To the people one must speak in a popular way; the congregation must be addressed in common speech. What is needful for all must be said in the manner suited to all. Natural, unadorned language is dear to the simple and pleasant to the learned. Let the teacher speak what will profit everyone; therefore today let the skilled grant pardon to unpolished words. There are three things, brethren, three, by which faith stands, devotion is established, and virtue endures: prayer, fasting, and mercy. What prayer knocks for, fasting obtains, and mercy receives. Prayer, mercy, and fasting are these three but one; they give life to one another. For fasting is the soul of prayer, and mercy is the life of fasting. Let no one tear these apart; they cannot be separated. He who has only one of them, or he who does not have them all together, has nothing.
Therefore let him who prays also fast; let him who fasts show mercy. Let him hear the one who asks, if he himself as a petitioner wishes to be heard. He opens to himself God's ear who does not close his own ear to the one entreating him. Let the one who fasts understand fasting; let him feel the hungry man, if he wishes God to feel that he himself is hungry. Let him show mercy who hopes for mercy; let him who seeks compassion practice compassion; let him who wishes it granted to himself grant it. He is a shameless petitioner who asks for himself what he denies to another. Man, be to yourself the very pattern of mercy: just as you wish mercy shown to you, in whatever measure, however swiftly, so swiftly and in such measure and such manner show mercy to others.
Therefore let prayer, mercy, and fasting be one single advocacy for us before God; let these be for us one pleading; let these three-formed things be for us one prayer. These are they, brethren, these are they that hold fast the citadel of heaven, that knock at the secret place of God the Judge, that plead the causes of the human race before the tribunal of Christ, that seek indulgence for the unjust and win pardon for the guilty. He whom these do not attend in the heavenly places cannot stand upon the earth; since these hold the primacy in heaven, they govern the sum of all things upon earth. These rule prosperity and drive away adversity; these extinguish vices and kindle virtues;
these make bodies chaste and hearts pure; these give peace to the members and rest to the minds; these turn human senses into a school of discipline; through these human breasts rise up into the temple of God; these render a man an angel, and confer upon man the honor of the Godhead. Hence it is that by the suffrage of these Moses became as it were a god (Exod. 7), and for military triumphs commands all the elements at his will: he bids the sea depart, the waters harden, the depths dry up (Exod. 14); the heaven to rain down; he gives grain, and compels the winds to scatter flesh abroad (Exod. 16); he lights the night with the splendor of the sun, and tempers the sun with the veil of a cloud (Exod. 13); he strikes the rock, that from the fresh wound it might give cold streams to the thirsting (Num. 20);
he first gives to the earth the law of heaven, writes the rule of life, and fixes the bounds of discipline (Exod. 24, 35). Through these Elijah knows no death, leaves the earth, enters the heavens, dwells among angels, feasts with God: and the guest of earth possesses the mansions on high (2 Kings 2). Through these John becomes an angel in the flesh, a heavenly being on earth, and by hearing, sight, and touch he alone grasps, holds, and embraces the whole Trinity. And we too, brethren, if we wish to be joined to the glory of Moses, the life of Elijah, the virtues of John, and the merits of all the saints, let us persevere in prayer, give ourselves to fasting, and serve mercy.
He who has lived in these, who has been fortified by them, will not fear the darts of sin, the weapons of the devil, the engines of the world, the wedges of vices, the evils of the flesh, the snares of pleasures, the arms of death—being a Christian soldier, a warrior of the Lord. But we who rise up to uncertain things, who lead our days amid ambushes, who endure the changes of hours, the shifting of moments, the slips of words, the perils of deeds—why is it that we are unwilling to enter the church in the morning? Why is it that by the morning prayer we are unwilling to ask protection for the whole day? Why is it that a man is willing to stand attendant all the time upon a man, and not even for an instant willing to attend upon God? This is not ours, brethren, this is not ours; it is the enemy's stealthy encroachment; he prepares to deceive those whom he does not suffer to be fortified by prayers.
Why does he complain of adversities who does not pray for prosperity for himself? Let us hear the voice of God warning us: Pray, that you enter not into temptation (Matt. 26). He goes into temptation who does not go to prayer. Knowing this, the prophet sang: Come, let us adore and fall down before him, and let us weep before the Lord who made us (Ps. 94). Do you suppose that God deigns to have tears poured out before him by one who does not deign to utter words? Let us rise early, let us pray, if only from human fear, if not from divine love; if not invited by good things, then at least compelled by evils. It is the contempt of God that makes evil times for us; the mere course of the seasons does not. What therefore we have lost by contempt, let us seek to regain by fasting;
let us immolate our souls by fastings, since there is nothing more excellent that we can offer to God, as the prophet approves when he says: A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God will not despise (Ps. 50). Man, offer to God your soul, and offer the oblation of fasting, that it may be a pure victim, a holy sacrifice, a living offering, which both remains yours and is given to God. He who does not give this to God will have no excuse, since he who is to give it cannot be without it. But that these things may be accepted, let mercy follow after; fasting does not sprout if it is not watered by mercy; fasting withers by the drought of mercilessness;
what rain is to the earth, that mercy is to fasting. Although fasting cultivates the heart, cleanses the flesh, roots out vices, and sows virtues, yet if it does not give the streams of mercy, the one who fasts gathers no fruit. You who fast, your field fasts when mercy fasts; you who fast, what you have poured out in mercy overflows back to you into the storehouse. Man, therefore, lest by keeping you lose, gather by giving forth; man, by giving to the poor, give to yourself: for what you leave to another, you will not have.