Second Way of Prayer

St. Dominic also often used to pray throwing himself down on the ground, flat on his face, and then his heart would be pricked with compunction and he would blush at himself and say, sometimes loudly enough for it actually to be heard, the words from the gospel, ‘Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner’ (Luke 18:13). And with great devotion and reverence he would recite the words of David, ‘It is I who have sinned and done unjustly’ (2 Sam. 24:17). He would weep and groan passionately and then say, ‘I am not worthy to look upon the height of heaven, because of the greatness of my sin; I have provoked your anger and done evil in your sight’ (Prayer of Manasseh 9-10). He would also say, emphatically and devoutly, the verse from Psalm 43:25, ‘My soul is laid low in the dust, my belly is stuck to the earth.’ And again, ‘My soul is stuck to the floor, make me come alive according to your word’ (Ps. 118:25).

Sometimes, wanting to teach the brethren with what reverence they ought to pray, he would say to them, ‘The Magi, those devout kings, entered the house and found the child with Mary, his mother (Matt. 2:11). Now it is certain that we have found him too. God and man, with Mary his handmaid, so come, let us fall down and worship before God, let us weep before the Lord who made us’ (Ps. 94:6).

He exhorted the young men too, saying to them, ‘If you cannot weep for your own sins, because you have none, still there are many sinners to be directed towards mercy and love, for whose sake the prophets and apostles groaned in distress, and for their sake too Jesus wept bitterly when he saw them (Luke 19:41), and similarly the holy David wept and said, “I saw the half-hearted and I pined away”’ (Ps. 118:158).

Continue to the Third Way of Prayer.