Prayer - Desire of the Heart

Prayer is the Desires of the Heart 

The Desire of Your Heart 

Constitutes Your Prayer

From a discourse on the psalms by Saint Augustine, bishop

In the anguish of my heart I groaned aloud. There is a hidden anguish which is inaudible to men.  Yet when a man’s heart is so taken up with some particular concern that the hurt inside finds vocal expression, one looks for the reason.  And one will say to oneself: perhaps this is what causes his anguish, or perhaps such and such has happened to him.  

                 But who can be certain of the cause except God, 

                        who hears and sees his anguish?  

Therefore the psalmist says: In the anguish of my heart I groaned aloud. For if men hear at all, they usually hear only bodily groaning and know nothing of the anguish of the heart from which it issues.

Who then knows the cause of man’s groaning? All my desire is before you.  No, it is not open before other men, for they cannot understand the heart; but before you is all my desire. 

If your desire lies open to Him who is your Father 

and Who sees in secret, He will answer you.

For the desire of your heart is itself your prayer.

And if the desire is constant, so is your prayer.  The Apostle Paul had a purpose in saying: Pray without ceasing.  Are we then ceaselessly to bend our knees, to lie prostrate, or to lift up our hands?  Is this what is meant in saying: Pray without ceasing? Even if we admit that we pray in this fashion, I do not believe that we can do so all the time.

Yet there is another, interior kind of prayer without ceasing, namely, the desire of the heart. 

Whatever else you may be doing, 

if you but fix your desire on God’s Sabbath rest, 

your prayer will be ceaseless.

 

Therefore, if you wish to pray without ceasing, 

do not cease to desire.

The constancy of your desire will itself be the ceaseless voice of your prayer.  And that voice of your prayer will be silent only when your love ceases.  For who is silent?  Those of whom it is said: Because evil has abounded, the love of many will grow cold.

St. Augustine of Hippo

The chilling of love means that the heart is silent; while burning love is the outcry of the heart.  

If your love is without ceasing, you are crying out always; if you always cry out, you are always desiring; and if you desire, you are calling to mind your eternal rest in the Lord.

And all my desire is before you. What if the desire of our heart is before him, but not our groaning?  But how is that possible since the groaning is the voice of our desire?  And therefore it is said: My groaning is not concealed from you. It may be concealed from men, but it is not concealed from you.  Sometimes God’s servant seems to be saying in his humility: My anguish is not concealed from you.  At other times he seems to be laughing.  Does that mean that the desire of his heart has died within him?  If the desire is there, then the groaning is there as well.  Even if men fail to hear it, it never ceases to sound in the hearing of God.

“We are Christ’s pilgrim people, 

journeying until we reach our homeland, 

singing on the way as we eagerly 

expect the fulfillment of our hope. 

For if one hopes, even though his tongue is still, 

he is singing always in his heart.

But the man who has no hope, 

no matter what clamors and shouts 

he makes to be heard by men, 

is speechless in the presence of God.”

God's pilgrim on the journey

Excerpt from the Liturgy of the Hours Friday, 3rd Week of Advent

Wisdom of Augustine: A Sacrifice to God is a Contrite Spirit

From a sermon by Saint Augustine, Bishop

I acknowledge my transgressions, says David.  

If I admit my fault, then you will pardon it.  

Let us never assume 

that if we live good lives 

we will be without sin; 

our lives should be praised only 

when we continue to beg for pardon.  

But men are hopeless creatures, and the less they concentrate on their own sins the more interested they become in the sins of others.  They seek to criticize, not to correct.  Unable to excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others.  

This was not the way that David showed us how to pray and make amends to God, when he said: I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. 

He did not concentrate 

on others’ sins;

he turned his thoughts upon himself.  

He did not merely stroke the surface, but he plunged inside and went deep down within himself, and therefore was not impudent in asking to be spared.

Do you want God to be appeased?  

Learn what you are to do that 

God may be pleased with you.  

Consider the psalm again: If you wanted sacrifice, I would indeed have given it; in burnt offerings you will take no delight.  Are you to offer nothing?  Will you please God without offering?  

King David

Consider what you read in the same psalm: If you wanted sacrifice, I would indeed have given it, in burnt offerings you will take no delight.  But continue to listen, and say with David: A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; God does not despise a contrite and humble spirit.  

Cast aside your former offerings, for now you have found out what you are to offer.  In the days of your fathers you would have made offerings of cattle—these were the sacrifices.  If you wanted sacrifice, I would indeed have given it.  These then, Lord, you do not want, and yet you do want sacrifice.

You will take no delight in burnt offerings, David says.  If you will not take delight in burnt offerings, will you remain without sacrifice?  Not at all.  

A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; 

God does not despise a contrite 

and humble heart.

You now have the offering you are to make.  No need to examine the herd, no need to outfit ships and travel to the most remote provinces in search of incense.  

Search within your heart 

for what is pleasing to God.  

Your heart must be crushed.  

Are you afraid that it might perish so?  You have to reply: Create a clean heart in me, O God.  

For a clean heart to be created, 

the unclean one must be crushed.

We should be displeased with ourselves when we commit sin, for sin is displeasing to God.  

Sinful though we are, 

let us at least be like God in this, 

that we are displeased at what displeases Him. 

In some measure than you will be  in harmony with God’s Will, because you find displeasing in yourself what is abhorrent to your Creator.

Beg His Mercy and He will come and lift you up.

Truth - St. Augustine Quote

Belief is NOT a matter of Taste

St. Augustine

St. Augustine

St. Augustine of Hippo is the patron of brewers because of his conversion from a former life of loose living, which included parties, entertainment, and worldly ambitions. His complete turnaround andconversion has been an inspiration to many who struggle with a particular vice or habit they long to break.

This famous son of St. Monica was born in Africa and spent many years of his life in wicked living and in false beliefs. Though he was one of the most intelligent men who ever lived and though he had been brought up a Christian, his sins of impurity and his pride darkened his mind so much, that he could not see or understand the Divine Truth anymore. Through the prayers of his holy mother and the marvelous preaching of St. Ambrose, Augustine finally became convinced that Christianity was the one true religion. Yet he did not become a Christian then, because he thought he could never live a pure life. One day, however, he heard about two men who had suddenly been converted on reading the life of St. Antony, and he felt terrible ashamed of himself. "What are we doing?" he cried to his friend Alipius. "Unlearned people are taking Heaven by force, while we, with all our knowledge, are so cowardly that we keep rolling around in the mud of our sins!"

Full of bitter sorrow, Augustine flung himself out into the garden and cried out to God, "How long more, O Lord? Why does not this hour put an end to my sins?" Just then he heard a child singing, "Take up and read!" Thinking that God intended him to hear those words, he picked up the book of the Letters of St. Paul, and read the first passage his gaze fell on. It was just what Augustine needed, for in it, St. Paul says to put away all impurity and to live in imitation of Jesus. That did it! From then on, Augustine began a new life.

He was baptized, became a priest, a bishop, a famous Catholic writer, Founder of religious priests, and one of the greatest saints that ever lived. He became very devout and charitable, too. On the wall of his room he had the following sentence written in large letters: "Here we do not speak evil of anyone." St. Augustine overcame strong heresies, practiced great poverty and supported the poor, preached very often and prayed with great fervor right up until his death. "Too late have I loved You!" he once cried to God, but with his holy life he certainly made up for the sins he committed before his conversion. His feast day is August 28th.

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=418

Conscience & God's Scrutiny

Whoever I may be Lord, 

I lie exposed to your scrutiny

From the Confessions of Saint Augustine, Bishop

Lord, you know me.  Let me know you.  Let me come to know you even as I am known. You are the strength of  my soul; enter it and make it a place suitable for your dwelling, a possession without spot or blemish.  This is my hope and the reason I speak.  I this hope I rejoice, when I rejoice rightly.  As for the other things of this life, the less they deserve tears, the more likely will they be lamented; and the more they deserve tears, the less likely will men sorrow for them.  For behold, you have loved the truth, because the one who does what is true enters into the light.  I wish to do this truth before you alone by praising you, and before a multitude of witnesses by writing of you.

O Lord, the depths of a man’s conscience lie exposed before your eyes.  Could anything remain hidden in me, even though I did not want to confess it to you?  In that case I would only be hiding you from myself, not myself from you.  But now my sighs are sufficient evidence that I am displeased with myself; that you are my light and source of my joy; that you are loved and desired.  I am thoroughly ashamed of myself; I have renounced myself and chosen you, recognizing that I can please neither you nor myself unless you enable me to do so.

Whoever I may be, Lord, I lie exposed to your scrutiny.  I have already told of the profit I gain when I confess to you.  And I do not make my confession with bodily words, bodily speech, but with the words of my soul and the cry of my mind which you hear and understand.  When I am wicked, my confession to you is an expression of displeasure with myself.  But when I do good, it consists in not attributing this goodness to myself.  For you, O lord, bless the just man, but first you justify the wicked.  And so I make my confession before you in silence, and yet not in silence.  My voice is silent, but my heart cries out.

Your, O Lord, are my judge.  For though no one knows a man’s innermost self except the man’s own spirit within him, yet there is something in a man which even his own spirit does not know.  But you know all of him, for you have made him.  As for me, I despise myself in your sight, knowing that I am but dust and ashes; yet I know something of you that I do not know of myself.

True, we see now indistinctly as in a mirror, but not yet face to face.  Therefore, so long as I am in exile from you, I am more present  to myself than to you.  Yet do I know that you cannot be overcome, while I am uncertain which temptations I can resist and which I cannot.  Nevertheless, I have hope, because you are faithful and do not allow us to be tempted beyond our endurance, but along with the temptation you give us the means to withstand it.

I will confess, therefore, what I know of myself, and also what I do not know.  The knowledge that I have of myself, I possess because you have enlightened me; while the knowledge of myself that I do not yet possess will not be mine until my darkness shall be made as the noonday sun before you face.

Prophesies & Promises of God writing from St. Augustine

St. Augustine

God’s promises are held out to us by His Son

A Discourse on the Psalms by Saint Augustine, Bishop

God established a time for his promises and a time for their fulfillment.

The time for promises was in the time of the prophets, until John the Baptist; from John until the end is the time of fulfillment.

God, who is faithful, put Himself in our debt, not by receiving anything but by promising so much.  A promise was not sufficient for Him; He chose to commit Himself in writing as well, as it were making a contract of His promises.  He wanted us to be able to see the way in which His promises were redeemed when He began to discharge them.  And so the time of the prophets was, as we have often said, the foretelling of the promises.

Heavenly Jerusalem

He promised eternal salvation, everlasting happiness with the angels, an immortal inheritance, endless glory, the joyful vision of His face, His whole dwelling in heaven, and after resurrection from the dead no further fear of dying.  This is as it were His final promise, the goal of all our striving.  When we reach it, we shall ask for nothing more.  But as to the way in which we are to arrive at our final goal, He has revealed this also, by promise and prophecy.

He has promised men divinity, mortals immortality, sinners justification, the poor a rising to glory.

But, brethren, because God’s promises seemed impossible to men—equality with the angels in exchange for mortality, corruption, poverty, weakness, dust and ashes—

God not only made a written 

contract with men, 

to win their belief but also established

 a mediator of his good faith, 

Jesus Christ is Born to us

not a prince or angel or archangel, 

but HIS ONLY SON.

He wanted, through His Son, to show us and give us the way He would lead us to the goal He has promised.

It was not enough for God to make His Son our guide to the way; He made Him the Way itself, that you might travel with Him as Leader, and by Him as the Way.

Therefore, the only Son of God was to come among men, to take the nature of men, and in this nature to be born as a man.  He was to die, to rise again, to ascend into heaven, to sit at the right hand of the Father, and to fulfill His promises among the nations, and after that to come again, to exact now what He had asked for before, to separate those deserving His anger from those deserving His mercy, to execute His threats against the wicked , and to reward the just as He had promised.

All this had therefore to be prophesied, foretold, and impressed on us as an event in the future, in order that we might wait for it in faith, not find it a sudden and dreadful reality.