Augustine on Prayer by Thomas Hand

Summary:

Thomas Hand presented his exposition on Augustine on Prayer in a simple yet vivid understanding of prayer. It was basically a compilation of the thoughts, words, and prayers of St. Augustine. As we all know Augustine don't deal specifically or write a certain concept in just one book or letter. His concepts are scattered in all his works. Thus, in the case of Thomas Hand, he definitely is well oriented and right to publish this book. He made it look easier for his readers to read and understand the view of Augustine on Prayer. Augustine may have lived hundreds of years ago yet his thoughts do still make an impact to the new generation.

Hand began his book by looking back to the very nature of man as searcher for happiness. He established the scaffolding of prayer through deepening and knowing the desires of Man. Human beings had been searching for true happiness since time immemorial yet still undiscovered. For Augustine true happiness won't be found in this earthly city. Possession of temporal goods may make man happy yet not eternally. Jesus Christ taught it to his disciples and Augustine affirms it. For Augustine man can only possess happiness when he finds rest from his God. In order to reach out to God one must pray to him. "knock and it shall be open unto you" and "ask and you shall receive", Christ said. "Prayer is the language of the soul's yearning for God."

However, Hand reminds his readers that Prayer is a gift from God. By God's grace man has given the power to pray. Prayer is not a personal property that man possesses. It is rather a gift from the Holy Trinity. As it was revealed through the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit man ought to pray. Like the example of Christ, he taught his disciples to pray. He may have taught the exact words to pray by the Lord's Prayer yet only stands as a reminder. To pray the Lord's prayer is not through lip-service but rather inner disposition of the person. What is important in this perspective is the innder heart and not the exterior utterance of prayer.

Hand gave us his readers the reason why we should pray. We pray because we want to avoid many temporal ailments. We pray because we want to be perfect and keep God's commandments and hopefully be with God until the end. Prayer is not only for personal blessings and a kind of worship to the Father. We don't only address our prayers to God but also to our neighbors. We pray to God because we want to thank, plea and praise him. We pray to our neighbors especially our enemies because we want to be forgiven and forgive. We also pray for the dead so that they might also pray for us.There may be times we have unanswered prayers, it does not mean God didn't listen to us rather he teaches us to be more prayerful or increase more the way we pray. God doesn't answer immdediately our prayers because he knows what's best for us.

The best example of prayer that all of these aspects are addressed in the "The Lord's Prayer". Everything that the previous chapters had taclked are found from the very prayer that Jesus Christ had taught us.

On the last chapter, Hand claims that this very powerful prayer that intensifies our desire to ask and pray to God is handed down from the Catholic Church. He, in one way or another tells us that the practice of praying to the Father has been passed from generation to generation through the Church and most especially through Mother Mary.

Commentary:

“Among the gifts emanating from the gift of the Holy Spirit, we must number the gift of prayer. It would be fatal for us to imagine, therefore, that man gives it to himself.” (Hand, 36) This quotation helped me recall our discussion on Augustinology I with Fr. Potencio, OAR in RST. Considering this as an attitude towards prayer, one would be identified as a Pelagian. Hand was not able to mention the heresey of Pelagianism explicitly yet he addressed the heresy in a subtle way. For Pelagians, in order to receive grace from God one must ask first from God. The fruit of grace comes from personal prayer. Prayer becomes a 'personal property'. They think that in order to receive our wants they must pray unceasingly or do good works, which is very fatal to Catholic faith.

Thus, I'd like to elaborate and expand this answer of Hand against the Pelagians. This may be an old or dead heresy yet it is present in our attitude and approach when we pray to God, especially in this fast pacing world. “To pray is a gift of God” (ibid, 37) Thomas Hand exalts. We pray because God allowed us to pray. “It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” (Mt 10:20). The act-of-asking itself is at first place a grace of God already. In the order of precedence of the act of praying, God comes first and not man. Matthew 6:8 gives us also another answer to the heresy of the Pelagians, which says “Your Father knows what you need before you as him.” It is the Spirit that allows us to cry out to the Father. Thus, what we only need to do is to cooperate with that given-grace. This is one of the two types of grace we receive from God, Gratiae Cooperans. This is the grace which the human will operates. The person is sustained in the process of doing good, which is now called merit. Merits are recived not because of personal will but with the help of the grace of God. Augustine further explains this in this Letter 194, 16. “prayer is found among the gifts of grace... The merit of prayer comes first in order to obtain the gift of grace, prayer shows by its very petitions that what ever obtains by petition is a gift of God, unless a human being thinks that it comes from himself.”

All along we think that it is us, who have first given something to God, so that he may give us the rest. What kind of person would then be, when we give God what is his already.

This I just realized that I'm sometimes like a Pelagian, who thinks that my act of praying is my personal will, which Augustine had clarified ever since.

Dialogue:

In the last part of this book review, I'd like to make an interview from Thomas Hand and Adolar Zumkeller. These are two of the many Augustinian scholars, whose imbibed fully the thought and life of Augustine. I will stand as the interviewer and will ask random questions to them. Their answers will be taken from their respective works. However, quoting Augustine is inevitable in this aspect since both deal with the same scholar, Augustine.

What is Prayer?

Zumkeller: Augustine described prayer above all as an act of love. He sees the soul of prayer as a never ending longing of the inner person for God and life eternal. In a sermon he states: “The longing of the heart is a constant prayer. If you have an unceasing longing for God, then you also pray unceasingly.” (Sermon 80,7) On the other hand prayer grows mute when the heart’s longing turns cold, when a person up loving. This longing of love then decides the worth of Prayer. (Adollar Zumkeller, “Augustine on Daily Common and Private Prayer” from Sharing a Common Legacy: Symposium of the Augustinian Family and Course on Augustinian Spirituality, Rome: 1988, p. 82-83)

Hand: “Prayer is the Heart's Desire. Prayer is the language of the soul's yearning for God; it is the interpreter for the heart's desire. “The mouth speaks through the medium of its desires. It is your heart's desire that is your prayer.” (On Psalms 37, 14). “It is not words that God wants of you, but your hearts.” (Sermon 91, 3) For God wants to hear the call and the cry of a loving heart. But what is this cry of the heart? Augustine himself answers: the cry of the heart is a solemn earnestness of thought, which, when given bvent to in prayer, expresses the profound yearning of the one who prays. (On Psams 118)” (Thomas Hand, “Augustine on Prayer, New York: 1963, p. 20)

Why do we pray?

Zumkeller: We pray because we seek above all something useful for ourselves, some consolation, joy and especial prayer-experiences. (p.88)

Hand: We pray because we want to avoid evil and do good; that we may not be led into temptation; that we may grow in the love of God and so advance in perfection; finally that we may persevere unto the end. (p. 56)

What are the qualities of a good prayer?

Zumkeller: A good prayer requires that we must free ourselves internally of resentments and from harbouring offences which block us on our way to God, such as perhaps exasperation, giving up, lovelessness, unforgiveness and even opposition to god and his dispositions. (p. 88)

Holland: A good prayer should come from a loving heart, from a heart that is right with God. And since we pray to God to give and to forgive, prayer will be effectively offered by the one who is himself prepared to give and to forgive. It must be made, moreover, with a view to salvation and with greater concern for spiritual than for maternal gain. Man must pray, he must speak the truth when he prays, and he must pray as the Savior taught him – in the Lord's Prayer. (p. 101)