Question X: How one ought to pray

I set out those conditions in questions 4 and 5 with which prayer must be constituted. Here I consider chiefly the condition of attention. And indeed some attention is necessary, that prayer may be efficacious. But whether attention is necessary for prayers prescribed by precept, so as to satisfy the obligation, is deferred to the first part of the second part. Treatise on the Laws, dispute 5, question 3.

St. Bonaventure, on chapter 22 of Luke, distinguishing the anatomy of Christ's prayer in the garden, lays down seven conditions in prayer, that the manner of praying may be optimal.

The first is that it be secret: for there he observes that Christ, facing a matter of the gravest import, made His best prayer at the end of His life, because he went out according to his custom to the solitary mount of Olives. Hence Osee 2 says: I will lead her into solitude, and there I will speak to her heart. And Matth. 6: When you shall pray, enter into your chamber, and having shut the door, pray to your Father. And Matth. 14: Having dismissed the crowd, he went up onto the mountain alone to pray: and he judges this to have been the same mount of Olives, to show that there his head was made fat with oil, as is said in Psalm 22, and that from there he ascended into heaven.

Secondly, it ought to be solicitous. Hence Christ, when he had come to the place of prayer, said to the disciples: Watch, that you enter not into temptation, and especially in time of tribulation we ought to pray solicitously; hence also Psal. 76: In the day of my tribulation I sought God with my hands, etc.

Thirdly, it ought to be devout, which he shows by the example of Christ, when being withdrawn from them about as far as a stone is cast, having fallen upon his knees he prayed; for the prayer of him that humbleth himself shall pierce the clouds, Eccl. 35, and Psalm 101: He hath regarded the prayer of the humble. And Judith 9: The prayer of the humble and the meek hath always pleased thee. And Paul, Eph. 3: For this cause I bow my knees to the Father; he moreover expresses a violent movement, when the corner stone is said to have been torn away. Most beautifully Isaias 28 says: Whom shall he teach knowledge? them that are weaned from the milk, drawn away from the breasts. Here he expresses the vehemence of devotion, by which, groaning, one is torn away from friends.

Fourthly, it ought to be discreet, by the example of Christ's prayer: Father, if thou wilt, remove this chalice from me. He names the chalice of the passion, concerning which it was determined in Psalm 109, and Matth. 20: Can you drink the chalice, etc.

Fifthly, it ought to be vigorous. Therefore: There appeared to him an Angel strengthening him; so the Angel also touched Daniel and strengthened him, chapter 10. Therefore also Christ, being in an agony, prayed the longer.

Sixthly, it ought to be anxious: And his sweat became as drops of blood trickling down upon the earth. So it is said in Psalm 87: O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried in the day, and in the night before thee.

Note, however, first with the Holy Doctor that extremes are to be avoided, namely that we not pray too languidly, but earnestly repeating affections, and often even words, according to that: Continue instant in prayer, Coloss. 4, without intermission, as it is said in the first to the Thessalonians. Christ too returned to prayer, saying the same words. Wherefore Calvin spoke foolishly in book 3 of the Institutes, chapter 20, section 29, saying that to repeat prayers is battology and much speaking, prohibited by Christ.

On the other hand, one must not fall into incessant and vehement anxieties, as the Massilians said, with Damascene, heresy 80, resting on that foundation of Luke 18: We ought always to pray; but this, says the Seraphic Doctor, is to be understood so that the particle always is not distributed over every part of time, but over the appointed hours. And this exposition is that of D. August., heresy 57, of Bede on Luke 18, of Anselm on chapter 5 of the first to the Thessalonians, of D. Thomas here, article 14, on John 4 ad 4, of Medina, question 11 on prayer, of Alphonse a Castro on the word prayer, heresy 2, of Valencia, dispute 6, question 2, point 9. In nearly the same way the Holy Doctor expounds this in Luke 2: There was Anna a prophetess, who departed not from the temple, serving God night and day.

The seventh condition is that it be circumspect, for thus Christ prayed to the Lord so as not to forget the disciples, Matth. 26: And he came, and found them again sleeping. Hence again the Messalians, or Psallians, are censured, who wished to attend so solely to prayer that we should not cease until we perceived the devil bursting forth. Surely we ought also to be vigilant in works of charity; for whoever neglects these is worse than an infidel, as the Apostle says, 1 Timoth. 5, and Valencia too notes this.

The conditions adduced either chiefly conduce to attention, or accompany it.

But more often, as I said in question 5, our most devout and most holy Doctor pours forth most piercing motives to attention, especially in book 2 on the Progress of the Religious.

And indeed in chapter 62, having divided prayer into deprecation and obsecration, he adds thanksgiving and praise.

He recounts many incentives to giving thanks to God in chapter 63. One must consider, he says, that our most noble Benefactor God has bestowed most exquisite benefits, and those upon us, most worthless, unworthy, and deserving of punishment. And surely we owe a great deal: For to whom much is given, much will be required of him.

In chapters 64 and 65 he finds the matter for the praise of God everywhere, whether you look upon the earth, or have gazed upon the heaven: For it is a book printed in golden characters, and in amorous letters: God loves. The stars course through with fifty-five motions, bearing the letters of God most swiftly to us through the milky ways. The Sun, Charioteer of Light, confers seasons varying in benefits. See the Holy Doctor, and Ghislelm On the Glories of the most holy Trinity; in the seven works of God he finds especially the praise of God, chapter 65.

THE FIRST work is Creation; for upon nothing he raised up the vastest world, and adorned it with so many ornaments.

THE SECOND work is the governance of the universe, so ordered and wondrous that it causes ecstasy in one who considers it.

THE THIRD work is the redemption of the human race.

THE FOURTH is the justification of so many sinners, with such sweetness, benignity, and mercy.

THE FIFTH work is the just retribution of merits.

THE SIXTH work is the glory of the Blessed.

THE SEVENTH work is not a work, but the Sabbath, and rest in God, and God in the saints. See wondrous things in the Holy Doctor, whom Ghislelm imitates in the cited work, which you will never read through to satiety.

He shows further that the Holy Doctor, in the Legend of St. Francis the Father, chapter 10, was accustomed to pray in every place and time, the Seraphic Patriarch, whether in solitude or in cities, overwhelmed by the flooding throngs of peoples and seized by their rush, now with hands raised, now with arms outspread, now prostrate, just as is also read of Christ, Ioan. 17, Marc. 14, Luke 22, and Stephen Act. 7, Peter Act. 9, Paul Act. 20 and to the Ephes. 3. Likewise at times the Scriptures report prayer made in the Church, Judith 6, at times in the upper room Act. 9. By Jonah in the belly of the whale, chapter 2. By the boys in the furnace Daniel 3. And Damascene, book 4 on the faith, chapter 13, reports that of old, by apostolic tradition, it was the custom to pray toward the East, and Tertullian in the Apology, chapter 30, reports that they were accustomed to pray with hands outspread. Nearly the same D. August. reports, in the book on the care of the dead, chapter 5. I shall close with this epiphonema: All the works of the Seraphic Doctor direct one to prayer, as Sixtus V says in the Bull on the Canonization of the Holy Doctor.