This post regards a third portion of St. Augustine’s prayer in Soliloquies Bk 1 Ch1 and so I would like to bring an analysis of the third part of the saints prayers so that we can ourselves learn how to reflect on the prayers handed down to us by the saints, and learn how we ought to pray to the Lord. Our Lord is not concerned with the repetition of vain formulas, as many Protestants rightly try to bring up against Catholics, but He is not opposed to formalized prayers that we may use as an aid to a deeper devotion. One Hail Mary said with great love for our Lord and our Lady will bring great grace to the soul who completes that prayer, imagine then what great grace will be open to the soul who prays the Rosary with complete devotion then! May the Lord then grant us to pray always with our hearts even in the times when we pray the prayers commended to us by others. In fact, let us learn by their wisdom.
So let us begin:
Third part of the Prayer
Whatever I have said, some to my aid, Thou, the one God, the one, eternal, true substance in whom there is no strife, no disorder, no change, no need, no death; where there is supreme harmony, supreme clarity, supreme permanence, supreme fullness, supreme life; where there is no deficiency and no excess; where the One begetting and the One begotten [are] One.
O God, who are served by all things which serve, who art obeyed by every good soul.
O God, by whose laws the poles revolve, the stars follow their courses, the sun rules the day, and the moon presides over the night; and all the world maintains, as far as this world of sense allows, the wondrous stability of things by means of the orders and recurrences of season: through the days by the changing of light and darkness, through the months by the moon’s progressions and declines, through the years by the successions of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, through the cycles by the completion of the sun’s course, through the great eras of time by the return of the stars to their starting points.
O God, by whose ever-enduring laws the varying movement of movable things is not suffered to be disturbed, and is always restored to a relative stability by the controls of the encompassing ages.
O God, by whose laws the choice of the soul is free, and rewards to the good and chastisements to the wicked are meted out in accord with inexorable and universal destiny.
O God, from whom all good things flow even unto us, and by whom all evil things are kept away from us.
O God, above whom, beyond whom, and without whom nothing exists.
O God, under whom everything is, in whom everything is, with whom everything is.
O God, who hast made man to Thine image and likeness, a fact which he acknowledges who knows himself.
Hear, hear, O hear me, my God, my Lord, my King, my Father, my Cause, my Hope, my Wealth, my Honor, my Home, my Native Land, my Salvation, my Light, my Life.
Hear, hear, O hear me, in that way of Thine well known to a select few.
Commentary:
Whatever I have said, some to my aid, Thou, the one God, the one, eternal, true substance in whom there is no strife, no disorder, no change, no need, no death; where there is supreme harmony, supreme clarity, supreme permanence, supreme fullness, supreme life; where there is no deficiency and no excess; where the One begetting and the One begotten [are] One.
It is the Catholic faith that proclaims our God to be absolutely simple and One. Truly then, all perfection is in Him who created the entire universe according to His desire and will. In nature we see various beauties and great spectacles which are only but small echoes of God’s beauty and glory. In God there is goodness, love, mercy, justice, wisdom, clarity, truth, eternity, infinity, holiness, and all other great goods to such an extent that our Lord is incomprehensible. We cannot comprehend with our finite minds all that God is, and yet God is paradoxically infinitely wise and comprehensible, but in this manner only can He be comprehended in Himself in the manner of the inner Trinitarian life by which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit adore each other. We strive to understand ourselves but we cannot do it. Our mystery, the mystery of man’s identity and aim in life is inexorably wrapped up in Christ who became Incarnate, who took to Himself our humanity and glorified it in Himself. We may only finally comprehend the mystery of what God intends for mankind through participating in the divine nature of Christ’s sacred humanity, and on the last day being risen up into Heaven. From thence the beatific vision will provide us the view of God’s will and love for us and we will see Him as He is, though as St. Augustine is clear to point out, God will still be infinitely above us. Let us praise Him who is above all things!
O God, by whose laws the poles revolve, the stars follow their courses, the sun rules the day, and the moon presides over the night; and all the world maintains, as far as this world of sense allows, the wondrous stability of things by means of the orders and recurrences of season: through the days by the changing of light and darkness, through the months by the moon’s progressions and declines, through the years by the successions of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, through the cycles by the completion of the sun’s course, through the great eras of time by the return of the stars to their starting points.
O God, by whose ever-enduring laws the varying movement of movable things is not suffered to be disturbed, and is always restored to a relative stability by the controls of the encompassing ages.
Recall again then O dear soul to understand that the Lord is God over all things, over all Creation, and He has dictated His laws upon all things that they may be a testament to His glory. Every aspect of the world is guided by His loving hand, and still then by His inscrutable justice. Lord lead us to You who leadest all things by Your love.
O God, who are served by all things which serve, who art obeyed by every good soul.
O God, by whose laws the choice of the soul is free, and rewards to the good and chastisements to the wicked are meted out in accord with inexorable and universal destiny.
Here lies a paradox that only the soul that is deeply inside the grace of our Lord will comprehend. God’s grace and will makes us free, and in fact though we sin, and make free choices they were not made without God’s permission and allowance. God’s mercy and grace compels us to the freedom of doing truly good and just deeds (those which are done in grace and with an aim at loving God). Prior to God’s mercy our souls are plunged into errors and strongly inclined to sinning because even though we know what is wrong and right we lack the capacity to understand the gravity of our situation and we also lack the willpower to bring ourselves out of sin. For this we need God’s mercy and grace which lifts us out of our sinfulness and evil habits, putting off the old-man, Adam, and putting on the new Man, Christ. In Christ is our soul free to do what is good and shun what is evil. Our freedom is restored to its natural freedom, what our nature was intended to do, to live with and in accord with God’s grace (Here I do not mean to juxtapose natural and supernatural since this sort of life is above man’s capacity, but rather I mean natural as what God intends for man).
So too then Lord grant us mercy in every work that we might adore you in everything we do, as we pray and as we work, let them all be the same offering of supreme adoration to You O Lord. Grant that we might be made worthy then of the promises of Christ, and do not look on our sins O Lord but on the faith of Your Church.
O God, who hast made man to Thine image and likeness, a fact which he acknowledges who knows himself.
It is truly then the man who knows himself (and knows God) that can most understand God’s will for him. God has spoken to us and told us that He has made us in His own image and likeness. There are vestiges and traces of God’s nature and attributes within the pious soul and the heart that has the quietness to look into himself and search for his identity and especially the identity that necessarily is explained in God Himself. It is good and just then to undergo each night an examination of conscience in which we reflect on our faults and our sins, and strive to bring them to the Lord to heal us of them. The man who knows himself is already on a great way towards the living of a pious life. St. Augustine will later in his lifetime meditate on the life of the Most Holy Trinity when he remarks on looking at the soul itself to find Him. Though we should always know ourselves for our own sake, we should know ourselves for God’s sake, and this is the right means of loving ourselves, because it is deeply within the mystery of man that God is the focus of his entire being, and by such manner our entire identity must be wrapped up in and subsumed in God’s Eternal Being. This is the manner in which Christ deigned to become Incarnate, to take us up into God’s life in a more efficacious and glorious way. May we all spend time with Him in Heaven and in the glorious Resurrection.
Hear, hear, O hear me, my God, my Lord, my King, my Father, my Cause, my Hope, my Wealth, my Honor, my Home, my Native Land, my Salvation, my Light, my Life.
Let us then reflect on the great and honorable titles that our God most highly deserves, ever praying to and adoring Him in all aspects of our life. A reflection on these titles and names will give us far greater insight into Who God truly Is and how He necessarily relates to us.
Hear, hear, O hear me, in that way of Thine well known to a select few.
Finally, then we come to a difficult doctrine of our holy faith, that God has ordained that only a few will enter by the narrow gate of salvation. But do not be perturbed, for St. John has also told us that countless souls were saved in his vision of the final Resurrection, yet we must reflect also that there are many who lack the Christ’s salvation offered through the Church. May God grant us the grace of final perseverance by which we die this life in the good graces of God’s favor, that is clothed in His holy grace and mercy.
May God grant then that we may pray with greater fervor and love this Lenten season. Have mercy on our defects, and lead us up into Your most Sacred Heart where we may contemplate the flame of Your Divine Love in all eternity. Amen.
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