The Earliest ChristianSongs and Prayers

It is my usual practice, my lord, to refer to you whenever I am uncertain. Who is better able to guide my hesitation or instruct my ignorance?

I have never taken part in trials of Christians, so I do not know what is normally investigated or punished, or how far such investigations should go. I have been especially uncertain whether distinctions should be made according to age; whether the young should be treated the same as adults; whether repentance should earn pardon; whether someone who was once a Christian gains anything by renouncing it; and whether the name “Christian” itself should be punished, even when no crimes are involved, or only crimes connected with the name.

For the time being, I have followed this procedure with those brought before me as Christians. I asked them whether they were Christians. If they confessed, I asked them a second and a third time, warning them of the punishment. If they persisted, I ordered them to be executed. Whatever the nature of their belief, I had no doubt that stubbornness and unyielding obstinacy deserved punishment. There were others caught up in the same madness whom I noted should be sent to Rome because they were Roman citizens.

As the investigation continued, as often happens, the accusations spread and several different situations arose.

An anonymous document was presented containing many names. Those who denied that they were Christians, or ever had been, I thought should be released when they followed my lead in invoking the gods, offered incense and wine before your image—which I had ordered to be brought in for this purpose along with images of the gods—and also cursed Christ. It is said that those who are truly Christians cannot be forced to do any of these things.

Others named by an informer first said that they were Christians and then denied it. They admitted that they had once been Christians but had stopped—some three years ago, some many years ago, and one or two as long as twenty years ago. All of these also worshiped your image and the images of the gods and cursed Christ.

They maintained that the whole of their fault—or their error—amounted to this: they had been accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and to speak or sing a song to Christ as to a god, among themselves in turn. They also bound themselves by an oath, not to commit any crime, but to refrain from theft, robbery, adultery, breaking their word, or refusing to return something entrusted to them when it was demanded.

After this was finished, they said it had been their custom to separate and then to come together again to take food—ordinary and harmless food. They had even stopped doing this after my edict, issued according to your command forbidding associations.

Because of this I thought it all the more necessary to discover the truth by questioning under torture two enslaved women who were called ministers. I found nothing except a distorted and excessive superstition.

So I postponed the investigation and turned to you for advice. The matter seemed worthy of consultation, especially because of the number of people at risk. Many people of every age, every social rank, and both sexes are being accused and will continue to be accused. This superstition has spread not only through the cities but also through villages and the countryside. Still, it seems possible to stop and correct it.

It is certainly clear that temples which had nearly been deserted are beginning to be visited again, that sacred rites long neglected are being resumed, and that sacrificial meat, for which buyers had become very scarce, is once again being sold in many places. From this it is easy to imagine how many people might be corrected if an opportunity for repentance were offered.

You have followed the proper procedure, my dear Pliny, in examining the cases of those who were brought before you as Christians. It is impossible to establish one universal rule that can serve as a fixed standard in every case.

They are not to be hunted down. But if they are accused and proved guilty, they must be punished—with this qualification: anyone who denies being a Christian and proves it by worshiping our gods should receive pardon because of repentance, however suspicious his past may have been.

Anonymous accusations, however, must not be accepted in any prosecution. They set a very bad precedent and are not worthy of our age.

It is fitting that you run together in harmony with the will of your bishop, as indeed you do. Your presbytery, worthy of God and rightly honored, is fitted to the bishop as strings are fitted to a harp.

In your concord and harmonious love, Jesus Christ is sung. Each of you should become part of one choir, so that, being harmonious in love and taking up God’s song together, you may sing with one voice to the Father through Jesus Christ. Then he will hear you and recognize through your works that you truly are members of his Son.

It is therefore good for you to live in blameless unity, so that you may always share in communion with God.

We are not atheists. We worship the Maker of this universe. We have been taught that he has no need of streams of blood, libations, or incense. Instead, we praise him as fully as we can with prayer and thanksgiving for everything he has provided.

We have learned that the honor worthy of him is not to burn what he has made for our nourishment, but to use these gifts for ourselves and for those in need, and with gratitude to offer him thanks through prayers and hymns: for our creation, for everything that sustains health, for the different kinds of created things, and for the changing seasons. We also bring our petitions to him, asking that through faith we may rise again into incorruption.

Jesus Christ is our teacher in these things.

On the day called Sunday, everyone who lives in the cities or in the countryside gathers in one place. The memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read for as long as time permits.

When the reader finishes, the one presiding instructs the people and urges them to imitate these good things. Then we all stand together and pray.

When the prayers are finished, bread, wine, and water are brought. The one presiding offers prayers and thanksgivings according to his ability, and the people give their assent by saying, “Amen.” Then what has been blessed is distributed to each person, and the deacons carry a portion to those who are absent.

Those who are able and willing give what each chooses. What is collected is entrusted to the one presiding, who cares for orphans and widows, the sick and needy, prisoners, strangers, and, in short, everyone who is in need.

My heart was opened, and its flower appeared. Grace sprang up within it and bore fruit for the Lord.

The Most High opened my heart by his Holy Spirit. He searched my love for him and filled me with his love. His opening of me became my salvation, and I ran in his way, in his peace, along the way of truth.

From beginning to end I received his knowledge. I was established on the rock of truth where he had placed me. Living waters touched my lips abundantly from the Lord’s fountain. I drank and became full of the living water that never dies.

This fullness did not make me senseless. I abandoned vanity and turned to the Most High, my God. I was enriched by his generosity. I stripped off the foolishness spread across the earth and threw it away.

The Lord renewed me with his clothing and possessed me with his light. From above he gave me rest in incorruption. I became like land that blossoms and rejoices in its fruit. The Lord was like the sun shining over the land. He gave light to my eyes, my face received the dew, and I breathed in the pleasant fragrance of the Lord.

He carried me into his Paradise, where the Lord’s delight is abundant. I worshiped the Lord because of his glory and said:

Blessed are those, O Lord, who are planted in your land, who have a place in your Paradise. They grow by the fruit of the trees. They have passed from darkness into light.

Look! All your servants are beautiful when they do good and turn away from evil toward your delight. Everything has become a memorial of your faithful works forever.

There is abundant room in your Paradise, and nothing there is useless. Everything is filled with fruit.

Glory to you, O God, the delight of Paradise forever. Hallelujah.

As the farmer’s work is the plow, and the pilot’s work is steering the ship, so my work is the Lord’s psalm. My craft and my occupation are his praises.

His love has nourished my heart and poured its fruit even onto my lips. The Lord is my love, and therefore I will sing to him. I am strengthened by his praise, and I trust in him.

I will open my mouth, and his Spirit will speak through me of the Lord’s glory and beauty: the work of his hands, the labor of his fingers, the multitude of his mercies, and the power of his word.

The Lord’s word searches everything, both what is unseen and what reveals his thought. The eye sees his works, and the ear hears his thought.

He spread out the earth and settled the waters in the sea. He measured the heavens and fixed the stars. He established creation and set it in place, and then he rested from his works.

Created things run their courses and perform their work. His heavenly hosts are subject to his word. The sun is the treasury of light, and night is the treasury of darkness. He made the sun to shine by day, while night brings darkness over the land. Their alternation declares the beauty of God.

Nothing exists apart from the Lord, for he was before anything came into being. The worlds were made by his word and by the thought of his heart.

Glory and honor to his name. Hallelujah.

I stretched out my hands and drew near to my Lord, for the stretching out of my hands is his sign. My outstretched form is like the tree lifted up on the way of the Righteous One.

I became nothing to those who would not receive me, but I will be with those who love me. Those who persecuted me are dead. Those who hoped in me sought me because I was alive.

I rose and I am with them, and I will speak through their mouths. I lifted over them the yoke of my love, like the arm of a bridegroom over his bride. So my love rests upon those who know me.

I was not rejected, though people thought I was. I did not perish, though they planned my destruction.

Sheol saw me and became miserable. Death cast me out, and many came out with me. I went down into its deepest place, and it could not endure my presence.

I made a congregation of living people among the dead and spoke to them with living lips, because my word will not be empty.

Those who had died ran toward me and cried out, “Son of God, have mercy on us. Deal with us according to your kindness. Bring us out from the bonds of darkness and open for us the door by which we may come to you. We see that death has not touched you. Let us also be redeemed with you, for you are our Redeemer.”

I heard their voice, and I sealed my name upon their heads. They are free, and they are mine.

Hallelujah.

Let drunken revelry stay far away from our reasonable gatherings, along with foolish all-night parties that lead to excess. Let lust, intoxication, and senseless passions be removed from our choir. Vulgar singing belongs with drunkenness.

If people spend their time with pipes, stringed instruments, choirs, dances, hand-clapping, cymbals, drums, and all the noise of disordered entertainment, the banquet becomes a theater of drunkenness.

But the Psalm is a melodious and sober blessing. The apostle calls the Psalm “a spiritual song.”

Before sleep, it is a sacred duty to give thanks to God after enjoying his grace and love, and then to go peacefully to rest.

The Greeks themselves have a custom at banquets in which a song is passed around, sometimes sung by everyone together and sometimes taken in turns. But let songs of lust be sent far away from us. Let our songs be hymns to God.

Scripture says, “Let them praise his name in the dance; let them make music to him with timbrel and harp.” And what is the choir that makes music? The Spirit tells you: “Let his praise be in the congregation of the saints; let them rejoice in their King.”

Temperate harmonies may be received, but we should reject melodies that train the soul toward indecency and excess. Let serious and modest music take the place of the turbulence of drunkenness.

Our meal explains itself by its name. The Greeks call it agape—love. Whatever it costs, our expense is an act of devotion because the meal benefits the needy.

Because it is an act of religious service, it permits nothing shameful or immodest. Before anyone reclines at the table, we first taste prayer to God. We eat only enough to satisfy hunger and drink only what is proper for the self-controlled. We satisfy ourselves as people who remember that even during the night we must worship God. We speak as people who know that the Lord is listening.

After water is brought for washing the hands and the lamps are lit, each person is invited to stand and sing to God, according to his ability, either from the holy Scriptures or from his own composing. This also proves how moderately he has drunk.

As the meal began with prayer, so it ends with prayer. We leave not as gangs looking for violence or as crowds ready for disorder, but with the same care for modesty and chastity with which we came—as people who have fed not merely on food but on instruction in righteousness.

How can I adequately describe the happiness of the marriage that the Church brings together, the offering confirms, the blessing seals, the angels announce, and the Father approves?

What a union it is when two believers share one hope, one desire, one discipline, and one service. Both are brother and sister; both are fellow servants. There is no division of spirit or flesh. They are truly two in one flesh, and where there is one flesh there is also one spirit.

They pray together, worship together, and fast together. They teach one another, encourage one another, and strengthen one another.

Together they are in the church of God and together at the feast of God. Together they endure hardship, persecution, and times of peace. Neither hides anything from the other or avoids the other. Neither becomes a burden to the other.

The sick are visited freely and the needy are supported. Alms are given without conflict, sacrifices without hesitation, and the duties of daily devotion without obstruction. There is no secret sign of the cross, no fearful greeting, no silent blessing.

Between the two of them Psalms and hymns resound, and they challenge one another to see who can sing more beautifully to their Lord.

Christ sees and hears this and rejoices. He sends them his peace. Where two are together, he is there also; and where he is, the evil one is not.

If anyone disobeys the words God has spoken through us, let them understand that they are involving themselves in serious sin and danger. But we will be innocent of this sin, and we will continue earnestly in prayer and supplication, asking the Creator of all things to preserve the full number of his chosen people throughout the whole world through his beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Through him God called us from darkness into light, from ignorance into the knowledge of the glory of his name.

Our hope rests in your name, the source of all creation. You have opened the eyes of our hearts so that we may know you. You alone are the Highest among the highest, the Holy One among the holy. You bring down the pride of the arrogant and overturn the plans of the nations. You raise up the lowly and bring down the exalted. You make rich and make poor; you kill and bring to life. You alone are the benefactor of spirits and the God of all flesh. You see into the depths and observe all human works. You are the helper of those in danger, the Savior of those who have lost hope, the Creator and Guardian of every spirit. You multiply the nations upon the earth, and from among them all you have chosen those who love you through Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, through whom you have instructed us, sanctified us, and honored us.

We ask you, Lord, to be our help and defender. Save those among us who are afflicted. Have mercy on the humble. Raise up those who have fallen. Show yourself to those in need. Heal the sick. Bring back those among your people who have wandered. Feed the hungry. Set prisoners free. Raise up the weak. Encourage the fainthearted. Let all the nations know that you alone are God, that Jesus Christ is your Son, and that we are your people and the sheep of your pasture.

By the works of your hands you brought the enduring order of the world into being. You, Lord, created the earth on which we live. You are faithful through every generation, just in your judgments, wonderful in strength and majesty. In wisdom you created all things, and in understanding you established what you made. You are good to those who are being saved and faithful to those who trust in you. Merciful and compassionate God, forgive our sins, our wrongs, our failures, and our transgressions.

Do not hold every sin against your servants, but cleanse us by your truth. Direct our steps so that we may walk in holiness of heart and do what is good and pleasing in your sight and in the sight of those who govern us. Yes, Lord, make your face shine upon us for good and for peace. Shelter us with your mighty hand. Deliver us from every sin by your uplifted arm, and rescue us from those who hate us without cause.

Give harmony and peace to us and to everyone who lives on the earth, just as you gave them to our ancestors when they called upon you in faith and truth. Make us obedient to your almighty and excellent name.

As for the rulers and governors of the earth: you, Lord, have given them authority by your glorious and indescribable power so that, recognizing the glory and honor you have given them, we may submit to them without resisting your will. Give them health, peace, harmony, and stability, so that they may exercise the authority you have given them without offense.

For you, heavenly Lord and eternal King, give human beings glory, honor, and authority over the things of the earth. Direct their plans, Lord, toward what is good and pleasing in your sight, so that by exercising the authority you have given them peacefully, gently, and faithfully, they may find you gracious toward them.

You alone are able to do these things and far greater good for us. We praise you through Jesus Christ, the High Priest and Guardian of our souls. Through him be glory and majesty to you, now and from generation to generation and forever. Amen.

They did not nail him to the wood but simply bound him. With his hands placed behind him, Polycarp was bound like a noble ram chosen from a great flock for sacrifice, prepared as an acceptable burnt offering to God. He looked up to heaven and said:

“Lord God Almighty, Father of your beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the knowledge of you—the God of angels and powers, of all creation, and of the whole family of the righteous who live before you—I give you thanks that you have counted me worthy of this day and this hour, so that I may share among the number of the martyrs in the cup of your Christ, for the resurrection to eternal life of both soul and body through the incorruption of the Holy Spirit.

“May I be received among them before you today as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, just as you, the God who cannot lie and who is true, prepared beforehand, revealed beforehand, and have now fulfilled.

“For this reason I praise you for all things; I bless you; I glorify you, together with the eternal and heavenly Jesus Christ, your beloved Son. Through him, with him, and with the Holy Spirit, may glory be yours both now and through all ages to come. Amen.”