they begin gradually to make the request of the judge, that he deign to hear them patiently; thirdly to draw forth his intercession, to express what they seek; fourthly, to end in praise, just as they began with praises of God. Thus everyone of us ought to end in praise of God and in thanksgiving.

(24) You have this in the Lord's prayer: 'Our Father, who art in heaven.' Praise of God, because He is proclaimed Father. In this is glory of piety, praise of God, because He lives in heaven,10 not on earth. 'Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,' that is, that He may make His servants hallowed, for His name is hallowed among us, whenever Christian men are proclaimed. So, ‘hallowed be thy name' belongs to one who desires something. 'Thy kingdom come': the request that the kingdom of Christ be in all. If God reigns in us, the adversary can have no place there, fault does not reign, sin does not reign, but virtue reigns, modesty reigns, devotion reigns. Then: 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.' This request is the very greatest of those that are requested. He says: 'And forgive us our debts as we forgive the debts of our debtors.' So accept daily, so that you may request daily indulgence for your debts. 'And do not suffer us to be led into temptation, but deliver us from evil.' What follows? Hear what the priest says: "Through our Lord Jesus Christ in whom for you and with whom for you is honor, praise, glory, magnificence, power, with the Holy Spirit from the ages and now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.'

(25) Here is another example. Although there is one book of the Psalms of David containing the virtues of prayer which we have mentioned above, yet in general those parts of prayer

9 'To end in praise' is suggested by O. Faller to fill in the lacuna of the text at this point.

11

are found even in one psalm, as we find them in the eighth psalm. Now it begins thus: 'O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth.' So the first prayer. Then the supplication: 'For I will behold thy heavens, the works of thy fingers'; that is, 'I will behold the heavens'; 'the moon and the stars which thou hast founded.'12 Surely he did not say: 'I shall see the heaven,' but 'I shall see the heavens,' in which grace begins to grow white with heavenly splendor. Then the Prophet promised that these heavens are given to them who merit heavenly grace from the Lord: 'the moon and the stars which thou has founded,' 'the moon' the Church, 'the stars' the resurging heavenly graces. Then behold his petition. 'What is man that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a little less than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honour, and hast set him over the work of thy hands. Thou hast subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen; moreover the beasts also of the fields,'13 and others.

(26) We have taught according to our capacity, perhaps, what we have not learned; as we have been able, we have set it forth. Let your sanctity, informed by sacerdotal instructions, labor to maintain what it has received, that your prayer may be acceptable to God, and your oblation be as a pure victim, and that He may always recognize His sign in you, that you yourselves also may be able to come to the grace and the rewards of virtues, through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory, praise, perpetuity from the ages and now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.

11 Ps. 8.2.

12 Ps. 8.4.

INDEX

GENERAL INDEX

Abdemeleck, an Ethiopian, 135, angels, 18; bread of, 23, 58, 65,