Our Father

A Series of Homilies by St. Gregory of Nyssa

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I. Introduction: Gregory of Nyssa

“It is beginning to be recognized that Gregory of Nyssa was one of the most powerful and most original thinkers ever known in the history of the Church. He was also one of the spiritual writers who most deeply influenced the spirituality of Eastern Monasticism.” (Georges Florovsky, The Byzantine Ascetic and Spiritual Fathers, Vol. X, p. 144)

1. His Life:

He was known as a “speculative” Theologian and mystic.

He was born in 335 and he was educated by his brother St. Basil the great.

He was a lector in the Church (reader) and decided to follow a career as a teacher of rhetoric and married. Later he went to the monastery of Pontus which was founded by his brother Basil.

In 371, his brother St. Basil appointed him as bishop of Nyssa in is district of Caesarea in Capadocia.

In 376, a synod attended by Arian Bishops (heretics who taught that Christ was a created being and was not eternally the “Son of God”) met at Nyssa and deposed him in his absence. He returned to Nyssa in 378 following the death of the Arian Emperor.

In 379 he attended the Synod at Antioch and was elected Archbishop of Sebaste. He was a standout and defender of Orthodoxy at the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381. He died in 394.

His Feast day is celebrated on January 10.

2. His works: (For a complete listing see, Patrology by Johannes Quasten, Vol., III.)

A.) 11 Dogmatic treatises

 Four “Against Eunomuis” (An Arian Heretic). A treatise “Against Appolinarias” (A heretic who taught the flesh of Christ descended from heaven & that the Word took the place of the human mind.)

B.) 9 Exegetical Works

 On the Beatitudes, The Lord’s Prayer, The Song of Songs, On the six days of creation, On the Life of Moses, On the Psalms, On Ecclesiastes, On 1 Corinthians.

C.) 6 Ascetic Works

 On Virginity, What is the Christian name and profession, Perfection according to virtue, True asceticism, the castigators, the life of St. Macrina

D.) Orations and Sermons

 Liturgical, Martyrs and Saints, Moral sermons, Funeral orations, dogmatic sermons.

E. Various Letters:

II. Sermon 1: The Lord’s Prayer, Ancient Christian Writers, Vol. 18, Newman Press, 1954)

1. On the Necessity of Prayer

“In fact, the majority of men grievously neglect in their life this sacred and divine work which is prayer. . . I think it right first of all to insist as much as possible that one must persevere in prayer as the Apostle says, ‘Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer (Rom 12:12).’ Secondly, that we must listen attentively to the Divine Voice which proposes to us the manner in which we should offer prayer to the Lord.”. . . no one devotes his zeal to the good work of prayer. (Sermon 1, p. 21)

A.) The War of the Physical World against the Spiritual

“For the craftsmen considers that the divine assistance is quite useless for the work he has at hand. Therefore he leaves prayer aside and places all his hope in his hands, without remembering Him who gave him his hands. In the same way someone who carefully composes a speech does not think of Him who has given him speech . . . It is the same with other occupations: the fact that the mind centers its attention on material, earthly things prevents the soul from devoting itself to the better, heavenly things.” (Sermon 1, p. 22)

B.) A lack of prayer results in the sin of Covetousness, having or showing a strong desire for possessions or wealth. This is idolatry i.e. the worship of a physical object as a god.

“Thus it comes about that life is so full of sin, which is always increasing in growth and involved in all human pursuits; therefore everyone keeps forgetting God, and men do not count prayer among the good things worth pursuing. Covetousness enters together with trade; but covetousness is idolatry.” (Sermon 1, p. 22)

C.)Prayer separates us from sin.

“Whatever anyone may set out to do, if it is done with prayer the undertaking will prosper and he will be kept from sin, because there is nothing to oppose him and drag the soul into passion. . . For a person who does not unite himself to God through prayer is separated from God. . . For the effect of prayer is union with God, and if someone is with God, he is separated from the enemy.” (Sermon 1, p. 24)

D.) Never cease praying

Therefore we must learn first of all that we ought to always pray and not to faint. ‘Luke 18:1 And he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man; 3 and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Vindicate me against my adversary.' 4 For a while he refused; but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor regard man, 5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming.'" 6 And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?’

E.) The fruit of prayer

“Through prayer we: guard our devotion

Control our temper

Rid ourselves of vanity

It makes us forget injuries

Overcomes envy

Defeats injustice

Makes amends for sins

We obtain physical well-being

A happy home

A strong well-ordered society

Reconciles enemies

The seal of virginity

The pledge of faithfulness in marriage

Protects the sleeper

Gives courage to those who keep vigil

Prayer is your advocate in lawsuits

It will refresh you when you are weary

And comfort you when you are sorrowful

Prayer is the delight of the joyful

And the solace to the afflicted

It is the wedding crown of the spouses

Is intimacy with God and contemplation of the invisible

It satisfies our yearnings and makes us equal with angels

Good prospers and evil is destroyed

Sinners will be converted

Prayer is the enjoyment of things present

And the substance of things to come

. . . of all things valued in this life nothing is more precious than prayer.” (Sermon 1, p. 24-25)

F.) Our life in Christ and thankfulness

“Your very birth you have received as a benefit from Him; and once born, another benefit was conferred upon you in that, as the Apostle says, you should live and move in him (Acts 17:28). . . though we are so far from being able to thank Him properly, we do not even show our good intention as far as we can . . .Who has spread the earth under my feet? Who has set up the vault of the sky? Who carries the sun before me like a torch? . . . Who, when I was lifeless ashes, gave me both life and a mind? Who fashioned this clay in the image of the Dine? And, this Divine Image had been tarnished by sin, did not He restore it to its former beauty? Truly if we considered these things, we should give thanks all our life without ceasing; but actually human nature is involved in the pursuit of material things” (Sermon 1, p. 25-26)

2. How we ought to pray

A.) “When you are praying, do not babble as the heathens. For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard.” (Matt. 6:7)

“He is castigating empty minds and crushing those who immerse themselves in vain desires. . . foolish people who rush hither and thither in order to gratify their desires for completely . . .empty pleasures. . .In the same way if a man during prayer is not intent on what profits his soul but would rather that God should fall in with the emotional uncertainties of his own mind, he is truly like a silly chatterbox, who prays that God should become a willing servant of his own crazy ideas.” (Sermon 1, p. 27-28)

B.) The implications of our requests of God.

“Because someone gives me pain and my heart hates him it says to God: strike him; almost crying out: Let my own passion be in Thee, and may my wickedness pass over into Thee. Obviously, just as in human fights one cannot support one of the parties without sharing in the anger of the person who is infuriated against his opponent, thus it is also clear that he who tries to set God against his enemy, asks Him to share in his own angry excitement. But this means that the Divine should succumb to passion, behave in a human manner and change from his own natural goodness into the ferocity of a beast.” (Sermon 1, p. 28-29)

“They do not pray to God that they might be delivered from the disease that holds them captive, but that the disease might be brought to perfection.” (Sermon 1, p. 29)

C.) Some argue that from the Old Testament one should pray against their enemies.

“Of the true Saints, inspired by the Holy Spirit, whose saying have been recorded by Divine dispensation . . . none can be shown to have desired anything evil; but their words aim solely at the correction of the evil that is holding sway over human nature . . . If the Psalmist says, Let sinners be consumed from the earth and the unjust, so that they be no more (Psalm 103:35), he prays that sin and injustice may be destroyed. For man is not man’s enemy, but the evil movement of free will ranges within the order of enemies . . .St. Paul speaks . . .our wrestling is against principalities, against powers and rulers of this world, against the spirits of wickedness, (Eph 6:12)

D.) The Evils against the Soul are the passions

“But what is an evil design against the soul if not estrangement from God? Now the human soul cannot be alienated from God except through a mind enslaved by passions. For as the Divine Nature is altogether without passions, a man who is always entangled in passions is debarred from union with God . . . the enemies are the passions.” (Sermon 1, p. 31)

E.) God honors all requests but desires our growth and spiritual maturity

“It is the same in relation to God, Who is often not deaf even to man’s smallest petitions in order to accustom him to look to Him for everything; for so He can call a man who has obtained this gracious favor in small things to the desire for the higher ones. . . For those are the things that profit the soul.” (Sermon 1, p. 33)

Who are the heathen?

“For to be eagerly interested in the things of sense is characteristic of those who have neither hope in the world to come nor fear of judgment and the threat of hell. Since they expect none of the good things for which we hope in the resurrection, they are, like cattle, concerned only with the present life, how to indulge their palate and stomach and desire for other luxuries of the body. Since then attachment to this present life is characteristic of those who are without hope. . . (Sermon 1, p. 34)