Hearing Prayers

Inaurire Deus orationem meam, et ne despexeris deprecationem meam: intende mihi, et exaudi me.    Triplex autem in exordio oratio precationis est edita. Prima enim ea est, ut inauriatur oratio. Sequens est, ne despiciatur deprecatio. Tertia est, ut intendat sibi, seque exaudiat. Et necesse est discretam esse uniuscujusque generis naturam: ut non idem sit inaurire, et non despicere; rursumque differat ab utroque intendere, et exaudire. Et quia de inaurienda oratione quid intelligi posset ostendimus; quid illud sit: Ne despexeris deprecationem meam, tractandum est. Despiciuntur orationes leves, diffidentes, intutiles, saeculi curis anxiae, et rerum corporalium desideriis implicatae, bonorum operum fructibus infecundae. Hae igitur despicabiles sunt orationes, Dei dignatione non dignae, de quibus per Esiam prophetam ait: Et cum extenderitis manus vestras ad me, avertam oculos meos a vobis. Et causam despiciendiae orationis continuo subjecit, dicens Manus vestrae sanguine plenae sunt. Ubi ergo operatio iniquitatis exstabit, illic despicitur oratio deprecantis. At vero tum in eum qui sperat intenditur, cum tacitae spei fides, piae conscientiae religione cohibetur. Et est nobis hoc absolutissimum uniuscujusque proprietatis exemplum. Inaurivit Dominus verba Chananaeae saepe clamantis: despexit orationem adolescentis illius, qui ab aeternitatis largitore divisionem patrimonii postulabat; intendit autem in eam feminam, quae fidei silentio salutem sibi etiam a vestis fimbria expetebat. Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis,Tractatus super Psalmos, Tractatus in Psalmum LIV

Lord, hear my prayer, and do not despise my plea, attend and hearken to me. 1 In the beginning of the prayer a threefold plea is proclaimed. First that the prayer be heard, then that it be not despised, and the third is that He attend to it and hearken. And necessary it is to discern the nature of each of these types, for it is not the same to hear and not to despise, and again there is a difference between attending and hearkening. And we shall show how the hearing of a prayer is to be understood, with what it may be: Do not despise my prayer, examined. Despised, then, are light and faithless and useless prayers, disturbed by the cares of the age and bound up in the desires of corporeal things, unfruitful in the fruits of good works. Alas, then, those whose prayers are despised, unworthy of the dignity of God, concerning which The Prophet Isaiah says, 'And when you extend your hands to me, I shall avert my eyes from you. 2 And the cause of the despising of prayer he expands on, saying, 'Your hands are full of blood.' 2 When, therefore, the work of iniquity exists, there the prayer of the one who prays is despised. But truly in him who hopes to be heard, he joins faith in silent hope with pious religious conscience. And there is given to us a most perfect example of this when the Lord hears the words of the Canaanite women, she who often cried out, 4 and He despised the prayer of the youth who asked from the giver of eternity a division of his patrimony; 5 and He attended to that woman who sought salvation in silent faith even from the fringes of his garments. 6   Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on the Psalms, Psalm 54 1 Ps 54.1 2 Isai 1.15 3 Mt 15.28 4 Lk 12, 13-14 5 Lk 8.44