Charles Williams : The New Christian Year

2nd Friday after Trinity

We have this virtue (patience) in common with God.  From him patience begins; from him its glory and dignity take their rise.  The origin and greatness of patience proceed from God as its author.  Man ought to love the thing which is dear to God; the good which the Divine Majesty loves, it commends.

St. Cyprian: On Patience.

  Lead us not into temptation. . . . Power is given against us in two modes: either for punishment when we sin or for glory when we are proved. . . . But when we ask that we may not come into temptation, we are reminded of our infirmity and weakness in that we thus ask, lest any should insolently vaunt himself, lest any should proudly and arrogantly assume anything to himself, lest any should take to himself the glory either of confession or suffering as his own.

St. Cyprian: On the Lord's Prayer.

  What fear is there in this life to the man whose guardian in this life is God?

St. Cyprian: On the Lord's Prayer.

   Thy kingdom come. . . .
   Christ himself may be the kingdom of God, whom we day by day desire to come, whose advent we crave to be quickly manifested to us.  For since he is himself the resurrection, since in him we rise again, so also the kingdom of God may be understood to be himself.

St. Cyprian: On the Lord's Prayer.

  We have this virtue [patience] in common with God.  From him patience begins; from him its glory and its dignity fake their rise.  The origin and greatness of patience proceed from God as its author.  Man ought to love the thing which is dear to God; the good which the Divine Majesty loves, it commends.

St. Cyprian: On Patience.

  The Christian, even though he is asleep with his eyes, ought to lie awake with his heart, as it is written in the person of the Church speaking in the Song of Songs: 'I sleep, yet my heart waketh.'

St. Cyprian: On the Lord's Prayer.

1st Thursday in Lent

Lead us not into temptation . . . Power is given against us in two modes: either for punishment when we sin or for glory when we are proved . . . But when we ask that we may not come into temptation, we are reminded of our infirmity and weakness in that we thus ask, lest any should insolently vaunt himself, lest any should proudly and arrogantly assume anything to himself, lest any should take to himself the glory either of confession or suffering as his own.

St. Cyprian: On the Lord's Prayer.

2nd Friday after the Epiphany

Thy Kingdom come . . .
Christ Himself may be the kingdom of God, whom we day by day desire to come, whose advent we crave to be quickly manifested to us.  For since he is himself is the resurrection, since in him we rise again, so also the kingdom of God may be understood to be himself.

St. Cyprian: On the Lord's Prayer.