The Lord Showed All Four Kinds

The Lord himself was pleased to set the pattern of these four kinds of supplication for us by his own example, so that in this too he might fulfill what was said of him: “which Jesus began both to do and to teach.” He used the kind called supplication when he said: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me,” or in this, which is sung in his person in the Psalm: “My God, my God, look upon me; why have you forsaken me?” and others like it. It is prayer where he says: “I have magnified you on the earth; I have finished the work you gave me to do,” and this: “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they too may be sanctified in the truth.” It is intercession when he says: “Father, I want those whom you have given me to be with me too, so that they may see my glory, which you have given me,” or at any rate when he says: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” It is thanksgiving when he says: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight,” or at least when he says: “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. But I knew that you always hear me.” [a]

But though our Lord distinguished these four kinds of prayer, to be offered separately and one by one in the pattern we know, he also showed by his own example that they can all be taken up together in one perfect prayer at one and the same time. He did this in the prayer which, as we read at the close of Saint John’s gospel, he offered up so fully. It is too long to repeat it all, but the careful inquirer can discover from the order of the passage that this is so. The apostle too, in his letter to the Philippians, has expressed the same meaning, putting these four kinds of prayer in a slightly different order. He has shown that they ought sometimes to be offered together in the fervor of a single prayer, when he says: “But in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” By this he wanted us especially to understand that in prayer and supplication thanksgiving ought to be mingled with our requests.