When willpower is not enough
St Augustine’s prayer for self-control
All my hope is in nothingbut Your very great mercy.Give what You command,and command what You will.
You command us to be self-controlled.As someone has said,“I knew that no one can be self-controlledunless God gives it,and this too was wisdom,to know whose gift it is.”
By self-control we are gathered upand brought back to the Onefrom Whom we had scattered into many things.He loves You too littlewho loves anything alongside Youthat he does not love for Your sake.
O Love, You always burnand are never put out!O Love, my God, set me on fire!You command self-control:give what You command,and command what You will.
Traditional wording, 1886
And my whole hope is only in Thy exceeding great mercy.Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.
Thou imposest continency upon us, “nevertheless, when I perceived,” saith one, “that I could not otherwise obtain her, except God gave her me; . . . that was a point of wisdom also to know whose gift she was.”
For by continency are we bound up and brought into one, whence we were scattered abroad into many.For he loves Thee too little who loves aught with Thee, which he loves not for Thee,
O Love, Who ever burnest, and art never quenched!O Charity, my God, kindle me!Thou commandest continency; give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.
St Augustine knew he could not master his desires by his own strength. So he asked God to give the very self-control God commands.
Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Latin of his Confessions, with J. G. Pilkington’s 1886 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: J. G. Pilkington, The Confessions, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1886.
