On Prayer 6.1–12.2

Of things that move, some have their mover outside them, such as lifeless things held together only by their cohesion, and things moved by nature and soul, when they are sometimes moved not as such but like things held together only by cohesion. For stones and pieces of wood cut from the quarry or that have lost the power of growth, being held together only by cohesion, have their mover outside them; and so also the bodies of animals and plants that can be carried, when they are moved by someone, are moved not as animals and plants but like stones and wood that have lost the power of growth; and even if these too move, because all bodies are in flux and decay, they have the motion of decay as a consequence. Second, besides these, are things moved by the nature or soul within them, which are also said to move “out of themselves” by those who use terms more strictly. And third is the motion in living creatures, which is called motion “from themselves”; and I think that the motion of rational beings is motion “through themselves.” If we take from a living creature its motion from itself, it can no longer even be thought of as a living creature, but will be like either a plant moved by nature only or a stone carried by something outside it. And if a thing is aware of its own motion, since we have called this moving “through itself,” it must be rational.

Those, then, who wish nothing to be in our power will necessarily accept something most silly: first, that we are not living creatures, and second, that we are not rational either, but that, as if moved by something outside us, and not moving ourselves at all, we would be said to do, by that mover, what we are thought to do. Besides, let anyone attend to his own experiences and see whether he will not be shameless if he says that it is not he himself who wills, not he himself who eats, not he himself who walks, nor he himself who assents to and accepts whatever doctrines he does, nor he himself who rejects others as false. Just as, then, it is impossible for a man to be convinced of certain doctrines, even if someone argues for them ten thousand times with ingenuity and plausible reasoning, so it is impossible for anyone to be so disposed about human affairs as though what is in our power were in no way preserved. For who is really disposed to think that nothing can be grasped, or lives as one who suspends judgment about everything whatever? And who, on forming the impression that a servant has done wrong, does not rebuke the servant? And who is there who does not blame a son for failing in his duty to his parents, or does not reproach and censure the adulteress as having done something shameful? For the truth forces and compels us, even if someone argues ingeniously ten thousand times, to act on impulse and to praise and blame, as though what is in our power were preserved and it were we who become praiseworthy or blameworthy.

If, then, what is in our power is preserved, having countless inclinations toward virtue or vice, and again toward what is fitting or what is contrary to it, then necessarily, along with everything else, what it will be is known to God before it comes to be, “from the creation” and “foundation of the world.” And in all that God preordains in accordance with what he has seen about each act that is in our power, there has been preordained, according to the worth of each movement of what is in our power, what will also meet it from providence, and what will moreover happen according to the sequence of future events; God's foreknowledge is not the cause of all the future events that will be brought about by what is in our power, according to our impulse. For even if, by hypothesis, God did not know the future, we should not on that account lose the power to do these particular things and will these particular things. Rather, what results from foreknowledge is that what is in each person's power receives an arrangement in the government of the universe that is useful for the order of the world.

If, then, what is in the power of each is known to him, and for this reason it is reasonable that what each deserves, having been foreseen by him, is ordained by providence for everyone, it is also reasonable that he has comprehended beforehand what a particular person will pray for, with what disposition, with what faith, and what he wishes to happen to him. And this having been comprehended beforehand, something like this will accordingly be set in his ordering: “This man, who will pray with understanding, I will hear because of the very prayer he will pray; but this one I will not hear, either because he will be unworthy of being heard, or because he will pray for things which it is neither profitable for the one praying to receive nor fitting for me to grant; and in this prayer, let us say, of such a person I will not hear him, but in that one I will.” (And if anyone is troubled because God, who has foreknown the future, cannot be mistaken, as though things were necessitated, we must say to him that this very thing is known to God with certainty: that this particular man does not firmly and steadfastly will the better things, or that he will so will the worse that he will be incapable of change toward what is beneficial.) “And again: for this man who will pray I will do these things, for this is fitting for me, since he will pray blamelessly and will not be careless about prayer; and to this one, who will pray to a certain degree, I will give ‘far more abundantly than’ he asks or thinks, for it befits me to outdo him in benefits and to supply more than he has been able to ask. And to this person, who will be of such a kind, I will send this ministering angel, to begin working with him for his salvation from this time and to be with him until this time; and to that one, let us say, this other angel more honorable than the first, for him who will be better than the first. And from this one, who after giving himself to excellent teachings will grow slack and run back to more material things, I will withdraw this better fellow worker; and when he has withdrawn, some worse power, as he deserves, finding occasion to set upon his carelessness, will stand over him and incite him to these particular sins, since he has made himself ready to sin.”

So he who preordains all things will already, as it were, say: “Amos will beget Josiah, who will not imitate his father's faults, but, having found this path that urges him to virtue through those who will be with him, will be noble and good, and will tear down the altar that Jeroboam wickedly built. And I know also that Judas, when my Son has come to dwell among the human race, will at first be noble and good, but later will turn aside and fall into human sins, so that for these it will be reasonable for him to suffer these particular things.” (This foreknowledge, perhaps about all things, but certainly about Judas and other mysteries, is also in the Son of God, who by contemplating the unfolding of future events saw Judas and the sins he would commit; so that with full comprehension, even before Judas existed, he said through David, “O God, do not keep silent at my praise,” and what follows.) “And knowing the future, and what vigor Paul will have toward piety, I will choose him in myself before I create the world, when I set about the beginning of the making of the world, and at his birth I will entrust him to these powers that work for the salvation of men, setting him apart ‘from his mother's womb,’ and allowing him at first, in his youth, through a zeal that comes with ignorance under pretext of piety, to persecute those who have believed in my Christ and to keep ‘the garments’ of those who stoned my servant and martyr Stephen; so that later, after the rashness of youth, taking an occasion and changing to the best things, he may ‘not boast’ ‘before’ me, but may say, ‘I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God,’ and, perceiving the kindness I will show him after the faults of his youth committed under pretext of piety, may say, ‘But by the grace of God I am what I am’; and, restrained by his conscience because of what he did against Christ while still a young man, he will not be too much elated ‘by the surpassing greatness of the revelations’ revealed to him for his benefit.”

And to the argument about praying for the sun to rise, this must be said. The sun too has something in its own power, since it too praises God with the moon: “Praise him,” it says, “sun and moon”; and clearly the moon too, and consequently all the stars: “Praise him,” it says, “all you stars and light.” Just as, then, we have said that God, making use of what is in the power of each being on earth, has arranged them appropriately for some use for things on earth, so we must suppose that, making use of what is in the power of the sun and moon and stars, which is firm, stable, steadfast, and wise, he has ordered “all the host of heaven” and the course and motion of the stars in harmony with the universe. And if I do not pray in vain about what is in the power of another, much more is this so about what is in the power of the stars that dance in heaven for the salvation of the universe. Indeed, one may say of things on earth that certain impressions arising from our circumstances call forth our instability, or our inclination to the better, so that we do or say this thing or that; but in the case of heavenly beings, what impression could arise to drive out and move from its course, so useful to the world, any of those who have a soul so fashioned by reason and are, as regards themselves, causes of their own acts, and who use a body so ethereal and most pure?

Further, it is not unreasonable to use an example like this to urge people to pray and to turn them from neglecting prayer. Just as it is not possible to beget children without a woman and without the activity that serves for begetting children, so one would not obtain certain things unless one prayed in a certain way, with a certain disposition, believing in a certain way, having lived in a certain manner before the prayer. So one must not babble, nor ask for small things, nor pray about earthly things, nor come to prayer with “anger” and troubled thoughts. Nor can leisure given “to prayer” be conceived without purification; nor can the one who prays obtain forgiveness of sins unless he forgives from the heart the brother who has offended him and asks to be pardoned.

I think that benefit comes in many ways to one who prays as he ought, or who strives for this as far as he can. First of all, the one who has directed his mind to prayer certainly gains something from the very disposition of prayer, by presenting himself to God and speaking to him as present, having composed himself as before one who watches and is present. For just as certain images and memories of certain things defile the thoughts in which these images have arisen, in the same way we must be persuaded that the remembrance of God in whom we have believed, who perceives the movements in the sanctuary of the soul, is beneficial, as the soul orders itself to please him as one present, watching, and reaching before every thought, who tests “hearts” and searches “the inward parts.” For even supposing that no other benefit came to one who has set his reasoning toward prayer, one must think that it is no ordinary gain for him to have ordered himself so reverently at the time of prayer. And when this happens often, those who have given themselves more constantly to prayer know by experience from how many sins it keeps them and to how many good deeds it leads them. For if the remembrance and recollection of a man of repute who has made progress in wisdom calls us to imitate him and often checks our impulses toward the worse, how much more does the remembrance of God, the Father of all, together with prayer to him, benefit those who have persuaded themselves that they stand before, and speak to, a God who is present and hears?

What has been said must be established from the divine Scriptures in this way. The one who prays must lift up “holy hands” by forgiving each of those who have wronged him, having removed the passion of anger from his soul and being angry with no one. And again, so that the mind may not be clouded by other thoughts, he must forget everything outside the prayer during the time in which he prays (and how is it not most blessed to be such a person?), as Paul teaches in the First Letter to Timothy, saying: “I wish, then, that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputes.” And besides these, a woman, especially when she prays, must have modesty and decorum in soul and body, above all revering God when she prays, having banished from her ruling faculty every licentious and womanly memory, and adorned not “with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly clothing,” but with what befits a woman who professes godliness (and I wonder whether anyone would hesitate to declare blessed, on the ground of such a disposition alone, the woman who has presented herself for prayer in this way); as Paul taught in the same letter, saying: “Likewise that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with reverence and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, as befits women who profess godliness, with good works.”

And the prophet David too says that the saint has many other qualities when he prays; and it is not out of place to set these beside them, so that it may become clear to us that the very posture and preparation for prayer of one who has dedicated himself to God, even if considered alone, is of the greatest benefit. He says: “To you I have lifted up my eyes, you who dwell in heaven,” and, “To you, O God, I have lifted up my soul.” For when the eyes of the understanding are lifted up from lingering on earthly things and being filled with the impression of more material things, and are raised so high that they peer beyond created things and come to be occupied only with thinking of God and conversing reverently and fittingly with him who hears, how have they not already gained the greatest benefit, those very eyes that “with unveiled face” behold “the glory of the Lord” and are transformed into “the same image” “from glory to glory”? For they then partake of an intelligible and more divine emanation, as is shown by the words: “The light of your face has been signed upon us, O Lord.” And the soul too, being lifted up and following the Spirit, and being separated from the body—and not only following the Spirit but coming to be in it, as is shown by “To you I have lifted up my soul”—how does it not already put off its being a soul and become spiritual?

And if not bearing grudges is a very great virtue—so much so that according to the prophet Jeremiah the whole law is summed up in it, when he says, “I did not command these things to your fathers when they came out of Egypt, but this I commanded: let no one bear a grudge in his heart against his neighbor”—then, coming to prayer free of grudges, we keep the command of the Savior, who says, “Whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone”; clearly, standing to pray in such a state, we already possess the best things.

These things have been said as a hypothesis: even if nothing else follows for us when we pray, we gain the best things by having understood how we ought to pray and doing it. And it is clear that one who prays in this way will hear, while he is still speaking, as he looks upon the power of the one who hears him, the words “Behold, I am here,” having cast off, before praying, all discontent with providence. For this is what is shown by the words, “If you take away from yourself the bond, and the stretching out of the hand, and the word of murmuring”: this is the one who is content with what happens, who has become free from every bond, and does not raise his hand in vote against God, who ordains what he wills for our training, nor murmurs in the secret of his thoughts without a voice audible to men. Such murmuring, like that of wicked servants who do not openly find fault with their masters' orders, is practiced by those who do not dare with their voice and whole soul to speak ill of providence for what happens, but wish as it were to escape the notice even of the Lord of all in what displeases them. And I think this is also the meaning of what is in Job: “In all these things that happened Job did not sin with his lips before God,” while of the temptation before it, it is written: “In all these things that happened Job did not sin before God.” And forbidding that this should happen, the word says in Deuteronomy: “Take heed lest there be a hidden word in your heart, an iniquity, saying, The seventh year draws near,” and so on.

One who prays in this way, having already received so many benefits, becomes more fit to be blended with the Spirit of the Lord who has filled the whole world, and with him who has filled the whole earth and heaven, who speaks through the prophet thus: “Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.” And further, through the purification spoken of above and through prayer, he will share in the Word of God, who stands in the midst even of those who do not know him, and who is never absent from prayer, but prays with the one whose mediator he is, to the Father. For the Son of God is “high priest” of our offerings and “advocate” with the Father, praying for those who pray and joining his appeal to those who appeal; but he would not pray, as for his own, for those who do not pray more constantly through him, nor will he be an “advocate” with God, as for those already his, for those who do not obey the teachings that “one ought always to pray and not lose heart.” For “he told them,” it says, “a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart: In a certain city there was a judge,” and so on. And in what precedes this: “And he said to them, Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him”; and a little after: “I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his shamelessness he will rise and give him whatever he needs.” And who among those who believe the truthful mouth of Jesus would not be moved to pray without hesitation, when he says, “Ask, and it will be given you,” “for everyone who asks receives”? For the good Father gives the living bread (not the stone that the adversary wishes to become food for Jesus and his disciples) to those of us who ask him, who have received “the spirit of adoption” from the Father; and “the Father” gives “the good gift,” raining it “from heaven,” “to those who ask him.”

Not only does the High Priest pray with those who pray sincerely, but also the angels who rejoice “in heaven” “over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine righteous who need no repentance,” and the souls of the saints who have already fallen asleep. This is shown when Raphael offers a rational service to God on behalf of Tobit and Sarah (for after the prayer of both, Scripture says, “The prayer of both was heard before the glory of the great Raphael, and he was sent to heal the two”; and Raphael himself, revealing his ministry as an angel toward both by God's command, says, “And now, when you prayed, you and your daughter-in-law Sarah, I brought the memorial of your prayer before the Holy One,” and a little after, “I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who present the prayers of the saints and enter before the glory of the Holy One”; at any rate, according to Raphael's word, “Prayer with fasting and almsgiving and righteousness is good”); and it is shown when Jeremiah appears, as in the books of the Maccabees, distinguished “by gray hair and glory,” so that “the dignity about him was wonderful and most majestic,” and stretches out “his right hand” and gives “to Judas a golden sword,” to whom another saint who had fallen asleep bore witness, saying, “This is he who prays much for the people and the holy city, Jeremiah the prophet of God.”

For it would be absurd, when knowledge is now revealed to the worthy “through a mirror” and “in a riddle” but will then be revealed “face to face,” not to think the same of the other virtues, which, having been prepared in this life, are then perfected in the proper sense. And according to the divine word the one most important of the virtues is love of neighbor; and we must think that this is present much more in the saints who have fallen asleep toward those contending in this life than in those who are still in human weakness and contend alongside the weaker; for it is not only here that “if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; and if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” applies to those who love the brothers. For it is fitting that the love of those who are outside the present life also should say: “The care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?” And Christ too confesses that in each of the saints who is weak he is likewise weak, and is “in prison,” and naked, and a stranger, and hungry and thirsty; for who among the readers of the gospel does not know that Christ, by referring to himself what happens to believers, counts their sufferings as his own?

And if “angels” of God came to Jesus and “ministered to him,” and it is not fitting for us to think that the angels' ministry to Jesus lasted only for the short time of his bodily sojourn among men, while he is still “in the midst” of believers, not as one who reclines at table but as one who serves, how many angels are likely to minister to Jesus, who wishes to gather “the sons of Israel” “one by one” and to assemble those of the dispersion, and who saves those who fear and call upon him; and to work together, even more than the apostles, for the growth and increase of the church—so that some angels are even said, in John's Revelation, to preside over the churches? For not in vain do the angels “of God” ascend and descend “upon the Son of Man,” seen by eyes enlightened with the light “of knowledge.”

And so, at the very time of prayer, being reminded by the one who prays of what he needs, they accomplish what they can, as having received a general command. We may use some such image as this for this argument, to make acceptable what we have understood. Suppose a physician who cares for righteousness is standing by a sick man praying for his health, and knows how to treat the disease about which the man is offering his prayer. Clearly he will be moved to heal the one who prayed, perhaps supposing, not without reason, that this very thing has come about in God's mind, since he has heard the prayer of the one who prayed to be delivered from the disease. Or let someone who has more than enough of the necessities of life, and is generous, hear the prayer of a poor man who is offering a petition to God about his needs; clearly he too will fulfill the prayer for the poor man, becoming a servant of the Father's will, who has brought together at the time of the prayer, in the same place as the one who will pray, the one able to provide, who because of the goodness of his choice cannot overlook one who has need of these things.

Just as, then, we must not think that these things happen by chance when they happen, since he who has numbered all the hairs of the saints' heads harmoniously brings together, at the time of the prayer, the one who will serve the one needing his help and who will hear the one who has asked faithfully; so we must suppose that the presence of the angels who oversee and minister to God is sometimes brought together to a particular person who prays, so that they may join in accomplishing what the one who prays has asked. And indeed the angel of each one, even of “the little ones” in the church, who “always” beholds “the face of the Father” “who is in heaven” and looks upon the divinity of our Creator, prays with us and works with us, as far as possible, in the things for which we pray.

Besides these things, I think that the words of the prayer of the saints are full of power, especially when in praying they pray “with the spirit” “and with the mind also”; like a light rising from the understanding of the one who prays and going forth from his mouth, by the power of God they weaken the spiritual poison injected by the opposing powers into the ruling faculty of those who neglect to pray and do not keep the command “Pray without ceasing,” spoken by Paul in accordance with the exhortations of Jesus. For like an arrow, it goes forth from the soul of the saint who prays, by knowledge and reason or by faith, wounding, to their destruction and overthrow, the spirits hostile to God that wish to throw around us the bonds of sin.

And he prays “without ceasing”—since the works of virtue, or the commandments fulfilled, are taken up as part of prayer—who joins prayer to the works he ought to do and fitting actions to prayer. For only in this way can we accept “Pray without ceasing” as a command that is possible, if we should say that the whole life of the saint is one great connected prayer; of which prayer what is customarily called prayer is also a part, which ought to be performed no less than three times each day. This is clear from the case of Daniel, who, though so great a danger hung over him, prayed three times a day. And Peter, going up to “the housetop” “about” “the sixth” hour “to pray,” when he also saw the “vessel” “let down” from heaven, “let down by four corners,” shows the middle one of the three prayers; the one before it is spoken of by David: “In the morning you will hear my prayer; in the morning I will stand before you and will watch”; and the last is shown by the words, “The lifting up of my hands, an evening sacrifice.” But not even the time of night shall we pass rightly without this prayer, since David says, “At midnight I rose to give thanks to you for your righteous judgments,” and Paul, as is said in the Acts of the Apostles, “about midnight” at Philippi was praying with Silas and singing hymns to God, so that even the prisoners were listening to “them.”