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AND of these four kinds, although sometimes occasions arise for richer
and fuller prayers (for from the class of supplications which arises from
sorrow for sin, and from the kind of prayer which flows from confidence in
our offerings and the performance of our vows in accordance with a pure
conscience, and from the intercession which proceeds from fervour of love,
and from the thanksgiving which is born of the consideration of God's
blessings and His greatness and goodness, we know that oftentimes there
proceed most fervent and ardent prayers so that it is clear that all these
kinds of prayer of which we have spoken are found to be useful and needful
for all men, so that in one and the same man his changing feelings will
give utterance to pure and fervent petitions now of supplications, now of
prayers, now of intercessions) yet the first seems to belong more
especially to beginners, who are still troubled by the stings and
recollection of their sins; the second to those who have already attained
some loftiness of mind in their spiritual progress and the quest of virtue;
the third to those who fulfil the completion of their vows by their works,
and are so stimulated to intercede for others also through the
consideration of their weakness, and the earnestness of their love; the
fourth to those who have already torn from their hearts the guilty thorns
of conscience, and thus being now free from care can contemplate with a
pure mind the beneficence of God and His compassions, which He has either
granted in the past, or is giving in the present, or preparing for the
future, and thus are borne onward with fervent hearts to that ardent prayer
which cannot be embraced or expressed by the mouth of men. Sometimes
however the mind which is advancing to that perfect state of purity and
which is already beginning to be established in it, will take in all these
at one and the same time, and like some incomprehensible and all- devouring
flame, dart through them all and offer up to God inexpressible prayers of
the purest force, which the Spirit Itself, intervening with groanings that
cannot be uttered, while we ourselves understand not, pours forth to God,
grasping at that hour and ineffably pouring forth in its supplications
things so great that they cannot be uttered with the mouth nor even at any
other time be recollected by the mind. And thence it comes that in whatever
degree any one stands, he is found sometimes to offer up pure and devout
prayers; as even in that first and lowly station which has to do with the
recollection of future judgment, he who still remains under the punishment
of terror and the fear of judgment is so smitten with sorrow for the time
being that he is filled with no less keenness of spirit from the richness
of his supplications than he who through the purity of his heart gazes on
and considers the blessings of God and is overcome with ineffable joy and
delight. For, as the Lord Himself says, he begins to love the more, who
knows that he has been forgiven the more.
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