
St. Augustine in prayer by Botticelli, 1480
“We Must Adhere to God by Love, and Reach Out for Him in Prayer”
Man’s quest for happiness in this life, therefore, consists in following after God. It is obvious that the full attainment of God, and the full resultant delight that shall forever beatify the soul, is reserved for the future life. If we truly desire happiness then, we are, by that very fact, desiring immortality. It cannot be something identified with this life, for if life ends, happiness ends, and the loss of it even in expectation cannot be conducive to our enjoyment. Here below, then, we can go in quest of it only by following after God, and, as it were, reaching out for him.
Consequently, the great law of morality is to attach ourselves to God, to adhere to him, a law which, Augustine reminds us, was formulated by the psalmist long ago: My soul clings fast to you (Psalm 63:9). “God is good; so that it can be well with no one who deserts him. And among his creatures the rational creature is so great a good, that no other good save God can make it happy.”[On the Nature of Good, VII] God, therefore, who is our Supreme Good, must be the final object of all our striving and of all our yearning. “The sum of all our goods, and our perfect good, is God. We must not fall short of this, nor seek anything beyond it; the first is dangerous, the other impossible.”[Morals of Catholic Church, VIII, 13]
In this life, therefore, our most important and pressing duty is to unite ourselves to God by love. Going in quest of God, striving to adhere to him, reaching out for him, makes us good; attaining him, seeing him, securely possessing him, makes us happy. “Following after God is the desire of happiness; to reach God is happiness itself.” [Morals of Catholic Church, XI, 18] “How can anything be man’s highest good but that in cleaving to which he is happy? Now this is nothing else but God, to whom we can cleave only by affection, by desire, and by love.”[Morals of Catholic Church XIV, 24]
This makes us good. “For a man is never in so good a state as when his whole life is a journey toward the unchangeable life, and when his affections are wholly fixed upon it.” [Christian Doctrine, I, XII, 21] “A man is what his love makes him.” [Various Questions, 83, 35 - Talis est quisque, qualis ejus dilectio est.] “For this is the power of love, that it transforms the lover into the image of the object loved.”[Various Questions, 35] Now, the love whereby we adhere to God is called charity, and is defined by Augustine as: “The movement of the soul that carries it to the enjoyment of God for his own sake.” [Christian Doctrine, III, x, 16 - Caritatem voco motum animi ad fruendum Deum propter Ipsum.] This love, moreover, needs a medium of expression, and that need is supplied by prayer, which is the affectionate reaching out of the mind for God. [Sermon 9 (de Passione), 3 - Oratio namque est mentis ad Deum affectuosa intentio.]
Prayer, then, plays a most important part in man’s quest for happiness. For the life of a Christian on this earth is conceived by Augustine as the journey of a pilgrim soul toward everlasting life and everlasting happiness. It involves the descent of a loving, redeeming God, and the ascent of a loving, aspiring soul. The only ultimate happiness open to this pilgrim soul is the loving possession of God in the security of eternal life.
In the meantime, the Christian’s quest of happiness consists in his endeavor to adhere to God, in his efforts to unite himself to God by love, and in his reaching out for God in prayer. There is a wonderful feeling of motion in this conception of the Christian life — the motion that is inherent in all things that grow. The soul’s love for God is defined as “the movement” that carries it to the enjoyment of God. And prayer is “the reaching out” of the mind for God. In this moving, growing experience of Christian life man’s only sure road to happiness is in his desire for God and, as we shall see, his heart’s desire is his prayer. May we not conclude, therefore, that prayer, as Saint Augustine defines it, is also man’s road to happiness?
He tells us that it is “the affectionate reaching out of the mind for God.” How like Augustine to introduce that word “affectionate”! He never really succeeded in separating theology from devotion or logic from love. For him, to speak or to speculate about God merged spontaneously and irresistibly into the affectionate reaching out of his mind for God. Prayer is the language of the soul’s yearning for God; it is the interpreter of the heart’s desire. “The mouth speaks through the medium of words; the heart speaks through the medium of its desires. It is your heart’s desire that is your prayer.” [On Psalms, 37, 14]”It is not words that God wants of you, but your hearts.” [Sermon 91, 3]
“It is with the heart that we ask; with the heart we seek; and it is to the voice of the heart that the door is opened. ” [Sermon 91, 3] In these texts, of course, the term “heart” is used in the scriptural sense, in which it indicates our whole interior and spiritual life and all its faculties. Consequently, it signifies not only the heart, but the mind as well. True, according to Augustine, it is with the heart that we pray. For God wants to hear the call and the cry of a loving heart. But what is this cry of the heart? Augustine himself answers: the cry of the heart is a solemn earnestness of thought, which, when given vent to in prayer, expresses the profound yearning of the one who prays. [On Psalms 118 29] Prayer is the affectionate reaching out of the mind for God; it involves mind and heart, thought and desire, knowledge and love.
Prayer Is the Heart’s Desire
“The whole life of a good Christian is a holy desire.”[Treatise on 1 John, IV, 6] This desire is the unsatisfied yearning of a pilgrim’s heart, and the voice of the pilgrim’s heart is the voice of his heart’s desire. That voice is the only one that penetrates to the ears of God. “He who prays with desire sings in his heart, even though his tongue be silent. But if he prays without desire he is dumb before God, even though his voice sounds in the ears of men.” [On Psalms 86, 1] “I may be wanting in sound,” exclaims Augustine, “but never let me be wanting in love!” [On Psalms 102, 8] Prayer is not the reverberation of sound; it is the articulation of love. “As the ears of men are attentive to your lips, so are the ears of God inclined to your heart. How many there are whose lips are silent, but whose love is eloquent. So many are heard though their lips do not move, and many are left unanswered in spite of their noisy clamor. We ought to pray, then, with our affections.” [On Psalms 119, 9]” It is with the heart, rather than with the lips, that we pray.
Augustine observes that prayer actually has a voice of its own, and quite distinct from the voice of the one who prays. This “voice of prayer” is the heart’s desire, which, though not audible to human ears, sounds like a cry in the ears of God, and “is called a cry by reason of the intensity of its reaching for God.” [On Psalms 3, 4] The psalmist makes it quite clear that prayer has a voice of its own, when he says: Yet you heard the sound of my pleading when I cried out to you (Psalm 31:23). Again, he says: But God has heard; he has hearkened to the sound of my prayer (Psalm 66:19). And in yet another psalm we find these words: I say to the Lord, you are my God; hearken, O Lord, to my voice in supplication (Psalm 140:7).
Commenting on this latter psalm, Augustine says: “It is a simple statement indeed, and easy to understand; yet it is worthwhile considering why he did not say simply, `Hear my prayer.’ But, as if he would express more emphatically the affection of his heart, he said, `The voice of my prayer.’ That is, the life of my prayer, the soul of my prayer; not merely what sounds in my words, but what gives life to my words. For all other lifeless noises can be called sounds, but not words. Words belong to those who have souls — to the living. But how many pray to God, who have neither a proper perception of him, nor right thoughts concerning him? Such people may have the sound of prayer, but the voice of prayer they cannot have, for there is no life in their prayers.” [On Psalms 139, 10]
“Who can doubt but that cries raised to the Lord in prayer sound in vain if uttered only with the voice of the body and not with the heart fixed on God? But, if they come from the heart, then, they may escape any other man’s notice if the physical voice be silent, but they will not escape the notice of God. Therefore, whether we cry to the Lord with the voice of the body — when occasion demands it — or in silence, we must cry from the heart.” [On Psalms 118 - 29th - 1]
The Use of Words in Prayer
Now, while there is no doubt but that in prayer the primacy rests with the mind and with the heart, nevertheless it would be very wrong to conclude that Augustine scorns the use of ready-made formulas of prayer. Words have their place in the affectionate reaching out of the mind for God; they have vitally important functions to fulfill, and not merely in concentrating our attention and aiding our memory, but, above all, in stimulating our desire.
Concerning this very matter he wrote to the Lady Proba: “At certain hours we recall our minds from other cares and business in which somehow or other desire itself grows cool — to the business of prayer, admonishing ourselves by the words of our prayer to fix attention upon that which we desire, for fear that what had begun to lose heat might become altogether cold, and be finally extinguished if the flame were not more frequently fanned.” [Letter 130, 18]
Augustine, however, is most insistent upon this that, when we pray, we do not use words for the same purposes as in ordinary human affairs. Normally, we make use of words to teach, to convey information, or to recall something to somebody’s attention. And as Adeodatus observed in The Teacher, “It is not proper to believe that we teach God anything, or that we remind him of anything.” [The Teacher, 1, 2] God knows all things. Hence, the advice of Saint Matthew not to talk too much: Your Father knows what you need before you ask him (Matthew 6:8).
Referring to these very words, Augustine demands: “What is the good of prayer if our Father knows beforehand what we need? A man can say to his neighbor: `There is no need to say any more; I know what you want.’ If then, you know, O Lord, why should I ask.” [Sermon 80, 2] Surely it is a waste of time and energy to ask, seek, and knock, as though trying to convey information to one who knows already!
Let it be said at once, therefore, that the words we use in prayer are not intended for the instruction of God, but for the construction of our own desires. That is what God wishes to accomplish by means of the formulas of prayer. Not that he has any need of them for himself, but in the sense that he makes use of them to build up our desires for heavenly things. That is why he gave us the Lord’s Prayer. “These words employed by our Lord Jesus Christ in his prayer constitute the form for the expression of our desires. ” [Sermon 56, 4; cf, also letter 140, Pius mentis affectus est, ut ipsa construantur non ut Deus instruantor.]
By using these words we keep in mind the things we ought to desire; by insistently asking for them we develop and intensify our desire for them. “To obtain our petition we ought to urge our case with God, not by words, but by the ideas we cherish in our minds, and by directing these ideas with pure love and sincere desire. The Lord made use of words to teach us these very ideas that by committing them to memory we might recall them when we pray.” [Sermon on Mount, II. III, 13]
This teaching is admirably summed up in the following dialogue passage from The Teacher. Having observed that prayer should be made in the temple of the mind, and that God does not seek to be taught or to be reminded by our speech that he may give us what we desire, Augustine puts this question to Adeodatus: “‘Are you not disturbed by the fact that our great Master, in teaching his disciples to pray, taught them certain words, so that it looks as if he taught them what words to use in prayer?’ (Adeodatus) `No. That does not disturb me. For he did not teach them words merely, he taught them by means of words, so that through these words they could keep themselves in constant remembrance. He taught them realities: what they should pray for, and from whom they should ask, when they prayed in their innermost mind, as we have said.’ (Augustine) `You have correctly understood the point.’ ” [The Teacher, 1, 2]
There is no doubt but that Christ himself ratified vocal prayer when he said, Ask, and you shall receive; and again when, in answer to a most formal request of his disciples, he gave them the Lord’s Prayer. Augustine, consequently, never scorns the use of words or formulas; he insists that these words were put into our mouths by the Master, in order to foster and stimulate our desire for the gifts that he would love to bestow. “When you pray you need piety, not verbosity. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him (Matthew 6:8). Do not speak too much, therefore, he knows what you need…But he wished you to pray for this reason, that he might give you desire, and that his gifts might not be lightly esteemed; for it is he himself who insinuates this desire.”‘ [Sermon on Mount, 4] In a word, “The Lord our God requires us to ask, not that our wish may be made known to him — for to him it cannot be unknown — but that through the medium of prayer, that desire may be developed in us by virtue of which we may receive what he is prepared to bestow.” [Letter 1.30, 17]
Prayer and Happiness
The words we use in prayer, therefore, turn our thoughts and desires toward the things that God would love to bestow — if we would only have them. He would give us himself, and in so doing would make us happy forever more. And in giving himself he would give us the Supreme Good, together with the life of eternity, the health of immortality, truth that never deteriorates into folly; love, goodness, and beauty immutable in their everlasting perfection. Augustine refers to these benefits as “the proper objects of enjoyment.” All other things must be used as means to the attaining of them. “Those things which are objects of enjoyment,” he says, “make us happy. Those things which are objects of use assist us, and, as it were, support us in our efforts toward happiness, so that we can attain the things that make us happy and rest in them.” [Christian Doctrine, I, iii, 3]
Augustine warns us, however, that “if we set ourselves to enjoy those things which we ought to use, we are hindered in our course, and sometimes even led away from it, so that, becoming entangled in the love of inferior pleasures, we lag behind in, or even turn completely away from, the pursuit of the real and proper objects of enjoyment.” [Christian Doctrine, I, iii, 3] That this may not happen, we affectionately turn our minds and hearts to God in prayer.
“A happy life is to be sought from the Lord our God. Many different people have given many different answers when discussing wherein true happiness resides. But why should we go to many teachers or consider many answers to this question? It has been briefly and truly stated in Holy Scripture: Happy the people whose God is the Lord (Psalm 144:15).” [Letter 130, 24] “Why, then, are our desires scattered over many things? And why, through fear of not praying as we ought, do we ask what we should pray for, and not rather say with the psalmist: One thing I ask of the Lord, this I seek: To dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his temple (Psalm 27:4)? … In order that we may attain this happy life, he who is himself the true Blessed Life has taught us to pray …” [Letter 130, 15 - Propter hanc adipiscendam vitam beatam ipsa vera Vita beata nos orare docuit ..]
“The only true life is the happy life, and there is no happy life that is not also eternal life.”[The Trinity, XIII, vii, 10] Health also is vital to happiness; and real health shall not be enjoyed until this mortal shall put on immortality. [Cf. 1 Cor. 15, 53] “True, perfect and everlasting health, which is neither reduced by earthly infirmities nor repaired by corruptible gratification, but which endures with celestial vigor, is animated with a life eternally incorruptible.” [Letter 130, 7]
Since we cannot enjoy everlasting life or immortality here and now, neither can we be perfectly happy in this life — except through hope. “Many have reached boldly through transitory evils to good things that will last. And these no doubt are happy through hope … But he who is happy through hope is not yet happy, for he awaits in patient expectation a happiness he does not yet grasp. ” [The Trinity, XIII, vii, 10] Nevertheless, he is steadfast in his hope, and his goodwill brings him closer to it. For “he is the nearer to happiness whose will is good, and is directed to that which when attained will make him happy.” [The Trinity, XIII, vii, 10]
“We are not Christians except on account of a future life. Let no one hope for immediate happiness. Let no one promise himself the happiness of this world because he is a Christian.” [On Psalms 91,1] If a Christian is blessed with temporal prosperity, no doubt, he should give thanks to God for it. But if temporal misfortune befall him, then his faith should help him to conquer the present and look to the future. “There are some,” complains Augustine, “who do not realize that because they are Christians they must hope in the life to come. Such people imagine that Christ has forsaken them, and that they are Christians to no purpose, as soon as they are afflicted with temporal misfortune. They do not realize that the reason for their being Christians is that they must conquer the present and hope for the future … that what God has promised is neither of this life, nor of this earth; that all trials must be endured, so that we may receive and secure what God has promised in eternity.” [On Psalms 90 - 1st - 7] Someday faith will give place to vision, and the happiness of hope will be happiness realized in the world to come. Augustine assures us that “everything there will be good, and the Supreme God will be the Supreme Good, and he will be present for those to enjoy who love him. And, what is altogether most blessed, it will be certain to be so forever.” [The Trinity, XIII, viii, 11]
Whoever attains this will have attained the ultimate happiness open to man. He will have all that he desires and will be incapable of desiring anything together with it that would be unfitting. He will enjoy a state of well-being so perfect as to leave nothing to be desired — forever more. “For in it is the fountain of life, which we must now thirst for in prayer so long as we live in hope, not yet seeing what we hope for, trusting under the shadow of his wings before whom are all our desires, that we may be abundantly satisfied with the fullness of his house, and made to drink of the river of his pleasures. For with you is the fountain of life, and in your light we see light (Psalm 36:8-10), when our desire shall be satisfied with good things, when there shall be nothing beyond to be sought after with groaning, but all things shall be possessed by us with rejoicing.” [Letter 130, 27]
In desiring and praying for happiness, then, we are by that very fact hoping and praying for immortality; for if we desire a happy life, we desire also that it would last forever. “As, therefore, all men wish to be happy, certainly if they wish truly, they wish also to be immortal: for otherwise they could not be happy … In order that a man may live happily he must at least be alive. But if life quits him through death, how can a happy life remain with him?” [The Trinity, XIII, viii, 11] Happiness demands everlasting security, it demands immortality. Augustine declares, therefore, that “no one wrongly desires immortality if human nature is by God’s gift capable of it; and if it is not capable of it, then it is not capable of happiness.” [The Trinity, XIII, viii, 11]
Whether human nature is capable of immortality and should aspire to it is no small question. “But if that faith be present which is in those to whom Jesus has given power to become the sons of God, then, there is no question … For that faith promises, not by human reasoning but by divine authority, that the whole man, who certainly consists of body and soul, shall be immortal, and on that account truly happy.” [The Trinity, XIII, viii, 12] Not that the guarantee of immortality alone constitutes happiness, for the fallen angels are also immortal. Yet no one can be completely and perfectly happy unless he be immortal.
And Augustine tells us that the Son of God became man, precisely in order to convince men of that which seemed incredible, namely, that they could and would be immortal. “For if he who is by nature the Son of God was made Son of Man through mercy, for the sake of the sons of man … how much more credible is it that the sons of men by nature should be made the sons of God by the grace of God, in whom alone and from whom alone the blessed can be made partakers of that immortality? That we might be convinced of this the Son of God was made partaker of our mortality.” [The Trinity, XIII, viii, 12]
“What has God promised you, mortal man? That you shall live forever. Do you not believe this? Then, do believe it, do believe it. For he has already done something greater than what he has promised. What has he done? He has died for you. What has he promised? That you shall live with him. It is more incredible that the Immortal should die than that a mortal should live forever.” [On Psalms, 148, 8]
It is almost incredible; yet it is true. One day we shall be immortal; we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and see the delight of the Lord. There is no doubt but that it was for this vision of God face to face that the psalmist prayed when he said: Of you my heart speaks; you my glance seeks; your presence, O Lord, I seek (Psalm 27:8). Augustine continues that prayer in his own words: “In this search I will continue perseveringly, not seeking anything that is common, by your countenance, O Lord, that I may love you gratis, for I can find nothing more precious. Turn not away your face from me, that I may find what I seek. Turn not aside in anger from your servant, lest in seeking you I run toward something else … Be my helper.” How shall I find it if you will not help me? “Leave me not, neither despise me, O God my Savior. Scorn not that a mortal should seek the Eternal …” [On Psalms 26 - 1st - 8, 9] So did Augustine reach for God in prayer. Because, then only shall all the desires of the human heart find rest, when God and man are reunited in love, in the happy security of everlasting life. “In order that we may attain this happy life, he who is himself the true Blessed Life has taught us to pray.” [Letter 130, 15]