Pints With Aquinas - 42: Is it possible to pray at all times?

Episode Date: January 31, 2017

Huge thanks to Philipe Ortiz and Katie Kuchar in particular for supporting to the show! --- We may speak about prayer in two ways: first, by considering it in itself; secondly, by considering it in its cause. The cause of prayer is the desire of charity, from which prayer ought to arise: and this desire ought to be in us continually, either actually or virtually, for the virtue of this desire remains in whatever we do out of charity; and we ought to "do all things to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). From this point of view prayer ought to be continual: wherefore Augustine says (ad Probam, Ep. cxxx, 9): "Faith, hope and charity are by themselves a prayer of continual longing." But prayer, considered in itself, cannot be continual, because we have to be busy about other works, and, as Augustine says (ad Probam. Ep. cxxx, 9), "we pray to God with our lips at certain intervals and seasons, in order to admonish ourselves by means of such like signs, to take note of the amount of our progress in that desire, and to arouse ourselves more eagerly to an increase thereof." Now the quantity of a thing should be commensurate with its end, for instance the quantity of the dose should be commensurate with health. And so it is becoming that prayer should last long enough to arouse the fervor of the interior desire: and when it exceeds this measure, so that it cannot be continued any longer without causing weariness, it should be discontinued. Wherefore Augustine says (ad Probam. Ep. cxxx): "It is said that the brethren in Egypt make frequent but very short prayers, rapid ejaculations, as it were, lest that vigilant and erect attention which is so necessary in prayer slacken and languish, through the strain being prolonged. By so doing they make it sufficiently clear not only that this attention must not be forced if we are unable to keep it up, but also that if we are able to continue, it should not be broken off too soon." And just as we must judge of this in private prayers by considering the attention of the person praying, so too, in public prayers we must judge of it by considering the devotion of the people.   Objection 1. It would seem that prayer should not be continual. It is written (Matthew 6:7): "When you are praying, speak not much." Now one who prays a long time needs to speak much, especially if his be vocal prayer. Therefore prayer should not last a long time. Reply to Objection 1. As Augustine says (ad Probam. Ep. cxxx), "to pray with many words is not the same as to pray long; to speak long is one thing, to be devout long is another. For it is written that our Lord passed the whole night in prayer, and that He 'prayed the longer' in order to set us an example." Further on he says: "When praying say little, yet pray much so long as your attention is fervent. For to say much in prayer is to discuss your need in too many words: whereas to pray much is to knock at the door of Him we pray, by the continuous and devout clamor of the heart. Indeed this business is frequently done with groans rather than with words, with tears rather than with speech." Objection 4. On the contrary, It would seem that we ought to pray continually. For our Lord said (Luke 18:1): "We ought always to pray, and not to faint": and it is written (1 Thessalonians 5:17): "Pray without ceasing." Reply to Objection 4. One may pray continually, either through having a continual desire, as stated above; or through praying at certain fixed times, though interruptedly; or by reason of the effect, whether in the person who prays--because he remains more devout even after praying, or in some other person--as when by his kindness a man incites another to pray for him, even after he himself has ceased praying.  ST. II-II, Q. 83, A. 14. --- Thanks to http://www.bensound.com/ for some of the music. SPONSORS EL Investments: https://www.elinvestments.net/pints Exodus 90: https://exodus90.com/mattfradd/  Hallow: http://hallow.app/mattfradd  STRIVE: https://www.strive21.com/  GIVING Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mattfradd This show (and all the plans we have in store) wouldn't be possible without you. I can't thank those of you who support me enough. Seriously! Thanks for essentially being a co-producer coproducer of the show. 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Welcome to Pints with Aquinas episode 42. I'm Matt Fradd. 42? Can you believe it's been 42 episodes? If you could sit down with St. Thomas Aquinas over a pint of beer and ask him any one question, what would it be? Today we'll ask St. Thomas about prayer. Should my prayer last a long time and how do I pray continuously? Good to have you back with us here at Pints with Aquinas. This is the show where you and I pull up a barstool next to the angelic doctor to discuss theology and philosophy. And today we are going to be discussing something crucial to the Christian life, and that is prayer. And we'll be asking the question, should we pray a long time when we sit down to pray? And how is it that we should pray continuously, which is something

St. Paul says. And I'd like to speak a little bit about the devotion of the Jesus prayer, which is something I was introduced to last year and have been praying consistently really ever since. And I'd like to give you some thoughts on that since a lot of people in the Roman Catholic Church aren't that familiar with it. All right, well, let's get right down to it. This is something I'll be reading from the Summa Theologiae, second part of the second part, question 83, and article 14. Should we pray for a long time? Now, here's what Aquinas says.

He says, we may speak about prayer in two ways. First, by considering it in itself. Secondly, by considering it in its cause. The cause of prayer is the desire of charity from which prayer ought to arise. And this desire ought to be in us continuously, continually, either actually or virtually. For the virtue of this desire remains in whatever we do out of charity, and we ought to do all things to the glory of God, as it says in 1 Corinthians 10.31. From this point of view, prayer ought to be continual. Wherefore, Augustine says, faith, hope, and charity are by themselves

a prayer of continual longing. But prayer considered in itself cannot be continual because we have to be busy about other works. means of such like signs to take note of the amount of our progress in that desire and to arouse ourselves more eagerly to an increase thereof. Now, the quantity of a thing should be commensurate with its end. For instance, the quantity of the dose should be commensurate with health. And so it is becoming that prayer should last. Now listen to this, guys, because Aquinas always starts, doesn't he, by saying something very commonsensical. You're like, yes, yes, yes, that makes sense. I expected you to say that. And then he continues to say things, of course, that are commonsensical, but the things that we didn't expect him to say necessarily.

And this is what he says. And so it is becoming that prayer should last long enough to arouse the fervor of the interior desire. arouse the fervor of the interior desire. And when it exceeds this measure, so that it cannot be continued any longer without causing weariness, it should be discontinued. Did you hear what Aquinas just said? We should pray long enough. We should arouse within ourselves a desire for God, you know, in the set times of prayer that we have. But if we get to the point where we can no longer arouse that desire and longing for God and we cease to weary, we should discontinue it. And then he says, quoting from Augustine, it is said that the brethren in Egypt make frequent but very short prayers.

Now, I'm about to use a word, FYI, that we tend to think of in a different context, and that is the word, buckle up, ejaculations. Okay. Now, ejaculations doesn't just mean, you know, what takes place in the sexual act. just mean what takes place in the sexual act. It also refers, the word refers to this sort of a quick explosion. Okay. So when we talk about ejaculatory prayers, we're talking about things like praise you Jesus, like glory to Jesus Christ, glory forever. Okay. So just calm down everybody. Okay. Back to Augustine. He says, it is said that the brethren in Egypt make frequent but very short prayers, rapid ejaculations, as it were, lest the vigilant and erect attention. Oh, come on, Augustine, give me a break. Oh, sorry, ejaculation and erect are in the same sentence. It's okay, I'm mature. Continuing, lest that vigilant and erect attention,

And then Aquinas says, but also that if we are able to continue, it should not be broken off too soon, end quote. And then Aquinas says, and just as we must judge of this in private prayers by considering the attention of the person praying, so too in public prayers, we must judge of it by considering the devotion of the people. Let me give you an example, everybody, about a time that a group of people didn't necessarily take into account the devotion of the people. I remember it was World Youth Day in Canada, and I think we went to this place to pray the rosary or something.

Okay, fair enough, we're praying the rosary. So we started with the joyful mysteries and we're all kneeling, praying it. And of course, when it came to the end, everyone thought, okay, name of the... Oh, wait a minute. We're now praying the sorrowful mysteries. Okay, I guess that's fine. Let's do that. Wait a minute. And when that ended, they started leading us in the mysteries of light and then the glorious mysteries. Oh my goodness. I think it was fair to say that the desire, right, to prayer had been extinguished and almost everybody was weary.

So, we should arouse within ourselves this desire to be with God. That's what prayer ought to be about, at least in part. Well, maybe not just in part, maybe that's the essence of prayer. to be about, at least in part, or maybe not just in part, maybe that's the essence of prayer. And I find that now I in no way am pretending to be advanced when it comes to prayer. But I do tend to find in many people that I meet, and not just when I talk about these people, I'm talking about people who attend church maybe every day, maybe not every day, but every week. A sort of immaturity, you know, that prayer is a sort of transactional thing rather than a relationship, rather than a yearning for Christ. You know, it tends to be, I do this devotion and that devotion and this devotion, and then I get a sense that I've done something and I feel a sense of accomplishment and I call

that sense of accomplishment, whatever, like success. But really, what is prayer? Prayer, brothers and sisters, is a yearning for Christ. I've got to read you a quote from Pope Benedict because when I say stuff like that, you're like, yeah, maybe. But when Pope Benedict XVI says something, y'all are going to listen. He says this, he wrote, the fathers of the church say that prayer, properly understood, is nothing other than becoming a longing for God. The fathers of the church say that prayer, properly understood, is nothing other than becoming a longing for God. Do we long for Him, brothers and sisters?

I think what we often do is we find this desire within ourselves, for we know not what. Maybe we find ourselves scrolling through Facebook and we don't even know why we're doing it. We open the fridge, we don't know why we're there. We binge on Netflix, we're longing for rest, we're longing for peace, we're longing for joy. And we direct that longing to mutable earthly things. And what happens? We always end up disappointed. We're supposed to direct, redirect that yearning, that longing for the only one who can satisfy those yearnings of our souls. We're supposed to ache for Him. This is prayer, aching for Christ. This is prayer, aching for Christ. Here's what Augustine says in another place. He says,

So, brethren, let us long because we are to be filled. He says, That is our life, to be trained by longing. And our training through the holy longing advances in the measure that our longings are detached from the love of this world. In regard to praying always, right? Because of course, Aquinas, the distinction he makes is, you know, we should always long for Christ. That should be continual. However, set prayers, we can't do, you know, 24 hours a day. Obviously, you can't sort of sit down and read the bravery for 24 hours a day because you have to eat. You have other things you must do.

You can't pray the rosary 24 hours a day. Okay. But Augustine says, in regards to praying always, in regards to praying always. Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. Desire is your prayer. And if you desire, if your desire is without ceasing, your prayer will also be without ceasing. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer. Praise you, Lord Jesus Christ. Now, some of you may have no idea what I'm saying. And the rest of you who love Jesus Christ and have experienced his touch in prayer, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You know exactly what Aquinas is talking about.

what I'm talking about. You know exactly what Aquinas is talking about. I want to read an objection that Aquinas gives. This is number four in regards to whether we should pray a long time. Because of course, Aquinas' main answer is yes, we should. But what we mean by prayer is just desire for Christ. And the objection is, it would seem that we ought to pray continually. For our Lord said, we ought always to pray and not to faint, as it is written, pray without ceasing. And Aquinas is going to agree with this in this sense. He says, one may pray continually, either through having a continual desire or through praying at certain fixed times, though interruptedly, or by reason of the effect, whether in the person who prays, because he remains more devout even after praying, or in some other person, as when by his kindness a man incites another to pray

for him even after he himself has ceased praying. But that line, one may pray continually by having a continual desire for God. Continual desire for God. Elsewhere, Aquinas talks about praying as being done, not just through words, but through tears and groanings. Here's one of the objections. It would seem that prayer should not be continual. It is written in Matthew 6, 7, when you are praying, speak not much. Now, one who prays a long time needs to speak much, especially if his be vocal prayer. Therefore, prayer should not last a long time, needs to speak much, especially if his be vocal prayer. Therefore, prayer should not last a long time. And Aquinas responds to this by saying,

by quoting Augustine, to pray with many words is not the same as to pray long. To speak long is one thing, to be devout long is another. For it is written that our Lord passed the whole night in prayer and that he prayed the longer in order to set us an example. Further on, he says, this is Augustine, when praying, say little, yet pray much so long as your attention is fervent. For to say much in prayer is to discuss your needs in too many words. Whereas to pray much is to knock at the door of Him, we pray, by the continuous and devout clamor of the heart. How beautiful is that? What is prayer?

The continuous and devout clamor of the heart. Indeed, this business is frequently done with groans rather than with words, with tears rather than with speech. And this is something that I experience quite regularly. I'm a little embarrassed to talk about it, actually, but I do so here because I hope it'll help, and I suspect other people have a similar experience. And that is just that to sit in prayer and to be before our Lord and to begin to ache for Him, to yearn for Him. And then what I find happens is it begins to express itself in audible groaning and noise. And anyway, one of the ways in which that has taken effect in my life and sorry, I'm aware that I'm speaking all over the place here. I'm trying to share something that's like really kind of meaningful, but at the same time,

I don't want to seem arrogant by sharing it. And I'm also kind of afraid of how it will be received. That's what I'm doing right now. One of the ways in which this groaning has taken place in me is through the Jesus prayer. And I'd like to explain a little bit about that as we wrap up here today. But before we get to that, let's just go to a break and we'll speak about that on the other side. Let me just, let's just go to a break and we'll speak about that on the other side. If Pints with Aquinas has helped you and you'd like to support the show, well, you can now do that. Go to pintswithaquinas.com and click the big Patreon banner up the top. By supporting the show, even for as little as $2 a month, which, what's that, amounts to 50 cents an episode, you'll get some neat thank you gifts.

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to learn more. Okay, welcome back. Let's talk a little bit about the Jesus prayer. What is the Jesus prayer? Well, it's sort of like the Eastern Christian or Eastern Catholic way of praying the Rosary, in the sense that it developed in the East, just like the Rosary developed in the West. The Jesus Prayer, which is sometimes called the Prayer of the Heart or the prayer of a single thought involves repeating a simple phrase, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me. Sometimes it's simpler and just, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. This is done often with the aid of a prayer rope. And so you may have seen this black prayer rope, sometimes with a tassel at the end. I got mine, gee, about seven or so months ago.

My wife and I pray it often. But of course, you don't have to buy a prayer rope. You could use regular rosary beads. And it's beautiful. The history of the Jesus prayer goes back, as far as we know, to the early 5th or 6th century. And here is a quotation from one of the church fathers, Eastern church fathers. I am not going to be able to pronounce his name. Diadokos of Fatiki.

I'm so sorry. Anyway, he wrote a book called A Century on Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination. Here's what he said. Grace at first conceals its presence in those who have been baptized, waiting to see which way the soul inclines. But when the whole man has turned towards the Lord, it then reveals to the heart its presence and there with the feeling which words cannot express, if then a man begins to make progress in keeping the commandments and calls ceaselessly upon the Lord Jesus, the fire of God's grace spreads even to the heart's most outward organs of perception, consciously burning up the tears in the field of

the soul. Yeah, it's really beautiful. So, basically, there was this really cool morning, I remember one day waking up and I went to make the bed, I pulled back the covers and my prayer rope and my wife's prayer rope kind of like sitting next to each other. And I thought, wow, how cool was that? That the two of us were kind of going to bed praying, calling upon the name of our Lord, and we didn't even realize that we were doing it. But yes, one of the ways in which I do it is I breathe in. And as I breathe in, I say, Lord Jesus Christ. And then as I breathe out, I say, have mercy on me, like that. And my prayer robe has 150 knots. And so, essentially, that's, you know, 150 breathing in and breathing out. You attune the words to your breath,

because how do we pray always? Well, we can't pray always, as Aquinas says, in the sense in which we sit down and read this or whatever. But what is the one thing we do do always? Well, we breathe. And so, by attuning this prayer to our breath, that's a way in which we can be in a state of constant desire and watchfulness, desire for the Lord and watchfulness over the intellect and the heart. And what you'll find happens if you do this for a bit is when you try and stop, okay, you will find that your body starts saying it almost without you realizing. So, if you pray this quite a bit, and I have, you'll begin going for a walk and all of a sudden, you'll just start saying it. And I mentioned before the break that this has been the catalyst for something like tongues.

I don't want to say it's the gift of tongues precisely, but it is a sort of audible yearning. And so I was standing in this chapel about to give a talk at this old boys school in Florida recently. And I was just standing there and I was praying, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. And what came over me was this yearning for our Lord, this desire for Him. came over me was this yearning for our Lord, this desire for Him. And then what came kind of freaked me out because it was like this moaning and groaning and weird sounds. And anyway, you know, it's funny, I share that. And like, in a way, some of you might be thinking, well, that's totally crazy. That's weird. Why would you do that? But St. Augustine said the same thing. Thomas Aquinas quoting Augustine is talking about how frequently

prayer is done with groans rather than words, with tears rather than speech. And so this is something I found. And so I would like to suggest it to you. Please don't think that this is just an orthodox way of praying in the sense of Eastern Orthodox. There are many churches in union with the Pope of Rome, right? Many Eastern churches who are fully, fully 100% Catholic, just as Catholic as Roman Catholics, like Byzantine Catholics. And yeah, this is something, in fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church talks about. In case you're one of these Catholics that's really worried, let me share with you something here. It says this, The name of Jesus is the only one that contains the presence it signifies.

Jesus is the risen one, and whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the son of God who loved him and who gave himself up for him. This simple invocation, continues the catechism, of faith developed in the tradition of prayer under many forms in the East and West. The most usual formulation transmitted by the spiritual writers of the Sinai, Syria, and Mount Athos is the invocation, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. It combines the Christological hymns of Philippians 2, 6 through 11, with the cry of the publican and the blind men begging for light. By it, the heart is opened to human wretchedness and the Savior's mercy. It continues. The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always.

When the holy name is repeated often by a humble, attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, but holds fast to the words and brings forth fruit with patience. This prayer is possible at all times because it is not one occupation among others, but the only occupation, that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus. And that's from the Catechism paragraph 2666 to 2668. So there you have it. You might want to check that out. But in summary, can we pray always? In one sense, we can in a continual yearning for the Lord. But in another sense, we can't in the more traditional devotional or reading of the scriptures, these sorts of things. We can't because you know what? You've got to eat. You've got to sleep. You've got to do things for your

family. So I hope that that's a help. I feel like, can I be honest with you, brothers and sisters? I feel like this has been a bit of a scattered podcast and I've tried to communicate something kind of rather intimate. And anyway, I give it to the Lord. I hope it's not lost. Bless you, brothers and sisters. I will talk to you next week. A huge thank you to everyone who is supporting Pints with Aquinas on Patreon. And if you haven't yet, please think about writing a review for Pints with Aquinas on iTunes. That would mean a lot.

See you later. my whole life to carry you to carry you and i would give my whole life to carry you you you you you you you you