St. Augustine on Prayer

Question 040.

Can song really be counted as prayer?

Singing is proper to one in love… Jubilee is a sort of sound which means that the heart wants to give birth to that which cannot be uttered.  And who deserves such jubilation if not the ineffable God?  And ineffable is that which cannot be said or even touched.  What remains if not jubilation in that […]

Question 039.

How is the liturgy the “source and the summit”?

Man’s soul struggles onward towards that it loves so that it might rest upon reaching it.  When the soul finds its delight in God, there she finds true, certain, eternal rest, for which it has vainly sought in other objects.

from St. Augustine Answers 101 Questions on Prayer by Fr. […]

Question 038.

If contemplation is the height of all prayer, why should we use vocal prayer?

At certain stipulated times, we employ words in our prayer to God. And it is by signs such as these that we correct ourselves and discover the degree of progress obtained in this desire, in order to burn even more and achieve an increase in strength. According to the proportion of […]

Question 037.

What effects does prayer bring about in the soul?

Prayer produces a certain conversion of the heart towards him who is already ready to give inasmuch as we are in condition to receive.  And in this conversion a purification of the interior eye is wrought in such a way that those things in the temporal order which we used to desire are excluded.  […]

Question 036.

What relation does charity have to prayer?

Whoever has brotherly charity, and his heart withstands the interrogation of a just examination of conscience, discovering nothing but the true root of charity from which good fruits come, by this man has confidence in God and shall indeed receive from him whatever he asks, because he keeps his commandments.

from St. Augustine Answers […]

Question 035. 

So there seem to be degrees of faith.  Can we say that the degree of faith we have is determined by our degree of prayer?

Consider the Apostles:  they would never have left all they had, trodden this world’s hopes underfoot, and followed the Lord if their faith were not great.  And yet, if their faith were perfect, they would not have said […]

Question 034. 

Christ says, Watch and pray, that you do not fall into temptation.  What is the relation between prayer and temptation?

What is to enter into temptation but to fail in faith?  Temptation advances as faith lets up.  And temptation yields as faith advances… He who fights prays, and would not he who is in danger pray?

from St. Augustine […]

Question 033.

So faith is merely the source of prayer?

For St. Augustine, faith is more than prayer’s source.  It is certainly more than trusting that his prayers are heard… God alone knows the things of God in their fullness… But he does communicate something of himself to man, and that is precisely the content of Augustine’s faith…Although we are deprived of the vision of […]

Question 032.

What is the relation between faith and prayer?

If faith lacks, prayer dies.  For who prays for that which he does not believe?…  So that we might pray, let us believe.  And that this faith by which we pray not fail, let us pray.  Faith pours out prayer and the pouring out of prayer, in turn, obtains the strengthening of faith.

Question 031.

What does sacrifice have to do with prayer?

If the soul uses the body as an instrument or servant, thus becoming a sacrifice when used correctly and in reference to God, how much more must the soul, in turn, become a sacrifice when it offers itself to God, so that, aflame with the fire of God’s love, it might participate in his beauty […]