Treatises & Letters 15

The precepts of the Gospel, most beloved brethren, are nothing other than divine instructions, the foundations for building hope, the supports for strengthening faith, the nourishments for cherishing the heart, the helms for directing the journey, the safeguards for obtaining salvation; which, while they instruct on earth the teachable minds of believers, lead them to the heavenly kingdoms. Many things also God willed to be spoken and heard through his servants the prophets;

but how much greater are the things which the Son speaks, which the Word of God, who was in the prophets, testifies by his own voice—no longer commanding that the way be prepared for one who is to come, but himself coming and opening and showing the way to us, so that we, who once were wandering in the darkness of death, improvident and blind, being enlightened by the light of grace, might keep the way of life with the Lord as our guide and ruler. He who, among his other saving counsels and divine precepts by which he provides for his people unto salvation, himself also gave a form of prayer, himself warned and instructed us what we should pray for. He who made us to live taught us also to pray, with that same kindness, namely, by which he deigned to give and bestow all else, so that, while we speak before the Father in the prayer and supplication which the Son taught, we may be more readily heard.

He had already foretold that the hour was coming when the true worshippers would worship the Father in spirit and in truth; and he fulfilled what he had before promised, so that we, who have received spirit and truth from his sanctification, might also, by his tradition, worship truly and spiritually. For what spiritual prayer can there be other than that which was given to us by Christ, by whom the Holy Spirit also was sent to us? What true supplication before the Father, other than that which was uttered from the mouth of the Son, who is the truth? So that to pray otherwise than he taught is not ignorance alone but also guilt, since he himself has laid it down and said: You reject the commandment of God, that you may establish your own tradition. Let us therefore pray, most beloved brethren, as God our Master taught.

It is a friendly and intimate prayer to beseech God with what is his own, to bring Christ's prayer up to his ears. Let the Father recognize the words of his Son when we make our supplication: let him who dwells within in the breast be also in the voice; and since we have him as our advocate with the Father for our sins, when, as sinners, we entreat for our offences, let us put forth the words of our advocate. For since he says that whatever we ask of the Father in his name he will give us, how much more effectively do we obtain what we ask in Christ's name, if we ask it in his own prayer? But let the speech and supplication of those who pray be marked by discipline, keeping quietness and modesty. Let us consider that we are standing in the sight of God. We must please the divine eyes both by the bearing of the body and by the measure of the voice.

For as it belongs to the shameless to make a din with clamours, so on the contrary it befits the modest to pray with restrained petitions. Finally, by his own teaching the Lord commanded us to pray in secret, in hidden and withdrawn places, in the very bed-chambers—which better befits faith—that we may know that God is everywhere present, that he hears all and sees all, and in the fullness of his majesty penetrates even into hidden and secret places, as it is written: I am a God who draws near, and not a God afar off. If a man be hidden in secret places, shall I then not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth? And again: In every place the eyes of God behold the good and the evil.

And when we come together into one with the brethren and celebrate the divine sacrifices with God's priest, we ought to be mindful of reverence and discipline—not to fling about our prayers everywhere with disordered voices, nor to cast forth with tumultuous loquacity a petition that ought to be commended to God with modesty; for God is the hearer not of the voice but of the heart, nor is he to be admonished with clamours, he who sees our thoughts, as the Lord proves and says: Why do you think evil things in your hearts? And in another place: And all the churches shall know that I am the searcher of the reins and the heart. This Hannah, in the first book of Kingdoms, bearing the type of the Church, keeps and observes, who prayed to God not with clamorous petition but silently and modestly, within the very hidden places of her breast.

She spoke with hidden prayer but with manifest faith; she spoke not with the voice but with the heart, for she knew that the Lord thus hears, and she effectually obtained what she sought, because she asked faithfully. The divine Scripture declares this, saying: She spoke in her heart, and her lips moved, but her voice was not heard, and the Lord heard her. Likewise we read in the Psalms: Speak in your hearts, and in your bed-chambers be pierced with compunction. Through Jeremiah also the Holy Spirit suggests and teaches these same things, saying: But in the mind, O Lord, you ought to be worshipped. Moreover, let him who worships, most beloved brethren, not be ignorant of how the publican prayed in the temple together with the Pharisee.

Not lifting up his eyes shamelessly to heaven, nor raising his hands insolently, but beating his breast and confessing the sins shut up within, he implored the help of divine mercy; and while the Pharisee was pleased with himself, this man rather deserved to be sanctified, who prayed thus—who placed his hope of salvation not in confidence of his own innocence (since no one is innocent), but, confessing his sins, prayed humbly; and he who forgives the humble heard him as he prayed. This the Lord sets down in his Gospel and says: Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee, when he had stood, prayed thus within himself:

God, I thank you that I am not like other men, unjust, robbers, adulterers, as also is this publican. I fast twice on the sabbath; I give tithes of all that I possess. But the publican stood afar off, and would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying: God, be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than that Pharisee; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. Having learned these things, most beloved brethren, from the divine reading, after we have come to know in what manner we ought to approach prayer, let us also learn, with the Lord teaching, what we should pray. Thus, he says, pray:

Our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed be your name; your kingdom come; your will be done, in heaven and on earth; give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors; and suffer us not to be led into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Above all, the Teacher of peace and Master of unity did not wish prayer to be made singly and privately, so that one who prays should pray for himself alone. We do not say: My Father, who are in heaven; nor: Give me my bread this day; nor does each one ask that his debt alone be forgiven him, or that he alone be not led into temptation and be delivered from evil for himself only.

Our prayer is public and common, and when we pray, we pray not for one but for the whole people, because we, the whole people, are one. The God of peace and concord, who taught unity, willed that one should so pray for all, even as he himself bore all in one. This law of prayer the three children kept, shut up in the fiery furnace, agreeing in prayer and harmonious in the consent of the spirit. The faith of the divine Scripture declares it, and while it teaches how such men prayed, it gives an example that we ought to imitate in our prayers, that we may be able to be such. Then, it says, those three, as with one mouth, sang a hymn and blessed God. They spoke as with one mouth, and Christ had not yet taught them to pray.

And therefore for those who prayed the word was impetrative and effectual, because a prayer that was peaceful and simple and spiritual won the Lord's favour. So too we find that the apostles, with the disciples, prayed after the Lord's ascension. They were, it says, all persevering with one mind in prayer, together with the women, and Mary who had been the mother of Jesus, and his brethren. They persevered in prayer with one mind, declaring by their very urgency and concord that God, who makes those of one mind to dwell in a house, does not admit into the divine and eternal house any but those among whom there is prayer of one mind.

But how great, most beloved brethren, are the mysteries of the Lord's Prayer—how many, how mighty—gathered briefly in speech, yet spiritually abundant in power, so that nothing whatever is omitted which is not comprehended in our prayers and supplications by this compendium of heavenly doctrine! Thus, he says, pray: Our Father, who are in heaven. The new man, reborn and restored to his God by his grace, says Father in the first place, because he has now begun to be a son. He came, it says, unto his own, and his own did not receive him; but as many as received him, to them he gave power to become sons of God, even to those who believe in his name.

He, therefore, who has believed in His name and has been made a son of God ought to begin here: that he both give thanks and confess himself a son of God, when he names God in heaven as his Father; and that he likewise testify, at the very first words of his new birth, that he has renounced his earthly and carnal father, and has begun to know and to have as his only father Him who is in heaven, as it is written: 'They who say to their father and mother, I have not known you, and who did not acknowledge their own children, these have kept Your precepts and observed Your covenant.' Likewise the Lord in His Gospel commanded that we should call no man father to ourselves upon earth, because to us there is one Father, who is in heaven. And to the disciple who had made mention of his dead father, He replied:

'Let the dead bury their dead.' For he had called his father dead, though the father of believers is living. Nor only this, most beloved brethren, ought we to mark and understand, that we call Him Father who is in heaven, but we add and say 'Our Father'—that is, the Father of those who believe, of those who, sanctified through Him and restored by the birth of spiritual grace, have begun to be sons of God. This word, moreover, censures and smites the Jews also, because they not only faithlessly despised Christ, who had been announced to them by the prophets and first sent to them, but also cruelly slew Him: they who can no longer call God Father, since the Lord confounds and rebukes them, saying:

'You are born of your father the devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. For he was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because the truth is not in him.' And through the prophet Isaiah God cries out in indignation: 'I have begotten sons and exalted them, but they have despised me. The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel has not known me, and my people has not understood me. Woe to the sinful nation, a people full of sins, a wicked seed, lawless children. You have forsaken the Lord, and have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel.' In reproach of these, we Christians, when we pray, say 'Our Father,' because He has now begun to be ours and has ceased to be the Jews', who have forsaken Him.

Nor can a sinful people be a son; but to those to whom remission of sins is granted, to them the name of sons is ascribed, to them also eternity is promised, since the Lord Himself says: 'Everyone who commits sin is a slave. But the slave does not abide in the house for ever; the son abides for ever.' How great, moreover, is the Lord's indulgence, how great the abundance of His regard and goodness toward us, that He has so willed us to celebrate prayer in the sight of God as to call the Lord 'Father,' and, as Christ is the Son of God, so we too should be named sons of God: a name which none of us would dare to touch in prayer, had not He Himself thus permitted us to pray.

And so, most beloved brethren, we ought to remember and to know that, when we call God 'Father,' we ought to act as sons of God, so that, as we are pleased with God as our Father, so He too may be pleased with us. Let us conduct ourselves as temples of God, that it may be manifest that the Lord dwells in us. Nor let our action degenerate from the Spirit, so that we who have begun to be spiritual and heavenly may think and do nothing but what is spiritual and heavenly, since the Lord God Himself has said: 'Those who glorify me I will glorify; and those who despise me shall be despised.' The blessed Apostle also set down in his epistle: 'You are not your own, for you have been bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body.' After this we say:

'Hallowed be Your name'—not that we wish for God that He be hallowed by our prayers, but that we ask of the Lord 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 also am holy,' this we ask and beg, that we who have been hallowed in baptism may persevere in what we have begun to be. And this we entreat daily; for we have need of daily sanctification, that we who daily transgress may cleanse our offenses by continual sanctification. And what that sanctification is which is conferred on us by God's regard, the Apostle declares, saying:

'Neither fornicators, nor those who serve idols, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor those who lust after males, nor thieves, nor the fraudulent, nor drunkards, nor the railers, nor the rapacious, shall obtain the kingdom of God. And such indeed you were; but you have been washed, but you have been justified, but you have been sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.' He says that we have been sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

We pray that this sanctification may abide in us; and because the Lord and our Judge threatens him whom He has healed and made alive that he sin no more, lest something worse befall him, we make this prayer in continual supplications, this we ask day and night, that the sanctification and quickening which is received from the grace of God may be preserved by His own protection. There follows in the prayer: 'Your kingdom come.' We ask that the kingdom of God also may be presented to us, even as we entreat that His name may be hallowed in us. For when does God not reign? Or with Him when does that begin which both always was and ceases not to be?

We ask that our kingdom may come, the kingdom promised to us by God, won by the blood and passion of Christ, that we who before served in the world may afterward reign under the dominion of Christ, even as He Himself promises and says: 'Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' Yet, most beloved brethren, Christ Himself may also be the kingdom of God, whom we daily long to come, whose advent we desire to be presented to us speedily. For since He is Himself the resurrection, because in Him we rise again, so the kingdom of God may also be understood to be Himself, because in Him we shall reign. And rightly do we ask for the kingdom of God, that is, the heavenly kingdom, because there is also an earthly kingdom.

But he who has already renounced the world is greater than its honors and its kingdom. And therefore he who dedicates himself to God and to Christ desires not earthly but heavenly kingdoms. There is need, moreover, of continual prayer and entreaty, that we fall not away from the heavenly kingdom, as the Jews fell away, to whom this had first been promised, the Lord making it manifest and proving it: 'Many,' He says, 'shall come from the east and the west, and shall recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' He shows that the Jews were before the children of the kingdom, while they continued also to be the children of God; but after the paternal name ceased to be about them, the kingdom too ceased.

And therefore we Christians, who have begun in prayer to call God 'Father,' pray also that the kingdom of God may come to us. We add likewise and say: 'Your will be done in heaven and in earth'—not that God may do what He wills, but that we may be able to do what God wills. For who withstands God, that He should not do what He wills? But because we are withstood by the devil, that in all things our mind and act should not obey God, we pray and ask that the will of God may be done in us: and that it may be done in us, there is need of God's will, that is, of His help and protection, since no one is strong by his own strength, but is kept safe by the indulgence and mercy of God. Finally, the Lord also, showing the weakness of the manhood which He bore, said:

'Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me'; and, distributing an example to His disciples, that they should do not their own will but God's, He added, saying: 'Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.' And in another place He says: 'I came down not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.' But if the Son obeyed to do the Father's will, how much more ought the servant to obey, that he may do the Lord's will, even as John also in his epistle exhorts and instructs us to do the will of God, saying: 'Love not the world, neither the things which are in the world.'

'If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the ambition of the age, which is not of the Father, but of the lust of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof; but he who does the will of God abides for ever, even as God abides for ever.' We who wish to abide for ever ought to do the will of God, who is eternal. And the will of God is that which Christ both did and taught.

Humility in conduct, steadfastness in faith, modesty in words, justice in deeds, mercy in works, discipline in morals; to know not how to do a wrong, and to be able to bear one done; to keep peace with the brethren; to love the Lord with the whole heart; to love in Him what is the Father, to fear what is God; to prefer nothing whatever to Christ, because He preferred nothing to us; to cling inseparably to His love; to stand bravely and faithfully by His cross; when there is a contest over His name and honor, to exhibit in speech that constancy by which we confess, in interrogation that confidence by which we contend, in death that patience by which we are crowned:

this is to wish to be a co-heir with Christ, this is to do the precept of God, this is to fulfill the will of the Father. Now we ask that the will of God be done in heaven and in earth, both of which pertain to the consummation of our safety and salvation. For since we possess a body from the earth and a spirit from heaven, we ourselves are earth and heaven, and in both—that is, in body and in spirit—we pray that the will of God may be done. For there is between the flesh and the spirit a struggle, and a daily conflict, as they disagree one against the other, so that we do not the very things which we will, while the spirit seeks heavenly and divine things, the flesh lusts after earthly and worldly things.

And therefore we ask that, between these two, by the help and aid of God, concord may be made, so that, while the will of God is carried out both in spirit and in flesh, the soul which is born again through Him may be preserved. This the Apostle Paul openly and manifestly declares with his own voice: 'The flesh,' he says, 'lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary one to the other, so that you do not the things which you would. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are: adulteries, fornications, uncleannesses, filthinesses, idolatries, sorceries, murders, enmities, contentions, jealousies, animosities, provocations, hatreds, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkennesses, revellings, and the like; they who do such things shall not possess the kingdom of God.'

'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, chastity.' And therefore in daily, nay rather in continual prayers, we entreat this, that the will of God concerning us may be done both in heaven and in earth: because this is the will of God, that earthly things give way to heavenly, that spiritual and divine things prevail. It may also be understood thus, most beloved brethren, that since the Lord commands and admonishes us to love even our enemies and to pray also for those who persecute us, we should ask also for those who are still earth and have not yet begun to be heavenly, that the will of God may be done concerning them also—that will which Christ perfected in preserving and restoring man.

For since the disciples are now called by Him not earth, but the salt of the earth, and the Apostle calls the first man of the slime of the earth, but the second of heaven, deservedly we too, who ought to be like to God the Father—who makes His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust—thus pray and ask, at Christ's admonition, that we may make our prayer for the salvation of all: that, as in heaven, that is, in us, through our faith the will of God has been done so that we might be of heaven, so also on earth—that is, in those who are unwilling to believe—the will of God may be done, that they who are as yet by their first birth earthly may begin to be heavenly, born of water and the Spirit. As the prayer proceeds we ask and say: 'Give us this day our daily bread.'

This may be understood both spiritually and simply, since either understanding profits, by a divine usefulness, unto salvation. For Christ is the bread of life, and this bread is not of all, but is ours. And as we say 'Our Father,' because He is the Father of those who understand and believe, so we also call it 'our bread,' because Christ is the bread of those of us who touch His body. Now we ask that this bread be given to us daily, lest we who are in Christ and daily receive His Eucharist as the food of salvation should, with some graver offense intervening, while being kept back and not communicating we are debarred from the heavenly bread, be separated from the body of Christ—as He Himself declares and says: 'I am the bread of life, who came down from heaven.'

'If anyone eats of my bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread which I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world.' When therefore He says that he who eats of His bread shall live for ever, as it is manifest that those live who touch His body and by right of communion receive the Eucharist, so on the contrary it is to be feared and prayed lest, while anyone, being kept back, is separated from the body of Christ, he remain apart from salvation—He Himself threatening and saying: 'Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you.' And therefore we ask that our bread, that is, Christ, be given to us daily, that we who abide and live in Christ may not depart from His sanctification and body.

But it may also be understood thus: that we who have renounced the world and have cast away its riches and pomps in the faith of spiritual grace should ask only food and sustenance for ourselves, since the Lord instructs and says: 'He who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.' But he who has begun to be Christ's disciple, renouncing all things according to his Master's word, ought to ask his daily food, and not to extend the desires of his petition into the long future—the Lord again prescribing and saying: 'Take no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for itself. Sufficient unto the day is its own evil.'

Deservedly therefore the disciple of Christ asks sustenance for himself for the day, who is forbidden to take thought for the morrow; because it becomes a thing contrary and repugnant to itself, that we who ask that the kingdom of God may come swiftly should seek to live long in the world. So also the blessed Apostle admonishes us, forming and strengthening the firmness of our hope and faith: 'We brought nothing,' he says, 'into this world, nor truly can we carry anything out. Having therefore food and covering, with these let us be content. But those who wish to become rich fall into temptation, and a snare, and many and hurtful desires, which drown a man in destruction and perdition.'

'For the love of money is the root of all evils, which while some coveted, they have made shipwreck of the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows.' He teaches that riches are not only to be despised, but are even perilous; that in them is the root of evils that flatter, deceiving the blindness of the human mind by hidden deception. Whence God also rebukes the rich fool, who thinks of worldly stores and boasts himself in the bounty of overflowing fruits, saying: 'You fool, this night your soul is required of you; whose then shall those things be which you have prepared?' The fool was rejoicing in his fruits, about to die that night; and one whose life was already failing was thinking of an abundance of sustenance.

But on the contrary the Lord teaches that he becomes perfect and consummate who, having sold all his goods and distributed them for the use of the poor, lays up for himself treasure in heaven. He says that he is able to follow Him and to imitate the glory of the Lord's passion who, unencumbered and girded up, is involved in no snares of household property, but loosed and free himself also accompanies his substance which he has already sent before him to the Lord. That each one of us may be able to prepare himself for this, he thus learns to pray, and from the law of prayer comes to know what manner of man he ought to be. For daily food cannot fail the just man, since it is written: 'The Lord will not slay with famine the soul of the just'; and again:

'I have been young, and now am old, yet have I not seen the just forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread.' Likewise the Lord promises and says: 'Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the nations seek. But your Father knows that you have need of all these things. Seek first the kingdom and the righteousness of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.' To those who seek the kingdom and righteousness of God He promises that all things shall be added. For since all things are God's, to him who has God nothing shall be wanting, if he himself be not wanting to God. So to Daniel, shut up by the king's command in the lions' den, a dinner is divinely provided, and amid the hungry and sparing beasts the man of God is fed.

So Elijah in his flight and solitude is fed, the ravens ministering to him and the birds bringing food to him; he is nourished in persecution. And—O the detestable cruelty of human malice!—wild beasts spare, birds feed, and men lie in wait and rage! After these things we pray also for our sins, saying: 'And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.' After the supply of food, pardon of sin too is asked, that he who is fed by God may live in God, and that provision may be made not only for the present and temporal life, but for the eternal also, to which one may come if our sins be remitted—which sins the Lord calls debts, as in His Gospel He says: 'I forgave you all that debt, because you besought me.'

How necessarily, moreover, how providently and wholesomely are we admonished that we are sinners, who are compelled to entreat for our sins, so that, while indulgence is asked of God, the mind is reminded of its own conscience! Lest anyone please himself as though innocent, and by exalting himself perish the more, he is instructed and taught that he sins daily, in that he is bidden to pray daily for his sins. So finally John also admonishes in his epistle, 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 to forgive us our sins.'

In his epistle he embraced both points: that we ought both to entreat for our sins, and that we obtain pardon when we entreat. Therefore he called the Lord faithful in forgiving sins, keeping the faith of His promise; because He who taught us to pray for our debts and sins promised the Father's mercy and the pardon that should follow. He plainly joined and added a law, binding us by a fixed condition and engagement, that we should ask our debts to be forgiven us according as we ourselves also forgive our debtors—knowing that what we ask for our sins cannot be obtained, unless we ourselves do the like toward those who sin against us. Therefore He also says in another place:

'With what measure you have measured, with the same shall it be measured again to you.' And the servant who, after all his debt had been forgiven him by his lord, was unwilling himself to forgive his fellow-servant, is bound in prison; because he was unwilling to be indulgent to his fellow-servant, he lost what had been indulged to him by his Lord. These things Christ sets forth yet more strongly in His precepts, with the greater force of His censure: 'When you stand,' He says, 'in prayer, forgive if you have anything against anyone, that your Father also 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 to you in the day of judgment, when you shall be judged according to your own sentence, and shall yourself suffer whatever you have done.

For God has commanded that in His house we be peaceful and harmonious and of one mind; and such as He has made us by the second birth, such He wills us, born again, to continue, that we who are sons of God may abide in the peace of God, and that they who have one Spirit may have one mind and feeling. So neither does God receive the sacrifice of one who is at variance, and He bids him who returns from the altar first be reconciled to his brother, that so God too may be appeased by peaceful prayers. The greater sacrifice to God is our peace and brotherly concord, and a people united out of the unity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For neither in the sacrifices which Abel and Cain first offered did God look upon their gifts, but upon their hearts, so that he was pleasing in his gift who was pleasing in heart.

Abel, peaceable and just, while he sacrificed to God in innocence, taught others also, when they bring their gift to the altar, thus to come: with the fear of God, with a simple heart, with the law of justice, with the peace of concord. Deservedly, while in the sacrifice to God he was such a one, he himself afterward became a sacrifice to God, so that, first showing forth martyrdom, he inaugurated the Lord's passion by the glory of his blood—he who had both the justice of the Lord and peace. Such, in fine, are crowned by the Lord; such, in the day of judgment, shall be vindicated with the Lord.

But the discordant and the dissenting, and he who has not peace with the brethren, according as the blessed Apostle and the holy Scripture testifies, not even if he be slain for the Name shall be able to escape the crime of fraternal dissension; because, as it is written, 'He who hates his brother is a murderer,' nor does a murderer attain to the kingdom [of heaven], nor live with God. He cannot be with Christ who has chosen to be an imitator of Judas rather than of Christ. What a sin is that which cannot be washed away even by the baptism of blood! What a crime is that which cannot be expiated by martyrdom! This also the Lord necessarily admonishes, that in prayer we say: 'And suffer us not to be led into temptation.'

In which clause it is shown that the adversary can do nothing against us unless God has first permitted it, so that all our fear and devotion and observance may be turned toward God, since in temptations nothing is allowed to the evil one unless power be granted thence. The Scripture proves this, which says: 'Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and besieged it; and the Lord gave it into his hand.' But power is given against us to the evil one according to our sins, as it is written: 'Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to those who plundered him? Was it not God, against whom they sinned, and were unwilling to walk in His ways, nor to hear His law? And He brought upon them the wrath of His indignation.'

And again, when Solomon sinned and departed from the Lord's precepts and ways, it is set down: 'And the Lord stirred up Satan against Solomon himself.' Power, moreover, is given against us in two ways: either for punishment when we transgress, or for glory when we are proved—as we see done in the case of Job, God making it manifest and saying: 'Behold, all that he has I give into your hands; but take heed that you touch not himself.' And the Lord in the Gospel says, at the time of His passion: 'You would have no power against me, unless it were given you from above.'

But when we pray that we may not come into temptation, we are admonished of our infirmity and weakness in thus praying, lest anyone insolently exalt himself, lest anyone proudly and arrogantly assume anything to himself, lest anyone account as his own the glory either of confession or of suffering—since the Lord Himself, teaching humility, said: 'Watch and pray, that you come not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak'—so that, while a humble and submissive confession goes before and the whole is given to God, whatever is suppliantly asked with fear and honor of God may be granted by His own loving-kindness. After all these, in the consummation of the prayer comes a clause concluding all our petitions and prayers in a collected brevity.

For at the last we put: 'But deliver us from evil,' comprehending all the adversities which the enemy contrives against us in this world—from which there can be a firm and faithful protection, if God deliver us, if He afford His help to those who entreat and implore it. And when we say 'Deliver us from evil,' there remains nothing further that ought to be asked beyond this, since when once we have asked God's protection against evil, that being obtained we stand secure and safe against all that the devil and the world work. For what fear is there from the age to him to whom God is protector in the age? What wonder is it, most beloved brethren, if such be the prayer which God taught, who by His teaching abridged all our prayer in a saving discourse?

This had already been foretold of old through the prophet Isaiah, when, full of the Holy Spirit, he spoke of the majesty and loving-kindness of God: 'Consummating and abridging the word in righteousness,' he says, 'for the Lord shall make an abridged word in all the earth.' For when the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, had come to all, and gathering both learned and unlearned alike had set forth the precepts of salvation to every sex and age, He made a great compendium of His precepts, that the memory of the learners might not labor in the heavenly discipline, but might quickly learn what was necessary to a simple faith. So when He taught what eternal life is, He embraced the mystery of life with a great and divine brevity, saying:

'This is eternal life, that they may know You the only and true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.' Likewise, when He plucked out from the Law and the Prophets the first and greatest precepts, He said: 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength. This is the first; and the second is like to it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two precepts hang the whole Law and the Prophets.' And again: 'Whatever good things you would that men should do to you, so do you also to them. For this is the Law and the Prophets.'

Not by words only, but also by deeds, has God taught us to pray, Himself praying frequently and beseeching, and by the witness of His own example showing what we ought to do, as it is written: 'And He withdrew into the wildernesses and prayed'; and again: 'He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in the prayer of God.' But if He prayed who was without sin, how much more ought sinners to pray; and if He prayed throughout the whole night, watching continually with unbroken supplications, how much more ought we to keep watch by night in the frequenting of prayer! But the Lord prayed and besought not for Himself—for what should the innocent pray for Himself?—but for our offenses, as He Himself declares when He says to Peter:

'Behold, Satan has desired to harass you as wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not.' And afterward He entreats the Father for all, saying: 'Yet I pray not for these alone, but for those also who shall believe in me through their word, that they all may be one, even as You, Father, are in me, and I in You, that they also may be one in us.' Great is the benignity and likewise the loving-kindness of God for our salvation, that, not content to have redeemed us with His blood, He yet besought more for us. See, moreover, what the desire of Him who besought was: that, as the Father and the Son are one, so we also may abide in that same unity.

So that from this too it may be understood how greatly he sins who tears apart unity and peace, since the Lord prayed for this very thing, wishing of course that His people should live, knowing that discord does not come to the kingdom of God. But when we stand at prayer, most beloved brethren, we ought to watch and to apply ourselves to our prayers with the whole heart. Let every carnal and worldly thought withdraw, nor let the mind dwell upon anything other than that alone which it prays for. For this reason also the priest, before the prayer, with a preface set forth beforehand, prepares the minds of the brethren by saying: 'Lift up your hearts,' so that, while the people respond, 'We have them lifted up unto the Lord,' they may be admonished that they ought to think of nothing other than the Lord.

Let the breast be closed against the adversary and lie open to God alone, nor let it permit the enemy of God to draw near in the time of prayer. For he frequently creeps in and penetrates, and by subtle deceit calls our prayers away from God, so that we have one thing in the heart and another on the lips, whereas with sincere intention it is not the sound of the voice but the mind and the inner sense that ought to pray to the Lord. But what sloth is it to be carried off and seized by foolish and profane thoughts when you are praying to the Lord, as though there were anything you ought rather to think of than that you are speaking with God? How do you ask to be heard by God, when you yourself do not hear yourself? Do you wish the Lord to be mindful of you when you ask, while you yourself are not mindful of yourself?

This is to take no precaution at all against the enemy; this is, when you pray to God, to offend the majesty of God by negligence in prayer; this is to be awake with the eyes and asleep in the heart, whereas a Christian ought, even when he sleeps with the eyes, to be awake in heart, as it is written, speaking in the person of the Church in the Song of Songs: 'I sleep, and my heart waketh.' Wherefore the Apostle anxiously and carefully admonishes, saying: 'Continue in prayer, watching therein,' teaching and showing, of course, that those can obtain from God what they ask whom God sees to be watchful in prayer. But let those who pray come to God not with unfruitful nor with empty prayers. A petition is ineffectual when it is a barren prayer that entreats God.

For since every tree that bears no fruit is cut down and cast into the fire, surely also speech that bears no fruit cannot win the favour of God, since it is fruitful in no work. And therefore the divine Scripture instructs us, saying: 'Prayer is good with fasting and almsgiving.' For He who on the day of judgment is to render a reward for works and for alms, is today also a kindly hearer to one who comes to prayer together with good works. So at last Cornelius the centurion, when he prayed, deserved to be heard. He was one who gave many alms among the people and always prayed to God. To him, as he prayed about the ninth hour, an angel stood by, bearing witness to his work and saying: 'Cornelius, thy prayers and thine alms are ascended for a memorial before God.'

Quickly do those prayers ascend to God which the merits of our work place before God. So also the angel Raphael stood by Tobias, who prayed always and always wrought good works, saying: 'It is honourable to reveal and to confess the works of God. For when thou didst pray, thou and Sara, I offered the memorial of your prayer in the sight of the brightness of God; and when thou didst bury the dead in simplicity, and because thou didst not delay to rise up and to leave thy dinner, but didst go and bury the dead, I was sent to try thee; and again God sent me to heal thee and Sara thy daughter-in-law. For I am Raphael, one of the seven righteous angels who stand and converse before the brightness of God.'

Through Isaiah also the Lord admonishes and teaches, attesting like things: 'Loose,' He says, 'every knot of injustice, undo the bonds of oppressive dealings; let the bruised go in rest, and break in pieces every unjust contract; break thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and homeless into thy house; if thou seest one naked, clothe him, and despise not those of the household of thy own seed. Then shall thy light break forth in due season, and thy garments shall quickly arise, and justice shall go before thee, and the brightness of God shall encompass thee. Then shalt thou cry out, and God shall hear thee; while thou art yet speaking, He shall say, Behold, I am here.'

He promises that He will be present, and says that He will hear and protect those who, loosing the knots of injustice from the heart and doing acts of charity toward the household of God according to His precepts, while they hear what God commands to be done, themselves also deserve to be heard by God. The blessed Apostle Paul, when in the distress of tribulation he was helped by the brethren, said that the works which are done are sacrifices to God. 'I am filled,' he says, 'having received from Epaphroditus the things that were sent from you, an odour of sweetness, a sacrifice accepted and pleasing to God.' For when one who has mercy on the poor lends to God, and he who gives to the least gives to God, he spiritually sacrifices to God odours of sweetness.

In the celebrating of prayers, however, we find that Daniel together with the three young men, strong in faith and victorious in captivity, observed the third, sixth, and ninth hours, evidently as a sacrament of the Trinity which was to be manifested in the last times. For the first hour, advancing to the third, displays the completed number of the Trinity; likewise the fourth, proceeding to the sixth, declares another Trinity; and when from the seventh the ninth is completed, the perfect Trinity is reckoned through the sets of three hours. These intervals of the hours the worshippers of God, marking them out spiritually long ago, served at fixed and appointed times for prayer. And it was afterward made manifest that these were of old sacraments, in that the righteous prayed thus before.

For upon the disciples at the third hour the Holy Spirit descended, who fulfilled the grace of the Lord's promise. Likewise Peter at the sixth hour, going up to the upper part of the house, was instructed by a sign and equally by the voice of God admonishing him, that he should admit all to the grace of salvation, whereas before he doubted concerning the cleansing of the Gentiles. And the Lord, crucified at the sixth hour, washed away our sins with His blood at the ninth, and, that He might redeem and quicken us, then by His passion perfected His victory. But for us, most beloved brethren, besides the hours observed of old, the times and the sacraments of prayer have now increased. For we must pray also in the morning, that the resurrection of the Lord may be celebrated by morning prayer. This the Holy Spirit of old designated in the psalms, saying:

'My King and my God, for unto Thee will I pray; O Lord, in the morning Thou shalt hear my voice; in the morning I will stand before Thee, and will see Thee.' And again the Lord speaks through the prophet: 'In the early dawn they shall watch for Me, saying, Let us go and return unto the Lord our God.' Likewise, as the sun withdraws and the day comes to an end, we must of necessity pray again. For since Christ is the true sun and the true day, when the sun and the day of this world withdraw and we pray and ask that the light may come upon us anew, we entreat the coming of Christ, who will bestow the grace of eternal light. Moreover, the Holy Spirit in the psalms declares that Christ is called the day. 'The stone,' He says, 'which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner.'

'This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and feast therein.' Likewise that He is called the sun, the prophet Malachi testifies, saying: 'But unto you that fear the name of the Lord shall the Sun of righteousness arise, and healing is in His wings.' But if in the holy Scriptures Christ is the true sun and the true day, no hour is excepted for Christians wherein God ought not frequently and always to be adored; so that we who are in Christ, that is, in the sun and in the true day, should press on throughout the whole day in prayers and pray; and when, by the law of the world running on in alternating turns, the returning night succeeds, there can be no harm from the nocturnal darkness to those who pray, since for the sons of light there is day even in the nights.

For when is he without light who has light in his heart? Or when has he no sun and no day for whom Christ is sun and day? Let us, then, who are always in Christ, that is, in the light, not cease from prayer even in the nights. Thus Anna the widow, without intermission entreating and always watching, persevered in winning the favour of God, as it is written in the Gospel: 'She departed not from the temple, serving with fastings and prayers night and day.' Let the Gentiles see to it, who are not yet enlightened, or the Jews, who, having forsaken the light, have remained in darkness; but we, most beloved brethren, who are always in the light of the Lord, who remember and hold fast what we have begun to be now that grace is received, let us count the night for 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 loss of prayers in the nocturnal hours, no slothful and idle waste of prayers. Renewed and reborn spiritually through the indulgence of God, let us imitate what we are to be: destined to have in the kingdom day alone, without the intervention of night, let us so keep watch in the night as in the light; about to pray always and to give thanks to God, let us here also not cease to pray and to give thanks.