Letter 131: You speak the truth when you say that the soul, having its abode in a corruptible body, is restrained by this measure of contact with the earth, and is somehow so bent and crushed by this burden that its desires and thoughts go more easily downwards to many things than upwards to one. For Holy Scripture says the same: The corruptible body presse...

Augustine to Proba, greetings. A brief word to follow up on my longer letter about prayer. You asked a further question — whether it is proper to pray for the things of this life: for health, for safety, for the prosperity of your family, for the success of your affairs. Yes, you may pray for these things. The Lord himself taught us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" [Matthew 6:11]. This is a prayer for temporal provision. God does not despise our earthly needs. He made our bodies, and he knows they need food and shelter and rest. But — and this is crucial — pray for these things with an open hand, not a clenched fist. Hold your desires loosely before God. Say, in effect: "Lord, I would like this. But if you have something better in mind, give me that instead." The prayer that ends with "not my will but yours be done" [Luke 22:42] is the prayer that never goes unanswered — because it has already surrendered the outcome to the only one who knows what the outcome should be. Farewell, dear sister in Christ.

Letter 131 (A.D. 412) To His Most Excellent Daughter, the Noble and Deservedly Illustrious Lady Proba, Augustine Sends Greeting in the Lord. You speak the truth when you say that the soul, having its abode in a corruptible body, is restrained by this measure of contact with the earth, and is somehow so bent and crushed by this burden that its desires and thoughts go more easily downwards to many things than upwards to one. For Holy Scripture says the same: The corruptible body presses down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weighs down the mind that muses upon many things. Wisdom 9:15 But our Saviour, who by His healing word raised up the woman in the gospel that had been eighteen years bowed down Luke 13:11-13 (whose case was, perchance, a figure of spiritual infirmity), came for this purpose, that Christians might not hear in vain the call, Lift up your hearts, and might truly reply, We lift them up to the Lord. Looking to this, you do well to regard the evils of this world as easy to bear because of the hope of the world to come. For thus, by being rightly used, these evils become a blessing, because, while they do not increase our desires for this world, they exercise our patience; as to which the apostle says, We know that all things work together for good to them that love God: Romans 8:28 all things, he says — not only, therefore, those which are desired because pleasant, but also those which are shunned because painful; since we receive the former without being carried away by them, and bear the latter without being crushed by them, and in all give thanks, according to the divine command, to Him of whom we say, I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth, and, It is good for me that You have humbled me, that I might learn Your statutes. The truth is, most noble lady, that if the calm of this treacherous prosperity were always smiling upon us, the soul of man would never make for the haven of true and certain safety. Wherefore, in returning the respectful salutation due to your Excellency, and expressing my gratitude for your most pious care for my welfare, I ask of the Lord that He may grant to you the rewards of the life to come, and consolation in the present life; and I commend myself to the love and prayers of all of you in whose hearts Christ dwells by faith. (In another hand.) May the true and faithful God truly comfort your heart and preserve your health, my most excellent daughter and noble lady, deservedly illustrious.

EPISTOLA 131 Scripta a. 412/413. Augustinus Probam resalutat et gratias agit quod de ipsius salute fuerit sollicita DOMINAE INSIGNI ET MERITO ILLUSTRI, ET PRAESTANTISSIMAE FILIAE PROBAE, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM. 1. Est quidem ita, ut dicis, quod in corpore corruptibili anima constituta, terrena quadam contagione constringitur, et tali onere quodammodo depressa curvatur, ut in imo multa, quam in summo unum, facilius concupiscat et cogitet. Nam hoc etiam sancta Scriptura ita dicit: Corpus enim quod corrumpitur aggravat animam, et deprimit terrena inhabitatio sensum multa cogitantem 1. Sed ideo venit Salvator noster, qui mulierem illam in Evangelio per decem et octo annos curvam, quae fortasse hoc significabat, verbo salutis erexit 2, ut anima christiana non frustra audiat: Sursum cor; nec frustra respondeat, se habere ad Dominum. Quod intuens recte facis, mala huius mundi tolerabilia ducere spe futuri. Sic enim usu quodam bono convertuntur in bonum, dum non augent nostram concupiscentiam, sed exercent patientiam; de qua re Apostolus ait: Scimus quoniam diligentibus Deum omnia cooperatur in bonum 3. Omnia, inquit: non solum ergo illa quae appetuntur ut suavia, verum etiam illa quae ut molesta vitantur; quando alia sic sumimus ne capiamur, alia sic ferimus ne frangamur, et secundum praecepta divina in omnibus gratias agimus 4 ei, de quo dicimus: Benedicam Dominum in omni tempore; semper laus eius in ore meo 5; et: Bonum est mihi quod humiliasti me, ut discam iustificationes tuas 6. Neque enim revera, si fallacis prosperitatis semper hic tranquillitas arrideret, anima humana portum illum verae certaeque securitatis appeteret, domina insignis et merito illustris, et praestantissima filia. Reddens itaque debitum Praestantiae tuae salutationis obsequium, agensque gratias quod salutis nostrae religiosissimam curam geris, posco tibi a Domino futurae vitae praemia, praesentisque solaria; omniumque vestrum, in quorum cordibus per fidem habitat Christus, me dilectioni orationique commendo. Et alia manu: Deus verus et verax veraciter consoletur cor tuum, et protegat salutem tuam, domina insignis et merito illustris, ac praestantissima filia.