Chapter 29
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with our whole heart,3 nurtured by faith, prepared with truth—a prayer that is without blemish because of our innocence, clean because of our chastity—a prayer that has received the victor's crown because of our love for one an other—this prayer we should bring to the altar of God with a display of good works amid the singing of psalms and hymns and it will obtain for us from God all that we ask.
Chapter 29 (1) For what will God refuse to the prayer that comes to Him from the spirit and in truth, since this is the prayer He has exacted? What proofs of its efficacy do we read of and hear of and believe! To be sure, the prayer of old would save one from fires and wild beasts and starvation; yet, it had not received its form from Christ. But how much more is wrought by Christian prayer! It does not cause an angel of dew to appear in the midst of fire, nor does it stop the mouths of lions nor take the breakfast of country folk to the hungry; it does not destroy all sense of pain by the grace that is con ferred;1 * but by patient endurance it teaches those who suffer,- 3 The Roman religion required that the animal for sacrifice (hostia) be offered according to ritualistic formula (devota) ; it must be fattened and made ready for the altar (pasta et curata) ; it must be without blemish (integra), and clean (munda); it must be adorned with a fillet, sometimes also wreathed with a garland of flowers
(coronata) . Preceded by the sacrificing magistrate or priest and their attendants, the victims were led in solemn procession (pompa) with singing and music to the altar. Tertullian adroitly parallels all these features required for pagan sacrifice with those of Christian prayer by employing a terminology which is equally applicable to both.
1 As happened in the Old Covenant; cf. Dan. 3.20-50; 6.16-23; the cases of Habacuc, Job, the three young men in the fiery furnace, etc.
PRAYER
those who are sensitive, and those who have sorrow; by virtue it increases grace that our faith may know what comes from the Lord and understand what it suffers for the name of God.
(2) Then, too, in the past, prayer would impose stripes, set loose the armies of the enemy, and prevent the beneficent effects of rain. But now, the prayer of justice averts the wrath of God, is on the alert for enemies, and intercedes for per secutors. What wonder if it could wrest water from the heavens,2 when it could even ask for fire and obtain it! Prayer alone overcomes God; but Christ has willed that it work no evil, upon it He has conferred all power for good. Therefore, it has no power except to recall the souls of the dead from the very path of death, to make the weak recover, to heal the sick, to exorcise demons, to open prison doors, to loosen the chains of the innocent. It likewise remits sins, repels tempta tions, stamps out persecution, consoles the fainthearted, de lights the courageous, brings travelers safely home, calms the waves, stuns robbers, feeds the poor, directs the rich, raises up the fallen, sustains the falling, and supports those who are on their feet.
(3) Prayer is the wall of faith, our shield and weapons against the foe who studies us from all sides. Hence, let us never set forth unarmed. Let us be mindful of our guardduty by day and our vigil by night. Beneath the arms of prayer let us guard the standard of our general, and let us pray as we await the bugle call of the angel.
(4) All the angels pray, too; every creature prays; the beasts, domestic and wild, bend their knees, and as they go forth from their stables and caves they look up to heaven with no idle gaze. Even the birds, upon rising in the morning,
2 Cf. Apology 5.6, to which incident Tertullian is perhaps referring here.
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mount into the sky and stretch out their wings as a cross in place of hands and say something which might seem to be a prayer. What need, then, is there of further discussion of the duty of prayer? Even our Lord Himself prayed, to whom be honor and power forever and ever.
PATIENCE Translated by
SISTER EMILY JOSEPH DALY, C.S.J., Ph.D.
College of St. Rose Albany, N. Y.
INTRODUCTION
| n contrast to the impassioned rhetoric which stamps so distinctively the bulk of Tertullian's writings, the homily on Patience presents an urgent, but gentle, exhortation to the practice of this truly Christian virtue. 'I confess,' he begins, 'to the Lord my God that I certainly have courage, not to say presumption, to have dared to write on patience, a virtue which I am utterly unfit to practise, being, as I am, a man of no account.' Such a disarming admission, followed by a humble acknowledgment of the need of divine assistance in order to attain to patience, together with the relatively mild and pleasing tone of the entire treatise, sets it apart as rather rare in the work of the great controversialist.
However, he finds a degree of consolation in speaking of something he does not possess, even as the sick, deprived of health, constantly speak of the value of health. Patience, he points out, has its origin in God, just as impatience comes from the Devil. This latter is the mother of all sins; patience is the fulfillment of the Law. Various stumbling-blocks to this virtue and the joy which attends the exercise of it are outlined.
Toward the end (Ch. 15), Tertullian describes in beautiful language the sublime daughter of heaven in her exterior
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appearance and pictures her as the type of the ideal Christian.
Undoubtedly, it was for himself as well as for the cate chumens that the author intended this attractive essay. It was probably written between 200 and 203.
The present translation is based on the critical text of J. G.
Ph. Borleffs in the Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 1 (Turnholti 1954) 297-317.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Texts:
Aem. Kroymann, CSEL 47 (1906) 1-24.
J. G. Ph. Borleffs, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 1 (Turnholti 1954) 297-317.
Secondary Sources:
M. L. Carlson, 'Pagan Examples of Fortitude in the Latin Chris tian Apologists,' Classical Philology 43 (1948) 93-104.
R. Kaderschafka, Quae ratio et rerum materiae et generis dicendi i'ntercedere videatur inter Cypriani libellum 'De bono patientiae' et Tertulliani librum 'De patientia,' Programm des Gymnasiums
Pilsen 1913.