendered; and “on earth as it is in heaven”—as: by Angels and by people alike. For that God’s will is done when His commandments are fulfilled, the Lord Himself shows when He says: “My food is to do the will of the One who sent Me” (John 4:34). And again: “I came down from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 6:38). Therefore, in those who do God’s will, that will is present; for they do what God wills, that is, they act according to His will.

St. Maximus the Confessor. Whoever mystically offers to God the service of his rational faculty alone, freed from lust and anger, fulfills God’s will on earth just as the ranks of angels do in heaven. He has already become a fellow servant and fellow dweller with the Angels, as the great Apostle says: “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). Such people have neither lust, which weakens the tension of the mind with pleasures, nor anger, raging and shamelessly barking at what is akin to itself. In them there remains one sole reason, naturally leading rational beings to the first Reason. …But the holy Angels in heaven bring nothing to God except rational service. Desiring the same from us as well, He teaches those who pray to say: “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” So let our reason press toward the seeking of God, and let the power of desire become a longing for Him, while the passionate element enters into striving to preserve Him. Or, to put it more precisely, let the whole mind stretch toward God, urged on as by a certain voice by the tension of passion and inflamed by the ultimate surge of the power of desire. Imitating the heavenly Angels in this way, we shall always be servants of God and shall manifest on earth a life equal to the angels, and thereby shall possess, on a par with the Angels, a mind entirely indifferent to all that is below God.

Blessed Theophylact. “Your will be done”—as in heaven among the Angels, so also among us people on earth. As the Angels fulfill Your will, so grant us also to fulfill it. For the Angels always and in all things act according to God’s will.

Simeon of Thessalonica. Attune us like the Angels, so that as in them, so also in us Your will may be present and be accomplished by us. Let not our will be passionate and human, but let Your will be passionless and holy. As You were pleased to unite the earthly with the heavenly, so be pleased that also in us, who are on earth, there may be a heavenly life, service, and activity.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. God’s will comes about even without our petition. Therefore we do not ask that God do what He wills, but that we may be able to do what His will desires. From this we see that we cannot do God’s will without God. God’s will is fulfilled when we preserve piety intact and persevere in it to the end, as it is said: “Be faithful until death” (Rev. 2:10); also when sinners turn away from their sins and repent. “God desires that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). That this may be so, we ask God: “Your will be done.” And may it be “on earth as it is in heaven.” That is, as the Angels in heaven fulfill God’s will and live among themselves lovingly, peacefully, and in harmony, so may we also, imitating them on earth, be able to do His will and live holy, pure, peaceful, lovingly, and in harmony. When we pray “Your will be done,” we must renounce our own will and abandon it.

The Compiler (St. Theophan the Recluse). In the words “Your will be done” one can also see the expression of surrender to God’s will. Some words of St. Cassian and St. Cyprian hint at this. The fulfillment of God’s will as expressed in the commandments cannot appear in perfection without such surrender, because it is bound up with deprivations—sometimes very great—and with sufferings—sometimes very painful. Enduring both is inevitably mediated by the handing over of oneself to one’s lot and of all one’s affairs to God’s will. The fulfillment of the commandments, being mediated by surrender to God’s will, itself strengthens and elevates that surrender. And complete surrender is the summit of Christian moral perfection.