For whatever other words we may say, whatever words the fervor of the suppliant utters at the beginning of his petition to define it^[1] or follows up afterward to intensify it, we say nothing that is not found in this prayer of the Lord, if we pray properly and fittingly. But whoever says anything in his prayer that does not accord with this Gospel prayer, even if his prayer is not of the forbidden sort, it is carnal, and I am not sure it ought not to be called forbidden, since those who are born again of the Spirit^[2] ought to pray only in a spiritual manner. For instance, he who says, Be sanctified among all people, as you have been sanctified among us,^[3] and, May your prophets be found faithful,^[4] what else does he say but Hallowed be your name? And he who says, O God of hosts, convert us and show your face, and we will be saved, what else does he say but Your kingdom come? He who says, Direct my steps according to your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me,^[5] what else does he say but Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven? He who says, Give me neither poverty nor riches,^[6] what else does he say but Give us this day our daily bread? He who says, O Lord, remember David and all his meekness,^[7] or Lord, if I have done this thing, if there be iniquity in my hands, if I have rendered to them that have repaid me evils,^[8] what else does he say but Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors? He who says, Take from me the greediness of the belly and let not the lusts of the flesh take hold of me,^[9] what else does he say but Lead us not into temptation? He who says, Deliver me from my enemies, O God, and defend me from them that rise up against me,^[10] what else does he say but Deliver us from evil? And if you were to run over all the words of holy prayers, you would find nothing, according to my way of thinking, that is not contained and included in the Lord’s Prayer. Hence when we pray, it is allowable to say the same things in different words, but it ought not to be allowable to say different things.

O God of hosts, restore us to our own; smile on us, and we shall find deliverance. For wherever the soul of a person may turn, unless it turns to you, it clasps sorrow to itself. Even though it clings to things of beauty, if their beauty is outside God and outside the soul, it only clings to sorrow.

Yet these things of beauty would not exist at all unless they came from you. Like the sun, they rise and set. At their rise they have their first beginning; they grow until they reach perfection; but, once they have reached it, they grow old and die. Not all reach old age, but all alike must die. When they rise, therefore, they are set on the course of their existence, and the faster they climb toward its zenith, the more they hasten toward the point where they exist no more. This is the law they obey. This is all that you have appointed for them, because they are parts of a whole. Not all the parts exist at once, but some must come as others go, and in this way together they make up the whole of which they are the parts. Our speech follows the same rule, using sounds to signify a meaning. For a sentence is not complete unless each word, once its syllables have been pronounced, gives way to make room for the next. Let my soul praise you for these things, O God, Creator of them all; but the love of them, which we feel, through the senses of the body, must not be like glue to bind my soul to them. For they continue on the course that is set for them and leads to their end, and if the soul loves them and wishes to be with them and finds its rest in them, it is torn by desires that can destroy it. In these things there is no place to rest, because they do not last. They pass away beyond the reach of our senses. Indeed, none of us can lay firm hold of them even when they are with us. For the senses of the body are sluggish, because they are the senses of flesh and blood. They are limited by their own nature. They are sufficient for the purposes for which they were made, but they cannot halt the progress of transient things, which pass from their allotted beginning to their allotted end. All such things are created by your word, which tells them, Here is your beginning, and here your end.

We have said this, brothers, so that you may know that in the Old Testament God’s justice orders a year’s punishment to make up for the sin of one day. In other words, the people were tormented in the desert for forty years because of the defection of forty days. What will happen to us if, after receiving the grace of Christ who redeemed us with his own blood, we still take pleasure in committing not only slight sins but perhaps even criminal offenses? Therefore, as I have frequently advised, if a person knows he has committed some serious sin, he should have recourse to the remedies of repentance while there is still time and it is within his power to do so. Indeed, conversion in the present life and penance that is fruitfully performed bring a swift cure to wounds of this kind, for repentance not only heals a past wound but also guards the soul against further injury through sin. Now I will add something more. For example, if I am a sinner will I suffer the same punishment if I have offended just once, as I will if I sin twice or a third time and even more frequently? Not at all. The amount of punishment is to be measured according to the manner, number and measure of sin, for God will give us the bread of tears and tears to drink, but with ample measure. Every person will then reap the things he sought in this life by sinning more or less.

Conversion itself is from the grace of him to whom it is said, God of hosts, convert us. Perhaps this must also be understood as done out of the mercy of the heavenly medicine so that people who possessed a proud and wicked will and wanted to establish their own justice might be abandoned for the purpose of being blinded. Perhaps they were blinded for the purpose of stumbling on the stone of stumbling and that their face might be filled with shame. Also, so that humbled they might seek the name of the Lord and not their own justice, by which the proud are puffed up, but God’s justice by which the ungodly are justified? For this benefited many of them for their good, who, pricked with remorse over their own wrongdoing, afterwards believed in Christ; and for these he had even prayed himself, saying, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.^[1] And about this ignorance of theirs the apostle, too, said, I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For then he also added this and said, For, not knowing God’s justice and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted themselves to the justice of God.^[2]

What is there in human life that can be safe if innocence is made the object of accusation?^[1] I am the householder who finds that while he slept the enemy has sown tares among his wheat. The wild boar out of the wood has rooted up my vineyard, and the strange wild beast has devoured it. I keep silence, but a letter that is not mine speaks against me. I am ignorant of the crime laid against me, yet I am made to confess the crime all through the world. Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man to be judged and condemned in the whole earth.

Psalm 79 [LXX] is similarly titled For the things that shall be changed.^[1] In this psalm, among other things, is written, look down from heaven and see; visit this vineyard and perfect what your right hand has planted and on the son of man whom you have confirmed for yourself.^[2] This is the vineyard of which it is said, You have brought a vineyard out of Egypt.^[3] Christ did not plant another; by his coming he changed that one into a better vineyard. Accordingly, we find in the Gospel: He will utterly destroy those evil men, and will let out the vineyard to other vine dressers.^[4] The Gospel does not say, He will uproot and will plant another, but this same vineyard he will let out to other vine dressers. The city of God and congregation of the children of promise must be filled with the same community of saints by the death and succession of mortal beings and at the end of the world will receive its due immortality in all people. This same thought is expressed differently by means of the fruitful olive tree in another psalm, which says, But I as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God forever, yea, for ever and ever.^[5] It was not because the unbelievers and the proud had been broken away and the branches were on that account unfruitful and the wild olive of the Gentiles was ingrafted that the root of the patriarchs and prophets died. Isaiah says, For if your people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be saved,^[6] but through him about whom the psalm says, and on the son of man whom you have confirmed for yourself, and about whom is reiterated, Let your hand be on the man of your right hand: and on the son of man whom you have confirmed for yourself. And we depart not from you. Through this Son of man, Christ Jesus, and from his remnant, that is, the apostles and the many others from among the Israelites who have believed in Christ as God, and with the increasing number of Gentiles, the holy vineyard is being completed. Thus, in the passing of the old rites and in the institution of the new, the title of the psalm, For the things that shall be changed, is fulfilled.

This grace he has placed in him in whom we have obtained our lot, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things.^[1] And accordingly, just as he likewise brings it about that we should approach him, he brings it about that we not depart from him. For this reason it was said to him by the prophet, Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, and on the son of man whom you have confirmed for yourself, and we depart not from you. This man is certainly not the first Adam, in whom we departed from God, but the second Adam, on whom is placed the hand of God, that we not depart from him. For Christ is complete, with all his members, because of the church, which is his body and his fullness.^[2] So when the hand of God is on him, that we not depart from God, then the work of God (for this is what is meant by his hand) reaches indeed to us. For in Christ we have obtained our lot, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things. Therefore it is by God’s hand, not our own, that we depart not from God. This is his hand, I say, who declared, I will put fear of me into their hearts, that they may not revolt from me.^[3]