Cyprian of Carthage: “Thy Will Be Done on Earth As It Is in Heaven” Friday, May 4 2012

Thy will be done, as in heaven so in earth means not that God should do what He wills, but that we may be able to do what God wills….

Since we are hindered by the devil from obeying with our thought and deed God’s will in all things, we pray and ask that God’s will may be done in us.

And that it may be done in us we have need of God’s good will, that is, of His help and protection, since no one is strong in his own strength, but he is safe by the grace and mercy of God.

And further, the Lord, setting forth the infirmity of the humanity which He bore, says, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; and affording an example to His disciples that they should do not their own will, but God’s, He went on to say, Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.

And in another place He says, I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. 

Now if the Son was obedient to do His Father’s will, how much more should the servant be obedient to do his Master’s will!

Thus in his epistle John also exhorts and instructs us to do the will of God, saying,

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him….

But he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever, even as God also abideth for ever.”

We who desire to abide for ever should do the will of God, who is everlasting.

Now that is the will of God which Christ both did and taught.

Humility in conversation; stedfastness in faith; modesty in words;

justice in deeds; mercifulness in works; discipline in morals;

to be unable to do a wrong, and to be able to bear a wrong when done;

to keep peace with the brethren; to love God with all one’s heart;

to love Him in that He is a Father; to fear Him in that He is God;

to prefer nothing whatever to Christ, because He did not prefer anything to us;

to adhere inseparably to His love;

to stand by His cross bravely and faithfully;

when there is any contest on behalf of His name and honour, to exhibit in discourse that constancy wherewith we make confession;

in torture, that confidence wherewith we do battle; in death, that patience whereby we are crowned;

—this is to desire to be fellow-heirs with Christ;

—this is to do the commandment of God;

—this is to fulfil the will of the Father.

Cyprian of Carthage (d.258): On The Lord’s Prayer, 14-15.

 

Leave a Response »

 

Cyprian of Carthage: Christ’s Saving Patience Monday, Apr 2 2012

He received the spittings of insulters, who with His spittle had a little before made eyes for a blind man.

And He in whose name the devil and his angels is now scourged by His servants, Himself suffered scourgings!

He was crowned with thorns, who crowns martyrs with eternal flowers.

He was smitten on the face with palms, who gives the true palms to those who overcome.

He was despoiled of His earthly garment, who clothes others in the vesture of immortality.

He was fed with gall, who gave heavenly food.

He was given to drink of vinegar, who appointed the cup of salvation.

That guiltless, that just One—nay, He who is innocency itself and justice itself—is counted among transgressors, and truth is oppressed with false witnesses.

He who shall judge is judged; and the Word of God is led silently to the slaughter.

And when at the cross, of the Lord the stars are confounded, the elements are disturbed, the earth quakes, night shuts out the day, the sun…He speaks not, nor is moved, nor declares His majesty even in His very passion itself.

Even to the end, all things are borne perseveringly and constantly, in order that in Christ a full and perfect patience may be consummated.

And after all these things, He still receives His murderers, if they will be converted and come to Him.

And with a saving patience, He who is benignant to preserve, closes His Church to none.

Those adversaries…, if they repent of their sin, if they acknowledge the crime committed, He receives, not only to the pardon of their sin, but to the reward of the heavenly kingdom.

What can be said more patient, what more merciful? Even he is made alive by Christ’s blood who has shed Christ’s blood.

Such and so great is the patience of Christ; and had it not been such and so great, the Church would never have possessed Paul as an apostle.

But if we also, beloved brethren, are in Christ; if we put Him on, if He is the way of our salvation, who follow Christ in the footsteps of salvation, let us walk by the example of Christ, as the Apostle John instructs us, saying He who saith he abideth in Christ, ought himself also to walk even as He walked.

Peter also, upon whom by the Lord’s condescension the Church was founded, lays it down in his epistle, and says:

Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps, who did no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth; who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, threatened not, but gave Himself up to him that judged Him unjustly.

Cyprian of Carthage (d.258): On Patience, 7-9.

Leave a Response »

 

Cyprian of Carthage: Hallowed Be Thy Name; Thy Kingdom Come Tuesday, Mar 8 2011

After this we say Hallowed be Thy name – not that we wish for God that He may be hallowed by our prayers, but that we beseech of Him that His name may be hallowed in us.

But by whom is God sanctified, since He Himself sanctifies?

Well, because He says Be ye holy, even as I am holy (Lev. 20:7), we ask and entreat, that we who were sanctified in baptism may continue in that which we have begun to be.

And this we daily pray for; for we have need of daily sanctification, that we who daily fall away may wash out our sins by continual sanctification.

And what the sanctification is which is conferred upon us by the condescension of God, the apostle declares, when he says:

Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor deceivers, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

And such indeed were you; but ye are washed; but ye are justified; but ye are sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:9).

He says that we are sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God.

We pray that this sanctification may abide in us…that the sanctification and quickening which is received from the grace of God may be preserved by His protection.

There follows in the prayer Thy kingdom come.

We ask that the kingdom of God may be set forth to us, even as we also ask that His name may be sanctified in us.

For when does God not reign, or when does that begin with Him which both always has been, and never ceases to be?

We pray that our kingdom, which has been promised us by God, may come, which was acquired by the blood and passion of Christ;

that we who first are His subjects in the world, may hereafter reign with Christ when He reigns, as He Himself promises and says:

Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world (Matt. 25:34).

Christ Himself, dearest brethren, however, may be the kingdom of God, whom we day by day desire to come, whose advent we crave to be quickly manifested to us.

For since He is Himself the Resurrection since in Him we rise again, so also the kingdom of God may be understood to be Himself, since in Him we shall reign.

Cyprian of Carthage (d.258): On The Lord’s Prayer, 12-13.

Leave a Response »

 

Cyprian of Carthage: Let Him Who Dwells Within in Our Breast Himself Dwell in Our Voice Wednesday, Feb 16 2011

Jesus had foretold that the hour was coming “when the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23).

And He fulfilled what He previously promised so that we who by His sanctification have received the Spirit and truth, may also by His teaching worship truly and spiritually.

For what can be a more spiritual prayer than that which was given to us by Christ, by whom also the Holy Spirit was given to us?

What praying to the Father can be more truthful than that which was delivered to us by the Son who is the Truth, out of His own mouth?

[...] Let us therefore, brethren beloved, pray as God our Teacher has taught us.

It is a loving and friendly prayer to beseech God with His own word, to come up to His ears in the prayer of Christ.

Let the Father acknowledge the words of His Son when we make our prayer, and let Him also who dwells within in our breast Himself dwell in our voice.

And since we have Him as an Advocate with the Father for our sins, let us, when as sinners we petition on behalf of our sins, put forward the words of our Advocate.

For since He says, that “whatsoever we shall ask of the Father in His name, He will give us” (John 16:23), how much more effectually do we obtain what we ask in Christ’s name, if we ask for it in His own prayer!

[...] Moreover, in His teaching the Lord has bidden us to pray in secret – in hidden and remote places, in our very bed-chambers.

This is best suited to faith, that we may know that God is everywhere present, and hears and sees all, and in the plenitude of His majesty penetrates even into hidden and secret places.

[...] And when we meet together with the brethren in one place, and celebrate divine sacrifices with God’s priest, we ought to be mindful of modesty and discipline.

We are not to throw abroad our prayers indiscriminately, with unsubdued voices, nor to cast to God with tumultuous wordiness a petition that ought to be commended to God by modesty.

For God is the hearer, not of the voice, but of the heart.

Nor need He be clamorously reminded, since He sees men’s thoughts, as the Lord proves to us when He says “Why think ye evil in your hearts?” (Matt. 9:4).

And in another place: “And all the churches shall know that I am He that searcheth the hearts and reins” (Apoc. 2:23).

Cyprian of Carthage (d.258): On The Lord’s Prayer, 2-4.

Leave a Response »

 

Cyprian of Carthage: Already Heavenly Things are Taking the Place of Earthly Friday, Nov 5 2010

For he who wars for God…ought to acknowledge himself as one who, placed in the heavenly camp, already hopes for divine things.

Therefore we should have no trembling at the storms and whirlwinds of the world, and no disturbance, since the Lord had foretold that these would come.

Christ…warned us that adversity would increase more and more in the last times and promised “when ye see all these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is at hand” (Luke 21:31).

The kingdom of God, beloved brethren, is beginning to be at hand.

The reward of life, and the rejoicing of eternal salvation, and the perpetual gladness and possession lately lost of paradise, are now coming, with the passing away of the world.

Already heavenly things are taking the place of earthly, and great things of small, and eternal things of things that fade away.

What room is there here for anxiety and solicitude? Who, in the midst of these things, is trembling and sad, except he who is without hope and faith?

For it is for him to fear death who is not willing to go to Christ.

It is for him to be unwilling to go to Christ who does not believe that he is about to reign with Christ.

For it is written that the just lives by faith.

If you are just, and live by faith, if you truly believe in Christ, why, since you are about to be with Christ, and are secure of the Lord’s promise, do you not embrace the assurance that you are called to Christ, and rejoice that you are freed from the devil?

Certainly Simeon, that just man, was truly just and kept God’s commands with a full faith, when it had been pledged him from heaven that he should not die before he had seen the Christ.

When Christ had come an infant into the temple with His mother, Simeon…knew that he should soon die.

He rejoiced concerning his now approaching death, and secure of his immediate summons, he received the child into his arms, blessing the Lord and exclaiming:

“Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation” (Luke 2:29).

In this he bears witness that the servants of God have peace and free and tranquil repose.

Withdrawn from these whirlwinds of the world, we shall attain the harbour of our home and eternal security, when, having accomplished this death, we come to immortality.

For that is our peace; that is our faithful tranquillity; that is our steadfast, and abiding, and perpetual security.

Cyprian of Carthage (d.258): On Mortality, 2-3.

Leave a Response »

 

Cyprian of Carthage: Patience is a Thing of God Thursday, Sep 16 2010

Patience is a thing of God, and whoever is gentle, and patient, and meek, is an imitator of God the Father.

Accordingly, when the Lord in His Gospel was giving precepts for salvation, and, bringing forth divine warnings, was instructing His disciples to perfection, He said:

“…I say unto you, love your enemies, and pray for them which persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven”.

He said that the children of God would thus become perfect.

He showed that they were thus completed, and taught that they were restored by a heavenly birth, if the patience of God our Father dwell in us—if the divine likeness, which Adam had lost by sin, be manifested and shine in our actions.

What a glory is it to become like to God! What and how great a felicity, to possess among our virtues, that which may be placed on the level of divine praises!

[...] He also maintained the patience of His Father in the constancy of His endurance. All His actions, even from His very advent, are characterized by patience as their associate.

First of all, coming down from that heavenly sublimity to earthly things, the Son of God did not scorn to put on the flesh of man, and although He Himself was not a sinner, to bear the sins of others.

His immortality being in the meantime laid aside, He suffers Himself to become mortal, so that the guiltless may be put to death for the salvation of the guilty.

The Lord is baptized by the servant; and He who is about to bestow remission of sins, does not Himself disdain to wash His body in the laver of regeneration.

For forty days He fasts, by whom others are feasted. He is hungry, and suffers famine, that they who had been in hunger of the word and of grace may be satisfied with heavenly bread.

He wrestles with the devil tempting Him; and, content only to have overcome the enemy, He strives no farther than by words.

He ruled over His disciples not as servants in the power of a master, but, kind and gentle, He loved them with a brotherly love.

He deigned even to wash the apostles’ feet, that since the Lord is such among His servants, He might teach, by His example, what a fellow-servant ought to be among his peers and equals.

Cyprian of Carthage (d.258): On Patience, 5-6.

6 Responses »