On Prayer 12 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Prayer must come from a spirit free of every disturbance, for the Holy Spirit receives only a spirit like his own.

Latin text · CSEL 20:188

Nec ab ira solummodo, sed omni omnino confusione animi libera esse debet orationis intentio de tali spiritu emissa, qualis est spiritus ad quem mittitur. neque enim agnosci poterit spiritu sancto spiritus inquinatus aut tristis a laeto aut impeditus a libero. nemo aduersarium recipit, nemo nisi comparem suum admittit.

English · Claude translation

The intention of prayer ought to be free not only from anger but from every disturbance of mind whatever, sent forth from a spirit such as is the Spirit to whom it is sent. For a defiled spirit cannot be acknowledged by the Holy Spirit, nor a sad one by a joyful one, nor a fettered one by a free one. No one receives an adversary; no one admits any but his like.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 20:188 · August Reifferscheid and Georg Wissowa, eds., Quinti Septimi Florentis Tertulliani Opera, Pars 1, CSEL 20 (Prague: Tempsky; Vienna: Tempsky; Leipzig: Freytag, 1890), 180–200 · Latin text: August Reifferscheid and Georg Wissowa (CSEL 20), digitized by Open Greek and Latin, University of Leipzig (csel-dev), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in CSEL 20. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Latin text of CSEL 20; made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Topics

Prayer

Cite this passage

Tertullian, Or. 12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-oratione/12/).

Plain text

Tertullian, Or. 12 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-oratione/12/).