Prayer Beyond Words

This prayer, then, seems to contain all the fullness of perfection, since it was given and appointed by the Lord’s own authority. Yet it lifts those to whom it belongs to that still higher state we spoke of above, and carries them on by a loftier stage to that ardent prayer which very few know or have experienced, and which, to speak more truly, is beyond words. It goes beyond all human thoughts. It is marked by no sound of the voice, and, more than that, by no movement of the tongue or speaking of words. The mind, lit up by the pouring in of that heavenly light, does not describe it in narrow human language. It pours it out richly, as from an abundant fountain, in a flood of thoughts, and speaks it to God beyond all words, expressing such great things in the shortest possible space of time that, when the mind returns to its usual state, it cannot easily put them into words or tell them. Our Lord likewise foreshadowed this state by the form of those supplications that he is said to have poured out in silence when he withdrew alone to the mountain, and when, in the agony of his prayer, he even shed drops of blood, as an example of a purpose that is hard to imitate. [a]