The subject of prayer had great importance and urgency for members of the early Church, who faced ostracism and persecution. An early bishop, St. Cyprian of Carthage (d. 258), who was himself martyred, wrote a beautiful commentary, "On the Lord's Prayer", which begins with these words:
"My dearest brothers, the Gospel precepts are nothing other than divine teachings which lay the foundations for hope, strengthen the support of faith, foster the nourishment of the heart, steer the rudder for the journey, and obtain the reward of salvation. When they are taught to minds on earth that are docile, they lead to the eternal kingdom. God wills that many teachings be spoken and heard through his servants the prophets, but how much more he wills us to hear what his Son speaks. The word of God which was with the prophets he now witnesses with his own voice. The word does not now command that his way be prepared for his coming, but he himself comes and opens and shows us the way, so that we who were blind and unable to foresee, wandering in the darkness of death, are enlightened by the light of grace, and hold tight to the way of life with The Lord leading and guiding us.
"He who counsels his people for salvation with his salutary admonitions and divine commandments also gave us the form for praying, and which he himself instructed and taught us. He who made us to live has also taught us to pray, and with that same kindness with which he deigns to give and confer on us other gifts, so that with the prayer and entreaty the Son taught us to speak to the Father, we may be more easily heard. He had already foretold the hour that was to come when the true adorers would worship the Father in spirit and truth (cf. John 4, 23), and he has fulfilled what he promised: that we who have received the spirit and truth of his sanctification, may adore him truly and spiritually, according to what he handed on to us. What prayer could be more spiritual than the one given to us by Christ, which also the Holy Spirit sent us? What prayer to the Father could be more true than the one which was uttered by the mouth of his Son, who is the Truth? He taught that to pray otherwise would not only be ignorance, but sin, when he said and asserted: 'For, leaving the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men' (Mark 7, 8).
"Let us pray then, dearest brothers, as God our teacher has taught us. It is a loving and familial prayer with which to beseech God, using his own words, and which rises to his ears through the prayer of Christ. Let the Father know the words of his Son when we make this prayer. Let the One who dwells within our heart himself be in our voice. Let us bring forth the words of our Advocate when we sinners pray for our sins, since we have an Advocate for our sins with God. Since he told us that whatever we asked the Father for, in his name, he would give us, how much more efficaciously we may ask, when we pray in the name of Christ, if we seek with his own prayer?"
St. Cyprian wrote in Latin. Although some Fathers in Egypt wrote in Greek, many of the Fathers who lived in northern Africa, like St. Augustine, wrote in Latin because they were descendants of the Roman colonists who settled in those lands after these were conquered by the legions of the Empire, long before.
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