14. We add, also, and say, “Thy will be done, as in heaven so in earth;” not that God should do what He wills, but that we may be able to do what God wills. For who resists God, that He may not do what He wills? But since we are hindered by the devil from obeying with our thought and deed God’s will in all things, we pray and ask that God’s will may be done in us; and that it may be done in us we have need of God’s good will, that is, of His help and protection, since no one is strong in his own strength, but he is safe by the grace and mercy of God. And further, the Lord, setting forth the infirmity of the humanity which He bore, says, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;” and affording an example to His disciples that they should do not their own will, but God’s, He went on to say, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”37    Matt. xxvi. 39. And in another place He says, “I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me.”38    John vi. 38. Now if the Son was obedient to do His Father’s will, how much more should the servant be obedient to do his Master’s will! as in his epistle John also exhorts and instructs us to do the will of God, saying, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the ambition of life, which is not of the Father, but of the lust of the world. And the world shall pass away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever, even as God also abideth for ever.”39    1 John ii. 15–17. We who desire to abide for ever should do the will of God, who is everlasting.

XIV. Addimus quoque et dicimus: FIAT VOLUNTAS TUA SICUT IN COELO ET IN TERRA; non ut Deus faciat quod vult, sed ut nos facere possimus quod Deus vult. Nam Deo quis obsistit quominus quod velit faciat? Sed quia nobis a diabolo obsistitur quominus per omnia noster animus atque actus Deo obsequatur, oramus et petimus ut fiat in nobis voluntas Dei, quae 0528C ut fiat, in nobis opus est Dei voluntate, id est ope ejus et protectione; quia nemo suis viribus fortis est, sed Dei indulgentia et misericordia tutus est. Denique et Dominus, infirmitatem hominis quem portabat ostendens, ait: Pater, si fieri potest, transeat a me calix iste (Matth. XXVI, 39). Et exemplum discipulis suis tribuens ut non voluntatem suam sed Dei faciant, addidit dicens: Verumtamen non quod ego volo, 0529A sed quod tu (Matth. XXVI, 39). Et alio loco dicit: Non descendi de coelo ut faciam voluntatem meam, sed voluntatem ejus qui misit me (Joan. VI, 32). Quod si filius obaudivit ut faceret patris voluntatem, quanto magis servus obaudire debet ut faciat domini voluntatem? sicut in Epistola sua Joannes quoque ad faciendam Dei voluntatem hortatur et instruit dicens: Nolite diligere mundum neque ea quae in mundo sunt. Si quis dilexerit mundum, non est charitas Patris in illo, quia omne quod in mundo est, concupiscentia carnis est, et concupiscentia oculorum, et ambitio saeculi, quae non est a Patre, sed ex concupiscentia mundi : et mundus transibit et concupiscentia ejus; qui autem fecerit voluntatem Dei manet in aeternum, quomodo et Deus manet in aeternum (I Joan. II, 15-17). 0529B Qui in aeternum manere volumus, Dei, qui aeternus est, voluntatem facere debemus.