do we ask for all that we may rightly desire, but
also in the order wherein we ought to desire them, so that this
prayer not only teaches us to ask, but also directs all our
affections. Thus it is evident that the first thing to be the object
of our desire is the end, and afterwards whatever is directed to the
end. Now our end is God towards Whom our affections tend in two ways:
first, by our willing the glory of God, secondly, by willing to enjoy
His glory. The first belongs to the love whereby we love God in
Himself, while the second belongs to the love whereby we love
ourselves in God. Wherefore the first petition is expressed thus:
"Hallowed be Thy name," and the second thus: "Thy kingdom come," by
which we ask to come to the glory of His kingdom.

To this same end a thing directs us in two ways: in one way, by its
very nature, in another way, accidentally. Of its very nature the
good which is useful for an end directs us to that end. Now a thing
is useful in two ways to that end which is beatitude: in one way,
directly and principally, according to the merit whereby we merit
beatitude by obeying God, and in this respect we ask: "Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven"; in another way instrumentally, and
as it were helping us to merit, and in this respect we say: "Give us
this day our daily bread," whether we understand this of the
sacramental Bread, the daily use of which is profitable to man, and
in which all the other sacraments are contained, or of the bread of
the body, so that it denotes all sufficiency of food, as Augustine
says (ad Probam, Ep. cxxx, 11), since the Eucharist is the chief
sacrament, and bread is the chief food: thus in the Gospel of Matthew
we read, "supersubstantial," i.e. "principal," as Jerome expounds it.

We are directed to beatitude accidentally by the removal of
obstacles. Now there are three obstacles to our attainment of
beatitude. First, there is sin, which directly excludes a man from
the kingdom, according to 1 Cor. 6:9, 10, "Neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, etc., shall possess the kingdom of God"; and to this refer
the words, "Forgive us our trespasses." Secondly, there is temptation
which hinders us from keeping God's will, and to this we refer when
we say: "And lead us not into temptation," whereby we do not ask not
to be tempted, but not to be conquered by temptation, which is to be
led into temptation. Thirdly, there is the present penal state which
is a kind of ob