Why are the supplications in the Lord’s Prayer ordered this way?

The answer

St. Augustine sees a clear distinction between those supplications that concern the future eternal life for which we hope and those whose fulfilment begins from now but continue in eternity — namely, “Hallowed be Thy name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” — and those supplications that only concern our present life —“Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our trespasses, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from the evil one.”²⁴⁵ In eternity, we will not need daily bread and will not ask for forgiveness since we will sin no more. There will be no tempter to fight against us, and thus we will not pray for deliverance from the evil one.

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Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty