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De Oratione

XXIX.

[1] Quid enim orationi de spiritu et ueritate uenienti negauit Deus qui eam exigit? Legimus et audimus et credimus quanta documenta efficaciae eius. Vetus quidem oratio et ab ignibus et a bestiis et ab inedia liberabat et tamen non a Christo acceperat formam. Ceterum quanto amplius oratur oratio Christiana! Non roris angelum in mediis ignibus sistit, nec ora leonibus obstruit, nec esurientibus rusticorum prandium transfert, nullum sensum passionis delegata gratia auertit, sed patientes et sentientes et dolentes sufferentia instruit, uirtute ampliat gratiam, ut sciat fides quid a Domino consequatur, intelligens quid pro Dei nomine patiatur.

[2] Sed et retro oratio plagas irrogabat, fundebat hostium exercitus, imbrium utilia prohibebat. Nunc uero oratio iustitiae omnem iram Dei auertit, pro inimicis excubat, pro persequentibus supplicat. Mirum si aquas coelestes extorquere nouit, quae potuit et ignes impetrare? Sola est oratio, quae Deum uincit; sed Christus eam nihil mali nouit operari, omnem illi uirtutem de bono contulit. Itaque nihil nouit nisi defunctorum animas de ipso mortis itinere uocare, debiles reformare, aegros remediare, daemoniacos expiare, claustra carceris aperire, uincula innocentium soluere. Eadem diluit delicta, tentationes repellit, persecutiones extinguit, pusillanimos consolatur, magnanimos oblectat, peregrinantes deducit, fluctus mitigat, latrones obstupefacit, alit pauperes, regit diuites, lapsos erigit, cadentes suspendit, stantes continet.

[3] Oratio murus est fidei, arma et tela nostra aduersus hostem qui nos undique obseruat. Itaque nunquam inermes incedamus. Die stationis, nocte uigiliae meminerimus. Sub armis orationis signum nostri imperatoris custodiamus, tubam angeli exspectemus orantes.

[4] Orant etiam angeli omnes, orat omnis creatura, orant pecudes et ferae et genua declinant et egredientes de stabulis ac speluncis, ad caelum non otiosi ore suspiciunt uibrantes spiritum suo mouere. Sed et aues nunc exsurgentes eriguntur ad caelum et alarum crucem pro manibus expandunt et dicunt aliquid quod oratio uideatur. Quid ergo amplius de officio orationis? Etiam ipse Dominus orauit, cui sit honor et uirtus in saecula saeculorum.

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On Prayer

Chapter XXIX.--Of the Power of Prayer.

For what has God, who exacts it ever denied ¹ to prayer coming from "spirit and truth?" How mighty specimens of its efficacy do we read, and hear, and believe! Old-world prayer, indeed, used to free from fires, ² and from beasts, ³ and from famine; ⁴ and yet it had not (then) received its form from Christ. But how far more amply operative is Christian prayer! It does not station the angel of dew in mid-fires, ⁵ nor muzzle lions, nor transfer to the hungry the rustics' bread; ⁶ it has no delegated grace to avert any sense of suffering; ⁷ but it supplies the suffering, and the feeling, and the grieving, with endurance: it amplifies grace by virtue, that faith may know what she obtains from the Lord, understanding what--for God's name's sake--she suffers. But in days gone by, withal prayer used to call down ⁸ plagues, scatter the armies of foes, withhold the wholesome influences of the showers. Now, however, the prayer of righteousness averts all God's anger, keeps bivouac on behalf of personal enemies, makes supplication on behalf of persecutors. Is it wonder if it knows how to extort the rains of heaven ⁹ --(prayer) which was once able to procure its fires? ¹⁰ Prayer is alone that which vanquishes ¹¹ God. But Christ has willed that it be operative for no evil: He had conferred on it all its virtue in the cause of good. And so it knows nothing save how to recall the souls of the departed from the very path of death, to transform the weak, to restore the sick, to purge the possessed, to open prison-bars, to loose the bonds of the innocent. Likewise it washes away faults, repels temptations, extinguishes persecutions, consoles the faint-spirited, cheers the high-spirited, escorts travellers, appeases waves, makes robbers stand aghast, nourishes the poor, governs the rich, upraises the fallen, arrests the falling, confirms the standing. Prayer is the wall of faith: her arms and missiles ¹² against the foe who keeps watch over us on all sides. And, so never walk we unarmed. By day, be we mindful of Station; by night, of vigil. Under the arms of prayer guard we the standard of our General; await we in prayer the angel's trump. ¹³ The angels, likewise, all pray; every creature prays; cattle and wild beasts pray and bend their knees; and when they issue from their layers and lairs, ¹⁴ they look up heavenward with no idle mouth, making their breath vibrate ¹⁵ after their own manner. Nay, the birds too, rising out of the nest, upraise themselves heavenward, and, instead of hands, expand the cross of their wings, and say somewhat to seem like prayer. ¹⁶ What more then, touching the office of prayer? Even the Lord Himself prayed; to whom be honour and virtue unto the ages of the ages!