St Ambrose on Prayer with Commentary

The Lord Jesus, in his divine wisdom, taught you about the goodness of the Father, who knows how to give good things, so that you might ask for the things that are good from Goodness itself. He urges you to pray earnestly and frequently, not offering long and wearisome prayers, but praying often, and with perseverance. Lengthy prayers are usually filled with empty words, while neglect of prayer results in indifference to prayer.i

Healthy Christian prayer is based firmly on an understanding of the goodness of God. I say “healthy Christian prayer” because not all Christians who pray have a firm conviction that God from His goodness will answer their prayers.  Part of the problem that is when we are faced with serious or painful issues, we are also faced with our own shortsightedness. What we want is immediate relief not what God in his Sovereign goodness desires to give us. Trusting in the goodness of God requires that we trust that the answers that He gives us, “Yes,” “No,” “Wait,” are actually the answers that are good for us.ii

Second, Ambrose gives us an instruction that sounds suspiciously like a remark of St. Benedict in his Rule, or is it that St. Benedict sounds suspiciously like St. Ambrose? Prayer should be therefore be short and pure, unless perhaps it is prolonged under the inspiration of divine grace.”iii Both however sound like Jesus, “When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.”iv Even in ordinary conversation we Gentiles are tempted to keep on explaining something until we make our point, as though heaping up phrases does anything other than making us boring.

Again Christ urges you, when you ask forgiveness for yourself, to be especially generous to others, so that your actions may commend your prayer. The Apostle, too, teaches you how to pray: you must avoid anger and contentiousness, so that your prayer may be serene and wholesome.

You already know what Jesus said: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”v At heart you know that prayer won't work well without forgiveness and charity, but don't miss the fact that anger and contentiousness will break your connection with the God of Love and Holiness. One of the problems in the Church today is that righteous people get all lathered up over issues in the world and in the Church and lose their serenity. That is the reason why in our Chapter gatherings of The Oblates and Companions of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica we do not discuss issues in the Anglican Communion or in national politics. It is of paramount importance that our prayers remain serene and wholesome.

He tells you also that every place is a place of prayer though our Savior says, “Go into your room.” But by “room” you must understand, not a room enclosed by walls that imprison your body, but the room that is within you, the room where you hide your thoughts, where you keep your affections. This room of prayer is always with you, wherever you are, and it is always a secret room, where only God can see you.

There is in some circles an emphasis that you must retire to a solitary place in order to pray. While that is in some respects good advice, try exercising it in most families. We have had a number of Benedictine dogs. When it's time for Morning Prayer they will settle down on the floor and wait their turn, well not always; and most dogs are more patient than children. If you are to pray well, you should understand that you carry your prayer room with you, and when you cannot find unbroken solitude, enter into that inner room, but keep your prayers short and pure. It is good to find a quiet time of solitude, but God also wants your friendship and companionship in the busy give and take of life.

You are told to pray especially for the people, that is for the whole body, for all its members, the family of your mother the Church; the badge of membership in this body is love for each other. If you pray only for yourself, you pray for yourself alone. If each one prays for himself, he receives less from God's goodness that the one who prays on behalf of others. But as it is, because each prays for all, all are in fact praying for each other. To conclude, if you pray only for yourself, you will be praying, as we said, for yourself alone. But if you pray for all, all will pray for you, for you are included in all. In this way there is a great recompense; through the prayers of each individual. There is here no pride, but an increase of humility and a richer harvest from prayer.

One of the side-benefits of praying the Morning Office is the word, “our”. When we pray the Morning Office, by virtue of that word we are praying with those the world over who also pray the Morning Office in its variety of forms, throughout the world wide church, over a great span of languages and lands. In praying, “our”, each prays for all. And in the great company of saints there is a rich harvest of prayer for each one of us.
 
i  St Ambrose: From a Treatise on Cain and Abel, The Liturgy of the Hours IV, (New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co. 1975), p. 347-348
ii  Commentary by Dom Anselm, Obl. OSB
iii Timothy Fry, The Rule of St. Benedict in English, (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1982), Chapter 20:4
iv Mathew 6:7, ESV
v  Matthew 6:12, Luke 11:4, The Book of Common Prayer, p.54