Origen Adamantius: Prayer is a Mighty Struggle Thursday, Mar 3 2011

St Paul writes: I beg you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to help me with your prayers to God.

Who that reads of Paul asking the brethren in Rome to pray for him will be too proud to ask for the Church’s prayers, even if those whose prayers they request seem to be lower in merit than themselves?

Here is Paul, endowed with the merits of an Apostle, urging not only the Romans but even the Corinthians to pray for him!

Observe, moreover, the strong religious obligation by which he binds them to do so:

I beg you, he says, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to help me with your prayers to God.

The Latin words for to help me with your prayers translate a much stronger Greek term which means to strive together with me by your prayers.

He thus reveals that his own prayer is a conflict, a struggle, probably against those of whom he said:

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, of this world of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

For it is certain that just as all these powers are hostile to faith and opposed to religion and make war on justice and truth and everything that is good, so too they obstruct and oppose prayer.

If Paul thinks it necessary to ask the Romans to help him in this struggle, then clearly the struggle involved in prayer is no minor one.

The first way in which the demons and hostile powers obstruct prayer is by trying­ to ensure that those who exert themselves in this struggle will be unable to lift up hands that are clean and free from anger.

Furthermore, even if those praying manage to be free from anger, they will hardly avoid distractions, that is superfluous and empty thoughts.

You will scarcely find anyone who is not subject in prayer to some empty and irrelevant thoughts that turn aside and interrupt the attention of the mind to God and carry it away by inappropriate reflections.

Prayer, then, is a mighty struggle.

A mind always fixed on God contends with unwavering attention against the enemies opposing it, who try to steal away the spirit of prayer by wandering thoughts.

It can then say in all honesty: I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race.

Origen Adamantius (c.185-254): Commentary on Romans 10 (PG 14:1276-7); Fathers of the Church series 104 (2002) tr. Thomas P. Scheck, from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Friday of the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I.

One Response »

 

Origen Adamantius: A Pattern of Suffering and Mortification, and of Resurrection and Newness of Life Friday, Feb 4 2011

St Paul says, In order that, as Christ rose again from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also you might walk in newness of life.

So then, the newness of life by which we live in Christ through faith in his resurrection is attributed to the Lord, since it began with him not with us.

And for that reason, whether we live, we live to the Lord; whether we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.

He calls “death” that by which we have died to sin, having been buried together with Christ and baptized into his death.

And he calls “life” that by which we have become strangers to this world.

We who are alive from the dead live not for ourselves, that is for the flesh, but for God, as Paul adds: For to this end Christ died and lived, so that he might be Lord of the dead and the living.

He says that Christ has died, doubtless by the dispensation of suffering; but he lives through the mystery of the resur­rection.

Whence also he has left a pattern for us: first of suffering and mortification, then later of resurrection and newness of life.

It is accepted that Christ’s dominion is over all creation in two ways…. As the Creator of all things and bear­ing authority over all things, he holds all things under subjec­tion by the force of his majesty and by the compulsion of power.

[...] But there is another way by which, as the Good and the Son of the good Father, he does not want to influence rational spir­its toward obedience to his Law by compulsion, but he waits for them to seek the Good willingly and come of their own accord.

It is for this reason, after all, that he thinks it worthy to go to death, so that he might leave behind a pattern of obedience and a type of dying for those who are willing to die to sin and to the vices.

Thus the Apostle writes in the present passage that the reason he died and lived was that he might be Lord over both the living and the dead:

of the living, that is those who, by the pattern of his resurrection, lead a new and heavenly life on earth;

of the dead, doubtless those who carry around the mortification of Christ in their own body and who put to death their own members that are on the earth.

Origen Adamantius (c.185-254): Commentary on Romans 9.39.2-4; Fathers of the Church series 104 (2002) tr. Thomas P. Scheck, from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Ordinary Time, Year I.

One Response »

 

Origen Adamantius: The Spirit Cries “Abba Father” in the Hearts of the Blessed Wednesday, Dec 8 2010

“Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmity. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspeakable groanings.

And He that searches hearts, knows what the Spirit desires; because He intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God” (Romans 8:26-27).

The Spirit cries “Abba Father” in the hearts of the blessed, knowing with solicitude that their sighing in this tabernacle can but weigh down the already fallen or transgressors.

Therefore He “more than intercedes with God in sighs unspeakable,” for the great love and sympathy He feels for men taking our sighs upon himself.

By virtue of the wisdom that resides in Him, He beholds our Soul humbled unto dust and shut within the body of humiliation.

Accordingly, He employs no common sighs when He more than intercedes with God but unspeakable ones akin to the unutterable words which a man may not speak.

[...] “I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit; and I will sing with the understanding also.”

Even our understanding is unable to pray unless the Spirit leads it in prayer.

Neither can it sing a hymn, with rhythmic cadence and in unison, with true measure and in harmony, to the Father in Christ, unless the Spirit who searches all things – even the depth of God – first praise and hymn Him whose depth He has searched and, as He had the power, comprehended.

I think it must have been the awakened consciousness of human weakness falling short of prayer in the right way – above all realized as he listened to great words of intimate knowledge falling from the Saviour’s lips in prayer to the Father – that moved one of the disciples of Jesus to say to the Lord when He ceased praying, “Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples.”

[...] Prayers which are really spiritual – because the Spirit was praying in the heart of the saints – are recorded in scripture, and they are full of unutterably wonderful declarations.

In the first book of Kings there is the prayer of Hannah, which appears only in part, because the whole of it was not committed to writing since she was “speaking in her heart” when she persevered in prayer before the Lord.

[...] These prayers are prayers truly made and spoken with the Spirit, and are full of the declarations of the wisdom of God.

Therefore we may say of the truths that they proclaim “Who is wise that he shall understand them? And who has understanding, that he shall fully know them?”

Origen Adamantius (c.185-254): On Prayer, ch. 1.

Leave a Response »

 

Origen Adamantius: Sanctified by Touching the Holy Flesh of the Word of God through Faith Friday, Oct 22 2010

Everyone who touches the holy flesh will be sanctified.

[...] The one and perfect sacrifice, which all these sacrifices had anticipated in type and figure, is Christ sacrificed.

If anyone should touch the flesh of this sacrifice, immediately, he is sanctified. If he is unclean, he is healed.

So we can say that she who was suffering from a flow of blood understood that Christ was this flesh of the sacrifice, the flesh of the most holy.

And indeed, she is not bold enough to touch this holy flesh, for she had not yet been made pure and did not apprehend what is perfect, but she touched the hem of his robe with which the holy flesh was covered.

She drew out the power from the flesh by the touch of faith which cleansed her from uncleanness and healed her of the injury that she was suffering.

Does it not seem to you that it is better in this sense to be able to preserve the words of Moses, in which he says Everyone who touches the holy flesh will be sanctified?

For, as we have taught, all of the Gentiles who believed touched this flesh. And the holy Apostle also touched it who said, For we ourselves were once foolish, unbelievers, going astray, enslaved to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hating one another.

But when the kindness and humanity of God our Saviour illumined us, he saved us through the bath of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit.

For if anyone touches the flesh of Jesus in the way we explained above, with complete faith, and comes to Jesus just as to the Word made flesh, with all obedience, he has touched the flesh of the sacrifice and is sanctified.

Moreover, he also touches the flesh of the Word about whom the Apostle says, Solid food is for the perfect, who, by their ability to receive it, have trained the senses for distinguishing good and evil.

Therefore, the one who examines the inner realities and can explain the secret mysteries of the Law also touches the Word of God.

If we could teach the Church in such a way that nothing which was read remained ambiguous, nothing was left obscure, perhaps it could also be said about us that we had touched the holy flesh of the Word of God and were sanctified.

Origen Adamantius (c.185-254): Homilies on Leviticus (4:7,3-8,3), from the Monastic Office of Vigils for Tuesday of the 21st Week of Ordinary Time, Year 2.

 

Leave a Response »

 

Origen Adamantius: Thy Kingdom Come Tuesday, Dec 15 2009

According to the word of our Lord and Savior, the Kingdom of God does not come observably, nor shall men say “Lo it is here”, or “Lo is it there”, but the Kingdom of God is within us; for the utterance is exceedingly near in our mouth and in our heart.

It is therefore plain that he who prays for the coming of the kingdom of God prays with good reason for rising and fruit bearing and perfecting of God’s kingdom within him.

For every saint is ruled over by God and obeys the Spiritual laws of God, and conducts himself like a well-ordered city.

And the Father is present with him, and Christ rules together with the Father in the perfected Soul, according to the saying that I mentioned shortly before: We will come unto him and make abode with him.

By God’s kingdom I understand the blessed condition of the mind and the settled order of wise reflection;

By Christ’s kingdom I understand the issue of words of salvation to their hearers and the practice of acts of righteousness and the other excellences; for the son of God is word and righteousness.

But every sinner is tyrannized by the ruler of this world, since every sinner is in conformity with the present evil world, and does not yield himself to Him who gave Himself for us sinners that He might release us from the present evil world and release us according to the will of God our Father, as it is expressed in the Epistle to Galatians.

And he who, by reason of deliberate sin is tyrannized by the ruler of this world, is also ruled over by sin: wherefore we are bidden by Paul to be no longer subject to sin that would rule over us, and we are enjoined in these words, Let sin therefore not rule in our mortal body that we should obey its lusts.

Origen Adamantius (c.185-254): On Prayer, ch. 15.

2 Responses »

 

Origen Adamantius: God’s Presence in the Inner Sanctuary of the Soul Monday, Nov 30 2009

That benefit accrues to him who prays rightly or according to his ability strives to do so, follows, I consider, in many ways.

It is, first of all, surely in every sense a spiritual advantage to him who is intent upon prayer, in the very composure of prayer to present himself to God and in His presence to speak to Him with a vivid sense that he looks on and is present.

For just as certain mental images and particular recollections connected with the objects recollected may sully the thoughts suggested by certain other images, in the same way we may believe that it is advantageous to remember God as the object of our faith – the One who discerns the movements within the inner sanctuary of the soul as it disposes itself to please the examiner of hearts and inquisitor of reins as One who is present and beholds and penetrates into every mind.

Even though further benefit than this be supposed to accrue to him who has composed his thoughts for prayer, no ordinary gain is to be conceived as gotten by one who has devoutly disposed himself in the season of prayer.

When this is regularly practiced, how many sins it keeps us from, and how many achievements it brings us to, is known only to those who have given themselves up with some degree of constancy to prayer.

Origen Adamantius (c.185-254): On Prayer, ch. 5.

2 Responses »

 

Origen Adamantius: The Kingdom of God is Within Us Sunday, Nov 22 2009

The kingdom of God, in the words of our Lord and Savior, does not come for all to see; nor shall they say: Behold, here it is, or behold, there it is; but the kingdom of God is within us, for the word of God is very near, in our moth and in our heart.

Thus it is clear that he who prays for the coming of God’s kingdom prays rightly to have it within himself, that there it might grow and bear fruit and become perfect. For God reigns in each of his holy ones.

Anyone who is holy obeys the spiritual laws of God, who dwells in him as in a well-ordered city. The Father is present in the perfect soul, and with him Christ reigns, according to the words: We shall come to him and make our home with him.

Thus the kingdom of God within us, as we continue to make progress, will reach its highest point when the Apostle’s words are fulfilled, and Christ, having subjected all his enemies to himself, will hand over his kingdom to God the Father, that God may be all in all.

Therefore, let us pray unceasingly with that disposition of soul which the Word may make divine, saying to our Father who is in heaven: Hallowed be your name; your kingdom come.

Note this too about the kingdom of God. It is not a sharing of justice with iniquity, nor a society of light with darkness, nor a meeting of Christ with Belial. The kingdom of God cannot exist alongside the reign of sin.

Therefore, if we wish God to reign in us, in no way should sin reign in our mortal body; rather we should mortify our members which are upon the earth and bear fruit in the Spirit.

There should be in us a kind of spiritual paradise where God may walk and be our sole ruler with his Christ. In us the Lord will sit at the right hand of that spiritual power which we wish to receive. And he will sit there until all his enemies who are within us become his footstool, and every principality, power and virtue in us is cast out.

All this can happen in each one of us, and the last enemy, death, can be destroyed; then Christ will say in us: O death, where is your sting? O hell, where is your victory?

And so what is corruptible in us must be clothed with holiness and incorruptibility; death will be cast out, and our mortality will be clad with the Father’s immortality, so that, as God reigns in us, we may truly enjoy the blessings of rebirth and resurrection.

Origen Adamantius (c.185-254): Notebook On Prayer (Cap. 25: PG 11, 495-499); used in the Roman Office of Readings for the Feast of Christ the King.

Leave a Response »