Letter 48

To Theodorianus. Certain ignorant men, lovers of the world, resembling your own wretchedness in being carried away by their passions, ask the Lord in prayer for health, and wealth, and luxury, and the destruction of their enemies; then, when they fail to obtain such a harmful request, they pass over into unbelief, or they blame God. Others again, asking for some other thing, and not receiving it to their profit -- for we do not by any means receive everything that we love and that benefits us, since, as it is said, "we do not know what we should pray for as we ought" [Romans 8:26] -- straightway they murmur, growing vexed and resentful at the failure to obtain it; and although they are often men whose life stands condemned, they are eager to be heard. For ought you not to give thanks that you have been counted worthy even merely to rise at dawn toward the Creator of all things, and to converse with him through prayer? Yet, unwilling even to give thanks, do you reproach -- you, who are clay -- your Fashioner? But now at least, having tested yourself, O man, recognize the measure of your own capacities.

Ἀμαθεῖς τινες, καὶ φιλόκοσμοι ἄνδρες προσεοικότες τῇ σῇ ἀθλιότητι ἐμπαθῶς φερόμενοι, ὑγίειαν, καὶ πλοῦτον, καὶ σπατάλην, καὶ ἐχθρῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀπώλειαν δι᾽ εὐχῆς τὸν Κύριον αἰτοῦσιν· εἶτα τῆς τοιαύτης βλαβερᾶς ἀποτυγχόντες αἰτιάσεις εἰς ἀπιστίαν χωροῦσιν, ἢ μέμφονται τὸν Θεόν. Ἄλλοι πάλιν ἄλλο τι ἐξαιτοῦντες, καὶ μὴ κομιζόμενοι συμφερόντως, οὐ γὰρ πάντως ἅπερ φιλοῦμεν καὶ ὠφελεῖ· τὸ γὰρ τί προσευξόμεθα, φησί, καθ’ ἃ δεῖ, οὐκ οἴδαμεν, γογγύζουσιν εὐθὺς χαλεπαίνοντες, καὶ δυσανασχετοῦντες ἐπὶ τῇ ἀποτεύξει, καίτοι πολλάκις κατεγνωσμένοι τὸν βίον ὑπάρχοντες, ἑτοίμως βούλονται ἐπακούσεσθαι· ἆρα γὰρ οὐκ ὀφείλεις εὐχαριστεῖν, ὅτι κατηξιώθης, καὶ μόνον ὀρθρῖσαι πρὸς τὸν Κτίσαντα πάντα, καὶ συνομιλῆσαι αὐτῷ διὰ τῆς εὐχῆς; ἀλλὰ καὶ μηδ’ εὐχαριστῆσαι θέλων, ὀνειδίζεις σύ, ὃ πηλός, τὸν Πλάστην σου; Ἀλλὰ νῦν γοῦν σαυτὸν δοκιμάσας, ἄνθρωπε, γνώριζέ σου τὰ μέτρα.