XVII Can We Rightly Term Supplications,” “Prayers,” “Intercessions,” and “Thanksgivings,” Parts of Prayer?
The Apostle says to Timothy254: I desire therefore first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made by all men.
For prayer three things are required: first of all, that he who prays come nigh to God; and this is signified by the name prayer, for prayer is “the uplifting of the mind towards God.” Secondly, petition is required, and is signified by the word postulation; now a petition may be set forth in definite terms—and this some term postulation, properly so called; or it may be set forth in no express terms, as when a man asks for God’s help, and this some call supplication; or, again, the fact in question may be simply narrated, as in S. John255: He whom Thou lovest is sick, and this some call insinuation. And thirdly, there is required a reason for asking for what we pray for, and this reason may be either on the part of God or on the part of the petitioner. The reason for asking on the part of God is His holiness, by reason of which we ask to be heard: Incline Thine ear and hear... for Thine own sake, O my God;256 to this belongs obsecration—namely, an appeal to sacred things, as when we say: By Thy Nativity, deliver us, O Lord! But the reason for asking on the part of the petitioner is thankfulness, for by giving thanks for benefits already received we merit to receive still greater ones, as is set forth in the Church’s Collect.257 Hence the Gloss258 says that in the Mass “Obsecrations are the prayers which precede the Consecration,” for in them we commemorate certain sacred things; “in the Consecration itself we have prayers,” for then the mind is especially uplifted towards God; “but in the subsequent petitions we have postulations, and at the close thanksgivings.” These four parts of prayer may be noticed in many of the Church’s Collects: thus in the Collect for Trinity Sunday, the words Almighty and Everlasting God signify the uplifting of the soul in prayer to God; the words: Who hast granted to Thy servants to acknowledge in their profession of the true faith the glory of the Eternal Trinity, and in the Power of Its Majesty to adore Its Unity, signify giving of thanks; the words: Grant, we beseech Thee, that by perseverance in this same faith we may be ever defended from all adversities, signify postulation; while the closing words: Through our Lord Jesus Christ, etc., signify obsecration.
In the Conferences of the Fathers, however,259 we read: “Obsecration is imploring pardon for sin; prayer is when we make vows to God; postulation is when we make petition for others; giving of thanks, those ineffable outpourings by which the mind renders thanks to God.” But the former explanation is preferable.
Some, however, object to these divisions of prayer, thus:
1. Obsecration is apparently to swear by someone, whereas Origen remarks260: “A man who desires to live in accordance with the Gospel must not swear by anyone, for if it is not allowed to swear, neither is it allowed to swear by anyone.”
But it is sufficient to remark that obsecration is not a swearing by, or adjuring of God, as though to compel Him, for this is forbidden, but to implore His mercy.
2. Again, S. John Damascene says261 that prayer is “the asking God for things that are fitting.” Hence it is not exact to distinguish prayers from postulations.
But prayer, generally considered, embraces all the above-mentioned parts; when, however, we distinguish one part against another, prayer, properly speaking, means the uplifting of the mind to God.
3. Lastly, giving of thanks refers to the past, whereas the other parts of prayer refer to the future. Hence giving of thanks should not be placed after the rest.
But whereas in things which are different from one another the past precedes the future, in one and the same thing the future precedes the past. Hence giving of thanks for benefits already received precedes petition; yet those same benefits were first asked for, and then, when they had been received, thanks were offered for them. Prayer, however, precedes petition, for by it we draw nigh to God to Whom we make petition. And obsecration precedes prayer, for it is from dwelling upon the Divine Goodness that we venture to approach to Him.
Cajetan: We might be asked how the mind can be especially elevated to God at the moment of consecration. For in the consecration the priest has to express distinctly the words of consecration, and consequently cannot have his mind uplifted towards God at that moment. Indeed, the more his mind is uplifted to God, the less he thinks of inferior things, words, and so forth.
But in the consecration of the Holy Eucharist—in which the priest in a sense brings God down upon earth—the very greatness of our uplifting of mind towards the Divine Goodness Which has thus deigned to come amongst us is the very reason for our attention to the words in the act of consecration, and makes the priest pronounce them distinctly and reverently. Some scrupulous folk, however, concentrate their whole attention on being intent and attentive; but this is really a distraction, and not attention, for its object is precisely the being attentive. The uplifting, then, of our minds to God in the consecration has indeed to be the very greatest, not, indeed, intensively and by abstraction from the things of sense, but objectively and concentrated—though always within the limits compatible with attention—on the endeavour to say the words as they should be said (on 2. 2. 83. 17.)
S. Augustine: And David went in and sat before the Lord262; and Elias, casting himself down upon the earth, put his face between his knees.263 By examples such as these we are taught that there is no prescribed position of the body in prayer provided the soul states its intention in the presence of God. For we pray standing, as it is written: The Publican standing afar off. We pray, too, on our knees, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles;264 and we pray sitting, as in the case of David and Elias. And unless it were lawful to pray lying down, it would not be said in the Psalms265: Every night I will wash my bed, I will water my couch with my tears. When, then, a man desires to pray, he settles himself in any position that serves at the time for the stirring up of his soul. When, on the other hand, we have no definite intention of praying, but the wish to pray suddenly occurs to us—when, that is, there comes of a sudden into our mind something which rouses the desire to pray “with unspeakable groanings”—then, in whatsoever position such a feeling may find us, we are not to put off our prayer; we are not to look about for some place whither we can withdraw, for some place in which to stand or in which to make prostration. For the very intention of the mind begets a solitude, and we often forget to which quarter of the heavens we were looking, or in what bodily position the occasion found us (Of Divers Questions, iv.).
“Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication; be attentive to me and hear me. I am grieved in my exercise; and am troubled at the voice of the enemy, and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have cast iniquities upon me, and in wrath they were troublesome to me. My heart is troubled within me, and the fear of death is fallen upon me. Fear and trembling are come upon me, and darkness hath covered me. And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?”266
Footnotes
98 Etymologies, x., sub litt. O.
99 Ps. xxxviii. 13.
100 Ethics, I. xiii. 15.
101 Rabanus Maurus, De Universis, vi. 14.
102 On the Orthodox Faith, iii. 24.
103 Ps. x. 17.
104 Isa. lxv. 24.
105 Of the Divine Names, vi. 1.
106 Ps. xxvi. 4.
107 Art. XV.
108 Isa. lxiv. 8, 9.
109 xviii. 1.
110 Mal. iii. 14.
111 Dialogue, i. 8.
112 S. Matt. vi. 32.
113 1 Kings xv. 29.
114 Of Good Deeds, ii. 1.
115 Hom. II., On Prayer; also Hom. XXX., On Genesis.
116 Eph. i. 4.
117 Ps. lxx. 17, 18.
118 S. Matt. vii. 7.
119 Ps. cxx. 4.
120 S. Matt. vi. 8.
121 Ps. ciii. 33, 34.
122 Ps. lxxxiii. 12.
123 viii. 4.
124 1 Cor. xiv. 15.
125 On Care for the Dead, chaps, xiii., xv., xvi.
126 Moralia in Job, xii. 14.
127 Ps. lxvi.
128 S. Matt. vi. 9-13; S. Luke xi. 2-4.
129 Of Socrates the Philosopher, vii. 21.
130 Ps. lxxix. 4.
131 Ps. cxviii. 35.
132 On the Orthodox Faith, iii. 24.
133 iv. 3.
134 Rom. viii. 26.
135 S. John iv. 24.
136 1 Tim. ii. 4.
137 Isa. lxiii. 15, 16.
138 xxx. 8.
139 Ep., CXXX., chap. xii.
140 Ethics, I. vii. 15.
141 Ep., CXXX., chap. vi.
142 S. Matt. vi. 33.
143 On the Sermon on the Mount, II. x. 1.
144 S. Matt. vi. 25.
145 2 Cor. iv. 18.
146 Ps. xxxvii. 10.
147 1 Thess. v. 17.
148 Heb. iv. 3.
149 Ps. liv. 23.
150 v. 16.
151 Opus Imperf. in Matthæum, Hom. XIV.
152 On the Lord’s Prayer.
153 S. John xvi. 23.
154 Tractatus in Joannem, 102.
155 xv. 1.
156 Ps. xxxiv. 13.
157 Jer. vii. 16.
158 Eccles. vii. 14.
159 1 John v. 16.
160 De Correptionibus et Gratia, cap. xv.
161 Rom. xv. 30.
162 1 Cor. i. 11.
163 S. John xxii. 24.
164 S. Matt. v. 44.
165 xv. 4.
166 Ps. vi. 11.
167 On the Sermon on the Mount, i. 21.
168 Apoc. vi. 10.
169 Ps. lvii. 11.
170 On the Sermon on the Mount, i. 22, and Questions on the Gospels, II., xlv.
171 Questions on the Old and New Testament, Qu. lxviii.
172 Ecclus. xxxvi. 1-3.
173 Ep. cxxx. 12.
174 Ep. cxxx. 11.
175 Comment. on S. Matthew, vi.
176 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.
177 S. Luke i. 49.
178 Ps. cxliv. 13.
179 Isa. xlvi. 10.
180 On the Sermon on the Mount, ii. 5.
181 Ep. cxxx. 11.
182 Enchiridion, 115.
183 On the Sermon on the Mount, ii. 11.
184 xi. 2-4.
185 Enchiridion, 116.
186 1 John iv. 19.
187 S. John xvii. 1-3.
188 See Touron, O.P., Vie de S. Thomas d’Aquin, p. 254; Paris, 1740.
189 S. John xiv. 16.
190 Rom. viii. 26.
191 xcvi. 7.
192 Ps. cxlvi. 9.
193 Ecclus. xxxvi. 18, 19.
194 2 Macc. xv. 14.
195 Contra Vigilantium, vi.
196 Heb. vii. 25. S. Thomas is quoting from memory.
197 Exod. iii. 6.
198 Ps. cxli. 1.
199 Ep. cxxx. 9.
200 Ps. xxvi. 8.
201 1 Kings i. 13.
202 Osee xiv. 3.
203 Ps. xv. 9.
204 S. Matt. vi. 6.
205 Opus Imperf. Hom. XIII. in Matt.
206 On the Sermon on the Mount, ii. 3.
207 Ps. cxviii. 145.
208 Ps. lxxxv. 1-5.
209 Ps. xxxix. 13.
210 Implicitly, Moralia in Job, xxii. 13; but see Hugh of S. Victor, Exposition of the Rule of S. Augustine, iii.
211 1 Cor. xiv. 14.
212 Of the Manner of Prayer, ii.
213 iv. 24.
214 On the Monastic Constitutions, chap. i.
215 Ep. cxxi.
216 Art. IV.
217 Ps. lxxv. 4, 5.
218 Ps. cxlv. 1.
219 2 Cor. v. 6.
220 Wisd. ix. 15.
221 Ps. cxlii. 4-7.
222 S. Luke xviii. 1.
223 1 Thess. v. 17.
224 1 Cor. x. 31.
225 S. Matt. vi. 7.
226 S. Luke vi. 12.
227 S. Luke xxii. 43.
228 Ps. xxvi. 4.
229 Exod. xix. 21.
230 S. Matt. vi. 9.
231 S. Luke xviii. 1.
232 1 Thess. v. 17.
233 Ps. xxxii. 20-22.
234 Ps. xxxiv. 13.
235 On the Sermon on the Mount, Sermon CV. i.
236 St. Luke vi. 13.
237 On Perseverance, chap. xxiii.
238 2 Cor. xii. 7-9.
239 S. Prosper, The Book of Sentences gleaned from S. Augustine, Sent. 212.
240 Tractatus in Joannem, 102.
241 Monastic Constitutions, chap, i.
242 i. 6.
243 Ps. xxxviii. 13, 14.
244 Tractatus in Joannem, 44.
245 Opus Imperf. in Matt., Hom. XVIII.
246 Tractatus in Joannem, 73; and De Verbis Domini, Sermon cccliv. 7.
247 S. John ix. 31.
248 xxviii. 8.
249 Tractatus in Joannem, 44.
250 Implicitly in the old interlinear Gloss on 2 Tim. iii. 5.
251 Opus Imperf. in Matt., Hom. XIV.
252 xxviii. 2.
253 Ps. xxxvi. 23-25.
254 1 Tim. ii. 1.
255 xi. 3.
256 Dan. ix. 18, 19.
257 Friday in the September Ember days.
258 The Ordinary Gloss on the words obsecrations, prayers, etc., in 1 Tim. ii. 1.
259 Collat., IX., chaps. xi-xiii.
260 Tractatus xxxv. in Matt.
261 De Orthodoxa Fide, iii. 24.
262 2 Kings vii. 18.
263 3 Kings xviii. 42.
264 vii. 59; xx. 36.
265 vi. 7.
266 Ps. liv. 1-7.