This is part one of five small commentaries I hope to create regarding prayer and how we can learn from the Doctor of Grace how to pray. Here is the link to the full text of St. Augustine's prayer in Soliloquies Bk 1 Ch 1: To know nothing but God and the Soul: The Prayer of St. Augustine in Soliloquies Bk 1 Ch 1
Here we will consider a fragment of St. Augustine’s prayer and seek out a greater understanding of his prayer, and of course how it is that we ought to pray.
Prayer, part 1:
O God, the Founder of the Universe, grant me first of all that I may fittingly supplicate Thee; next, that I may so act that I may be worthy of a hearing from Thee; finally, I beg Thee to set me free.
O God, through whom all those things exist, which of themselves would not exist.
O God, who dost not permit to perish even that which is self-destructive.
O God, who from nothing hast created this world which every eye sees to be most beautiful.
O God, who dost not cause evil, and who dost cause that evil become not most evil.
O God, who, to those few who have their refuge in that which truly is, dost show that evil is nothing.
O God, through whom the universe, even with its sinister side, is perfect.
O God, by whose ordinance the uttermost discord is as naught, since the less perfect things are in harmony with the more perfect.
O God, whom everything loves which is capable of loving whether knowingly or unknowingly.
O God, in whom are all things- and yet the shamefulness of every creature does not shame Thee, their wickedness does not harm Thee, nor does their error deceive Thee.
O God, who hast not willed that any save the pure should know the True.
O God, the Father of Truth, the Father of Wisdom, Father of True and Supreme Life, Father of Happiness, Father of the Good and the Beautiful, Father of Intelligible Light, Father of our watching and our enlightenment, Father of the covenant by which we are admonished to return to Thee.
Commentary:
St. Augustine’s prayer in his book Soliloquies regards the manner in which St. Augustine wants to drive at the truth and to come out victorious amongst the number of problems and questions swirling in his mind.
O God, the Founder of the Universe, grant me first of all that I may fittingly supplicate Thee;
This is a common Augustinian theme of prayer, and it is found in similar fashion at the start of St. Augustine’s Confessions. In what manner are we to pray to God that He might heal us and save us, should we pray first to ask us to show us how to pray to Him and praise Him rightly or pray in praise to Him and ask Him how to praise Him rightly? Ought we to call upon Him in prayer to know Him or to strive to know Him to call on Him more rightly? How should we pray? This is the question that many asked Christ on the Mount where He taught us the most sublime prayer teaching us to pray. Many times we find ourselves in a way of prayer where we begin, O Lord, come to me, how can I come to Thee? Is this not how we are to pray and think upon those whom are far away from us but whom we love so dearly? We ask where they are, how we can find them, and why they stay so far from us. So too our hearts desire the love of God in them and it is fitting that we pray, O Lord grant that I may pray rightly to You! Teach me how to pray O Lord!
next, that I may so act that I may be worthy of a hearing from Thee; finally, I beg Thee to set me free.
Following St. Augustine’s desire to pray to God firmly and sincerely, properly and faithfully he asks to be set free. Is it not our most sincere desire to be to know and love God, and to be united with God? In such manner, this is our salvation that we be united to God in Heaven in a way that our eyes have not yet seen, nor ears heard. What then is salvation but to be set free from our sins, our suffering, our anxiety, our injustices, our mortality, our finitude, and most importantly to be set free from the great division that lasts between us and God? Truly, salvation is to be set free from what constrains us to Earth, and to be lifted up in love to adore God in His Infinitude, in His Glory, in His Divine Love. Then it is proper that if we want to learn how to pray we must know what our first priority is, to love, know, and serve God.
O God, through whom all those things exist, which of themselves would not exist.
It is God who is the ground of all existence and truth. What is true is real, and God is the Truth-maker, He has set upon all creation and made what is real by the work of His own will. Without God, there would be nothing. What divine condescendence that has descended upon us that we might partake in His divine nature and to have learned of this God Who Is. Blessed Lord it would have been more than enough to have simply been made by You in any which state You chose for us, but You gave us more and blessed us to behold You should we but choose to love You above all things.
O God, who dost not permit to perish even that which is self-destructive.
This is the Augustinian thesis and neo-Platonic thesis that all things perish and go into corruption which are not constantly restored by God’s will (or as Plato seems to have held it, behold and have the Forms). But what we see then around us is the phenomenon that nothing ceases to exist miraculously or destructively about us, reality is coherent, even though the ground of existence of a book or any other object is not in itself. God be praised, for His Creation is forever in His mind and uplifted by His inscrutable will!
O God, who from nothing hast created this world which every eye sees to be most beautiful.
Here we see the distinctiveness of St. Augustine’s Catholic faith. He readily accepts the Christian teaching of Creation and praises God for creating a world full of beauty. This is how many people find the Lord, in contemplation of the beautiful.
O God, who dost not cause evil, and who dost cause that evil become not most evil.
O God, who, to those few who have their refuge in that which truly is, dost show that evil is nothing.
For those who are not aware of St. Augustine’s awareness and realization that evil is only a privation or absence of a good that is recognized to be due. So here too we know that God is not responsible for evil for He gives what good is due to each, and it is in His will to decide what goods are due to what persons and at what time. I may post other articles concerning St. Augustine and the Problem of Evil.
O God, through whom the universe, even with its sinister side, is perfect.
O God, by whose ordinance the uttermost discord is as naught, since the less perfect things are in harmony with the more perfect.
These are significant points in St. Augustine’s early work De Ordine (On Order) that relate to showing the varying levels of perfection and goods in the universe reflect the completeness of God’s own goodness Who provides for all these things. Let us pray and know that all is in God’s hands and that we are to have faith in Him, to have hope in Him, and to love Him above all others.
O God, whom everything loves which is capable of loving whether knowingly or unknowingly.
The Augustinian view of love is quite complex, and I heard a talk by Jean-Luc Marion regarding St. Augustine’s view of love as all that one can do and as one’s weight, but I will perhaps devote a post to this. It seems to me that here St. Augustine wants to relate that we are all dependent on God and so we all bear a relation to Him whether we know it or not, and in like manner or hearts truly desire to love Him. In some manner perhaps every heart loves Him in a seed-like form, but it is not until we knowingly strive to love Him that a bond of love between man and God can correctly grow.
O God, in whom are all things- and yet the shamefulness of every creature does not shame Thee, their wickedness does not harm Thee, nor does their error deceive Thee.
Truly indeed God is in all things as the ground of reality of all things, but not as a body occupying space in each thing. This is the mystery then of God who foreordains all things but in whom there is no guile, no sin, no deception, nor can any harm His blessedness and Infinitude. Holy God, Holy Immortal One, Holy Mighty One, truly Thou Art.
O God, who hast not willed that any save the pure should know the True.
It is only those who are faithful in God who can know the True, He who is the Truth, the Light, and the Way. It is not the proud or the intelligent who know the Truth, but the poor in heart who by the grace of God are made to be clean of heart, and hence who shall see God Who Is Truth.
O God, the Father of Truth, the Father of Wisdom, Father of True and Supreme Life, Father of Happiness, Father of the Good and the Beautiful, Father of Intelligible Light, Father of our watching and our enlightenment, Father of the covenant by which we are admonished to return to Thee.
Truly then praise the Lord, who is Father of Truth, the Father of Wisdom, the Author of Life of which is the most holy beatific vision that He has granted to men who live in Him as true Life, Father of Happiness of which the next life we shall see fully, and Father of all that is Good and Just. He is then also the Father of the covenant in which He is always faithful to us and by which He offers us eternal salvation in the Church, let Him admonish us when we fall away from our holy mother Church.
Conclusion:
Here then we see a path to greater prayer, to call to God to help us in prayer, to praise Him justly, and for our hearts to strive to know Him as He is. This is the life of Christianity, prayer to God, and without prayer we cannot truly know God. He who does not know prayer and God lives a life of contradiction, yearning for God in the depths of his soul, yearning for a solution to sin, to suffering, to anxiety, to mortality, to unhappiness, and finally to our finitude, when indeed the vices that captivate us and keep us from God are like a wispy smoke, easy to move away provided we accept the grace of God always being offered to us in our lives. Pray then that we may remove the smoke before our eyes and at the dawn of our life to see not dimly but to find the total embrace of the Lord Who Is.
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