Craig T. Owens

Some great quotes from Augustine on prayer…

“O Lord, the house of my soul is narrow; enlarge it that You may enter in. It is ruined, O repair it! It displeases Your sight; I confess it, I know. But who shall cleanse it, or to whom show I cry but unto You? Cleanse me from my secret faults, O Lord, and spare Your servant from strange sins.” —Augustine

“Grant us in all our duties Your help, in all our perplexities Your guidance, in all our dangers Your protection, and in all our sorrows Your peace.” —Augustine

“Grant unto me Your servant: To my God—a heart of flame. To my fellow man—a heart of love. To myself—a heart of steel.” —Augustine

“Hear, Lord, my prayer; let not my soul faint under Your discipline, nor let me faint in confessing unto You all Your mercies, whereby You have drawn me out of all my most evil ways, that You might become a delight to me above all the allurements which I once pursued; that I may most entirely love You, and clasp Your hand with all my affections, and You may yet rescue me from every temptation, even unto the end. O Lord, my King and my God, for Your service be whatever useful thing my childhood learned; for Your service, that I speak, write, read, reckon. For You did grant me Your discipline, while I was learning vanities; and my sin of delighting in those vanities You have forgiven. In them, indeed, I learned many a useful word, but these may as well be learned in things not vain; and that is the safe path for the steps of youth.” —Augustine

“He should be in no doubt that any ability he has and however much he has derives more from his devotion to prayer than his dedication to oratory; and so, by praying for himself and for those he is about to address, he must become a man of prayer before becoming a man of words. As the hour of his address approaches, before he opens his thrusting lips he should lift his thirsting soul to God so that he may utter what he has drunk in and pour out what has filled him.” —Augustine, writing to pastors

“And he [the preacher] should not doubt that [God] is able to do these things, if he is at all able and to the extent that he is able, more through the piety of his prayer than through the skill of his oratory, so that, praying for himself and for those whom he is to address, he is a petitioner before he is a speaker.” —Augustine, writing to pastors