On Prayer 19 · Sophia Scriptura

Latin text · CSEL 20:192

Similiter et de stationum diebus non putant plerique sacrificiorum orationibus interueniendum, quod statio soluenda sit accepto corpore domini. ergo deuotum deo obsequium eucharistia resoluit an magis deo obligat? nonne sollemnior erit statio tua, si et ad aram dei steteris? accepto corpore domini et reseruato utrumque saluum est, et participatio sacrificii et executio officii. si statio de militari exemplo nomen accepit (nam et militia dei sumus), utique nulla laetitia siue tristitia obueniens castris stationes militum rescindit. nam laetitia libentius, tristitia sollicitius administrabit disciplinam.

English · Claude translation

Similarly, on station days most think they should not attend the prayers of the sacrifices, because the station would be broken by receiving the Lord's body. Does the Eucharist, then, dissolve a service devoted to God, or rather bind it more to God? Will not your station be more solemn if you have also stood at God's altar? When the Lord's body has been received and reserved, both are preserved: participation in the sacrifice and the discharge of the duty. If the station took its name from a military model (for we are God's soldiery), certainly no joy or sorrow befalling the camp cancels the soldiers' stations; for joy will carry out discipline more gladly, sorrow more carefully.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 20:192 · 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)

Scripture

2 Tim 2:3 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Eucharist, Fasting

Notes

Translation notes

“Station” (statio) is the half-fast kept on Wednesdays and Fridays until the ninth hour; the word also means a soldier's guard post. Tertullian advises receiving the sacrament and reserving it, that is, taking it home to consume after the fast. The soldiery of God echoes 2 Tim 2:3–4.

Cite this passage

Tertullian, Or. 19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-oratione/19/).

Plain text

Tertullian, Or. 19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-oratione/19/).