Opusculum I Sive Liber De Oratione

FIRST OPUSCLE, OR BOOK ON PRAYER The evangelical precepts, most beloved brothers, are nothing other than divine teachings, foundations for building hope, supports for strengthening faith, nourishment for fostering the heart, rudders for directing the journey, and safeguards for obtaining salvation; while they instruct the teachable minds of believers on earth, they lead them to the heavenly realms. The Lord wished many things to be said and heard through his prophets, but how much greater are those things which the Son of God speaks, which the Word of God, who was in his prophets, attests with his own voice, no longer commanding that the way be prepared for the coming one, but himself coming and showing us the way, opening it, so that we, who were wandering in the darkness of death, improvident and previously blind, illuminated by the light of his grace, might hold to the path of life with the Lord himself as our guide. Among his other salutary warnings and divine precepts, by which he provided for his peoples for salvation, he himself also gave the form of praying; he himself advised and instructed what we should pray for; he who made us live also taught us to pray, with that same kindness by which he deigned to give and bestow all other things, so that, when we speak to the Father with the prayer and supplication which the Son taught, we may be more easily heard. He had already foretold that the hour would come when true worshippers would worship the Father in spirit, and he fulfilled what he promised, so that we who have received the spirit and truth from his sanctification might also from his tradition truly and spiritually worship.

For what prayer can be more spiritual than that which we have from Christ, from whom the Holy Spirit was also sent to us? And what petition before the Father can be more effective than that which comes from the Son, who is truth uttered from His mouth, so that to pray otherwise than He taught is not only ignorance but also fault, since He Himself has established and said, "You reject the commandment of God in order to establish your own tradition." Let us therefore pray, most beloved brothers, as the teacher God taught: the prayer of the Lord is familiar and dear, to ask of Him, to let the prayer of Christ ascend to His ears. Let the Father recognize the words of His Son when we make our petition; He who dwells within the breast, let Him also be in the voice; since we have Him as advocate before the Father, when we ask for our sins, we utter the words of our advocate. For since He says that whatever you ask the Father in my name He will give you, how much more effectively shall we obtain what we ask in the name of Christ, if we ask with His own prayer? Let the speech and petition of those praying be with discipline, containing quietness and modesty. Let us think that we stand in the sight of God; we must please the divine eyes both by the bearing of the body and the manner of the voice; for just as it is foolish to clamor with shouts, so it is fitting, on the contrary, for the more modest to pray with humble petitions.

Finally, by His teaching the Lord commanded us to pray in secret, in hidden and secluded places, in our own rooms, which is more fitting for faith, so that we may know that God is present everywhere, hears and sees all, and that the fullness of His majesty penetrates every hidden and secret place, as it is written: "I am a God who draws near, and not a God from afar; if a man is hidden in hiding places, will I not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth?" And again: "In every place, the eyes of the Lord watch over the good and the evil." And when we gather together with our brothers and celebrate the divine sacrifices with the priest of God, we ought to be mindful of modesty and discipline, not to scatter our prayers abroad with disorderly voices, nor to fling out with tumultuous loquacity a petition that should be modestly commended to God, because God is a hearer not of the voice but of the heart, and is not to be admonished by shouts, He who sees our thoughts, as the Lord testifies and says: "What evil do you think in your hearts?" and in another place: "Let all know that I am a searcher of the reins and the heart." This is what Anna, who in the first book of Kings bears a type, guards and observes, she who prays to the Lord not with a clamorous petition, but silently and modestly within the very recesses of her heart. She spoke with a hidden prayer, but she spoke with manifest faith, not with her voice but with her heart, because she knew that the Lord hears in this way; she effectively obtained what she asked, because she asked faithfully.

This divine Scripture declares, saying: He spoke in his heart, and his lips did not move. Likewise we read in the Psalm: Say in your hearts, and be pricked in your hearts in your chambers. Through Jeremiah also the same Holy Spirit suggests and teaches this, saying: But the Lord must be worshipped by you in your mind. Moreover, dearest brethren, let him who worships not be ignorant of how the Publican prayed in the temple with the Pharisee, not raising his eyes shamelessly to heaven nor his hands insolently erect, but beating his breast and confessing the sins shut up within, imploring the aid of divine mercy. And when the Pharisee was pleasing himself, the one who prayed thus, who placed his hope of salvation not in the confidence of his own innocence (since no one is innocent), but humbly prayed confessing his sins, was more worthy of being sanctified; and He who forgives the humble heard him praying, which the Lord set down in the Gospel and said: These two went up into the temple to worship, one a Pharisee, the other a publican; the Pharisee, when he had stood, prayed thus within himself: God, I give thanks to you, because I am not like other men, unjust, robbers, adulterers, as this publican is: I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

The publican stood afar off and did not dare to raise his eyes to heaven, but struck his breast, saying: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." I tell you, this man went down from that place justified more than that Pharisee, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Why, dearest brothers, learning from divine speech, after we have learned how we ought to approach prayer, let us learn, with the Lord speaking, what we should pray: "Thus," he says, "pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, let thy kingdom come, let thy will be done as in heaven and on earth: give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen." Above all, the teacher of peace and the master of unity did not wish prayer to be said individually and privately, as if he who prays seems to pray only for himself. Let us not say "my Father," nor "give me my bread today," nor let each one ask only for himself that he be not led into temptation and be delivered from evil; for our prayer is public and common, and when we pray we pray not for one, but for the whole people, because the whole people are one. The God of peace and concord, the teacher who taught unity, also taught us to pray thus, wherefore he wished for all, just as he himself bore all in one.

This law of prayer was observed by the three youths confined in the fiery furnace, harmonious in their petition and united in spirit and consent. The authority of divine Scripture declares this; and, while it teaches how such men prayed, it gives an example which we ought to imitate in our prayers so that we may be able to become such as they. Then, it says, those three, as if from one mouth, sang a hymn and blessed the Lord. They spoke as if from one mouth, and Christ had not yet taught them to pray; and for that reason the speech of those praying was effective and efficacious, because a peaceful, simple, and spiritual prayer was meriting God's favor. Thus we know that the apostles with the disciples prayed after the Lord's ascension: They were, it says, persevering with one mind in prayer, together with the women and Mary who was the mother of Jesus and his brothers. They persevered with one mind in prayer, declaring both the earnestness and the concord of prayer, because God caused the united in mind to dwell in the house. He admits into the divine and eternal house only those among whom there is prayer with one mind. But what the sacraments of the Lord's Prayer are, most beloved brothers, how many and how great, I will show, briefly gathered in discourse but spiritually abundant in power, so that nothing at all may be omitted which is not grasped in the compendium of heavenly doctrine within our petitions and prayers. Pay attention; thus, it says, pray:

Our Father who art in heaven. The new man, reborn, restored to his God through his grace, first says "father" because he has already begun to be a son. "He came," it says, "into his own, and his own did not receive him; but as many as received him, he gave them the power to become sons of God, who believe in his name." He who believes in his name and has become a son of God must begin from this point: to give thanks, to profess himself a son of God while naming his father to be in heaven, and also to testify from the very first words of his birth that he has renounced his earthly and carnal father and has begun to know and have only the father who is in heaven, as it is written: "Those who say to father and mother, 'I do not know you,' and do not acknowledge their own children, have kept your words and preserved your testament." Likewise, the Lord in his Gospel commanded that we not call anyone father on earth, because we have one Father who is in heaven. And to the disciple who had made mention of his father, he replied, "Let the dead bury their dead": for he had called his own father dead, whereas the father of believers is one. And we must not only notice and understand this, dearest brothers, that we call upon the father who is in heaven, but we also join and add: "Our Father," that is, of those who believe that through him they have been sanctified and, restored by the spiritual birth of grace, have begun to be sons.

This voice restrains and strikes the Jews, who, when Christ was announced to them through the prophets and sent to them first, not only spurned him in faithlessness but also cruelly killed him; they cannot call God father, since the Lord confounds and rebukes them, saying: You are born from the father devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father, for he was a murderer from the beginning and did not stand in truth, because truth is not in him; and through the prophet Isaiah the Lord cries out in indignation: I have begotten sons and raised them up, but they themselves have spurned me; the ox has recognized its owner and the ass the manger of its master, Israel has not known me and my people have not understood: woe, a sinful race, a people full of sins, a wicked offspring, criminal sons, you have abandoned your Lord God and sent indignation upon the seed of Israel. To their reproach, when we Christians pray, we say "Our Father" first, because he has begun to be ours and has ceased to be of the Jews who abandoned him. Nor can a sinful people be sons, but to those to whom remission of sins is given, the name of sons is ascribed, eternity is promised to them, the Lord himself saying: Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin, but a slave does not remain in the house forever. How great is the Lord's indulgence, how great the abundance of his condescension and goodness toward us!

so that He has willed us to celebrate prayer in the sight of God, that we call God Father and, just as Christ is the Son of God, so we too are named sons. That name none of us would dare to touch, unless He Himself had permitted us to pray in this way. Therefore, dearest brothers, we must remember and know that when we say "God the Father," we ought to act as sons of God, so that just as we are pleased with ourselves concerning God, He too may be pleased with Himself concerning us; let us conduct ourselves as temples of God, so that God may dwell in us, and let our action not be degenerate from the spirit, so that we who have begun to be spiritual and heavenly think and do only spiritual and heavenly things. For the Lord Himself said, "Those who glorify me, I will glorify, and those who spurn me will be spurned." The blessed apostle also explained in his Epistle, saying: "You are not your own, for you have been bought at a great price; glorify, take up and carry God in your heart." After this we say, "Hallowed be thy name," not that we wish it to be hallowed in our prayers, but that we ask from God that His name be hallowed in us. For by whom is God hallowed, who Himself hallows?

But because He Himself said: "Be holy, for I am holy," (??) we ask and pray that we who have been sanctified in baptism may persevere in what we have begun to be, and we entreat this daily; for we have need of daily sanctification, so that we, who daily commit offenses, may cleanse our faults by constant sanctification. What this sanctification is, which will be conferred upon you by God's grace, the Apostle proclaims, saying: "Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate men, nor pursuers of males, nor thieves, nor fraudulent men, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor plunderers will obtain the kingdom of God: and this indeed you were, but you have been washed, but you have been justified, but you have been sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God." We pray that this sanctification may remain in us. And indeed our Lord and Judge threatens one who has been justified and healed by Him not to offend again, lest something worse befall him. We make this petition with continuous prayers, we demand this day and night; and the life-giving power which is taken from God's grace is preserved by His protection in prayer. It follows: "Let your kingdom come." We also ask that the kingdom of God be represented to us, just as we ask that His name be sanctified in us. For when does God not reign? Or when did it begin with Him, who always was and will not cease to be?

We seek the kingdom promised to us by God, won by the blood and passion of Christ, so that we who formerly served in the world may afterwards reign with Christ as our ruler, as He Himself promises and says: "Come, blessed of my Father; receive the kingdom that has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world." But indeed, dearest brothers, Christ Himself can be the kingdom of God, which we daily desire to come, whose advent we long to be quickly presented to us. For just as He is the resurrection, because we rise again in Him, so too can He be understood as the kingdom of God, because we are to reign in Him. We rightly seek the kingdom of God, that is, the heavenly kingdom, for there is also an earthly kingdom; but he who renounces the world is greater than its honors and its kingdom, and therefore he who dedicates himself to God and Christ desires not earthly but heavenly kingdoms. However, there is need of continuous prayer and supplication, lest we fall from the heavenly kingdom, as the Jews did, to whom it was earlier promised. They fell, as the Lord reveals and proves: "Many," He says, "will come from the East and the West and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

He shows that the Jews were formerly sons of the kingdom when they also persevered as sons of God; after the paternal name ceased for them, the kingdom also ceased, and therefore we Christians, who in prayer call upon God as Father and have begun to know Him, pray that the kingdom of God may come to us. We also add and say: "Let your will be done, as in heaven and on earth," not only so that God may do what He wills, but so that we may be able to do what He wills; for who hinders God from doing what He wishes whenever He wishes? But because the devil hinders our mind and action from obeying God in all things, we pray and ask that the will of God be done in us. For this to be done in us, there is need of God's will, that is, of His work and protection, because no one is strong by his own strength, but is safe by God's indulgence and mercy. Finally, the Lord, showing the weakness of the man He bore, said: "Father, if it can be done, let this cup pass from me"; and also giving an example to His disciples that they should not do their own will, but that of God, He adds, saying: "Nevertheless, not as I wish, but as You wish"; and in another place He says: "I did not descend from heaven to do my own will, but that of the one who sent me." If the Son obeyed to do the Father's will, how much more must the servant obey to do the Lord's will?

Just as in his epistle John also exhorts and instructs us to do the will of God, saying: Do not love the world, nor those things which are in the world; if anyone has loved the world, the charity of the Father is not in him, because everything that is in the world is lust of the flesh and of the eyes, and ambition of the age, and the world passes away along with its lust. But he who has done the will of God abides in eternity, just as God abides in eternity; therefore, if we wish to abide in eternity, we must do the will of God, who is eternal. Now the will of God, which Christ both taught and performed, is: humility in conduct, steadfastness in faith, modesty in speech, justice in deeds, mercy in works, discipline in habits; not to know how to do injury and to be able to bear one done, to keep peace with brothers, to love God with the whole heart, to love in him that which is father, to fear that which is God, to prefer nothing at all to Christ, because he preferred nothing whatsoever to us, to cling inseparably to his charity, to stand firmly and confidently by his cross when the contest is over his name and honor, to exhibit in speech the constancy by which we are strengthened, in questioning the confidence with which we engage, in death the patience by which we are crowned—this is to wish to be a co-heir of Christ, this is to follow the commandment of God, this is to do the will of the Father, this is to fulfill the will of the Father.

We ask, however, that the will of God be done in heaven and on earth, both of which pertain to the consummation of our well-being and salvation. For since we possess a body on earth and a spirit in heaven, we ourselves are heaven and earth, and we pray that the will of God be done in both, that is, in body and spirit. For there is a struggle between flesh and spirit, and a daily conflict between them as they oppose one another, so that we do not do what we wish, while the spirit seeks heavenly and divine things, and the flesh covets earthly and worldly things. And therefore we ask, through this work and the help of God, that harmony be established between the two, so that the will of God may be carried out in both spirit and flesh, and that the soul, which has been reborn through him, may be preserved. This the apostle Paul declares openly and manifestly with his own voice, saying: The flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh; for these oppose each other, so that you do not do whatever you wish. Now the works of the flesh are manifest: adulteries, fornications, impurities, filth, idolatries, sorceries, homicides, enmities, contentions, rivalries, animosities, provocations, dissimulations, dissensions, heresies, envies, drunkennesses, gluttonies, and the like; those who do such things will not attain the kingdom of God.

The fruit of the spirit, however, is joy, charity, peace, magnanimity, goodness, faith, gentleness, continence, chastity; and for that reason we pray in daily and continuous petitions that the will of God be done concerning us both in heaven and on earth, because this is the will of God: that earthly things yield to heavenly ones, and spiritual things prevail over carnal ones. It can also be understood in this way, dearest brothers: since the Lord commands and admonishes us to love even our enemies and to pray also for those who persecute us, we ask also for those who are still earthly and have not yet begun to be heavenly, and that the will of God be done concerning them, because Christ perfected man by preserving and restoring him. For when the disciples are no longer called earthly by him, but the salt of the earth, and the Apostle calls the first man from the slime of the earth, but the second from heaven, rightly we, who ought to be like God the Father, who makes his sun rise over the good and the bad and rains upon the just and the unjust, should pray as Christ admonishes, so that we may make our prayer for the salvation of all. So that just as in heaven—that is, in us through our faith—the will of God has been done, that we might be heavenly, so also on earth—that is, in those who do not believe—the will of God may be done, namely that they may become heavenly, born from water and Spirit, we ask and say this in our proceeding prayer:

Give us this day our daily bread, which can be understood both spiritually and simply: for we ask for that which profitably advances salvation. For the bread of life is Christ; and this bread is not for all, but is ours; and just as we say, "Our Father," because He is the father of those who understand and believe, so too we call it our bread, because Christ is ours, and when we touch His body, He is bread. We ask that this bread be given to us daily, lest we who are in Christ and receive the Eucharist daily as the food of salvation, should some graver sin intervene, be cut off and, not communicating, be prohibited from the heavenly bread, and be separated from the body of Christ, while He Himself preaches and warns: "I am the bread of life who descended from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever: but the bread which I give is my flesh for the life of the age." Therefore, when He says that if anyone eats of His bread he will live forever, it is certainly clear that those who touch His body and receive the Eucharist in the reality of communion live. Hence it is to be feared and prayed for, lest anyone, being cut off, be separated from the body of Christ and remain cut off from salvation, with Him Himself threatening and saying: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you will not have life in you." And so we ask daily that our bread, that is, Christ, be given to us, so that we who remain and live in Christ may not withdraw from His sanctification and body.

It can also be understood in this way, that we who renounce the world and have cast aside its riches and pomps by the grace of spiritual faith, ask only for food and sustenance for ourselves, since the Lord instructs and says: He who has not renounced all that is his cannot be my disciple. He who has begun to be a disciple of Christ, renouncing all things according to the will of his master, ought to ask for his daily bread, and not to extend the desires of his petition into the future, with the Lord himself again prescribing and warning: Do not think about tomorrow, for tomorrow itself will think for itself; the evil of the day is sufficient for the day. Rightly, therefore, does the disciple of Christ ask for his sustenance for the day, he who is forbidden to think about tomorrow, and because it is contrary and repugnant to seek to live long in the world when we ask for the kingdom of God to come quickly. Thus also the blessed apostle instructs, forming and strengthening the firmness of our hope and faith. We brought nothing, he says, into this world. It is certain that we can take nothing away; therefore, having provision and covering, let us be content with these.

But those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and into a snare and into many harmful desires which plunge a man into perdition and ruin, for the root of all evils is cupidity, which some, by pursuing it, have suffered shipwreck from the faith and entangle themselves in many sorrows: it teaches that riches are not only to be despised, but are also dangerous for them, being the root of evils that flatter, the blindness of the human mind deceiving by hidden deception. Hence, rebuking the foolish rich man who thinks of worldly riches and boasts of the abundance of his exultant fruits, he says: Fool, this night your soul is demanded from you: what you have prepared, then, whose will it be? The fool rejoiced in his fruits, about to die that night, and he whose life was already lacking thought about an abundance of sustenance. On the other hand, the Lord teaches that he becomes perfect and complete who, having sold all his goods and distributed them for the use of the poor, stores up a treasure for himself in heaven, who, he says, can follow him as a patient man, who can imitate the glory of the Lord's resurrection, who, unencumbered and unburdened, is entangled by no snares of domestic property, and, freed and unbound, he too accompanies the resources sent ahead to the Lord.

To which end each of us may prepare himself, thus he learns to pray, and from the law of prayer he ought to recognize what kind of prayer it should be; for daily bread cannot be lacking to the just man, since it is written: The Lord will not let that soul die of hunger; and again: I have been hungry, and I have grown old, and I have not seen a just man abandoned, nor his offspring seeking bread. Again the Lord promises and says: Do not think, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or with what shall we be clothed? These things the nations seek; for your Father knows that you lack all these things: seek first the kingdom of God and its justice, and all these things will be added to you. To those seeking the kingdom of God and its justice, he promises that all things will be supplied, and since all things are already God's, to one who has God nothing will be lacking, if he himself does not lack God. Thus for Daniel, shut in the lions' den by the king's order, a meal is divinely procured, and among hungry beasts the man of God is fed. Thus likewise Elijah, in flight and solitude, is nourished by ravens ministering and birds bringing food during persecution. O detestable cruelty of human malice! Beasts feed and birds feed, and men lie in wait and rage. After this and for our sins we pray, saying: And forgive us our sins, as we also forgive our debtors.

First, sustenance of food is sought and pardon of transgression, so that he who is fed by God may live for God, and not only for the present and temporal life, but for the eternal: provision is made for that life, which can be reached if sins are forgiven, which the Lord calls debts, as he says in his Gospel: I have forgiven you every debt because you asked me. How necessarily, how prudently and wholesomely we are reminded that we are sinners, who are compelled to pray for sins, so that, while we seek indulgence from God, the mind of conscience may recall, lest anyone please himself as innocent and, by exalting himself, perish the more. He is instructed and taught that he sins daily, while he is commanded to pray for sins; just as finally John in his epistle follows, saying: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but if we confess our sins, the Lord is faithful and just, who forgives us our sins.

In the epistle, of course, he embraced both, so that we ought to pray for our sins and obtain forgiveness when we pray; therefore he called the Lord faithful to remit sins, faithful to his own promise, because he who taught us to pray for our debts and sins promised paternal mercy and added that pardon would follow; plainly he added a law binding us by condition and pledge, so that we may demand that our debts be forgiven, knowing that what we ask for our sins cannot be obtained unless we ourselves have done likewise toward our own sinners. Hence in another place he says: In the measure you have measured, it will be measured back to you; and because a fellow servant, after all debt was remitted to him, refused to remit to his fellow servant, he is cast back into prison, because he who refused to forgive his fellow servant lost what had been granted to him by the Lord, which Christ still more strongly foretold by his commands with greater force of his censure: When you stand, he says, at prayer, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven may forgive you your sins. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive you your sins. No excuse remains for you on the day of judgment, since you are judged according to your own sentence, and what you have done, you yourself also suffer.

For God has commanded that we be peaceful, harmonious, and of one mind in the house; and He wishes that those whom He has made through a second birth should persevere as they were born, so that we who have begun to be sons of God may remain in God’s peace; and since the Holy Spirit is one for us, so also should our mind and feeling be one. For God does not accept the sacrifice of a person who is at odds, but commands that he withdraw from the altar and first be reconciled to his brother with peaceful prayers, so that God may be able to be at peace with him. Our peace and fraternal concord, and the people aided by the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are a greater sacrifice to God than victims. For even in the sacrifices which Cain and Abel first offered, God looked not at their gifts but at their hearts, so that the one who pleased in his heart would also please in his offering. Abel, peaceful and just, sacrificing innocently to the one God, taught others that when they bring an offering to the altar, they should come with fear of God, with a simple heart, with the law of righteousness, and with the peace of concord. Rightly, while he was such in the sacrifice of God, he himself was later made a sacrifice to God, showing himself as the first of the martyrs and initiating with his blood the glorious passion of the Lord, for he had possessed both the justice of the Lord and peace.

Finally, such people are crowned by God; such people will judge with the Lord on the day of judgment. But the one who is discordant and dissenting, and does not have peace with his brothers, according to what the blessed apostle and sacred Scripture testify, even if he is killed for the Christian name, he will not be able to escape the crime of fraternal dissension, because as it is written: "He who hates his brother is a murderer," and he does not reach the kingdom of heaven, nor does a murderer live with God; for he cannot be with Christ who has preferred to be an imitator of Cain and Judas rather than of Christ. What a crime it is that cannot be washed away even by the baptism of blood! What a crime it is that cannot be expiated even by martyrdom! The Lord also necessarily warns that we say in prayer: "And do not allow us to be led into temptation"; in part it is shown that the adversary cannot act against us unless God has first permitted it, so that all our fear and all our observance must necessarily be turned to God in our supplications, since nothing evil is allowed unless power is granted. Divine Scripture proves this, which says: "Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it, and the Lord delivered it into his hands." Moreover, power is given to evil against us according to our sins, as it is written: "Who gave Jacob and Israel to be plundered by those who despoiled them? Was it not God, because they sinned and were unwilling to walk in his ways, to hear his law, and he brought upon them the wrath of his chastisement?

And again, when Solomon sinned and departed from the precepts and ways of the Lord, it is written: and the Lord stirred up Satan against Solomon himself. But power is given against us in two ways: either for punishment when we transgress, or for glory when we are tested; as we see happened in the case of Job, with the Lord revealing and saying: Behold, everything he has I give into your hands, but see that you do not touch him himself. And the Lord speaks in the Gospel at the time of the Passion: You would have no power against me unless it were given to you from above. But when we pray that we may not fall into temptation, we are reminded of our weakness and infirmity, while we pray in this way that no one insolently exalt himself, that no one proudly and arrogantly assume anything, that no one claim the glory of confession or passion as his own, since the Lord Himself, teaching humility, said: Watch and pray, that you may not come into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. So that when a humble and submissive confession precedes, and everything is given to God that is suppliantly sought with fear and honor of God, it may be granted by His mercy.

After all these things, at the conclusion of the prayer, comes that praise which gathers all our petitions and prayers together in a brief summary, concluding them. For at the very end we have placed: "But deliver us from evil," encompassing all the adverse things which the enemy contrives against us in this world, from which there can be faithful and firm protection if God delivers us, if He Himself grants aid to those who are praying and imploring Him. But when we say: "Deliver us from evil," nothing remains that should still be asked for beyond that, when we pray only for the protection of God against evil, which, once obtained, we stand secure and safe against all things that the devil and the world work. For what fear from the world does he have for whom God is a guardian in the world? What wonder, dearest brothers, if such is the prayer that God taught, who by His own teaching abbreviated all our petition in a salutary speech? This had been foretold before through the prophet Isaiah, when, full of the Holy Spirit, he spoke about the majesty and piety of God: "The word that consummates," he says, "and abridges in righteousness, a shortened speech will God make throughout the whole world.

For when the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, came to all, and gathering together both learned and unlearned, of every sex and age, issued the precepts of salvation, he made a great compendium of his precepts, so that in the celestial discipline the memory of learners would not labor, but that which was necessary for simple faith might be quickly learned, and thus they might also learn what eternal life is; for he embraced the sacrament of life with great and divine brevity. And to indicate that he wished to signify eternal life, he said: "That they may know you alone as the true God, and Christ whom you promised." Likewise, when he culled the first and greater precepts from the law and the prophets: "Hear, O Israel," he says, "the Lord your God is one God: you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength: this first, and the second is like unto this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself: on these two precepts hang the whole law and the prophets." And again: "Whatever good things you wish men to do to you, do likewise to them: for this is the law and the prophets." Not only by words but also by deeds did the Lord teach us to pray, himself praying and beseeching frequently, and demonstrating by the testimony of his own example what we ought to do, as it is written: "But he himself withdrew into solitudes and prayed"; and again: "He went out onto the mountain to pray, and spent the night in prayer to God." If he, who was without sin, prayed, how much more ought sinners to pray?

And if he, keeping watch all night long, prayed with continuous petitions, how much more ought we to keep watch through the night with more frequent prayer? But the Lord prayed and petitioned not for himself; for what would an innocent one pray for himself? But for our sins, as he himself declares when he says to Peter: Behold, Satan sought you out to sift you like wheat; but I prayed for you that your faith might not fail. And afterwards he intercedes for all, saying: Not for these alone do I pray, but for those who will believe in me through their word; that all may be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you; so that they too may be in us. Great indeed before God, for the sake of our salvation, is Christ's kindness and piety, that not content with redeeming us with his blood, he would still pray further for us. And see what the desire of the one praying was: that just as the Father and Son are one, so we too might remain in that same unity; so that from this it may also be understood how greatly he sins who rends unity and peace, since the Lord prayed for this, not wishing his people to live among schismatics, knowing that discord does not come to the kingdom of God. But when we stand at prayer, most beloved brothers, we ought to be watchful and apply ourselves to our petitions; let every carnal and worldly thought depart, and let the mind think of nothing other than what it prays for.

Therefore, the priest, having prefaced the prayer, prepares the minds of the brethren by saying: "Lift up your hearts," so that when the people respond, "We have them with the Lord," they are reminded that they ought to think of nothing other than God. Let the breast be closed against the adversary, and let it please only God, nor should they allow the enemy of God to approach them during the time of prayer. For he often creeps in and penetrates, and, subtly deceiving, diverts our prayers from God, so that we have one thing in our heart and another in our voice, when with sincere intention the Lord ought to be prayed to not by the sound of the voice, but by the mind and the spirit. But what laziness it is to be distracted and seized by inept and profane thoughts, when you are beseeching the Lord, as if there were something else you ought to think about more than that which you are speaking of with God! How do you demand to be heard by God, when you do not hear yourself, and you wish the Lord to be mindful of you when you pray, when you yourself are not mindful of yourself?

This is to be completely off guard against the enemy; this is, when you pray to God, to offend the majesty of God by negligence; this is to be awake with the eyes and to sleep with the heart, when a Christian ought, even when he sleeps with the eyes, to be awake with the heart, as it is said from the person of the speaking Church in the Song of Songs: "I sleep, and my heart is awake." For this reason the Apostle diligently and cautiously admonishes, saying: "Be earnest in prayer, being vigilant in it," teaching and showing, namely, that those whom God sees to be vigilant in prayer can obtain from God what they ask; but let those who pray not come to God with unfruitful, not with bare prayers; for a petition is ineffectual when a sterile prayer entreats God. For since every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, certainly speech that has no fruit cannot merit God, which is fertile with no operation. And therefore divine Scripture instructs, saying: "Prayer is good with fasting and almsgiving," for He who on the day of judgment is to give a reward for works and alms is today also a kind listener to one who comes to prayer with good work. Thus finally Cornelius the centurion, when he prayed, merited being heard; for he was one who gave many alms among the people and always prayed to God. To him, praying about the ninth hour, an angel stood by, bearing witness to his work and saying: "Cornelius, your prayers and your alms have ascended to the memory before the Lord.

Those prayers ascend quickly which the merits of our work bring to the Lord. Thus also the angel Raphael was a witness to Tobias, who was always praying and always working, saying: It is honorable to reveal and confess the works of God, for when you were praying, I offered the memory of your prayer before the glory of God, and when you were burying the dead, likewise, and because you did not rouse yourself to get up and abandon your meal, but went and buried the dead man, I was sent to test you, and again God sent me to heal you and Sarah your daughter-in-law. I am Raphael, one of the seven just angels who stand before God and dwell before the glory of God. Through Isaiah also the Lord admonishes and teaches similar things, testifying: Loose, he says, every knot of injustice, resolve the suffocations of importunate neighbors, dismiss the shattered into rest, and destroy every unjust thing, break your bread for the hungry, bring the homeless poor into your house; if you see a naked man, clothe him, and you will not despise the members of your own household. Then your timely light will burst forth, and your garments will quickly arise, and justice will go before you, and the glory of God will surround you. Then you will cry out, and the Lord will hear you; while you are still speaking, he will say: Behold, I am here. He promises to be present, and to hear and protect those who, loosening the knots of injustice from their hearts and giving alms to the household of God according to his commandments, while they hear what God commands to be done, themselves also deserve to be heard by God.

The blessed apostle Paul as well, in the necessity of distress, aided by the brethren, speaks of works which are sacrifices: "I am filled," he says, "receiving from Epaphroditus those things which were sent by you as an odor of sweetness, a sacrifice accepted and pleasing to God." For when someone has mercy on a poor person, he lends to God, and he who gives to the least gives to God and spiritually sacrifices an odor of sweetness to God. In the celebration of prayers we find the three youths with Daniel, strong in faith and victorious in captivity, at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, that is, by the sacrament of the Trinity which was to be manifested in the last times. For the first hour, coming into the third, shows the number of the Trinity, long promised, completed; and again, proceeding from the sixth through the fourth, it declares another Trinity. And when from the seventh the ninth is completed through three hours, the perfect Trinity is numbered. These intervals of hours, already predetermining, served the worshippers of God at fixed and lawful times for prayers, and it was later revealed that these were sacraments of old, because the righteous prayed thus before. For the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples at the third hour, fulfilling the grace of the Lord's promise. Likewise, Peter, ascending to the upper roof at the sixth hour, was instructed by the sign and voice of the Lord warning him to admit all to the grace of salvation, when he had previously hesitated about correcting the Gentiles.

And the Lord was crucified at the sixth hour, and at the ninth hour he washed away our sins; and so that he might redeem and give us life, his passion then completed his victory. But for us, dearest brothers, beyond the hours observed from antiquity, the times and sacraments of prayer have now increased, for we must pray in the morning, so that the Lord’s resurrection may be celebrated with morning prayer, which the Holy Spirit once signified in the psalm, saying: “My king and my God, since I prayed to you, in the morning you will hear my voice, in the morning I will stand before you and contemplate you.” And again, through the prophet the Lord speaks: “At dawn they will keep watch for me, saying: Let us go and return to our Lord.” When the sun departs again and the day ceases, we must necessarily pray once more; for our God is the sun and the true day, and when the sun and day of this world depart, as we pray and ask that light may come upon us, we again beseech Christ for the advent that will bestow the grace of eternal light. That Christ is called the day is declared by the Holy Spirit in the psalm, saying: “That was made by the Lord, and it is wonderful in our eyes,” and again: “This is the day which the Lord made; let us exult and rejoice in it.” Likewise, that he is called the sun, the prophet Malachi testifies, saying: “But for you who fear the name of the Lord, the sun of justice will rise, and in other things, an obscuring.

If, in the Holy Scriptures, the true sun and the true day is Christ, then no hour is excepted for Christians, so that God ought to be worshipped less frequently and always; so that we, who are in Christ—that is, in the sun and in the true day—may press on with prayers throughout the whole day and pray, so that when, after the alternating courses of the world and the law have run, the dissolved night succeeds, no harm from the nocturnal darkness can befall those praying, because for the children of light, even in the night itself, it is day. For when is there no light for him in whose heart there is light? Or when is there no sun and no day for him for whom Christ is the sun and the day? But we, who have always been in Christ, that is, in the light, let us not cease from prayer even at night, just as the widow Anna, praying without ceasing, always persevered in deserving well of God, as it is written in the Gospel: "She did not depart," he says, "from the temple, serving with fasts and prayers night and day"; those, of course, did not see who were not illuminated, or the Jews, who, deserted by the light, remained in darkness.

We, most beloved brothers, who are always in the light of the Lord, who have merited and hold what we began to be by accepted grace, let us count night as day, let us believe that we always walk in the light, let us not be hindered by the darkness which we have escaped, let there be no losses of prayers during the nocturnal hours, no sluggish and ignorant wastes of our orations; spiritually refreshed and reborn through God’s indulgence, let us imitate what we shall be, about to have, in the kingdom, without the intervention of night, the eternal day of the sun; as if in the light, let us keep vigil, about to pray always and to give thanks to God: and on this account, let us not cease to pray and to give thanks even here.