THE FIRST CONFERENCE OF ABBOT ISAAC.
ON PRAYER.
Complete Contents.
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Introduction to the Conference.
WHAT was promised in the second book of the Institutes[500] on continual and unceasing
perseverance in prayer, shall be by the Lord's help fulfilled by the
Conferences of this Elder, whom we will now bring forward; viz., Abbot
Isaac:[501] and when these have been
propounded I think that I shall have satisfied the commands of Pope
Castor of blessed memory, and your wishes, O blessed Pope Leontius and
holy brother Helladius, and the length of the book in its earlier part
may be excused, though, in spite of our endeavour not only to compress
what had to be told into a brief discourse, but also to pass over very
many points in silence, it has been extended to a greater length than
we intended. For having commenced with a full discourse on various
regulations which we have thought it well to curtail for the sake of
brevity, at the close the blessed Isaac spoke these words.
The words of Abbot Isaac on the nature of
prayer.
THE aim of every monk and the perfection of his heart tends to
continual and unbroken perseverance in prayer, and, as far as it is
allowed to human frailty, strives to acquire an immovable tranquillity
of mind and a perpetual purity, for the sake of which we seek
unweariedly and constantly to practise all bodily labours as well as
contrition of spirit. And there is between these two a sort of
reciprocal and inseparable union. For just as the crown of the
building of all virtues is the perfection of prayer, so unless
everything has been united and compacted by this as its crown, it
cannot possibly continue strong and stable. For lasting and continual
calmness in prayer, of which we are speaking, cannot be secured or
consummated without them, so neither can those virtues which lay its
foundations be fully gained without persistence in it. And so we
shall not be able either to treat properly of the effect of prayer, or
in a rapid discourse to penetrate to its main end, which is acquired
by labouring at all virtues, unless first all those things which for
its sake must be either rejected or secured, are singly enumerated and
discussed, and, as the Parable in the gospel teaches,[502] whatever concerns the building of
that spiritual and most lofty tower, is reckoned up and carefully
considered beforehand. But yet these things when prepared will be of
no use nor allow the lofty height of perfection to be properly placed
upon them unless a clearance of all faults be first undertaken, and
the decayed and dead rubbish of the passions be dug up, and the strong
foundations of simplicity and humility be laid on the solid and (so to
speak) living soil of our breast, or rather on that rock of the
gospel,[503] and by being built in
this way this tower of spiritual virtues will rise, and be able to
stand unmoved, and be raised to the utmost heights of heaven in full
assurance of its, stability. For if it rests on such foundations,
then though heavy storms of passions break over it, though mighty
torrents of persecutions beat against it like a battering ram, though
a furious tempest of spiritual foes dash against it and attack it, yet
not only will no ruin overtake it, but the onslaught will not injure
it even in the slightest degree.
How pure and sincere prayer can be gained.
And therefore in order that prayer may be offered up with that
earnestness and purity with which it ought to be, we must by all means
observe these rules. First all anxiety about carnal things must be
entirely got rid of; next we must leave no room for not merely the
care but even the recollection of any business affairs, and in like
manner also must lay aside all backbitings, vain and incessant
chattering, and buffoonery; anger above all and disturbing moroseness
must be entirely destroyed, and the deadly taint of carnal lust and
covetousness be torn up by the roots. And so when these and such like
faults which are also visible to the eyes of men, are entirely removed
and cut off, and when such a purification and cleansing, as we spoke
of, has first taken place, which is brought about by pure simplicity
and innocence, then first there must be laid the secure foundations of
a deep humility, which may be able to support a tower that shall reach
the sky; and next the spiritual structure of the virtues must be built
up upon them, and the soul kept free from all conversation and from
roving thoughts that thus it may by little and little begin to rise to
the contemplation of God and to spiritual insight. For whatever our
mind has been thinking of before the hour of prayer, is sure to occur
to us while we are praying through the activity of the memory.
Wherefore what we want to find ourselves like while we are praying,
that we ought to prepare ourselves to be before the time for prayer.
For the mind in prayer is formed by its previous condition, and when
we are applying ourselves to prayer the images of the same actions and
words and thoughts will dance before our eyes, and make us either
angry, as in our previous condition, or gloomy, or recall our former
lust and business, or make us shake with foolish laughter (which I am
ashamed to speak of) at some silly joke, or smile at some action, or
fly back to our previous conversation. And therefore if we do not
want anything to haunt us while we are praying, we should be careful
before our prayer, to exclude it from the shrine of our heart, that we
may thus fulfill the Apostle's injunction: "Pray without
ceasing;" and: "In every place lifting up holy hands without
wrath or disputing."[504] For
otherwise we shall not be able to carry out that charge unless our
mind, purified from all stains of sin, and given over to virtue as to
its natural good, feed on the continual contemplation of Almighty
God.
Of the lightness of the soul which may be compared
to a wing or feather.
FOR the nature of the soul is not inaptly compared to a very fine
feather or very light wing, which, if it has not been damaged or
affected by being spoilt by any moisture falling on it from without,
is borne aloft almost naturally to the heights of heaven by the
lightness of its nature, and the aid of the slightest breath: but if
it is weighted by any moisture falling upon it and penetrating into
it, it will not only not be carried away by its natural lightness into
any aerial flights but will actually be borne down to the depths of
earth by the weight of the moisture it has received. So also our
soul, if it is not weighted with faults that touch it, and the cares
of this world, or damaged by the moisture of injurious lusts, will be
raised as it were by the natural blessing of its own purity and borne
aloft to the heights by the light breath of spiritual meditation; and
leaving things low and earthly will be transported to those that are
heavenly and invisible. Wherefore we are well warned by the Lord's
command: "Take heed that your hearts be not weighed down by
surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this world."[505] And therefore if we want our
prayers to reach not only the sky, but what is beyond the sky, let us
be careful to reduce our soul, purged from all earthly faults and
purified from every stain, to its natural lightness, that so our
prayer may rise to God unchecked by the weight of any sin.
Of the ways in which our soul is weighed down.
BUT we should notice the ways in which the Lord points out that the
soul is weighed down: for He did not mention adultery, or fornication,
or murder, or blasphemy, or rapine, which everybody knows to be deadly
and damnable, but surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares or
anxieties of this world: which men of this world are so far from
avoiding or considering damnable that actually some who (I am ashamed
to say) call themselves monks entangle themselves in these very
occupations as if they were harmless or useful. And though these
three things, when literally given way to weigh down the soul, and
separate it from God, and bear it down to things earthly, yet it is
very easy to avoid them, especially for us who are separated by so
great a distance from all converse with this world, and who do not on
any occasion have anything to do with those visible cares and
drunkenness and surfeiting. But there is another surfeiting which is
no less dangerous, and a spiritual drunkenness which it is harder to
avoid, and a care and anxiety of this world, which often ensnares us
even after the perfect renunciation of all our goods, and abstinence
from wine and all feastings and even when we are living in
solitude--and of such the prophet says: "Awake, ye that are drunk
but not with wine;"[506] and
another: "Be astonished and wonder and stagger: be drunk and not
with wine: be moved, but not with drunkenness."[507] And of this drunkenness the wine
must consequently be what the prophet calls "the fury of
dragons": and from what root the wine comes you may hear:
"From the vineyard of Sodom," he says, "is their vine,
and their branches from Gomorrha." Would you also know about the
fruit of that vine and the seed of that branch? "Their grape is
a grape of gall, theirs is a cluster of bitterness"[508] for unless we are altogether
cleansed from all faults and abstaining from the surfeit of all
passions, our heart will without drunkenness from wine and excess of
any feasting be weighed down by a drunkenness and surfeiting that is
still more dangerous. For that worldly cares can sometimes fall on us
who mix with no actions of this world, is clearly shown according to
the rule of the Elders, who have laid down that anything which goes
beyond the necessities of daily food, and the unavoidable needs of the
flesh, belongs to worldly cares and anxieties, as for example if, when
a job bringing in a penny would satisfy the needs of our body, we try
to extend it by a longer toil and work in order to get twopence or
threepence; and when a covering of two tunics would be enough for our
use both by night and day, we manage to become the owners of three or
four, or when a hut containing one or two cells would be sufficient,
in the pride of worldly ambition and greatness we build four or five
cells, and these splendidly decorated, and larger than our needs
required, thus showing the passion of worldly lusts whenever we
can.
Of the vision which a certain Elder saw concerning
the restless work of a brother.
AND that this is not done without the prompting of devils we are
taught by the surest proofs, for when one very highly esteemed Elder
was passing by the cell of a certain brother who was suffering from
this mental disease of which we have spoken, as he was restlessly
toiling in his daily occupations in building and repairing what was
unnecessary, he watched him from a distance breaking a very hard stone
with a heavy hammer, and saw a certain Ethiopian standing over him and
together with him striking the blows of the hammer with joined and
clasped hands, and urging him on with fiery incitements to diligence
in the work: and so he stood still for a long while in astonishment at
the force of the fierce demon and the deceitfulness of such an
illusion. For when the brother was worn out and tired and wanted to
rest and put an end to his toil, he was stimulated by the spirit's
prompting and urged on to resume his hammer again and not to cease
from devoting himself to the work which he had begun, so that being
unweariedly supported by his incitements he did not feel the harm that
so great labour was doing him. At last then the old man, disgusted at
such a horrid mystification by a demon, turned aside to the brother's
cell and saluted him, and asked "what work is it, brother, that
you are doing?" and he replied: "We are working at this
awfully hard stone, and we can hardly break it at all."
Whereupon the Elder replied: "You were right in saying
`we can,' for you were not alone, when you were striking it,
but there was another with you whom you did not see, who was standing
over you not so much to help you as urge you on with all his
force." And thus the fact that the disease of worldly vanity has
not got hold of our hearts, will be proved by no mere abstinence from
those affairs which even if we want to engage in, we cannot carry out,
nor by the despising of those matters which if we pursued them would
make us remarkable in the front rank among spiritual persons as well
as among worldly men, but only when we reject with inflexible firmness
of mind whatever ministers to our power and seems to be veiled in a
show of right. And in reality these things which seem trivial and of
no consequence, and which we see to be permitted indifferently by
those who belong to our calling, none the less by their character
affect the soul than those more important things, which according to
their condition usually intoxicate the senses of worldly people and
which do not allow[509] a monk to lay
aside earthly impurities and aspire to God, on whom his attention
should ever be fixed; for in his case even a slight separation from
that highest good must be regarded as present death and most dangerous
destruction. And when the soul has been established in such a
peaceful condition, and has been freed from the meshes of all carnal
desires, and the purpose of the heart has been steadily fixed on that
which is the only highest good, he will then fulfil this Apostolic
precept: "Pray without ceasing;" and: "in every place
lifting up holy hands without wrath and disputing:"[510] for when by this purity (if we can
say so) the thoughts of the soul are engrossed, and are re-fashioned
out of their earthly condition to bear a spiritual and angelic
likeness, whatever it receives, whatever it takes in hand, whatever it
does, the prayer will be perfectly pure and sincere.
A question how it is that it is harder work to
preserve than to originate good thoughts.
GERMANUS: If only we could keep as a lasting possession those
spiritual thoughts in the same way and with the same ease with which
we generally conceive their germs! for when they have been conceived
in our hearts either through the recollection of the Scriptures or by
the memory of some spiritual actions, or by gazing upon heavenly
mysteries, they vanish all too soon and disappear by a sort of
unnoticed flight. And when our soul has discovered some other
occasions for spiritual emotions, different ones again crowd in upon
us, and those which we had grasped are scattered, and lightly fly away
so that the mind retaining no persistency, and keeping of its own
power no firm hand over holy thoughts, must be thought, even when it
does seem to retain them for a while, to have conceived them at random
and not of set purpose. For how can we think that their rise should
be ascribed to our own will, if they do not last and remain with us?
But that we may not owing to the consideration of this question wander
any further from the plan of the discourse we had commenced, or delay
any longer the explanation promised of the nature of prayer, we will
keep this for its own time, and ask to be informed at once of the
character of prayer, especially as the blessed Apostle exhorts us at
no time to cease from it, saying "Pray without ceasing."
And so we want to be taught first of its character, i.e., how prayer
ought always to be offered up, and then how we can secure
this, whatever it is, and practise it without ceasing. For that it
cannot be done by any light purpose of heart both daily experience and
the explanation of your holiness show us, as you have laid it down
that the aim of a monk, and the height of all perfection consist in
the consummation of prayer.
Of the different characters of prayer.
ISAAC: I imagine that all kinds of prayers cannot be grasped without
great purity of heart and soul and the illumination of the Holy
Spirit. For there are as many of them as there can be conditions and
characters produced in one soul or rather in all souls. And so
although we know that owing to our dulness of heart we cannot see all
kinds of prayers, yet we will try to relate them in some order, as far
as our slender experience enables us to succeed. For according to the
degree of the purity to which each soul attains, and the character of
the state in which it is sunk owing to what happens to it, or is by
its own efforts renewing itself, its very prayers will each moment be
altered: and therefore it is quite clear that no one can always offer
up uniform prayers. For every one prays in one way when he is brisk,
in another when he is oppressed with a weight of sadness or despair,
in another when he is invigorated by spiritual achievements, in
another when cast down by the burden of attacks, in another when he is
asking pardon for his sins, in another when he asks to obtain grace or
some virtue or else prays for the destruction of some sin, in another
when he is pricked to the heart by the thought of hell and the fear of
future judgment, in another when he is aglow with the hope and desire
of good things to come, in another when he is taken up with affairs
and dangers, in another when he is in peace and security, in another
when he is enlightened by the revelation of heavenly mysteries, and in
another when he is depressed by a sense of barrenness in virtues and
dryness in feeling.
Of the fourfold nature of prayer.
AND therefore, when we have laid this down with regard to the
character of prayer, although not so fully as the importance of the
subject requires, but as fully as the exigencies of time permit, and
at any rate as our slender abilities admit, and our dulness of heart
enables us,--a still greater difficulty now awaits us; viz., to
expound one by one the different kinds of prayer, which the Apostle
divides in a fourfold manner, when he says as follows: "I exhort
therefore first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions,
thanksgivings be made."[511] And
we cannot possibly doubt that this division was not idly made by the
Apostle. And to begin with we must investigate what is meant by
supplication, by prayer, by intercession, and by thanksgiving. Next
we must inquire whether these four kinds are to be taken in hand by
him who prays all at once, i.e., are they all to be joined together in
every prayer,--or whether they are to be offered up in turns and one
by one, as, for instance, ought at one time supplications, at another
prayers, at another intercessions, and at another thanksgivings to be
offered, or should one man present to God supplications, another
prayers, another intercessions, another thanksgivings, in accordance
with that measure of age, to which each soul is advancing by
earnestness of purpose?
Of the order of the different kinds laid down with
regard to the character of prayer.
AND so to begin with we must consider the actual force of the names
and words, and discuss what is the difference between prayer and
supplication and intercession; then in like manner we must investigate
whether they are to be offered separately or all together; and in the
third place must examine whether the particular order which is thus
arranged by the Apostle's authority has anything further to teach the
hearer, or whether the distinction simply is to be taken, and it
should be considered that they were arranged by him indifferently in
such a way: a thing which seems to me utterly absurd. For one must
not believe that the Holy Spirit uttered anything casually or without
reason through the Apostle. And so we will, as the Lord grants us,
consider them in the same order in which we began.
Of Supplications.
"I EXHORT therefore first of all that supplications be
made." Supplication is an imploring or petition concerning sins,
in which one who is sorry for his present or past deeds asks for
pardon.
Of Prayer.
PRAYERS are those by which we offer or vow something to God, what the
Greeks call euch, i.e., a vow. For where we
read in Greek `ias eucas mou tw Kuriw apodwsw,
in Latin we read: "I will pay my vows unto the Lord;"[512] where according to the exact force
of the words it may be thus represented: "I will pay my prayers
unto the Lord." And this which we find in Ecclesiastes: "If
thou vowest a vow unto the Lord do not delay to pay it," is
written in Greek likewise: ean euxe euchn tw
Kuriw, i.e., "If thou prayest a prayer unto the
Lord, do not delay to pay it,"[513] which will be fulfilled in this way
by each one of us. We pray, when we renounce this world and promise
that being dead to all worldly actions and the life of this world we
will serve the Lord with full purpose of heart. We pray when we
promise that despising secular honours and scorning earthly riches we
will cleave to the Lord in all sorrow of heart and humility of spirit.
We pray when we promise that we will ever maintain the most perfect
purity of body and steadfast patience, or when we vow that we will
utterly root out of our heart the roots of anger or of sorrow that
worketh death. And if, enervated by sloth and returning to our former
sins we fail to do this we shall be guilty as regards our prayers and
vows, and these words will apply to us: "It is better not to vow,
than to vow and not to pay," which can be rendered in accordance
with the Greek: "It is better for thee not to pray than to pray
and not to pay."[514]
Of Intercession.
IN the third place stand intercessions, which we are wont to offer up
for others also, while we are filled with fervour of spirit, making
request either for those dear to us or for the peace of the whole
world, and to use the Apostle's own phrase, we pray "for all men,
for kings and all that are in authority."[515]
Of Thanksgiving.
THEN in the fourth place there stand thanksgivings which the mind in
ineffable transports offers up to God, either when it recalls God's
past benefits or when it contemplates His present ones, or when it
looks forward to those great ones in the future which God has prepared
for them that love Him. And with this purpose too sometimes we are
wont to pour forth richer prayers, while, as we gaze with pure eyes on
those rewards of the saints which are laid up in store hereafter, our
spirit is stimulated to offer up unspeakable thanks to God with
boundless joy.
Whether these four kinds of prayers are necessary
for everyone to offer all at once or separately and in turns.
AND of these four kinds, although sometimes occasions arise for richer
and fuller prayers (for from the class of supplications which arises
from sorrow for sin, and from the kind of prayer which flows from
confidence in our offerings and the performance of our vows in
accordance with a pure conscience, and from the intercession which
proceeds from fervour of love, and from the thanksgiving which is born
of the consideration of God's blessings and His greatness and
goodness, we know that oftentimes there proceed most fervent and
ardent prayers so that it is clear that all these kinds of prayer of
which we have spoken are found to be useful and needful for all men,
so that in one and the same man his changing feelings will give
utterance to pure and fervent petitions now of supplications, now of
prayers, now of intercessions) yet the first seems to belong more
especially to beginners, who are still troubled by the stings and
recollection of their sins; the second to those who have already
attained some loftiness of mind in their spiritual progress and the
quest of virtue; the third to those who fulfil the completion of their
vows by their works, and are so stimulated to intercede for others
also through the consideration of their weakness, and the earnestness
of their love; the fourth to those who have already torn from their
hearts the guilty thorns of conscience, and thus being now free from
care can contemplate with a pure mind the beneficence of God and His
compassions, which He has either granted in the past, or is giving in
the present, or preparing for the future, and thus are borne onward
with fervent hearts to that ardent prayer which cannot be embraced or
expressed by the mouth of men. Sometimes however the mind which is
advancing to that perfect state of purity and which is already
beginning to be established in it, will take in all these at one and
the same time, and like some incomprehensible and all-devouring flame,
dart through them all and offer up to God inexpressible prayers of the
purest force, which the Spirit Itself, intervening with groanings that
cannot be uttered, while we ourselves understand not, pours forth to
God, grasping at that hour and ineffably pouring forth in its
supplications things so great that they cannot be uttered with the
mouth nor even at any other time be recollected by the mind. And
thence it comes that in whatever degree any one stands, he is found
sometimes to offer up pure and devout prayers; as even in that first
and lowly station which has to do with the recollection of future
judgment, he who still remains under the punishment of terror and the
fear of judgment is so smitten with sorrow for the time being that he
is filled with no less keenness of spirit from the richness of his
supplications than he who through the purity of his heart gazes on and
considers the blessings of God and is overcome with ineffable joy and
delight. For, as the Lord Himself says, he begins to love the more,
who knows that he has been forgiven the more.[516]
Of the kinds of prayer to which we ought to direct
ourselves.
YET we ought by advancing in life and attaining to virtue to aim
rather at those kinds of prayer which are poured forth either from the
contemplation of the good things to come or from fervour of love, or
which at least, to speak more humbly and in accordance with the
measure of beginners, arise for the acquirement of some virtue or the
extinction of some fault. For otherwise we shall not possibly attain
to those sublimer kinds of supplication of which we spoke, unless our
mind has been little by little and by degrees raised through the
regular course of those intercessions.
How the four kinds of supplication were originated
by the Lord.
THESE four kinds of supplication the Lord Himself by His own example
vouchsafed to originate for us, so that in this too He might fulfil
that which was said of Him: "which Jesus began both to do and to
teach."[517] For He made use of
the class of supplication when He said: "Father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from me;" or this which is chanted
in His Person in the Psalm: "My God, My God, look upon Me, why
hast Thou forsaken me,"[518] and
others like it. It is prayer where He says: "I have
magnified Thee upon the earth, I have finished the work which Thou
gavest Me to do," and this: "And for their sakes I sanctify
Myself that they also may be sanctified in the truth."[519] It is intercession when He
says: "Father, those Whom Thou hast given me, I will that they
also may be with Me that they may see My glory which Thou hast given
Me;" or at any rate when He says: "Father, forgive them for
they know not what they do."[520]
It is thanksgiving when He says: "I confess to Thee,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so,
Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight:" or at least when He
says: "Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me. But I knew
that Thou hearest Me always."[521] But though our Lord made a
distinction between these four kinds of prayers as to be offered
separately and one by one according to the scheme which we know of,
yet that they can all be embraced in a perfect prayer at one and the
same time He showed by His own example in that prayer which at the
close of S. John's gospel we read that He offered up with such
fulness. From the words of which (as it is too long to repeat it all)
the careful inquirer can discover by the order of the passage that
this is so. And the Apostle also in his Epistle to the Philippians
has expressed the same meaning, by putting these four kinds of prayers
in a slightly different order, and has shown that they ought sometimes
to be offered together in the fervour of a single prayer, saying as
follows: "But in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."[522] And by this he wanted us especially
to understand that in prayer and supplication thanksgiving ought to be
mingled with our requests.
Of the Lord's Prayer.
AND so there follows after these different kinds of supplication a
still more sublime and exalted condition which is brought about by the
contemplation of God alone and by fervent love, by which the mind,
transporting and flinging itself into love for Him, addresses God most
familiarly as its own Father with a piety of its own. And that we
ought earnestly to seek after this condition the formula of the Lord's
prayer teaches us, saying "Our Father." When then we
confess with our own mouths that the God and Lord of the universe is
our Father, we profess forthwith that we have been called from our
condition as slaves to the adoption of sons, adding next "Which
art in heaven," that, by shunning with the utmost horror all
lingering in this present life, which we pass upon this earth as a
pilgrimage, and what separates us by a great distance from our Father,
we may the rather hasten with all eagerness to that country where we
confess that our Father dwells, and may not allow anything of this
kind, which would make us unworthy of this our profession and the
dignity of an adoption of this kind, and so deprive us as a disgrace
to our Father's inheritance, and make us incur the wrath of His
justice and severity. To which state and condition of sonship when we
have advanced, we shall forthwith be inflamed with the piety which
belongs to good sons, so that we shall bend all our energies to the
advance not of our own profit, but of our Father's glory, saying to
Him: "Hallowed be Thy name," testifying that our desire and
our joy is His glory, becoming imitators of Him who said: "He who
speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory. But He who seeks the
glory of Him who sent Him, the same is true and there is no
unrighteousness in Him."[523]
Finally the chosen vessel being filled with this feeling wished that
he could be anathema from Christ[524]
if only the people belonging to Him might be increased and multiplied,
and the salvation of the whole nation of Israel accrue to the glory of
His Father; for with all assurance could he wish to die for Christ as
he knew that no one perished for life. And again he says: "We
rejoice when we are weak but ye are strong."[525] And what wonder if the chosen
vessel wished to be anathema from Christ for the sake of Christ's
glory and the conversion of His own brethren and the privilege of the
nation, when the prophet Micah wished that he might be a liar and a
stranger to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, if only the people of
the Jews might escape those plagues and the going forth into captivity
which he had announced in his prophecy, saying: "Would that I
were not a man that hath the Spirit, and that I rather spoke a
lie;"[526]--to pass over that
wish of the Lawgiver, who did not refuse to die together with his
brethren who were doomed to death, saying: "I beseech Thee, O
Lord; this people hath sinned a heinous sin; either forgive them this
trespass, or if Thou do not, blot me out of Thy book which Thou hast
written."[527] But where it is
said "Hallowed be Thy name," it may also be very fairly
taken in this way: "The hallowing of God is our perfection."
And so when we say to Him" Hallowed be Thy name" we say in
other words, make us, O Father, such that we maybe able both to
understand and take in what the hallowing of Thee is, or at any rate
that Thou mayest be seen to be hallowed in our spiritual converse.
And this is effectually fulfilled in our case when "men see our
good works, and glorify our Father Which is in heaven."[528]
Of the clause "Thy kingdom come."
THE second petition of the pure heart desires that the kingdom of its
Father may come at once; viz., either that whereby Christ reigns day
by day in the saints (which comes to pass when the devil's rule is
cast out of our hearts by the destruction of foul sins, and God begins
to hold sway over us by the sweet odour of virtues, and, fornication
being overcome, charity reigns in our hearts together with
tranquillity, when rage is conquered; and humility, when pride is
trampled under foot) or else that which is promised in due time to all
who are perfect, and to all the sons of God, when it will be said to
them by Christ: "Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;"[529] (as the heart) with fixed and
steadfast gaze, so to speak, yearns and longs for it and says to Him
"Thy kingdom come." For it knows by the witness of its own
conscience that when He shall appear, it will presently share His lot.
For no guilty person would dare either to say or to wish for this, for
no one would want to face the tribunal of the Judge, who knew that at
His coming he would forthwith receive not the prize or reward of his
merits but only punishment.
Of the clause "Thy will be done."
THE third petition is that of sons: "Thy will be done as in
heaven so on earth." There can now be no grander prayer than to
wish that earthly things may be made equal with things heavenly: for
what else is it to say "Thy will be done as in heaven so on
earth," than to ask that men may be like angels and that as God's
will is ever fulfilled by them in heaven, so also all those who are on
earth may do not their own but His will? This too no one could say
from the heart but only one who believed that God disposes for our
good all things which are seen, whether fortunate or unfortunate, and
that He is more careful and provident for our good and salvation than
we ourselves are for ourselves. Or at any rate it may be taken in
this way: The will of God is the salvation of all men, according to
these words of the blessed Paul: "Who willeth all men to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth."[530] Of which will also the prophet
Isaiah says in the Person of God the Father: "And all Thy will
shall be done."[531] When we say
then "Thy will be done as in heaven so on earth," we pray in
other words for this; viz., that as those who are in heaven, so also
may all those who dwell on earth be saved, O Father, by the knowledge
of Thee.
Of our supersubstantial or daily bread.
NEXT: "Give us this day our bread which is
epiousion," i.e.,
"supersubstantial," which another Evangelist calls
"daily."[532] The former
indicates the quality of its nobility and substance, in virtue of
which it is above all substances and the loftiness of its grandeur and
holiness exceeds all creatures, while the latter intimates the purpose
of its use and value. For where it says "daily" it shows
that without it we cannot live a spiritual life for a single day.
Where it says "today" it shows that it must be received
daily and that yesterday's supply of it is not enough, but at it must
be given to us today also in like manner. And our daily need of it
suggests to us that we ought at all times to offer up this prayer,
because there is no day on which we have no need to strengthen the
heart of our inner man, by eating and receiving it, although the
expression used, "today" may be taken to apply to his
present life, i.e., while we are living in this world supply us with
this bread. For we know that it will be given to those who deserve it
by Thee hereafter, but we ask that Thou wouldest grant it to us today,
because unless it has been vouchsafed to a man to receive it in this
life he will never be partaker of it in that.
Of the clause: "Forgive us our debts,
etc."
"AND forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors."
O unspeakable mercy of God, which has not only given us a form of
prayer and taught us a system of life acceptable to Him, and by the
requirements of the form given, in which He charged us always to pray,
has torn up the roots of both anger and sorrow, but also gives to
those who pray an opportunity and reveals to them a way by which they
may move a merciful and kindly judgment of God to be pronounced over
them and which somehow gives us a power by which we can moderate the
sentence of our Judge, drawing Him to forgive our offences by the
example of our forgiveness: when we say to Him: "Forgive us as we
also forgive." And so without anxiety and in confidence from
this prayer a man may ask for pardon of his own offences, if he has
been forgiving towards his own debtors, and not towards those of his
Lord. For some of us, which is very bad, are inclined to show
ourselves calm and most merciful in regard to those things which are
done to God's detriment, however great the crimes may be, but to be
found most hard and inexorable exactors of debts to ourselves even in
the case of the most trifling wrongs. Whoever then does not from his
heart forgive his brother who has offended him, by this prayer calls
down upon himself not forgiveness but condemnation, and by his own
profession asks that he himself may be judged more severely, saying:
Forgive me as I also have forgiven. And if he is repaid according to
his own request, what else will follow but that he will be punished
after his own example with implacable wrath and a sentence that cannot
be remitted? And so if we want to be judged mercifully, we ought also
to be merciful towards those who have sinned against us. For only so
much will be remitted to us, as we have remitted to those who have
injured us however spitefully. And some dreading this, when this
prayer is chanted by all the people in church, silently omit this
clause, for fear lest they may seem by their own utterance to bind
themselves rather than to excuse themselves, as they do not understand
that it is in vain that they try to offer these quibbles to the Judge
of all men, who has willed to show us beforehand how He will judge His
suppliants. For as He does not wish to be found harsh and inexorable
towards them, He has marked out the manner of His judgment, that just
as we desire to be judged by Him, so we should also judge our
brethren, if they have wronged us in anything, for "he shall have
judgment without mercy who hath shown no mercy."[533]
Of the clause: "Lead us not into
temptation."
NEXT there follows: "And lead us not into temptation," on
which there arises no unimportant question, for if we pray that we may
not be suffered to be tempted, how then will our power of endurance be
proved, according to this text: "Every one who is not tempted is
not proved;"[534] and again:
"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation"?[535] The clause then, "Lead us not
into temptation," does not mean this; viz., do not permit us ever
to be tempted, but do not permit us when we fall into temptation to be
overcome. For Job was tempted, but was not led into temptation. For
he did not ascribe folly to God nor blasphemy, nor with impious mouth
did he yield to that wish of the tempter toward which he was drawn.
Abraham was tempted, Joseph was tempted, but neither of them was led
into temptation for neither of them yielded his consent to the
tempter. Next there follows: "But deliver us from evil,"
i.e., do not suffer us to be tempted by the devil above that we are
able, but "make with the temptation a way also of escape that we
may be able to bear it."[536]
How we ought not to ask for other things, except
only those which are contained in the limits of the Lord's
Prayer.
YOU see then what is the method and form of prayer proposed to us by
the Judge Himself, who is to be prayed to by it, a form in which there
is contained no petition for riches, no thought of honours, no request
for power and might, no mention of bodily health and of temporal life.
For He who is the Author of Eternity would have men ask of Him nothing
uncertain, nothing paltry, and nothing temporal. And so a man will
offer the greatest insult to His Majesty and Bounty, if he leaves on
one side these eternal petitions and chooses rather to ask of Him
something transitory and uncertain; and will also incur the
indignation rather than the propitiation of the Judge by the pettiness
of his prayer.
Of the character of the sublimer prayer.
THIS prayer then though it seems to contain all the fulness of
perfection, as being what was originated and appointed by the Lord's
own authority, yet lifts those to whom it belongs to that still higher
condition of which we spoke above, and carries them on by a loftier
stage to that ardent prayer which is known and tried by but very few,
and which to speak more truly is ineffable; which transcends all human
thoughts, and is distinguished, I will not say by any sound of the
voice, but by no movement of the tongue, or utterance of words, but
which the mind enlightened by the infusion of that heavenly light
describes in no human and confined language, but pours forth richly as
from copious fountain in an accumulation of thoughts, and ineffably
utters to God, expressing in the shortest possible space of time such
great things that the mind when it returns to its usual condition
cannot easily utter or relate. And this condition our Lord also
similarly prefigured by the form of those supplications which, when he
retired alone in the mountain He is said to have poured forth in
silence, and when being in an agony of prayer He shed forth even drops
of blood, as an example of a purpose which it is hard to imitate.
Of the different causes of conviction.
BUT who is able, with whatever experience he may be endowed, to give a
sufficient account of the varieties and reasons and grounds of
conviction, by which the mind is inflamed and set on fire and incited
to pure and most fervent prayers? And of these we will now by way of
specimen set forth a few, as far as we can by God's enlightenment
recollect them. For sometimes a verse of any one of the Psalms gives
us an occasion of ardent prayer while we are singing. Sometimes the
harmonious modulation of a brother's voice stirs up the minds of
dullards to intense supplication. We know also that the enunciation
and the reverence of the chanter adds greatly to the fervour of those
who stand by. Moreover the exhortation of a perfect man, and a
spiritual conference has often raised the affections of those present
to the richest prayer. We know too that by the death of a brother or
some one dear to us, we are no less carried away to full conviction.
The recollection also of our coldness and carelessness has sometimes
aroused in us a healthful fervour of spirit. And in this way no one
can doubt that numberless opportunities are not wanting, by which
through God's grace the coldness and sleepiness of our minds can be
shaken off.
Of the different sorts of conviction.
BUT how and in what way those very convictions are produced from the
inmost recesses of the soul it is no less difficult to trace out. For
often through some inexpressible delight and keenness of spirit the
fruit of a most salutary conviction arises so that it actually breaks
forth into shouts owing to the greatness of its incontrollable joy;
and the delight of the heart and greatness of exultation makes itself
heard even in the cell of a neighbour. But sometimes the mind hides
itself in complete silence within the secrets of a profound quiet, so
that the amazement of a sudden illumination chokes all sounds of words
and the overawed spirit either keeps all its feelings to itself or
loses[537] them and pours forth its
desires to God with groanings that cannot be uttered. But sometimes
it is filled with such overwhelming conviction and grief that it
cannot express it except by floods of tears.
A question about the fact that a plentiful supply
of tears is not in our own power.
GERMANUS: My own poor self indeed is not altogether ignorant of this
feeling of conviction. For often when tears arise at the recollection
of my faults, I have been by the Lord's visitation so refreshed by
this ineffable joy which you describe that the greatness of the joy
has assured me that I ought not to despair of their forgiveness. Than
which state of mind I think there is nothing more sublime if only it
could be recalled at our own will. For sometimes when I am desirous to
stir myself up with all my power to the same conviction and tears, and
place before my eyes all my faults and sins, I am unable to bring back
that copiousness of tears, and so my eyes are dry and hard like some
hardest flint, so that not a single tear trickles from them. And so in
proportion as I congratulate myself on that copiousness of tears, just
so do I mourn that I cannot bring it back again whenever I wish.
The answer on the varieties of conviction which
spring from tears.
ISAAC: Not every kind of shedding of tears is produced by one feeling
or one virtue. For in one way does that weeping originate which is
caused by the pricks of our sins smiting our heart, of which we read:
"I have laboured in my groanings, every night I will wash my bed;
I will water my couch with my tears."[538] And again: "Let tears run down
like a torrent day and night: give thyself no rest, and let not the
apple of thine eye cease."[539]
In another, that which arises from the contemplation of eternal good
things and the desire of that future glory, owing to which even richer
well-springs of tears burst forth from uncontrollable delights and
boundless exultation, while our soul is athirst for the mighty Living
God, saying, "When shall I come and appear before the presence of
God? My tears have been my meat day and night,"[540] declaring with daily crying and
lamentation: "Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged;"
and: "Too long hath my soul been a sojourner."[541] In another way do the tears flow
forth, which without any conscience of deadly sin, yet still proceed
from the fear of hell and the recollection of that terrible judgment,
with the terror of which the prophet was smitten and prayed to God,
saying: "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy
sight shall no man living be justified."[542] There is too another kind of tears,
which are caused not by knowledge of one's self but by the hardness
and sins of others; whereby Samuel is described as having wept for
Saul, and both the Lord in the gospel and Jeremiah in former days for
the city of Jerusalem, the latter thus saying: "Oh, that my head
were water and mine eyes a fountain of tears! And I will weep day and
night for the slain of the daughter of my people."[543] Or also such as were those tears of
which we hear in the hundred and first Psalm: "For I have eaten
ashes for my bread, and mingled my cup with weeping."[544] And these were certainty not caused
by the same feeling as those which arise in the sixth Psalm from the
person of the penitent, but were due to the anxieties of this life and
its distresses and losses, by which the righteous who are living in
this world are oppressed. And this is clearly shown not only by the
words of the Psalm itself, but also by its title, which runs as
follows in the character of that poor person of whom it is said in the
gospel that "blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven:"[545] "A
prayer of the poor when he was in distress and poured forth his prayer
to God."[546]
How tears ought not to be squeezed out, when they
do not flow spontaneously.
FROM these tears those are vastly different which are squeezed out
from dry eyes while the heart is hard: and although we cannot believe
that these are altogether fruitless (for the attempt to shed them is
made with a good intention, especially by those who have not yet been
able to attain to perfect knowledge or to be thoroughly cleansed from
the stains of past or present sins), yet certainly the flow of tears
ought not to be thus forced out by those who have already advanced to
the love of virtue, nor should the weeping of the outward man be with
great labour attempted, as even if it is produced it will never attain
the rich copiousness of spontaneous tears. For it will rather cast
down the soul of the suppliant by his endeavours, and humiliate him,
and plunge him in human affairs and draw him away from the celestial
heights, wherein the awed mind of one who prays should be steadfastly
fixed, and will force it to relax its hold on its prayers and grow
sick from barren and forced tears.
The opinion of Abbot Antony on the condition of
prayer.
AND that you may see the character of true prayer I will give you not
my own opinion but that of the blessed Antony: whom we have known
sometimes to have been so persistent in prayer that often as he was
praying in a transport of mind, when the sunrise began to appear, we
have heard him in the fervour of his spirit declaiming: Why do you
hinder me, O sun, who art arising for this very purpose; viz., to
withdraw me from the brightness of this true light? And his also is
this heavenly and more than human utterance on the end of prayer: That
is not, said he, a perfect prayer, wherein a monk understands himself
and the words which he prays. And if we too, as far as our slender
ability allows, may venture to add anything to this splendid
utterance, we will bring forward the marks of prayer which are heard
from the Lord, as far as we have tried them.
Of the proof of prayer being heard.
WHEN, while we are praying, no hesitation intervenes and breaks down
the confidence of our petition by a sort of despair, but we feel that
by pouring forth our prayer we have obtained what we are asking for,
we have no doubt that our prayers have effectually reached God. For
so far will one be heard and obtain an answer, as he believes that he
is regarded by God, and that God can grant it. For this saying of our
Lord cannot be retracted: "Whatsoever ye ask when ye pray,
believe that you shall receive, and they shall come to you."[547]
An objection that the confidence of being thus
heard as described belongs only to saints.
GERMANUS: We certainly believe that this confidence of being heard
flows from purity of conscience, but for us, whose heart is still
smitten by the pricks of sins, how can we have it, as we have no
merits to plead for us, whereby we might confidently presume that our
prayers would be heard?
Answer on the different reasons for prayer being
heard.
ISAAC: That there are different reasons for prayer being heard in
accordance with the varied and changing condition of souls the words
of the gospels and of the prophets teach us. For you have the fruits
of an answer pointed out by our Lord's words in the case of the
agreement of two persons; as it is said: "If two of you shall
agree upon earth touching anything for which they shall ask, it shall
be done for them of my Father which is in heaven."[548] You have another in the fulness of
faith, which is compared to a grain of mustard-seed. "For,"
He says, "if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall
say unto this mountain: Be thou removed, and it shall be removed; and
nothing shall be impossible to you."[549] You have it in continuance in
prayer, which the Lord's words call, by reason of unwearied
perseverance in petitioning, importunity: "For, verily, I say
unto you that if not because of his friendship, yet because of his
importunity he will rise and give him as much as he needs."[550] You have it in the fruits of
almsgiving: "Shut up alms in the heart of the poor and it shall
pray for thee in the time of tribulation."[551] You have it in the purifying of
life and in works of mercy, as it is said: "Loose the bands of
wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress;" and after a few words
in which the barrenness of an unfruitful fast is rebuked,
"then," he says, "thou shall call and the Lord shall
hear thee; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here am I."[552] Sometimes also excess of trouble
causes it to be heard, as it is said: "When I was in trouble I
called unto the Lord, and He heard me;"[553] and again: "Afflict not the
stranger for if he crieth unto Me, I will hear him, for I am
merciful."[554] You see then in
how many ways the gift of an answer may be obtained, so that no one
need be crushed by the despair of his conscience for securing those
things which are salutary and eternal. For if in contemplating our
wretchedness I admit that we are utterly destitute of all those
virtues which we mentioned above, and that we have neither that
laudable agreement of two persons, nor that faith which is compared to
a grain of mustard seed, nor those works of piety which the prophet
describes, surely we cannot be without that importunity which He
supplies to all who desire it, owing to which alone the Lord promises
that He will give whatever He has been prayed to give. And therefore
we ought without unbelieving hesitation to persevere, and not to have
the least doubt that by continuing in them we shall obtain all those
things which we have asked according to the mind of God. For the
Lord, in His desire to grant what is heavenly and eternal, urges us to
constrain Him as it were by our importunity, as He not only does not
despise or reject the importunate, but actually welcomes and praises
them, and most graciously promises to grant whatever they have
perseveringly hoped for; saying, "Ask and ye shall receive: seek
and ye shall find: knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every
one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him
that knocketh it shall be opened;"[555] and again: "All things
whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing ye shall receive, and
nothing shall be impossible to you."[556] And therefore even if all the
grounds for being heard which we have mentioned are altogether
wanting, at any rate the earnestness of importunity may animate us, as
this is placed in the power of any one who wills without the
difficulties of any merits or labours. But let not any suppliant
doubt that he certainly will not be heard, so long as he
doubts whether he is heard. But that this also shall be sought from
the Lord unweariedly, we are taught by the example of the blessed
Daniel, as, though he was heard from the first day on which he began
to pray, he only obtained the result of his petition after one and
twenty days.[557] Wherefore we also
ought not to grow slack in the earnestness of the prayers we have
begun, if we fancy that the answer comes but slowly, for fear lest
perhaps the gift of the answer be in God's providence delayed, or the
angel, who was to bring the Divine blessing to us, may when he comes
forth from the Presence of the Almighty be hindered by the resistance
of the devil, as it is certain that he cannot transmit and bring to us
the desired boon, if he finds that we slack off from the earnestness
of the petition made. And this would certainly have happened to the
above mentioned prophet unless he had with incomparable steadfastness
prolonged and persevered in his prayers until the twenty-first day.
Let us then not be at all cast down by despair from the confidence of
this faith of ours, even when we fancy that we are far from having
obtained what we prayed for, and let us not have any doubts about the
Lord's promise where He says: "All things, whatsoever ye shall
ask in prayer believing, ye shall receive."[558] For it is well for us to consider
this saying of the blessed Evangelist John, by which the ambiguity of
this question is clearly solved: "This is," he says,
"the confidence which we have in Him, that whatsoever we ask
according to His will, He heareth us."[559] He bids us then have a full and
undoubting confidence of the answer only in those things which are not
for our own advantage or for temporal comforts, but are in conformity
to the Lord's will. And we are also taught to put this into our
prayers by the Lord's Prayer, where we say "Thy will be
done,"--Thine not ours. For if we also remember these
words of the Apostle that "we know not what to pray for as we
ought"[560] we shall see that we
sometimes ask for things opposed to our salvation and that we are most
providentially refused our requests by Him who sees what is good for
us with greater right and truth than we can. And it is clear that
this also happened to the teacher of the Gentiles when he prayed that
the messenger of Satan who had been for his good allowed by the Lord's
will to buffet him, might be removed, saying: "For which I
besought the Lord thrice that he might depart from me. And He said
unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for strength is made perfect
in weakness."[561] And this
feeling even our Lord expressed when He prayed in the character[562] of man which He had taken, that He
might give us a form of prayer as other things also by His example;
saying thus: "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from
me: nevertheless not as I will but as Thou wilt,"[563] though certainly His will was not
discordant with His Father's will, "For He had come to save what
was lost and to give His life a ransom for many;"[564] as He Himself says: "No man
taketh my life from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to
lay it down and I have power to take it again."[565] In which character there is in the
thirty-ninth Psalm the following sung by the blessed David, of the
Unity of will which He ever maintained with the Father: "To do
Thy will: O My God, I am willing."[566] For even if we read of the Father:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son,"[567] we find none the less
of the Son: "Who gave Himself for our sins."[568] And as it is said of the One:
"Who spared not His own Son, but gave Him for all of us,"[569] so it is written of the other:
"He was offered because He Himself willed it."[570] And it is shown that the will of
the Father and of the Son is in all things one, so that even in the
actual mystery of the Lord's resurrection we are taught that there was
no discord of operation. For just as the blessed Apostle declares
that the Father brought about the resurrection of His body, saying:
"And God the Father, who raised Him from the dead,"[571] so also the Son testifies that He
Himself will raise again the Temple of His body, saying: "Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again."[572] And therefore we being instructed
by all these examples of our Lord which have been enumerated ought to
end our supplications also with the same prayer, and always to subjoin
this clause to all our petitions: "Nevertheless not as I will,
but as Thou wilt."[573] But it
is clear enough that one who does not[574] pray with attention of mind cannot
observe that threefold reverence[575]
which is usually practised in the assemblies of the brethren at the
close of service.
Of prayer to be offered within the chamber and with
the door shut.
BEFORE all things however we ought most carefully to observe the
Evangelic precept, which tells us to enter into our chamber and shut
the door and pray to our Father, which may be fulfilled by us as
follows: We pray within our chamber, when removing our hearts inwardly
from the din of all thoughts and anxieties, we disclose our prayers in
secret and in closest intercourse to the Lord. We pray with closed
doors when with closed lips and complete silence we pray to the
searcher not of words but of hearts. We pray in secret when from the
heart and fervent mind we disclose our petitions to God alone, so that
no hostile powers are even able to discover the character of our
petition. Wherefore we should pray in complete silence, not only to
avoid distracting the brethren standing near by our whispers or louder
utterances, and disturbing the thoughts of those who are praying, but
also that the purport of our petition may be concealed from our
enemies who are especially on the watch against us while we are
praying. For so we shall fulfil this injunction: "Keep the doors
of thy mouth from her who sleepeth in thy bosom."[576]
Of the value of short and silent prayer.
WHEREFORE we ought to pray often but briefly, lest if we are long
about it our crafty foe may succeed in implanting something in our
heart. For that is the true sacrifice, as "the sacrifice of God
is a broken spirit." This is the salutary offering, these are
pure drink offerings, that is the "sacrifice of
righteousness," the "sacrifice of praise," these are
true and fat victims, "holocausts full of marrow," which are
offered by contrite and humble hearts, and which those who practise
this control and fervour of spirit, of which we have spoken, with
effectual power can sing: "Let my prayer be set forth in Thy
sight as the incense: let the lifting up of my hands be an evening
sacrifice."[577] But the
approach of the right hour and of night warns us that we ought with
fitting devotion to do this very thing, of which, as our slender
ability allowed, we seem to have propounded a great deal, and to have
prolonged our conference considerably, though we believe that we have
discoursed very little when the magnificence and difficulty of the
subject are taken into account.
With these words of the holy Isaac we were dazzled rather than
satisfied, and after evening service had been held, rested our limbs
for a short time, and intending at the first dawn again to return
under promise of a fuller discussion departed, rejoicing over the
acquisition of these precepts as well as over the assurance of his
promises. Since we felt that though the excellence of prayer had been
shown to us, still we had not yet understood from his discourse its
nature, and the power by which continuance in it might be gained and
kept.
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