Question II: Of how many kinds is prayer

THE SUBJECT of this is the proper theme of the Seraphic Doctor, for he everywhere mingles prayer, everywhere says something about it, or indicates it.

HE DIVIDES prayer, in the little work on the six wings of the Seraph, on the side of those who pray, into public prayer and private. Public is that which is made by the Church in choirs, which was also customary in the ancient Church; as appears from 1 Paral. 25, that we may imitate the Church triumphant, as I said in disputation 2.

PRIVATE prayer is that which is made privately through the familiar recitation of Psalms, the Rosary, Litanies; this he taught to each one, Matth. 6. When you pray, say: Our Father. Likewise it is exercised in solitary meditations and soliloquies, Psalm 76. I meditated in the night with my heart.

On private prayer the holy Fathers have much, cited by D. Bonaventure, book 2 of the Pharetra, cap. 45 and 46.

On public prayer D. Bernard discourses there, epistle 78.

SECONDLY S. Thomas the Doctor divides prayer on the side of the act into Vocal and Mental; the latter is that which is completed by the mere affection of the mind, thus Psalm 26. My heart hath said to thee, etc. Vocal is that which is also expressed by the voice, of which Psalm 141. With my voice I cried to the Lord, with my voice I made supplication to the Lord, which words the Seraphic Patriarch Francis uttered in singing on the last day of his life, as D. Bonaventure relates in his Legend.

THE INSTITUTION of this twofold prayer S. Thomas the Doctor ascribes to God, 5 part of the Breviloquium, cap. 10. For since the first principle is no less good than true; hence it is that he most willingly communicates his gifts. But since with this he is at the same time just, therefore he does not give gifts except to one willing and desiring; he does not give grace except to one giving thanks; he does not bestow mercy except on one acknowledging his misery, so that the liberty of the will may be safe, and the nobility of the gift not cheapened, and the worship of divine honor may remain intact. Hence it is that God wills to be prayed to, that he may bestow gifts. Again, since for desire to tend upward it is necessary that our affection be fervent, and thought gathered into one, and our expectation certain; and since our heart is frequently tepid, frequently dispersed, frequently fearful, hence it is that God willed us to pray not only mentally but also vocally, for the excitation of our affection through words, and for the recollection of thoughts through the sense of the words. He willed also that we pray through the saints, and the saints for us, to give confidence to the fearful, so that what they do not dare, or cannot, obtain by themselves, they may obtain through the efficacious petitions of others; and through this humility is preserved in those who pray; the dignity of the saints is declared in their interceding; and in all the members of Christ Charity and unity are shown forth.

THIRDLY he divides prayer in book 2 de profectu religiosi, cap. 60, into vocal prayers, Psalms e. g. through composed words; into soliloquies through words breaking forth from affection and necessity; and cap. 62 he adds thanksgiving and the voice of praise. He explains, moreover, in cap. 63 the benefits by which we are moved to thanksgiving.

FOURTHLY it is divided by D. Bonaventure in the place cited above, and from the Breviloquium, into obsecration, prayer, postulation, deprecation, and thanksgiving, according to that, 1 Timot. 2. I desire therefore first of all that obsecrations, prayers, postulations, and thanksgivings be made for all men. Of these more fully, opusc. de profectu Relig. book 2, cap. 60.

OBSECRATION, as D. Thomas explains, art. 17, is a prayer by which something is asked with some reason proposed, drawn from some sacred thing on account of which what is asked is obtained, as from the divine goodness, or the passion; Through the cross, etc. So also D. Bonaventure on Psalm 141.

THIS explanation agrees with that interpretation of S. Thomas which D. Bonaventure used in the exposition of the Mass, at those words of the Canon: Da propitius pacem, from D. Augustine epist. 49 to Paulinus, question 5, that the Apostle under the name of obsecration commended those prayers which the Church is accustomed to use in the celebration of the sacrifice of the Mass and the other Sacraments.

IN ANOTHER WAY also S. Thomas the Doctor explains above, that deprecation is intercession for sins; but prayer of postulation for graces and other goods. Cassian does not depart far, collat. 9, cap. 11 and following.

S. THOMAS the Doctor also divides it in the little work de profectu Religiosi, book 2, cap. 73 and following, according to the different motives, as I said in disputation 2. Then according to the different gifts of God, of revelations and visions, of which Alvarez treats at length Tom. 3, and D. Thom. question 175, and we shall treat, when on the Contemplative Life.