Library › St Ambrose of Milan › On the Sacraments

On the Sacraments

St Ambrose of Milan, tr. Thompson, 1919

Book 6, On the Modesty Which Women Ought to Show in Prayer. The Parts of Prayer are…

Now as to “disputing.” Often a man of business comes to prayer, or a covetous man. One thinks of money, the other¹ of gain, one of honour to be won, the other of avarice; and yet he thinks that God can hear him. And therefore when thou prayest, it is right that thou shouldest put divine things before human things.

Likewise too I would that the women pray, not flaunting themselves in ornaments or in pearls, says the Apostle Paul.² The Apostle Peter also says³: “The influence of a woman availeth much to turn the affections of her husband by the good conversation of his wife, and to convert the unbeliever to the grace of Christ.” Such power has the grave demeanour and chastity of a wife and her good conversation to summon her husband to faith and devotion, and the same is often effected by the words of a wise man. Therefore let a woman’s adornment, he says, not be in decking of the hair or braided locks, but in prayer from a pure heart, where is the hidden man of the heart, which is always rich in the sight of God.⁴ Thou hast, therefore, wherein thou mayest be rich. In Christ are thy riches, the badges of chastity and purity, faith, devotion, and mercy. These are the treasures of righteousness, as the prophet said.⁵

Next comes the question, what should be the beginning of prayer? Tell me, if you wished to make a request of a man and were to begin thus: “Come, grant me what I seek of thee,” does not this seem an arrogant form of prayer?⁶ Prayer, therefore, should begin with the praise of God, that thou mayest ask of the almighty God, to whom all things are possible, who has the will to grant. Then follows the supplication, as the Apostle taught us when he said, I beseech, therefore, that first of all prayers, supplications, petitions, giving of thanks be made.⁷ The first part of the prayer, therefore, ought to contain the praise of God, the second the supplication, the third the petition, the fourth the giving of thanks. Thou shouldest not, like a starveling for food, begin with food, but with the praises of God.

Thus it is that your prudent public speakers have this rule that they court the favour of the judge. They begin with his praises, that they may have the goodwill of him who tries the case. Then he gradually begins to beg the judge to deign to listen to him patiently. Thirdly, he dares to put forward his petition, to set forth what he seeks. Fourthly, as he began with the praises of God, so he should end with praise.⁸

Thou findest this in the Lord’s prayer, Our Father, which art in heaven. It is an act of praise to God to declare Him a Father. Therein lies the glory that belongs to fatherly goodness. It is the praise of God, that he dwells in heaven, not on earth. Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. That is, that he should hallow his servants. For his name is hallowed in us, when men are declared to be Christians. So then Hallowed be thy name shows a wish. Thy kingdom come — a petition that the kingdom of Christ be in us. If God reigns in us, the adversary cannot find a place. Guilt does not reign, sin does not reign. But virtue reigns, chastity reigns, devotion reigns. Then: Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. This petition is the chief of those things which are asked. And forgive us, he says, our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. Therefore daily receive,⁹ that daily thou mayest ask forgiveness for thy debt. And suffer us not to be led into temptation, but deliver us from evil. What follows? Hearken what the priest says: “Through our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom, with whom, there is to thee honour, praise, glory, majesty, power, with the Holy Spirit, from all ages, both now and always and for ever and ever. — Amen.”¹⁰

Another example. Though the Psalms of David are one book, possessing the excellences of prayer, which we have mentioned above, yet often too in a single psalm we find represented all these parts of prayer, as we see in the eighth psalm. Thus he begins as follows: O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is thy name in all the earth.¹¹ So then we have the first part of the prayer.¹² Then the supplication. For I shall behold thy heavens, the works of thy fingers, that is, I shall behold the heavens, the moon and the stars which thou hast founded. He surely does not mean, I shall see the sky, but I shall see the heavens, in which celestial grace and splendour begin to shine. These heavens then the prophet promised should be given to him, since he deserved¹³ celestial grace from the Lord. The moon and the stars which thou hast founded. He calls the Church the moon, and the saints shining with celestial grace he calls the stars.¹⁴ Then observe his petition: What is man that thou are mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honour, and hast set him over the works of thy hands. Then there is another thanksgiving: Thou hast put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field.¹⁵

We have taught, so far as we could grasp them, truths which perhaps we have not learned, and we have set them forth as far as we were able. May your holiness,¹⁶ informed by priestly training, labour to hold fast what it has received from God. And may that oblation, like a pure victim, always find in you its seal, that you yourselves may be able to attain to grace and the rewards of virtue by our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is glory, honour, praise, everlastingness, from the ages, and now, and always, and for ever and ever. — Amen.

Notes

Or. we may render “another . . . another . . . another.”
The quotation is a very free citation of 1 Tim. ii. 9.
A free paraphrase of 1 Pet. iii. 1, 2.
A conflation of passages from 1 Pet. iii. 3, 1 Tim. ii. 9 (“braided locks”), 2 Tim. ii. 22 (“those who call on the Lord from a pure heart”).
Is. xxxiii. 6 (LXX. The Heb. and Vulg. are different).
The whole of this passage appears to be modelled upon Ambrose, de Inst. Virg. ii. 8-10. In both the order of words in 1 Tim. ii. 1 is orationes, obsecrationes (“prayers, supplications”), which is reversed in the Vulgate. In both this order is essential to the argument. The obsecratio or supplicatio appears to be a general wish or aspiration for the favour of God, while the postulatio is a petition for certain definite things. In de Sacram. “hallowed be Thy name” is the obsecratio (“supplication”), while the rest of the prayer is postulatio (“petition”), the gratiarum actio (“giving of thanks”) being represented by the doxology. In de Inst. Virg. ii. 10 it is said that the Lord’s Prayer can be divided in this way, but the details are left to the intelligence of the reader.
1 Tim. ii. 1. Cf. Origen, de Orat. 14.
With this section cf. Origen, de Orat. 33.
i. e. “receive that bread,” a reference to the preceding petition.
This doxology resembles that found in the Greek liturgies (James, Mark, Basil, Chrysostom) at the close of the Lord’s Prayer. A similar doxology forms the conclusion of the Canon, and precedes the Lord’s Prayer in the Ambrosian Sacramentary of Biasca (cent. x.), and also occurs in this latter position in the Roman Canon (Gelasian Sacramentary, Wilson, p. 236). In this respect the rite with which the author was familiar corresponded with the Greek rites mentioned above, and the position of the doxology in the Sacramentary of Biasca may be due to a later rearrangement. From its liturgical use the doxology passed into the text of Mt. vi. 13.
Psalm viii. 1 f. With the exposition which follows cf. Ambrose, de Inst. Virg. ii. 9.
Or “the prayer proper comes first,” oratio signifying the opening of praise. This seems to be the use in de Inst. Virg. ii. 9, hactenus oratio: inde sequitur obsecratio. It must be remembered that oratio would suggest any speech, as well as prayer.
mereretur. The reading of the Benedictine edd. mererentur cannot be right.
Cf. Keble, Christian Year (Septuagesima): The Moon above, the Church below, A wondrous race they run • • • • • The Saints, like stars, around His seat, Perform their courses still.
It is difficult to see, in the above interpretation of Psalm viii., in what sense the words “I shall behold the heaven” and “What is man... that thou visitest him?” can be regarded as “prayers.” The explanation, perhaps, is that the former verse is taken to refer to the future establishment of the true heaven, i. e. that in which Christ is the sun, and the Church the moon; while the latter verse foreshadows the humiliation and exaltation of Christ. These verses, in the author’s view, were prophecies of David, but, as they lay in the future, they were also aspirations, and therefore, in a sense, prayers. The lines of Keble, quoted in the preceding note, and the use of Ps. viii. as a proper Psalm for Ascension Day, are an echo of some of the ideas propounded in this section. In the author’s interpretation, the opening ascription of praise is the oratio (or “prayer”). The words “I shall behold the heaven, the moon and the stars” are the obsecratio (“supplication”); while the words “What is man... works of Thy hands” are the postulatio (“petition”). The words “Thou hast put all things... beasts of the field” form the concluding thanksgiving. In de Inst. Virg. ii. 9, Ambrose gives a similar interpretation of the psalm, though in a more intelligible form. The opening of praise is the same, though more of it is quoted; but the obsecratio is found in the words “that thou mayst destroy the enemy and the avenger.” The words, “I shall behold,” etc., are interpreted in the same way as here, but are regarded as the postulatio; while the rest of the psalm, beginning “What is man,” forms the concluding thanksgiving.
On this expression see note on i. 6. 24.