Part 8

6:7. And when you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens. For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard.

6:8. Be not you therefore like to them for your Father knoweth what is needful for you, before you ask him.

6:9. Thus therefore shall you pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

6:10. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

6:11. Give us this day our supersubstantial bread.

Supersubstantial bread. . .In St. Luke the same word is rendered daily bread. It is understood of the bread of life, which we receive in the Blessed Sacrament.

6:12. And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.

6:13. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. Amen.

Lead us not into temptation. . .That is, suffer us not to be overcome by temptation.

6:14. For if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences.

6:15. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences.

6:16. And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.

6:17. But thou, when thou fastest anoint thy head, and wash thy face;

6:18. That thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret, will repay thee.

6:19. Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through, and steal.

6:20. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal.

6:21. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also.

6:22. The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome.

6:23. But if thy eye be evil thy whole body shall be darksome. If then the light that is in thee, be darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be!

6:24. No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Mammon. . .That is, riches, worldly interest.

6:25. Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment?

6:26. Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they?

6:27. And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit?

6:28. And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin.

6:29. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these.

6:30. And if the grass of the field, which is to day, and to morrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith?

6:31. Be not solicitous therefore, saying: What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed?