The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory [the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit]

Rudolf Steiner, June 16, 1921:

The closing of the Lord's Prayer was linked in the Mysteries from which it was taken with a specific symbol — with guiding over one's whole consciousness into symbolic contemplation. It was said: When one selects a symbol for the 'kingdom,' it is this: The boundary is the symbol for the kingdom. The kingdom encompasses a certain area. However, it only makes sense to speak of the 'kingdom' when we picture this area within its boundary, when we picture the extent to which the kingdom, the area, reaches.

Such a kingdom, however, has a meaning not just when it is a limited area, but when a force streams through it, when it is permeated with a force. The force must sit in the center-point and radiate through the kingdom. Thus you have something that spreads out through the area of the kingdom. The force that rays out from the center-point is the 'power.' The radiating force that rules the kingdom is the 'power.'

All of this would, however, take place in the interior, within the 'kingdom.' If only this were present, this kingdom with the power would stand there closed up within itself. It would exist only for itself. It is there for others in the world, for other beings, only when what rays out reaches the edge or surface, and rays out from there into the surroundings: so that what rays out into the world is a radiance found on the surface: a 'glory.' The raying out from within is the power. The power that sits fast on the surface and shines outward from there is the glory....Then you seek to find in the outer reality what you have in soul-spiritual contemplation....you seek it in the external world; and you find it in the Sun, because that is the image of it. And instead of ending the Lord's Prayer with the words used in Protestantism ("for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory"), you can also close it with the words: "for thine is the Sun."

"No one comes unto the Father except through me."

Source: First Steps in Christian Religious Renewal, pp. 166-167