The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

² “Lord, I have cried unto You, hear Thou me”. This we all can say. This not I alone say: whole Christ says it. But it is said rather in the name of the Body: for He too, when He was here and bore our flesh, prayed; and when He prayed, drops of blood streamed down from His whole Body. So is it written in the Gospel: “Jesus prayed earnestly, and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood.” What is this flowing of sweat from His whole Body, but the suffering of martyrs from the whole Church? “Listen unto the voice of my prayer, while I cry unto You.” You thought the business of crying already finished, when you said, “I have cried unto You.” You have cried; yet think not yourself safe. If tribulation be finished, crying is finished: but if tribulation remain for the Church, for the Body of Christ, even to the end of the world, let it not only say, “I have cried unto You,” but also, “Listen unto the voice of my prayer.”