THE QUEEN'S WORK 3742 West Pine Blvd. St. Louis, Mo. Imprimi potest: Samuel Horine, S. J. Praep. Provo Missourianae Nihil obstat: Imprimatur: F. J. Holweck Censor Librorum >I< J oannes J. Glennon Archiepiscopus Sti. Ludovici Sti. Llldovici, die 11 J unii 1937 Sixth edition, August 1941 ANY FINANCIAL PROFIT made by the Centml Office of the Sodality will be used f01 ' the advancement of the Soda.lity Movement and the cause of Catholic Action. Copyright, 1937 THE QUEEN'S WORK, Inc. nearMtl .. pJr aye Jr § are always ANSWERED W HEN we were youngsters, we all envied Aladdin. What wonderful luck that chap had! First he finds himself a wishing ring, and then he stumbles onto a wonderful lamp, and both times things begin to happen. He rubs the ring, and up pops a jlnnee. "I am the slave of the ring," cries the monstrous but benign figure, "and whatever you command, I shall do." A little later, when he polishes the lamp, an even more powerful jinnee puts in an appearance, and anything that his master wishes is instantly fulfilled. Lucky Aladdin! Every boy and every girl that ever read his adventures dreamed that some day they would stumble over a ring or find in some alley junk heap a won- derful lamp, and the simple process of rubbing vigorously and insistently would mean that all their wishes were going to be realized. -1- Wishing That is why as youngsters we went around eternally wishing. We wished on loads of hay. We wished on redheaded girls and white horses-a simply miraculous combination that meant certain luck. We watched for the first star, and when it ap- peared, we cried out: "Star light , star ·bright, "First star I've seen tonight, "Wish I may, wish I might, "Have the wish I wish tonight." Then we kept strict silence until we had made our wish and looked around to find the second star that established the charm. Besides, everyone of us who ever met the charming characters of the fairy tales was sure that some evening a fairy god- mother would arise out of the darkness. Cinderella had one, and so had Prince Charming. So why not we? Our fairy godmother would cry: "You may have one wish and only one wish. But whatever that one wish is, I shall fulfill it perfectly." One Only Wish One wish, and only one wish! What pos- sibilities that opened! We hesitated whether we should ask for a solid-gold piano stUd- ded with diamonds or the beauty of Cinde- rella herself (if we were girls); we hesi- tated between a complete baseball outfit and the strength of Hercules (if we were of the masculine conviction). But only one wish? That was so limited! -2- Then a sudden inspiration came to us. It is the same inspiration that comes to every boy and girl, and every boy and girl thinks it completely original. We realized we could combine the limited generosity of the fairy godmother with the limitless pos- sibilities of the magic ring or lamp. We'd fool 'em! When the fairy godmother finally did appear, we would put it this way: "Did you say I could have one wish and only one wish? Then this is what I wish : I wish that henceforth everything that I wish will come true." Nothing could be more satisfactory than that. Alas and very sadly alack! we never found the ring, nor did we stumble on the lamp. While fairy godmothers were so numerous in the fairy tales that they trip- ped over one anothe 's wands and got into one another's spells; none came fluttering into our lives. No. And no fairy queens either; and no dwarfs to whom we could give a glass of water and who would reward us with jewels that would pop out of our mouths every time we uttered the most <)om- monplace statement. (Most of us were not sure that that would be an unmixed bless- ing. Imagine making some simple remark over the soup and being obliged to fish two or three diamonds and a half-dozen rubies from among the alphabet noodles.) Now fairy tales are, experience teaches us, remarkably true. As life goes on they -3- have a way of becoming realities. They are the stories that men built up out ot their desires. And God does not give right desires, even desires that may seem a lit- tle selfish, without meaning in some way to fulfill them. Sudden Light So one day it suddenly dawns upon every follower of Christ that he wears a wishing ring on his finger. More than that; he comes to the astounding but entirely pleas- urable realization that his "wish that every wish he wishes come true" is quite within the realities. Yes, he wears a wishing ring, and he can be certain that every wish properly made will be fulfilled. The most instinctive gesture when one wants something very badly is to fold one's hands. As one pleads for a thing, one rubs those hands together feverishly. In real distress one wrings one's hands violently. Well when a man folds his hands in prayer, rubs them feverishly together as he pleads with God, begs so hard that he actually seems to wring his hands, he can actually believe that he wears a wishing ring upon his finger and that what he prays for will surely be granted. Certainty For attached to prayer is a promise that makes real and certain our desire that everything we wish come true. Attached to prayer is the glorious promise made by Christ, a promise to which we pay 80 littlE' -4- attention, even though it actually is the fulfillment of our childlike dream, a dream from which, as a matter of fact, we never awake. "Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name," said Christ Jesus, "He will give you." That is the most remarkable promise that God on earth could have made. Equlv· alently it is as if Christ had said: "On your finger I am placing a magic ring. Rub it through devout prayer, and your wishes will be fulfilled." It is like the appearance of Christ as an incredibly powerful bene- factor who says with a vast, sweeping in- clusiveness, "Henceforth anything that you ask, you may be assured with certainty will be yours." Christ Insists Christ evidently meant to be insistent on this power of prayer. He wanted to re- assure a doubting world that God was more anxious to fulfill the wishes of men than men actually were to present their wishes to Him. He seemed to insist that all that was lacking was man's willingness to ask. About the Heavenly Father's willingness to give there could not be the slightest doubt. Would men ask? So elsewhere He repeated on more than one occasion: "Ask and it shall be given you . . . that your joy may be full." He used other comparisons. He begged us to knock so that the welcoming door of God's generous house would be opened to us. He -6- Instructed us to seek for what we want; If we sought it where all riches are to be found, in the great heart of our generous Father, we should find all we are look- ing for. And Smiles Indeed Christ on one occasion seems to have treated the subject with delightful humor . It was as if He thought the im- portance and value of prayer so worth stressing that He would point it with laughter. He tells the story of the well- to-do householder who turns in for the night. His doors are locked. His cup- boards are closed. He is deep in his flrst slumbers, and all his servants are safely tucked into bed. But his next-door neighbor has had an unexpected guest. The visitor is fresh from the road and consequently hungry. Unfortunately the neighbor finds himself without even a loaf of bread to slice for his uninvited guest. So he comes to the door of his well-to-do friend and pounds for ad- mittance. We can imagine the sleepy man awak- ened by the noise of the pounding. He rolls in annoyance and tries to sleep. The noise continues. Finally in anger he gets up and leans out of an upper window. The neighbor explains that he simply must have some bread. The aroused householder glares at him and shouts back the quite obvious answer. "Don't you see that the house is locked and my servants are in -6- bed and you've just pulled me out of a deep sleep? No; I will not go down, open up my chests, rummage around in the dark, and get you and your bothersome guest food. Not at this hour of the night. Now get away and let me sleep!" Whereupon he stumbles angrily back to bed. Persistence Wins With amusing persistence the neighbor declines to give up. He has come for those . loaves, and he's going to get them no mat- ter what the man thinks. So he pounds again. This time the householder Is furi- ous. He rises and threatens violence. Again he climbs into bed, and we can imagine him pulling the bed clothing up over his ears. No use. The neighbor continues to pound, to hammer on the door with his fist, to demand the bread, to make sleep impos- sible for both the householder and his servants, until in sheer desperation the sleepy man gets out of bed, fumbles with the lamp, crawls down the dark stairs, gets out the loaves, opens the door, dumps them Into the waiting arms of his neighbor, and cries, "Get off and let me sleep!" Triumphantly the neighbor, his arms filled with loaves, marches home. If he couldn't get his friend to give the food out of friendship, he had made it so uncom- fortable for him that he gave it for the sake of peace and a little sleep. -7- Bother God There was-we can be quite sure of it-a smile on the lips of Christ as He drew the conclusion. "If you, being evil, do these things, what shall your Father, being good . And it is not likely that any of the lis- teners ever forgot Christ's suggestion that, when they wanted something badly enough, they were wise to keep pounding at the gates of heaven until they got what they wanted. Christ seemed with delightful humor to urge them, if need be, "to bother" God. Christ So Acted That was the theory of prayer as Christ laid it ·down again and again in His teach- ing. His practice as the generous God-man who gave His beloved brothers and sisters anything they might need, even if it was His life's blood, was a continuous confirma- tion of His teaching. The most obvious fact in the whole Gospel is that no one ever asked Christ for anything without getting an immediate response. "Lord, my ~ervant is ill." "I will come and heal Him." . . . "Lord, my daughter lieth sick." "Take me to her." Lepers silently stood by the wayside asking for a cure. They received it. Nicodemus came by night asking for truth. He went away, his mind filled with the most glorious truths. The multitude OD the hillside looked up at Him hungrily ; He fed their souls with the glorious Sermon on the Mount and then fed their bodies -8- with the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Only once did He seem even to hesitate. That was when the pagan woman sought a cure. He feigned for the moment to turn away, as if unwilling to grant her request. But she knew His heart. Perhaps she had even, from the outskirts of some crowd, heard His delightful parable of the house- holder roused from sleep and angrily sling- ing at his neighbor the bread he demanded. She pressed Him. She kept on begging. He needed only one more request. The miracle was hers, and the cure had been wrought. Certainly if the life of Christ indicated anything, it indicated very clearly that Christ was far more eager to give than men were to ask. This is significant, for we know that the life of the Savior was lived in fulfillment of just what He knew His Father wanted Him to do. The Certain Power With years in the practice of one's re- ligion there grows a deepened belief in the power of prayer. At first we accept on faith the promise that whatsoever we ask will be given to us. Gradually we get to feel that it is a truth we can prove from experience. Prayer is infallibly answered; that is all there is to it. People pray, and God listens. People present their needs, and God removes those needs. They place their requests at the feet of God, and God grants them. -9- Contest In fact a man who prays gets to feel a little like one of the characters in J. M. Barrie's charming book "The Little White Bird." David, the little boy, is with his guardian in Kensington Gardens. David's young friend is playing with him. They are jump.. ing, each trying to outdo the other. The improvised athletic contest interests the guardian, who finally says: "I'll give a shilling to the boy who jumps the farther." They both grit their teeth, exert their young muscles, and jump. David jumps quite a bit farther than his little friend. David looks embarrassed. He wants the shilling very much indeed. But he holds back his hand. Then he shakes his head vigorously. "Sorry, Sir, but I can't take it. You see, sir, I cheated." "Cheated?" His guardian is dumbfounded. "Why, David, you couldn't h ave cheated. I watched you both. You tried fairly and won fairly." "No, sir," David replies. "I cheated. was bound to win. You see, before I jumped, I prayed." Glorious Cheati ng And as life goes on, the man who prays begins to feel that he, like young David, has, in a kind of glorious way, cheated. Like -10- the ancient David, he has winged his peb- ble with the power of God. He has fought life's battle with the backing of invisible legions of angels. Life has been a success in all the finest sense of success, because God has been on his side. Prayer has made him stronger than the strongest Of his ad- versaries_ Prayer has been the unseen power that drove through the impregnable obstacles and scaled the insurmountable walls. The Murderer and the Nun Some few years ago the country was shocked by an appalling murder. A young man killed a little girl in a most bestial way. The lad's relatives called upon a young attorney to handle the case. Almost reluctantly the attorney took it, though the murderer's chances were zero and the at- torney had to leave his home city to de- fend him. Before he left, he called on his sister, a nun who because of ill health had for a time been relieved of active duty. He told her of the case and how slight the chances were of winning it. The sister smiled and said: "Do what you can for the boy. And if you can't save his life, maybe you can save his soul." The young attorney almost laughed aloud. "That sort of murderer? Why he has no morals and certainly no faith. What can I do for his soul?" -11- "Try," said the nun. "You work on the case. I'll pray for his soul." The attorney found the lad's case utterly desperate. He refused to cooperate. He was sullell and bitter. He was clearly guilty and quite callous both to his crime and the consequences that lay ahead. The attorney did his best, but the idea of doing some- thing for the murderer's soul persisted in his consciousness. Pious idea, he thought; but what's the use of wasting time on it? Victory The case swept along to a certain con- clusion. The murderer sat sullenly through the lawyers' duels. Witnesses piled up facts. He didn't care. He made no effort to face either the present or the future. But the nun prayed for the criminal who did not pray for himself. Then one evening he sent for his lawyer. His whole manner and attitude had changed. He sat quietly and almost with a smile. "I just sent for you," he said, "because I don't want you to push my case. I want to die. I did it, and the least I can now do is to give my life to God as a return tor my crime." The young attorney looked at him in astonishment. A return to God? "Would you mind getting me a priest?" A priest came. The young murderer took religious instructions, became a Catholic, took his sentence of death with a gesture -12- of willing submission, and walked up the gallows steps into the presence of a for· giving God. The nun had obtained just an· other of the countless miracles of prayer. Across the Table Across the operating table from the nun stood a surgeon. They had worked together for years, this famed surgeon and the nun who handled his more difficult cases. As they operated, the doctor would often look up at her quizzically and say: "Funny, sister, but in all our operations we've never yet found a soul, have we?" The nun always replied, simply: "We'll find yours before you die, doctor. You can't get away. I'm praying for you." To which he had one stock answer: "You'd better save your prayers for some· one that's a possibility. I'm not." He left for a holiday and, after the lapse of a few days, the word came back to his hospital that he had suddenly been taken violently ill and had died. The nun went to the chapel and made her great act of faith: "I'm sure, dear Lord, that you saved his soul. At the end you gave him the faith." And then, womanlike, she added: "But could you let me know for certain?" God did let her know. After a few hours the word came. He had been taken to a hos pital run by nuns; he himself sent for the priest. He had been baptized, received the last sacraments, and died. -13- In the chapel the nun who had prayed knelt again, this time in gratitude. "Thank you, dear Lord, for his soul," she said. Another miracle of prayer was counted up. Instances Pile Up As a priest moves through life he comes constantly in contact with these miracles of prayer: Men becoming Catholics as the re- sult of lifetime of prayer by a devoted wife; apparently hopeless illnesses turned, with miraculous speed and completeness, from their normal course back to health; careers shaped toward success as a result of a retreat spent before the careers were entered upon; dangers sharply deflected; death stayed as if by a lifted hand; difl'l- culties swept away whose solutions seemed absolutely beyond human power; success caught up out of certain failure. From experience the priest grows to feel more and more certain that Christ made no idle promise when He said: "If you ask the Fathe'r any thing in my name, He will give it you." Gradually he becomes convinced, by a \rind of experimental proof, of the power ~f prayer and God's infallible answer to prayer that comes from deep faith and childlike confidence. Prayer cannot fail. It Doesn't Work At this point the individual is likely to tlnter a -protest. -14- "That's not true. I asked for that im- portant favor, and I didn't get it. I've been praying for this grace for years, and God has not answered. I know a wife who prayed all her life for the conversion of her husband, and he died without the sac- raments. We can see all around us that God does not answer prayers." God does not always give people the thing for which they pray. That is .obvious. In fact it is wonderfully fortunate for us that He does not. Besides, God does not always let us know that our prayers are answered. He leaves in some cases the full answer to be learned in eternity. Yet His promise remains. He will answer all prayer. In fact it might be clearer if we re- worded slightly the truth that God grants whatever we ask. It might be better if we put it this way: No prayer is ever wasted. Every prayer is heard. We may be abso- lutely certain that if we ask anything from God, He will give us what we ask or some- thing better. "But I Want This" At that, something like a groan arises from human hearts. So that's the joker. We ask for something. We don't get it. We get something better. "Who," protests the person who wants this particular thing very, very much, "who wants something better? I want this thing I am asking for. I don't want any substitutes. I want just -15- this , and God is not answering my prayer if He gives me, not what I ask for, but some- thing that He thinks is better." How lucky it is for us that God does not always give us what we ask for. We should be in the worst possible position if we could control what comes to us along life's way. For we cannot see the future. We have no real way of knowing what is going to be for our good. When it comes to pick- ing things for ourselves, it is astounding how badly we pick and how mistakenly we plan. On the other hand the thing we did not want or plan or expect may be exactly the blessing that makes us wonderfully happy and remarkably fortunate. God Knows Best God sees the future. When I lay a re- quest at His feet, He might be quite the cruelest of beings if He granted it. The man on whom this young woman has set her heart might, if she married him, turn out to be the very person who would wreck her life. Health at this moment may seem enormously important. Yet sickness may be (as experience has shown it to be in thousands of cases) the blessing which crowns life with its richest achievements. Wealth or success may sometimes bless a life; there are times when, if it were given in answer to prayer, either wealth or suc- cess would wreck a life, spoil a home, drag children down into ruined lives, and destroy a family. -16- Parable Let's put the case in the form of a para- ble, a parable which illustrates the dif- ference between the future as we see it and as God, who sometimes loves us too much to grant our request, sees it. The important government eleetion is just ahead. Two candidates are running, and the fight between them is intensely bitter. The mother of one of the candidates is a devoted Catholic, and her heart is set upon seeing her son successful. He has been a grand young man who moved along in his career honestly and honorably and with the success that he won only by his elo- quence and brilliance of ability. His op- ponent, on the other hand, is a notorious grafter, a man who is sold out to the worst elements of the community. So, as the election draws near, the mother goes to the neighboring church and kneels before the Blessed Sacrament. "Lord, Jesus Christ," she prays, "you promised that whatever we asked the Fa- ther in your name would be granted. Now I am asking this in your name. My son must be elected. I can't bear to see his opponent victorious. I ask in your name that my son may win." On leaving the church she feels abso- lutely confident that her prayer will be granted. Failure The day of the election comes. Her SOD Is defeated by the slightest of margins. -17- Quite clearly trickery and corruption have settled the election. Her prayer has been beaten by the crookedness of gang poli- ticians. Her son has lost by a tew hundred votes because he is honest, and in spite of her prayer. She walks back into the church, and this time she stands. She looks up at the taber- nacle and cries: "So that is the way you keep your prom· ise. Never again will I believe in the power of prayer. You have deceived me. You did not keep your word." The day of the inauguration dawns. The mother and her son stand on a balcony overlooking the line of march. Bitterness is in her heart and fierce resentment, al· most less against the victorious candidate than against the God who has failed to answer her prayers. Down the street comes the motorcycle escort. Then the militia and the uniformed marchers. Finally the open car in which rides the man who has tricked her son out of office, smiling and lifting his hat to the crowds who acclaim him. The Answer The car reaches the balcony. The mother's arm tightens reassuringly around the shoulders of her son. She so hates all that the man in the motor stands tor! Suddenly there is a little flurry in the crowd. A man cuts out, leaps onto the steps ot the automobile, and, before anyone -18- T , can make a move, empties an automatic into the body of the man in the car. With· out a sound the victorious candidate slumps forward and slips to the floor. The police rush forward, their clubs swinging wildly at the head of the madman who has killed the winning candidate not because he par- ticularly disliked him but because in his insanity he hated all government and any man who ruled. And the woman on the balcony catches her son to her heart in an agony of fear and a quick spasm of gratitude. The crowd pays no attention to the door of the house that opens nor to the slightly wild-eyed woman who crushes her way through them toward the church. She flings herself down on her knees be- fore the tabernacle. "0 Lord Jesus," she cries, "my thanks to you for answering my prayer, not in my way, but in yours. How terrible if you had let him win and I should thus have lost him. I prayed for a winning candidate, and instead you have given me a living son." We Can't Foresee We are so completely ignorant of the fu- ture that we are often praying for the suc- cess of someone who, if our prayer were answered in the form in which we put it, would be thereby doomed to lifelong misery and eternal failure. We ask for what would be the worst things we could possibly have. -19- l But God mercifully refuses to grant us our request. It would be cruel and brutal if He did not refuse. That does not mean that our prayer is wasted. It simply means that it has been transferred to some other account. Instead of giving us what we ask, God gives us what is really for our good. Any other course would be out of keeping with the goodness of God and His fatherly interest in His children. Hence the man who wisely makes any request of God always adds, either in words or in the sentiment of his will: "I am ask· ing this, with submission of course to your knowledge of whether or not it is a good thing for me to have. If it isn't, I will be quite content with whatever you send as a sUbstitute." That is only the commonest of common sense. It is the mere admis- sion that we can't see the future and that we have the most surprising faculty for setting our hearts on what is going to be terribly bad for us. Nor Always See God does not always let us see the re- sults of our prayers. There is no simple process like putting a nickel in the slot and getting the article we want. God tests our faith, as God invariably tests the faith of His friends. He does not always answer prayer visibly. People die without any sign of conversion. The prayers for their con- version are not lost. That we shall find in eternity. "Whatsoever you ask ... " Christ -20- said; and here we are praying for some· thing that is clearly good. Of course God cannot force even the conversion of a man. But we can be absolutely sure that the man got grace and that God has cared for his soul. Our act of confidence in God is the magnificent tribute of a child to the Father, whose word he accepts even when he has, as in this case, no clear proof that the word has been carried out. Prayer is never wasted, never lost, if it is said with the proper dispositions of heart. Unfortunately prayers are often said as if they were a series of formulas possess· ing magic properties. Such prayer is so lacking in the essentials of a decent request that if it were addressed to a fellow man it simply could not be granted. Sincerity Prayer must be sincere. We must really want the thing for which we ask. Sur· prisingly enough we frequently do not. That is especially true when people pray to be delivered from some insistent 'tempta· tion. They pray, "Lead us not into temJ)- tation," but they are mentally adding, "However, don't take me too seriouslY, Lord. It's true, I don't want to be led into temptation in this sense: I don't want to fall . But temptation is rather exciting, a bit of an adventure, and I'll play around a bit, if you don't mind. Just see to it that I don't commit serious sin. I don't want to get into real trouble. Lead me not into -21- temptation, but do let me have a little fun playing around on its fringes." Well there is nothing surprising about their fall. The surprise would be if they didn't fall. They never really wanted the thing they prayed for. They were quite fond of temptation. "Let God Do It" So too you'll find people praying for someone's conversion, or for success in examinations, or for the triumphant out- come of some enterprise. They want this favor. Yes, they think they really do. But what they mean is simply this: "I want it, Lord, enough to let you take it in hand and do it for me. But if you expect me to lend my shoulder to the job- Well I don't want it that much." God would be de- lighted to bring about this conversion if He saw the person who is praying for it doing anything to help the conversion along. He would give real light in examina- tions if He saw the student making any serious effort to master the subject. He would be delighted to crown with success an enterprise in which He saw this person taking enough interest to work hard and use the ordinary decent means that are necessary to promote its success. Cooperate, Not Substitute But if the person is not interested enough to make some effort himself toward getting the thing he asks, he really doesn't want -22- It. The fat man sitting at the table gorging himself and then lolling back in an arm chair has no business lifting his eyes to God and saying, "Please reduce my waist- line." Really he only thinks he wants a reduced waistline; he wants it only if God will substitute a miracle for diet and exer- cise. The student who loafs through a semester and then spends an hour before the Blessed Sacrament, begging for an A in lis subject, isn't fooling God. He really doesn't want what he asks for; at least he doesn't want it enough to do anything but substitute one hour of prayer for two hours of hard study each night. We prove that we want a tWng by using the normal means of getting it. God co- operates with the man and the woman who combine effort with prayer. God never ex- pected to substitute a series of miracles for the work declined by the lazy person who puts the whole burden on God's shoulders. Convinced If we expect our petition to be answered, we must come convinced that God answers prayer. Imagine a man approaching a friend and saying: "Now I'm going to ask you to do tws for me, but I realize it's just a waste of time. You are not going to do it for me; I'm sure of that." The friend would be so insulted that ten to one he'd turn on his heel and walk away. We don't prelude a request with an insult. -23- Yet that . is a not uncommon approach we make to God. "God, I'm asking you for this, but I hardly expect to get it. Maybe you'll give it to me, but I'm not too hope- ful." Old Tale There is the famous old story of the woman who read that if a person had faith enough he could say to a mountain, "Re- move yourself," and the mountain would obey. She decided that this would remedy a situation that she found very annoying. A neighbor had a tree that hung far over the fence into her yard. It was an old tree, and it constantly rained leaves and twigs and bark into her trim little garden. Moreover its shade was so dense that where the shadow fell upon her garden nothing could grow. So she decided to see what faith could do. Standing at the window, she looked out into the yard and focused all her powers upon the ottending tree. "Humph!" "Lord," she said, "you promised that. if we had faith enough, we could move moun- tains. I have faith enough. I have so much faith that I am saying to that tree: 'Re- move yourself to the other side of that neigh::'or's yard.' Lord, I believe you'll do it. When I awake tomorrow, I expect to find the tree entirely removed. That's how strong my faith Is." -24- She slept peacefully and awoke in the morning. Her first act was to rush to the window to see the efrect of her faIth on the tree. The tree was exactly where it had · been the preceding night, still dropping twigs and heavy shade into her garden. Her faith had not worked. She gazed in disgust for a minute, and then she snorted. "Humph!" she said. "That's just what I expected." Prelude With Insult Too, too many of us start our prayer with the insulting prelude: "I'm asking this, but if you don't give it to me, that's just about what I expect." In that case it would be a miracle if God did work against our in- credulity. Even Christ did not perform His miracles in those cities which refused Him their faith. Recurrently in the gospel we find that in certain places He did no heal- ings and performed no wonders "because of their lack of faith." God can hardly be expected to answer the prayer of a person who really does not believe that God an- swers prayer. Asking God to SIn It is astonishing to find people praying to God for things which are wrong and sinful. That always sounds a little like the ignorant brigands who came to the priest to ask him to bless the daggers they meant to use in assassinating their ene- mies. -25- 1t is really only fair that a man stop to inspect the morality of the favor he is ask- ing God. Is there anything wrong or sinful in what he asks? He may be asking God to become partner in a shady business enterprise and to bless with success a dishonest deal. She may be asking God to facilitate are· lationship that is not pure or to prosper a love affair that is far from honorable and fine. Is there on his own part an honorable intention in what he does? Does he ask this because he feels it will be for the good of himself and of others? So much of motive, good and bad, is mixed into everything we do. The young woman who prays for a fur coat because she has grown fiercely jealous of her rival may think she needs the fur coat to keep her warm. She is really ask- ing God to wrap it around her jealousy. A young man who asks for success in an · examination because he wants to strut be- fore the college as the chap with the big brain is hardly asking God to further a noble ambition. Hence it is a good idea to ask oneself why one wants this or that favor. God can hardly be expected to further our vanities and our selfish ambitions. He would be a poor sort of father if He did. "Gimme" ·What, I ask myself, will I myself do with this thing if I get it? Often enough, like -26- children, we reach out our hands for things which, if we got them, we should find useless. The "gimmes" are the commonest of human diseases. Just the desire to have, to get, to possess, dominates so much ot our striving. If the already attractive girl begs God to make her hair curly, if the millionaire torments God for a few extra millions, if the man and the woman who have much pester God for more-for things they don't want and can't really use-they are just imposing on His goodness. An honest investigation of what we ask of God might make us more than a little ashamed of the selfishness and self-seeking and petty greed and vanity that inspire a great many of the requests that bring us running prayerfully to God. If parents often smile ill amusement at the requests of their children, and if later on they come to marvel that children can keep asking for so much and developing such a series of de- mands, we cannot help but wonder what God thinks of the clamors and petitions and petty grabbings of His children. Even to the Ungrateful We have no record that Christ ever re- fused a miracle because He knew that people would fail to thank Him. He cured the ten lepers, though He was fully aware that only one of them would return. His miracles were for all men, though only twelve men threw in their lives with His cause, and none of these twelve men had - 27- He touched wit,h the deep benefit of a miracle. So probably God will go on granting His generous answers to prayer even when those who receive the favors never so much as toss Him a nod of thanks. But have you ever stopped to figure how many people promise the most extraordinary things if God will give them this or that? And once they have received this or that, and frequently these and those as well, they give their, promise not a second thought. They promise novenas of thanksgiving, Masses to be said at definite altars, acts of charity and mortification - anything they think will add a sort of bribery to their prayers. They get their request, and they pay none of their debts. Or they stop pay- ment after a few paltry installments. How many unpaid debts must be written in the accounting books of God! Forgetful Promises are easily forgotten. That is not surprising. But the crass ingratitude that accompanies and follows our prayers is simply astounding. The fervor with which we pray is usually matched by the complete coldness that follows God's grant- ing of our request. We weary ourselves and, as far as we can, God Himself with our demands. God is surely never exhausted by the vehemence of our gratitude. ' Probably God does not hold this against His thoughtless children. Parents continue -28- to btl generous even to selfish boys and girls. Yet even a generous parent in time grows a little weary of hearing nothing but requests that are never followed by even a look of gratitude. And one cannot but feel that God must give His favors to the un- grateful, if not reluctantly, then at least far, far less willingly than to those who thank Him sincerely and from their hearts. "In My Name" Christ uses the expression "Ask in my name." When the phrase "In the name of" pre- cedes a proper name, that name has a special significance. We learn that when Ethan Allen stormed the British fort at Ticonderoga he thundered on the gates with, "Open in the name of Jehovah and the Continental Congress." By which he meant that back of him and his ragged men he felt he had the power of God and the might of the newly united states battling for their Uberty. "In the name of Christ thy Son" is not then just a formula. It is not something to be rattled off thoughtlessly and casually. The Church uses the phrase in aU her im- portant prayers. At Mass the great prayers end with the invocation "Through Christ Our Lord: Amen." The meaning of this is clear. Those who pray feel that back of the prayers and the petition are the power and approval of Jesus Christ. They ask, not of themselves alone, but in partnership with -29- the Son of God, whom the Heavenly Father cannot refuse. The man who prays and calls upon the name of Christ really enters into a sort of partnership with Jesus. "Heavenly Father, I ask thee tor the conversion of my wife, through Christ thy Son." And Partnership There is tremendous meaning in this. Says the man: "I am asking for the con- version of my wife, and I'm doing this in partnership with Christ. More; I am asking Christ to intercede for me. He loves souls. He died for souls. He wants the soul of my wife. So I feel safe in asking Him to intercede with you, Heavenly Father, to win this soul for His cause." Naturally then, when we ask Christ to cooperate with us in gaining a request, we must regard the request as something im· portant. We must see in it something significant enough to be of concern to Christ. We should almost be able to recog- nize it as one of the things which were close to the heart of the Savior. Of Real Concern That is broader than it first may sound. All that works for the salvation of souls, Christ wanted and wants. What concerns human happiness is dear to Him. The peace and joy of His followers, their health and prosperity in so far as these do not inter- -30- rere with their eternal destiny are His concern. So there is a wide sweep to those interests we may safely take to Christ. Broad indeed are the concerns into which we may invite the partnership and coopera- tion of the Savior of the world. It does seem a little absurd, though, to invite Christ to cooperate with us in ob- taining some trifling favor. The girl who prays that a night at the party will be full of suitors is a quite natural girl. The girl who prays that Christ may safeguard her from sinning or being the occasion of sin to anyone at the party is praying according to the heart of Christ. The young man who prays that dad will let him have the car tonight is really involving the God-man in pretty trifling business. The young man who, as he starts a motor trip, prays that he may return safely and in the grace of God brings to the attention of Christ some- thing that interests Him enormously. He Is Interested Still it will not do to restrict this too narrowly. God is interested in us with a fatherly interest, and what may be trifles in themselves matter to a father if they are of even passing concern to his chil- dren. Christ is our elder brother, and fine elder brothers don't regard as trivial and frivolous anything that engrosses the inter- est or enthusiasm or inspires the fear and causes the worry of their little brothers and sisters. We are safe in trusting our affairs, -31- all of them, to God. As we grow In wIs- dom, we are more likely to judge what is important and what is too trifling to engross our interests or to call to the attention of the God of heaven and earth. "Magic Formulas" In all this the difference between real prayer of petition and the spiritual "magic formulas" must be clear. Quite a bit of superstition sometimes creeps into the lives of very good people. They hear some- where that if you say such and such a prayer for thirty days you'll get whatever you ask. A novena to such a saint is sure to get a husband. A definite prayer to this apostle works like the hocus-pocus of a magician and pulls money out of empty hats. If you say a certain prayer in a cer- tain way every night, you can go pretty, much to the dogs and yet in the end the formula will work and you'll be snatched from the burning. It isn't particularly a matter of prayer, they tell you, but of a par- ticular prayer; the quality of the prayer, its faith and intensity, is not important, but its quantity is essential. . God never promised that He would an- swer a petition just because it was backed by a certain prayer, however lovely, said a definite number of times. There 1s no magic charm attached to a formula that is repeated a mystic number of times. There is room here for dangerous superstition. Quite obviously there are prayers so -32- worded, either by Christ Himself or the Church or holy men, that they powerfully and beautifully present our needs to God. They say eloquently what we ourselves might say falteringly. The repetition of these prayers is efficacious, not because they have some mysterious power coming from the telling off of a mystic number of prayers, but because each time they are said the petition is expressed forcefully and with a deepening impression on the person who makes it. Spirit Counts It is the intensity of the spirit back of the prayer that matters. A prayer of peti- tion may be said only once and yet be said with such faith and desire that it is suf- ficient to move the heart of God. A formula may be thoughtlessly repeated a hundred times, some beautiful prayer may be rattled off seven times seven or nine times nine, without any effect whatsoever. It is not said with faith, with hope, with real desire, and with a remembrance that we are calling In as our ally and intercessor the Christ in whose name prayer must be recited if it is to be efficacious. Power God has given to men a powerful force In prayer. Modern Protestantism of the liberal stripe has often taken the attitude that prayer is really a sort of release for the soul. It is a consoling thing, they main- -33- tain, for a man to ease his mind by talking about his soul or his needs. But prayer, they insIst, has no real force or efficacy. It does not reach God. Even if it did, it would not move Him. That is not what Christ taught. He taught that through prayer we could ask for every gift, whether it be the Holy Spirit -the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity- or the daily bread upon our tables. We could use prayer to storm heaven and secure its treasures from God's willing surrender. With prayer we could pound at the heart of God and win admission. Prayer was long enough to reach to eternity. It was strong enough to win the alliance of God's angels and saints. It was persuasive enough to influence God in man's favor. And through it we could win untold graces and bless· ings and favors for ourselves and for the whole human race. Certainly we can hardly be grateful enough to the merciful God, who has given us this power. We can do no less than use the power as r eadily as He would have us use it, and with that power win for ourselves the things that make life happy and eternity sure. For All But a deeper insight into prayer at once inspires us with unselfish courage. We will use this power for others. We can pray for the whole world. Far from hugging this powerful gift to our own hearts, we will use it to win blessings for the world that -34- does not pray, forgiveness for sinners who do not ask forgiveness, faith for those who have never heard the name of Christ or who have heard it only to turn away to life's trivial pursuits, strength and God's willing assistance for aU mankind. But one thing is sure, however we use prayer: Prayer was meant by Christ to be the source of God's countless gifts to men. And prayers are answered. We have Christ's infallible promise for that. Our knowledge of the fatherly heart of our God assures us of that. The experience of ad· vancing years proves that nothing is truer. God's part is clear. The only thing that remains is for us to use the power of prayer as Christ meant us to do. That way lies riches for our souls and blessings for our bodies, peace and grace for our dear ones and salvation for the world. That is the way by which we march into the treasure house of God, that house that is held open in expectation of our prayerful coming. -35- You'll Want to Read These Pamphlets, Too! • WHY BE DECENT? OF DIRTY STORIES SPEAKING OF BIRTH CONTROL YOUTH SAYS: THESE ARE GOOD MANNERS OUR PRECIOUS BODIES WHAT TO DO ON A DATE WHY BE A WALLFLOWER? • Single copy, 10c (by mail 12c) 25 for $2 .25 50 for $4.00 100 for $7.00 • THE QUEEN'S WORK 3742 W . 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