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Decalogue of Prayer in Saint Augustine

by OAR

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1. Prayer is a gift from Gods, by which, man must ask for it as a beggar. Man may be rich or poor, but before God, he will always be a beggar. Prayer for Saint Augustine proceeds from this fundamental principle (Homo mendicus dei: En in Ps. 29, 2, 1; Sermo 56, 9; Sermo 61, 4).

2. Prayer is an exercise of humility, which starts from knowing oneself before God:

*“God, who is always the same, let me know myself, that I may know you: Sol 2, 1.”

Then: “"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."”. (1Pt. 5:5)

3. Prayer is the work of the Holy Spirit that groans in our interior (Rom. 8:26) so that he may give us the words and the voice to prayer before God.

* “The same charity moans, the same charity prays, against it the one who gave it cannot make himself deaf. Be secure, let charity pray and the ears of God will be there.” (Io. ep. tr. 6, 8)

* “God filled his servants of His Spirit that they may praise him.” (en. Ps. 144, 1)

4. Prayer is an exercise of interior recollection.

It is necessary to enter into one’s own heart, avoiding dispersion, in order to find ourselves with Christ, the Interior Master.

* “Do not go out, return to yourself, for the truth dwells in the interior of man.” (De vera religione 39, 72)

* “You were more intimately present to me than my innermost being, and higher than the highest peak of my spirit.” (Conf. 3, 6, 11)

5. Prayer is an exercise of love.

a. To pray is to love and to allow oneself to be loved by God:

*To pray is: to embrace God with God, to embrace the love of God.” (Trin 8, 8, 12) b. To pray is to love, to allow oneself to be transformed by the same God in prayer, by the fire of his love, leaving worldly things and being filled by God:

* “Do you love the earth? You will be earth. Do you love God? Shall I say that you are God? I do not dare to say it as my own. Let us listen to the Scripture: I said: All of you are gods and sons of the Most High.” (Io. ep. Tr. 2, 14)

c. To pray is to love, in order to empty oneself of worldly love and to fill oneself of God.

* “Do not love the world. Shut out the evil love of the world, that you may fill yourself with the love of God. You are a vessel, but your are still full; empty yourself of what you have that you may receive what you do not have.” (Io. ep. Tr. 2, 9)

d. To pray is to love, in order to attach oneself to Christ, forgetting the rest. Everything becomes relative when in prayer, Christ is loved profoundly:

* “When I cling to you with all my being, there will be no pain nor labor for me, but all my life will be alive and full of You.” (Conf. 10, 28, 39)

* “Love itself is the voice that praises God” (en. Ps. 117, 23)

6. Prayer is a loving dialogue with God

a. This dialogue is realized by hearing and responding to the Word of God:

* “Your prayer is a dialogue with God; when you read the Scriptures, God speaks to you; when you pray, you speak with God.” (en.Ps. 85, 7)

b. This dialogue is realized in order to find God and He is found in order to continue searching him with greater love.

* “God is sought so that the finding may be more sweet, he is found in order to search for him with greater eagerness.” (Trin. 15, 2)

7. Prayer is the discovery of the will of God.

a. Praying in order not to resist the will of God:

* “What does “let your will be done” mean? Let it be done that I may not resist your will.” (s. 56, 7)

* “Your best servant is the one who has not put his sight on your lips that which he desires, but in desiring, most especially, that which he has heard from your mouth.” (Conf. 10, 26, 37)

b. Praying in order to surrender my life in the hands of God, knowing that it is He who makes him capable of fulfilling his will.

* “Give what you command and command what you will.” (Conf. 10, 40)

* “You will not pray, if you do not say this prayer (The Lord’s Prayer); if you use another, God will not hear you, since the Legislator whom He sent, did not dictate it you. Then, it is necessary that, when we pray, we pray according to this prayer; and when we recite it, let us understand well what we say. (…) (en. Ps. 103, I, 19)

8. Prayer is the enamored desire for God.

a. It is part of continuous prayer. One never ceases to pray, if he never ceases to desire for God.

* “There is another kind of continuous interior prayer, that is, the desire. Do what you do, if the desire for that rest (eternal life), remains in you, you pray unceasingly. If you do not wish to cut your prayer, do not stall the desire. (En. Ps. 37, 14.)

* “Through faith, hope and charity, we always pray with an unceasing desire. But, it is precisely for this reason, that in determined moments, we pray to God with words as well, to exhort ourselves with these signs (…) (ep. 130, 9, 18)

b. Prayer is the “clamor of the heart:”

* “No one will doubt that the clamor is vain when those who pray, do it with the sound of bodily voice without lifting up the heart to God. When we pray to God with the mouth, when it is necessary or it is in silence, he has always to clamor for himself with the heart. The clamor of the heart is a vehement thought that when he gives himself in prayer, he expresses the great affection from which he prays and asks, fortunately, he does not distrust in obtaining that which he asks.” (en. Ps. 118, s.29, 1)

9. To pray is to feel Church and community.

The Church is never alone because he forms part of the mystery of the Church, of the Body of Christ.

* “Jesus Christ, Son of God prays for us, prays in us and to Him we pray. He prays for us as our priest; He prays in us as our head; We pray to Him as our God. Let us recognize our voice in Him and his voice in us.” (en. Ps. 85, 1)

* “We pray for mankind, we ask for the whole world, for all the peoples so that they may be corrected the soonest possible and having already the right heart, they may walk toward the righteousness of God.” (en. Ps. 103, 13)

10. To pray is to elevate the heart toward God.
Saint Augustine continuously explains the words “Lift up your hearts” in the celebration of the Eucharist. By it, to pray is to allow the heart to ascend toward God, searching for things of the eternal world, and not of the earth, with an enamored desire for God:

(Prayer) *“It is the ascent of earthly things to heavenly things; the search for higher things, the desire for things unseen.” (Sermo 73, 2)