Weekday

A reading from “The Golden Epistle” by
WILLIAM OF ST THIERRY 6
◊◊◊
The apostle enumerates the kinds of prayer in a certain order:
supplications, prayers, petitions and thanksgiving. Petition is what we put in the
first place and it is concerned with obtaining temporal benefits and what is
necessary for this life. When a man makes petition God indeed approves his
good will but he follows his own better judgment and enables the one who
makes petition in the right spirit to acquiesce in his will.

It is of this that the Psalmist says: “My prayer is still for what pleases
them.” That is to say, what pleases even godless men, for all people alike, but
especially the children of this world, desire the tranquility of peace, bodily
health, good weather and whatever else contributes to a right use of this life and
the satisfying of its needs, even indeed what serves the pleasure of those who
make ill use of life. Those who in faith make their petitions for these intentions,
although they only ask for them to meet their needs, none the less always submit
their will in this respect to the will of God.

Supplication is a troubled and insistent turning to God during one’s
spiritual exercises, in which to add fresh knowledge before grace comes to the
assistance is to add fresh pain. Prayer is the affection of a person who clings to
God, a certain familiar and devout conversation, a state in which the
enlightened mind enjoys God as long as it is permitted.

Thanksgiving is an unwearied and undistracted attention of the good will
to God in understanding and knowledge of God’s grace, even if sometimes
outward activity or interior affection is either non-existent or sluggish. It is of
this that the apostle says: “Praiseworthy intentions are always ready to hand,
but I cannot find my way to the performance of them.” As if to say: good will
indeed is always present, but at times it is ineffective because although I seek to
perform some good work I do not find the means. This is charity which never
fails.

It is the uninterrupted prayer or thanksgiving of which the Apostle says:
“Pray without interruption and give thanks at all times.” For it is a certain
unchanging goodness of the mind and of the well-ordered spirit and a certain
resemblance to the goodness of their Father, God, on the part of God’s children.
It prays for everyone always and gives thanks for everything. It continually
pours itself out before God in as many kinds of prayer or thanksgiving as its
devout affection finds occasion in its needs or consolations, and also in sharing
its neighbor’s pains or joys. It is constantly absorbed in thanksgiving because to
be in such a state is to be always in the joy of the Holy Spirit.

6 The Golden Epistle – William of St Thierry – Cistercian Fathers Series #12 – Cistercian Publications – Kalamazoo,
MI – 1971 – pg 70.