Office Of Readings | Week 11, Wednesday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Cyprian On The Lord’s Prayer | Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done

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Office Of Readings | Week 11, Wednesday, Ordinary Time | A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Cyprian On The Lord’s Prayer | Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done

‘Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.’

Kingdom Of God | Future, Present, Personal

Saint Cyprian, bishop and martyr of 3rd-century Carthage, continues his reflection on the Lord’s Prayer by turning to its eschatological heart: ‘Thy kingdom come.’ At first glance, this might seem strange—surely God always reigns? Indeed, Cyprian affirms, God’s kingship is eternal. But the petition is not for God’s benefit; it is for ours. We pray not for the beginning of God’s rule, but for the realization of His kingdom in us and for us.

This ‘kingdom’ is both a future hope and a present reality. It is the kingdom Jesus Christ has won through his Passion, a kingdom ‘prepared from the foundation of the world’ (Matthew 25:34). To pray for its coming is to long for union with Christ in his eternal reign—a desire to pass from servanthood in this life to co-heirship in the next. In this way, Cyprian’s interpretation is profoundly Eucharistic and eschatological: we are invited into the reign of God through the suffering and exaltation of Jesus Christ.

Cyprian also interprets the kingdom Christologically. Christ himself is the kingdom of God. As the one through whom we are raised to new life and in whom we will reign, to pray for the coming of the kingdom is to pray for the coming of Christ—both in glory and more deeply into our hearts.

Moreover, there is an implicit ethical detachment from earthly kingdoms. Those who pray ‘Thy kingdom come’ are already turning their hearts away from the honours and powers of this world. The Christian’s loyalty lies beyond national or political structures; it belongs to the kingdom that is ‘not of this world’ (John 18:36).

Thy Will Be Done | Obedience In Jesus Christ

The second petition, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,’ is intimately connected. As Cyprian notes, we are not asking that God’s will become possible—nothing can oppose the will of God in its divine execution. Rather, we are praying that we may be enabled to obey that will here on earth, just as the angels do in heaven.

This petition, says Cyprian, acknowledges our frailty and dependence. Sin, temptation, and the work of the devil hinder our desire and capacity to live in full conformity to God’s will. We therefore ask for divine assistance, that God would both reveal and effect His will in us.

Cyprian draws attention to Christ’s own submission in Gethsemane: ‘Not my will, but yours be done.’ (Luke 22:42) The humanity of Christ models our own struggle and our need to yield to divine purposes. Christian life, then, is not self-will disguised as piety but the daily relinquishing of control into God’s hands.

Doing The Will Of The Father

But what is God’s will? Cyprian offers a powerful list drawn from the teaching and example of Jesus Christ: humility, faith, modesty, justice, mercy, moral discipline, steadfastness under trial, peace with others, total love of God, and fearless witness to Christ’s name. These are not abstract ideals but concrete signs of discipleship. To do God’s will is to live as Jesus lived, especially in courage, sacrifice, and love.

To say ‘Thy will be done’ is, in essence, to accept the cross and the crown. Cyprian makes no false promises: to do God’s will may mean bearing injury, facing torture, or even death. But it is precisely in these sufferings that we become co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17) and are crowned in his likeness.

A Reading From The Treatise Of Saint Cyprian On The Lord’s Prayer | Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done

The prayer continues: Thy kingdom come. We ask that the kingdom of God may appear to us, just as we ask that his name may be sanctified in us. For when does God not reign, or when does his kingdom begin, for it always has been and never ceases to be? We are praying that our kingdom, which has been promised to us by God, may come, the kingdom that was acquired by the blood and passion of Christ; and that we who started off as his subjects in this world may hereafter reign with Christ when he reigns, as he himself promised when he said: Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take up the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world.

But it may be, dearest brethren, that Christ himself is the kingdom of God, for whose coming we daily ask. For since he himself is our resurrection, since in him we rise again, so also the kingdom of God may be understood to be himself, since it is in him that we shall reign. We do well to ask for the coming of the kingdom of God – that is, the heavenly kingdom – for there is also an earthly kingdom, and he who has already renounced this world is greater than any of its honours or powers.

We add: Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. This is not that God should do what he wills, but so that we may be able to do what God wills. For who could resist God in such a way as to prevent him doing what he wills? But since the devil hinders us from obeying, by thought and by deed, God’s will in all things, we pray and ask that God’s will may be done in us. For this to happen, we need God’s good will – that is, his help and protection, since no-one is strong in and of himself but is kept safe by the grace and mercy of God. Moreover, the Lord, showing the weakness of the humanity which he bore, said Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, and showing his disciples an example, that they should do not their own will but God’s, he went on to say nevertheless, let it not be my will, but yours.

But it is the will of God that Christ both did and taught. Humility in dealings with others; steadfastness 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 it is done; to keep peace with the brethren; to love God with all one’s heart; to love God because he is a Father but fear him because he is God; to prefer nothing whatever to Christ because he preferred nothing to us; to adhere inseparably to his love; to stand faithfully and bravely by his cross; when there is any conflict over his name and honour, to exhibit in discourse that steadfastness in which we proclaim him; in torture, to show that confidence in which we unite; in death, that patience in which we are crowned – this is what it means to want to be co-heirs with Christ, this is what it means to do what God commands, this is what it is to fulfil the will of the Father.

Prayer With Jesus

Heavenly Father,
Your reign is eternal, and Your will is perfect.
We long for the coming of Your kingdom—
not just at the end of time,
but within our hearts and in our world today.
Grant us the grace to live as citizens of heaven,
turning away from the false glories of this world.
Teach us to do Your will—
in humility, in obedience, in love.
Like Jesus Christ Your Son,
may we surrender our desires to Your perfect purpose.
Strengthen us in trial, unite us in hope,
and bring us to reign with Christ in the kingdom You have prepared.
Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Glossary of Christian Terms

• Eschatological: Pertaining to the end times, final judgement, and the ultimate fulfilment of God’s kingdom.
• Kingdom of God: God’s sovereign rule, both as a present reality and a future hope; in some theology, also understood as Christ Himself.
• Co-heirship: The belief that Christians, through Christ, will share in the inheritance of eternal life and divine glory.
• Gethsemane: The garden where Jesus prayed before His arrest, submitting to the Father’s will.
• Passion of Christ: The suffering and death of Jesus, through which salvation was accomplished.
• Moral discipline: The deliberate practice of self-control, ethical living, and alignment with God’s commandments.
• Humility: The virtue of recognising our dependence on God and valuing others above ourselves.
• Christological: Relating to the person and work of Jesus Christ.