“Thy kingdom come”
“It follows suitably, that after our adoption as sons, we should ask a kingdom which is due to sons.” -Glossa Ordinaria
“This is not so said as though God did not now reign on earth, or had not reigned over it always. . . . None shall then be ignorant of His kingdom, when His Only-begotten, not in understanding only, but in visible shape, shall come to judge the quick and dead. This day of judgment the Lord teaches shall then come, when the Gospel shall have been preached to all nations; which thing pertains to the hallowing of God’s name.” -St. Augustine
“Either it is a general prayer for the kingdom of the whole world that the reign of the Devil may cease; or for the kingdom in each of us that God may reign there, and that sin may not reign in our mortal body.” -St. Jerome
“It is that kingdom which was promised to us by God, and bought with Christ’s blood.” -St. Cyprian of Carthage
“The kingdom of God will come whether we desire it or not. But herein we kindle our desires towards that kingdom, that it may come to us, and that we may reign in it.” -St. Augustine
“The kingdom of God may stand for Christ Himself, whom we day by day wish to come, and for whose advent we pray that it may be quickly manifested to us. As He is our resurrection, because in Him we rise again, so may He be called the kingdom of God, because we are to reign in Him.” -St. Cyprian of Carthage
“When they pray, ‘Let thy kingdom come,’ what else do they pray for who are already holy, but that they may persevere in that holiness?” -St. Augustine
“We beseech also to be delivered by the Lord from corruption, to be taken out of death. Or, according to some, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ that is, May Thy Holy Spirit come upon us to purify us.” -St. Gregory of Nyssa
“Then cometh the kingdom of God, when we have obtained His grace. For He Himself says, ‘The kingdom of God is within you’ (Lk 17:21).” -Pseudo-Augustine
Quotations from St. Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels Collected Out of the Works of the Fathers, Vols. I and III (Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841-43).
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