{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-3777","native_reference":{"book_number":340,"chapter_from":6,"chapter_to":6,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":10,"verse_to":10},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Didache</b>: But let not your fasts be with the hypocrites; for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week; but do ye fast on the fourth day and the Preparation (Friday). Neither pray as the hypocrites; but as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, thus pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us to-day our daily (needful) bread, and forgive us our debt as we also forgive our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (or, evil); for Thine is the power and the glory for ever. Thrice in the day thus pray.<br/><i>— The Didache, Chapter 8</i></p><p><b>Hippolytus of Rome</b>: And so Daniel, when he knew what was written, having reflected on the plot which came upon him, did not fear it nor was terrified, but was readily holding himself to be handed over as food for beasts rather than to obey the prescription of the king. And he had a pattern of what happened to the three youths, when they did not wish to bow to the king's image, and they were preserved from the furnace of fire. And then he, coming into his house, opened the windows in the upper chambers opposite Jerusalem and three times a day knelt upon his knees and praised and confessed before his God just as he did before. [Daniel 6:10] And so it is needful to see the piety of the blessed Daniel, how he did not even pretend to be devoted to the royal affairs but rather adhering in prayer each day he rendered the things of Caesar to Caesar, and the things of God to God.<br/><i>— Commentary on Daniel 3.21.1-22.1</i></p><p><b>Hippolytus of Rome</b>: But someone will perhaps say, \"And so what of it? Was he not able to pray by heart to God at day, but at night as he wished, devote to prayer secretly in the house so that he might not be endangered?\" He was able but he did not want to. For if he did this the governors and satraps would have to say, \"How does he fear God when he fears the decree of the king and what is commanded by him he obeys?\" And they would bring against him some blame or censure of faithlessness. For this is a work of hypocrisy, not of fear and faith to God.</p><p>And on account of this he did not give a pretext of slander to those who opposed him, for whatever one is subject to, by this he is also enslaved. For those who believe in God ought not to feign nor fear what is ordered of them by authorities, lest they otherwise do some evil. If on account of faith to God they are compelled to do some other thing, they would gladly die rather than to do what is commanded by them.</p><p>For when the apostle said to be subject to all who are in authority [Romans 13:1], he does not speak concerning this, that deny our faith and deny what is prescribed by God, and that we do these things which men command, instead the apostle said that we should fear the authorities and not do evil, so that we are not punished by them as evildoers. And on account of this he says, \"He is a servant of God, an avenger upon those who practice evil. What? Do you wish to not fear authority? He does good and you will have approval from him. But if you do evil be afraid. For he does not bear the sword in vain.\" [Romans 13:4] So that according to this he said to be subject, to live holily and piously in the present life, having before your eyes the danger of the sword. And so the apostles, being hindered by the chiefs and scribes, were not prevented from speaking the word, and obeyed God rather than men, and on account of this, having vexed the authorities, they, \"set them in public prison. But at night an angel led them out and said, 'Go speak the words of this life.'\" [Acts 5:18-20]</p><p>And so in this way Daniel also was hindered from prayer and he did not submit to the decree of the king, so that he may not place the glory of God under the glory of men. For if on account of God someone dies, he ought to rejoice, having found in this eternal life. And so it is necessary for those who, with purity, labor and live with fear in this world, to not give a pretext to those who seek a pretext, so that in this they would rather be disgraced. In which way then also the governors sought to find pretext against Daniel and they did not find it, because he was faithful. But if some people constrain us to not revere God, nor entreat him and threaten death to us, it is more happy to separate us from the love of God? Persecution or difficulty or oppression or hunger or danger or sword?\" [Romans 8:35] And on account of this the blessed Daniel feared God more and handed himself over to death and he was preserved from the lions by the angel. For if he revered the decree and kept quiet during the thirty days, his faith to God would never be pure, for no one is able to serve two lords.</p><p>For the cunning of the devil is always like this, to oppress and persecute and to maltreat saints, so that they may not lift up holy hands while praying to God, seeing that the prayer of the saints furnishes peace to the world but punishment to the wicked. Just as Moses also when he lifted up hands in the desert, Israel prevailed, but whenever he set them down, Amalek prevailed. [Exodus 17:11] Just as this happens even now and is fulfilled among us. For whenever we cease praying the adversary prevails against us, but whenever we adhere to prayer, the power and authority of the evil one is abolished.<br/><i>— Commentary on Daniel 3.22.2-24.9</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: Verse 10. \"Now when Daniel learned of it, that is, of the law which had been enacted, he entered his house, and with the windows in his upper room opened up in the direction of Jerusalem, he continued to bow his knees three times a day and worshipped, and made confession before his God just as he was previously accustomed to do.\" We must quickly draw from our memory and bring together from all of Holy Scripture all the passages where we have read of domata, which mean in Latin either \"walled enclosures\" (menia) or \"beds\" or \"sun-terraces,\" and also the references to anogaia, that is, \"upper rooms.\" For after all, our Lord celebrated the passover in an upper room (Mark 14:15, Luke 22:12), and in the Acts of the Apostles the Holy Spirit came upon the one hundred and twenty souls of believers while they were in an upper room (Acts 1:13). And so Daniel in this case, despising the king's commands and reposing his confidence in God, does not offer his prayers in some obscure spot, but in a lofty place, and opens up his windows towards Jerusalem, from whence he looked for the peace . He prays, moreover, according to God's behest, and also according to what Solomon had said when he admonished the people that they should pray in the direction of the Temple. Furthermore, there are three times in the day when we should bow our knees unto God, and the tradition of the Church understands them to be the third hour, the sixth hour, and the ninth hour. Lastly, it was at the third hour that the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles (Acts 2:15) . It was at the sixth hour that Peter, purposing to eat, ascended to the upper room for prayer (Acts 10:9). It was at the ninth hour that Peter and John were on their way to the Temple (Acts 3:1).<br/><i>— St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER SIX</i></p><p><b>John Cassian</b>: And so in the monasteries of Palestine and Mesopotamia and all the East the services of the above-mentioned hours are ended each day with three psalms apiece, so that constant prayers may be offered to God at the appointed times, and yet, the spiritual duties being completed with due moderation, the necessary offices of work may not be in any way interfered with: for at these three seasons we know that Daniel the prophet also poured forth his prayers to God day by day in his chamber with the windows open. Nor is it without good reasons that these times are more particularly assigned to religious offices, since at them what completed the promises and summed up our salvation was fulfilled. For we can show that at the third hour the Holy Spirit, who had been of old promised by the prophets, descended in the first instance on the apostles assembled together for prayer.<br/><i>— INSTITUTES 3:3</i></p><p><b>Peter Chrysologus</b>: The psalmist instructs us to allot three periods a day to God when he says, \"At evening, at morning and at midday I shall speak what I have to say, and you will hearken to my voice.\" For those three periods while Daniel diligently beseeched God, not only did they obtain foreknowledge of the future, but he also merited the freedom of his people held captive for so long.<br/><i>— SERMON 21:6</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: Note how much this verse implied in a few words in mentioning the piety and courage of blessed Daniel. First, when Daniel learned that the decision has been reached, \"he went into his house\"—that is, when he got news of the passing of the law, he had great scorn for it and continued openly doing the opposite. It next mentions a further detail that reveals his courage: the windows were open, it says—in other words, he said his prayers not in secret but openly, with everyone watching, not for vainglory but in scorn for the impiety of the law.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Daniel 6:10</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: When blessed Daniel in Babylon prayed, he opened the windows facing Jerusalem, not under the impression that God was confined there but from his knowledge that the divine manifestation occurred there.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Psalms 28:2</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: He did this not only to provoke his accusers but also to fulfill an ancient law: when Solomon built that famous temple and celebrated the festival of consecration, he prayed a prayer of supplication for divine grace and implored that the temple be filled with it, adding this in addition to other things, \"If you surrender your people to their foes, and they take them as captives to a land distant or near, and they have a change of heart in the land where they are transported and pray to you in their exile in the words, We sinned, we did wrong, we broke the law, and they turn back to you with their whole heart and with their whole soul in the land of their foes where you transferred them, and they pray to you toward their land which you gave their ancestors, and the city that you chose and the house that I built to your name, may you hearken from heaven, forthwith from your dwelling place, and forgive their sins by which they have sinned against you and all the transgressions they have committed against you, and show them pity before their captors.\" Instructed in this, Daniel faced Jerusalem in praying.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON Daniel 6:10</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"8fef4c0dde74f7d72e318514319f7548f4c8548dbcaa5397a0a0fff8f6771ee3","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":3777,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"57bfc1f837766c78b75c29bff3f8ffe44fdf4f6ccd77999fe61ab6d3fab9675b","translator":null,"work":null}