|
And so in the monasteries of Palestine and Mesopotamia and all the East
the services of the above-mentioned hours are ended each day with three
Psalms apiece, so that constant prayers may be offered to God at the
appointed times, and yet, the spiritual duties being completed with due
moderation, the necessary offices of work may not be in any way interfered
with: for at these three seasons we know that Daniel the prophet also
poured forth his prayers to God day by day in his chamber with the windows
open. Nor is it without good reasons that these times are more
particularly assigned to religious offices, since at them what completed
the promises and summed up our salvation was fulfilled. For we can show
that at the third hour the Holy Spirit, who had been of old promised by the
prophets, descended in the first instance on the Apostles assembled
together for prayer. For when in their astonishment at the speaking with
tongues, which proceeded from them through the outpouring of the Holy
Ghost upon them, the unbelieving people of the Jews mocked and said that
they were full of new wine, then Peter, standing up in the midst of them,
said: "Men of Israel, and all ye who dwell at Jerusalem, let this be known
unto you, and consider my words. For these men are not, as ye imagine,
drunk, since it is the third hour of the day; but this is that which was
spoken by the prophet Joel: and it shall come to pass in the last days,
saith the Lord, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons
and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and
your old men shall dream dreams. And indeed upon my servants and my
handmaids in those days I will pour out of my Spirit, and they shall
prophesy." And all of this was fulfilled at the third hour, when the
Holy Spirit, announced before by the prophets, came at that hour and abode
upon the Apostles. But at the sixth hour the spotless Sacrifice, our Lord
and Saviour, was offered up to the Father, and, ascending the cross for the
salvation of the whole world, made atonement for the sins of mankind, and,
despoiling principalities and powers, led them away openly; and all of us
who were liable to death and bound by the debt of the handwriting that
could not be paid, He freed, by taking it away out of the midst and
affixing it to His cross for a trophy, At the same hour, too, to Peter,
in an ecstasy of mind, there was divinely revealed both the calling of the
Gentiles by the letting down of the Gospel vessel from heaven, and also the
cleansing of all the living creatures contained in it, when a voice came to
him and said to him: "Rise, Peter; kill and eat; " which vessel, let
down from heaven by the four corners, is plainly seen to signify nothing
else than the Gospel. For although, as it is divided by the fourfold
narrative of the Evangelists, it seems to have "four corners" (or
beginnings), yet the body of the Gospel is but one; embracing, as it does,
the birth as well as the Godhead, and the miracles as well as the passion
of one and the same Christ. Excellently, too, it says not "of linen" but
"as if of linen." For linen signifies death. Since, then, our Lord's death
and passion were not undergone by the law of human nature, but of His own
free will, it says "as if of linen." For when dead according to the flesh
He was not dead according to the spirit, because "His soul was not left in
hell, neither did His flesh see corruption." And again He says: "No man
taketh My life from Me but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it
down, and I have power to take it again." And so in this vessel of the
Gospels let down from heaven, that is written by the Holy Ghost, all the
nations which were formerly outside the observance of the law and reckoned
as unclean now flow together through belief in the faith that they may to
their salvation be turned away from the worship of idols and be serviceable
for health-giving food, and are brought to Peter and cleansed by the voice
of the Lord. But at the ninth hour, penetrating to hades, He there by the
brightness of His splendour extinguished the indescribable darkness of
hell, and, bursting its brazen gates and breaking the iron bars brought
away with Him to the skies the captive band of saints which was there shut
up and detained in the darkness of inexorable hell, and, by taking away
the fiery sword, restored to paradise its original inhabitants by his pious
confession. At the same hour, too, Cornelius, the centurion, continuing
with his customary devotion in his prayers, is made aware through the
converse of the angel with him that his prayers and alms are remembered
before the Lord, and at the ninth hour the mystery of the calling of the
Gentiles is clearly shown to him, which had been revealed to Peter in his
ecstasy of mind at the sixth hour. In another passage, too, in the Acts of
the Apostles, we are told as follows about the same time: "But Peter and
John went up into the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour." And
by these notices it is clearly proved that these hours were not without
good reason consecrated with religious services by holy and apostolic men,
and ought to be observed in like manner by us, who, unless we are
compelled, as it were, by some rule to discharge these pious offices at
least at stated times, either through sloth or through forgetfulness, or
being absorbed in business, spend the whole day without engaging in
prayer. But concerning the evening sacrifices what is to be said, since
even in the Old Testament these are ordered to be offered continually by
the law of Moses? For that the morning whole-burnt offerings and evening
sacrifices were offered every day continually in the temple, although with
figurative offerings, we can show from that which is sung by David: "Let my
prayer be set forth in Thy sight as the incense, and let the lifting up of
my hands be an evening sacrifice," in which place we can understand it
in a still higher sense of that true evening sacrifice which was given by
the Lord our Saviour in the evening to the Apostles at the Supper, when He
instituted the holy mysteries of the Church, and of that evening sacrifice
which He Himself, on the following day, in the end of the ages, offered up
to the Father by the lifting up of His hands for the salvation of the whole
world; which spreading forth of His hands on the Cross is quite correctly
called a "lifting up." For when we were all lying in hades He raised us to
heaven, according to the word of His own promise when He says: "When I am
lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto Me." But concerning
Martins, that also teaches us which it is customary every day to sing at
it: "O God, my God, to Thee do I watch at break of day;" and "I will
meditate on Thee in the morning;" and " I prevented the dawning of the day
and cried;" and again, " Mine eyes to Thee have prevented the morning, that
I might meditate on Thy words." At these hours too that householder in
the Gospel hired labourers into his vineyard. For thus also is he described
as having hired them in the early morning, which time denotes the Mattin
office; then at the third hour; then at the sixth; after this, at the
ninth; and last of all, at the eleventh, by which the hour of the
lamps is denoted.
|
|