Letters 130.4–130.24

Good people, however, seem to provide no small consolations even in this life. For if poverty pinches, if grief saddens, if bodily pain disturbs, if exile depresses, if any other calamity afflicts, let good people be present who know how not only to rejoice with those who rejoice but also to weep with those who weep, and know how to speak and converse helpfully; then those harsh things are greatly softened, heavy things lightened, adversities overcome. But it is he who makes them good by his Spirit who does this in them and through them. On the other hand, if riches abound, if no bereavement occurs, if bodily health is present, if one lives safely in one's homeland, but bad people live alongside, among whom there is no one who can be trusted, from whom deceit, fraud, anger, discord, and treachery are not endured and feared, do not all those things become bitter and hard, and is there anything glad or sweet in them? So in any human affairs whatever, nothing is friendly to a person without a friendly person. But how far can such a one be found, about whose mind and character there can be sure security in this life? For no one is known to another as each is known to himself, and yet no one is so well known even to himself as to be secure about his own conduct tomorrow. Therefore, although many are known by their fruits, and some gladden their neighbors by living well while others sadden them by living badly, yet because human minds are unknown and uncertain, the apostle very rightly admonishes us not to judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes and brings to light the hidden things of darkness and makes manifest the thoughts of the heart, and then each one will have praise from God.

In the darkness of this life, then, in which we are away from the Lord as long as we walk by faith and not by sight, the Christian soul ought to count itself desolate, so that it may not cease to pray, and may fix the eye of faith on the word of the divine and holy Scriptures as on a lamp set in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts. For the ineffable source of this lamp is that light which so shines in the darkness that the darkness does not comprehend it; and to see it, hearts must be cleansed by faith. For "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," and: "We know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." Then there will be true life after death and true consolation after desolation. That life will deliver our soul from death, and that consolation our eyes from tears; and since there will be no temptation there any longer, the same psalm therefore goes on: "my feet from falling." Now, if there is no temptation, there is no longer any prayer; for there will no longer be the expectation of the good promised, but the contemplation of the good bestowed. Hence it says: "I will please the Lord in the land of the living," where we shall then be, not in the wilderness of the dead, where we are now. "For you have died," says the apostle, "and your life is hidden with Christ in God; when Christ, your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." This is the true life which the rich are commanded to lay hold of by good works, and there is the true consolation. For this consolation a desolate widow now longs; even one who has sons and grandsons and manages her household devoutly, taking care with all her family that they put their hope in God, nevertheless says in prayer: "My soul has thirsted for you; how manifoldly my flesh for you, in a land deserted, without a way and without water." This is this dying life, however crowded it may be with mortal consolations, however many companions accompany it on its journey, however great an abundance of things is heaped up. For you know how uncertain all these things are; and even if they were not uncertain, what would they be in comparison with that promised happiness?

I have said this because you, a widow, rich and noble and the mother of so great a family, have asked me for a discourse on prayer: that you may feel yourself desolate even while your family stays with you in this life and serves you, since you have not yet laid hold of that life where there is true and certain consolation, where what was said in prophecy will be fulfilled: "We were satisfied in the morning with your mercy, and we rejoiced and were glad in all our days; we were glad for the days in which you humbled us, the years in which we saw evil."

Before that consolation comes, then, however great the prosperity of temporal goods that surrounds you, remember that you are desolate, so that you may persevere in prayers night and day. For the apostle does not assign this task to any widow whatever, but "she who is truly a widow," he says, "and desolate, has set her hope on the Lord and perseveres in prayers night and day." But beware most watchfully of what follows: "She who lives in pleasures is dead while she lives." For a person lives in the things he loves, which he seeks as something great, in which he believes himself to be happy. Therefore what Scripture said of riches, "If riches abound, do not set your heart on them," I also say to you of pleasures: if pleasures abound, do not set your heart on them. Do not think highly of yourself because they are not lacking, because they are plentifully at hand, because they flow as from a most abundant fountain of earthly happiness. Utterly despise and scorn these things in yourself, so that you seek nothing in them except sound bodily health. This is not to be despised, because of the necessary uses of this life, before this mortal body is clothed with immortality, that is, with true, perfect, and everlasting health, which does not fail through earthly weakness and need to be restored by corruptible pleasure, but persists in heavenly strength and is quickened with eternal incorruptibility. For the apostle himself says: "Make no provision for the flesh in its desires," because we do take care of the flesh, but for the needs of health; "for no one ever hated his own flesh," as he likewise says. Hence he also admonishes Timothy, who was evidently too severe a chastiser of his body, to use a little wine for his stomach and his frequent ailments.

These pleasures, then, in which a widow, if she lives in them (that is, if she clings to them and dwells in them with the delight of her heart), is dead while she lives, many holy men and women have guarded against in every way, and have cast away riches, as the mothers of pleasures, by distributing them to the poor, and so in another way have rather stored them up in heavenly treasuries. If you do not do this, being bound by some duty of family affection, you know what account you will give of them to God. For no one knows what goes on in a person except the spirit of the person which is in him. We ought not to judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes and brings to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the thoughts of the heart; and then each one will have praise from God. Yet it belongs to your care as a widow that, if pleasures abound, you do not set your heart on them, lest what ought to be on high in order to live should die by rotting in them. Count yourself among those of whom it is written: "Their hearts shall live for ever and ever."

You have heard how you should pray; hear also what you should pray for, which is the main point on which you thought I should be consulted, since you are troubled by what the apostle says: "For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought," and you feared that it might harm you more to pray not as you ought than not to pray at all. This can be put briefly thus: pray for the happy life. For all human beings want to have this; even those who live most wickedly and abandonedly would never live in that way unless they thought that by it they were, or would be, happy. What else, then, ought we to pray for but what both the bad and the good desire, but which only the good attain?

Here perhaps you may now ask what the happy life itself is. On this question many philosophers have worn out their talents and their leisure, and yet they were less able to find it the less they honored its source and gave thanks to him. First, then, consider whether we should agree with those who say that he is happy who lives according to his own will. Far be it from us to believe this true. For what if he wishes to live wickedly? Is he not shown to be the more miserable the more easily his bad will is fulfilled? Rightly even those who philosophized without the worship of God rejected this opinion. For one of them, a most eloquent man, says: "But see, others, not philosophers indeed, but ready to argue, say that all are happy who live as they themselves wish. That is false; for to wish what is not fitting is itself the most miserable thing, and it is not so miserable not to obtain what you wish as to wish to obtain what you ought not." What do you think of these words? Were they not spoken by the truth itself, through whatever human being? We can therefore say here what the apostle said of a certain Cretan prophet, when a saying of his had pleased him: "This testimony is true."

He, then, is happy who has all that he wishes and wishes nothing that is not fitting. If this is so, see now what people may fittingly wish. One wishes to marry; another, widowed of a spouse, chooses thereafter to live in continence; another chooses never to experience sexual union even in marriage. And although one of these is found better than another, we cannot say that any of them wishes anything unfitting. So also to desire children, which are the fruit of marriage, and life and health for those who have been born, a wish which often occupies even the continence of widows; for though, having renounced marriage, they no longer wish to beget children, they do wish those they have begotten to live in safety. From all this care virginal integrity is free; yet all have dear ones, men and women, for whom they may fittingly wish even temporal health. But when people have obtained this health for themselves and for those they love, shall we be able to say that they are now happy? They do have something that it is not unfitting to wish for; but if they do not have other things, greater and better and fuller of usefulness and honor, they are still far from the happy life.

Is it right, then, that beyond this temporal health they should wish for honors and powers for themselves and their own? Certainly it is fitting to wish for them if it is in order to care through them for those who live under them, not for their own sake but for the sake of some other good that comes from them; but if it is for the empty display of pride and for superfluous or even harmful pomp of vanity, it is not fitting. Accordingly, if they wish for themselves and their own a sufficiency of necessary things, of which the apostle speaks thus: "Godliness with sufficiency is great gain; for we brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything away from it; having food and clothing, with these we are content. For those who want to become rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction; for the root of all evils is avarice, by craving which some have strayed from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows": whoever wishes for this sufficiency and wishes no more wishes not unfittingly; otherwise he does not wish for it, and so does not wish fittingly. He wished for this and prayed for it who said: "Give me neither riches nor poverty, but appoint for me sufficiently what is necessary, lest being filled I become a liar and say, 'Who sees me?', or being made poor I steal and swear by the name of my God." You see, surely, that this sufficiency too is sought not for its own sake but for the health of the body and for a manner of life befitting the person's station, such that it is not unsuitable for those with whom one must live honorably and dutifully.

Among all these things, then, a person's well-being and friendship are sought for their own sake, while a sufficiency of necessary things is usually sought, when it is sought fittingly, not for its own sake but for the sake of the two former. Well-being, moreover, consists in life itself and in the health and soundness of mind and body. Likewise friendship is not to be confined within narrow bounds; for it embraces all to whom love and affection are owed, though it inclines more readily toward some and more hesitantly toward others; and it reaches even to enemies, for whom we are commanded also to pray. Thus there is no one in the human race to whom love is not owed, if not because of mutual affection, then at least because of the fellowship of our common nature. But those by whom we are loved in return, holily and chastely, delight us greatly and justly. When we have these things, we must pray that we may keep them; when we do not have them, that we may have them.

Is this the whole, and are these all the things in which the sum of the happy life is gathered? Or does the truth teach something else, to be preferred to all these? For both that sufficiency and well-being itself, whether one's own or one's friends', so long as it is temporal, must be cast aside for the attainment of eternal life; for though the body may perhaps be thought healthy, the mind is by no means to be thought sound that does not prefer eternal things to temporal. For one does not live profitably in time except to acquire the merit by which one may live in eternity. To that one life, then, in which one lives with God and from God, all other things that are profitably and fittingly desired must without doubt be referred. For we love ourselves in this, if we love God; and by the other commandment we truly love our neighbors as ourselves if, so far as is in us, we lead them to a like love of God. We love God, therefore, for his own sake, and ourselves and our neighbors for his sake. Nor, when we live thus, should we suppose that we are already established in the happy life itself, as if there were nothing more to pray for. For how do we already live happily when that is still lacking for the sake of which alone we live well?

Why then are we scattered over many things and ask what we should pray for, fearing that we may pray as we ought not, and do not rather say with the psalm: "One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may contemplate the delight of the Lord and visit his holy temple"? For there all the days are all, not by coming and passing away, nor is the beginning of one the end of another; all are together without end, where the life itself, whose days they are, has no end. For the sake of attaining this happy life, the true Life himself taught us to pray, not with much speaking, as if we were heard the more the more talkative we are, since we pray to him who, as the Lord himself says, knows what we need before we ask him. Hence it may seem strange, although he forbade much speaking, why he who knows what we need before we ask him urged us to pray in such a way that he said, "One ought always to pray and not lose heart," setting forth the example of a certain widow who, wishing to be avenged on her adversary, by frequently pressing an unjust judge bent him to hear her, moved not by justice or mercy but overcome by weariness. Thus we were to be admonished how much more surely the merciful and just Lord God hears us when we pray without ceasing, since she could not be disregarded, for her constant pressing, even by an unjust and ungodly judge; and how willingly and graciously he fulfils the good desires of those who he knows forgive the sins of others, if she who wished to be avenged achieved what she wanted. So too the man to whom a friend had come from a journey and who had nothing to set before him, wishing to borrow three loaves from a friend (by which perhaps the Trinity itself, of one substance, was figured), by asking most urgently and most annoyingly roused that friend, who was already asleep with his servants, to give him as many as he wanted, the friend himself acting more to avoid annoyance than out of goodwill. Thus we were to understand that, if one who is asleep and roused against his will by a petitioner is compelled to give, how much more kindly will he give who does not know how to sleep, and who rouses us when we sleep, so that we may ask.

Hence also that saying: "Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you; for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks him for bread, will hand him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he hand him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, will he hand him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him." Now, according to those three things which the apostle commends: faith is signified in the fish, either because of the water of baptism or because it remains unharmed amid the waves of this world, and its opposite is that serpent who by poisonous deceit persuaded us not to believe God; hope in the egg, because the chick's life is not yet but is to come, and is not yet seen but still hoped for (for hope that is seen is not hope), and its opposite is the scorpion, because he who hopes for eternal life forgets what lies behind and stretches forward to what lies ahead, and for him it is harmful to look back, while the scorpion must be guarded against on the side where it has its poisonous sting, at its back; love in the bread, for the greatest of these is love, and among foods the usefulness of bread surpasses the rest, and its opposite is the stone, because hard hearts reject love. Whether these things signify this or something else more fitting, he who knows how to give good gifts to his children urges us to ask and seek and knock.

Why he should do this who knows what we need before we ask him might trouble the mind, unless we understand that our Lord and God does not wish our will to become known to him, for he cannot be ignorant of it, but wishes our desire to be exercised in prayers, so that we may be able to receive what he is preparing to give. For that is very great, but we are small and narrow for receiving it. Therefore it is said to us: "Be enlarged; do not be yoked with unbelievers." For we shall receive that which is very great, which eye has not seen, because it is not a color, nor ear heard, because it is not a sound, nor has it gone up into the heart of man, because the heart of man must go up into it, with greater capacity the more faithfully we believe it, the more firmly we hope for it, and the more ardently we desire it.

In faith itself, then, and hope and love, we pray always with continual desire. But at fixed intervals of hours and times we also ask God in words, so that by these signs of things we may remind ourselves, may make known to ourselves how far we have advanced in this desire, and may rouse ourselves more keenly to increase it. For the more worthy effect follows when a more fervent affection precedes. And so what the apostle says, "Pray without ceasing," what else does it mean than: desire without ceasing the happy life, which is none other than eternal life, from him who alone can give it? Let us therefore always desire it from the Lord God, and so always pray. But at certain hours we call the mind back from other cares and business, by which the desire itself somehow grows lukewarm, to the business of praying, reminding ourselves by the words of prayer to attend to what we desire, lest what had begun to grow lukewarm should become altogether cold and be wholly extinguished, unless it is more frequently kindled. Hence also what the same apostle says, "Let your requests be made known before God," is not to be taken as if they were made known to God, who certainly knew them even before they existed, but that they are made known to us before God by patient endurance, not before men by boasting; or perhaps that they are made known also to the angels who are before God, so that in some way they may offer them to God and consult about them, and may bring to us, either openly or secretly, what they have learned at his command is to be fulfilled, as they have learned there that it should be. For the angel said to the man: "And now, when you and Sarah were praying, I offered the remembrance of your prayer in the sight of the glory of God."

This being so, to pray even at length when there is leisure, that is, when other duties of good and necessary actions are not hindered (though even in these, as I said, we must always pray with that desire), is neither wrong nor useless. For it is not, as some think, praying with much speaking if one prays for a long time. Many words are one thing, prolonged affection another. For it is written of the Lord himself that he spent the night in praying and that he prayed more at length. In this what else was he doing but giving us an example, he who is in time a fitting petitioner and, with the Father, the eternal hearer of prayer?

The brothers in Egypt are said to have frequent prayers, but very short ones, and as it were darted out swiftly, so that the alertly raised attention, which is most necessary for one who prays, may not fade and grow dull through longer delays. And by this they themselves show clearly enough that this attention, just as it should not be blunted if it cannot last, so, if it does last, should not be quickly broken off. Far be much speaking from prayer, but let not much praying be lacking, if fervent attention persists. For to speak much in praying is to do a necessary thing with superfluous words; but to pray much is to knock at the door of him to whom we pray with a long and devout stirring of the heart. For this business is mostly done more with groans than with speeches, more with weeping than with words. He sets our tears in his sight, and our groaning is not hidden from him who made all things by the Word and does not need human words.

We need words, then, by which we may be reminded and may consider what we ask, not words by which we believe the Lord is to be either taught or persuaded. When we say, "Hallowed be your name," we remind ourselves to desire that his name, which is always holy, may also be held holy among men, that is, not be despised; and this benefits not God but men. And when we say, "Your kingdom come," which will certainly come whether we wish it or not, we rouse our desire for that kingdom, that it may come for us and that we may be found worthy to reign in it. When we say, "Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth," we pray him for obedience itself, that his will may be done in us as it is done in heaven by his angels. When we say, "Give us this day our daily bread," the word "this day" signifies "in this time," in which we ask either for that sufficiency, naming the whole by its chief part, that is, signifying everything by the word "bread", or for the sacrament of the faithful, which is necessary in this time, yet for attaining not the happiness of this time but that eternal happiness. When we say, "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors," we remind ourselves both what we ask and what we must do in order to be worthy to receive it. When we say, "Lead us not into temptation," we remind ourselves to ask that we may not, deserted by his help, either consent to any temptation when deceived or yield to it when afflicted. When we say, "Deliver us from evil," we remind ourselves to reflect that we are not yet in that good where we shall suffer no evil. And this last petition of the Lord's Prayer extends so widely that a Christian in any tribulation whatever may utter his groans in it and pour out his tears in it, begin his prayer with it, dwell on it, and end with it. For it was fitting that by these words the realities themselves should be committed to our memory.

For whatever other words we may say, words which the affection of the one praying either forms beforehand so that it may be clear, or attends to afterward so that it may grow, we say nothing else than what is contained in this Lord's Prayer, if we pray rightly and fittingly. But whoever says something that cannot belong to this Gospel prayer, even if he does not pray unlawfully, prays carnally; and I do not know how this can be said not to be unlawful, since it befits those reborn of the Spirit to pray only spiritually. For one who says, for example, "Be glorified among all nations, as you have been glorified among us," and "Let your prophets be found faithful," what else does he say than "Hallowed be your name"? One who says, "God of hosts, turn us and show your face, and we shall be saved," what else does he say than "Your kingdom come"? One who says, "Direct my steps according to your word, and let no iniquity rule over me," what else does he say than "Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth"? One who says, "Give me neither poverty nor riches," what else does he say than "Give us this day our daily bread"? One who says, "Remember, Lord, David and all his meekness," or "Lord, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands, if I have repaid evil to those who repaid me," what else does he say than "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors"? One who says, "Take away from me the desires of the belly, and let not the desire of sexual union lay hold of me," what else does he say than "Lead us not into temptation"? One who says, "Rescue me from my enemies, O God, and deliver me from those who rise up against me," what else does he say than "Deliver us from evil"? And if you run through all the words of holy prayers, you will find, I think, nothing that this Lord's Prayer does not contain and include. Hence one is free to say the same things in praying in other and other words, but one ought not to be free to say other things.

These things are to be prayed for, without wavering doubt, for ourselves, for our own, for strangers, and for our very enemies, although affection may arise or rise higher in the heart of the one praying for this person or for that, according to the nearness or distance of the relationship. But whoever says in prayer, for example, "Lord, multiply my riches," or "Give me as much as you gave to this man or that," or "Increase my honors, make me most powerful and renowned in this world," or anything of that kind, and says these things out of desire for them, not aiming that by them he may benefit people according to God, I think he will find nothing in the Lord's Prayer to which he can fit these wishes. Therefore let him at least be ashamed to ask for what he is not ashamed to desire; or if he is ashamed of this too, but greed prevails, how much better is it to ask that he may deliver him from this evil of greed also, he to whom we say, "Deliver us from evil"!

You have, I think, not only what sort of person you should be when you pray, but also what you should pray for, taught not by me but by him who has deigned to teach us all. The happy life is to be sought; it is to be asked of the Lord God. What it is to be happy has been much disputed by many; but why do we go to many people and many things? It has been said briefly and truly in the Scripture of God: "Happy is the people whose God is the Lord." That we may be in that people, and may come to contemplate him and to live with him without end, "the end of the commandment is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned." In the same three, hope is put in place of a good conscience. Faith, then, and hope and love lead to God the one who prays, that is, who believes, hopes, desires, and considers what to ask of the Lord in the Lord's Prayer. Fasting, and the restraint of carnal desire from other pleasures without neglect of health, and above all almsgiving, greatly help prayer, so that we may say: "In the day of my tribulation I sought God with my hands by night before him, and I was not deceived." For how is God, who is incorporeal and intangible, sought with the hands unless he is sought by works?