On the Lord's Prayer.1
Argument.--The Treatise of Cyprian on the Lord's Prayer Comprises Three Portions, in Which Division He Imitates Tertullian in His Book on Prayer. In the First Portion, He Points Out that the Lord's Prayer is the Most Excellent of All Prayers, Profoundly Spiritual, and Most Effectual for Obtaining Our Petitions. In the Second Part, He Undertakes an Explanation of the Lord's Prayer; And, Still Treading in the Footsteps of Tertullian, He Goes Through Its Seven Chief Clauses. Finally, in the Third Part, He Considers the Conditions of Prayer, and Tells Us What Prayer Ought to Be. 2
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[Written a.d. 252. Compare Tertullian, vol. iii. p. 681.] ↩
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1st, persevering and continuous, after the example of Christ our Lord; 2dly, watchful, and poured forth from the heart, after the example of the priest who, in the preface which precedes the prayer, prepares the minds of the brethren by saying Sursum Corda, to which the people answer Habemus ad Dominum; 3dly, associated with good works and alms, like that of Tobias and Cornelius; 4thly, at every hour of the day, and especially at the three hours appointed by the Church for prayer, to wit, the third, the sixth, and the ninth hour; and, moreover, we must pray morning and evening. ↩
