On prayer and the contemplative life · Aquinas, Saint Thomas
1. What we pray for we seek. But we are forbidden to seek for temporal
Chapter 30 of 107 · 1 min read
things, for it is said: Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you, those temporal things, namely, which He says are not to be sought but which are to be added to the things which we seek.
But temporal things are to be sought secondarily not primarily. Hence S. Augustine: "When He says the former is to be sought first (namely the kingdom of God), He means that the latter (namely temporal good things) are to be sought afterwards; not afterwards in point of time, but afterwards in point of importance; the former as our good, the latter as our need."
