April/May 2014 - Vol. 73

On the Lord's Prayer

by Cyprian of Carthage, 3rd century

But Deliver Us from Evil

The Lord's Prayer has an ending which neatly summarizes the different requests. We say actually at the end:`But deliver us from evil,' understanding by such an expression everything that the Enemy can devise against us in this world.

One certain conviction we have: that God is a powerful support since he grants his help to anyone who asks for it.

Consequently, when we say: `Deliver us from evil,'there is nothing else left for us to ask. Invoking the protection of God against evil means asking for everything we need.

This prayer secures us against any kind of machination of the devil and of the world. Who could be afraid of the world if he has God as his protector?

You see, brothers and sisters, how amazing the Lord's Prayer is. It is truly a compendium of all the requests we could possibly make.

Our Lord Jesus Christ who came for all people, for the wise as for the ignorant, without distinction of sex or age, reduces the precepts of salvation to the essential minimum. He wants even the simplest to be able to understand and remember them.

                                       [Breviario Patristico © 1971 Piero Gribaudi Editore, Turin, Italy; translated by Paul Drake] 
 

Commentary on the Lord's Prayer

» The Privilege and Responsibility of Calling God Father, by Cyril of Alexandria
» God  Our Father, by Cyril of Jerusalem
» Who art in Heaven, by Gregory of Nyssa
» Hallowed by thy Name, by Origen
» Thy Kingdom Come, by Origen
» Thy will be done, by Origen
» Give us our daily bread, by Gregory of Nyssa
» Forgive us our trespasses, by Cassian
» And lead us not into temptation, by Origen
» But deliver us from evil, by Cyprian of Carthage

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