On Prayer and The Contemplative Life Part 11

5. And lastly, it seems idle to try to stir up the benevolence of one who is beforehand with his benevolence. But G.o.d does forestall us with His benevolence, for _He hath first loved us_.[186] Consequently it seems superfluous to preface our pet.i.tions with the words _Our Father Who art in Heaven_, words which seem intended to stir up G.o.d's benevolence.

But we must remember that prayer is not directed to G.o.d in order to prevail upon Him, but in order to excite ourselves to confidence in our pet.i.tions. And this confidence is especially excited in us by consideration of His love towards us whereby He wishes us well, wherefore we say, _Our Father_; and of His pre-eminent power whereby He is able to a.s.sist us, whence we say, _Who art in Heaven_.

_Cajetan:_ The first three pet.i.tions of the _Lord's Prayer_ can also be referred to that which we princ.i.p.ally desire, so that all three regard mainly that love wherewith we love G.o.d in Himself, and secondarily that love wherewith we love ourselves in G.o.d. And the proof of this is that in each of the first three we have the p.r.o.noun _Thine_, but in the last four the p.r.o.noun _our_. Thus the first pet.i.tion asks for the effective and enduring praise of G.o.d's Name; the second, that He--and not the devil, nor the world, nor the flesh, nor sin--may reign effectively; the third, that His Will may be effectively fulfilled. For these things are not now absolutely so with G.o.d, and this by reason of the mult.i.tude of sins, and also because the mode of their present fulfilment is hidden.

And the word _effectively_ is introduced into each clause by reason of the subjoined qualification _on earth as it is in Heaven_, for this qualifies each of the foregoing clauses. Hence rightly do our desires first of all aim at, wish for, and pray that--even as something good for G.o.d Himself--He may be sanctified in His Name; that He may be permanently uplifted above all things--on earth as in Heaven; that He--not sin--may reign--on earth as in Heaven; that His Will--none other--may be done--on earth as in Heaven (_on_ 2. 2. 83. 9).

_S. Augustine:_ O Eternal Truth, True Love and lovable Eternity! Thou art my G.o.d; for Thee do I sigh night and day! And when I first knew Thee Thou didst s.n.a.t.c.h me up so that I saw that That really was Which I saw, and that I who saw was really not--as yet. And Thou didst beat back my weak gaze, pouring out Thy light upon me in its intensity; and I trembled with love and with horror. For I found myself to be far away from Thee in a land that was unlike Thee; it was as though I heard Thy Voice from on high, saying: "I am the Food of grown men, grow, and thou shalt eat Me, but thou shalt not be changed into Me" (_Confessions_, VII. x. 2).

_S. Augustine:_ And the faithful are well aware of that Spiritual Food Which you, too, will soon know and Which you are to receive from G.o.d's altar. It will be your food, nay, your daily food, needful for this life. For are we not about to receive the Eucharist wherein we come to Christ Himself, and begin to reign with Him for ever? The Eucharist is our daily Bread. But let us so receive it as to be thereby refreshed, not in body merely but in mind. For the power which we know to be therein is the power of Unity whereby we are brought into union with His Body and become His members. Let us be What we receive; for then It will be truly our daily bread.

Again, what I set before you is your daily bread; and what you hear read day by day in the church is your daily bread; and the hymns you hear and which you sing--they are your daily bread. For these things we need for our pilgrimage. But when we get There are we going to hear a book read?

Nay, we are going to hear the Word Himself; we are going to see the Word Himself; we are going to eat Him, to drink Him, even as the Angels do already. Do the Angels need books, or disputations, or readers? Nay, not so. But by seeing they read, for they see the Truth Itself and are sated from that Fount whence we receive but the sprinkling of the dew (_Sermon_, lvii., _on S. Matt._ vi. 7).

_S. Augustine:_ When ye say _Give us this day our daily bread_, ye profess yourselves G.o.d's beggars. Yet blush not at it! The richest man on earth is G.o.d's beggar. The beggar stands at the rich man's door. But the rich man in his turn stands at the door of one richer than he. He is begged from, and he, too, has to beg. If he were not in need he would not beseech G.o.d in prayer. But what can the rich man need? I dare to say it: he needs even his daily bread! For how is it that he abounds with all things, save that G.o.d gave them to him? And what will they have if G.o.d but withdraw His hand? (_Sermon_, lvi. 9, _on S. Matt._ vi.).

_S. Augustine:_ Think not that you have no need to say _Forgive us our trespa.s.ses as we forgive them that trespa.s.s against us_.... He who looks with pleasure at what he should not--sins. Yet who can control the glance of the eye? Indeed, some say that the eye is so called from its swiftness (_oculus a velocitate_). Who can control his eyes or his ears?

You can close your eyes when you like, but how quickly they open again!

You can shut your ears with an effort; put up your hand, and you can touch them. But if someone holds your hands your ears remain open, and you cannot then shut out cursing words, impure words, flattering and deceitful words. When you hear something which you should not--do you not sin with your ears? What when you hear some evil thing with pleasure? And the death-dealing tongue! How many sins it commits!

(_Sermon_, lvi. 8).

_S. Augustine:_ Indeed, our whole righteousness--true righteousness though it be, by reason of the True Good to Whom it is referred, consists rather, as long as we are in this life, in the remission of our sins than in the perfection of our virtues. And the proof of this is the Prayer of the whole City of G.o.d which is in pilgrimage on this earth.

For by all Its members It cries to G.o.d: _Forgive us our trespa.s.ses as we forgive them the trespa.s.s against us_! And this Prayer is of no avail for those whose faith is without works--dead; but only for those whose faith worketh through charity. For though our reason is indeed subject to G.o.d, yet in this our mortal condition, in this corruptible body which weigheth down the soul, our reason does not perfectly control our vices, and hence such prayer as this is needful for the righteous (_Of the City of G.o.d_, xix. 27).

"Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee. As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He may give life everlasting to all whom Thou hast given Him.

And this is life everlasting, that they may know Thee, the only true G.o.d, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent."[187]

Rhythm in Honour of the Blessed Sacrament, said to have been composed by S. Thomas on his Death-Bed.[188]

Adoro Te devote, latens Deitas, Quae sub his figuris vere lat.i.tas; Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit, Quia Te contemplans totum deficit.

Visus, tactus gustus, in Te fallitur, Sed auditu solo tuto creditur; Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius, Nil hoc verbo veritatis verius.

In cruce latebat sola Deitas, At hic latet simul et humanitas; Ambo tamen credens atque confitens, Peto quod petivit latro poenitens.

Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor, Deum tamen meum Te confiteor; Fac me Tibi semper magis credere, In Te spem habere, Te diligere.

O memoriale mortis Domini, Panis vivus, vitam praestans homini, Praesta meae menti de Te vivero, Et Te illi semper dulce sapere.

Pie Pellicane Jesu Domine, Me immundum munda Tuo Sanguine, Cujus una stilla salvum facere Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.

Jesu Quem velatum nunc aspicio, Oro fiat illud quod tam sitio, Ut Te revelata cernens facie, Visu sim beatus Tuae gloriae!

(An Indulgence of 100 days for the recitation of this rhythm. _S. Congr.

of Indulgences_, December 20, 1884.)

X

Is Prayer Peculiar to Rational Creatures?

Prayer is an act of the reason, as we have shown above. And rational creatures are so termed because of the possession of reason.

Consequently prayer is peculiar to them.

As we have said above, prayer is an act of the reason by which a person pleads with his superior, just in the same way as a command is an act of the reason by which an inferior is directed to do something. Prayer, then, properly pertains to one who has the use of reason and who also has a superior with whom he can plead. The Persons of the Trinity have no superior; the brute animals have no reason. Hence prayer belongs neither to the Divine Persons nor to the brute creation, but is peculiar to rational creatures.

Some, however, argue that prayer cannot be peculiar to rational creatures, thus:

1. To ask and to receive belong to the same person. But the Divine Persons receive: the Son, namely, and the Holy Spirit. Consequently They can also pray; indeed it is the Son Himself Who says, _I will ask the Father_,[189] and the Apostle says of the Holy Spirit, _The Spirit Himself asketh for us_.[190]

But it belongs to the Divine Persons to receive by Their nature, whereas to pray belongs to one who receives through grace. The Son is said to ask or pray according to the nature He took upon Himself--that is according to His Human, and not according to His Divine, Nature; the Holy Spirit, too, is said to pet.i.tion because He makes us pet.i.tion.

2. But further, the Angels are superior to the rational creation since they are intellectual substances; but it belongs to the Angels to pray, for it is said in the Psalm[191]: _Adore Him, all ye His Angels_.

But the intellect and the reason are not different faculties in us, though they do differ in the sense that one is more perfect than the other. Consequently the intellectual creation, such as are the Angels, is sometimes distinguished from the rational creation, but at other times both are embraced under the one term "rational." And it is in this latter sense of the term "rational" that prayer is said to be peculiar to the rational creation.

3. Lastly, he prays who calls upon G.o.d; for it is chiefly by prayer that we call upon G.o.d. But the brute animals also call upon G.o.d, for the Psalmist says: _Who giveth to beasts their food, and to the young ravens that call upon Him._[192]

But the young ravens are said to call upon G.o.d by reason of those natural desires by which all things, each in their own fashion, desire to obtain the Divine goodness. In the same way brute animals are said to obey G.o.d by reason of the natural instinct by which they are moved by G.o.d.

"Reward them that patiently wait for Thee, that Thy Prophets may be found faithful: and hear the prayers of Thy servants.

According to the blessing of Aaron over Thy people, and direct us into the way of justice, and let all know that dwell upon the earth, that Thou art G.o.d the beholder of all ages."[193]

XI

Do the Saints in Heaven Pray for Us?

_This is he who prayeth much for the people and for all the holy city, Jeremias the Prophet of G.o.d._[194]

As S. Jerome says,[195] Vigilantius's error lay in maintaining that "while we live we can mutually pray for one another; but after we are dead no one's prayer for another is heard, and this is especially clear in the case of the Martyrs who were unable to obtain by their prayers vengeance for their blood."

But this is altogether false; for since prayer for others springs from charity, the more perfect the charity of those who are in Heaven the more they pray for those wayfarers on earth who can be helped by their prayers. And the more knit they are to G.o.d the more efficacious are their prayers; for the Divine harmony demands that the superabundance of those who are in the higher position should redound upon those who are lower, just as the brightness of the sun renders the atmosphere itself luminous. Whence Christ Himself is said to be _Approaching of Himself to G.o.d to intercede for us_.[196] Whence, too, S. Jerome's reply to Vigilantius: "If the Apostles and Martyrs, when they were still in the body, and had still to be solicitous on their own account, prayed for others, how much more when they have won the crown, when they have gained the victory and the triumph?"

Yet some maintain that the Blessed in Heaven do not pray for us, thus:

1. A man's acts are more meritorious for himself than for another. But the Saints who are in Heaven neither merit for themselves nor pray for themselves, for they have already attained the goal of their desires.

Hence neither do they pray for us.

But the Saints who are in our Fatherland lack no Blessedness--since they are Blessed--save the glory of the body, and for this they pray. But they pray for us who still lack the ultimate perfection of Blessedness; and their prayers are efficacious by reason of their previous merits and of the Divine acceptation of their prayers.

2. But once more: the Saints are perfectly conformed to the Will of G.o.d, and consequently will nothing but what He wills. But what G.o.d wills is always fulfilled. Hence it is idle for the Saints to pray for us.

But the Saints obtain that which G.o.d wills should come about through the medium of their prayers; and they ask for what they think is, by G.o.d's Will, to be fulfilled through their prayers.

3. And yet again: just as the Saints in Heaven are superior to us so also are they who are in Purgatory--for they cannot sin. Those, however, who are in Purgatory do not pray for us, but rather we for them. It follows, then, that neither can the Saints in Heaven pray for us.