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ever. So great a good, then, is perseverance in prayer, as we learn from that Canaanite woman, because what Christ did not grant when the apostles asked, she accomplished, and by her persistence brought it to pass. For concerning our own affairs, He wishes to be asked by us who are responsible, rather than by others on our behalf. For when we ask of men, we need expenditure of money and servile flattery and much running about and trouble; for it is not often possible to give the favor directly to the masters themselves and to converse with them, but it is necessary first to treat their servants and stewards and managers with money and with words, and in every way, and then through them to be able to receive the request. But with God it is not so; for He does not need mediators for those who ask, nor does He grant the favor when besought by others as He does when we ask for ourselves. For God wishes to be importuned much by us, and is very grateful for this; for this is the only debtor who is grateful when payment is demanded, and He gives what we did not lend. And if He sees the one demanding is insistent, He pays down even what He has not received from us; but if sluggishly, He Himself also postpones, not because He does not wish to give, but because He takes pleasure in being importuned by us. For God does not postpone the giving of what is asked because He hates or turns away from us, but because by the delay in giving He wishes to keep us continually with Himself; just as loving fathers do; for they too contrive the constant attendance of their more indolent children by delaying the gift. Were you heard? For this give thanks, because you were heard; were you not heard? Persist 63.581 so that you may be heard. You have no need of mediators, nor of much running about and of flattering others; but even if you are desolate, even if without a patron, by beseeching God yourself you will certainly obtain. For if with men, even if we have given ten thousand offenses, when we appear to those who are vexed with us at dawn, and at midday and in the evening, by the continuity and the constant occurrence of our presence we easily break down their enmity, much more would this happen with God. For He is not accustomed to grant when besought by others on our behalf, as when by us ourselves who ask, even if we are full of ten thousand evils. Let those who pray with indifference, and who are vexed at the delay of the gift, hear. For when I say, Beseech God, pray to Him, supplicate Him, he says: I besought once, a second time, a third, a tenth, a twentieth, and I did not receive. Do not cease until you receive; cease then, when you receive; or rather, not even then, but even then persist; and if you do not receive, ask that you may receive; but when you receive, give thanks because you have received. Many enter into the church, they finish ten thousand lines of prayer, and they go out, and do not know what they have said; the lips move but the hearing does not hear. You do not hear your prayer, and you want God to hear it? I have bent, you say, the knees. But your mind was flying outside; the body inside, and your thought outside; your mouth was saying the prayer, and your mind was counting the interests, the contracts, the transactions, the properties, the gatherings of friends. For the devil, being wicked, and knowing that in the time of prayer we accomplish great things, then he attacks (for often we lie on our back in bed, and we think of nothing; we have come to pray, and then ten thousand thoughts enter in), that from there he might make us completely empty and ineffective; and often having completed the prayer, we have departed without even having heard what we have said. If therefore we notice this, let us immediately take it up again, and if we suffer the same thing again, let us say it a third and a fourth time, and let us not cease praying before we pour it all out before God with a sober mind and an attentive thought. And if the devil perceives that we do not stop before we say it with earnestness and a sober mind, he will henceforth depart from lying in wait, knowing that

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πώποτε. Τοσοῦτον οὖν ἐστιν ἡ τῆς εὐχῆς προσεδρεία καλὸν, ὡς ἀπὸ τῆς Χαναναίας ἐκείνης παιδευόμεθα, ὅτι ὃ τῶν ἀποστόλων ἀξιωσάντων ὁ Χριστὸς οὐκ ἐπένευσεν, αὕτη ἤνυσε, καὶ τῇ καρτερίᾳ εἰς ἔργον ἐξήνεγκε. Καὶ γὰρ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἡμετέρων παρ' ἡμῶν βούλεται μᾶλλον τῶν ὑπευθύνων ἀξιοῦσθαι, ἢ παρ' ἑτέρων ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν. Ἀνθρώπων μὲν γὰρ δεόμενοι, καὶ δαπάνης χρημάτων δεόμεθα καὶ κολακείας δουλοπρεποῦς καὶ πολλῆς περιόδου καὶ πραγματείας· οὐ γὰρ ἐξ εὐθείας αὐτοῖς τοῖς κυρίοις δοῦναι τὴν χάριν ἔνι καὶ διαλεχθῆναι πολλάκις, ἀλλ' ἀνάγκη πρότερον διακόνους καὶ οἰκονόμους αὐτῶν καὶ ἐπιτρόπους καὶ χρήμασι καὶ ῥήμασι, καὶ παντὶ θεραπεῦσαι τρόπῳ, καὶ τότε δι' ἐκείνων δυνηθῆναι τὴν αἴτησιν λαβεῖν. Ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ Θεοῦ οὐκ ἔστιν οὕτως· οὐ γὰρ δεῖται μεσιτῶν ἐπὶ τῶν ἀξιούντων, οὐδὲ οὕτω δι' ἑτέρων παρακαλούμενος, ὡς δι' ἡμῶν αὐτῶν δεομένων ἐπινεύει τῇ χάριτι. Πολλὰ γὰρ βούλεται ἀπαιτεῖσθαι, παρ' ἡμῶν ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ χάριν ἔχει τούτου πολλήν· μόνος γὰρ οὗτος ὁ χρεώστης ὅταν ἀπαιτῆται χάριν ἔχει, καὶ ἃ μὴ ἐδανείσαμεν δίδωσι. Κἂν μὲν σφοδρῶς ἴδῃ ἐγκείμενον τὸν ἀπαιτοῦντα, καὶ ἃ μὴ ἔλαβε παρ' ἡμῶν, καταβάλλει· ἂν δὲ νωθρῶς, καὶ αὐτὸς διαναβάλλεται, οὐ διὰ τὸ μὴ βούλεσθαι δοῦναι, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ ἡδέως ἔχειν παρ' ἡμῶν ἀπαιτεῖσθαι. Οὐδὲ γὰρ μισῶν, οὐδὲ ἀποστρεφόμενος ἡμᾶς ἀναβάλλεται τῶν αἰτουμένων τὴν δόσιν ὁ Θεὸς, ἀλλὰ τῇ μελλήσει τῆς δόσεως διηνεκῶς παρ' ἑαυτῷ κατέχειν βουλόμενος· καθάπερ καὶ πατέρες φιλόστοργοι ποιοῦσι· καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι τῶν ῥᾳθυμοτέρων παίδων τὴν διηνεκῆ προσεδρείαν τῇ τῆς δόσεως ἀναβολῇ σοφίζονται. Ἠκούσθης; ἐπὶ τούτῳ εὐχαρίστησον, ἐπειδὴ ἠκούσθης· οὐκ ἠκούσθης; παράμεινον 63.581 ἵνα ἀκουσθῇς. Οὐ χρεία σοι μεσιτῶν, οὐδὲ πολλῆς τῆς περιδρομῆς καὶ τοῦ κολακεῦσαι ἑτέρους· ἀλλὰ κἂν ἔρημος ᾖς, κἂν ἀπροστάτευτος, αὐτὸς διὰ σαυτοῦ παρακαλέσας τὸν Θεὸν ἐπιτεύξῃ πάντως. Εἰ γὰρ ἐπ' ἀνθρώπων, κἂν μυρία προσκεκρουκότες ὦμεν, ὅταν καὶ ὑπὸ τὴν ἕω, καὶ μέσης ἡμέρας καὶ ἐν ἑσπέρᾳ φαινώμεθα τοῖς πρὸς ἡμᾶς λελυπημένοις, τῇ συνεχείᾳ καὶ τῇ διηνεκεῖ τῆς ὄψεως συντυχίᾳ καταλύομεν ῥᾳδίως αὐτῶν τὴν ἔχθραν, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἐπὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦτο γένοιτ' ἄν. Οὐ γὰρ οὕτως δι' ἑτέρων ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν παρακαλούμενος ἐπινεύειν εἴωθεν, ὡς δι' ἡμῶν αὐτῶν τῶν δεομένων, κἂν μυρίων ὦμεν γέμοντες κακῶν Ἀκουέτωσαν οἱ μετὰ ῥᾳθυμίας εὐχόμενοι, καὶ τῇ μελλήσει τῆς δόσεως δυσχεραίνοντες. Ὅταν γὰρ εἴπω, Παρακάλεσον τὸν Θεὸν, δεήθητι αὐτοῦ, ἱκέτευσον αὐτὸν, λέγει· Παρεκάλεσα ἅπαξ, δεύτερον, τρίτον, δέκατον, εἰκοστὸν, καὶ οὐκ ἔλαβον. Μὴ ἀποστῇς ἕως ἂν λάβῃς· τότε ἀπόστηθι, ὅταν λάβῃς· μᾶλλον δὲ μηδὲ τότε, ἀλλὰ καὶ τότε παράμενε· κἂν μὴ λάβῃς, αἴτει ἵνα λάβῃς· ὅταν δὲ λάβῃς, εὐχαρίστησον ὅτι ἔλαβες. Εἰσέρχονται πολλοὶ ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, ἀπαρτίζουσι μυρίους στίχους εὐχῆς, καὶ ἐξέρχονται, καὶ οὐκ οἴδασι τί εἶπον· τὰ χείλη κινεῖται ἡ δὲ ἀκοὴ οὐκ ἀκούει. Σὺ οὐκ ἀκούεις τῆς εὐχῆς σου, καὶ τὸν Θεὸν θέλεις ταύτης ἀκοῦσαι; Ἔκλινα, λέγεις, γόνατα. Ἀλλ' ἡ διάνοιά σου ἔξω ἐπέτετο· τὸ σῶμα ἔνδον, καὶ ἡ γνώμη σου ἔξω· τὸ στόμα σου ἔλεγε τὴν εὐχὴν, καὶ ἡ διάνοιά σου ἠρίθμει τοὺς τόκους, τὰ συμβόλαια, τὰ συναλλάγματα, τὰ κτήματα, τὰς τῶν φίλων συνουσίας. Ὁ γὰρ διάβολος πονηρὸς ὢν, καὶ εἰδὼς ὅτι ἐν καιρῷ εὐχῆς μεγάλα ἀνύομεν, τότε ἐπέρχεται (πολλάκις γὰρ ὕπτιοι κείμεθα ἐν κλίνῃ, καὶ οὐδὲν λογιζόμεθα· ἤλθομεν εὔξασθαι, καὶ τότε μυρίοι λογισμοὶ ἐπεισέρχονται), ἵνα ἀπὸ τῶν ἐκεῖθεν κενοὺς καὶ ἀπράκτους δι' ὅλου ποιήσηται· καὶ πολλάκις πληρώσαντες τὴν εὐχὴν, μηδὲ ὡς ἀκούσαντες ἃ εἰρήκαμεν, ἀπήλθομεν. Ἂν οὖν ἐννοήσωμεν τοῦτο, εὐθέως αὐτὴν ἀναλάβωμεν, κἂν τὸ αὐτὸ πάθωμεν πάλιν, καὶ τρίτον, καὶ τέταρτον αὐτὴν εἴπωμεν, καὶ μὴ πρότερον ἀποστῶμεν εὐχόμενοι, ἕως ἂν ἅπασαν αὐτὴν μετὰ διανοίας νηφούσης καὶ λογισμοῦ προσέχοντος ἐκχέωμεν ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ Θεοῦ. Κἂν αἴσθηται ὁ διάβολος, ὅτι οὐ πρότερον ἀφιστάμεθα, ἕως ἂν μετὰ σπουδῆς αὐτὴν καὶ διανοίας νηφούσης εἴπωμεν, ἀποστήσεται λοιπὸν ἐφεδρεύων, εἰδὼς, ὅτι