Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Matthew 6:9

There are 40 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 369, footnote 4 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book II (HTML)

Chapter IX.—There is but one Creator of the world, God the Father: this the constant belief of the Church. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3027 (In-Text, Margin)

1. That God is the Creator of the world is accepted even by those very persons who in many ways speak against Him, and yet acknowledge Him, styling Him the Creator, and an angel, not to mention that all the Scriptures call out [to the same effect], and the Lord teaches us of this Father[Matthew 6:9] who is in heaven, and no other, as I shall show in the sequel of this work. For the present, however, that proof which is derived from those who allege doctrines opposite to ours, is of itself sufficient,—all men, in fact, consenting to this truth: the ancients on their part preserving with special care, from the tradition of the first-formed man, this ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 228, footnote 3 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Instructor (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
Chapter VIII.—Against Those Who Think that What is Just is Not Good. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1205 (In-Text, Margin)

Very clearly, then, we conclude Him to be one and the same God, thus. For the Holy Spirit has sung, “I will look to the heavens, the works of Thy hands;” and, “He who created the heavens dwells in the heavens;” and, “Heaven is Thy throne.” And the Lord says in His prayer, “Our Father, who art in heaven.”[Matthew 6:9] And the heavens belong to Him, who created the world. It is indisputable, then, that the Lord is the Son of the Creator. And if, the Creator above all is confessed to be just, and the Lord to be the Son of the Creator; then the Lord is the Son of Him who is just. Wherefore also Paul says, “But now the righteousness of God without the law is ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 572, footnote 10 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Fragments of Clemens Alexandrinus (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3734 (In-Text, Margin)

“But sanctify the Lord Christ,” he says, “in your hearts.” For so you have in the Lord’s prayer, “Hallowed be Thy name.”[Matthew 6:9]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 619, footnote 6 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

Against Praxeas. (HTML)

More Passages from the Same Gospel in Proof of the Same Portion of the Catholic Faith. Praxeas' Taunt of Worshipping Two Gods Repudiated. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8080 (In-Text, Margin)

... in the bottomless depths, and exists everywhere; but then it is by power and authority. We are also sure that the Son, being indivisible from Him, is everywhere with Him. Nevertheless, in the Economy or Dispensation itself, the Father willed that the Son should be regarded as on earth, and Himself in heaven; whither the Son also Himself looked up, and prayed, and made supplication of the Father; whither also He taught us to raise ourselves, and pray, “Our Father which art in heaven,” etc.,[Matthew 6:9] —although, indeed, He is everywhere present. This heaven the Father willed to be His own throne; while He made the Son to be “a little lower than the angels,” by sending Him down to the earth, but meaning at the same time to “crown Him with ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 275, footnote 7 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen De Principiis. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
The God of the Law and the Prophets, and the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, is the Same God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2101 (In-Text, Margin)

... the exercise of kindness, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect; for He commands His sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust,” most evidently suggests even to a person of feeble understanding, that He is proposing to the imitation of His disciples no other God than the maker of heaven and the bestower of the rain. Again, what else does the expression, which ought to be used by those who pray, “Our Father who art in heaven,”[Matthew 6:9] appear to indicate, save that God is to be sought in the better parts of the world, i.e., of His creation? Further, do not those admirable principles which He lays down respecting oaths, saying that we ought not to “swear either by heaven, because ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 449, footnote 2 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

On the Lord's Prayer. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3316 (In-Text, Margin)

“Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven so in earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And suffer us not to be led into temptation; but deliver us from evil. Amen.”[Matthew 6:9]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 194, footnote 2 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Archelaus. (HTML)

The Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes. (HTML)

Chapter XX. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1616 (In-Text, Margin)

... Archelaus has proved by a variety of illustrations that there is but one and the same maker for the whole man. Archelaus said: I doubt not, Manes, that you understand this, namely, that one who is born and created is called the son of him who begets or creates. But if the wicked one made man, then he ought to be his father, according to nature. And to whom, then, did the Lord Jesus address Himself, when in these terms He taught men to pray: “When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven;”[Matthew 6:9] and again, “Pray to your Father which is in secret?” But it was of Satan that He spoke when He said, that He “beheld him as lightning fall from heaven;” so that no one dare say that He taught us to pray to him. And surely Jesus did not come down ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 131, footnote 10 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Lactantius (HTML)

The Divine Institutes (HTML)

Book IV. Of True Wisdom and Religion (HTML)
Chap. XXVIII.—Of hope and true religion, and of superstition (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 879 (In-Text, Margin)

What, then, is it? Truly religion is the cultivation of the truth, but superstition of that which is false. And it makes the entire difference what you worship, not how you worship, or what prayer you offer.[Matthew 6:9] But because the worshippers of the gods imagine themselves to be religious, though they are superstitious, they are neither able to distinguish religion from superstition, nor to express the meaning of the names. We have said that the name of religion is derived from the bond of piety, because God has tied man to Himself, and bound him by piety; for we must serve Him as a ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 379, footnote 21 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (HTML)

The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (HTML)

Chapter VIII.—Concerning Fasting and Prayer (the Lord’s Prayer) (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2450 (In-Text, Margin)

1. But let not your fasts be with the hypocrites; for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week; but do ye fast on the fourth day and the Preparation (Friday). 2. Neither pray as the hypocrites; but as the Lord commanded in His Gospel,[Matthew 6:9] thus pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us to-day our daily (needful) bread, and forgive us our debt as we also forgive our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (or, evil); for Thine is the power and the glory for ever. 3. Thrice ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 432, footnote 1 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book III (HTML)

Sec. II.—On Deacons and Deaconesses, the Rest of the Clergy, and on Baptism (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2924 (In-Text, Margin)

... deceits; chaste, pure, holy, beloved of God, the son of God, praying as a son to his father, and saying, as from the common congregation of the faithful, thus: “Our Father, which 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 debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one: for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”[Matthew 6:9]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 470, footnote 2 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book VII. Concerning the Christian Life, and the Eucharist, and the Initiation into Christ (HTML)

Sec. II.—On the Formation of the Character of Believers, and on Giving of Thanks to God (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3452 (In-Text, Margin)

XXIV. Now, “when ye pray, be not ye as the hypocrites;” but as the Lord has appointed us in the Gospel, so pray ye: “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth; give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for Thine is the kingdom for ever. Amen.”[Matthew 6:9] Pray thus thrice in a day, preparing yourselves beforehand, that ye may be worthy of the adoption of the Father; lest, when you call Him Father unworthily, you be reproached by Him, as Israel once His first-born son was told: “If I be a Father, where is my glory? And if I be ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 547, footnote 3 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)

Acts of the Holy Apostle Thomas. (HTML)

Acts of the Holy Apostle Thomas, When He Came into India, and Built the Palace in the Heavens. (HTML)
About the Young Man Who Killed the Maiden. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2381 (In-Text, Margin)

... was disheartened, for she was a beautiful maiden; and he ordered her to be brought into the middle of the inn. And having put her on a couch, they brought it, and set it in the midst of the court-yard of the inn. And the apostle laid his hand on her, and began to say: Jesus, who always appearest to us—for this Thou always wishest, that we should seek Thee—and Thou Thyself hast given us this power of asking and receiving; and not only hast Thou given us this, but hast also taught us how to pray;[Matthew 6:9] who art not seen by bodily eyes, but who art not altogether hidden from those of our soul, and who art hidden in Thy form, but manifested to us by Thy works; and by Thy many deeds we have recognised Thee as we go on, and Thou hast given us Thy gifts ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 58, footnote 25 (Image)

Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen

The Diatessaron of Tatian. (HTML)

The Diatessaron. (HTML)

Section IX. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 728 (In-Text, Margin)

... and fasten thy door, and pray to thy Father in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. [28] And whenever ye pray, be not babblers, as the heathen; for they think that by the [29] abundance of their words they shall be heard. Then be not ye now like unto them: [30] for your Father knoweth your request before ye ask him. One of his disciples said [31] unto him, Our Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. Jesus said unto [32] them, Thus now pray ye now:[Matthew 6:9] Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy [33, 34] name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us the [35] food of to-day. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgave those that trespass ed [36] ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 260, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

The Enchiridion. (HTML)

The Daily Prayer of the Believer Makes Satisfaction for the Trivial Sins that Daily Stain His Life. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1229 (In-Text, Margin)

Now the daily prayer of the believer makes satisfaction for those daily sins of a momentary and trivial kind which are necessary incidents of this life. For he can say, “Our Father which art in heaven,”[Matthew 6:9] seeing that to such a Father he is now born again of water and of the Spirit. And this prayer certainly takes away the very small sins of daily life. It takes away also those which at one time made the life of the believer very wicked, but which, now that he is changed for the better by repentance, he has given up, provided that as truly as he says, “Forgive us our debts” (for there is no want ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 274, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

The Enchiridion. (HTML)

The Seven Petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, According to Matthew. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1311 (In-Text, Margin)

Accordingly, in the Gospel according to Matthew the Lord’s Prayer seems to embrace seven petitions, three of which ask for eternal blessings, and the remaining four for temporal; these latter, however, being necessary antecedents to the attainment of the eternal. For when we say, “Hallowed be Thy name: Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven”[Matthew 6:9-10] (which some have interpreted, not unfairly, in body as well as in spirit), we ask for blessings that are to be enjoyed for ever; which are indeed begun in this world, and grow in us as we grow in grace, but in their perfect state, which is to be looked for in another life, shall be a possession for evermore. But ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 340, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

Concerning Faith of Things Not Seen. (HTML)

Section 6 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1664 (In-Text, Margin)

... beauty, for He is the Lord thy God.” If she sees not the cities of the nations pour forth prayers and offer gifts unto Christ, concerning Whom it was said unto her, “There shall worship Him the daughters of Tyre with gifts.” If the pride also of the rich is not laid aside, and they do not entreat help of the Church, unto whom it was said, “Thy face shall all the rich of the people entreat.” If He acknowledges not the King’s daughter, unto Whom she was bidden to say, “Our Father Who art in Heaven;”[Matthew 6:9] and in her saints in the inner man she is not renewed from day to day, concerning whom it was said, “All the glory of that King’s daughter is within:” although she strike upon the eyes of them also that are without with the blaze of the fame of her ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 102, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

It is Not by Their Works, But by Grace, that the Doers of the Law are Justified; God’s Saints and God’s Name Hallowed in Different Senses. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 934 (In-Text, Margin)

... hereby understand that they wanted the grace of the Justifier, in order to be able to become its doers also. Or else the term “They shall be justified” is used in the sense of, They shall be deemed, or reckoned as just, as it is predicated of a certain man in the Gospel, “But he, willing to justify himself,” —meaning that he wished to be thought and accounted just. In like manner, we attach one meaning to the statement, “God sanctifies His saints,” and another to the words, “Sanctified be Thy name;”[Matthew 6:9] for in the former case we suppose the words to mean that He makes those to be saints who were not saints before, and in the latter, that the prayer would have that which is always holy in itself be also regarded as holy by men,—in a word, be feared ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 456, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)

Abstract. (HTML)

The Grace by Which the Stony Heart is Removed is Not Preceded by Good Deserts, But by Evil Ones. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3110 (In-Text, Margin)

... how dreadful is the evil of profaning the Lord’s own holy name? And yet, for the sake of this very name of mine, says He, which ye have profaned, I, even I, will make you good, but not for your own sakes; and, as He adds, “I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them.” He says that He sanctifies His name, which He had already declared to be holy. Therefore, this is just what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer—“Hallowed be Thy name.”[Matthew 6:9] We ask for the hallowing among men of that which is in itself undoubtedly always holy. Then it follows, “And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you.” Although, then, He is Himself always ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 476, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on Rebuke and Grace. (HTML)

All Perseverance is God’s Gift. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3284 (In-Text, Margin)

... presence of His glory immaculate in joy? What is it, moreover, that we read in the Acts of the Apostles: “And when the Gentiles heard, they rejoiced and received the word of the Lord; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed”? Who could be ordained to eternal life save by the gift of perseverance? And when we read, “He that shall persevere unto the end shall be saved;” with what salvation but eternal? And when, in the Lord’s Prayer, we say to God the Father, “Hallowed be Thy name,”[Matthew 6:9] what do we ask but that His name may be hallowed in us? And as this is already accomplished by means of the laver of regeneration, why is it daily asked by believers, except that we may persevere in that which is already done in us? For the blessed ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 548, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints. (HTML)

A Treatise on the Gift of Perseverance. (HTML)

Testimony of His Previous Writings and Letters. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3694 (In-Text, Margin)

... is the gift of God also to persevere to the end, as I have either never before or almost never so expressly and evidently maintained this in writing, unless my memory deceives me. But I have now said this in a way in which no one before me has said it. Certainly the blessed Cyprian, in the Lord’s Prayer, as I have already shown, so explained our petitions as to say that in its very first petition we were asking for perseverance, asserting that we pray for it when we say, “Hallowed be Thy name,”[Matthew 6:9] although we have been already hallowed in baptism,—so that we may persevere in that which we have begun to be. Let those, however, to whom, in their love for me, I ought not to be ungrateful, who profess that they embrace, over and above that which ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 280, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

Again, on Matt. vi. on the Lord’s Prayer. To the Competentes. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2006 (In-Text, Margin)

2. The Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, hath taught us a Prayer; and though He be the Lord Himself, as ye have heard and repeated in the Creed, the Only Son of God, yet He would not be alone. He is the Only Son, and yet would not be alone; He hath vouchsafed to have brethren. For to whom doth He say, “Say, Our Father, which art in heaven?”[Matthew 6:9] Whom did He wish us to call our Father, save His own Father? Did He grudge us this? Parents sometimes when they have gotten one, or two, or three children, fear to give birth to any more, lest they reduce the rest to beggary. But because the inheritance which He promiseth us is such as many may possess, and no one be ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 284, footnote 10 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

Again on the Lord’s Prayer, Matt. vi. To the Competentes. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2036 (In-Text, Margin)

2. Of which the first clause is, “Our Father, which art in heaven.”[Matthew 6:9] We have found then a Father in heaven; let us take good heed how we live on earth. For he who hath found such a Father, ought so to live that he may be worthy to come to his inheritance. But we say all in common, “Our Father.” How great a condescension! This the emperor says, and this says the beggar: this says the slave, and this his lord. They say all together, “Our Father, which art in heaven.” Therefore do they understand that they are brethren, seeing they ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 285, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

Again on the Lord’s Prayer, Matt. vi. To the Competentes. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2037 (In-Text, Margin)

3. “Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy kingdom come.”[Matthew 6:9-10] This hallowing of God’s Name is that whereby we are made holy. For His Name is always Holy. We wish also for His kingdom to come; come it will, though we wish it not; but to wish and pray that His kingdom may come, is nothing else than to wish of Him, that He would make us worthy of His kingdom, lest haply, which God forbid, it should come, and not come to us. For to many that will never come, which nevertheless must come. For to them will it come, to whom it shall be ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 288, footnote 10 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

Again, on the Lord’s Prayer, Matt. vi. To the Competentes. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2086 (In-Text, Margin)

2. Ye then who have found a Father in heaven, be loth to cleave to the things of earth. For ye are about to say, “Our Father, which art in heaven.”[Matthew 6:9] You have begun to belong to a great family. Under this Father the lord and the slave are brethren; under this Father the general and the common soldier are brethren; under this Father the rich man and the poor are brethren. All Christian believers have divers fathers in earth, some noble, some obscure; but they all call upon one Father which is in heaven. If our Father be there, there is the inheritance prepared for us. ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 289, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

Again, on the Lord’s Prayer, Matt. vi. To the Competentes. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2087 (In-Text, Margin)

3. What then hath the Lord Jesus Christ taught us to ask of the Father which is in heaven? “Hallowed be Thy Name.”[Matthew 6:9] What kind of blessing is this that we ask of God, that His Name may be hallowed? The Name of God is always Holy; why then do we pray that it may be hallowed, except that we may be hallowed by it? We pray then that that which is Holy always, may be hallowed in us. The Name of God is hallowed in you when ye are baptized. Why will ye offer this prayer after ye have been baptized, but that that which ye shall then receive may abide ever in ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 326, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xii. 32, ‘Whosoever shall speak a word against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.’ Or, ‘on the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.’ (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2424 (In-Text, Margin)

25. Here perhaps some one may ask, “whether the Holy Ghost only forgiveth sins, and not the Father and the Son also?” I answer, Both the Father and the Son forgive them. For the Son Himself saith of the Father, “If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” And we say to Him in the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father, which art in heaven.”[Matthew 6:9] And amongst the other petitions we ask this, saying, “Forgive us our debts.” And again of Himself He saith, “That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins.” “If then,” you will say, “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit forgive sins, why is that impenitence which shall never be ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 453, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

On the words of the Gospel, Luke xvii. 3, ‘If thy brother sin, rebuke him,’ etc., touching the remission of sins. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3528 (In-Text, Margin)

... wilt ask to be forgiven; for, lo, the time of prayer will come: I have thee fast in the words thou wilt have to speak. Thou wilt say, “Our Father, which art in heaven.” For thou wilt not be in the number of children, if thou shalt not say, “Our Father.” So then thou wilt say, “Our Father, which art in heaven.” Follow on; “Hallowed be Thy Name.” Say on, “Thy kingdom come.” Follow still on, “Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.” See what thou addest next, “Give us this day our daily bread.”[Matthew 6:9] Where are thy riches? So thou art a beggar. Nevertheless in the mean while (it is the point I am speaking of), say what is next after, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Say what follows this: “Forgive us our debts.” Now thou hast come to my words, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 514, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

On the words of the Gospel, John ix. 4 and 31, ‘We must work the works of him that sent me,’ etc. Against the Arians. And of that which the man who was born blind and received his sight said, ‘We know that God heareth not sinners.’ (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4040 (In-Text, Margin)

... for that God hath so willed, I am His priest; I am a sinner; with you do I beat the breast, with you I ask for pardon, with you I hope that God will be merciful. But peradventure the Holy Apostles, those first and highest leaders of the flock, shepherds, members of The Shepherd, these peradventure had no sin. Yes, indeed, even they had, they had indeed; they are not angry at this, for they confess it. I should not dare. First hear the Lord Himself saying to the Apostles, “In this manner pray ye.”[Matthew 6:9] As those other priests were convicted by the sacrifices, so these by prayer. And amongst the other things which He commanded them to pray for, He appointed this also, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” What do the Apostles say? ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 527, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

On the words of the Gospel, John x. 30, ‘I and the Father are one.’ (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4168 (In-Text, Margin)

... with faith we preach to you Christ, the Only Son of God the Father. Why is added, “The Only Son”? Because He whose Only Son He is, hath many sons by grace. All the rest then, all saints are sons of God by grace, He Alone by Nature. They who are sons of God by grace are not What the Father is. And no saint hath ever dared to say, what that Only Son saith, “I and My Father are One.” Is He not then our Father too? If He be not our Father, how say we when we pray, “Our Father, which art in heaven”?[Matthew 6:9] But we are sons whom He hath made sons by His Own will, not begotten as sons of His Own Nature. And in truth He hath begotten us too, but as it is said, as adopted ones, begotten by the favour of His adoption, not by Nature. And this too are we ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 269, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Chapter X. 22–42. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 958 (In-Text, Margin)

... maketh you gods, how can the Word of God be otherwise than God? Therefore did the Father sanctify His Son, and send Him into the world. Perhaps some one may be saying: If the Father sanctified Him, was there then a time when He was not sanctified? He sanctified in the same way as He begat Him. For in the act of begetting He gave Him the power to be holy, because He begat Him in holiness. For if that which is sanctified was unholy before, how can we say to God the Father, “Hallowed be Thy name”?[Matthew 6:9]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 322, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Chapter XIV. 1–3. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1260 (In-Text, Margin)

... He says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” Is not that the house where we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens? Is not that the house whereof we sing to the Lord, “Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house; they shall praise Thee for ever and ever”? Will you then venture to separate from the kingdom of heaven the house, not of every baptized brother, but of God the Father Himself, to whom all we who are brethren say, “Our Father, who art in heaven,”[Matthew 6:9] or divide it in such a way as to make some of its mansions inside, and some outside, the kingdom of heaven? Far, far be it from those who desire to dwell in the kingdom of heaven, to be willing to dwell in such folly with you: far be it, I say, that ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 333, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Again on the Same Passage. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1314 (In-Text, Margin)

... it does not imply that He is not doing what we ask, because we do not begin at once to reign with Him in the everlasting kingdom: for what we ask is delayed, but not denied. Nevertheless, let us not fail in pray ing, for in so doing we are as those that sow the seed; and in due season we shall reap. And even when we are asking aright, let us ask Him at the same time not to do what we ask amiss; for there is reference to this also in the Lord’s Prayer, when we say, “Lead us not into temptation.”[Matthew 6:9-13] For surely the temptation is no slight one if thine own request be hostile to thy cause. But we must not listen with indifference to the statement that the Lord (to prevent any from thinking that what He promised to do to those that asked, He would ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 346, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Chapter XV. 4–7. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1392 (In-Text, Margin)

... advantage. Abiding, therefore, ourselves in Him, when His words abide in us we shall ask what we will, and it shall be done unto us. For if we ask, and the doing follows not, what we ask is not connected with our abiding in Him, nor with His words which abide in us, but with that craving and infirmity of the flesh which are not in Him, and have not His words abiding in them. For to His words, at all events, belongs that prayer which He taught, and in which we say, “Our Father, who art in heaven.”[Matthew 6:9] Let us only not fall away from the words and meaning of this prayer in our petitions, and whatever we ask, it shall be done unto us. For then only may His words be said to abide in us, when we do what He has commanded us, and love what He has ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 214, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2030 (In-Text, Margin)

... just so much as thou hast given, thou usurer of injuries! With the fist thou hast been smitten, slaying thou seekest. Evil usury! How wilt thou go to prayer? If thou shalt have left praying, which way wilt thou come round unto the Lord? Behold thou wilt say: “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth.” Thou wilt say, “Our daily bread give us to-day.” Thou wilt come to, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.”[Matthew 6:9-12] Even in that evil city let there abound these usuries; let them not enter the walls where the breast is smitten! What wilt thou do? because there thou and that verse are in the midst? Petitions for thee hath a heavenly Lawyer composed. He that knew ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 280, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXVI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2641 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Apostle? “Ye know, when Gentiles ye were, to idols without speech how ye went up, being led.” Let the Church now say, “how great things He hath done to my soul.” “To Him with my mouth I have cried.” I a man to a stone was crying, to a deaf stock I was crying, to idols deaf and dumb I was speaking: now the image of God hath been turned to the Creator thereof. I that was “saying to a stock, My father thou art; and to a stone, Thou hast begotten me:” now say, “Our Father, which art in Heaven.”[Matthew 6:9] …“To Him with my mouth I have cried, and I have exalted Him under my tongue.” See how in secret He would be uncorrupt that offereth marrowed holocausts. This do ye, brethren, this imitate, so that ye may say, “Come ye, see how great things He hath ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 333, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3245 (In-Text, Margin)

... is said, “In thy Seed shall be blessed all the tribes of the earth.” And not the sons of the flesh but the sons of promise are counted in the Seed. “All nations shall magnify Him.” As if in explanation there is repeated that which above hath been said. For because they shall be blessed in Him, they shall magnify Him; not of themselves making Him to be great, that of Himself is great, but by praising and confessing Him to be great. For thus we magnify God: thus also we say, “Hallowed be Thy name,”[Matthew 6:9] which is indeed always holy.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 520, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4780 (In-Text, Margin)

... Lord. For this reason he beginneth with praises: “O confess unto the Lord, and call upon His Name” (ver. 1); for this confession is to be understood as praise, just as these words of our Lord, “I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth.” For after commencing with praise, calling upon God is wont to follow, whereunto he that prayeth doth next add his longings: whence the Lord’s Prayer itself hath at the commencement a very brief praise, in these words, “Our Father which art in Heaven.”[Matthew 6:9] The things prayed for, then follow.…This also followeth, “Tell the people what things He hath done;” or rather, to translate literally from the Greek, as other Latin copies too have it, “Preach the Gospel of His works among the Gentiles.” Unto whom ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 587, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXIX (HTML)

Schin. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5372 (In-Text, Margin)

... of those words, but maintained his love unimpaired. For the words of God are no other than the law of God. Far be it therefore that love perish through fear, where fear is chaste. Thus fathers are at once feared and loved by affectionate sons; thus doth the chaste wife at once fear her husband, lest she be forsaken by him, and loveth him, that she may enjoy his love. If then the human father and the human husband desire at once to be feared and loved; much more doth our Father who is in heaven,[Matthew 6:9] and that Bridegroom, “beautiful beyond the sons of men,” not in the flesh, but in goodness. For by whom is the law of God loved, save by those by whom God is loved? And what that is severe hath the father’s law to good sons? Let the Father’s ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 652, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXLIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5818 (In-Text, Margin)

... judgment with me, O Lord my God. How straight soever I seem to myself, Thou bringest forth a standard from Thy store-house, Thou fittest me to it, and I am found crooked. Well is it said, “with Thy servant.” It is unworthy of Thee to enter into judgment with Thy servant, or even with Thy friend. …What of the Apostles themselves?…That ye may perceive it at once, they learnt to pray what we pray: to them was given the pattern of prayer by the heavenly Counsellor. “After this manner,” saith He, “pray ye.”[Matthew 6:9] And having set down certain things first, He laid down this too to be said by the leaders of the sheep, the chief members of the Shepherd and Gatherer of the one flock; even they learnt to say, “Forgive us our debts.” They said not, “Thanks be to ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 171, footnote 4 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Defence of the Nicene Definition. (De Decretis.) (HTML)

De Decretis. (Defence of the Nicene Definition.) (HTML)

On the Arian Symbol “Unoriginate.” This term afterwards adopted by them; and why; three senses of it. A fourth sense. Unoriginate denotes God in contrast to His creatures, not to His Son; Father the scriptural title instead; Conclusion. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 958 (In-Text, Margin)

... ‘Unoriginated’ is a word of the Greeks who know not the Son: but ‘Father’ has been acknowledged and vouchsafed by our Lord; for He knowing Himself whose Son He was, said, ‘I in the Father and the Father in Me;’ and, ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father;’ and, ‘I and the Father are one;’ but nowhere is He found to call the Father Unoriginated. Moreover, when He teaches us to pray, He says not, ‘When ye pray, say, O God Unoriginated,’ but rather, ‘When ye pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven[Matthew 6:9].’ And it was His Will, that the Summary of our faith should have the same bearing. For He has bid us be baptized, not in the name of Unoriginate and Originate, not into the name of Uncreate and Creature, but into the name of Father, Son, and Holy ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs