The Philokalia

by Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

for by saying 'Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors', he exhorts God, who is beyond imitation, to come and imitate him: and he begs God to treat him as he himself has treated his neighbors. For he wishes to be forgiven by God as he himself has forgiven the debts of those who have sinned against him: hence, just as God dispassionately forgives His creatures, so such a person must himself remain dispassionate in the face of what happens to him and forgive those who offend him. He must not allow the memory of things that afflict him to be stamped on his intellect lest he inwardly sunders human nature by separating himself from some other man, although he is a man himself. When a man's will is in union with: the principle of nature in this way, God and nature are naturally reconciled: but, failing such a union, our nature remains self-divided in its will and cannot receive God's gift of Himself.