Former Elder Vassileios of Iveron Monastery
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed
be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily
bread, and forgive us our transgressions, as we
forgive those who transgress against us, and lead us
not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil
one. Amen.
I have selected a passage from the
Gospel, the prayer known as ‘The Lord’s Prayer’,
since I believe it is the most representative prayer
- the prayer handed down to us by the Lord Jesus
Christ.
I believe that the Lord has taught us
the prayer He has created; He gave us the life He has
lived and taught us how He was. And this is Jesus’
truth. He had said once: “I am the vine; you are the
branches” (John 15, 5). Just as the relationship
between the vine and the branches is organic and the
juice flows easily from the vine to the branches, in
the same way Jesus flows in our existence by giving us
His entire being. Therefore, I believe that through
this prayer we live in Jesus Christ, provided we
consciously pray and experience the prayer.
Let us begin by reciting this prayer
and studying it piece by piece.
The first phrase says:
“Our Father who art in heaven”
I believe we commit one major sin. We
sometimes become demoralized and forget one thing: the
Lord loves us even though we are weak. If we hold on
to just one thought this is it: that the Lord loves us
and that the Lord is our Father.
We normally say that the parents love
their child not because it is a good child but because
it is their child. Therefore it is a major consolation
to us if we manage to consciously accept and feel that
we too could call the Lord “Father”. This word says
everything. It places us immediately into the Church.
Someone could be an orphan, his own people may have
abandoned him; he may have lost everything and feel
completely alone. Nevertheless, as soon as he
considers that the Lord is his Father, he feels
sheltered and secure and the entire world becomes his
home.
I could even dare say this: Wouldn’t it
be better if everybody abandoned us in order to
experience the love of the Lord? Yes, I believe it
would be. You see the Lord says in His Beatitudes:
‘Blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the thirsty,
the hungry the weeping…etc” In other words, it would
be better if we were to lose all human affection along
with everything else, if only we would feel that the
Lord is our Father.
I remember once that I had asked an old
lady in Paris- she was Russian- to tell us what a monk
is and she replied without thinking that “a monk is
someone who is hanging from a string; the string is
the love of the Lord”. I believe that this is true of
every person. Man is strong in this life; his strength
is the fact that the Lord loves him. We were born and
we continue to live in hope, because Someone loves us.
This Someone is strong even though we are weak.
“Our Father who art in heaven’’. So, our
Father is not just someone whom we may see but is a
heavenly Father, Who lives in heaven. Therefore, the
whole heaven becomes our home. Thus we ought to feel
free and at ease. Once, when they informed Evagrios
Pontikos- one of the great ascetics in Nitria- that
his father had died, he replied without thinking: “Do
not blaspheme. My Father has never died!”
Thus in this first line of the prayer,
our Lord gives us courage, turns us into His siblings
and incites us to call His Father “our” Father. We
call the Lord “our” Father, not “my” Father. Therefore
the Lord is everyone’s Father and we are all brothers.
“Hallowed be Thy name,
Thy kingdom come”
The Holy Fathers of our Church see the
presence of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in these
two lines. Along with the first line, the Holy Trinity
in its entirety is present. The Name of God the Father
is the Word of God the Father, the Son of God, and the
kingdom of the Lord is the Holy Spirit. (There is an
earlier version of the Gospel in which the prayer
instead of saying ‘Thy Kingdom come’says: ‘Thy Holy
Spirit come on us and cleanse us’). Here therefore the
Holy Trinity is present as in the Creed of Faith,
where we declare: “I believe in one God, Father
Almighty…and in Jesus Christ… and in the Holy Spirit…”
“Hallowed by Thy Name”. We pray that the
Lord’s name is hallowed. If according to the Holy
Fathers the name of God the Father is the Son and Word
of God, then “hallowed by thy name” may be related to
what Jesus said in John 17, 19: “And for their sakes I
sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified in
truth”. ‘Sanctify myself’ means: the Lord sacrifices
Himself so that they are sanctified in truth; so that
the faithful are sanctified indeed. Thus, when we are
praying “Hallowed by thy Name”, it is as if we are
saying: let the sacrifice of the Son and Word of God
be sanctified. Thus, the Lord is our sanctification,
our deliverance and our justice. By ‘Thy kingdom come’
we beg for the Holy Spirit to come during Pentecost.
The Holy Spirit always comes and the Church is the
continuing Pentecost.
Therefore the Holy Trinity is present in
these three lines. In addition, we may also find here
the reality of the epiclesis made during the central
prayer of the Holy Liturgy. There, the priest begs the
heavenly Father to send the Holy Spirit and make the
bread and wine, the Body and Blood of Christ.
And thus we arrive at the fourth line,
which is the central part of the Lord’s Prayer and the
central part of the life of Jesus and of our own
lives. It is this:
“Thy will be done”
This phrase may be compared to the
“Amen” of the prayer. Because “Thy will be done” is
the conclusion and the recapitulation of the previous
phrases. Earlier we say “Hallowed by Thy name”, “Thy
kingdom come”, “Thy will be done” and refer to the
Lord; we offer everything to the Lord and this is
confirmed and recapitulated by “Thy will be done”.
In order to understand how important
this phrase is, it will be good to consider why Jesus
descended from heaven. “I descended from heaven to
fulfill the will of the Father who has sent Me and to
accomplish His work”, He says. And also: “As I hear, I
judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my
own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 5,
30). Moreover, remember when Jesus met the Samaritan
woman? When His disciples urged Him to eat, He had
replied: “I have food to eat that you do not know
about.”(John 4, 32-34) “My food is to do the will of
him who sent me and to accomplish his work”.
I think that this last phrase “my food
is to do the will of him who has sent me” is the most
essential element which describes Jesus’ life and our
own lives. Thus during the hour of His real agony at
Gethsemane- the time when an earthquake strikes, so to
speak, and everything is being tested- when He
“…being in an agony he prayed more earnestly”, he
said: “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink
it, your will be done” (Matthew 26, 42). Thus, at His
most difficult moment, He was the first to say the
very same thing He had instructed us to say. And then
He proceeds to walk peacefully, in His Almighty way,
towards the Passion precisely because He had said “Not
my will be done, but Your will be done”. As soon as He
had said this, He turned inwardly, gained strength and
pressed on.
It wouldn’t be inappropriate to take a
look at our own life at this point. We get on with our
lives, we make plans, have prospects, have a good time
but suddenly we may meet with trouble. I believe that
there is no man who has not gone through his own
Gethsemane. When everything collapses, then and only
then everything rises; only then does man comprehend
Jesus’ words “My food is to do the will of him who
sent me and to accomplish his work”. When everything
turns upside down and there is no hope, no light to be
seen; when everything is covered in darkness, if this
person says “My Lord, thy will be done” he suddenly
receives new strength; he rises and walks humbly
towards the path, towards the passage, towards the
Resurrection, who is Jesus, in a never ending process.
Then in hindsight he will be grateful to the Lord not
for the happy but for the difficult times of his life,
for his personal Gethsemane. These have forced him,
through the dismantling of his ego, to freely admit
and say “My Lord, thy will be done”.
I believe that the phrase: “Thy will be
done” relates to what the Lord said at the beginning
of the creation: “let there be… and it was so” as well
as to the epiclesis during the Holy Liturgy when the
priest begs the Father to send the Holy Spirit and
make the bread, the Body of Christ and the wine the
Blood of Christ, and ends with “Amen, Amen, Amen”,
when the mystery is already accomplished. When man
willingly says “My Lord, let your will be done to me”
resembles what the Virgin Mary said to Archangel
Gabriel: “let it be to me according to your word”
(Luke 1, 38). Namely, let it be to me, in me, in my
entire existence according to your words; Lord let it
be according to Your will. From then on, man becomes
sanctified and receives a different kind of strength.
Abba Isaac says somewhere that man can
become God through Grace, if he obeys the Lord. He can
become God and truly create new worlds out of nothing;
He can become totally regenerated; the weak gains
strength and he who is dead is revived and lives on.
He then comprehends that to say calmly “Lord, thy will
be done and not mine” is the real food indeed.
Thus, a true theologian is not the one
who goes to the university and gets honors because he
remembered a couple of dates and some names and wrote
a dissertation. A true theologian, who comprehends the
power and the truth in our Lord’s teachings, is the
one who says when in trouble: ‘not mine, but your will
be done’. Then the entire Lord enters in him, makes
him a theologian, makes him God through Grace and
enables him to walk forward in Jesus Christ. And just
as the risen Lord walked through closed doors,
similarly this weak man, who has become all powerful
with the Grace of the Lord, gets on with his life
irrespective of whether the problems have been solved
or not.
Therefore, if we happen to face
difficulties, let’s talk to the Lord honestly, in any
way we wish, because the Lord is our Father. But in
the end let us say: “My Lord, I do not know what to
do. You do. You love them more than me and they belong
to you more than they belong to me. Let thy will be
done. If your will seems to be like a catastrophe on
the outset, let it be catastrophic”. Any catastrophe
from God is better than any success achieved through
human effort. The latter creates a true mess and a
real disaster. Thus ‘thy will be done’ is the phrase
which feeds and elevates us to another place.
“On earth as it is in heaven”
St John Chrysostom says that Jesus makes
everyone responsible for the deliverance of the whole
world. It doesn’t say: “Lord, let thy will be done in
my life” but, “let thy will be done on earth as it is
in heaven”.
Once I visited the island of Kos to meet
an old lady. She told me: ‘I do not know how to read
and write; I do not even know how to recite the Lord’s
Prayer or the Creed of Faith. Nevertheless, every
night before bed, I cross myself and beg the Lord to
let the world wake up well. “Am I doing well?” “Yes,
you are”, I said to her.
See, the old woman had uncovered the
essence of this prayer. Because she lived her life in
Church and the Lord’s grace was flowing in her
existence silently, just as the vine juice flows into
the branches, she did what was right without having
ever learnt to read or write.
“Give us this day our daily bread”,
When we finally become able to reach our
own Gethsemane and say during our most difficult
moment, ‘Lord, thy will be done’ without distress, or
indignation, but calmly and resolutely, then I do
believe that our spiritual stomach is ready to digest
the real food. And that is our Lord, Jesus Christ.” I
am the living bread which came down from heaven: if
any man eats of this bread, he shall live forever”
(John 6, 51). I am the real bread, the living bread
which came down from heaven. If one eats it, one will
live forever and will not die; He already experiences
eternal life while still living this life.
What does Jesus mean when He says ‘give
us this day our daily bread’? The Holy Fathers explain
that ‘daily’ bread means the bread which has to do
with man’s existence or the bread for the next day.
‘Next day’ means the forthcoming eon, the kingdom of
heaven. Thus, we are praying so that the Lord makes
us worthy of the ‘eternal life’, of the heavenly
bread, i.e. Jesus Christ, and to offer Him to us- the
real food- from this life. So, we wish to be able to
feed on the bread of the angels, the bread of ‘the
next day’, the bread of the eternal life and of the
kingdom of heaven.
“And forgive us our transgressions, as
we forgive those who transgress against us”
Let us remember the prayer the Lord
offered for those who crucified Him: “Father, forgive
them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23, 34).
There was no excuse for what they did; but the Lord
found one for them.Namely that they do not know what
they are doing.
“Forgive us our transgressions, as we
forgive those who transgress against us”.
This phrase is somehow more demanding.
Jesus does not implore us to beg the Lord to help us
forgive the others; instead, we are telling the Lord
that we have forgiven them anyway. St Gregory of Nyssa
says that it is as if we are asking Lord, the Father,
to notice our exemplary behavior and forgive us too.
If by any chance we do not show
forgiveness, there is nothing anymore to be done;
Jesus Christ was clear on this: “if you do not forgive
others their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6, 15). We may be
attending religious classes and spiritual meetings,
may go to church, may take the Holy Communion, may
have advanced in spiritual life, may even perform
miracles and yet not show forgiveness. If we do not
show forgiveness, everything was done in vain.
Let us remember what St Kosmas Aitolos
was preaching to the people: ‘I am distressed because
I do not have the time to see each one of you
individually, so that you can confess to me, tell me
your troubles and to console you with words provided
by the Lord. So, because I cannot see you
individually, I have a number of things which you must
obey. If you obey, you will do well. The first thing
is: “forgive your enemies”’.
In order to help them understand what he
meant, he told them a story. “Two people came to me to
confess, Peter and Paul. Paul said to me: ‘Holy
father, I am following the Lord’s path ever since I
was a boy. I have done many good deeds, I am praying,
I give alms, I have built churches and monasteries. I
only have one weakness. I cannot forgive my enemies’.
I have decided that this man is to go straight to hell
and gave instructions to throw his body to the dogs
when he dies. After a short while, Paul comes to me
and says: ‘I have not followed the straight path ever
since I was young. I have stolen things, I have
dishonored women, I have killed people, and I have
burnt down churches and monasteries. In other words, I
have been acting as if I was possessed. I only do one
thing: I forgive my enemies’.
And St Kosmas concluded: “I put my arms
around his neck and kissed him. I also instructed him
to receive the Holy Communion in three days”.
Peter, who did so many
good deeds, has defiled everything with his refusal
to offer forgiveness. Just like a small piece of
dirt taints a hundred kilos of flour. On the other
hand, Paul was forgiving even though he had
committed so many atrocities. His forgiveness acted
like the candle which burnt all of his evil deeds.
Occasionally, instead of giving off Christ’s
fragrance, our lives seem to smell badly and we do
not know why. Therefore, we ought to offer
forgiveness without holding a grudge against anyone.
Unless we do this all our goodness and our good
deeds have been in vain. That’s why the Lord says:
“if you do not forgive others their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses”.
The tiniest thing can help us win the kingdom of
God and the tiniest thing can taint our entire
lives.
“And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one”
On the one hand we say ‘lead us
not into temptation’ and on the other James the
Apostle implores us thus: ‘Count it all joy, my
brothers when you meet trials of various kinds”
(James 1, 2). Our Holy Fathers solved the riddle for
us. St Maximus the Confessor explains that there
are two kinds of temptations: One the one hand,
there are the hedonistic pleasures which are
voluntary and lead one to commit a sin. We pray to
the Lord to help us resist such temptations. On the
other hand, there are temptations and tribulations
which are involuntary and painful; these target our
hedonistic tendencies and stop us from sinning.
Therefore, we are praying to the Lord to help us
resist the first kind of temptations which are
hedonistic and voluntary. On the other hand, we are
asking for help in accepting the second kind of
temptations with pleasure since they cause knowledge
and humility and the presence of the Grace of the
Holy Spirit. Remember what the book ‘Gerontiko’
says: Take away the temptations and no one is saved.
“Deliver us from the evil one”.
This is the last phrase of the prayer. The first one
was ‘Our Father’. The lord is the first and
foremost reality and the evil one is the last. We
walk on a tight rope between the Lord and the devil
throughout our lives. The devil did not leave anyone
untouched; neither the first Adam in Paradise, nor
the second Adam, Jesus Christ, when He went out in
the desert. Our Lord, speaking of the devil, said:
‘This kind cannot be driven out by anything but
prayer” (Mark 9, 29). In other words, we cannot be
delivered from the devil save through prayer and
fasting. The devil does not leave us in peace even
if we use reasoning against him, just as cancer is
not cured with aspirin. A monk says that the
greatest lawyer cannot win his case against the
devil. That’s why we ought never to start a
conversation with the evil one. We just ignore him.
The whole issue in spiritual life
is to acquire spiritual discernment in order to be
able to differentiate between something which comes
from God and something which doesn’t. Here one
might say: I am a weak person. How can I acquire
discernment?
I believe that things become much
simpler if we come to comprehend The Lord’s Prayer.
Let us begin from the last point. If we forgive our
enemies without reservations; if we feed on the
heavenly bread; if we say “Lord, thy will be done”
during difficult moments; if we experience the Lord
as our Father, then even though we are weak, we will
become very strong at the same time. If on the
contrary, we always do what we want and we do not
give forgiveness, we will turn devil into a lion,
even though he is like a small ant; then he will be
impossible to overcome.
In other words, a weak man
becomes all powerful in the face of the devil if he
constantly prays that the Lord’s will be done and if
he offers forgiveness without a second thought. Such
a man forgives those who trample on him and does not
hold a grudge against anyone. Instead he prays:
‘never mind, the Lord is great. Let His will be
done. I myself know nothing.’ Thus, he is able to
walk away from trouble unscathed.
Remember when Jesus was in agony
at Gethsemane and prayed more earnestly, He had
said: ‘not my will, but Thy will be done’. Then as
soon as He had uttered these words “there appeared
to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him”
(Luke 22, 43). Similarly, in the desert, as soon as
He had said: “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only
shall you serve’”, the devil left him, “and behold,
angels came and were ministering to him” (Matthew 4,
10-11). The same thing happens to us. Spiritual
discernment descends upon us and angels come to our
assistance if we pray in this way and if we live
this kind of life. We will be able to perceive the
assistance by the angels. We will be able to
experience the kingdom of heaven from this life. We
will also be warranted to say that our lives have
become ‘angel assisted’ ( angeloktisti) and ‘ God
protected’ ( Theoskepasti). Man, even though weak,
becomes all powerful with the grace of The Lord.
By Archimandrite Vassileios,
former Abbot of the Iveron Monastery.
