Daily debts.
Knowing this dangerous temptation in this life, our Lord, Master, and Savior, when teaching us this Prayer with six or seven petitions, took none aside to treat on and earnestly commend to us, except this one. Did we not say: Our Father, who art in heaven, and the rest following? Why, after ending the Prayer, did He not deal with something either from the beginning, or what He concluded with, or what He placed in the middle? For if God’s name is not sanctified in you, or if you do not pertain to God's kingdom, or if God’s will is not done in you as in heaven, or if God does not guard you that you do not enter into temptation: why none of these? But what? Amen, I say to you, that if you forgive the sins of others : because of this: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Passing by all the petitions He taught us, He especially taught that one. Those were not greatly to be commended, in which, if a sinner recognizes where he is to be cured: this must be commended, wherein if you sin, there is nothing else from which to be healed. For you ought to say this: Forgive us our debts. What debts? There is no lack: we are humans. I have spoken a little more than I ought, I have said something I ought not, I have laughed more than I ought, I have drunk more than I ought, I have eaten more than I ought, I have listened willingly to what I ought not, I have seen willingly what I ought not, I have thought willingly what I ought not: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. You are lost if you lose this.
Hortatio.
See, my brothers; see, my sons; see, children of God; see, for I say to you. Fight with your heart, as much as you can. And if you see your anger standing against you, pray to God against it: may God make you victorious over yourself; may God make you victorious, not over an external enemy, but over the inner enemy of your soul. For He will come and He will do it. He wants us to ask this of Him more than rain. For you see, dearest ones, how many petitions the Lord Christ taught us, and scarcely there do we find one that sounds concerning daily bread: so that we think of all things for the sake of the future life. For why do we fear that He will not give to us who promised and said: Seek first the kingdom and the righteousness of God, and all these things will be added to you? For your Father knows that these things are necessary for you before you ask Him. Seek first the kingdom and the righteousness of God, and all these things will be added to you. For many have been tempted by hunger and found gold, and not deserted by God. They would perish with hunger if the inner daily bread of their heart deserted them. Let us hunger for it most of all. For blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. But He can mercifully look at our weakness and see us, as it is said: Remember that we are dust. He who made man from dust and animated him, for this creation gave His only-begotten to death. How much He loves us, who can explain, who can even worthily think?