1. Obsecration is apparently to swear by someone, whereas Origen

remarks: "A man who desires to live in accordance with the Gospel must not swear by anyone, for if it is not allowed to swear, neither is it allowed to swear by anyone."

But it is sufficient to remark that obsecration is not a swearing by, or adjuring of God, as though to compel Him, for this is forbidden, but to implore His mercy.

2. Again, S. John Damascene says that prayer is "the asking God for things that are fitting." Hence it is not exact to distinguish prayers from postulations.

But prayer, generally considered, embraces all the above-mentioned parts; when, however, we distinguish one part against another, prayer, properly speaking, means the uplifting of the mind to God.

3. Lastly, giving of thanks refers to the past, whereas the other parts of prayer refer to the future. Hence giving of thanks should not be placed after the rest.

But whereas in things which are different from one another the past precedes the future, in one and the same thing the future precedes the past. Hence giving of thanks for benefits already received precedes petition; yet those same benefits were first asked for, and then, when they had been received, thanks were offered for them. Prayer, however, precedes petition, for by it we draw nigh to God to Whom we make petition. And obsecration precedes prayer, for it is from dwelling upon the Divine Goodness that we venture to approach to Him.

Cajetan: We might be asked how the mind can be especially elevated to God at the moment of consecration. For in the consecration the priest has to express distinctly the words of consecration, and consequently cannot have his mind uplifted towards God at that moment. Indeed, the more his mind is uplifted to God, the less he thinks of inferior things, words, and so forth.

But in the consecration of the Holy Eucharist—in which the priest in a sense brings God down upon earth—the very greatness of our uplifting of mind towards the Divine Goodness Which has thus deigned to come amongst us is the very reason for our attention to the words in the act of consecration, and makes the priest pronounce them distinctly and reverently. Some scrupulous folk, however, concentrate their whole attention on being intent and attentive; but this is really a distraction, and not attention, for its object is precisely the being attentive. The uplifting, then, of our minds to God in the consecration has indeed to be the very greatest, not, indeed, intensively and by abstraction from the things of sense, but objectively and concentrated—though always within the limits compatible with attention—on the endeavour to say the words as they should be said (on 2. 2. 83. 17.)

S. Augustine: And David went in and sat before the Lord; and Elias, casting himself down upon the earth, put his face between his knees. By examples such as these we are taught that there is no prescribed position of the body in prayer provided the soul states its intention in the presence of God. For we pray standing, as it is written: The Publican standing afar off. We pray, too, on our knees, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles; and we pray sitting, as in the case of David and Elias. And unless it were lawful to pray lying down, it would not be said in the Psalms: Every night I will wash my bed, I will water my couch with my tears. When, then, a man desires to pray, he settles himself in any position that serves at the time for the stirring up of his soul. When, on the other hand, we have no definite intention of praying, but the wish to pray suddenly occurs to us—when, that is, there comes of a sudden into our mind something which rouses the desire to pray "with unspeakable groanings"—then, in whatsoever position such a feeling may find us, we are not to put off our prayer; we are not to look about for some place whither we can withdraw, for some place in which to stand or in which to make prostration. For the very intention of the mind begets a solitude, and we often forget to which quarter of the heavens we were looking, or in what bodily position the occasion found us (Of Divers Questions, iv.).

"Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication; be attentive to me and hear me. I am grieved in my exercise; and am troubled at the voice of the enemy, and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have cast iniquities upon me, and in wrath they were troublesome to me. My heart is troubled within me, and the fear of death is fallen upon me. Fear and trembling are come upon me, and darkness hath covered me. And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?"

FOOTNOTES:

Etymologies, x., sub litt. O.

Ps. xxxviii. 13.

Ethics, I. xiii. 15.

Rabanus Maurus, De Universis, vi. 14.

On the Orthodox Faith, iii. 24.

Ps. x. 17.

Isa. lxv. 24.

Of the Divine Names, vi. 1.

Ps. xxvi. 4.

Art. XV.

Isa. lxiv. 8, 9.

xviii. 1.

Mal. iii. 14.

Dialogue, i. 8.

S. Matt. vi. 32.

1 Kings xv. 29.

Of Good Deeds, ii. 1.

Hom. II., On Prayer; also Hom. XXX., On Genesis.

Eph. i. 4.

Ps. lxx. 17, 18.

S. Matt. vii. 7.

Ps. cxx. 4.

S. Matt. vi. 8.

Ps. ciii. 33, 34.

Ps. lxxxiii. 12.

viii. 4.

1 Cor. xiv. 15.

On Care for the Dead, chaps, xiii., xv., xvi.

Moralia in Job, xii. 14.

Ps. lxvi.

S. Matt. vi. 9-13; S. Luke xi. 2-4.

Of Socrates the Philosopher, vii. 21.

Ps. lxxix. 4.

Ps. cxviii. 35.

On the Orthodox Faith, iii. 24.

iv. 3.

Rom. viii. 26.

S. John iv. 24.

1 Tim. ii. 4.

Isa. lxiii. 15, 16.

xxx. 8.

Ep., CXXX., chap. xii.

Ethics, I. vii. 15.

Ep., CXXX., chap. vi.

S. Matt. vi. 33.

On the Sermon on the Mount, II. x. 1.

S. Matt. vi. 25.

2 Cor. iv. 18.

Ps. xxxvii. 10.

1 Thess. v. 17.

Heb. iv. 3.

Ps. liv. 23.

v. 16.

Opus Imperf. in Matthaeum, Hom. XIV.

On the Lord's Prayer.

S. John xvi. 23.

Tractatus in Joannem, 102.

xv. 1.

Ps. xxxiv. 13.

Jer. vii. 16.

Eccles. vii. 14.

1 John v. 16.

De Correptionibus et Gratia, cap. xv.

Rom. xv. 30.

1 Cor. i. 11.

S. John xxii. 24.

S. Matt. v. 44.

xv. 4.

Ps. vi. 11.

On the Sermon on the Mount, i. 21.

Apoc. vi. 10.

Ps. lvii. 11.

On the Sermon on the Mount, i. 22, and Questions on the Gospels, II., xlv.

Questions on the Old and New Testament, Qu. lxviii.

Ecclus. xxxvi. 1-3.

Ep. cxxx. 12.

Ep. cxxx. 11.

Comment. on S. Matthew, vi.

1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.

S. Luke i. 49.

Ps. cxliv. 13.

Isa. xlvi. 10.

On the Sermon on the Mount, ii. 5.

Ep. cxxx. 11.

Enchiridion, 115.

On the Sermon on the Mount, ii. 11.

xi. 2-4.

Enchiridion, 116.

1 John iv. 19.

S. John xvii. 1-3.

See Touron, O.P., Vie de S. Thomas d'Aquin, p. 254; Paris, 1740.

S. John xiv. 16.

Rom. viii. 26.

xcvi. 7.

Ps. cxlvi. 9.

Ecclus. xxxvi. 18, 19.

2 Macc. xv. 14.

Contra Vigilantium, vi.

Heb. vii. 25. S. Thomas is quoting from memory.

Exod. iii. 6.

Ps. cxli. 1.

Ep. cxxx. 9.

Ps. xxvi. 8.

1 Kings i. 13.

Osee xiv. 3.

Ps. xv. 9.

S. Matt. vi. 6.

Opus Imperf. Hom. XIII. in Matt.

On the Sermon on the Mount, ii. 3.

Ps. cxviii. 145.

Ps. lxxxv. 1-5.

Ps. xxxix. 13.

Implicitly, Moralia in Job, xxii. 13; but see Hugh of S. Victor, Exposition of the Rule of S. Augustine, iii.

1 Cor. xiv. 14.

Of the Manner of Prayer, ii.

iv. 24.

On the Monastic Constitutions, chap. i.

Ep. cxxi.

Art. IV.

Ps. lxxv. 4, 5.

Ps. cxlv. 1.

2 Cor. v. 6.

Wisd. ix. 15.

Ps. cxlii. 4-7.

S. Luke xviii. 1.

1 Thess. v. 17.

1 Cor. x. 31.

S. Matt. vi. 7.

S. Luke vi. 12.

S. Luke xxii. 43.

Ps. xxvi. 4.

Exod. xix. 21.

S. Matt. vi. 9.

S. Luke xviii. 1.

1 Thess. v. 17.

Ps. xxxii. 20-22.

Ps. xxxiv. 13.

On the Sermon on the Mount, Sermon CV. i.

St. Luke vi. 13.

On Perseverance, chap. xxiii.

2 Cor. xii. 7-9.

S. Prosper, The Book of Sentences gleaned from S. Augustine, Sent. 212.

Tractatus in Joannem, 102.

Monastic Constitutions, chap, i.

i. 6.

Ps. xxxviii. 13, 14.

Tractatus in Joannem, 44.

Opus Imperf. in Matt., Hom. XVIII.

Tractatus in Joannem, 73; and De Verbis Domini, Sermon cccliv. 7.

S. John ix. 31.

xxviii. 8.

Tractatus in Joannem, 44.

Implicitly in the old interlinear Gloss on 2 Tim. iii. 5.

Opus Imperf. in Matt., Hom. XIV.

xxviii. 2.

Ps. xxxvi. 23-25.

1 Tim. ii. 1.

xi. 3.

Dan. ix. 18, 19.

Friday in the September Ember days.

The Ordinary Gloss on the words obsecrations, prayers, etc., in 1 Tim. ii. 1.

Collat., IX., chaps. xi-xiii.

Tractatus xxxv. in Matt.

De Orthodoxa Fide, iii. 24.

2 Kings vii. 18.

3 Kings xviii. 42.

vii. 59; xx. 36.

vi. 7.

Ps. liv. 1-7.

FROM THE SUPPLEMENT TO THE SUMMA—QUESTION LXXII

OF THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS WHO ARE IN HEAVEN

I. Are the Saints cognizant of our Prayers? II. Ought we to appeal to the Saints to intercede for us? III. Are the Saints' Prayers to God for us always heard?

I

Are the Saints cognizant of our Prayers?

On those words of Job, Whether his children come to honour or dishonour, he shall not understand, S. Gregory says: "This is not to be understood of the souls of the Saints, for they see from within the glory of Almighty God, it is in nowise credible that there should be anything without of which they are ignorant."

And he says also: "To the soul that sees its Creator all created things are but trifling; for, however little of the Creator's light he sees, all that is created becomes of small import to him." Yet the greatest difficulty in saying that the souls of the Saints know our prayers and other things which concern us, is their distance from us. But since, according to the authority just quoted, this distance does not preclude such knowledge, it appears that the souls of the Saints do know our prayers and other things which concern us.

Further, if they did not know what concerned us, neither would they pray for us, since they would not know our deficiencies. But this was the error of Vigilantius, as S. Jerome says in his Epistle against him. The Saints, then, know what concerns us.

The Divine Essence, then, is a sufficient medium for knowing all things, as, indeed, is evident from the fact that God in seeing His own essence sees all things. Yet it does not follow that whoever sees the Essence of God therefore sees all things, but those only who comprehend the Essence of God; just in the same way as it does not follow that because we know a principle we therefore know all that that principle contains, for that would only be the case if we comprehended the whole power of the principle. Since, then, the souls of the Saints do not comprehend the Divine Essence, it does not follow that they know everything which could be known through the medium of that Divine Essence. Hence the inferior Angels are taught certain things by the higher Angels, though all see the Divine Essence. But each person in possession of the Beatific Vision only sees in the Divine Essence as much of other things as is necessitated by the degree of perfection of his beatitude; and for the perfection of beatitude it is required that a man "should have whatever he wants, and should desire nothing in an inordinate fashion." Each one, however, rightly desires to know those things which concern himself. Hence, since no rectitude is lacking to the Saints, they wish to know those things which concern themselves, and consequently they must know them in the Word. But it belongs to their glory that they should be able to help on the salvation of those who need it, for it is thus that they are made co-workers with God—"than which there is nought more Divine," as Denis says. It is clear, then, that the Saints have a knowledge of those things which are requisite for this end. And so, too, it is manifest that they know in the Word the desires, the devout acts and the prayers, of men who fly to them for help.

Some, however, maintain that the Saints do not know our prayers, thus: