Prayer

The practice and teaching of prayer.

Passages that substantially address this topic, in date order.

Didache 10.1Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The thanksgiving after the meal begins.
Didache 10.2Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Thanks for God's name, knowledge, faith, and immortality.
Didache 10.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Thanks for daily food and for spiritual food and eternal life.
Didache 10.4Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Thanks for God's power.
Didache 10.5Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · A prayer for the church to be kept, perfected, and gathered into God's kingdom.
Didache 10.6Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · A closing prayer for Christ's coming: “Maranatha.”
Didache 15.4Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Pray, give, and act as the gospel teaches.
Didache 2.7Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Hate no one; reprove some, pray for others, and love some more than your own life.
Didache 4.14Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Confess your sins in the assembly and pray with a clean conscience.
Didache 8.2Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Pray the Lord's Prayer.
Didache 8.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Pray the Lord's Prayer three times a day.
Didache 9.1Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Instructions for the Eucharist begin.
Didache 9.2Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The thanksgiving over the cup.
Didache 9.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The thanksgiving over the bread.
Didache 9.4Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · A prayer that the church be gathered into one, like grain into bread.
1 Clement 18.10Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Create in me a clean heart.”
1 Clement 18.11Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Do not take your Holy Spirit from me.”
1 Clement 18.12Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Restore the joy of your salvation.”
1 Clement 18.13Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “I will teach sinners your ways.”
1 Clement 18.14Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Deliver me from bloodguilt.”
1 Clement 18.15Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “My lips will declare your praise.”
1 Clement 18.16Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God does not desire burnt offerings.
1 Clement 18.17Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God accepts a broken and contrite heart.
1 Clement 18.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · David's prayer of repentance (Psalm 51) begins.
1 Clement 18.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Wash me from my sin.”
1 Clement 18.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Against you only have I sinned.”
1 Clement 18.5Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “I was conceived in sin.”
1 Clement 18.6Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God loves truth and reveals hidden wisdom.
1 Clement 18.7Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.”
1 Clement 18.8Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Let me hear joy and gladness.”
1 Clement 18.9Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Blot out my sins.”
1 Clement 2.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · They prayed for forgiveness even of unintended sins.
1 Clement 2.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · They labored in prayer for the salvation of all believers.
1 Clement 29.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Approach God in holiness; he has chosen us.
1 Clement 34.6Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The angels cry “Holy, holy, holy.”
1 Clement 34.7Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Pray together with one voice.
1 Clement 38.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Give thanks to God for everything.
1 Clement 48.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Repent quickly and seek God's mercy.
1 Clement 50.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Pray to be found in love.
1 Clement 52.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God needs nothing but our confession.
1 Clement 52.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Praise pleases God more than sacrifice.
1 Clement 52.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Offer praise and call on God in trouble.
1 Clement 52.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A broken spirit is God's sacrifice.
1 Clement 53.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Moses offered himself for the people.
1 Clement 55.6Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Esther risked her life and saved her people by fasting and prayer.
1 Clement 56.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Pray for the offenders to yield to God's will.
1 Clement 59.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Rome will pray that God keep all his elect safe through Christ.
1 Clement 59.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The great prayer praises God, who humbles the proud and lifts the lowly.
1 Clement 59.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Intercession for the afflicted, the sick, the hungry, and prisoners.
1 Clement 60.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Praise of God the faithful Creator, and a prayer for forgiveness.
1 Clement 60.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A prayer for cleansing and right living.
1 Clement 60.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A prayer for God's favor and protection.
1 Clement 60.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A prayer for peace for all people.
1 Clement 61.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A prayer for the rulers whose authority comes from God.
1 Clement 61.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A prayer that God guide rulers to govern well.
1 Clement 61.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The prayer closes with praise through Christ the high priest.
1 Clement 64.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A closing blessing through Christ the high priest.
Epistle of Barnabas 19.12Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Make peace, confess sins, and pray with a clean conscience.
Epistle of Barnabas 21.5Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · A prayer for wisdom and endurance.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 10.3.2 (42.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · A sorrowful man's prayer cannot rise to God's altar.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 10.3.3 (42.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Sorrow mixed with prayer is like vinegar in wine.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 11.14 (43.14)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · In the praying assembly the false prophet is struck dumb.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 5.1.6 (33.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Anger mixed with patience spoils it and its prayer.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 9.1 (39.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Do not doubt when asking God, even as a sinner.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 9.2 (39.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Turn to God wholeheartedly and ask without hesitation.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 9.4 (39.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Ask without doubting and you will lack nothing.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 9.5 (39.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The doubter receives nothing.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 9.6 (39.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The wholehearted receive; the doubter is saved with difficulty.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 9.7 (39.7)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · If an answer is slow, do not doubt; there is a reason.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 9.8 (39.8)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Keep asking; blame yourself, not God, if you give up.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 2.5 (51.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The rich is poor in prayer; the poor is rich in prayer. The rich support the poor.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 2.6 (51.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The poor pray for the rich who support them.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 4.6 (53.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Those who serve God receive what they ask.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 5.4.3 (57.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Those who have the Lord in their hearts receive understanding by asking.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 5.4.4 (57.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · God gives freely; why not ask him for understanding?
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.11.7 (88.7)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · They spend the night in prayer.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.14.3 (91.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas thanks God for sending the angel of repentance.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 1.1.3 (1.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · On the road to Cumae a spirit carries Hermas away, and he prays.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 1.1.9 (1.9)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Pray to God, and he will heal your sins.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 2.1.2 (5.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas prays and thanks God.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 2.2.1 (6.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · After fasting, Hermas understands the writing.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.1.5 (9.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Afraid, Hermas kneels and confesses his sins.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.1.6 (9.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · She tells him to pray also for righteousness.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.10.6 (18.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · She tells him to fast and ask humbly.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 4.1.3 (22.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas prays for the completion of the revelations.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 4.1.7 (22.7)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas prays and remembers: do not doubt.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 5.1 (25.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · A glorious man dressed as a shepherd visits Hermas.
2 Clement 15.3Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · God promises: while you are still speaking, I am here.
2 Clement 15.4Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · God is readier to give than we are to ask.
2 Clement 16.4Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Almsgiving, fasting, prayer, and love: almsgiving lightens sin.
2 Clement 2.2Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Pray to God sincerely and without growing weary.
2 Clement 9.10Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Praise God from the heart, not only the lips.
To the Ephesians 10.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Pray for unbelievers and teach them by your conduct.
To the Ephesians 21.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks prayer for the church in Syria and says farewell.
To the Magnesians 14.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks prayer for himself and for the church in Syria.
To the Magnesians 7.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · As Christ did nothing without the Father, the church should do nothing without its bishop and presbyters.
To the Philadelphians 5.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius relies on the gospel and the apostles, and asks prayer to be made perfect.
To Polycarp 1.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Polycarp should pray constantly, watch, speak to each person, and bear others' weaknesses.
To Polycarp 7.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · News that the church at Antioch is at peace has cheered Ignatius as he goes to martyrdom.
To the Romans 4.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks prayer that the beasts may make him a sacrifice to God.
To the Romans 8.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks prayer that he may reach his goal.
To the Romans 9.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks prayer for his church in Syria, now shepherded by God alone.
To the Smyrnaeans 11.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius, least of the Antiochene Christians, asks prayer to reach God.
To the Smyrnaeans 4.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Avoid the false teachers entirely, but pray for their repentance.
To the Trallians 12.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Stay united in prayer and support your bishop.
To the Trallians 12.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius asks for prayer that he may be found worthy of martyrdom.
To the Trallians 13.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Greetings; pray for the church in Syria.
To the Philippians 12.2Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Polycarp prays that God the Father and Jesus Christ the eternal high priest build the Philippians up and give them a share among the saints.
To the Philippians 12.3Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Pray for all believers, for rulers, for persecutors, and for the enemies of the cross.
To the Philippians 4.3Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Widows are to pray constantly and avoid slander and greed, knowing that they are God's altar and that God sees every secret thought.
To the Philippians 7.2Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Believers should hold to the teaching handed down from the beginning, watching in prayer and fasting as the Lord taught.
First Apology 13Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians worship the Creator with prayer and thanksgiving, and honor Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, in the second place and the prophetic Spirit in the third.
First Apology 17Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians pay taxes and pray for the emperors, worshiping God alone; everyone will answer to God.
First Apology 61Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Justin describes baptism: instruction, prayer and fasting, then washing in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, called “illumination.”
First Apology 65Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · After baptism the new Christian joins the prayers; bread and wine mixed with water are brought, thanks are given, and deacons distribute them, also to those absent.
First Apology 67Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Justin describes Sunday worship: Scripture reading, sermon, prayer, the Eucharist, and a collection for the needy, held on the day of creation and of the resurrection.
Dialogue with Trypho 1.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin replies that most philosophers do not care whether God cares for individuals.
Dialogue with Trypho 105.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christ's prayer teaches us to pray at death that no evil angel seize our soul.
Dialogue with Trypho 105.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christ commended his spirit to the Father at death.
Dialogue with Trypho 108.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians do not hate the Jews but pray for their repentance.
Dialogue with Trypho 117.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Prayers and thanksgivings from the worthy are the only perfect sacrifices.
Dialogue with Trypho 117.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Prayers in Jesus' name are offered among every people on earth.
Dialogue with Trypho 133.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Despite God's wonders, Israel sacrificed children and rejected Christ; Justin prays for their salvation.
Dialogue with Trypho 133.6Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians pray for their persecutors, as Christ commanded.
Dialogue with Trypho 142.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · They part as friends, praying for each other; Justin prays that they may come to believe Jesus is the Christ.
Dialogue with Trypho 30.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians find God's words sweeter than honey, and pray to be kept from evil spirits.
Dialogue with Trypho 30.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians pray through Christ to be kept from demons, which flee at his name.
Dialogue with Trypho 35.8Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians pray for their enemies, that they may be saved at Christ's return.
Dialogue with Trypho 7.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The prophets proclaimed the Father and his Son Christ; the old man urges Justin to pray for understanding.
Dialogue with Trypho 90.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Moses' outstretched hands in the battle against Amalek formed the sign of the cross.
Dialogue with Trypho 90.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · It was the sign of the cross and the name of Jesus, not the posture of prayer, that won the battle.
Dialogue with Trypho 96.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians pray for their enemies, as Christ taught.
Dialogue with Trypho 99.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christ's prayer in the garden fulfills the psalm and shows his true humanity.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 14.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Bound to the stake like a sacrificial ram, Polycarp began his final prayer to God the Father.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 14.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp thanked God for the honor of sharing Christ's suffering and prayed to be received as a sacrifice.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 14.3Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp ended his prayer with praise to God through Christ, the eternal High Priest.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 5.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp was persuaded to leave the city and spent his time in prayer for all the churches.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 5.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · In a vision Polycarp saw his pillow on fire and knew he would be burned alive.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 7.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp welcomed his captors with a meal and asked for an hour to pray.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 7.3Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · Polycarp prayed aloud for two hours, and many of his captors regretted coming for him.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 8.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · After praying for all, Polycarp was taken into the city on a donkey on a “great Sabbath.”
To Autolycus 1.11Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Christians honor the emperor, obey him, and pray for him, but worship God alone.
To Autolycus 3.14Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Christians are taught to love their enemies, to do good without boasting, and to obey and pray for the authorities.
A Plea for the Christians 13Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Christians do not offer animal sacrifices because God, the Creator, needs nothing; the sacrifice he wants is knowledge of him, prayer, and a bloodless, reasonable worship.
A Plea for the Christians 37Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Athenagoras asks the emperors for their favor: Christians pray for them and their succession, so that they may live quiet and peaceful lives.
The Instructor 2.10.96Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Marriage aims at children; abortion, used to hide sexual immorality, destroys humanity with the embryo; the married should not have intercourse by day, the time for prayer, reading, and good works.
The Instructor 2.4.41Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Flutes and pipes suit beasts and idolaters, and sensual music corrupts; the instruments of Psalm 150 are to be understood spiritually as the tongue, mouth, body, and church.
The Instructor 2.4.42Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Other peoples use instruments for war; Christians use one peaceful instrument, the Word, to honor God.
The Instructor 2.4.43Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · At meals Christians should love God through thanksgiving and psalms and their neighbor through good conversation; singing to the lyre or cithara, as David did, is not blameworthy.
The Instructor 2.4.44Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Blessing God with psalms at meals and before sleep is fitting; Greek drinking songs imitated the Hebrew psalms; love songs and soft, chromatic music are to be avoided.
The Instructor 2.7.60Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Wisdom forbids idle chatter even in prayer; at table Christians should avoid rude noises and habits, and behave with calm and decorum, for the Christian belongs to peace.
The Instructor 2.9.77Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Before sleep we should bless God and call on the Word; luxurious bedding is harmful as well as self-indulgent, and plain level beds are healthier.
The Instructor 2.9.79Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Christians should be like servants awake for their master's return, rising at night to bless God like the watchful angels; the enlightened are awake and alive.
The Instructor 2.9.80Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Wisdom and Paul call us to watchfulness and sobriety as children of the day; light food and discipline keep us wakeful, and the inner light should be turned within.
The Instructor 2.9.81Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Overeating brings heavy sleep and clouds the soul, as Lot's drunken sleep shows; Christians should rise at night to study, work, or spin, and not sleep by day.
The Instructor 2.9.82Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The soul does not need sleep, only the body; true dreams come from a sober soul, and constant converse with God makes us wakeful like the angels.
The Instructor 3.11.79Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Buyers and sellers should name one honest price without oaths; Christ drove the dishonest from the temple; men and women should come to church modestly, and women should be veiled at prayer.
The Instructor 3.12.101Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The work ends with a prayer to the Word, Instructor and Teacher, and a hymn to Christ the Savior as shepherd, fisher of men, and nourishing milk of his children, praised with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
The Instructor 3.12.89Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The Decalogue, signified by the letter iota (ten), and Isaiah's call to wash and do justice sum up the commandments; good works themselves are prayer acceptable to God.
The Instructor 3.12.90Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · God hears the one who acts justly; the fast God chooses is freeing the oppressed and feeding the hungry, and the sacrifice he wants is a broken spirit and a heart that glorifies him.
The Instructor 3.12.92Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Scripture condemns liars and the conceited, blesses the humble and merciful, and commands love of enemies and faith in prayer; servants must be treated as equals before God.
The Instructor 3.12.95Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The apostolic household code: wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves, and masters; then Paul's exhortations to walk by the Spirit, bear burdens, be at peace, pray, and speak graciously.
The Instructor 3.12.96Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · More apostolic counsels: train for godliness, serve believing masters faithfully, give generously, love sincerely, pray constantly, and practice hospitality.
The Instructor 3.6.36Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Only the good, the Christians, can possess true goods: righteousness and the Word; the one who asks God receives, so the godly possess all things.
Prophetic Extracts 10.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Those in frail bodies, like sailors in an old ship, pray constantly.
Prophetic Extracts 15.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · When the apostles could not cast out a demon, Christ showed that prayer is stronger than faith,
Prophetic Extracts 15.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · saying such cases need prayer. The believer is forgiven by the Lord; the one who has attained knowledge no longer sins and so forgives himself the rest.
Prophetic Extracts 19.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · One who advances from faith and fear to knowledge calls God “Our Father,” not as a slave.
Prophetic Extracts 19.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Freed from the spirit of slavery and adopted through love, he keeps the commandments out of love and cries “Abba, Father.”
Prophetic Extracts 64.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · “Save the king” means the people anointed for the kingdom, as the plural “hear us” shows.
Excerpts from Theodotus 84.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Hence the fasts, prayers, raised hands, and kneeling before baptism: a soul is rescued from the lions' mouth, and temptations follow from the angry powers.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 1.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The truly loving course is to help the rich toward salvation, by prayer to God and by teaching that leads them to the truth and to good works.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 1.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Prayer needs perseverance to the end of life, and conduct needs a steady will to keep all the Savior's commandments.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 34.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The poor believers helped by the rich become their bodyguards, whose prayers, laying on of hands, and exorcisms protect them.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 35.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Each of these poor believers serves: some pray for you, some comfort, teach, or admonish, and all love you sincerely.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 4.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Clement prays that the Savior will help him give the brethren a true and saving account of hope.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 40.6Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Deep-rooted passions cannot be cut off at once, but with God's power, prayer, brotherly help, repentance, and practice they are overcome.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 41.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · The guide should intercede for him through many nights of prayer, for the Father cannot resist his children's pleas.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 41.6Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · His intercession is pure if he is honored as God's messenger and grieves only for the rich man's sake; this is sincere repentance.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 41.7Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · God is not mocked: he searches hearts, heard the three youths in the fire and Jonah in the whale, and is near to believers.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 42.15Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · John assured him of Christ's forgiveness, kissed his right hand, and restored him to the church through prayer, fasting, and teaching: an example of true repentance.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 42.20Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Doxology to the Father through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Miscellanies 1.1.8Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The word should not be handed to those full of sophistry, but received by faith, which then brings understanding; the believer should pray David's psalm of cleansing.
Miscellanies 1.6.34Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Prayer and the care of the soul need knowledge: goodness comes by learning, not by nature alone; the gifted can fall through neglect, the less gifted rise by education; God made us sociable and just.
Miscellanies 2.23.145Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Marriage must be kept pure like a sacred image, with prayer morning and night and decency in word and deed; Scripture forbids divorce except for sexual immorality and counts remarriage adultery while the other spouse lives.
Miscellanies 3.1.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Basilidians read “better to marry than to burn” as advice not to wear out the soul in struggle; Isidore counsels marriage for those who cannot pray free of desire, and otherwise brotherly help.
Miscellanies 3.11.78Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul contrasts living by the flesh, which is death and enmity to God, with life in the Spirit; believers are sons of God by the Spirit of adoption, not free to indulge the flesh.
Miscellanies 3.12.79Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul's permission for spouses to abstain by consent and for a time teaches self-control without endangering marriage; celibacy and marriage each have their own service to the Lord, and bishops should be tested by ruling their households.
Miscellanies 3.12.81Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Tatian taught that returning to marital relations after prayer serves the devil; Clement answers that sexual immorality is devilish, but chaste marriage unites for prayer and children, as Scripture's “Adam knew Eve … God raised up seed” shows.
Miscellanies 4.17.109Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Following 1 Clement, faith in Christ confirms the psalm's call to fear the Lord, avoid evil, do good, and seek peace, which Clement reads as the mystery of the seventh and eighth: perfection in deed and word.
Miscellanies 4.18.113Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Love keeps one from sin, and if one falls, confession and a broken spirit please God; God is love, and love fulfills the law, as Christ does; the same deed differs as done from fear or from love, by faith or by knowledge.
Miscellanies 4.19.119Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Esther, by fasting and prayer, saved Israel from Haman; Miriam shared leadership with Moses; Susanna, condemned by the lustful elders, remained an unwavering witness to chastity even to death.
Miscellanies 4.22.141Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Sleep and death both withdraw the soul, as Heraclitus says; Paul calls us to wake, for salvation is near, and to put on the weapons of light, that is, the Son's precepts; hence washing before prayer.
Miscellanies 4.22.142Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Outward washing before prayer symbolizes inner purity, holy thought; the image of baptism passed from Moses to the poets, as in Homer's Penelope and Telemachus; true purity is of mind, deeds, words, and even dreams.
Miscellanies 4.23.148Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Obedience for reward is bait; the knower turns from sensible to intelligible things out of love, admiring creation and its Maker, and prays to be free of desire, content with little, near to God.
Miscellanies 4.23.152Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ removed anger with desire; the one deified into freedom from passion becomes one; like sailors pulling on an anchor who draw themselves to it, those who seek God are drawn to him; serving God is caring for oneself, and purity makes one like God.
Miscellanies 4.26.171Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Pythagoreans prayed aloud so that prayers would be just; Christians should let their works cry out as in daylight, imitating God; the poets' epithets “godlike” echo the image and likeness of God.
Miscellanies 5.10.61Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement distinguishes the mysteries handed down by the apostles from the faith preached to the Gentiles, and reads “every person perfect in Christ” as the whole person purified, since knowledge is not for all.
Miscellanies 5.3.16Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Hope and faith see with the mind; the Word, who is the truth, is seen by the mind, as Plato's truth is seen only by the mind; the Word created the world and then became flesh to be seen; the kingdom is seized by persistent righteous living and prayer.
Miscellanies 6.12.101Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Sarah laughed from modesty, not unbelief, and Abraham called her his sister; God grants the prayers of the repentant when they ask, but gives to the knower at a mere thought, as with Hannah, since he knows the heart and foreknew that creation was good.
Miscellanies 6.12.102Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The knower prays at all times, first for forgiveness, then for power to do good and to understand creation, aiming at the face-to-face vision; fasting means abstaining from all evil, and righteousness must be complete on every side.
Miscellanies 6.14.112Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Without knowledge one cannot rightly handle life; the fight for freedom from pleasure goes on everywhere, and those who do not do good do not know their own good, so they cannot pray rightly or use God's gifts well.
Miscellanies 6.14.113Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · A good conscience keeps the soul holy toward God and just toward others; such a soul, empowered by the Lord, practices being godlike, gives thanks in reading, prayer, offering, and song, and is never separated from God.
Miscellanies 6.3.28Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Greeks themselves tell wonders like those of the prophets, such as Aeacus' prayer that ended a drought, so they cannot reasonably disbelieve the miracles of Moses and the prophets.
Miscellanies 6.3.29Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Samuel's prayer for rain shows that the one God answers the prayers of the righteous; the Greeks tell similar stories of Aristaeus and of the Delphians' sacrifice to the winds.
Miscellanies 6.9.77Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Through love the future is present to the one who knows; he does not pray for earthly goods but to keep the faith and that many may become like him, for whoever resembles the Savior helps save others.
Miscellanies 6.9.78Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God answers the knower before he speaks; knowledge, acquired and made firm by practice and love, grasps God, his Son, and all the Lord taught, from creation to the end.
Miscellanies 7.12.73Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The one who knows prays always and receives what he asks, because he asks only for what is good; righteousness chosen freely, not from fear or hope of reward, is the royal road.
Miscellanies 7.12.78Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The one who knows shares others' sufferings, gives even from his own need, lives as a stranger on earth ready for death, does everything in holiness whether eating, drinking, or marrying, and prays together with the angels and saints.
Miscellanies 7.12.79Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Righteousness from fear avoids evil, but love does good freely; the prayer of the one who knows is thanksgiving for past, present, and future, and he lives ready to depart and be with Christ, having renounced fleshly attachments.
Miscellanies 7.13.81Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The one who knows forgives all who wrong him and prays accordingly; he prays for the needs of poor brothers rather than for wealth to give them, and becomes an instrument of God's goodness.
Miscellanies 7.6.31Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God needs no food, not even the savor of burnt offerings that Hesiod describes; Christians honor him by prayer offered through the Word, and their altar on earth is the assembly united in prayer.
Miscellanies 7.6.32Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God does not breathe or eat; the church's true sacrifice is prayer rising from holy souls, the righteous soul is the true altar, and the sacrifices of the law are allegories of the soul's cleansing.
Miscellanies 7.6.34Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God wants sacrifices dear to him, not costly ones: the true incense is the united prayer and praise of all nations in one faith, and the holy fire purifies sinful souls, not meat.
Miscellanies 7.7.35Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The one who knows worships God not only on special days or in special places but all his life and everywhere, praising God at work and on journeys, grave toward God and cheerful over his gifts.
Miscellanies 7.7.37Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God needs no bodily ears to hear prayer: he knows the thoughts and choices of the holy directly, searching the depths of the soul like a lamp.
Miscellanies 7.7.38Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Prayer offered with an unworthy idea of God is not true piety; since prayers follow desires, the one who knows prays for the true goods of the soul and works to become good himself.
Miscellanies 7.7.39Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Those who know God and the true goods should pray to the one good God; prayer is converse with God, and even silent prayer is a cry that he hears.
Miscellanies 7.7.40Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · In prayer Christians raise head and hands and stand on tiptoe, straining toward God; some keep the third, sixth, and ninth hours, but the one who knows prays throughout his whole life.
Miscellanies 7.7.41Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Against the followers of Prodicus, who say one need not pray, Clement holds that the one who knows according to the church's rule receives what he asks; he gives thanks and prays for others' conversion, as the Lord did.
Miscellanies 7.7.42Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Every chance to approach God in prayer should be taken; God does good freely, not by necessity, and saves those who freely turn to him, and his providence cares for us as a shepherd cares for sheep.
Miscellanies 7.7.43Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Any place and time can be holy for prayer; God hears thoughts without words, so one may pray in silence; Christians pray facing the east, the image of the rising light of knowledge.
Miscellanies 7.7.44Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The wicked harm themselves by praying for apparent goods; the one who knows prays for the true goods of the soul, is content, united with the Spirit in love, and speaks the truth frankly without fear or favor.
Miscellanies 7.7.46Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · God gives each what he needs; the beginner asks for faith, the advancing believer for perfect love, and the one who knows prays that his contemplation may grow and that he may never fall, as some angels did.
Miscellanies 7.7.49Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Whoever converses with God must be pure; the life of the one who knows is a continual festival of prayer, praise, Scripture reading, psalms, and hymns, together with giving to the needy, and he prays everywhere, often silently.
Octavius 27.5Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Demons confess what they are when Christians cast them out.
Octavius 29.8Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · The shape of the cross is found in nature, in ships, and in the posture of prayer.
To the Nations 1.13Tertullian · 197 · Christians are thought to worship the sun because they pray eastward and keep Sunday, but pagans themselves honor the sun and have even borrowed Jewish sabbath customs.
On the Shows 25Tertullian · ca. 197–202 · No one can think of God at the shows, which stir lust and passion; the hands and mouth used in worship should not applaud actors and gladiators.
On Baptism 20Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Candidates should prepare for baptism with prayer, fasting, vigils, and confession of sins; after baptism they should pray for spiritual gifts and remember Tertullian in their prayers.
On Prayer 1Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Christ, the Spirit, Word, and Reason of God, gave his new disciples a new, brief form of prayer, to be offered in secret, that sums up the whole gospel.
On Prayer 10Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · After the Lord's Prayer, as a foundation, believers may add their own petitions for particular needs.
On Prayer 11Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Before praying we must be reconciled with our brothers and put away anger, as Christ and the apostle commanded.
On Prayer 12Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Prayer must come from a spirit free of every disturbance, for the Holy Spirit receives only a spirit like his own.
On Prayer 13Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · What matters in prayer is a clean spirit and hands clean of sin, not ritual handwashing, which some practice in imitation of Pilate.
On Prayer 14Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Jewish ritual washing cannot cleanse hands stained with the blood of the prophets and of Christ; Christians pray with hands raised and outstretched in the shape of the cross.
On Prayer 15Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Tertullian rejects superstitious customs in prayer with no apostolic warrant, such as removing one's cloak, which imitates pagan practice.
On Prayer 16Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The custom of sitting down after prayer has no authority; the Shepherd of Hermas mentions it only as narrative, and it is irreverent before God and his angel.
On Prayer 17Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Prayer should be offered humbly and quietly, like the tax collector's, since God hears the heart, as Jonah's prayer from the whale shows.
On Prayer 18Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Those fasting should not refuse the kiss of peace after common prayer, since that reveals their fast, which Christ commanded be kept hidden; only on the public fast of Passover is the kiss rightly omitted.
On Prayer 2Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · In calling God “Father” we honor him, fulfill Christ's command, and acknowledge the Son and the church, our mother, while rebuking those who do not know the Father.
On Prayer 23Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Christians do not kneel on Sunday or during the Easter season, as signs of joy, but kneel at other times, especially on fast days; Scripture sets no fixed times, only to pray always.
On Prayer 24Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Praying “in every place” does not contradict the command not to pray in public; it means wherever occasion or necessity requires, as the apostles did in prison and on the ship.
On Prayer 25Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Though no hours of prayer are commanded, it is good to pray at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, as the apostles did, besides morning and evening prayer and prayer before meals and bathing.
On Prayer 26Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Hospitality should include prayer, both when receiving a brother and when being received, as Christ commanded his disciples to greet a house with peace.
On Prayer 27Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Some add the Alleluia and responsorial psalms to their prayers, a good practice that honors God.
On Prayer 28Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Prayer offered in spirit and truth is the spiritual sacrifice that replaces the old sacrifices, and Christians are its priests.
On Prayer 29Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Prayer has great power: in the old covenant it worked deliverances and punishments, but Christian prayer brings endurance in suffering, turns away God's wrath, and does only good; all creation prays, and Christ himself prayed.
On Prayer 3Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The Father's name, revealed in the Son, is already holy; in praying “hallowed be your name” we join the angels' praise and ask that it be hallowed in us and in all people, even our enemies.
On Prayer 4Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · In praying “your will be done” we ask that God's saving will be done in us, flesh and spirit, and prepare ourselves to endure as Christ submitted to the Father's will in his passion.
On Prayer 5Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Praying for God's kingdom to come means longing for the end of the world and the final vindication of the martyrs, not asking for the world to be prolonged.
On Prayer 6Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The petition for daily bread is chiefly a prayer for Christ, the bread of life, and union with his body; taken literally it asks only for what is needed today.
On Prayer 7Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · After asking for bread we ask for forgiveness, confessing our sins and promising to forgive others, as Christ taught in the parable of the unforgiving servant.
On Prayer 8Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · “Lead us not into temptation” means “do not let us be led into it” by the devil, the true tempter; the last clause, “deliver us from evil,” explains it.
On Prayer 9Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The Lord's Prayer, though brief, sums up the teaching of Scripture and fulfills every duty of prayer, because God himself taught it.
On Repentance 10Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Many avoid public penance out of shame, but among fellow Christians the sinner is before Christ himself, who prays for him; hiding sin from men does not hide it from God.
On Repentance 9Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The second repentance must be shown outwardly in exomologesis, public confession with sackcloth, ashes, fasting, weeping, and kneeling before the presbyters and the faithful, through which God pardons.
Against Marcion 4.1Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Opening his examination of Marcion's gospel, Tertullian turns Marcion's Antitheses against him: the Creator himself foretold a new law and covenant, and contrasts in his works point to one God, not two.
Against Marcion 4.13Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's preaching on the mountain, his night of prayer, the choice of twelve apostles, the renaming of Peter, and the crowds from Tyre all correspond to the Creator's prophecies and figures.
Against Marcion 4.26Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The Lord's Prayer, the teaching on asking and knocking, the casting out of demons “by the finger of God,” and the blessing of those who hear God's word all point to the Creator as the Father to whom Christ taught his disciples to pray.
Against Marcion 4.36Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The parables of the persistent widow and of the Pharisee and the publican, the rich young ruler, and the blind man who called Jesus “son of David” all show that Christ taught prayer to, and obedience toward, the Creator, and was truly David's descendant.
Against Praxeas 23Tertullian · ca. 213 or later · At Lazarus' tomb and in the voice from heaven, Son and Father speak to each other, the Son on earth and the Father in heaven; they are two persons, not one God changing roles, and it was the Son, not the Father, who was betrayed and glorified.
To Scapula 2Tertullian · 212 · Christians worship the one God, hold that religion must not be compelled, pray for the emperor to their God, and are loyal and peaceable subjects who leave vengeance to God.
To Scapula 4Tertullian · 212 · Tertullian urges Scapula not to fight against God, citing lenient governors, Christian healings of pagans, the favor of Severus, the rain miracle under Marcus Aurelius, and the blameless life of Christians.
Refutation of All Heresies 5.9.18Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Euphrates is the mouth, and the water above the firmament is the living water Jesus offers.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.21.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Essenes pray and sing hymns before speaking at dawn, then work until the fifth hour.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.21.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · They eat bread and one dish in silence, with blessing and hymns before and after.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.23.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The initiate swears to revere God, wrong no one, hate no one but pray for enemies, and be faithful to rulers, since authority comes from God.
On Prayer 1.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Things impossible for human nature, such as wisdom and knowledge of God's mind, become possible by God's grace through Christ and the Spirit.
On Prayer 10.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · One who prays rightly, content with God's providence and without secret murmuring, will hear God say “Here I am,” as Isaiah promises.
On Prayer 10.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · The one who prays rightly shares in the Word of God, the high priest and advocate who prays with those who pray; Jesus' parables urge us to pray always and without shame.
On Prayer 11.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Christ is not alone in praying with us: the angels, as Raphael shows in Tobit, and the departed saints, as Jeremiah shows in 2 Maccabees, pray for us too.
On Prayer 11.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · The departed saints, perfected in love of neighbor, care for those still struggling on earth even more than they did in this life, as Christ counts believers' sufferings as his own.
On Prayer 11.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Angels who ministered to Jesus on earth still serve him in gathering and building the church, as the angels of the churches in Revelation show.
On Prayer 11.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · The angels help those who pray, much as God may bring a physician to a sick man who prays, or a generous rich man to a poor man in need.
On Prayer 11.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · God, who numbers every hair, brings angels to help those who pray; each believer's guardian angel prays and works with him.
On Prayer 12.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · The prayers of the saints are powerful, like light and like arrows, weakening and wounding the evil spirits that try to bind us in sin.
On Prayer 12.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · To pray without ceasing is to make one's whole life a prayer by joining it to good works, while also praying at least three times a day, as well as at night.
On Prayer 13.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · If Jesus himself prayed and received what he asked through prayer, none of us should neglect to pray.
On Prayer 13.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Scripture gives many examples of answered prayer: Hannah, Hezekiah, Mordecai and Esther, Judith, the three youths, Daniel, and Jonah.
On Prayer 13.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Every believer can recount answered prayers: barren souls made fruitful, spiritual enemies scattered, temptations passed through unharmed, and sinners rescued from death through repentance.
On Prayer 13.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · The deliverances in Scripture are types of spiritual gifts; Christians should pray not for earthly things but for fruitfulness of soul and deliverance from spiritual enemies.
On Prayer 13.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · As Samuel's prayer brought thunder and rain and Elijah's opened the heavens, the saints' prayers now bring the rain of grace to souls in the harvest of the gospel.
On Prayer 14.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · The unwritten saying “ask for great and heavenly things, and small and earthly ones will be added” means we should pray for the spiritual realities of which Scripture's stories are types.
On Prayer 14.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen distinguishes the four words of 1 Timothy 2:1: supplication asks for what is lacking, prayer glorifies God about greater things, intercession asks with boldness, and thanksgiving acknowledges gifts received.
On Prayer 14.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Examples of supplication: Zechariah's prayer for a son, Moses' pleas for Israel, and the prayers of Mordecai and Esther.
On Prayer 14.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Examples of prayer in the strict sense, offered with glorification: Azarias, Tobit, Hannah, Habakkuk, and Jonah.
On Prayer 14.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · Examples of intercession, made with boldness, are the Spirit's intercession, Joshua's command to the sun, and Samson's last words; Jesus' thanks to the Father is an example of thanksgiving.
On Prayer 14.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Supplication, intercession, and thanksgiving may be offered to people too, especially to saints; still more should we thank Christ and intercede with him, as Stephen did.
On Prayer 15.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen argues that prayer in the strict sense should be addressed only to the Father, not to Christ, but always through Christ the High Priest.
On Prayer 15.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Prayer is to be addressed to the Father, but always through and in the name of Jesus, as he taught.
On Prayer 15.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · To the objection that angels are told to worship Christ, Origen answers that Scripture also says kings will bow down to the church, so worship in this sense is not the same as prayer.
On Prayer 15.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen imagines Christ saying: do not pray to me but to the Father, through me as your High Priest and brother.
On Prayer 16.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Christians should not be divided by praying some to the Father and some to the Son, but should pray to God through Christ, serving him out of love rather than fear.
On Prayer 16.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Bodily blessings follow spiritual gifts like a shadow follows a body; God gives the spiritual gifts, and the earthly ones come with them.
On Prayer 16.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · The answered prayers of Hannah, Hezekiah, Esther, Judith, the three youths, Daniel, and Jonah were more spiritual than bodily deliverances.
On Prayer 17.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Like shadows that vary with the sun's position, earthly blessings may or may not accompany spiritual gifts; the one who has the light does not care about the shadow.
On Prayer 17.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Whoever has glimpsed the soul's true beauty, the unshakable kingdom, and the heavenly powers will despise earthly beauty, rank, and power, and pray for heavenly things.
On Prayer 18.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Having treated prayer in general, Origen turns to the Lord's Prayer.
On Prayer 18.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen sets out the Lord's Prayer as given in Matthew and in Luke.
On Prayer 18.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen suggests that the prayers in Matthew and Luke, given on different occasions, may be two different prayers with parts in common; Mark has none.
On Prayer 19.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Before the Lord's Prayer Jesus warns against praying to be seen, like the hypocrites, or babbling, like the Gentiles.
On Prayer 19.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Jesus condemns praying for human glory; those who pray or give to be seen already have their reward, as the rich man had his good things in this life.
On Prayer 19.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Those who follow the broad, crooked road of pleasure, even praying at feasts while drunk, are the ones who pray “at the street corners,” not on Christ's narrow and straight way.
On Prayer 2.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen tells Ambrose and Tatiana that explaining prayer rightly is humanly impossible; even Paul confessed that we do not know how to pray as we ought.
On Prayer 2.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen distinguishes what we should pray for, such as heavenly things and laborers for the harvest, from the right disposition in prayer, such as reconciliation, purity, and self-control in marriage.
On Prayer 2.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Paul confessed he did not know how to pray as he ought, but the Spirit intercedes for the saints with groanings too deep for words.
On Prayer 2.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · The mind cannot pray rightly unless the Spirit prays first; so a disciple, though trained in Jewish prayer, asked Jesus to teach them to pray as John had.
On Prayer 2.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · Spiritual prayers written in Scripture, such as Hannah's and the psalms titled “prayer,” are full of the doctrines of God's wisdom.
On Prayer 2.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen prays for the Spirit's help before beginning his treatise on prayer.
On Prayer 20.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · The saint prays not in the “synagogue” or on street corners to be seen by men, but in the church, on the narrow way, to appear before God.
On Prayer 20.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Hypocrites are actors of righteousness in their own theater; the true worshiper shuts the door of the senses in the inner room of the heart, where the Father and the Son dwell.
On Prayer 21.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Prayer should be speech about God, not babbling; to babble is to ask God for bodily and earthly things, as the Gentiles do.
On Prayer 21.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Many words mean many and divided things, as evil and falsehood are many while good and truth are one; the Father knows what his children truly need.
On Prayer 22.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · The Old Testament calls God Father and his people sons, but Origen finds no prayer there in which anyone addresses God as “Father.”
On Prayer 22.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Under the old covenant God's sons were like children under guardians; with Christ's coming believers receive the spirit of adoption and become God's children in truth.
On Prayer 22.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Only true children of God, whose lives and hearts agree with their words, can rightly call God “Father,” just as only a life of obedience truly says “Jesus is Lord.”
On Prayer 22.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · The saints are an image of Christ, who is the image of God, and so bear the likeness of sonship; the Son came to destroy the devil's seed in sinners so they may become God's children.
On Prayer 22.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · “Our Father in heaven” should be said by our whole life, lived as citizens of heaven, not only at set times of prayer.
On Prayer 23.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · “In heaven” does not mean that God is enclosed in a place; biblical language of place, like Jesus' going to the Father, must be understood spiritually.
On Prayer 23.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · The Son's “going to the Father” is not a movement from place to place but his return from his humble state to his own fullness, an ascent of the mind rather than of the body.
On Prayer 23.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · To think God is in a bodily place implies he is a body, divisible and corruptible; so passages like God walking in paradise must not be taken literally.
On Prayer 23.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · God “walks” and “dwells” in the saints and in Christ; “heaven” may mean the saints or Christ himself, the Father's throne, with the church as his footstool.
On Prayer 23.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · “In heaven” sets God's being apart from all creatures, though they receive his glory and power; Scripture's language of place must be read spiritually.
On Prayer 24.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen asks how a human being can pray that God's name be made holy, and what God's “name” and its hallowing mean.
On Prayer 24.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · A name expresses a person's distinctive quality; God's unchanging name is “He who is,” and to hallow it is for our conception of God to become holy.
On Prayer 24.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Scripture's “name of God” means his distinctive quality: it is taken in vain when misapplied, and it is called upon by teachers whose words refresh hearers like rain and dew.
On Prayer 24.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · To exalt God's name together is to reach a shared true knowledge of God; one exalts God by dedicating one's own soul to him as a house.
On Prayer 24.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · The Lord's Prayer uses imperatives that express wishes; Origen refutes Tatian, who wrongly took God's “Let there be light” as a prayer rather than a command.
On Prayer 25.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · The kingdom of God is within us; to pray “your kingdom come” is to ask that God's rule may grow and be perfected in our souls, displacing the rule of sin.
On Prayer 25.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · We keep praying “hallowed be your name” and “your kingdom come” because we grow toward perfection only by degrees, until God is all in all.
On Prayer 25.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · God's kingdom cannot coexist with sin's; if we put sin to death and bear the Spirit's fruit, Christ reigns in us until every enemy, even death, is defeated.
On Prayer 26.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Found only in Matthew, this petition asks that we on earth may do God's will as the heavenly beings do, and so become like them.
On Prayer 26.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · “As in heaven so on earth” may apply to all three petitions: God's name, kingdom, and will are already realized in heaven and are prayed for on earth.
On Prayer 26.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Since evil spirits exist even “in the heavenly places,” one solution takes heaven to mean Christ and earth the church, which prays to do the Father's will as Christ did.
On Prayer 26.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · An objection from Christ's words “all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth” is met by applying them to the human nature of Christ, exalted and united with the divine Son.
On Prayer 26.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · Evil spirits are not truly “in heaven,” because where one belongs depends on the will, not on place; the saints on earth are heavenly, and the demons, though in the heavens, are earthly.
On Prayer 26.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Whoever sins is “earth” and whoever does God's will is “heaven”; the petition asks that God's will transform all that is earthly until everything becomes heaven.
On Prayer 27.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen rejects the view that “daily bread” means bodily bread, since Jesus taught us to ask for heavenly and great things.
On Prayer 27.10Origen · ca. 233–234 · The daily bread is also the tree of life and the wisdom of God, the food of the angels, which the psalm calls “the bread of angels.”
On Prayer 27.11Origen · ca. 233–234 · Abraham's meal for the three visitors may figure how saints can nourish even angels with spiritual food, as Christ promises to dine with whoever opens the door to him.
On Prayer 27.12Origen · ca. 233–234 · Christ is food that makes us sons of God, while those who feed on the devil become like serpents; Peter's vision shows that the clean and unclean animals signify kinds of people, all of whom God can cleanse.
On Prayer 27.13Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen prefers his derivation of “daily” from “being” to one from “the coming day,” and explains that in Scripture “today” can mean this whole age and “yesterday” the past age.
On Prayer 27.14Origen · ca. 233–234 · The feasts, sabbaths, and jubilees of the law may be shadows of the ordering of whole ages, known fully only to God.
On Prayer 27.15Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen conjectures that the present age is the end of one “year” of ages, after which further ages will come in which God will show the riches of his grace.
On Prayer 27.16Origen · ca. 233–234 · Whoever glimpses God's vast ordering of the ages will not be petty about the present, but will prepare to receive the daily bread “today” and “each day,” and more than he can ask or imagine.
On Prayer 27.17Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen briefly notes that the bread is called “ours” because, as Paul says, all things belong to the saints.
On Prayer 27.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Jesus taught in John 6 that the true bread from heaven is himself, the Word, which nourishes the inner man made in God's image.
On Prayer 27.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · In John 6 Jesus speaks of the bread from heaven both as the Father's gift and as himself, the bread of life.
On Prayer 27.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Christ's flesh, the Word made flesh, is true food for the mature; when we eat and drink him, he dwells in us and we behold his glory.
On Prayer 27.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · As Paul says, milk is for spiritual infants and solid food for the mature; even Romans 14 on eating everything or only vegetables refers mainly to spiritual teaching.
On Prayer 27.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Simple but sound teaching is better than brilliant teaching that denies that the Father of Jesus gave the law and the prophets; we should ask the Father for the living bread.
On Prayer 27.7Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen notes that the word translated “daily,” epiousios, seems coined by the evangelists, and derives it from ousia, “being”: the bread that sustains our being.
On Prayer 27.8Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen reviews two philosophical views of “being”: the Platonist view that being belongs properly to incorporeal things, and the Stoic view that it is the qualityless matter underlying bodies.
On Prayer 27.9Origen · ca. 233–234 · The “daily bread” is the Word of God, which passes into the soul's very being as food passes into the body, strengthening each according to his capacity and imparting immortality.
On Prayer 28.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · The petition on debts recalls Paul's teaching that we owe others not only money but kind words, deeds, and above all love.
On Prayer 28.10Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen criticizes clergy who claim they can forgive idolatry, adultery, and sexual immorality by their prayers, ignoring the “sin unto death,” and contrasts Job's care even over possible sins of thought.
On Prayer 28.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · We owe duties to fellow Christians, to family, to fellow citizens, to all people, and even to our own body, soul, mind, and speech.
On Prayer 28.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Above all we owe God wholehearted love, Christ the price of our redemption, the Holy Spirit fruit that does not grieve him, our guardian angels their due, and the watching world a worthy performance.
On Prayer 28.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Widows, deacons, presbyters, and above all bishops have special debts to pay, as do husband and wife to each other; in this life no one is ever free of debt.
On Prayer 28.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · Every unpaid debt of duty is written on the soul as a bond against us, to be read at the judgment seat of Christ.
On Prayer 28.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Remembering our own unpaid debts to God and others should make us gentle toward those who fail in their duties to us.
On Prayer 28.7Origen · ca. 233–234 · Whoever will not forgive will be treated like the unforgiving servant in the parable; we must forgive the repentant even seven times a day and seek the healing even of the unrepentant.
On Prayer 28.8Origen · ca. 233–234 · Everyone can forgive sins committed against himself; but only one who has received the Spirit, like the apostles, can forgive what God forgives and retain incurable sins.
On Prayer 28.9Origen · ca. 233–234 · As the law's priests could not offer sacrifice for adultery or murder, so the apostles and those like them, taught by the Spirit, know which sins can be forgiven and which must be retained.
On Prayer 29.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Since all human life is a time of testing, Origen asks how we can pray not to enter into temptation.
On Prayer 29.10Origen · ca. 233–234 · Even reading Scripture is a temptation: many have misread it and invented a false Father or Son, worshiping a figment instead of the true God.
On Prayer 29.11Origen · ca. 233–234 · We pray not to escape temptation but not to be overcome; Origen then asks how the good God can be said to “lead” anyone into temptation.
On Prayer 29.12Origen · ca. 233–234 · Paul says God “gave up” sinners to their desires; this refutes those who divide the Godhead into a just God of the law and a merely good Father who never judges.
On Prayer 29.13Origen · ca. 233–234 · God governs each free soul toward its eternal life, sometimes letting sinners have their fill of sin so that they come to hate it, as he gave Israel quail until they loathed it.
On Prayer 29.14Origen · ca. 233–234 · God gave Israel meat until they were sick of it, so that they would be cured of their craving; so he may let sinners be sated with sin until they hate it and return to heavenly food.
On Prayer 29.15Origen · ca. 233–234 · Idolaters given up to shameful passions receive the penalty of their error; but the purifying fire and prison of God's judgment are a benefit, cleansing sinners so that they may freely turn from evil.
On Prayer 29.16Origen · ca. 233–234 · God's hardening of Pharaoh and his snares are just and remedial; we should pray to do nothing that would deserve being led by God's judgment into temptation.
On Prayer 29.17Origen · ca. 233–234 · Temptations reveal what is hidden in our souls, even from ourselves, so that we can recognize our evils and give thanks for our good.
On Prayer 29.18Origen · ca. 233–234 · Examples from Genesis show that temptation reveals what was already in the heart: Eve's weakness, Cain's wickedness, Ham's impiety, Esau's profanity, and Joseph's self-control.
On Prayer 29.19Origen · ca. 233–234 · Between trials we should prepare for every possible temptation; God will make up what our weakness lacks.
On Prayer 29.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Scripture teaches that all life on earth is a trial; God does not spare us temptation but keeps it within our strength, whether we wrestle against the flesh or, as the mature do, against spiritual powers.
On Prayer 29.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · God tests everyone, as Judith, the Psalms, and Acts all show, so the petition cannot mean escaping every test.
On Prayer 29.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · If the petition meant escaping all trials, the apostles, who suffered countless hardships, would have prayed in vain.
On Prayer 29.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · No condition of life is free from temptation: the poor may steal, the rich grow proud, and even Paul and Hezekiah were in danger of pride.
On Prayer 29.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Poverty, wealth, and moderate means each bring their own temptations.
On Prayer 29.7Origen · ca. 233–234 · Health and sickness both bring temptations: the healthy to sins of the body, the sick to impure thoughts, impatience, and shame at bearing Christ's name.
On Prayer 29.8Origen · ca. 233–234 · Honor among men is also a temptation, leading the high born to pride and the low born to flattery that counterfeits love.
On Prayer 29.9Origen · ca. 233–234 · Since all life is a trial, we pray not to escape temptation but not to be overcome by it; Christ enters the net of temptation to call his bride out of it.
On Prayer 3.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen begins by noting that the Greek word for prayer, euchē, first appears in Scripture as Jacob's vow at Bethel.
On Prayer 3.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · The word euchē means a vow, but Scripture also uses it for ordinary prayer, as when Pharaoh asks Moses to pray against the frogs.
On Prayer 3.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen traces where the word for prayer occurs in the story of the plagues of Egypt.
On Prayer 3.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Many passages of the law, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Acts use euchē in the sense of a vow rather than a prayer.
On Prayer 30.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Luke's shorter prayer includes “deliver us from evil”; God delivers us not by removing trials but by helping us overcome them, afflicted but not crushed.
On Prayer 30.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · God delivered Job from the evil one not by sparing him temptation but by keeping him faithful through two great trials; the threefold victory over the tempter was reserved for Christ.
On Prayer 30.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · We should pray not to be conquered by temptation, quenching the evil one's fiery darts with the shield of faith and the living water of saving thoughts.
On Prayer 31.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen turns to practical matters of prayer: the disposition of soul, bodily posture, place, direction, and time.
On Prayer 31.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Before prayer one should collect oneself, put away distractions and grudges, and ordinarily pray standing with hands outstretched and eyes raised, though the sick or busy may pray sitting, lying, or unseen.
On Prayer 31.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Kneeling is fitting when confessing sins; the “bowing of every knee” in heaven and earth to Jesus must be understood spiritually, since heavenly beings do not have bodily knees.
On Prayer 31.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Any place can serve for prayer, but it is best to have a quiet, set place at home, free of past sin; Origen even suggests avoiding the place of marital intercourse.
On Prayer 31.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · Prayer in the assembly of believers is especially valuable, because angels, the power of Christ, and the spirits of the saints, living and departed, are present with the church.
On Prayer 31.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Where a congregation is full of unrepentant sinners, it becomes an assembly of wicked men and evil angels, from which God turns away his eyes.
On Prayer 31.7Origen · ca. 233–234 · Communities that abandon God's law are abandoned by him and his angels, as Jerusalem was, and like the barren fig tree lose even the little faith they had.
On Prayer 32.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Christians should face east when they pray, as a symbol of the soul turning to the rising of the true light, even indoors.
On Prayer 33.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen outlines the parts of prayer: begin with praise of God through Christ in the Holy Spirit, then thanksgiving, confession, requests for heavenly things, and end with praise.
On Prayer 33.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · An example of praise is Psalm 104, which glorifies God as Creator.
On Prayer 33.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · An example of thanksgiving is David's prayer after God's promise through Nathan.
On Prayer 33.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Examples of confession come from the Psalms.
On Prayer 33.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · An example of petition comes from Psalm 28.
On Prayer 33.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Prayer should begin and end with praise of the Father through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.
On Prayer 34.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen closes by asking Ambrose and Tatiana to read his work with indulgence and to pray that he may later write more worthily on prayer.
On Prayer 4.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Proseuchē, the usual word for prayer, can also be joined with a vow, as in Hannah's prayer for a son.
On Prayer 4.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Hannah both prayed and made a vow; her promise to give her son to God was a vow like Jephthah's, not a prayer in the strict sense.
On Prayer 5.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Almost no one who believes in God's providence rejects prayer, but some heretics who reject baptism and the Eucharist have been persuaded that one should not pray.
On Prayer 5.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · The first objection: God already knows what we need and cares for us like a father, so prayer seems unnecessary.
On Prayer 5.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · The second objection: if God has preordained everything, praying for what will happen anyway is as foolish as praying for the sun to rise.
On Prayer 5.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · A further objection: if Scripture says some are sinners from the womb and others chosen before birth, as Jacob and Esau were, prayer seems to change nothing.
On Prayer 5.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · The objection continues: if the elect are chosen before creation and Josiah and Judas were foretold, prayer cannot change God's unchangeable purpose.
On Prayer 5.6Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen quotes Ambrose's two questions: if God foreknows everything, and if his will cannot change, is prayer not vain?
On Prayer 6.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen distinguishes things moved from outside, things moved by their nature, animals that move themselves, and rational beings who move by their own reason.
On Prayer 6.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Denying free will is absurd: we experience ourselves choosing, and everyone praises and blames others as responsible for their acts.
On Prayer 6.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · God foreknows our free choices from the creation of the world, but his foreknowledge does not cause them; it lets him fit each choice into the government of the universe.
On Prayer 6.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · God foresees how each person will pray and orders in advance whether and how to answer, even which angel to send to help each one.
On Prayer 6.5Origen · ca. 233–234 · God foresaw Josiah's goodness, Judas's fall, and Paul's persecution and conversion, and arranged his help accordingly without taking away their freedom.
On Prayer 7.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Even the sun and stars have free will and praise God; but since they are wise and steady, nothing could turn them from their course, so praying for sunrise is not a fair analogy.
On Prayer 8.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Just as children require a woman, some things are obtained only by praying rightly: without babbling, anger, or unforgiveness, and for heavenly rather than earthly things.
On Prayer 8.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Even apart from being answered, prayer benefits the one who prays, because recalling God's presence restrains him from sin and moves him to good.
On Prayer 9.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · From 1 Timothy: men should pray with holy hands, free of anger and distraction, and women with modesty in soul and body, adorned with good works.
On Prayer 9.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Lifting the eyes and soul to God in prayer transforms the one who prays into God's image and makes the soul spiritual.
On Prayer 9.3Origen · ca. 233–234 · Coming to prayer free of grudges, as the prophet and Jesus command, already gives us the best of gifts.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 20Origen · 235 · This life is a place of affliction for the soul; the psalm assures us that God knows whether we have been faithful to him.
On the Trinity 14Novatian · ca. 240–250 · A series of questions shows that a mere man could not have made the world, come from heaven, be present everywhere when called upon, be the object of hope, precede John the Baptist, or give life as the Father does.
Against Celsus 3.34Origen · ca. 248 · Origen rejects Celsus's comparison of Christian worship with the hero cults of Zamolxis, Mopsus, and others: Christians build no temples or statues but, through Jesus as mediator and high priest, pray to the God over all.
Against Celsus 3.63Origen · ca. 248 · God is not swayed by flattery; the penitent's humble confession turns sinners back, and since all sin, Christ calls all who labor to find rest in him.
Against Celsus 3.64Origen · ca. 248 · A repentant sinner is preferred only to a self-satisfied man who thinks himself righteous, as in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
Against Celsus 4.1Origen · ca. 248 · Origen opens Book 4 with a prayer, asking for words like Jeremiah's to uproot Celsus's errors and to build up the truth, and turns to Celsus's attack on the prophecies of Christ.
Against Celsus 4.26Origen · ca. 248 · If anyone deserves to be called worms, it is idolaters and the sexually licentious, not Christians who rise from creation to the Creator, pray to him, endure death, and keep their bodies chaste as temples of God.
Against Celsus 4.27Origen · ca. 248 · True Christians who share in the church's common prayers are free of the vices common elsewhere; only those who are pure in heart, gentle, peacemakers, and willing to suffer may say God has revealed all things to them.
Against Celsus 4.28Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not claim God cares for them alone: Scripture teaches that God loves all he made, shows mercy to all flesh, sends sun and rain on all, and that Christ died for the sins of the whole world.
Against Celsus 4.33Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus obscurely mocks the Jews' descent from “sorcerers”; Origen notes that the patriarchs' names, in the formula “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” are used even by pagan magicians against demons, showing their holiness.
Against Celsus 4.34Origen · ca. 248 · The power of the patriarchs' names in exorcism can only be explained from Genesis, and their Hebrew names prove that the Jewish nation truly descends from them.
Against Celsus 4.50Origen · ca. 248 · The psalmist's prayer to see the wonders of God's law and the strange images of the prophets, like Ezekiel's dragon of Egypt, show that Scripture has hidden meanings; the Greek myths, by contrast, are silly and impious.
Against Celsus 4.95Origen · ca. 248 · True foreknowledge comes through God inspiring pure human prophets, not through animals; Moses forbade augury, and Christians guard their hearts so that only God's Spirit shapes their imagination.
Against Celsus 5.1Origen · ca. 248 · Opening Book 5, Origen tells his patron Ambrose he will answer every argument of Celsus, and prays that God, not human wisdom, will make his words effective.
Against Celsus 5.11Origen · ca. 248 · Those who know God and his Son as the true light will not worship sun and stars, which themselves pray to God through the Son; as Jesus sent praise on to the Father, so the sun would say, 'Worship God alone.'
Against Celsus 5.12Origen · ca. 248 · God is present everywhere by providence, and Christ is always with his disciples, so it is absurd to pray to the stars; even if they announce the weather, their Lord, not his heralds, deserves worship.
Against Celsus 5.4Origen · ca. 248 · Christians believe in angels who carry prayers up and blessings down, and who are sometimes called 'gods' in Scripture, but prayer and worship go to God alone through Christ the High Priest.
Against Celsus 5.5Origen · ca. 248 · Angels need not be invoked; prayer goes to God through the Son, and the angels favor those who imitate them; 'demons,' unlike 'angels,' always means evil powers.
Against Celsus 6.41Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says magic cannot touch philosophers, but Origen notes that philosophers fell under Apollonius's spell, whereas Christians who pray faithfully are protected by God's angels from magic and demons.
Against Celsus 6.70Origen · ca. 248 · God's Spirit is not a body but is shared with the worthy; Scripture calls God fire and spirit figuratively, and Jesus taught worship in spirit and truth rather than through bodily rites.
Against Celsus 7.1Origen · ca. 248 · Origen opens his seventh book with a prayer that God's truth may destroy the arguments opposed to it, so that all may offer God a spiritual sacrifice.
Against Celsus 7.33Origen · ca. 248 · God is known not by bodily eyes but by the mind made in his image, and seen by a pure heart, which God himself must create in us.
Against Celsus 7.4Origen · ca. 248 · The Hebrew prophets were made clearer in mind and soul by the Holy Spirit, whereas the Pythia's frenzy shows a demonic spirit, the kind that even simple Christians drive out by prayer.
Against Celsus 7.44Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus thinks God is known by the philosophers' methods; the Word says God is known by revelation and grace, and God chose the simple over proud philosophers who still worship images, while the humblest Christian rises in prayer above the world.
Against Celsus 7.46Origen · ca. 248 · Origen accepts what is well said by outsiders, but warns that those who revile humble worshippers maim their own souls; Christians bless when reviled, and rise from creation to God's invisible power, while some philosophers suppress the truth they know.
Against Celsus 7.67Origen · ca. 248 · Christians rightly refuse to serve demons; far from serving them, they drive them out by prayer and Scripture from souls, places, and even animals.
Against Celsus 8.1Origen · ca. 248 · Origen begins Book 8 with a prayer that God and his Word will help him refute Celsus's “True Word” and act as an ambassador for Christ.
Against Celsus 8.13Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not serve the pagan gods, who are servants of the devil, not of God; they reverence the one God and his Son, offering prayer to the Father through the Son as high priest.
Against Celsus 8.17Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do have altars, images, and temples: the righteous soul is the altar whose incense is prayer, and the virtues formed by the Word are images of God, far surpassing Phidias's Zeus, and best of all in Christ.
Against Celsus 8.21Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus asks why Christians do not join the public festivals; Origen answers that those festivals rest on human myths, and the true festival is doing one's duty and praying always, as Paul warns against observing days.
Against Celsus 8.22Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do keep the Lord's day, Preparation days, Easter, and Pentecost, but for the perfect every day is the Lord's day, a preparation, a passing-over to God, and a Pentecost of prayer and the Spirit.
Against Celsus 8.26Origen · ca. 248 · Christians must die rather than obey or sacrifice to demons; city laws that command it are not true laws, and prayer belongs to God alone, offered through the Son as high priest.
Against Celsus 8.32Origen · ca. 248 · Evil angels may carry out God's judgments, which are hard to fathom; but Christians who eat and drink to God's glory with thanksgiving share their table with God's angels, not with demons.
Against Celsus 8.33Origen · ca. 248 · Christians live and use God's gifts with thanksgiving to the Creator, not to demons, whose rule extends only over those who submit to wickedness; they eat the eucharistic bread, which through prayer becomes a holy body that sanctifies.
Against Celsus 8.34Origen · ca. 248 · Christians offer first-fruits and prayers to the Creator through Jesus the high priest, and have the friendship of countless angels who help those who pray; demons have power only over the wicked, not over those armed with God's armour.
Against Celsus 8.36Origen · ca. 248 · God's angels do not harm those who insult them; demons harm only those who submit to them, while the true Christian is guarded by his angel, who carries his prayers to God through Christ the high priest.
Against Celsus 8.37Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not invoke powers by barbarian names; each prays to God in his own language, and God, Lord of every language, hears them all as one voice.
Against Celsus 8.57Origen · ca. 248 · Christians show proper gratitude not to demons but to God, whose gifts fill them, and their eucharistic bread is a symbol of that thanksgiving; they honour but do not worship the angels who oversee nature.
Against Celsus 8.58Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus cites the Egyptian belief that thirty-six demons each govern a part of the body and can heal it when invoked by name; Origen answers that God alone suffices, and the name of Jesus has healed many.
Against Celsus 8.60Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus himself warns that service of the earthly demons, bound to blood and incense, leads to love of the body and forgetfulness of higher things; Origen concludes it is better to trust God through Christ and to seek healing from medicine or, better, from prayer.
Against Celsus 8.64Origen · ca. 248 · Winning God's favour brings with it the favour of all his angels and holy spirits, who pray alongside Christians and help them against the demons, as Jesus destroyed demons and healed the oppressed.
Against Celsus 8.67Origen · ca. 248 · Christians hymn only God and his Son, as sun, moon, and stars do, not Athena; nor will they swear by the emperor, since whatever they rightly receive, like bread, wine, and oil, comes from God's providence.
Against Celsus 8.69Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus mocks the hope that God would defend a Christian Rome, pointing to the Jews' loss of their land and the persecution of Christians; Origen answers that if all Romans prayed together, God would fight for them as for Moses, and God's promises were conditional.
Against Celsus 8.73Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus urges Christians to serve in the emperor's army; Origen answers that Christians help the emperor more by praying for him and for just wars, like pagan priests who keep their hands free of blood, forming an army of prayer against the demons who cause wars.
Against Celsus 8.74Origen · ca. 248 · Christians serve their country as commanders of prayer, offered in secret, and benefit it more than others by teaching piety and preparing citizens for the heavenly city.
To Donatus 15Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 246 · Donatus should pray and read Scripture, adorning his soul, the temple of the Holy Spirit, which will last into the resurrection.
To Donatus 16Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 246 · Cyprian ends the talk and invites Donatus to sing psalms at their evening meal.
On the Lord's Prayer 10Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Our Father' is the prayer of believers made God's children, which Cyprian contrasts with those Jews who rejected Christ.
On the Lord's Prayer 11Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Those who call God Father must live as his sons, as temples of the Spirit.
On the Lord's Prayer 12Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Hallowed be your name' asks that we, sanctified in baptism, may stay holy.
On the Lord's Prayer 13Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Your kingdom come' asks for the heavenly kingdom promised to believers; Christ himself can be understood as that kingdom.
On the Lord's Prayer 14Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Your will be done' asks for God's help to do his will, as Christ did the Father's will.
On the Lord's Prayer 15Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · God's will is the life Christ lived and taught: humility, faith, justice, mercy, peace, love, and steadfastness to death.
On the Lord's Prayer 16Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Since we are both earth (body) and heaven (spirit), we pray that God's will may bring the flesh into harmony with the spirit.
On the Lord's Prayer 17Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'On earth as in heaven' can also mean praying that unbelievers too may be reborn and become heavenly.
On the Lord's Prayer 18Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Our daily bread' is Christ in the Eucharist, received daily; we pray not to be cut off from it by grave sin.
On the Lord's Prayer 19Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Daily bread' also means that disciples who have renounced the world ask only for today's food.
On the Lord's Prayer 2Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Christ himself gave us the form of prayer, so that praying as he taught is the truest spiritual worship.
On the Lord's Prayer 20Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Riches are dangerous, like the rich fool's; the perfect give to the poor and store up treasure in heaven.
On the Lord's Prayer 21Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · God provides food for the righteous, as he did for Daniel among the lions and Elijah by the ravens.
On the Lord's Prayer 22Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Praying daily for forgiveness reminds us that we sin daily and assures us of God's faithful pardon.
On the Lord's Prayer 23Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · God forgives us only as we forgive others; the greatest sacrifice is peace and a people united in the unity of the Trinity.
On the Lord's Prayer 24Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · God looked at Abel's heart, not his gift; Abel became the first martyr, while one who hates his brother is not saved even by martyrdom.
On the Lord's Prayer 25Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Do not allow us to be led into temptation' teaches that the devil can do nothing unless God permits it.
On the Lord's Prayer 26Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Temptation is permitted either as punishment or as testing; praying against it keeps us humble.
On the Lord's Prayer 27Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Deliver us from evil' sums up every petition, for with God's protection nothing need be feared.
On the Lord's Prayer 28Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · As Isaiah foretold, Christ gave a short word: brief summaries of eternal life, the law, and prayer.
On the Lord's Prayer 29Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Christ, though sinless, prayed often and all night; how much more should sinners pray.
On the Lord's Prayer 3Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Praying Christ's own words is most effective, since he is our advocate with the Father.
On the Lord's Prayer 30Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Christ prayed for us, and above all that his people might be one as he and the Father are one.
On the Lord's Prayer 31Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · In prayer the heart must be fixed on God alone, as the liturgy's 'Lift up your hearts' reminds us.
On the Lord's Prayer 32Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Prayer must be joined with good works, fasting, and almsgiving, like that of Cornelius.
On the Lord's Prayer 33Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Prayers joined with good works rise quickly to God, as with Tobit, as Isaiah teaches, and as Paul calls gifts to him a sacrifice.
On the Lord's Prayer 34Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Praying at the third, sixth, and ninth hours was a figure of the Trinity, fulfilled at Pentecost, in Peter's vision, and at the cross.
On the Lord's Prayer 35Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Christians also pray at dawn for the resurrection and at sunset for Christ, the true Sun and Day, and indeed at every hour.
On the Lord's Prayer 36Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Christians, living in Christ's light, should pray at night too, anticipating the endless day of the kingdom.
On the Lord's Prayer 4Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Prayer should be quiet and modest, in private and in church, since God sees the heart and is everywhere.
On the Lord's Prayer 5Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Hannah prayed silently in her heart and was heard, as the psalms and Jeremiah also teach.
On the Lord's Prayer 6Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · The humble tax collector, not the self-satisfied Pharisee, is the model for prayer.
On the Lord's Prayer 7Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Cyprian gives the text of the Lord's Prayer.
On the Lord's Prayer 8Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · The Lord's Prayer is a common prayer for the whole church, prayed in unity like the three youths and the apostles.
On the Lord's Prayer 9Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · The reborn believer calls God 'Father' because by faith he has become God's son, and he has only one Father in heaven.
On the Lapsed 19Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Even Moses, Jeremiah, Noah, Daniel, and Job could not obtain forgiveness for others against God's will; so no human petition can override God's judgment.
On the Lapsed 31Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Even the innocent three youths in the furnace and Daniel confessed their sins to God with fasting and humility.
On the Lapsed 32Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian begs the lapsed to join the clergy's tears and prayers with full penance.
On the Lapsed 35Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · The lapsed must do long and earnest penance with prayer, fasting, mourning, and generous almsgiving, spending on the poor the property that caused their fall.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 12Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Christ's promise to be with 'two or three' applies only to those praying in unity within the church, not to schismatics.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 13Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · God accepts neither prayer nor sacrifice from those at odds with their brothers, so schismatics cannot expect Christ's presence.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 25Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · In the apostles' time believers were of one mind, and so their prayers were effective.