Cyprian & Lactantius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Now the Lord prayed and made petition not for himself — for what would an innocent man need to pray for on his own behalf? — but for our offenses, as he himself declares when he says to Peter: behold, Satan has demanded to sift you all like wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. And afterward he makes entreaty to the Father on behalf of all, saying: I do not ask for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that all may be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us. Great is God's kindness and, equally, his love toward our salvation, that not content merely to redeem us with his blood, he went further still and made petition for us besides. See, then, what the desire of the one who prays for us amounted to: that just as the Father and the Son are one, so we too might remain in that same unity — so that from this it might also be understood how greatly one sins who tears apart unity and peace, since the Lord made this very request wishing, plainly, that his people should live, knowing that discord does not arrive at the kingdom of God.
But when we stand at prayer, dearly beloved brothers, we ought to keep watch and bend ourselves to our petitions with the whole heart. Let every worldly and fleshly thought withdraw, and let the mind think of nothing except what it is praying. For this reason the priest, too, before the prayer, prepares the minds of the brothers by a preface said beforehand, saying: lift up your hearts, so that when the people answer, we have them lifted to the Lord, they are put in mind that nothing besides the Lord should occupy their thought. Let the breast be shut against the adversary and lie open to God alone, and let it not permit the enemy of God to draw near it in the time of prayer. For he creeps in often and slips inside, and by subtle deceit calls our prayers away from God, so that we have one thing in the heart and another on the lips, when, with an intention that is truly sincere, prayer to the Lord belongs properly to mind and understanding, not merely to vocal sound. What a carelessness, then, to let yourself be dragged off and held captive by foolish, worldly notions while entreating the Lord — as if some other matter deserved more of your attention than this: a conversation with God is taking place! Expecting God's ear while deaf to your own words makes little sense. Would you have God keep you in mind as you pray, when you yourself give no thought to what you are doing? Guarding against the enemy demands more than that; offering God prayer while careless of his majesty is itself an offense against him; keeping the eyes open while the heart drowses amounts to this same failure — whereas the Christian, even with eyes closed in sleep, should keep an alert heart, this is exactly what stands written, spoken in the voice of the church, in the Song of Songs, where the heart keeps watch even while the body sleeps. It is for this reason that the apostle gives his careful, watchful warning: continue in prayer, watching in it — thereby teaching and showing plainly that those God finds alert at their prayers are the ones who receive what they ask.
Let those who pray come to God not with prayers that are barren or bare. A petition is ineffectual, a prayer is unfruitful, when it makes its request to God with nothing to show. For since every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, so too speech that bears no fruit cannot win favor with God, since it is made fertile by no work. And so it is that divine scripture teaches this very thing: a prayer joined to fasting and to almsgiving is a good one. For he who on the day of judgment is to render reward for deeds and almsgiving is even today a kindly listener to one who comes to prayer accompanied by works. So it was, in the end, that the centurion Cornelius, when he prayed, deserved to be heard. He was a man who did many acts of charity among the people and prayed to God continually. To him, as he prayed about the ninth hour, an angel appeared, bearing witness to his work and saying: Cornelius, your prayers and your acts of charity have gone up in remembrance before God.
Prayers rise swiftly to God when our own works send them up to him. So too the angel Raphael stood by Tobit, who prayed unceasingly and worked unceasingly, saying: making known and acknowledging what God has done is itself a mark of honor. When you and Sarah were praying, it was I who carried the memory of your prayer up into the presence of God's splendor; and when, without hesitation, you buried the dead, and did not delay in rising from your meal to go lay out that corpse, I was sent to put you to the test; and again God dispatched me to restore you and Sarah, your daughter-in-law, to health. I am none other than Raphael, one among the seven holy angels stationed in attendance before the splendor of God. Through Isaiah, too, the Lord admonishes and teaches similar things, bearing witness: loose, he says, every knot of injustice, undo the bonds of oppressive dealings; send away the broken into rest and scatter every unjust bond; break your bread for the hungry, and bring the needy who have no roof into your house; if you see one naked, clothe him, and do not despise those of your own household. Then your light shall break forth early, and your garments shall rise swiftly, and righteousness shall go before you, and the splendor of God shall surround you. Then you shall cry out, and God will hear you; while you are still speaking, he says, behold, I am here. He promises to be present and to hear and protect those who, loosing the knots of injustice from their heart and doing works of charity toward the household of God according to his commands, while they hear what God commands to be done, earn in turn God's own hearing of them. The apostle Paul, blessed as he was and once helped by the brothers amid the pressure of his need, described what had been done for him as sacrifices offered to God. Having received, he says, what was sent through Epaphroditus, I am now full — a fragrance of sweetness, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. So it is: whoever shows mercy to the poor makes a loan to God, and whoever gives to the very least gives to God himself, offering him, in a spiritual sense, a sacrifice of sweet fragrance.
Looking at how prayers were celebrated, we find Daniel together with the three young men — strong in faith, victorious even while captives — keeping to the third, sixth, and ninth hours, a plain sign of the Trinity destined to be revealed in the final age. For the first hour, arriving at the third, shows the completed number of the Trinity, and likewise the fourth, advancing to the sixth, declares a second Trinity, and when the count is completed from the seventh to the ninth, the perfect Trinity is numbered through triple sets of hours. Those who worshiped God, already marking out these intervals of hours in a spiritual sense long before, kept to fixed and lawful times for prayer. And it was afterward made plain that these had once been mysteries, in that the righteous of old prayed in this manner. For the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples at the third hour, fulfilling the grace of the Lord's promise. Likewise Peter, going up to the rooftop at the sixth hour, was instructed both by a sign and by the voice of God admonishing him, that he should admit all to the grace of salvation, though before he had hesitated over the cleansing of the Gentiles. And the Lord, crucified at the sixth hour, washed away our sins with his blood by the ninth, and thus, so that he might redeem us and bring us to life, he then accomplished the victory through his passion.
Yet for us, dearly beloved brothers, beyond the hours our forebears kept for prayer, the occasions and the deeper meanings of prayer have since multiplied. Morning prayer, too, is required of us, precisely because morning is the fitting time to honor the Lord's rising from the dead. This is what the Holy Spirit once pointed to in the psalms: My king and my God, it is to you I will pray, Lord, in the morning, and you will listen to my voice; come morning I take my stand before you, watching for you. Again, the prophet gives voice to the Lord's own words: at first light they will keep watch for me, saying, come, let us turn back to the Lord our God. In the same way, once the sun withdraws and the day draws to a close, prayer is again required of us. Christ himself is truly the sun, truly the day, so when the sun and day of this world recede and we pray asking for light to return upon us, our petition is really for Christ's own coming, which will bestow the favor of light without end. The Holy Spirit's psalms also call Christ Day: the stone, it says, that the builders threw aside has now become the cornerstone. This the Lord has brought about, and it astonishes us to behold. This is the day the Lord has fashioned; let it be for us a day of joy and feasting. So too the prophet Malachi testifies that Christ bears the name Sun, saying: but for you who hold the name of the Lord in awe, the sun of righteousness will rise, bringing healing on its wings. If, then, holy scripture presents Christ as sun in truth and as day in truth, no single hour excuses Christians from worship offered constantly and often, given that those of us united to Christ — dwelling, that is, within the true sun and day — ought to keep pressing forward in prayer across the entire span of daylight; and later, once night has rolled back around in its turn under the world's revolving law, no darkness threatens harm to those still at prayer, for children of the light experience daylight even at night. Can anyone carrying light within his own heart truly lack light? Is there ever an absence of sun or day for someone to whom Christ himself is sun and day?
As for us, belonging to Christ and thus dwelling permanently in light, prayer ought not lapse even through the nighttime hours. Consider the widow Anna: praying ceaselessly, ever watchful, she kept steadily winning God's favor, just as the gospel records of her — she never left the temple, giving herself over to fasting and prayer both night and day. Whatever the pagans do, still unillumined as they are, or the Jews, cut off from the light and left dwelling in shadow, is their own affair; but as for us, dearly beloved brothers, who live continually in the Lord's light, holding on to and remembering the new identity grace gave us at the start, let us treat night as though it were day. Let us hold the conviction that we walk always in light; let none of the darkness we have left behind hold us back; let no hour of night rob our prayer, no petition of ours go slack through idle neglect. Made new in spirit and reborn by God's mercy, we should live now as a rehearsal of what awaits us — since the kingdom holds only day for us, with night never intervening, so even now, in the dark hours, let us keep watch as if surrounded by light, ready always to offer prayer and thanks to God; here too, our prayer and thanksgiving must never fall silent.