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De Oratione
XXVIII.
[1] Haec est enim hostia spiritalis quae pristina sacrificia deleuit. Quo mihi, inquit, multitudinem sacrificiorum uestrorum? Plenus sum haulocaustomatum arietum et adipem agnorum et sanguinem taurorum et hircorum nolo. Quis enim requisiuit ista de manibus uestris? [2] Quae ergo quaesierit Deus euangelium docet. Veniet hora, inquit, cum ueri adoratores adorabunt Patrem in spiritu et ueritate. Deus enim spiritus est et adoratores itaque tales requirit. [3] Nos sumus ueri adoratores et ueri sacerdotes, qui spiritu orantes spiritu sacrificamus orationem hostiam Dei propriam et acceptabilem, quam scilicet requisiuit, quam sibi prospexit. [4] Hanc de toto corde deuotam, fide pastam, ueritate curatam, innocentia integram, castitate mundam, agape coronatam cum pompa operum bonorum inter psalmos et hymnos deducere ad Dei altare debemus, omnia nobis a Deo impetraturam.
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On Prayer
Chapter XXVIII.--Of the Spiritual Victim, Which Prayer is.
For this is the spiritual victim 1 which has abolished the pristine sacrifices. "To what purpose," saith He, "(bring ye) me the multitude of your sacrifices? I am full of holocausts of rams, and I desire not the fat of rams, and the blood of bulls and of goats. For who hath required these from your hands?" 2 What, then, God has required the Gospel teaches. "An hour will come," saith He, "when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and truth. For God is a Spirit, and accordingly requires His adorers to be such." 3 We are the true adorers and the true priests, 4 who, praying in spirit, 5 sacrifice, in spirit, prayer,--a victim proper and acceptable to God, which assuredly He has required, which He has looked forward to 6 for Himself! This victim, devoted from the whole heart, fed on faith, tended by truth, entire in innocence, pure in chastity, garlanded with love, 7 we ought to escort with the pomp 8 of good works, amid psalms and hymns, unto God's altar, 9 to obtain for us all things from God.