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Prayers

St Augustine’s prayer for a restless heart

The first words of St Augustine’s Confessions, written about AD 400: God made us for Himself, and our heart is restless until it rests in Him.

Picture: Isaac Levitan, Quiet Abode, 1890

The words of the prayer

Plain English

Great are You, O Lord, and greatly to be praised.Great is Your power,and Your wisdom is beyond measure.

And man, one small part of Your creation,wants to praise You.He carries his mortality everywhere he goes.He carries the proof of his sin,the proof that You resist the proud.And yet man, one small part of Your creation,wants to praise You.

You stir us to find joy in praising You,because You made us for Yourself,and our heart is restless until it rests in You.

Traditional wording, 1886

Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised;great is Thy power, and of Thy wisdom there is no end.

And man, being a part of Thy creation, desires to praise Thee,man, who bears about with him his mortality, the witness of his sin,even the witness that Thou “resistest the proud,”—yet man, this part of Thy creation, desires to praise Thee.

Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee;for Thou hast formed us for Thyself,and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Latin, with Pilkington’s 1886 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: J. G. Pilkington, The Confessions of St. Augustin, 1886.

Pilkington says “our hearts are restless”; the Latin says “our heart”, and so does this page.

When it is said

It is not part of any Orthodox service or prayer book. These are the opening words of St Augustine’s Confessions.

Anyone may pray it at any hour, above all when the mind will not settle and nothing seems to satisfy.

Where it comes from

Author known

The first words of the Confessions

St Augustine, bishop of Hippo in North Africa, wrote his Confessions about AD 400. The book opens with this prayer to God. Then he tells the story of his own life, from his infancy on. The Orthodox Church calls him Blessed Augustine and keeps his feast on 15 June.

Augustine, Confessions, Book 1, tr. J. G. Pilkington (1886); Encyclopaedia Britannica, St. Augustine; Orthodox Church in America, Blessed Augustine, Bishop of Hippo

From restlessness to rest

A few paragraphs further into his Confessions, St Augustine asks God for rest: “Oh! how shall I find rest in Thee? Who will send Thee into my heart … so that I may forget my woes, and embrace Thee my only good?” Near the end of the thirteenth and last book, he prays for “the peace of rest, the peace of the Sabbath, which hath no evening”.

Augustine, Confessions, Book 1, tr. J. G. Pilkington (1886); Augustine, Confessions, Book 13, tr. J. G. Pilkington (1886)

What the words mean

“Restless” and “rest”

In Latin the famous line is a play on words: “inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in Te”. “Inquietum” means restless, and “requiescat” means to rest. Philip Schaff, who edited the 1886 English edition, called the line “the finest sentence in the whole book”. Earlier translators, he said, had lost the wordplay by writing “restless, until it repose”.

Philip Schaff, note to Confessions, Book 1 (1886)

The Scripture in it

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable.

Psalm 145:3 Quoted Augustine opens with the psalm’s own words: great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.

Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit.

Psalm 147:5 Echoed “Your wisdom is beyond measure”: the psalm’s line on God’s understanding, which has no limit.

But He gives us more grace. This is why it says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

James 4:6 Quoted “You resist the proud” comes from James: God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Young men, in the same way, submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

1 Peter 5:5 Quoted Peter’s letter gives the same line, and asks everyone to put on humility toward one another.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Latin

Magnus es, Domine, et laudabilis valde.

Magna virtus Tua et sapientiae Tuae non est numerus.

Et laudare Te vult homo, aliqua portio creaturae Tuae, et homo circumferens mortalitatem suam, circumferens testimonium peccati sui et testimonium quia superbis resistis; et tamen laudare Te vult homo, aliqua portio creaturae Tuae.

Tu excitas ut laudare Te delectet, quia fecisti nos ad Te et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in Te.

From Confessions, Book 1, as printed by The Latin Library, with capitals for God.

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Berean Standard Bible