I desire therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
All Commentaries on 1 Timothy 2:8 Go To 1 Timothy 2
Maximus of Turin
AD 423
But the good farmer also, when he prepares to turn the soil in order to plant lifesustaining foods, undertakes to do this by nothing other than the sign of the cross. For when he sets the share beam on the plough, attaches the earthboard and puts on the plowhandle, he imitates the form of the cross, for its very construction is a kind of likeness of the Lord’s suffering. Heaven, too, is itself arranged in the form of this sign, for since it is divided into four parts— namely, east, west, south, and north—it consists in four quarters like the cross. Even a person’s bearing, when he raises his hands, describes a cross; therefore we are ordered to pray with uplifted hands so that by the very stance of our body we might confess the Lord’s suffering.
