De oratione

 Therefore, the one of these, I mean the 'what we should pray for,' is the words of the prayer, but the 'as we ought' is the state of the one praying

 we are more than conquerors.” It is likely that “intercedes” only concerns those who are not so great as to be more than conquerors, nor again such as

 God be with me, and keep me in this way that I go, and give me bread to eat and a garment to put on, and bring me back with safety to my father's hous

 of the tribes of the sons of Israel, saying: This is the word, which the Lord commanded: A man, who shall vow a vow to the Lord or swear an oath with

 of those who say there is providence for it is not our present purpose to examine the sayings of those who entirely deny God or providence) God kn

 since God exists and has comprehended the whole universe and abides in His pre-arranged decrees, to pray, supposing that by his prayer he will alter G

 and from what is in our power, which will be enacted according to our impulse. For even if, hypothetically, God did not know the future, we would not

 “let him not boast” “before” me but let him say: “I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God,” and perceiving my

 of prayer benefits those who have persuaded themselves that they have stood before and are speaking to a present and hearing God? 9.1 What has been sa

 to God, who ordains what he wills for our training, but not even murmuring in the secret of our thoughts without a voice audible to men which murmuri

 his preeminence, and stretching forth the right hand and giving to Judas a golden sword, to whom another saint who had fallen asleep testified, sa

 an angel, «of the» in the church «little ones,» «always» seeing «the face of the Father» «who is in heaven» and beholding the divinity of the one who

 the prayer of Holofernes with God prevails and one woman of the Hebrews brought shame to the house of Nebuchadnezzar But 'Ananias' 'and Azarias and M

 suffering from a basilisk, because through Christ he has stepped upon them and has trampled “lion and dragon,” having used the good authority given by

 doxology for greater things, offered up more magnificently by someone, and intercession, a request to God concerning certain things by one having a ce

 And an example of thanksgiving is the voice of our Lord, saying: “I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these thing

 kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their princesses your nurses they shall bow down to <you> with their face to the ground, and shall lick the

 with him the intelligible blessing reaching all the saints, spoken by Isaac to Jacob, namely: «May God give you of the dew of heaven,» to have come to

 of things truly and genuinely great and heavenly, and matters concerning the shadows that follow the preceding things must be entrusted to God, who kn

 For it is the work of hypocrites to want to put on airs before men for the sake of piety or for social reasons. But it is necessary, remembering the s

 20.2 And we must listen carefully to that they may be seen, since nothing that is merely apparent is good, as if existing in appearance and not in t

 It is not that God has not been called 20father20, or that those who are considered to have believed in God have not been named sons of God but rathe

 he has imitated the image «of the invisible God» and has become «according to the image of the one who created him,» who makes «his sun» rise «on the

 20Father20» let him go. And let us seek to understand more mystically the saying at the end of the Gospel according to John: «Do not touch me, for I h

 in order to persuade the reader from every side, according to the power given to us, to hear the divine scripture in a higher and more spiritual way,

 to exalt «0the name20» of God «at the same time,» is <when> someone, having partaken of an emanation of divinity by being taken up by God and having p

 We are commanded by Paul no longer to be subject to sin which wants to rule over us, and indeed we are ordered through these words: Let not sin there

 for us «0on earth20» likewise to them in all things “the 20will20” of God should be done which will happen, when we do nothing contrary to His «0will

 to divinity and being united with it. 26.5 But since the second point does not yet solve the difficulties about how «0the will20» of God is «0in heave

 we will set these things forth from more numerous sources. He says in the Gospel according to John to those who had come to Capernaum to seek him: “Tr

 nor are you able even now for you are still of the flesh” and in the one to the Hebrews: “and you have come to need milk, not solid food. For everyon

 being set apart, but is subject to every quality just like a prepared place. And by qualities they mean dispositively the activities and productions i

 by a demonstration of the angels and their becoming more ready to cooperate in every way and henceforth to concur in the apprehension of more and grea

 in the psalms thus: a thousand years in your eyes are as yesterday, which has passed (which is the famous millennium, which is likened to the yeste

 «0today20» but also in a way of the «0daily20» he who prays for «0today20», from the one who is able to grant «exceedingly abundantly above all that w

 and we are in a theater of the world and of angels and of men, it must be known that, just as the one in the theater is a 20debtor20 to say or do cert

 heavenly Father will do, unless you 20forgive20 each his brother from your hearts.” They say, however, that we 20must forgive20 those who have sinned

 they conceived a thought against God” for he offers the sacrifice concerning things of which it is doubted whether a sin has been committed, and this

 which our Lord taught concerning prayer. But when has anyone considered men to be outside of 20temptations20, whose word he knew he had fulfilled? And

 every time is one of 20temptation20 for men, even these things not even he who meditates on the law of God «day and night» and practices to fulfill w

 Finding such things in the law and the prophets, they stumbled as at one who was not good, who uttered such words but for us, on account of the diffi

 having desired generation, pray again to obtain twice what you desire, having come to hate the thing desired, and then thus to return to the good thin

 of our own evils and let us give thanks for the good things revealed to us through 20temptations20. But that the 20temptations20 which happen are for

 to put on (for he has received), but by in all that befell him not to have sinned at all before the Lord but to be shown to be righteous of the o

 to pray, stretching out the soul, as it were, before the hands, and stretching the mind toward God before the eyes, and before standing, arousing the

 which is possible, unless one gives himself to this by agreement for a time, that perhaps also concerning the place, if it is permissible, it must b

 It seems to me that these things have necessarily been said, while examining the place of prayer and representing what is exceptional as in a place at

 for the sake of magnifying you, my Lord, Lord.” 33.4 An example of confessions: “Deliver me from all my iniquities,” and in other places: “My wounds h

they conceived a thought against God”; for he offers the sacrifice concerning things of which it is doubted whether a sin has been committed, and this even when they had not reached the lips. 29.1 “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one”; but the phrase “but deliver us from the evil one” is passed over in silence in Luke. If the Savior does not command us to pray for impossible things, it seems to me worthy of investigation how we are commanded, since the whole life of men on earth is a trial, to pray not to enter “into temptation.” For inasmuch as we are on earth, clothed in the flesh which wars “against the spirit,” whose “mind” is “enmity” “against God,” being in no way able to be subject “to the law of God,” we are in temptation. 29.2 And that the whole human “life” “on earth” is a “trial,” we have learned from Job through these words: “Is not the life of men on earth a trial?” and from the seventeenth psalm the same thing is shown in the words: “in you I shall be delivered from trial.” But also Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says that God grants not that one not be tempted, but that one not be tempted beyond one's ability, saying: “No temptation has overtaken you except what is human; but God is faithful, <who> will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” For whether “the struggle” “is” “against” the flesh which desires or wars “against the spirit,” or against the soul “of all flesh” (which is homonymous with the body in which the ruling principle, which is called the heart, dwells), such as is “the struggle” for those who are tempted by human temptations, or whether, as for those who have advanced and are more perfect athletes, who no longer wrestle “against flesh and blood” nor are tested in human temptations, which they have already trodden down, our contests are “against the principalities and the powers and the world-rulers of this darkness and the spiritual forces of wickedness,” we are not freed from being tempted. 29.3 How then does the Savior command us to pray not to enter “into temptation,” when God in a way tempts all? “Remember,” says Judith—[if] not only to the elders of that time but also to all who encounter her scripture—, “all that he did with Abraham, and all that he tested Isaac with, and all that happened to Jacob in Mesopotamia of Syria, while he was shepherding the flocks of Laban the brother of his mother; for not as he tested them with fire for the proving of their heart, does he also take vengeance on us; for the Lord scourges those who draw near to him, for a warning.” And as a universal statement concerning all the righteous, David on the one hand says: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous,” and the apostle on the other hand in Acts: “that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” 29.4 And if we do not understand what escapes the notice of the many concerning praying not to enter “into temptation,” it is time to say that the apostles, when they prayed, were not heard, having suffered countless things in all their time, “in labors more abundantly, in stripes more abundantly, in prisons exceedingly, in deaths often,” and Paul for his part received “from the Jews five times forty lashes save one,” “three times” he was beaten with rods, “once” he was stoned, “three times” he was shipwrecked, “a night and a day” he spent “in the deep,” a man afflicted “in every way” and perplexed and persecuted and struck down, and confessing this: “To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place, and we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat.” And when the apostles did not obtain what they prayed for, what hope is there for anyone inferior to them who prays to obtain a hearing from God? 29.5 But that in the twenty-fifth psalm: “Examine me, O Lord, and test me; try my reins and my heart” one of those who do not precisely understand what the will of the Savior's command is, would reasonably suppose to have been made contrary

ἐνενόησαν πρὸς θεόν»· περὶ γὰρ δισταζομένων εἰ ἡμάρ τηται, καὶ ταῦτα οὐδὲ μέχρι τῶν χειλέων ἐφθακότων, ἀναφέρει τὴν θυσίαν. 29.1 «0Καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμὸν, ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ»· τὸ δὲ «ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ20» παρὰ τῷ Λουκᾷ σεσιώπηται. εἰ μὴ ἀδύνατα προσ τάττει ὁ σωτὴρ ἡμᾶς εὔχεσθαι, ζητήσεώς μοι ἄξιον φαίνεται, πῶς κελευόμεθα, παντὸς τοῦ ἐπὶ γῆς ἀνθρώπων βίου πειρατηρίου ὄντος, προσεύχεσθαι μὴ εἰσελθεῖν «0εἰς πειρασμόν20.» ᾗ γάρ ἐσμεν ἐπὶ γῆς περικείμενοι τὴν στρατευομένην σάρκα «κατὰ τοῦ πνεύματος,» ἧς «τὸ φρόνημα» «ἔχθρα» ἐστὶν «εἰς θεὸν,» μηδαμῶς δυναμένης ὑποτάσσεσ θαι «τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ θεοῦ,» ἐν 20πειρασμῷ20 ἐσμεν. 29.2 ὅτι δὲ «πειρατήριον» πᾶς «ὁ» «ἐπὶ γῆς» ἀνθρώπινος «βίος,» ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἰὼβ μεμαθήκαμεν διὰ τούτων· «πότερον οὐχὶ πειρατήριόν ἐστιν ὁ βίος τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐπὶ γῆς;» καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑπτακαιδεκάτου ψαλμοῦ τὸ αὐτὸ δηλοῦται ἐν τῷ· «ἐν σοὶ ῥυσθήσομαι ἀπὸ πειρατηρίου.» ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ Παῦλος Κορινθίοις γράφων οὐχὶ τὸ μὴ πειράζεσθαι ἀλλὰ τὸ μὴ παρὰ δύναμιν πειράζεσθαί φησι χαρίζεσθαι τὸν θεὸν, λέγων· «0πειρασμὸς20 ὑμᾶς οὐκ εἴληφεν εἰ μὴ ἀνθρώπινος· πιστὸς δὲ ὁ θεὸς, <ὃς> οὐκ ἐάσει ὑμᾶς πειρασθῆναι ὑπὲρ ὃ δύνασθε, ἀλλὰ ποιήσει σὺν τῷ 20πειρασμῷ20 καὶ τὴν ἔκβασιν τοῦ δύνασθαι ὑπενεγκεῖν.» εἴτε γὰρ «ἡ πάλη» «ἐστὶ» «πρὸς» τὴν ἐπιθυμοῦσαν ἢ στρατευομένην «κατὰ τοῦ πνεύ ματος» «σάρκα» ἢ πρὸς τὴν ψυχὴν «πάσης σαρκὸς» (ἥτις ἐστὶν ὁμωνύ μως ᾧ ἐγκατοικεῖ σώματι τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν, ὃ καλεῖται καρδία), ὁποία ἐστὶν «ἡ πάλη» τοῖς τοὺς ἀνθρωπίνους πειραζομένοις 20πειρασμοὺς20, εἴτε ὡς διαβεβηκόσι καὶ τελεωτέροις ἀθληταῖς, οὐκέτι «πρὸς αἷμα καὶ σάρκα» παλαίουσιν οὐδὲ ἐν τοῖς ἀνθρωπίνοις 20πειρασμοῖς20 ἐξεταζομέ νοις, οὓς καταπεπατήκασιν ἤδη, «πρὸς τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰς ἐξουσίας καὶ τοὺς κοσμοκράτορας τοῦ σκότους τούτου καὶ τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονη ρίας» ἐστὶν ἡμῖν τὰ ἀγωνίσματα, τοῦ πειράζεσθαι οὐκ ἀπηλλάγμεθα. 29.3 πῶς οὖν κελεύει ἡμᾶς ὁ σωτὴρ εὔχεσθαι μὴ εἰσελθεῖν «0εἰς πειρασμὸν20,» πειράζοντός πως πάντας τοῦ θεοῦ; «μνήσθητε» γὰρ, φησὶν ἡ Ἰουδαία [εἰ] οὐ πρὸς τοὺς τότε πρεσβυτέρους μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς πάντας τοὺς ἐντυγχάνοντας αὐτῆς τῇ γραφῇ, «ὅσα ἐποίησε μετὰ Ἀβραὰμ, καὶ ὅσα ἐπείρασε τὸν Ἰσαὰκ, καὶ ὅσα ἐγένετο τῷ Ἰακὼβἐν Μεσοποταμίᾳ τῆς Συρίας, ποιμαίνοντι Λάβαν τὰ πρόβατα τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ· οὐ γὰρ καθὼς ἐκείνους ἐπύρωσεν εἰς ἐτασμὸν καρδίας αὐτῶν, καὶ ἡμᾶς ἐκδικεῖ ὁ εἰς νουθέτησιν μαστιγῶν κύριος τοὺς ἐγγίζοντας αὐτῷ.» καὶ ὡς καθολικὸν δὲ ἀποφαίνεται περὶ πάντων δικαίων ὁ μὲν ∆αυῒδ λέγων· «πολλαὶ αἱ θλίψεις τῶν δικαίων,» ὁ δὲ ἀπόστολος ἐν ταῖς Πράξεσιν· «ὅτι διὰ πολλῶν θλίψεων δεῖ ἡμᾶς εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ.» 29.4 καὶ ἐὰν μὴ συνῶμεν τὸ τοὺς πολλοὺς λανθάνον περὶ τοῦ μὴ εἰσελθεῖν «0εἰς πειρασμὸν20» προσεύχεσθαι, ὥρα λέγειν ὅτι οἱ ἀπόσ τολοι εὐχόμενοι οὐκ ἐπηκούοντο, μυρία ὅσα ἐν παντὶ τῷ χρόνῳ ἑαυτῶν πεπονθότες, «ἐν κόποις περισσοτέρως ἐν πληγαῖς περισσοτέ ρως ἐν φυλακαῖς ὑπερβαλλόντως ἐν θανάτοις πολλάκις,» ὁ δὲ Παῦ λος ἰδίᾳ «ὑπὸ Ἰουδαίων πεντάκις τεσσαράκοντα παρὰ μίαν» εἴληφε, «τρὶς» ἐῤῥαβδίσθη, «ἅπαξ» ἐλιθάσθη, «τρὶς» ἐναυάγησε, «νυχθήμερον ἐν τῷ βυθῷ» πεποίηκεν, ἄνθρωπος «ἐν παντὶ» θλιβόμενος καὶ ἀπο ρούμενος καὶ διωκόμενος καὶ καταβαλλόμενος ὁμολογῶν τε τό· «ἄχρι τῆς ἄρτι ὥρας πεινῶμεν καὶ διψῶμεν καὶ γυμνητεύομεν καὶ κολαφιζόμεθα καὶ ἀστατοῦμεν καὶ κοπιῶμεν ἐργαζόμενοι ταῖς ἰδίαις χερσί· λοιδορούμενοι εὐλογοῦμεν, διωκόμενοι ἀνεχόμεθα, βλασφημού μενοι παρακαλοῦμεν.» τῶν δὲ ἀποστόλων ἐν τῷ εὔχεσθαι μὴ ἐπιτε τευχότων, τίς ἐλπὶς τῶν ὑποδεεστέρων τινὶ παρ' ἐκείνους εὐχομένῳ ἐπηκόου θεοῦ τυχεῖν; 29.5 τὸ δὲ ἐν τῷ εἰκοστῷ πέμπτῳ ψαλμῷ· «δοκίμασόν με, κύριε, καὶ πείρασόν με, πύρωσον τοὺς νεφρούς μου καὶ τὴν καρδίαν μου» εὐλόγως τις ὑπολήψεται τῶν μὴ ἀκριβούντων, τί τὸ βούλημα τῆς προστάξεως τοῦ σωτῆρος, ἐναντίως γεγονέναι