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Francis Rejecting the World
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St. John Cassian: The First Conference of Abbot Isaac on
Prayer: Chapter 9
Of the fourfold nature of prayer.
And therefore, when we have laid this down with regard to
the character of prayer, although not so fully as the importance of the subject
requires, but as fully as the exigencies of time permit, and at any rate as our
slender abilities admit, and our dullness of heart enables us—a still greater
difficulty now awaits us; viz., to expound one by one the different kinds of
prayer, which the Apostle divides in a fourfold manner, when he says as follows:
“I exhort therefore first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions,
thanksgivings be made.” (1 Timothy 2:1) And we cannot possibly doubt that this
division was not idly made by the Apostle. And to begin with we must
investigate what is meant by supplication, by prayer, by intercession, and by
thanksgiving. Next we must inquire whether these four kinds are to be taken in
hand by him who prays all at once, i.e., are they all to be joined together in
every prayer—or whether they are to be offered up in turns and one by one, as,
for instance, ought at one time supplications, at another prayers, at another
intercessions, and at another thanksgivings to be offered, or should one man
present to God supplications, another prayers, another intercessions, another
thanksgivings, in accordance with that measure of age, to which each soul is
advancing by earnestness of purpose?
Reflection:
Abbot Isaac challenges us to think about the type of prayers
we are praying and when and how we pray. Do you tend to focus on one type of
prayer or practice all four?
