John Chrysostom, On Prayer

De precatione

HOMILY 2. Concerning Prayer

64.461 Having previously gone through for you [the topic] concerning fasting, and having recounted its benefits according to our ability, and again in the previous [discourse] having gone through for your love of hearing [the topic] concerning baptism, we wish also to recount for you today concerning prayer: what its power is, and what benefit comes from it to those who continually practice it. I exhort you, therefore, listen with goodwill and reverence, lending a straight ear to what is said. For it is truly the greatest and eldest, and has proven to be the mother of all the commandments, giving birth to all the Lord's precepts.

For who that prays is able to overlook his neighbor in poverty, so as to have his labor in this be fruitless? And who is able to desire such wealth and abundance, only to undertake a vain toil for the body, while his heart is captured somewhere else? For the disease of avarice resembles some incurable and persistent affliction, which neither brings death quickly, nor provides perfect health, but little by little relaxes the body from its proper tones, until, having been undermined by the internal drags that arise, after countless labors it delivers it to the common fall of death. And who that is a lover of prayer will be able to neglect fasting, being taught by Scripture itself that *Fasting and prayer deliver from death*. Otherwise, it is not possible to call upon the Lord from the heart while living in gluttony and carousing; just as the Lord also commanded His disciples in the Gospel: *Take heed*, He says, *lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness*. For the vapor from the multitude of foods entering the hollow parts of the brain clouds the useful reasoning faculty itself, disturbing the very heart, Thus, prayer according to truth is a kind of starting point of all the commandments, compelling them all to run along with its own order.

Prayer is the highest good and converse with God; for it is communion and union with God; and just as the eyes of the body, when they see light, are enlightened, so also the soul, stretching toward God, being illumined by His ineffable light, is enlightened. Prayer, therefore, is not performed in posture, but is accomplished from the heart; it is not confined by seasons and intervals of hours, but has its work unceasingly by night and by day. For one must not only, when going to prayer, quickly turn the mind toward God; but it is also necessary, when occupied with certain needs, or with the care of the poor, or with other concerns, or with beneficial 64.464 good works, to mingle with them the longing and remembrance of God, so that, being seasoned as with salt by the love of God, they may become a most sweet food for the Master of all. And we are able to possess the benefit from this inalienably throughout our whole life, by allotting to it the greater part of our time.

Prayer is the enlightenment of the soul, a true knowledge of God, a mediator between God and men, a physician of the passions, an antidote for diseases, a calm of the soul, a heavenly guide, not turning about the earth, but journeying to the very vault of the heavens. It leaps over creation, it cleaves the air with the mind, it travels beyond the air, it passes through the choirs of the stars, it opens the gates of heaven, it goes beyond the angels, it passes by Thrones and Dominions, it crosses over the Cherubim, and having gone above all created nature, it arrives at the unapproachable Trinity itself. There it worships the

De precatione

ΟΜΙΛΙΑ ʹ. Περὶ εὐχῆς

64.461 Πρότερον διεξελθόντες ὑμῖν περὶ νηστείας, καὶ τὰ ταύτης πλεονεκτήματα

διηγησάμενοι κατὰ δύναμιν, καὶ πάλιν τῇ προτέρᾳ περὶ βαπτίσματος τῇ ὑμετέρᾳ διεξελθόντες φιληκοΐᾳ, βουλόμεθα καὶ περὶ εὐχῆς ὑμῖν διηγήσασθαι σήμερον· τίς γε ἡ ταύτης δύναμις, καὶ τίς ἡ ἀπ' αὐτῆς ὠφέλεια περιγίνεται τοῖς ταύτην συνδιατελοῦσιν. Παρακαλῶ οὖν ὑμᾶς, εὐγνωμόνως καὶ εὐλαβῶς ἀκούσατε, τὴν ἀκοὴν εὐθεῖαν τοῖς λεγομένοις ὑποθέντες. Μεγίστη οὖσα ἀληθῶς καὶ πρεσβυτέρα, καὶ μήτηρ τῶν ἐντολῶν ἁπασῶν αὕτη τετύχηκεν, ἅπαντα τὰ τοῦ Κυρίου ἀπογεννῶσα προστάγματα.

Τίς γὰρ εὐχόμενος παριδεῖν τὸν πλησίον πενόμενον δύναται, ἵνα τὸν πόνον τὸν περὶ ταύτην ἀνόνητον ἔχῃ; Τίς δὲ τοιούτου πλούτου καὶ περιουσίας ὀρέγεσθαι δύναται, ἵνα τῷ σώματι μόνον ἀναδέχηται κάματον εἰκαῖον, ἀλλαχοῦ που τῆς καρδίας ἁλωμένης; Ἔοικε γὰρ τῆς φιλοχρηματίας ἡ νόσος πάθει τινὶ δυσιάτῳ καὶ παραμόνῳ, μήτε τάχιον ἐπάγοντι τὸν θάνατον, μήτε τελείαν τὴν ὑγείαν παρέχοντι, ἀλλὰ κατὰ βραχὺ τὸ σῶμα τῶν οἰκείων ὑπεκλύοντι τόνων, ἄχρις οὗ ταῖς ἐγγινομέναις ἐνολκαῖς ὑποῤῥεῦσαν μετὰ μυρίους καμάτους τῷ κοινῷ τοῦ θανάτου παραπέμψῃ πτώματι. Τίς δὲ τῆς εὐχῆς ἐραστὴς νηστείας ἀμελῆσαι δυνήσεται ὑπ' αὐτῆς τῆς Γραφῆς διδασκόμενος, ὅτι Νηστεία καὶ δέησις ἐκ θανάτου ῥύεται. Ἄλλως γε οὐ δυνατὸν ἐκ καρδίας ἐπικαλεῖσθαι τὸν Κύριον ἀδηφαγίᾳ καὶ κραιπάλῃ συζῶντα· καθὼς καὶ ὁ Κύριος ἐν τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ μαθηταῖς παρήγγειλεν· Βλέπετε, φησὶν, μὴ βαρηθῶσιν αἱ καρδίαι ὑμῶν ἐν κραιπάλῃ καὶ μέθῃ. Ἡ γὰρ ἀναθυμίασις τοῦ πλήθους τῶν εἰσπορευομένων τροφῶν περὶ τὰ κοῖλα τοῦ ἐγκεφάλου μέρη τὸ περὶ αὐτὸν τὸν λογισμὸν ἐπιθολοῖ χρήσιμον, αὐτὴν ἐπιταράττουσα τὴν καρδίαν, Οὕτως ἡ κατὰ ἀλήθειαν εὐχὴ πασῶν τῶν ἐντολῶν ἀφετηρία τις ὑπάρχει, συμπαρατρέχειν τῷ οἰκείῳ κόσμῳ πάσας καταναγκάζουσα.

Κορυφαιότατον ἀγαθὸν εὐχὴ καὶ ὁμιλία Θεοῦ· κοινωνία γάρ ἐστι καὶ ἕνωσις πρὸς Θεόν· καὶ ὥσπερ οἱ τοῦ σώματος ὀφθαλμοὶ φῶς καθορῶντες φωτίζονται, οὕτως καὶ ψυχὴ πρὸς Θεὸν ἐκτεινομένη τῷ ἀνεκλαλήτῳ αὐτοῦ φωτὶ καταλαμπομένη φωτίζεται. Εὐχὴ οὖν οὐκ ἐν σχήματι γινομένη, ἀλλ' ἐκ καρδίας ἐπιτελουμένη· οὐ καιροῖς καὶ διαστήμασιν ὡρῶν περικλειομένη, ἀλλὰ νύκτωρ καὶ μεθ' ἡμέραν ἄπαυστον τὴν ἐργασίαν ἔχουσα. Οὐ γὰρ χρὴ μόνον ἐπὶ τὴν εὐχὴν ἀπιόντα ὀξέως ἀπάγειν τὸν λογισμὸν πρὸς τὸν Θεόν· ἀλλὰ δεῖ καὶ ἐπί τινας ἀσχολούμενον χρείας, ἢ περὶ κηδεμονίαν πτωχῶν, ἢ περὶ φροντίδας ἑτέρας, ἢ ἐπωφελεῖς 64.464 εὐποιΐας, τὸν πόθον καὶ τὴν μνήμην τοῦ Θεοῦ καταμίσγειν, ἵνα καθάπερ ἅλατι τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀρτυομένη ἀγάπῃ, βρῶμα ἡδύτατον τῷ πάντων ∆εσπότῃ γίνωνται. ∆υνάμεθα δὲ τὴν ἐκ ταύτης ὄνησιν παρὰ πάντα τὸν βίον ἀναφαίρετον κτήσασθαι, ταύτῃ τὸ πλεῖστον ἀπονέμοντες τοῦ καιροῦ.

Εὐχὴ φωτισμὸς ψυχῆς, ἀληθὴς Θεοῦ ἐπίγνωσις, Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων μεσίτης, παθῶν ἰατρὸς, ἀλεξιφάρμακον νόσων, γαλήνη ψυχῆς, ὁδηγὸς οὐρανία, οὐ περὶ γῆν στρεφομένη, ἀλλ' εἰς αὐτὴν τῶν οὐρανῶν πορευομένη τὴν ἁψῖδα. Ὑπερπηδᾷ κτίσματα, τέμνει νοητῶς τὸν ἀέρα, ὑπὲρ τὸν ἀέρα πορεύεται, διαβαίνει τὰς τῶν ἄστρων χορείας, ἀνοίγει πύλας οὐρανῶν, ὑπὲρ τοὺς ἀγγέλους γίνεται, Θρόνους καὶ Κυριότητας παρέρχεται, διαβαίνει τὰ Χερουβὶμ, καὶ ὑπεράνω πάσης φύσεως γενητῆς γενομένη, πρὸς αὐτὴν τὴν ἀπρόσιτον παραγίνεται Τριάδα. Ἐκεῖ προσκυνεῖ τῇ