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joy..? By hearing a¯nd keeping the~ word :of,God." Fidelit9 to his state of life necessarily entails’.for a reli-. gious the practice of. virtue, another.fertile source of spit-" itual joy. St. Th~r~se_acknowiedged ,that until the age of fourteen she pradtised’virtue without any idea of making it a joy

that was a grace bestowed’ upon her later. There is danger that many of us may pass a whole lifetime without becoming aware of this joy. ConSciousness of duty well diJne is a crysta!-pure sourcg "of true spiritual joy. Lucie Christineprayed, "Grant that I may place the joy of fulfilling my ~duties abo~e all other \ "XReverend Joseph Kempf, New Things and Old (St, Louis: B. Herder Book Co., ¯ i943), p. 160. 352 November, ’1947 CHR] STIAN’JOY joys, Tra: simple e~nough prayer until wd .remember

that’ the joys she, was experiencing af this time ,~ere thbge corriing from the.~highest kind of.mystical.uriioh ~with God.~’ .Ahd ¯ yet, above those she esteemed the joy of fulfilling her dut~r. The hidden, often ~monotonous tasks of dail~r, life, then, are a source of real joy for a religious

and he should advert often to this t~uth, lest through indi~erence or ~thoughtless-: n~ss, he,squander~his wealth.. There is the joy of poverty. "~ou took with’joy the b~ing stripped of yoh~, own goods, knowing that you have-a better and a lasting substance." Poverty is a ~joyous affair because it entails such tremendous wealth. ~"The° kingdom of’heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in a field which a’.man’having’: found, hid ..it, .and for joy .thereof, goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buye~tb that field.:" Paupertas. cure laetitia was th, e motto coined by Francis to impress his brethren’with this truth, and the Three .Com-panions testify that Francis and his compani~ons ’:became exceedingly.joyful ~ecafise oftheir poverty." There is the joy of charity. "For I have bad ~reat joy and consolation in thy°charity, because through thee, ~brother, the hearts~ of the saints have found rest." True loversof Christ easily find this joy of charity

and as they" advance, they learn that there is still greater joy in.loving those who afflict them because .by so doing they imprint on their sou_!s a still greater resemblance to Our Loid.- There is the joy of obedience. The dying-St. Th~r~se could say to her prioress, "You, Mother~ are the compa~ss which JeSus has provided to direct me safely to the eternal shore. I find it a joy to fix my eyes upon you, and then do the will of my Lord." There is no joy comparable to that ih the sbul of a. religi’ous who is truly obedient. St. Teresa with the daring of her valiant love asserted that even the sufferings of the Passion were not so pain.ful fo our Lord~ MOTHER MARY ROBERT FALL~ _ ~ " as’,was~’the.agony of ~eeing the~cons.tant offenseva~ain~t-His F~a~ther,~ for ih His Passion, at least

He:found the end of, all His~trials, while His agony was~ allayed by the, consolatiori - oLp~o~irig, fi0~ He-loved His Father ~by suffering for Him’. An& she adds./with _characteristics. insight, ’?What~, joy to suff~ro in doing~God’s .~..,!Rel.igious life is i’n fact the to~al, dedication of self, which’brings us close to the very’ source of all .spiritual joy -:2,the~Divine Good cofisid~red either, in_Itself or as~part~c,- opatei:hb,y us.~ ~o .live this. 1ire in ~its~dntirety

,therefore’,, ~is for,~ usi an infallible means .of attaining _that joy ,which..we n~&l"both :for~ourselves ~and for, tho~e tow.ards:whom .exe~cise our.!~ipostolate:~~ Dom0oMarmion’s ,exhortation~in this:respe~ct:~aptly i~pit0mi~.es the .doctrine of joy~:in the,i~elb gioas,’~life::~ °. , : -,( ,-.L.et ~ yield ourselyes~.to,Him by. faith, confidence, ,love,:humil-. ity, and obedien~ce. If the soul is closed,to earth’s clamors, to.,the " tumult pf the passions and senses, the Incarnate, Word will Himself ¯ become Master of ,t,... He will make us understsnd that true ~oys

the.deepest joys, ~are’th~ose th.at are found m rtts seyvtce. ’- MARIAN NOTICES " N~sl~tt’er, the b~imont1"ily leaflet df the M~ian Lit/rarer of th~ Umver.s~ty 6f Dayton

Dayton 9, Ohio, ’is no~-in its f0urdi ye~ir 6f ptlbli~ti6fi: It¯ contaiias ifiteres.ting f~cts about "Marian books~in general, esp~ciall’.y.aboht~books in the Dayt6n.Marian Library-: This u~nu~sual’~project is ~ucceeding ~well. The,Library. collects.’Marian ~.o, pks.and magazines. Fatima Findinqs,~ another leaflet, is published by the R’eparatio~n So, ciety of, the Imn{acuiate Heart, 720 North Calvert Str&t, Bald-more 2, Ma.ryland. It is well written and keeps !ts readers posted the prdgr~ss?of the Fattma-~nsp~red prayers and sacrifices offered by our country" to Mary. ¯ It includes a monthly. First Saturday. meditation. ~D~m Columba,~.Marmion, Christ in His M~lsteries,~ t, rans. by Mother M. gt.Thomas, 3rd’dd.~ (St’. Lodis: B. He’rdei Book Co.

1939), pp. 244-245. - 354, - "We Are All One" Claude .Kean, O.F.M. ~S A CASUAL listening to the radio attests, the song ~ market suffers from no deartbof love lyrics. Tw~enty-. four hours a day, in iambics and dactyls, in figurati,~e speech, and literal, crooners offer their hearts to matchless members of the other sex ,from coast to coast, or profess: delirium over offers that the matchless members have accepted, .or. plot self-destruction over offers that the match-less members have spurned. No conceivable phase of the great passion, seems to elude, their expe~ienc~e, their report. Yet, for all- the exhaustive ly.ricizlng,~ the truest of all lbves remains still unsung. It is the first love to captivate a young heart, and the lasf to forsake an old. Its sincerityis unquestionable, its ardor inextinguishable

..To win its way, it cheerfully makes a thousand daily sacrifices, calmly endures a thousand daily.rebuffs. It is the one love certain to survive the- fading of "all those, endearing young charms," of all that is humanly attra~ctive. I mean

of c(~urse, self-love. -, " By our very nature, we .do love ourselves. ~re live with ourselves on happy terms. We Opine (though not publi~- cizing the opinion) that, like a certain cigarette, we pos-sess just ab6ut the "right combination" of the ~choicest ingredients. We do, indeed, have our p~ccadilloes, our idiosyncrasies

but. we are secretly a bit proud of them, feeling that they~ add warm touches of color to our per-sonality

Our views and tastes’abe quite sane and sound. Seldom do ,we question them

never do we ridicule ’the~. If it cfiance that we sometimes err in word or deed, We can quote ready reasons why, in the circumstances, error has been humanly unavoidable. \ CL.AUDE KEAN .R~vieu) [or Religious Nowl if otir neighbors were like us, they would be highly satisfactory per.sons. We could love them spon-taneously, we could live with them harmoniously, But, alas, they are not like us. They differ from us on a hun-dred c6unts" perhaps, in nationality, ~olor, age

" certainly Oom appearance, temperament, habits, opinions, likes, and dislikes. The less they differ from us, the more likely are they to become our friends

the more they diff~i’r from ,us, the more liable are they to become our foes. The differences between their characters and ou_rs frankly anngy us. If marked or persistent, they may even enrage us. What can we do about them? We can do one ,of two things: either we can seek to r~move themm by removing our neighbors

or we can attempt to tolerate them. And-I quickly-add tha, t the toleration is the pre-scribed Christian solution. "Bear ye one another’s bur-dens," Saint Paul expresses it, "and thus ye shall fulfill the law of Christ." " At a boys’ boarding school where I was once stationed, a sort of ritual annually attended the opening of the Sep-tember term. Freshmen would genially pick their room-mates, genially arrange their rooms, genially settle down to domestic life. But the following S’aturday afternoon would reveal that a considerable number of them had found it anything but "good and pleasant for brethren to dVell together." There would be much grim moving of trunks from one room to another, accompanied by dark mutterings about the unreasonableness br even the downright insanity of certain me~mbers of the freshman class. It had taken thbse boys only several days of communal life to learn that, though "it is’not good for man to be alone," it is extremely diffidult for men to live. together. To borrow a Comparison.from Father Isidore O’Brien, O.F.M., community life is like a watch. It takes.the right 356 November, 1947 "WE ARE ALL ONE" functioning of eighty-some parts for, a watch to function properly

but it takes the breaking-down of only one of those parts--the snapping of one spring, the clogging of one wheel--to stop a watch. So, too, it.takes the heroic exercise of all the virtues, natural and supernatural, plus a jubilee of God’s grace, for human beings to live happily together within the same walls

15ut it takes only one fault, consistently practised, to stop their happiness. And that ¯ one fault, no matter what its disguise, is invariably selfish~ nes.s--the unwillingness to give and to take, the lack of mutual forbearance. If, then, we are to live together in religious life peace-ably, we must, first, ~xpect others to differ from us

and, secondly, we must acquire a broad toleration of those dif-ferences. My confrere may laugh hysterically-at remarks that to me seem inane, or eagerly dial the community-room radio to gang-busting programs that bore me stiff, or loudly chant the OffiCe in a voice that ,grates me like the rasp of a file, or persistently close the chapel windows that I open, or walk or talk or work or recreate or eat or room in a way that clashes with all my concepts of those various human activities. He and I’ may (to use Stevenson’s figure) stand back to back in all things, seeing an altogether dif-ferent heaven and earth. Yet are we called to live in char-itable unity. And we shall fulfill that call only by tol-erating each other’s differences. Many of our differences undoubtedly spring from our different nationalities. To belabor them is to belabor the obvious. Chesterton has summed them up by defining a foreignermand that term denotes any person with a nationality different from our own--as "a man who laughs at everything---except jokes." Even in religious life, we need to remember that despite these national dif-ferences God made all men. He has no predilection for 357 CLAUDE KEAN Ret~iew for Religious Italians, Spaniards, Frenchmen, Ameri_cans, even Irishmen..’ Once He did have a chosen people, the Jews

but now,.since Good .Friday afternoon, the whole race is His chosen people..Omthis truth Catholicism insists: "We are all one in Christ,". The water’of baptism is thicker than.blood. Many American religious communities, like America itself, are "melting pots’i containing elements of the Old World and elements of.the New, If those elements refuse to melt, ~ serious, explosion-is certain to occur. Both the Old World members of the community and the New World members must .again, therefore, first,, expect to find multiple differences between them

and, secondly, °through constant tact, and° sympathy, and understanding, and for-bearance~ :seek to blend :those differences.. Suppose, for.ins.tance, that to our American community comes an immigrant from (a land unknown to even Rand McNally!) far-off Volabia. Being a genui:ne Volabian, he will of course look, not like a genuine American, but like a genuine Volabian. Shall we disdain~ him for this reason and demand that through plastic surgery his looks be Americanized?. He will also posses.s distinctly Volabian traits of character: perhaps a patience of method that pro: vokes our impatience

or a mute submissiveness that we interpret as almbst a lack of courage

or a religious frank-ness that to us seems akin to ostentation

or a smiling indifference to worldly problems that chafes our. sense of the’practical. Shall we forthright condemn him for being what ten or twenty centuries of Volabian history have made him to be, and peremptorily set about trying to remould him according to the pattern of sesquicentennial America? The more adult procedure, and the more Chris-tian, would be to accept our Volabian brother as he is and to seek to understand his character. Under his surface oddness, we.shall undoubtedly find traits worthy not only 35.8 Not

ember, 1947 "WE ARE ALL ONE" "of our admiration but of our imitation. In similar fashion must the Volabian try to understand us who are American-born. He will find that, perhaps unlike Volabians, we do not wear our religious hearts on our sleeves

that we prefer to "pray to our Heavenly Father in secret"

that we care not to "let our right hand know what our left hand doeth,"~ even though our left hand does much. With this knowledge of us, he will not hastily~con-dude that we American religious lack religion--that we are some Lost Legion in the Church of God. He must, fur, thermore, strive to understand something of the American wayof life: to understand that, instead Of washing at wells, we are accustomed to showe.r-baths

that, instead of travel-ling on mule carts, we commonly travel on trains or buses or even airplanes

that, instead of carrying a ~tale sandwich on a whole day’s journey, we prefer to buy a fresh one, just as cheaply, at some point along the way. Understanding American’standfirds .of living, he will understand our wants .and needs. And if some future chapter should appoint him our superior, he will not be predisposed to dismiss our requests solely on the basis, "We didn’t need these things in Volabia!" Indeed, he will seldom (if ever) institute comparisons between the Old World and the New, realizing that such comparisons are as fatuous as they are odious. When he comes to America, he expects to find new scenery--and not a literal reproduction of the Volabian panorama. So surely must he expect to find dif-ferent customs and standards of living---customs and standards not necessarily better or worse than those of Volabia, but inevitably different. His task is, not to adjust Americans to Volabia, but to adjust a Volabian to Ameri-ca. He will succeed in his task in proportion to his spirit of sensible compromise. Thus it is mutual forbearance that alone can build a 359 CLAUDE KEAN Review [or Religious Peace Bridge between the Old World and the New

mutual forbearance that alone can make a religious community of a hundred different nationalities yet transcendently "all one," Finally, there are the differences between the young religious and the old. Wide differences they are indeed, May having so little in common with December. And what are some of those differences? Horace outlined them unforgettably two thousand years ago. "The young," he says, "delight in games. They resent advice. They are high~spirited, and quick to change their opinions." And the old? "They" he observes, "are stingy, timid in trans-actions. They procrastinate. .They are inactive, peevish, querulous, the chastisers and censors of youth, prhisers of the bygone days when they themselves were young." What a chasm yawns between them! Wherefore the young are prone to consider the old as cranks, kill-joys, meddlers, brakes upon the progress of the community

and the old are prone to regard the young as upstarts, know-it-alls, saboteurs, vandals bent on destroying all the traditions of the community! How, 0 how, can’the "twain meet" and be "all one"? Only by constant efforts towards mutual toleration. The young must bring themselves to realize that the community existed before their arrival and somehow man-aged to get along passably well. They must learn that the label "New" does not necessarily mean "Good." (Shake-speare somewhere speaks of "younger spirits, whose appre-hensive senses all but new things disdain!") They must strive deliberately to cultivate a respect for old things-- the Church herself being quite old, and religious life quite time-tested in all its phases. Just as a certain wise pastor, taking over a new parish, resolved: "For one year, I will make no sweeping changes in the routine of this parish"

360 Nouernber, 1947 "WE ARE ALL ONE" so the young religious might resolve: "Until I have been professed at .least one year, I will not attempt to reorganize my community. Rather, I will try to learn from the older members, seeking their advice ina friendly spirit." The young, even Scripture grants, cannot help dreaming dreams

but they shogld not interpret every dream as a divine apparition with’a commission of supreme 6rgency in it! Above all, the young must respect the old. "Peculiar" in the eyes of youth the old may be. But what can you expect of them? Are they not subject to the laws of na-ture? And can you reasonably expect that, at seventy or eighty, they have the energy, the dash, the fresh faculties of mind and powers of body of seventeen or eighteen? They once were young. But they spent their youth generously for the good of the community

they bore "the burdens and the heats of the day." They fully merit, therefore, not the ridicule of the young, but their sincere appreciation’, their constant consideration, their kindly assistance, their sympathetic understanding. The young should remember that, when looking at the old, they are looking at them-selves in the mirror of tomorrow. Only by striving to make beautiful and ~ranquil the evening of life for others will they insure for themselves a happy ending. The old, on their part, must try to understand and assist the young. The young belong, it is true, to a differ-ent generation, yet not a lost generation. By nature, the young have zeal. Instead of restraining them and thwart-ing them, why not give them full vent for that zeal? Some of their efforts may prove unhappy

but did all of yours succeed signally? Some of their methods may differ from yours

but may two roads not lead to the same place? "Sis-ter Mary," a Mother General once confided to me, "has been playing the organ for forty-five years. She should 361 CLAUDE KI~AN really retire. But she refuses to do so.~ She says that she wants to die at the console." In plain truth, the music of that convent suggested that Sister Mary was dying at the console--a slow, torturous death. And all the meanwhile there stood in the offing other nuns, well-trained young organists, who could have provided music much more acceptable to the ears of God and of man. Saint ,John the Baptist, knowing that his day had ended and that Christ’s day had begun, said, "I must decrease: He must increase." If, instead of standing pat on honors and assignments, the old would similarly make way for the young in religious life, how much Christian charity would be promoted, and how greatly the welfare of many a community would be advanced! Yes, despite all our differences--in temperament, in nationality, in age--we are to be "all one." .How can such pe~rfect unity be achieved? Only (my text from Saint,Paul significantly concludes) "in Christ." Only when our:hearts bare caught from tb~ Heart of Christ a charity that makes us forget ourselves and think constantly of others

a char-ity that makes us overlook the natural differences that divide us and stress the supernatural ties that bind us. OUR CONTRIBUTORS MOTHER MARY ROBERT FALLS is a member of the English Department of the College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, New York. CH/~RLES F. DONOVAN is at Yale University studying education. CLAUDE KE!~N is Principal of the Timon High School in Buffalo, New York. AUGUSTINE KLAAS is professor of Sacra-mental Theology at St. Mary’s College, St. Marys, Kansas. ADAM C. ELLIS is professor of Canon Law in the same college and is one of tbe editors of this review. 362 In Praise ot Pr yer Augustine Klaas, S.3. DlUS XII has more than once during recent years called p attention to the similarity of our present troublous times to those which cradled the infant Church. He bids us observe the Christians of the early ages of the Church in order to draw strength and inspiration from them to surmount the persecutions and obstacles of various sorts which harrass us on every side. He wants us to study their virt.ues, their heroic deeds, their words of wisdom, which saw them successfully through their many trials and temptations, so that we.may do as they did with like tlapp} results. - An outstanding quality of the early Church was its prayer life, The first Christians prayed ferventlyand much, both vocally and mentally. With predilection they prayed the Our Father, they made the sign of the gross, they said mornifig and ~eyeiaing prayers, table prayers, and accompanied all the actions of the day with ..aspirations. They often came together for liturgical prayer, especially for the agape, or love-feast, which was sometimes followed - by the Eucharistic celebration. Mental prayer, too, was in constant use, particularly among the virgins, ascetics, and primitive r.eligious both of the deserts and of the ancient monasteries. Furthermore, many of them wrote dgwn their thoughts and counsels on prayer. It is this praise of prayer uttered by the Christians of primitive times that I have tried to illustrate by choosing certain striking selec-tions from the writings of the first seven centuries. These interesting excerpts make up a kind of rough treatise on the whole spirituality of prayer and contain magnificently 363 AUGUSTINE KLAAS Reuiew for Religious that vital, inspiring message for our day referred to by Pius XII so frequently and eloquently. Nature of Prayer Saint Basil (d. 379 A.D.), one of the most important lawgivers of Oriental monasticism, besides defining the prayer of petition, stresses the intention, attention, and frequency which should characterize prayer. Prayer is the asking for so.mething good from God by those who are devoted to Him. We do not, however, reduce petition to mere words. For we do not think that God has need of reminders uttered by the lips: surely He knows what is good for us, even if we do not ask at all. What then are we saying? Prayer should certainlTnot be thought to consist in syllables only, but rather the power of prayer must be a~tributed to the mind’s intention and to those virtuous deeds which compass our whole life. "’Therefore, wbethei" you eat or drink, or do anything else, do all for the glory of God" (I Corin-thians 10:31). When you are at table, pray

when you take a piece of bread, thank the Giver of it: when you strengthen’ the body’s weakness, with wine, be mindful of Him who gave you this gift to rejoice the heart and alleviate bodily infirmities. Has the need for eating passed? The remembrance of the Giver has not. When you put on’your garment gi~’e thanks to the Donor of it. When you throw your cloak about your shoulders, love God more diligently, who has given us clothing adapted to winter and summer, clothing by which life is preserved and shame covered. Is the day drawing to a close? Thank Him who gave us the sun to assist us in our daily tasks, who gave us fire to illumine the night and to minister to other necessities of life. (Migne PG 31, 244 A.) Saint Arobrose (d. 397 A.D.), bishop of Milan, whose preaching contributed so much to the conversion of Saint Augustine, calls prayer a cry of the heart. Our heart cries out, not with the voice of the body, but with sub-limity of thought and harmony of virtue. The cry of faith is loud. Hence, in the spirit of adopted sons we exclaim, "Abba, Father," and the Spirit of God Himself cries out within us. Great is the voice of 364 November, 1947 IN PRAISE OF PRAYER justice, great is the voice of chastity, by Which even the dead speak: and not only do they speak, but like Abel they cry aloud. The soul of the unjust man, however, even if he be alive, does not cry out. because it is dead to God. There is in it nothing.lofty, nothing noble, as there is, in those whose sound has gone forth to every land and whose words have penetrated to the confines of the earth .... And the Lord Jesus exclaimed: "’If an~/one thirst, let him come to me and drink" "(John 7:37). Truly he cried out great things who called men to the kingdom Of heaven t6 that holy d~aught by which the waters of life eternal are imbibed. When you pray, pray for worth-while things, that is, for things not perishable but everlasting. Pray for things divine and celestial that you may be like the angels in heaven. Do not pray for money, for it is dross

do not pray for gold, for it is only metal

do not pra’y for possessions~ for they are earth

such prayer does not reach to God. God does not hear anyone unless He considers him worthy of His gifts

on the other hand, He. listens to a filial voice that is full of devotion and grace. Wherefore, not only must we cry out.in our hearts, but we must also cry out with all our heart. Just as to declaim well physically we must declaim with full throat, so we must cry out spiritually with our whole heart if we wish to request grea, t things and obtain from the Lord what we ask .... Whoever then would pray to the Lord, should not wait for certain prescribed occasions, not knowing that time is of no Worth where there is question of supplicating the LOrd, but rather let him be always’ at his petitionings. Whether we eat, whether we drink, let us proclaim Christ, let us entreat Christ, let us think Christ, let us speak Christ

let Christ be ever in our hearts, ever on our lips ..... Accordingly, if anyone pray for anything, let him persevere in praying for it, and if he is not always praying, let him always have a prayer-ful disposition, (PL 15, 1471 B.) In a work of prayer long attributed to the famous oriental monk, Saint Nilus of Anc~.tra (d. circa 430 A.D.), we find these descriptions of prayer: Prayer is mental converse with God .... Prayer is the raising of the mind to God. You cannot pray well if you are involved in earthly business affairs or disturbed by pressing cares

hence, prayer is a dis-carding of distracting thoughts. When at prayer you rise superior 365 AUGUSTINE KLAAS Ret@w for Religious to every other joy, then you have found real prayer. (PG 79, 1168 C, 1181 C, 1200 C.) Saint dohn Clirnacus (d. circa 600 A.D.)~ a guiding light of early eastern monasticism, ~enumerates a litany of expressions descriptive of true prayer. If you consider its n~ature, prayer is conversation and union with God. If you examine its power, prayer is .the preservation of the~ world, reconciliation with God, the mother and also the daughter of tears: prayer is propitiation for sins, a bridge across temptations, a bulwark against afflictions, exterminhtion of wars, the occupation of angels, sustenance of all pure spirits, future happiness, everlasting acti~’ity, a b&bbling spring of virtues, cause of graces, spiritual advancement, the soul’s nourishment, enlightenment of [be mind, destroyer bf despair, a sign of hope, a remedy for sadness, the riches of monks, treasure of solitaries, calmer of anger, mirror of progress, a stan~dard of mdas~urement, a revelation of one’s present condition, a prognostication of the future, a portent of the glory to come .... ~° The beginning of prayer is to rdpel instantly mental distracti6ns by ~ single act of the mind. The midway of prayer is reached when. the mind rests only in those things which are proposed for medita-tion and discourse. Its culmination is rapture in God. (PG 88, 1129 A.) Pope Saint Gregory the Great (~d. 604 A.D.) empha-sizes the interior element of prayer: True petition does not consist in words of the lips but rather in thoughts of the heart. For it is not: our words but our desires that make our voices louder in the most secret ears of God. Indeed, if we ask for eternal life orally and do not desire it with our heart~ though we shout, we .are silent. Therefore within, in our desires, there is a secret cry which does not reach human ears but fills those of the Creator. (PL 76, 238 C.) II Excellence ot: Prayer ¯The excellence of prayer is shown by what it can do. Thus, Tertullian (d. circa 222 A.D.) : What shall God refuse to prayer coming to Him in spirit ahd in 366 November, 1947 IN PRAISE OF PRAYER truth since that is what He .wants of us? We read, hear, and see proofs of its power .... It is prayer alone which vanquishes God. But Christ wished it do no evil. He gave it all power for good. Hence, it does nothing less than recall the souls of the dying from the very path of death

it reforms the weak, cures the sick, atones for the possessed, opens prison doors, looses the bonds of the innocent. Prayer wipes out sins, repels temptations, stops persecutions, encourages the wavering, pleases the generous, brings.travelers back home, stills the waves, confounds thieves, feeds the poor, rules the rich, raises up the fallen, sustains the tottering, and supports those standing erect. Prayer is a wall of faith, our arms and weapons against the ene-my,. who watches us on all sides. Hence, let us never go about un-armed. During the day we shall remember our battle stations

at night, our guard posts. With the arms of prayer let us defend the standard of our leader

in prayer let us await the angel’s trumpet call. All the angels pray, too .... Even the Lord Himself prayed, to whom be honor and power for ever and ever. (PL 1, I 195 A.) For Origen (d. circa 255 A.D.) prayer is a kind of sharing in the divine intelligence: When the eyes of the mind are thus raised aloft so that they no .lonl~er dwell on earthly things nor any more are filled with images of material objects

when they are so elevated that they despise all cor-ruptible things and are given to this alone that they think on God. and speak reverently and modestly to Him as He listens,--why should not those eyes penetrate still further, "to catch the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, u~ith faces unveiled

and so... become trans-figured into the same likeness, borrou~ing glory from that glorq’" (II Corinthians 3:18)? Thdn indeed they participate in the over-flow of a certain diviner intelligence, as is clear from these words: "’The light of thy countenance, 0 Lord, is signed upon us" (Psalms 4:7). (PGli, 444C.) The oriental writer known as Pseudo-Macarius (d. circa 390 A.D.) has this to say: The culmination of all spiritual training and the height of vir-tuous action is perseverance in prayer, by means of which we are able daily to acquire the rest of the virtues by asking them of God. For thence comes to those who are deemed worthy a participation in divine holines~ and spiritual power, and an affective union of the soul 367 AUGUSTINE KLAAS Reoieto /:or Religious with God as though by a secret love. Whoever forces himself every day to perseverance in prayer, he is stirred by a spiritual love to the love of God and to an ardent desire for God, and he receives the grace of the sanctifying Spirit’s perfection. (PG 34, 764.) III Efficacy of Prayer According tO Origen, prayer produces perfect chastity: To those in the state of celibacy and chastity God will give per-fect purity, an extraordinary gift, if they ask for it with their whole soul, with faith and continual prayer (PG 13, 1252 B.) Saint Jerome (d. circa 420 A.D.) has this to say about prayer: If to one who asks is given, if the seeker finds, if it is opened to him who knocks, therefore to whom it is not given, who does not find, to whom it is not opened, it is evident that he has not asked, nor sought, nor knocked rightly. (PL 26, 47 C.) And again: Accordingly Christ also promises a reward that we may the more eagerly hasten tb peace, since He says that He willbe in the midst of two or three .... We can also interpret this spiritually, namely, that where spirit and soul are in harmony with the body and do not carry on a war of opposing desires, the flesh lusting against .the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, all that. may be asked will be received from the Father. No one can doubt but that good things are asked for when the body wants the same thing as the spirit. (PL 26, 132 A.) Saint Augustine (d. 430 A.D.) interprets a Scripture text for us: "’If you ask me anything in my name, l will do it" (John 14: 14). Be alert, therefore, Christian man, and listen diligently to what is put down here: in my name, for He does not say whatever you ask in any way at all, but in my name. Who then has p~omised such a great boon, what is His name? Christ Jesus, of course

Christ means king, Jesus means savior. Not any king, surely, will save us, but a savior king

and so whatever wi ask that is not conducive to salvation, we are not asking in the Savior’s name. And nevertheless He is our Savior, not only