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

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 things and the heavenly food, which they despised and longed for the worse things. 29.15 Therefore, those will suffer the same as these who exchanged "the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed animals, and of creeping things," through being abandoned, being delivered up "in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, for the dishonoring of their bodies"—they who brought down to a lifeless and senseless body the name of him who granted to all rational beings that perceive not only to perceive, but also to perceive rationally, and to some also to perceive and to understand perfectly and virtuously. And reasonably such people are delivered up by the God who was abandoned by them, being abandoned in turn by him, to the "passions" of "dishonor," "receiving" "the recompense" "of their error" through which they loved a scabby pleasure. For the recompense "of the error" comes to be in them more, when they are delivered up "to passions of dishonor," than when they are cleansed by the wise fire and in the prison are made to pay each of their debts to the last kodrantes. For in being delivered up to passions of "dishonor," not only those according to nature but also many of those contrary to nature, they are polluted and are fattened by the flesh, as if then no longer having a soul nor a mind but becoming wholly flesh; but in the fire and the prison, receiving not the "recompense" "of their error" but a benefit for the cleansing of the evils in their error with saving labors, which follow the lovers of pleasure, they are freed from all filth and blood, in which being befouled and stained they were not even able to think about being saved in their own destruction. Therefore God "will wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and will cleanse the blood from their midst by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning"; for "he will enter like a refiner's fire and like the fuller's herb," washing away and cleansing those who have need of such medicines because they were unwilling after testing "to have God in their knowledge"; to which having been delivered up, they will willingly hate the "reprobate mind"; for God does not wish the good to come to anyone by necessity but willingly, perhaps with some, from having associated with wickedness for a very long time, having with difficulty understood its shame and turning away from it as something falsely supposed to be good. 29.16 But consider if for this reason also God hardens the heart of Pharaoh, so that he might be able to say what he said, which he would have been unable to do, not having been hardened: "The Lord is righteous, but I and my people are wicked." But one needs to be hardened for longer and to suffer for longer, so that by not ceasing from being hardened too quickly, scorning the hardening as an evil, he might become worthy of being hardened yet more often. If, then, "not unjustly are nets spread for the winged," according to what is said in Proverbs, but reasonably God leads "into the snare," according to the one who said: "You have brought us into the snare," and "without" the will "of the Father" not even the most insignificant winged sparrow falls "into the snare" (the one falling "into the snare" falling for this reason, because he did not use his wings well, which were given for the power of rising high), let us pray to do nothing worthy of being 20brought "in20to" "0temptation20" by the just judgment of God, since everyone is brought in who is delivered up by God "in the lusts" of his own heart "to impurity," and everyone who is delivered up "to passions of dishonor," and everyone who, "as he did not approve to have God in" himself, is delivered up "to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting." 29.17 But the need for being tempted is something like this. Whatever our soul has received, being hidden from everyone except God and also from ourselves, is made manifest through 20temptations20; so that it may no longer be hidden from us what sort of people we are, but that knowing ourselves we may become conscious, if we wish, of the

τῆς γενέσεως ἐπιθυμήσαντες πάλιν δεηθῆτε τοῦ δὶς τυχεῖν ὧν ἐπιθυμεῖτε, μισήσαντες τὸ ἐπιθυμούμενον, καὶ τότε οὕτω παλινδρομεῖν ἐπὶ τὰ καλὰ καὶ τὴν οὐράνιον τροφὴν, ἧς καταφρονήσαντες τῶν χειρόνων ὠρέχθησαν. 29.15 τὸ ὅμοιον οὖν τούτοις πείσονται οἱ ἀλλάξαντες «τὴν δόξαν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀφθάρτου ἐν ὁμοιώματι εἰκόνος φθαρτοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ πετεινῶν καὶ τετραπόδων καὶ ἑρπετῶν,» διὰ τοῦ ἐγκαταλεί πεσθαι παραδιδόμενοι «ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῶν καρδιῶν αὐτῶν εἰς ἀκαθαρσίαν, τοῦ ἀτιμάζεσθαι τὰ σώματα» τῶν εἰς ἄψυχον σῶμα καὶ ἀναίσθητον καταβιβασάντων τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πᾶσι τοῖς αἰσθομένοις λογικοῖς οὐ μόνον τὸ αἰσθέσθαι ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ λογικῶς αἰσθέσθαι τισὶ δὲ καὶ τελείως καὶ ἐναρέτως αἰσθέσθαι καὶ νοεῖν χαρισαμένου. καὶ εὐλόγως οἱ τοιοῦτοι παραδίδονται ὑπὸ τοῦ καταλειφθέντος ὑπ' αὐ τῶν θεοῦ, ἀντικαταλειπόμενοι ὑπ' αὐτοῦ, εἰς τὰ τῆς «ἀτιμίας» «πάθη,» «τὴν ἀντιμισθίαν» «τῆς πλάνης» δι' ἧς ἠγάπησαν ψωρώ δους ἡδονῆς «ἀπολαμβάνοντες.» μᾶλλον γὰρ ἡ ἀντιμισθία «τῆς πλά νης» αὐτοῖς ἐγγίνεται, παραδιδομένοις «εἰς πάθη ἀτιμίας,» ἤπερ τῷ φρονίμῳ πυρὶ καθαιρομένοις καὶ ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ ἐκπρασσομένοις μέχρι τοῦ ἐσχάτου κοδράντου ἕκαστον τῶν ὀφλημάτων. ἐν γὰρ τῷ πάθεσιν «ἀτιμίας» οὐ μόνον τοῖς κατὰ φύσιν ἀλλὰ καὶ πολλοῖς τῶν παρὰ φύσιν παραδίδοσθαι μολύνονται καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς σαρκὸς παχύνον ται, οἱονεὶ οὐκέτι ἔχοντες τότε ψυχὴν οὐδὲ νοῦν ἀλλ' ὅλοι γινό μενοι σάρκες· ἐν δὲ τῷ πυρὶ καὶ τῇ φυλακῇ οὐκ «ἀντιμισθίαν» «τῆς πλάνης» ἀλλ' εὐεργεσίαν ἐπὶ καθάρσει τῶν ἐν τῇ πλάνῃ κακῶν μετὰ σωτηρίων λαμβάνοντες πόνων, ἑπομένων τοῖς φιληδόνοις, ἀπαλ λάττονται παντὸς ῥύπου καὶ αἵματος, ἐν οἷς ἐῤῥυπωμένοι καὶ πε φυρμένοι οὐδὲ τὸ ἐννοῆσαι περὶ τοῦ σῴζεσθαι ἐδύναντο τῇ σφῶν ἀπωλείᾳ. «ἐκπλυνεῖ» τοιγαροῦν ὁ θεὸς «τὸν ῥύπον τῶν υἱῶν καὶ τῶν θυγατέρων Σιὼν, καὶ τὸ αἷμα ἐκκαθαριεῖ ἐκ μέσου αὐτῶν πνεύ ματι κρίσεως καὶ πνεύματι καύσεως»· «εἰσπορεύεται» γὰρ «ὡς πῦρ χωνευτηρίου καὶ ὡς πόα πλυνόντων,» ἀποπλύνων καὶ καθαίρων τοὺς τοιούτων φαρμάκων δεδεημένους διὰ τὸ μὴ δεδοκιμασμένως θέλειν «ἔχειν ἐν ἐπιγνώσει» «τὸν θεόν»· οἷς παραδοθέντες ἑκόντες μισήσουσι τὸν «ἀδόκιμον νοῦν»· οὐ γὰρ βούλεται ὁ θεός τινι τὸ ἀγαθὸν ὡς κατὰ ἀνάγκην γενέσθαι ἀλλὰ ἑκουσίως, τάχα τινῶν ἐκ τοῦ ἐπὶ πλεῖον ὡμιληκέναι τῇ κακίᾳ μόγις τὸ αἶσχος αὐτῆς κατα νενοηκότων καὶ ἀποστρεφομένων αὐτὴν ὡς ψευδῶς ὑποληφθεῖσαν εἶναι καλήν. 29.16 ἐπίστησον δὲ εἰ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ σκληρύνει τὴν τοῦ Φαραὼ καρδίαν ὁ θεὸς, ἵν' ὅπερ εἶπε μὴ σκληρυνθεὶς δυνηθῇ εἰπεῖν· «ὁ κύριος δίκαιος, ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ ὁ λαός μου ἀσεβής.» ἀλλ' ἐπὶ πλεῖον δέεται τοῦ σκληρύνεσθαι καὶ ἐπὶ πλεῖον πάσχειν τινὰ, ἵνα μὴ ἐκ τοῦ τάχιον τοῦ σκληρύνεσθαι παύεσθαι καταφρονῶν ὡς κακοῦ τοῦ σκληρύνεσθαι ἔτι πλεονάκις ἄξιος τοῦ σκληρύνεσθαι γίνηται. εἰ τοίνυν «οὐκ ἀδίκως ἐκτείνεται δίκτυα πτερωτοῖς» κατὰ τὰ ἐν ταῖς Παροιμίαις εἰρημένα, ἀλλὰ εὐλόγως εἰσάγει ὁ θεὸς «εἰς τὴν παγίδα» κατὰ τὸν εἰπόντα· «εἰσήγαγες ἡμᾶς εἰς τὴν παγίδα,» καὶ «ἄνευ» τῆς βουλῆς «τοῦ πατρὸς» οὐδὲ τὸ εὐτελέστερον τῶν ἐπτερωμένων στρου θίον ἐμπίπτει «εἰς τὴν παγίδα» (τοῦ ἐμπίπτοντος «εἰς τὴν παγίδα» διὰ τοῦτο ἐμπίπτοντος, ἐπεὶ μὴ καλῶς τῇ τῶν πτερῶν ἐχρήσατο δεδομένων ἐπὶ τὸ ὑψοῦσθαι ἐξουσίᾳ), εὐχώμεθα μηδὲν ἄξιον ποιῆσαι τοῦ ὑπὸ τῆς δικαίας κρίσεως τοῦ θεοῦ 20εἰσενεχθῆναι «εἰς20» τὸν «0πειρασμὸν20,» εἰσφερομένου παντός τε τοῦ παραδιδομένου ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ «ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις» τῆς καρδίας ἑαυτοῦ «εἰς ἀκαθαρσίαν» καὶ παντὸς τοῦ παραδιδομένου «εἰς πάθη ἀτιμίας» καὶ παντὸς τοῦ, «καθὼς οὐκ ἐδοκίμασε τὸν θεὸν ἔχειν ἐν» ἑαυτῷ, παραδιδομένου «εἰς ἀδόκιμον νοῦν, ποιεῖν τὰ μὴ καθήκοντα.» 29.17 ἡ δὲ χρεία τοῦ πειράζεσθαι τοιαύτη τις ἐστίν. ἅπερ ἐδέξατο ἡμῶν ἡ ψυχὴ, λανθάνοντα πάντας πλὴν τοῦ θεοῦ ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς, φανερὰ διὰ τῶν 20πειρασμῶν20 γίνεται· ἵνα μηκέτι λανθάνωμεν, ὁποῖοί ποτε ἐσμὲν, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτοὺς ἐπιγινώσκοντες συναισθώμεθα, ἐὰν βου λώμεθα, τῶν