The Lord’s Prayer, Third Petition: The Reign of God Within the Soul

Having asked that God’s Name be hallowed, we now pray that His Kingdom may come. This does not mean that the kingdom of God does not already exist, for it is eternal. We pray rather that it may come in us, that we may belong wholly to it and that it may reign in our hearts as it reigns in heaven.

The kingdom of God is present wherever God reigns without opposition. When we obey Him perfectly, His kingdom has come. Therefore this petition is the longing that His rule may overcome the rebellion of sin within us, and that justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit may dwell fully in our souls.

Some interpret this of the final kingdom, when Christ shall appear and we shall reign with Him forever. Augustine accepts this too, yet he reminds us that the kingdom begins now, when God reigns in the just. What we hope to receive perfectly, we must first welcome inwardly. The kingdom’s coming is both present grace and future glory.

This petition flows naturally from the one before it. When His Name is hallowed in us, His reign is established. The soul that loves God’s holiness desires His kingship, for it knows that to serve Him is perfect freedom. The prayer teaches us to seek not earthly dominion but divine rule — that God may be all in all.

Source: St. Augustine, On the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Book II, Chapter 5.