Book Review: Origen on Prayer

Origen was born in the year 185 and grew during his adolescent life in times of persecution in the Church of Alexandria.[1] What is known about this treatise is that is one of two ospculas that were written, and sent to his friend Ambrose and kept preserved through the years.[2] He begins his introduction by addressing that the impossible became possible to our human nature because is,"from being impossible it becomes possible through our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption."[3] Furthermore he proceeds to articulate that that through Jesus we understand the things of heaven and thus this is to say that the things of God save the Spirit of God. Otherwise, the man would not be able to understand the things of God through Jesus.[4] Origen's letter begins by acknowledging this first, then he shifts into his next point, which is to whom this letter is addressed which is Ambrose. He tells Ambrose that he might wonder why he began which such a topic if the point of this letter to discuss prayer. He responds by saying that, "I believe it to be itself one of those things which, judged by our weakness, are impossible, clearly to set forth with accuracy and reverence a complete account of prayer, and in particular of how prayer ought to be offered, what ought to be said to God in prayer, which seasons are more, Origen which less, suitable for prayer . . . The very apostle who by reason of the abundance of the revelations is anxious that no one should account to him more than he sees or hears from him, confesses that he knows not how to pray as he ought, for what we ought to pray, he says, we know not how to as we ought. It is necessary not merely to pray but also to pray as we ought and to pray what we ought."[5] He delivers this reason because is necessary to not only know how to pray but to adequately address this prayer to the respectful person. At the same time, he asks Ambrose, yet even knowing to whom this prayer is being addressed what is the point if our intention of prayer is not sincere.[6] He divides his question into two definitions to understand better to what he refers by these definitions he means that, "Of these two things the one, I mean the ‘what we ought’ of prayer, is the language of the prayer, while the ‘as we ought’ is the disposition of him who prays."[7] He says that is better to have sinner that knows who he is and has reconciled with anyone that he was in dispute with and now he is able to approach prayer in a disposed way. He also gives some recommendations to not fail into temptation as prayer is practiced. He proposes to Ambrose to, “Deprive not one another, save by agreement for a season that you may give yourselves to prayer and may be together at another time again, in order that Satan may not have occasion to exalt over you by reason of your incontinence."[8] Furthermore he adds to the instructions that we cannot pray unless the Spirit prompts us to pray is it the act of him because, "For even our understanding is unable to pray unless the spirit leads it in prayer within hearing of it as it were, anymore than it can sing or hymn, with rhythmic cadence and in unison, with true measure and in harmony, 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."[9] This first chapter is about the introduction to prayer and he concludes it by mentioning that now here comes the discussion about prayer. 

The second chapter is about the scriptural use of the content of these words prayer. He examines where in Scripture for the first time the word prayer has been exercised and he finds that it is in an incident that happened to Jacob running away from his brother Esau. Here Jacob expresses a prayer saying that if the Lord has joined him, he will deliver him and bring him home, and in return, he will give him tithes.[10] He says that prayer can be expressed in different ways because examines the case with Pharaoh and Moses. One can be considered the prayer of petition and prayer of intercession looking at the two cases. He goes to other texts in the Bible where prayer is mentioned such in case of Leviticus and Numbers where God speaks to Moses proposes that if they bow and pray to him he will reward the Children of Israel but their intention has to be sincere. Also, it is found in Ecclesiastes and Acts of the Apostles as in the first book of Samuel where Hannah prays and bows to the Lord offering her offspring a result of the reward of the Lord. This is how he sees the works of prayer in such texts within the Bible.

The third chapter addresses the objection to prayer and why so many distrust the exercise of prayer such as non-believers who deny it. Nevertheless, he defends prayer because it is an accusation of sentiment based on, "the utter atheists who deny the existence of God, or assume a God, as far as the name goes, but deprive Him of providence."[11] yet he pronounces that even though there are rejections to this belief there are those who although by skepticism covert to the faith because, "it must be said, the adverse inworking, with intent to wrap the most impious of opinions around the name of Christ and around the teaching of the Son of God, has made some converts on the needlessness of prayer—a sentiment which find champions in those who by every means do away with outward forms, eschewing baptism and eucharist alike, misrepresenting the Scriptures as not actually meaning this that we call prayer but as teaching something quite different from it."[12] Moreover he says that although there are those who ignore God or Providence yet, he responds by saying that, "God knows all things before they come to be. There is nothing that upon its entrance into existence is then first known by Him as previously unknown. What need to send up prayer to One who, even before we pray, knows what things we have need of? For the heavenly Father knows what things we have need of before we ask Him."[13] Thus he then gives the imagery of God as the one who, "safely manages the affairs of each like a father who champions his infant children without awaiting their entreaty when they are either utterly incapable of asking or through ignorance often desirous of getting the opposite of what is to their profit and advantage."[14] At the same time he suggests to not think about prayer caused by our own act but something that has been prearranged by God to take advantage becuase, "In like manner a man would be a fool to believe that his prayer was responsible for the occurrence of what was to take place in any case even had he never prayed."[15]

The fourth chapter discusses about the free will and God foreknowledge. He begins by presenting a philosophical view of the objects and motion. He expresses that, "some have the cause of motion outside them. Such are objects which are lifeless and in passive motion simply by force of condition, and those which are moved by force of nature and of life in the same manner and not like things which move occasionally, for stones and stocks that have been quarried or cut off from growth, being in passive motion simply by force of condition, have the cause of motion outside them."[16] Origen gives definition to the free will defining it as, "If our free will is in truth preserved with innumerable inclinations towards virtue or vice, towards either duty or its opposite, its future must like other things have been known by God, before coming to pass, from the world’s creation and foundation; and in all things prearranged by God in accordance with what He has seen of each act of our free wills."[17] 

The fifth chapter answers the objection given to the condition of prayer. He gives his approach to this topic by saying that anger conditions man to pray adequately because we cannot give ourselves to prayer if we are not purified, moreover when we are angry our brother there is no reconciliation at all. This is of great favor to the prayer because, "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."[18] He ends this chapter exhorting everyone to forgive the offenses of one another before coming to prayer.

At the same time chapter, sixth involves that when we pray we do not pray alone since he gives the imagery of Job not although he had reasons to cursed at God did not murmur anything against him. For he mentions that when we pray we enjoin God in the one prayer together because is accomplished, "through the afore mentioned purification as well as through prayer, he will enjoy the good office of the Word of God, who is standing in the midst even of those who do not know Him and who fails the prayer of none, to pray to the Father along with Him for whom He mediates. For the Son of God is high priest of our offerings and our pleader with the Father."[19]

The seventh chapter is a response to the objection of the man's true place of prayer. Which is defined in St. Paul's words who exhorts us to pray without ceasing. This chapter can be designated into the different time of prayer from the morning to the night who by exercising it you sanctify the day and moreover you are efficient by prayer becuase prayer connects you to actions which display the wrok of your prayer life as for example when, "the performance of actions enjoined by virtue or by the commandments is also a constituent part of prayer, he prays without ceasing who combines prayer with right actions, and becoming actions with prayer."[20]

The next chapter which is eighth is directed to address the objection to the signal instances of prayer. This chapter speaks of the efficacious work of prayer such in the intances of Jesus when he would go early in the morning to pray and achieve what his sincere intetion was to the Father, same is the case with Hannah and the birth of Samuel. As is the same scenario with Judith to bring the shame to the house of Nebuchadnezzar. Another take is the case that happens to the three young people in the furnace or Daniel when he was placed with the lions. He concludes by acknowledging that prayer can make an action possible if you are not dimmed by sin. 

The ninth chapter examines the four moods of prayer which are intercession, request, prayer, and thanksgiving. He gives various incidents where these four moods are found in Scripture. As the case of Zachariah request for the birth of his son John. Hanna's prayer where she bowed and prayed. the work of the Spirit who intercedes for us in St. Paul's case, and lastly Jesus's case where he thanked the Father beforehand of any miracle fro hearing his prayer.[21] He describes at the same time their intention of each one of them as saying that, "Request I take to be that form of prayer which a man in some need offers with supplication for its attainment; prayer, that which a man offers in the loftier sense for higher things with ascription of glory; intercession, the addressing of claim to God by a man who possesses a certain fuller confidence; thanksgiving, the prayerful acknowledgment of the attainment of blessings from God, he who returns the acknowledgment being impressed by the greatness, or what seems to the recipient the greatness, of the benefactions conferred."[22]

The tenth chapter speaks about the intercession of the Saints and the thanksgiving we ought to give to Christ who has given us this ability to have intercessors for our benefit.[23] He exhorts once agian at the end of this chapter to do the following, "pray as to God, intercede as with a Father, request as of a Lord, give thanks as to God and Father and Lord, though in no way as to a servant’s lord; for the Father may reasonably be considered Lord not only of the Son but also of those who through Him are become sons also, though, just as He is not God of dead but of living men, so He is not Lord of baseborn servants but of such as at the first are ennobled by means of fear because they are as infants, but serve thereafter according to love in a service more blessed than that which is in fear. For within the soul itself, visible to the Seer of Hearts alone, these are distinctive characters of servants and sons of God."[24]

The next chapter deals with objections to prayer. Where he directs this chapter to say that we shall take advantage of the gift given by God to the Saints the same way because at the end, "We should therefore pray for the principal and truly great and heavenly things, and as for those concerned with the shadows accompanying the principal, commit them to the God who knows before we ask Him what things, by reason if our perishable body, we have need."[25]

The next one which is chapter twelve discusses about the differences in the Gospel about the Lord's prayer comparing and contrasting Matthew and Luke. Then he pursues to give directions about prayer behavior such as, "When we pray let us not babble but use godly speech. We babble when, without scrutiny of ourselves or of the devotional words we are sending up, we speak of the corrupt in deed or word or thought, things which are mean and reprehensible and alien to the incorruptibleness of the Lord."[26]

The following chapter which is thirteen goes into the analysis of the part of our father in heaven. He acknowledges that no one before Jesus dared to pronounce the word Father to the name of God because it was considered a sin, yet Origen says that, “for this end was the Son of God manifested that He might undo the actions of the devil,.” it is possible, through the undoing of the actions of the devil by the sojourn of the Word of God within our Soul, for the evil seed implanted in us to be utterly removed and for us to become children of God."[27]

The chapter fourteenth breaks down the words Hallowed be thy name. Here he presents the different reason why it is right to call him, Holy. In the Scripture, there are various reason. At the same time, he says, "It is he who associates the thought of God with wrong things that takes the name of the Lord God in vain, and he who is able to utter rain that cooperates with his hearers in the fruit bearing of their souls, and who addresses words of exhortation that are like dew, and who in the edifying torrent of his words turns upon his listeners showers most helpful or moisture most efficacious is able to do so because he has perceived his need of God as the accomplisher and calls in the real supplier of those things."[28]

The chapter fifteenth deals with Thy Kingdom Come. He says that when it is pronounced thy kingdom come, 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."[29] He says that this is the way is supposed to be ordered since the Saints give us the example of how to do this, "for every saint is ruled over by God and obeys the Spiritual laws of God, and conducts himself like a well-ordered city."[30] He closes this chapter by encouraging holiness to everyone. 

The chapter sixteenth speaks of thy will be done which means to, "As suppliants who are still on earth, believing that the will of God is done in heaven among all the household of the heavens, let us pray that the will of God may be done by us also who are on earth in like manner with them, as will come to pass when we do nothing contrary to His will."[31] At the same time this has to be acknowledged when is pronounced this needs to ponder our minds when, "the will of God be done on earth also as it has been in heaven, we shall all be heaven; for though flesh that helps not; and blood that is akin to it, are unable to inherit God’s kingdom, they may be said to inherit it if they be changed from flesh and earth and clay and blood to the heavenly essence."[32]

The chapter seventeenth is about expecting our daily bread needed. Here he displays that we shall not be satisfied just the material bread but to seek him who gives the bread of life and is the manna who was given to out parents in the desert and is now Our Lord Jesus Christ. He examines that, "he who prays today to God, who is from infiniti to infiniti, not only for today but also in a sense for that which is daily shall be enabled to receive from Him who hath power to bestow exceedingly above what we ask or think even things—to use extreme language—which transcend those that eye hath not seen and ear hath not heard and that have not gone up into the heart of man. These considerations seem to me to have been very necessary for the understanding of both the expressions today and daily when we are praying that the needful bread be given us from His Father."[33]

The Chapter eighteenth says that when we say forgive our debts as we forgive is described as, "We owe therefore in having certain duties not only in giving but also in kind speech and corresponding actions, and indeed we owe a certain disposition towards one another. Owing these things, we either pay them through discharging the commands of the divine law, or failing to pay them, in contempt of the salutary word, we remain in debt. The like reflection applies to debts toward brothers, to those who in the religious sense have been born again with us in Christ, as well as to those who have a common mother or father with us."[34] Then it is about a duty that every man is responsible to pay his debts to its neighbor.

The next chapter which is nineteenth bring us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. He says here that, "on earth we are beset by the flesh which wars against the spirit and whose intent is emnity to God as it is by no means capable of being subject to the law of God, we are in temptation. That all human life on earth is a trial."[35] Furthermore he describes the fact that we pray to God to give us strength is because, "our wrestling is with the flesh that lusts or wars against the spirit, or with the soul of all flesh—in other words the ruling faculty, called the heart, of the body in which it resides—as is the wrestling of those who are tempted with human temptations, or, as advanced and maturer athletes, who no longer wrestle with blood and flesh nor are reviewed in the human temptations which they have already trampled down, our struggles are with the principalities and authorities and world-rulers of His darkness and the Spiritual forces of evil, we have no release from temptation."[36] He concludes by expressing that, "We ought therefore to pray, not that we be not tempted—that is impossible—but that we be not encompassed by temptation, the fate of those who are open to it and are overcome. Now since, outside of the Lord’s Prayer, it is written Pray that you enter not into temptation, the force of which may perhaps be clear from what has already been said, whereas in the Lord’s prayer we ought to say to God our Father, Bring us not into Temptation, it is worth seeing in what sense we ought to think of God as leading one who does not pray or is not heard into temptation. If entering into temptation means being overcome, it is manifestly out of the question to think that God leads anyone into temptation as though He delivered him to be overcome."[37] He closes the chapter by saying that, "One, since they have within themselves rivers of water springing up into life eternal which do not let the fire of the Evil One prevail but readily undo it with the flood of their inspired and saving thought that is impressed by contemplation of the truth upon the soul of him whose study is to be spiritual."[38] 

His last instructions are given in the final chapter about prayer. He presents another imagery saying that, "The seat of disposition is to be found in the soul, that of the posture in the body. Thus Paul, as we observed above, suggests the disposition in speaking of the duty of praying without anger and disputation and the posture in the words lifting up holy hands, which he seems to me to have taken from the Psalms where it stands thus—the lifting up of my hands as evening sacrifice; as to the place I desire therefore that men pray in every place, and as to the direction in the Wisdom of Solomon: that it might be known that it is right to go before the sun to give thanks to you and to intercede with you towards the dawn of light."[39] He closes the book by asking for prayer to Ambrose and Tatiana and to hope to see them again in a better instance, "studious and genuine brethren in piety, according to my ability I have struggled through my treatment of the subject of prayer and of the prayer in the Gospels together with its preface in Matthew. But if you press on to the things in front and forget those behind and pray for me in my undertaking, I do not despair of being enabled to receive from God the Giver a fuller and more divine capacity for all these matters, and with it to discuss the same subject again in a nobler, loftier, and clearer way. Meanwhile, however, you will peruse this with indulgence."[40]

[1] Prat Ferdinand, Origen and Origenism; Life and Work of Origen, Other Writings, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 11, (NewYork: Robert Appleton Company, 1911) at New Advent, http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11306b.htm.

[2] Prat Ferdinand, Origen and Origenism at New Advent.

[3] Origen, Origen on Prayer, trans.William A. Curtis (Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 2001), II. 

[4] Origen, Origen on Prayer, II.

[5] Origen on Prayer, II-III.

[6] Origen on Prayer, III.

[7] Origen on Prayer, III.

[8] Origen on Prayer, III.

[9] Origen on Prayer, IV.

[10] Origen on Prayer, VI.

[11] Origen on Prayer, IX.

[12] Origen on Prayer, X.

[13] Origen on Prayer, X.

[14] Origen on Prayer, X.

[15] Origen on Prayer, X

[16] Origen on Prayer, XI.

[17] Origen on Prayer, XI.

[18] Origen on Prayer, XIV.

[19] Origen on Prayer, XVI.

[20] Origen on Prayer, XIX.

[21] Origen on Prayer, XXIV.

[22] Origen on Prayer, XXIII.

[23] Origen on Prayer, XXV.

[24] Origen on Prayer, XXVI.

[25] Origen on Prayer, XXVIII.

[26] Origen on Prayer, XXXI.

[27] Origen on Prayer, XXXIV.

[28] Origen on Prayer, XXXVII.

[29] Origen on Prayer, XXXIX.

[30] Origen on Prayer, XXXIX.

[31] Origen on Prayer, XLI.

[32] Origen on Prayer, XLIII.

[33] Origen on Prayer, L.

[34] Origen on Prayer, LI.

[35] Origen on Prayer, LV.

[36] Origen on Prayer, LV.

[37] Origen on Prayer, LVI.

[38] Origen on Prayer, LXII

[39] Origen on Prayer, LXIII.

[40] Origen on Prayer, LXVII.