Prayer And Restraint

Atqui cum modestia et humilitate adorantes magis  commendabimus Deo preces nostras, ne ipsis quidem manibus sublimius elatis, sed temperate ac probe elatis, ne vultu quidem  in audaciam erecto. Nam et ille publicanus, qui non tantum  prece, sed et vultu humiliatus atque deiectus orabat, iustificatior  pharisaeo procacissimo discessit. Sono etiam vocis subiectos  esse oportet, aut quantis arteriis opus est, si pro sono audiamur!  Deus autem non vocis, sed cordis auditor est, sicut conspector. Daemonium oraculi Pythii Et mutum, inquit, intelligo et non loquentem exaudio. Dei aures sonum expectant? Quomodo ergo oratio Ionae de imo ventre ceti per tantae bestiae viscera ab ipsis  abyssis per tantam aequoris molem ad caelum potuit evadere? Quid amplius referent isti qui clarius adorant nisi quod  proximis obstrepunt? Immo prodendo petitiones suas quid minus faciunt quam si in publico orent? Tertullianus, De Oratione

But when we pray with modesty and humility we more commend our prayers to God, with not even our hands lifted too high, but elevated temperately and fittingly, with not even our face boldly raised. For that tax collector prayed not only with his petition but with his face humble and cast down, and he went away more justified than the impudent Pharisee. 1 Even the sound of our voice should be subdued, else what large windpipes we would need if we were heard for the noise we make. But God is the hearer not of the voice, but of the heart, just as He is its examiner. The Pythian oracle says: 'And I understand the mute and hear the speechless one.' 2  Do the ears of God wait for sound? How, then, could Jonah's prayer, from the depth of the whale's belly, through the entrails of such a beast, from the very abysses, through such a mass of sea, find its way out to heaven? And what do they gain who pray more loudly, except that their roaring is heard by their neighbours? Why, by shouting their petitions, what do they do less than if they were to pray on the street? 3 Tertullian, from On Prayer 1 Lk 18:9-14 2 Herodotus 1.47.3 3 cf Mt 6.5