On the Lord’s Prayer in General

Tertullian. Our Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself as both the Spirit of God, and the Word of God, and the Wisdom of God: as Spirit, by which He acted so all-powerfully; as Word, by which He taught; as Wisdom, which He disclosed by His coming. And the prayer is made up of these three: of Word, in which it is spoken; of Spirit, by which it is so powerful; of Wisdom, which flows from it and is received. John also taught his disciples to pray; but all that was John’s was being prepared for Christ, so that, as He increased, all the work of this forerunner, along with his very spirit, would pass to the Lord, as John himself had foretold, saying: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). And so the words with which John taught prayer have not been preserved, because the earthly must yield to the heavenly: “He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all, and what He has seen and heard, of that He testifies” (John 3:31–32). And what is there that is not heavenly among those things that came forth from Christ the Lord—such as this prayer, or the instruction on how to pray? Let us then, beloved, attend carefully to His heavenly wisdom: first, to the commandment to pray in secret, by which He required faith from a person—that he believe that the eye and ear of almighty God are present even in the most hidden and concealed places—and He desired of him a reverent modesty of faith, that before that One alone he would express his devout and prayerful feelings, in whose all-seeing and all-hearing he had come to believe; and then also to the commandment following upon it—a commandment requiring the same faith and modesty—not to multiply words in prayer, so that we would not come before the Lord with a multitude of words in prayer, being assured of His utmost solicitude for those who are His. Such is the prayer He has established. It is brief; but this brevity will provide rich and sweet nourishment for interpretation. As compressed as it is in words, so expansive is it in meaning. For it contains not only what ought to be expressed in prayer—reverence before God, and the outpouring of petitions to Him—but encompasses all the Lord’s teaching, and brings to memory all His lessons and instructions, so that it is truly a compendium of the entire Gospel.

St. Cyprian of Carthage. The Gospel commandments are nothing other, most beloved brothers, than divine instructions, foundations for building up hope, supports for strengthening faith, nourishment for fortifying the heart, a rudder for directing the way, an aid for attaining salvation: instructing the obedient minds of believers on earth, they lead to the Heavenly Kingdom. God was pleased to proclaim and set forth many things through His servants the prophets: how much more important, then, is what the Son says, what He Himself testifies with His own voice—the Word of God who was present in the prophets—no longer commanding that the way be prepared for the One who was to come, but Himself coming to reveal and show us the way, so that we, who had wandered in darkness, previously heedless and blind, being illumined by the light of grace, might keep to the path of life under the guidance and governance of the Lord! He it was who, among His other saving instructions and divine commandments that lead people toward salvation, Himself gave us a model of prayer, Himself directed and taught us what we ought to ask. He who gave us life, by that same goodness by which He was pleased to bestow on us other gifts, also taught us to pray, so that, turning to the Father with the supplicatory prayer the Son taught us, we might be the more readily heard. He foretold the coming of a time when true worshipers would worship the Father in spirit and in truth, and He fulfilled His prediction in such a way that we, having received the Spirit and truth from His sanctification, worship truly and spiritually, holding to His tradition. For what prayer can be more spiritual than the one entrusted to us by Christ, who also sent down to us the Holy Spirit? What supplication can be more true before the Father than the supplication that issued from the lips of the Son, who is the Truth? Therefore, to pray otherwise than He has taught is not only ignorance but also transgression, all the more so since He Himself once remarked: “You have set aside the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition” (Matt. 15:6). Let us then, most beloved brothers, pray as God our Teacher has taught us. To pray to God according to His direction, to reach His hearing through the prayer of Christ—this is a pleasing and accessible approach to Him! When we pray, let the Father recognize the words of His Son. May He who dwells within us, in the heart, be present also in our speech. Since He is the advocate with the Father for our sins, let us who are sinners, when praying about our sins, use also the words of our Advocate. He says that whatever we ask the Father in His name, He will give to us (John 16:23); will we not then be all the more certain to receive what we ask in the name of Christ, if we pray with Christ’s own prayer?

St. Gregory of Nyssa. The Word of God imparts to us teaching on prayer, in which it sets forth for worthy disciples who earnestly seek knowledge of prayer what prayerful words ought to be used to incline God’s ear toward oneself. When the great Moses was preparing the people of Israel for the sacred mysteries on the mountain, he did not grant them the divine vision until he had first prescribed for the people a law of purification through the observance of bodily purity and washing. And even after this the Israelites did not dare to look upon the manifestation of God’s might; everything visible—the fire, the darkness, the smoke, the trumpets—filled them with terror; and turning back to themselves, they asked the lawgiver to stand as their mediator before the divine will, since they did not have sufficient strength to draw near to God and endure God’s presence. But our lawgiver, the Lord Jesus Christ, intending to bring us to divine grace, does not point us by His word to Mount Sinai, shrouded in darkness and smoking with fire, nor to the voices of trumpets sounding something unintelligible and terrible, nor to the observance of three days of bodily purity, nor, having purified the soul with water that washes away defilement, does He leave all the assembly at the foot of the mountain and allow only one person to ascend to the summit covered in the darkness that conceals the divine glory within; but on the contrary, first, instead of a mountain, He leads us up to heaven itself, having made it accessible to human beings through virtue; then He makes us not merely spectators but also participants in the divine power; and those who draw near to Him He introduces in a certain manner into kinship with the transcendent nature; and He does not veil the all-surpassing glory in darkness so that it would be hard for seekers to behold, but, having illumined the darkness with the clear light of teaching, He has made it so that the pure in heart behold the ineffable glory in full clarity. He also provides water for sprinkling, not drawn from alien streams but flowing within us ourselves—whether one understands this as the fountains of the eyes, or the pure conscience of the heart—having ordained that no filth of vice be admitted; and bodily purity He places in abstinence, not only from the lawful union of spouses, but from every material and passionate inclination; and thus through prayer He leads us to God. For such is the power of the words from which we learn from the Word of God not merely certain sounds uttered in syllables, but an outline of ascent to God, brought successfully to fulfillment through an exalted life.

St. John Chrysostom. Having given the disciples a model of prayer, the Lord suggests what ought to be said in prayer, while also teaching every virtue in a few words; for these words contain not only instruction in prayer but also teaching in the perfect life. Let us then examine their meaning with all diligence, and hold them firmly, as the laws of God.

St. Maximus the Confessor sees in this prayer “theology, adoptive sonship by grace, equality of honor (of people) with the Angels, participation in eternal life, the restoration of (human) nature to its original passionless state, the overthrow of the law of sin, and the casting down of the evil one, who had subjected us, through deceit, to his tyrannical dominion.”