Prayer And The Spirit

Sed ipse Spiritus postulat pro nobis gemitibus inenarrabilibus. Hic gratiam Spiritus Spiritum nominavit; postulat autem, quia postulare nos facit gemitibus qui enarrari non possunt. Sicut tentare nos dicitur Deus, ut sciat, hoc est, scire nos faciat quales sumus. Sed et usu communi quo aliquis fieri jubet, ipse dicitur operari, ut: ille aedificavit domum, aut, ille codicem fecit, cum nec ille scripserit, nec ille struxerit. Qui autem scrutatur corda, scit quid desideret Spiritus, quia secundum Deum postulat pro sanctis. Ostendit quidem, non tam verba nostra in oratione, quam cor mentemque perpendi: ipse enim est qui scrutator est cordis et renum. Scimus enim quoniam diligentibus Deum omnia cooperantur in bonum. Hoc dicit, quia si imperite precati sunt, non illis oberit, quia propositum cordis eorum sciens Deus, non illis imputat quae adversa postulant, sed ea annuit quae danda sunt a Deo amantibus; unde et Dominus ait: Scit enim Pater vester quid opus sit vobis antequam petatis ab eo. His qui secundum propositum vocati sunt sancti. Secundum quod proposuit salvare sola fide quos praescierat credituros, et quos gratis vocavit ad salutem, multo magis glorificabit operantes. Sedulius Scotus, Collectanea in omnes B. Pauli epistolas, In Epistolam ad Romanos, Caput VIII Source: Migne PL 103.78c-79a

But the Spirit Himself asks for us with inexpressible groans. 1 Here He named the grace of the Spirit the Spirit, and He prays because He makes us pray with inexpressible groaning. Just as God is said to test us so that He might know, that is, He makes us know ourselves. And even in common speech when someone commands something he is said to do it, as he made a house or a book, when he neither wrote nor built. And He who scrutinises hearts knows what the Spirit desires, because He prays for those who are holy according to God. Certainly it shows not so much in our words in prayer as in the weight in our hearts and minds, for He is the scrutiniser of the heart and inner being. We know that to the lovers of God everything begins in goodness. He says this, that if they have prayed with little skill, they will not be blamed, because God knows the wish of their hearts and He does not grant to them what would be harmful to them when they ask for it, but He bestows the things He gives to the lovers of God. Hence the Lord says, 'The Father knows what you need before you ask it from Him,' 2 to those who according to their wish have called out for holy things. According to which He promised to save for faith alone those who He foresaw to be believers, and whom He freely called to salvation, and much more shall He glorify the workers. Sedulius Scotus, Commentary On The Letters of Saint Paul, On the Letter to the Romans, Chapter 8 1 Rom 8.26 2 Mt 6.8