“Thy kingdom come.”  Come it surely will, whether we ask or no.  Indeed, God hath an eternal kingdom.  For when did he not reign?  When did he begin to reign?  For his kingdom hath no beginning, neither shall it have any end.  But that ye may know that in this prayer also we pray for ourselves, and not for God (For we do not say, “Thy kingdom come,” as though we were asking that God may reign); we shall be ourselves his kingdom, if believing in him we make progress in this faith.  All the faithful, redeemed by the blood of his only son, will be his kingdom.  And this his kingdom will come, when the resurrection of the dead shall have taken place; for then he will come himself.  And when the dead are risen, he will divide them, as he himself saith, “and he shall set some on the right hand, and some on the left.”  To those who shall be on the right hand he will say, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom.”  This is what we wish and pray for when we say, “Thy kingdom come”; that it may come to us.  For if we shall be reprobates, that kingdom shall come to others, but not to us.  But if we shall be of that number, who belong to the members of his only-begotten son, his kingdom will come to us, and will not tarry.  For are there as many ages yet remaining as have already passed away?  The Apostle John hath said, “My little children, it is the last hour.”  But it is a long hour proportioned to this long day; and see how many years this last hour lasteth.  But, nevertheless, be ye as those who watch, and so sleep, and rise again, and reign.  Let us watch now, let us sleep in death; at the end we shall rise again, and shall reign without end.

“Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth.”  The third thing we pray for is, that his will may be done as in heaven so in earth.  And in this, too, we wish well for ourselves.  For the will of God must necessarily be done.  It is the will of God that the good should reign, and the wicked be damned.  Is it possible that this will should not be done?  But what good do we wish for ourselves, when we say, “Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth?” Give ear.  For this petition may be understood in many ways, and many things are to be in our thoughts in this petition, when we pray God, “Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth.”  As thy angels offend thee not, so may we also not offend thee.  Again, how is “Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth,” understood?  All the holy Patriarchs, all the Prophets, all the Apostles, all the spiritual are, as it were, God’s heaven; and we in comparison of them are earth.  “Thy will be done in heaven, so in earth”; as in them, so in us also.  Again, “Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth”; the Church of God is heaven, his enemies are earth.  So we wish well for our enemies, that they too may believe and become Christians, and so the will of God be done as in heaven, so also in earth.  Again, “Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth.”