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

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 what is said: «The mouth of the righteous will meditate on wisdom,» is free from being tempted. 29.10 How many, at any rate, having taken up the things proclaimed in the law and the prophets in dedicating themselves to the examination of the divine scriptures, have dedicated themselves to atheistic and impious doctrines <or> to foolish and ridiculous ones, what need is there even to say, when countless numbers of those who seem not to be liable to the charge of neglecting the readings stumble in such things? And many have suffered the same thing also in the case of the apostolic and evangelical readings, through their own follies fashioning another son or father besides the one spoken of as God and understood in truth by the saints. For he who does not think true things concerning God or his Christ has fallen away from the true God and from his only-begotten; and the one whom his folly has fashioned, thinking him to be father and son, he does not truly worship, having suffered this because he did not understand the 20temptation20 in reading the holy things, nor arm himself and stand as if against a contest then present to him. 29.11 One must, therefore, pray not that we may not be tempted (for this is impossible) but that we may not be enveloped by the 20temptation20, which is what those suffer who are caught in it and have been conquered. Since, then, outside the prayer it is written «not to enter 20into temptation20,» which can somehow be clear from what has been said, but in the prayer we must say: «0lead us not into temptation20» to God the Father; it is worthwhile to see how one must understand God leading the one who did not pray or the one who is not heard «0into20» the «0temptation20.» For it seems inconsistent, when the one being conquered enters «0into20» the «0temptation20», to think that God leads someone «0into temptation20,» as if handing him over to be conquered. And the same inconsistency awaits also the one who in any way explains «pray 20not20 to enter 20into temptation20.» For if it is evil to fall «0into temptation20,» which we pray not to suffer, how is it not absurd to think that the good God, who cannot bear «evil fruit,» envelops someone in evils? 29.12 It is useful, therefore, for these matters to cite the things said by Paul in the Epistle to the Romans in this manner: «Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for a likeness in the image of mortal man and of birds and four-footed animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,» and after a little: «For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions; for their females exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the males likewise, giving up natural relations with females, were consumed with passion» and what follows; and again after a little: «And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do what ought not to be done.» However, all these things must be addressed to those who divide the Godhead, and it must be said to them, who think that the good Father of our Lord is different from the God of the Law, whether the good God leads into «0temptation20» the one who does not obtain his prayer, and whether the Father of the Lord gives over «in the lusts of their hearts» those who have previously sinned «to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,» and whether, as they themselves say, being free from judging and punishing, he gives them over «to dishonorable passions» and «to a debased mind, to do what ought not to be done,» since those not given over to them by God would not have been «in the lusts of their own hearts,» nor would those not given over to them by God have fallen under «dishonorable» passions, nor would those thus condemned have fallen «into a debased mind» without being given over to it by God? 29.13 I know well, then, that these things will greatly trouble them, because for this reason they have fashioned another God besides the maker of heaven and earth, since many

πάντα καιρὸν 20πειρασμοῦ20 εἶναι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις καὶ ταῦτα· οὐδὲ ὁ τὸν νόμον τοῦ θεοῦ μελετῶν «ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτὸς» καὶ ἀ σκῶν κατορθῶσαι τὸ εἰρημένον· «στόμα δικαίου μελετήσει σοφίαν» τοῦ πειράζεσθαι ἀπήλλακται. 29.10 ὅσοι γοῦν παρεκδεξάμενοι ἐν τῷ ἀνατεθεικέναι αὑτοὺς τῇ ἐξετάσει τῶν θείων γραφῶν τὰ ἐν νόμῳ καὶ προφήταις ἀπηγγελμένα ἀθέοις καὶ ἀσεβέσι δόγμασιν ἑαυτοὺς ἀνατεθείκασιν <ἢ> ἠλιθίοις καὶ γελοίοις, τί δεῖ καὶ λέγειν, τῶν δοκούντων τῷ τῆς ἀμελείας τῶν ἀνα γνωσμάτων ἐγκλήματι μὴ εἶναι ἐνόχων μυρίων ὅσων τὰ τοιαῦτα πταιόντων; τὸ δ' αὐτὸ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀποστολικῶν καὶ εὐαγγελικῶν ἀναγνωσμάτων πολλοὶ πεπόνθασι, διὰ τὰς ἰδίας ἀνοίας ἀναπλάττον τες ἕτερον παρὰ τὸν θεολογούμενον καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἀλήθειαν νενοη μένον τοῖς ἁγίοις υἱὸν ἢ πατέρα. ὁ γὰρ μὴ τὰ ἀληθῆ φρονῶν περὶ θεοῦ ἢ Χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ τοῦ μὲν ἀληθινοῦ ἀποπέπτωκε θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ μονογενοῦς αὐτοῦ· ὃν δὲ ἀνέπλασεν ἡ ἄνοια αὐτοῦ, νομίζουσα εἶναι πατέρα καὶ υἱὸν, οὐκ ὄντως προσκυνεῖ, τοῦτο παθὼν διὰ τὸ τὸν ἐν τῷ ἀναγινώσκειν τὰ ἅγια 20πειρασμὸν20 μὴ νενοηκέναι μηδὲ ὡς πρὸς ἀγῶνα καὶ τότε αὐτῷ ἐνεστηκότα ὁπλισάμενος καὶ στάς. 29.11 χρὴ τοίνυν εὔχεσθαι οὐχ ἵνα μὴ πειρασθῶμεν (τοῦτο γὰρ ἀδύνατον) ἀλλ' ἵνα μὴ ὑπὸ τοῦ 20πειρασμοῦ20 περιβληθῶμεν, ὅπερ πά σχουσιν οἱ ἐνεχόμενοι αὐτῷ καὶ νενικημένοι. ἐπεὶ οὖν ἔξω μὲν τῆς εὐχῆς γέγραπται «μὴ εἰσελθεῖν 20εἰς πειρασμὸν20,» ὅπερ ἐκ τῶν εἰρημένων δύναταί πως εἶναι σαφὲς, ἐν δὲ τῇ εὐχῇ λέγειν ἡμᾶς δεῖ· «0μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμὸν20» τῷ πατρὶ θεῷ· ἄξιον ἰδεῖν, πῶς χρὴ νοεῖν τὸν θεὸν εἰσάγειν τὸν μὴ εὐξάμενον ἢ τὸν μὴ ἐπα κουόμενον «0εἰς20» τὸν «0πειρασμόν20.» ἀπεμφαίνει γὰρ, τοῦ νικωμένου εἰσερχομένου «0εἰς20» τὸν «0πειρασμὸν20», τὸν θεὸν νομίζειν εἰσάγειν τινὰ «0εἰς πειρασμὸν20,» οἱονεὶ τῷ νικᾶσθαι αὐτὸν παραδόντα. ἡ δ' αὐτὴ ἀπέμφασις περιμένει καὶ τὸν ὅπως ποτὲ ἐξηγούμενον τὸ «εὔχεσθε 20μὴ20 εἰσελθεῖν 20εἰς πειρασμόν20.» εἰ γὰρ κακὸν τὸ ἐμπεσεῖν «0εἰς πειρασ μὸν20,» ὅπερ ἵνα μὴ πάθωμεν εὐχόμεθα, πῶς οὐκ ἄτοπον νοεῖν τὸν ἀγαθὸν θεὸν, μὴ δυνάμενον «καρποὺς» φέρειν «πονηροὺς,» περιβάλ λειν τινὰ τοῖς κακοῖς; 29.12 χρήσιμον οὖν εἰς ταῦτα παραθέσθαι τὰ ἐν τῇ πρὸς Ῥωμαί ους ὑπὸ τοῦ Παύλου εἰρημένα τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον· «φάσκοντες εἶναι σοφοὶ ἐμωράνθησαν, καὶ ἤλλαξαν τὴν δόξαν τοῦ ἀφθάρτου θεοῦ ἐν ὁμοιώματι εἰκόνος φθαρτοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ πετεινῶν καὶ τετραπόδων καὶ ἑρπετῶν. διὸ παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς ὁ θεὸς ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῶν καρδιῶν αὐτῶν εἰς ἀκαθαρσίαν, τοῦ ἀτιμάζεσθαι τὰ σώματα αὐτῶν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς,» καὶ μετ' ὀλίγα· «διὰ τοῦτο παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς ὁ θεὸς εἰς πάθη ἀτιμίας· αἵ τε γὰρ θήλειαι αὐτῶν μετήλλαξαν τὴν φυσικὴν χρῆσιν εἰς τὴν παρὰ φύσιν· ὁμοίως καὶ οἱ ἄρσενες ἀφέντες τὴν φυσι κὴν χρῆσιν τῆς θηλείας ἐξεκαύθησαν» καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς· καὶ πάλιν μετ' ὀλίγα· «καὶ καθὼς οὐκ ἐδοκίμασαν τὸν θεὸν ἔχειν ἐν ἐπιγνώσει, παρέ δωκεν αὐτοὺς ὁ θεὸς εἰς ἀδόκιμον νοῦν, ποιεῖν τὰ μὴ καθήκοντα.» πλὴν ταῦτα πάντα προσεκτέον τοῖς διακόπτουσι τὴν θεότητα, καὶ λεκτέον πρὸς αὐτοὺς, ἕτερον νομίζοντας εἶναι τὸν ἀγαθὸν πατέρα τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν παρὰ τὸν τοῦ νόμου θεὸν, εἰ ὁ ἀγαθὸς θεὸς τὸν μὴ τυγχάνοντα τῆς εὐχῆς εἰσάγει «0εἰς πειρασμὸν20,» καὶ εἰ ὁ πατὴρ τοῦ κυρίου παραδίδωσιν «ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῶν καρδιῶν» τοὺς προημαρτηκότας τι «εἰς ἀκαθαρσίαν, τοῦ ἀτιμάζεσθαι τὰ σώματα αὐτῶν ἐν αὑτοῖς,» καὶ εἰ, ὡς αὐτοί φασι, τοῦ κρίνειν καὶ κολάζειν ἀπηλλαγμένος παραδίδωσιν «εἰς πάθη ἀτιμίας» καὶ «εἰς ἀδόκιμον νοῦν, ποιεῖν τὰ μὴ καθήκοντα,» οὐκ ἂν «ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῶν καρ διῶν ἑαυτῶν» γεγενημένων τῶν μὴ παραδοθέντων αὐταῖς ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, οὐδ' ἂν πάθεσιν «ἀτιμίας» ὑποπεπτωκότων τῶν μὴ ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ παραδοθέντων αὐτοῖς, οὐδ' ἂν «εἰς ἀδόκιμον νοῦν» καταπιπτόντων χωρὶς τοῦ παραδίδοσθαι αὐτῷ ὑπὸ θεοῦ τοὺς οὕτω καταδικασθέντας; 29.13 ἐκείνους μὲν οὖν εὖ οἶδα ὅτι σφόδρα ταράξει ταῦτα, διὰ τοῦτο ἄλλον ἀναπλάσαντας παρὰ τὸν ποιητὴν οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς θεὸν, ἐπεὶ πολλὰ