This petition is placed first, because it is the most necessary to the glorification of God and to our salvation.  It is also the foundation of the other petitions.

2.  In the second petition “Thy kingdom come,” a threefold kingdom of God is meant, for the coming of which we pray.  It is the kingdom of God about us, in us and above us.  The kingdom of God about us is the Church of Christ.  Christ founded it as His divine kingdom on earth, to glorify God and lead mankind to Salvation.  We ask that God may grant to all men grace to recognize our holy Church as the divine institution, to submit themselves to her authority, and to become members of this Church find order to properly worship the true God, to glorify Him, and thus work their salvation.

The kingdom of God is within us, when we allow ourselves to be ruled and guided not by the spirit of the world, but by the spirit of God.  “Those who are moved by the spirit of God are God’s children.”  In his soul is the kingdom of God established whose faith agrees with the teaching of the Church, who hopes, loves and lives in the true faith.

The kingdom of God above us is the kingdom of heaven.  The Church on earth is the kingdom of truth, of grace, of virtue; it will become in heaven the kingdom of glory.

Through this triple kingdom God is glorified on earth and in heaven, and this is the first and chief aim of every created thing.  Through this threefold kingdom we gain salvation, happiness and eternal life.  That this threefold dominion of God may come to us and to all mankind we ask the Father in heaven in the second petition.

In order that what we ask for in the second petition may be attained we must comply with the third petition:  “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”  Almighty God is the supreme ruler of heaven and earth.  All creatures in heaven and earth must submit themselves unconditionally to His holy will.  God makes His will known to us through His commandments, and through His holy Church.  We must be ready and willing at all times to do the will of God, and to submit to it in all things.  We must obey His commandments, we must gladly and humbly submit ourselves to His dispensations, no matter what they may be.  That God’s will may at all times be done by us, and in us, and in all things, this should be our ardent desire, not with a servile fear but with filial love, as Jesus has taught us by His word and example.  But this far surpasses our own strength and for this reason Jesus teaches and enjoins us to beg the Father that He may grant to us and to all mankind the grace to do at all times His holy will.  By this faithful submission of our wills to the will of God we glorify God in the most perfect way.

3.  In our earthly pilgrimage to heaven we require divine assistance in order to live our corporal and spiritual life according to the divine Will.  For this reason Christ instructs us to pray in the fourth petition:  “Give us this day our daily bread.”  That means:  Give us, O God, what we stand in need of for body and soul that we may live according to Thy holy will.