In the Lord's Prayer the saints ask for the forgiveness of sins. Therefore, even the saints have sins. The innocent shall not be innocent.
"For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a Jealous God." (Deuteronomy 4:24)
"Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord." (Zechariah 2:13)
"All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it." (Isaiah 40:6-7)
Namely, flesh and righteousness of the flesh cannot endure God's judgment. Jonah 2:8 also says, "Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hopes of steadfast love," that is, all confidence is empty, except confidence in mercy. Mercy delivers us; our own merits, our own efforts, do not. So Daniel also prays:
"For we do not present our pleas before You because of our righteousness, but because of Your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for Your own sake, O my God, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name." (Daniel 9:18-19)
So Daniel teaches us in praying to seize mercy, that is, to trust in God's mercy not our own merits before God.
~BOC, AP, V (III), 208-210
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