Question I: What prayer is

LEST anyone wonder at so great a variety of descriptions of Prayer; since this is a distinguished act, it is best completed out of the concurrence of several entire causes; the Doctors composed descriptions from many of these conditions.

The Saintly Doctor brings many descriptions of Prayer, 3. part. centil. sect. 46. The first from D. Augustine lib. de spiritu, et anima, cap. 50. Prayer is the direction of pious affection to God. For prayer ought to proceed from a pious affection, that it be of valid origin. Therefore the same S. Augustine also, serm. 130. de tempore: What is prayer, but the ascent of the mind from earthly things to heavenly, the inquiry into things above, the desire of things invisible.

D. DAMASCENUS lib. 3. de fide cap. 24. Prayer is the ascent of the mind to God. For it is necessary that the soul of the one praying fly from earthly things to God.

The Saintly Doctor brings ANOTHER description from Damascene, in the place cited: Prayer is the expression of desire directed to God for the sake of obtaining a good, or removing an evil, formed by the word within, and without; or it is, a petition of fitting things from God.

MAGISTERIALLY, however, he says it can be defined thus: Prayer is the showing forth of our will to him from whom we hope to obtain that which we desire. Which alludes to the definition of D. Basil, homil. 5. de variis: Prayer is a petition of a certain good, which is poured forth to God by the pious.

VALENTIA says this definition, together with that adduced from Damascene, is optimal, disput. 6. quaest. 2. puncto 3. The Saintly Doctor adds another from D. Gregory lib. 33. moral. cap. 21. which rather described a certain perfection of prayer: To pray truly is to sound forth groans in the compunction of love, and not composed words.

IN the explanation of the terms of Theology, the Saintly Doctor adds that common description of prayer: It is the ascent of the mind to God, (explaining) or it is the expression of desire directed to God, for obtaining a good, or removing an evil, formed by the word within, and without.

IN the Diaeta salutis, tit. 2. cap. 5. he brings that definition of Prayer from Damascene 3. de fide, cap. 24. which Valentia calls optimal: Prayer is a petition of fitting things, and he adds the other one brought above.

HE EXPLAINS, however, on those words of Luke 6. He went out into the mount to pray: And he was passing the night in the Prayer of God, why prayer is described as the ascent of the mind to God, from Damascene in the place cited, namely, because the one praying ought to be separated from the earth, and from noise. Therefore the saints seek solitudes, and mountains. Thus Christ: He went out into the mount. Therefore Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill, Exodi 17. and Christ Matth. 14. Having dismissed the crowd, he went up into the mount alone to pray, and Abraham Genes. 22. said to the boys: wait here with the ass (that is, in the Valley:) But I and the boy, hastening thither, after we have worshiped, will return to you. Thus also Iudith, cap. 12. She went out by night into the valley of Bethulia, and baptized herself in the fountain of water, and as she came up, she prayed to the Lord God of Israel.

The Saintly Doctor ADNOTES, however, ad cap. 18. sap. on those words: For hastening to deprecate for the people, an allusion to Num. 16. where Aaron, running to the multitude, which he saw being slain by God, interceded. To deprecate, therefore, he says is properly for removing evils; but to pray is for obtaining goods, yet he says one is often confused with the other.

He EXPLAINS also in 3. dist. 17. art. 2. quaest. 1. ad 3. in what way Prayer is understood to be an ascent to God, namely, because we beseech God, who is above us, asking for mercy, which is above us, or revealing misery, which is below us, that he may free us from this, and raise us to that. He explains also another elevation, which is not intrinsic to prayer, namely, by which we climb, or ascend, from one consideration to another, to the consideration of God, and from the consideration of the creature to the consideration of the Creator.

From the definition of Prayer gather first, that Prayer is an act of the practical intellect, as the Saintly Doctor often indicates, while he defines it the elevation of the intellect, as it is called postulation, or petition, which is the expression of the practical intellect; for it is thus described by D. Augustine lib. de verbis Domini, serm. 5. Therefore epist. 121. he says: Let much speaking be far from Prayer, but let much praying not be lacking, if fervent intention perseveres. For to speak much in praying, is to spend on superfluous words a necessary thing. But to pray much, is to knock at the door of God, whom we beseech, with a long and pious excitation of the heart. For often this business is transacted more with groans than with speeches: more with weeping than with breath, as D. Bonavent. relates, lib. 2. Pharetrae, cap. 45.

HENCE he says also that affection concurs to render Prayer efficacious. S. Augustine indicates this, serm. 126. de tempore, cited by D. Bonavent. in the place cited, while he says: What is prayer, but the ascent of the soul from earthly things to heavenly, the inquiry into things above, the desire of things invisible?

YET it proceeds from the mouth pronouncing, or from the heart, as Chrystost. says in the imperfect work on Matth. homil. 13. and prayer from the heart is better expressed than from the mouth, as D. Isidorus says lib. 3. cap. 7. sent. 4. and cap. 8. sent. 2. When we pray, we speak with God; when we read, God speaks with us. Speech indeed is of the intellect. Hence by him prayer is also called oris ratio, on Psalm 38.

D. Bernardus concludes BOTH in Prayer, epist. de vita solitaria: Prayer is the affection of man adhering to God, and a certain familiar and pious address, and the state of an illumined mind for enjoying God as long as it is permitted. The Saintly Doctor relates this and other things in the Pharetra, in the place cited.

HENCE see that the question is about the name, while it is contended: Whether ratio (oration) is an act of the intellect, as the Holy Doctors teach, Caietanus ad art. 1. D. Thomae, Valentia puncto 1. and others; but not rather of the will, as some Nominales think, and Medina quaest. 1. de Oratione.

From the same definition the Saintly Doctor gathers secondly, in 3. the place cited, ad 2. et 4., that Prayer is of the inferior to the superior, whence it comes about that Christ, inasmuch as he is God, did not pray; but inasmuch as Pontiff he asked according to human nature; and inasmuch as King, God heard: Against certain heretics, whom P. P. consutani Tract. 2. disp. 1. quaest. 7.

GATHER thirdly, that Prayer is an act of Religion; because while we pray, we protest that we have the greatest need of God, as of our principle, and author, in whom we exhibit to him the greatest cult, and honor, which is the duty of the virtue of Religion, as S. Bonavent. teaches in the places to be cited in p. p. Brevil. cap. ult.