/IYER ^ 
 
 m 
 
r 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 University of California. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 ..^.JXJUL-cLir-rt, LJ(\JU\ajUL^ 
 
 
 Class 
 
 
 
 
 
h 
 
P R AYE R 
 
 TAB 
 
 KEY OF SALVATION. 
 
 BY 
 
 MICHAEL MULLER, C. SS. R. 
 
 ^priest of the Congregation of ibt Post $)olg Hcbcenur. 
 
 "Amen, amen I say to you: If you ask the Father anything in My name, 
 He will give it you. Hitherto you have not asked anything in My name. 
 Aak, and youjshall receive; that your joy may be full."— Johk xvi., 23, 24. 
 
 BALTIMORE: 
 KELLY AND PIET, 
 
 174 Baltimore Street. 
 
 1868. 
 

 (Imprimatur: 
 
 MART1NU8 JOANNES, 
 
 Archbishop Balto. 
 
 Die 22 October, 1867. 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 
 
 Very Rev. Joseph Helmpraeciit, C. SS. R., Provincial, 
 
 ,In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 
 District of Maryland. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ^rjlHE Jews, therefore, murmured at Him, be- 
 -L cause He had said : I am the living bread 
 which came down from heaven." (John vi. 41.) 
 " This murmuring at the doctrine of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ is," says St.Cyrillus, "the inheritance which 
 was bequeathed to the Jews by their forefathers, who 
 lived at the time of Moses." Would to God that 
 this inheritance had been transmitted to the Jews 
 only ; but, alas ! there is no class of men which is 
 free from such murmurers. Our Lord's doctrine is 
 murmured at by infidels when they hear Him say : 
 " He that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark 
 xvi. 16) .... " because he believeth not in the 
 name of the only begotten Son of God." (John iii. 
 18.) The doctrine of our Lord is murmured at by 
 Protestants, when He declares : " Not every one 
 that saith to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of My 
 Father who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven." (Matt. vii. 21.) The will of 
 God has not been taught by Luther, or Calvin, or 
 Henry VIII., or John Wesley, or by another man 
 who invented certain doctrines, and founded a sect 
 
 IfifiHSI 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 according to his own private notions, but it has 
 been taught by Me, the Son of God, Who have 
 charged Peter and his lawful successors to do the 
 same. Upon him I have built My Church ; to him 
 and his lawful successors I have said : " He who 
 heareth you heareth Me, and he that despiseth you 
 despiseth Me, and he who despiseth Me despiseth 
 Him that sent Me." One who does not do this will 
 be condemned. " There is a way (the Protestant 
 religion) that seemeth to a man right, and the ends 
 therefore lead to death." (Prov. xvi. 25.) Sinners 
 murmur when our Blessed Saviour preaches: "I 
 say to you that unless you shall do penance, you 
 shall all likewise perish." (Luke xiii. 3.) The 
 rich also complain, when He threatens " Woe to you 
 that are rich, for you have your consolation." 
 (Luke vi. 24.) The poor are dissatisfied when He 
 teaches : " Blessed are the poor in spirit." (Math. 
 v. 3.) The learned reject His doctrine when he 
 warns : " Amen I say to you : unless you be con- 
 verted and become as little children, you shall not 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Math, xviii. 
 3.) The young are displeased when He exclaims : 
 " Woe to you that now laugh, for you shall mourn 
 and weep." (Luke vi. 25.) Those who are tempted 
 or afflicted, murmur when He exhorts them by His 
 words and example: " Not my will but Thine be 
 done." (Luke xxii. 42.) The lukewarm are dis- 
 pleased when He tells them : " Because thou art 
 
PREFACE. O 
 
 lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to 
 vomit thee out of My mouth." (Apoc. iii. 16.) Fi- 
 nally, the greater part of men murmur at our Lord, 
 when He teaches : " The kingdom of heaven sufFer- 
 eth violence and the violent bear it away." (Matt, 
 xi. 12.) They complain with the unfaithful disci- 
 ples of our Lord, " these are hard sayings who can 
 hear them." (John vi. 61.) 
 
 There are still many, it is true, who will say with 
 St. Peter and the other Apostles : " Lord, to whom 
 shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life, 
 and we have believed and have known that Thou 
 art Christ the Son of God." (John vi. 69, 70.) But 
 how many, even among these, will murmur, not 
 indeed at Christ's doctrine, but at heretics, unbe- 
 lievers and great sinners? How many are there 
 who, like the Apostles, not knowing of what spirit 
 they are, wish that fire should come down from 
 heaven to consume them (Luke ix. 54, 55), for not 
 believing, in spite of so many miracles and evident 
 proofs, confirming the truth of the Catholic reli- 
 gion ? To all these our Lord answers with divine 
 sweetness : " Murmur not among yourselves : no 
 man can come to Me, except the Father, who hath 
 sent Me, draw him." (John vi. 44.) As to all 
 those of you, He means to say, who believe in Me 
 and live up to My doctrine, you ought not to mur- 
 mur at infidels, heretics or nominal Christians, on 
 account of their infidelity, false belief or bad life, but 
 1* 
 
t) PREFACE. 
 
 you should remember that faith, especially practical 
 faith, is a supernatural gift of God, and that no one 
 can have true faith in Him unless it is granted by 
 My heavenly Father. Since they are not as yet 
 drawn by the Father, you should not feel indignant 
 or treat them with severity, but rather pray to the 
 Father that He may draw them sweetly, but pow- 
 erfully, by enlightening their understanding to 
 know the true faith, and by exciting their will to 
 embrace it in practice, and thus they will be united 
 with you in the same religion. 
 
 But as to you who do not believe My doctrine, or 
 believe only a part of it, or live not according to it, 
 neither ought you to murmur at Me and My doc- 
 trine or at those who believe truly in Me, be- 
 cause My Father has drawn them. Pray you, 
 too, to My Father that He may draw you also, by 
 removing from your understanding the darkness 
 which prevents you from knowing My Church and 
 the truths she teaches. Pray that He may remove 
 from your heart the coldness and indifference which 
 prevents you from loving the truth, and from your 
 will the reluctance and resistance which prevents 
 you from embracing it. For this purpose, you 
 should often say to God in all sincerity : " Our 
 Father, who art in heaven, if there are still more 
 truths which I must know and practise, in order to 
 be saved, I beseech Thee, for the sake of Jesus 
 Christ, permit me to know them in whatever way it 
 
PREFACE. i 
 
 pleaseth Thee to manifest them to me. Give me a 
 good will that I may embrace them and practise 
 faithfully what they command, until the end of my 
 life." If you pray perseveringly, in this manner, 
 rest assured that you also will be drawn by My 
 Father, to live and die with My true followers in 
 the same faith. All your unjust murmurs and com- 
 plaints would soon be changed into joy, as I have 
 promised when I said : " Ask and you shall receive, 
 that your joy may be full," (John xvi. 24), for My 
 Father "is rich unto all that call upon Him," 
 (Rom. x. 12) in My name, for the sake of which I 
 will grant that life of which I have said: " I am 
 come that they may have life, and have it more 
 abundantly," (John x. 10), hereby My exuberant 
 grace and hereafter by My unspeakable glory. 
 
 This doctrine, of such vital importance for the 
 salvation of mankind, is too seldom preached, little 
 understood, and still less put fn practice, " God 
 thus permitting it," says St. Alphonsus, c< in pun- 
 ishment for the sins of men." 
 
 " And now, brethren, as you are the ancients 
 among the people of God, and their very soul rest- 
 0th upon you, comfort their hearts by your speech" 
 (Judith viii. 21), by explaining to them, as often 
 and as plainly as possible, the great necessity of 
 this doctrine on prayer, as well as the right manner 
 of practising it, in order to derive therefrom all 
 possible advantago. 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 In this book I have tried, my dear reader, to do 
 this ; wherefore, I venture to assert that the reading 
 of it will he more profitable to you than the peru- 
 sal of any other book, for the more you read it the 
 more you will find this assertion to be true. I pray 
 you to read it again and again with great attention, 
 not because it is my production, but because it is a 
 means which God offers you to enable you to attain 
 eternal salvation, thereby giving you to understand 
 that He wishes you to be saved. When you have 
 finished reading this book, induce as many of your 
 friends as you can to read it also. 
 
 You must also thank the Lord for what He 
 teaches you in this book, u for it is a great mercy," 
 says St. Alphonsus, " when He gives the light and 
 grace to pray and to understand the importance of 
 prayer." "Ah, my dear brethren," wrote Pope 
 Celestine to the Bishops of France, "let prayer 
 never leave your hearts, and the grace and mercy 
 of God will never leave your souls. Kest assured 
 that the Lord will never withdraw from you, nor 
 cease to enlighten, guide and protect you as long 
 as you pray to Him. You complain of the diffi- 
 culty of saving your souls in the midst of a corrupt 
 world, in which you are exposed to so many dan- 
 gers. Do you wish to escape them all and to fear 
 none ? Arm yourselves with prayer. Prayer was 
 the daily food and strength of the prophet ; it was 
 his whole delight ; he understood but too well all 
 its advantages." 
 
PROTEST OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 1*N obedience to the decrees of Urban VIII. of holy 
 -*- memory, I protest that I do not intend to attri- 
 bute any other than purely human authority to all 
 the miracles, revelations, graces and incidents con- 
 tained in this book ; neither to the titles holy or 
 blessed applied to the servants of God not yet can- 
 onized, except in cases where these have been con- 
 firmed by the Holy Roman Catholic Church and by 
 the Holy Apostolic See, of whom I profess myself 
 an obedient son ; and, therefore, to their judgment 
 I submit myself and whatever I have written in 
 this book. 
 
O BLATION. 
 
 MY Lord Jesus Christ, behold I offer Thee this little work in 
 union with that unspeakable charity which moved Thee to 
 say: "Whatsoever you ask the Father in My name, that will I 
 do : that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me 
 anything in My name, that I will do." (John xiv. 13, 14.) I 
 offer this book to Thee on the part of all Thy creatures, because 
 it is Thine ineffable tenderness for them which caused Thee to 
 make them so unlimited a promise, thereby to draw them to Thy- 
 self and to unite them to Thee eternally. Take this book, I be- 
 seech Thee, into Thy divine keeping, that it may glorify the om- 
 nipotence of Thy Father, Thy own infinite wisdom and the un- 
 speakable love of the Holy Ghost. I offer it to Thee in fervent 
 thanksgiving for all the graces which Thou hast bestowed or wilt 
 bestow through this little work, even to the end of the world. 
 Place it, I beseech Thee, upon Thy most merciful heart, that every 
 word contained therein may be penetrated with Thy divine sweet- 
 ness, and fertilized by the merits of Thy holy Life and of Thy 
 Five Wounds. Consecrate, by an everlasting benediction, all that 
 is said therein, that it may promote the salvation of those who 
 read it with humble devotion. Inspire them with an irresistible 
 desire of giving themselves up to prayer, that thus may be accom- 
 plished that exceedingly great desire of Thine of manifesting 
 Thyself to them in all Thy eternal goodness and charity ; take 
 them, as it were, into Thy Divine Heart as into a safe harbor of 
 salvation, and breathe into their souls Thy eternal Divine life and 
 truth. 
 
 And as I am an utterly vile and unworthy creature, I offer 
 Thee, in satisfaction for all my deficiencies and omissions, my 
 blindness and ignorance, Thy own sweetest Heart, ever full of 
 Divine thanksgiving and eternal beatitude. 
 
 Dear Mother Mary, do you also pray to your Divine Son for all 
 those who may read this little book. 
 
>>*££ 
 
 CHUE 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Imprimatur 2 
 
 Preface 3 
 
 Protest of the Author 9 
 
 Oblation 10 
 
 Chapter I — On the Necessity of Prayer in General.... 13 
 Chapter II— On the Necessity of Prayer for Sinners... 33 
 Chapter III — On the Necessity of Prayer for the Just 47 
 Chapter IV — On the Necessity of Prayer for Ecclesi- 
 astical Students 6i> 
 
 Chapter V— On the Efficacy of the Prayer of the Just 117 
 Chapter VI — On the Conditions and Qualities of Prayer 140 
 i — The Object of our Prayer must be Law- 
 ful 141 
 
 ii — Our Prayer must be Humble 160 
 
 m — Our Prayer must be Fervent 165 
 
 iv — Our Prayer must be followed by Amend- 
 ment of Life 177 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter VI — v — Our Prayer must be United with For- 
 giveness of Injuries 187 
 
 vi — Our Prayer must be United with 
 
 Good Works 194 
 
 vn — Our Prayer must be Confident 200 
 
 vin — Our Prayer must be Persevering.... 231 
 Chapter VII — How to Acquire the Spirit of Prayer. . . 239 
 
 Chapter VIII — Eulogium on Prayer 260 
 
 Prayer — To Obtain the Grace of being Constant in 
 
 Prayer 265 
 
 Prayer — To be said every day, to obtain the Graces 
 
 Necessary for Salvation 267 
 
 Prayer of Chlodwig, (Clovis,) 270 
 
 Prayer for Guidance into Truth 271 
 
 Ejaculation 272 
 
TREATISE ON PRAYER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OX TUE NECESSITY OF PRAYER IN GENERAL. 
 
 THERE is an important truth, of which thou- 
 sands of men are ignorant ; or, if they know it, 
 they reflect upon it seldom and with little fruit. 
 Yet, the knowledge of this truth is almost as neces- 
 sary for those who have attained the age of reason, 
 as it is for them to know that there is only one God 
 in three Persons, and that the Second Person became 
 man to redeem and save us. The importance and ne- 
 cessity of this great truth seem to be a mystery, not 
 to heathens, Jews, and heretics only, but also to the 
 art of Christians, nay, even to many of 
 those who have especially consecrated themselves to 
 We often hear in sermons and read in pious 
 books of the necessity of avoiding bad company, of 
 hating sin, of forgiving injuries, and of being re- 
 iled with our enemies, but seldom are we taught 
 tills great truth ; or, if it is sometimes spoken of, 
 rarely is it done in a manner and with that interior 
 convi 1 dilated to leave upon our minds and 
 
 2 
 
14 ON THE NECESSITY OP 
 
 hearts a convincing and lasting impression of its 
 great importance and necessity. Now, this import- 
 ant truth is that, morally speaking, or according to 
 the ordinary course of Divine Providence, man can- 
 not be saved without prayer. 
 
 In order to understand this truth in its full ex- 
 tent, we must consider : 
 
 First. That man cannot be saved unless he will 
 have done God's will. 
 
 Secondly. That man is unable to do God's will, 
 unless he is assisted by Divine grace. 
 
 Thirdly. That man obtains this grace by prayer 
 only ; that, consequently, man must pray in order 
 to be saved. 
 
 First, I say, man cannot be saved unless he will 
 have done God's will on earth. The Lord declared 
 this will in express terms when He said to Adam : 
 " And of the tree of knowledge of good and evil 
 thou shalt not eat ; for in what day soever thou 
 shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death." (Gen ii., 
 17.) By this commandment, man was evidently 
 given to understand that the continuation of his 
 happiness for time and eternity, depended upon his 
 obedience to the will of God. To be undisturbed 
 by any irregular affections or disorderly passions 
 and to perpetuate his happiness to his posterity, was 
 entirely optional with him. If he made a right use 
 of his liberty, by always following the law and will 
 of God, if he bore unsullied the image and likeness 
 
PRAYER IN GENERAL. 15 
 
 of his Creator, as a true son of his Father, to Whom 
 he owed filial affection as a good servant of his Mas- 
 ter, Whom he was to fear and honor, as a brave sol- 
 dier of his King, to Whom he owed fidelity, as a wise 
 steward and administrator of the goods of his Lord ; 
 in fine, if he made proper use of the creatures con- 
 fided to his care and dispensation, then he would re- 
 ceive the crown of life everlasting, in reward for his 
 fidelity to the law and will of his Creator. But to 
 swerve from this divine will for one moment only, 
 thus declaring himself independent of it, as it were, 
 would be subjecting himself to the law of God's 
 justice, which would not fail to execute the threat- 
 ened punishment. 
 
 Did God afterwards, in consideration of the most 
 abundant efficacy of the Redemption, lay down other 
 and easier conditions for man's happiness and sal- 
 vation? He did not change His will one jot. 
 Man's happiness was to depend on his obedience 
 and submission to the divine will. " Now, if thou 
 wilt hear the voice of the Lord Thy God to do and 
 keep all His commandments, the Lord Thy God will 
 make thee higher than all the nations that are on 
 the earth, and all these blessings shall come upon 
 thee, and overtake thee, yet so if thou hear His 
 precepts." (Deut. xxviii. 1, 2.) And Jesus Christ, 
 the restorer of grace, says : " You are My friends 
 if you do the things that I command you." (John 
 xv. 14.) And again : " Not everyone that saith to 
 
16 OX THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 Me : Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven, but he that doth the will of My Father, 
 Who is in heaven, shall enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven." (Matt, vii., 21.) He Himself gave the 
 example, having been obedient even unto the death 
 of the cross, thereby teaching all men that their 
 salvation depends on their persevering obedience to 
 the will of their heavenly Father, Who sent the 
 Kedeemer, not only to ransom their souls, but also 
 to show them the true road to heaven, by revealing 
 to them the will of His Father. Jesus Christ, the 
 Eedeemer, appointed the Apostles, and especially 
 Peter, to succeed Him in His office of teaching God's 
 will. Where Peter and the other Apostles are 
 found in their lawful successors, there only is this 
 true and entire will of God taught, and those only 
 who embrace and follow it faithfully, have well- 
 founded hopes of salvation. They who follow any 
 other rule to obtain salvation, deceive themselves. 
 Instead of God's will, they do their own, or follow 
 the suggestions of the devil or those of evil-minded, 
 perverse teachers, who substitute their own will, 
 their own meditations, thoughts, opinions, and 
 judgment for the will of God. They imitate Adam 
 and Eve, who believed the devil's suggestions, 
 rather than the infallible word of God. 
 
 This great truth, that man must do God's will in 
 order to be saved, should ever be remembered by all 
 those who wish to walk sincerely before God, and 
 
PRAYER IN GENERAL. 17 
 
 * 
 
 to save their souls. But the mere knowledge and 
 remembrance of it will not contribute to their salva- 
 tion any more than this same knowledge and remem- 
 brance did to the salvation of our first parents. 
 
 Besides this truth, another, no less important, 
 must be borne in mind, namely : 
 
 Always to be mindful of God's will ; always to 
 honor, appreciate and love it above all things ; al- 
 ways to understand that to embrace and follow it 
 most punctually, cheerfully and promptly, is to 
 embrace inseparably eternal happiness and the very 
 Source of Life ; always to see clearly that whatever 
 is contrary to it can never be good or meritorious, 
 nay, must be death to the soul, to return to it after 
 having left it, — to cling to it when in possession of 
 it, is, in itself, by no means the w T ork of human 
 strength, but is absolutely the effect of divine grace ; 
 f«»r, if faith teaches us that God made all things 
 very good, it also teaches us that they cannot re- 
 main so of themselves without God's assistance, as 
 otherwise they would cease to be dependent on Him, 
 which is just as impossible for us to imagine as it is 
 to believe a logical conclusion could be right with- 
 out right premises, or that a river could flow per- 
 petually without a never-failing source. It is the 
 Lord Who must preserve them in their good condi- 
 tion, especially rational creatures, men, because, by 
 their own free will, they have it in their power to 
 swerve from God's will and law. 
 2* 
 
18 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 For this reason Jesus Christ said : " Without Me 
 you can do nothing"— on which words St. Augus- 
 tine remarks that Jesus Christ did not say : " With- 
 out Me you cannot accomplish anything," but He 
 said: "You cannot do anything." He means to 
 say that without His grace we are not even able to 
 commence any good work. " If this light of faith," 
 said our Lord to St. Catherine of Sienna, " shineth 
 to thee, thou wilt understand that I, thy God, know 
 better how to promote thy welfare, and have a 
 greater desire to do so than thou thyself, and that 
 thou, without My grace, neither wouldst nor couldst 
 promote it." This very thing is taught by St. 
 Paul. In his second Epistle to the Corinthians, he 
 writes thus: "Not that we are sufficient to think 
 anything of ourselves, as of ourselves, but our suf- 
 ficiency is from God." (Chap. iii. 5.) The Apos- 
 tle means to say that, of ourselves, we are not even 
 able to think of any good and meritorious thing. 
 Now, if we are not able to think of anything good, 
 how muck less able are we to wish for anything 
 good. " It is God," he writes in his Epistle to the 
 Philippians, " Who worketh in you both to will 
 and to accomplish according to His good will." 
 (Chap. ii. 13.) The same thing had long before 
 been declared by God through the mouth of the 
 Prophet Ezechiel : ■ " I will cause you to walk in My 
 commandments and keep My judgments and do 
 them." (Chap, xxxvi. 27.) Consequently, accord- 
 
PRAYER IX GENERAL. 19 
 
 ing to the teachings of St. Leo L, man works only 
 so much good as God, by His grace, grants him to 
 work. Hence it is an article of our holy faith, con- 
 demning the erroneous doctrine of Pelagius, that 
 no one can do the least good work, with merit for 
 heaven, without God's particular grace and assist- 
 ance. All this being true, shall we believe that the 
 fall of our first parents, and the sins of all their 
 descendants, cannot be imputed to them, saying 
 that, as God did not keep them good, by making 
 them honor, love, and follow His will and law, they 
 could not help losing His grace and so many nat- 
 ural and supernatural gifts ? To maintain this 
 would, undoubtedly,, be the height of blasphemy. 
 Hence we must necessarily come to the following 
 conclusion : It is certain, first, that man is good in 
 the sight of God, and has well-founded hopes of 
 salvation only in proportion as he lives up to the 
 will of God ; secondly, that man cannot, by his own 
 power, keep his will good, so as always to follow 
 God's will under all circumstances ; God, therefore, 
 must have given him an infallible means, by the 
 use of which he can preserve his innocence, or by 
 the neglect of which lie will become guilty before 
 God. 
 
 The use of this means must be considered as a 
 third great and essential truth in the way of salva- 
 tion. Now, common sense tells every person to call 
 for the assistance of another where his own means 
 
20 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 are insufficient to preserve or obtain a necessary- 
 thing. Adam and Eve knew this truth very well, 
 but, neglecting to call for God's assistance, espe- 
 cially when put to trial, they lacked the efficacious 
 grace necessary to render their will firm in keeping 
 the commandments of God and thus preserve all 
 their temporal and spiritual happiness. Hence 
 their fall was their own fault. We may, then, 
 fairly conclude that the whole mystery of man's sal- 
 vation and sanctification depends entirely on his 
 constant and proper use of this means of prayer. 
 "As God in the natural order," says St. Alphonsus, 
 " ordained that man should be born naked and in 
 want of many things necessary for life, and as, at 
 the same time, He has given him hands and under- 
 standing to clothe himself and provide for his other 
 necessities, so, in the supernatural order, man is 
 born unable to remain good and obtain salvation by 
 his own strength ; but God, in His infinite good- 
 ness, granting to every one the grace of prayer, 
 wishes him to make constant use of this grace in 
 order thereby to obtain all other graces which he 
 needs to be enabled to keep the commandments of 
 the Lord and be saved." Prayer is, indeed, a uni- 
 versal and infallible means for man to keep up his 
 relation between his Creator and himself. Now, 
 this is, first, a relation of continual dependence on 
 God's goodness. By praying, man professes his 
 belief in this dependence. As the subjects of a 
 
PRAYER IX GENERAL. 21 
 
 king acknowledge their dependence on their sove- 
 reign by paying the taxes he lays upon them, so, 
 by offering up to the Almighty the tribute of his 
 prayer, man acknowledges himself to be a constant 
 mendicant before his Creator, always depending on 
 God's goodness for food, protection and preserva- 
 tion, both temporal and spiritual. 
 
 Secondly. It is a relation of faith. Man does not 
 see his Lord and God ; yet he must not, on that ac- 
 count, less firmly believe in Him. By praying he 
 professes his faith in an omnipotent, most wise, most 
 bountiful God, believing that the Lord knows and 
 is able to grant what is asked of Him. 
 
 Thirdly. It is a relation of hope. Man should 
 hope that God will give him all the necessaries of life 
 here below, and life everlasting in the world to come. 
 By praying to the Lord, he professes his hope in a 
 most benevolent God, trusting that he will really 
 receive from Him everything necessary in time and 
 in eternity. What often troubles and disquiets so 
 many souls, is the uncertainty of their salvation ; 
 hut. according to the Apostle, our hope for salva- 
 tion ought to be immovable, firm, and secure. It 
 will be so, undoubtedly, if it rest upon two certain 
 foundations, one on the part of God and the other 
 on the part of man. The certain foundation, or the 
 •certain motives on the part of God, on which our 
 hope of salvation rests, are the power, the mercy 
 And the truth of God, and of these the strongest 
 
22 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 and most certain motive is God's infallible faith- 
 fulness to His promise which He has made to us 
 through the merits of Jesus Christ, to save us and 
 give us the graces necessary for our salvation. This 
 promise, I say, is the strongest of all the motives of 
 our hope of salvation, because, though we might 
 believe God to be infinite in power and mercy, nev- 
 theless, as Juvenino well observes, we could not feel 
 confident of God saving us unless He had given us 
 the certain promise of doing so. But this infallible 
 promise of God will not be fulfilled unless we pray 
 to Him for our salvation. Hence, the foundation of 
 our hope for salvation will be certain on our part also 
 if we pray to God for His grace and for faithful co- 
 operation with it. As our hope of salvation rests 
 upon an immovable, firm and secure foundation on 
 the part of God, and God giving every one the 
 grace to pray, no one can reasonably fear to be lost 
 if he really perseveres in prayer for his salvation. 
 With St. Alphonsus he may say in truth : " I never 
 feel more confident of my salvation than when pray- 
 ing." This is easy to understand. My confidence 
 to obtain from my friend what he has promised to 
 me, will be so much the greater the better I know 
 his power, goodness and fidelity in keeping his 
 promises. Now, the oftener I speak to my friend, 
 the better will I become acquainted with his virtues. 
 Prayer being a conversation with God, my confi- 
 dence in Him will increase so much the more, the 
 
PRAYER IN GENERAL. 23 
 
 oftener I speak to Him in prayer, in which He will 
 deign to make Himself known to me, as He has 
 promised in the gospel of St. John, chap, xiv., 21. 
 Thus prayer is truly the mother and nurse of hope. 
 
 Fourthly. It is a relation of charity. By prayer, 
 man keeps up and increases this golden virtue, 
 which is the queen of all virtues. Prayer brings 
 the soul near to God. It is like the magnetic fluid 
 which passes over the telegraph wire from one ope- 
 rator to another. By its means they communicate 
 to each other different affairs in the same instant, 
 on account of the swiftness with which the fluid 
 passes. They may thus be considered to be close 
 together, although they are really very distant from 
 each other. Prayer brings man closer to God than 
 the magnetic fluid does two telegraph operators, the 
 swiftness of the former being far greater than that 
 of the latter. Through this conductor of prayer 
 man sends to God all his messages for his temporal 
 and spiritual necessities, and, in a moment, all the 
 gifts and treasures of grace are sent, in return, to 
 the soul of man, the likeness and image of the great 
 and perfect Original. Who can doubt that, by this 
 close intercourse of the soul with God, the fire of 
 divine love will be enkindled and increased in a 
 most wonderful manner ? 
 
 Fifthly. The relation between God and man is 
 tlmtof a father to his son. Now, God, as Father, 
 feels an unspeakable desire to communicate His 
 
24 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 benefits to man. "My delight is to be with the 
 children of men." (Eccles.) By the constant use 
 of prayer, man is to furnish God with frequent op- 
 portunities to make known to him His ineffable 
 sweetness and communicate to him the gifts of His 
 inexhaustible treasures, requiring for them no more 
 than the price of his prayer, notwithstanding their 
 infinite value. 
 
 This infinite desire of God to bestow upon His 
 image and likeness, the riches of His Divinity, will 
 manifest itself to excess in heaven. The Lord 
 created man to be the head, king, and crown of 
 nature; but He Himself wishes to be man's crown, 
 in heaven. "And I shall be thy exceedingly great 
 reward/' He said to Abraham. On the part of 
 man, this crown should be merit for having done 
 freely and faithfully God's will on earth ; on the 
 part of God it should be grace, and therefore all 
 the honor and glory thereof should redound to Him. 
 By prayer this two-fold end is obtained also ; for by 
 it man obtains and preserves the good will always 
 to live up to God's holy will. But prayer being a 
 gratuitous gift of the Lord, all its effects must be so 
 likewise, effects partaking of the nature of their 
 cause. Hence, according to St. Augustine, the Lord 
 rewarding man in heaven for his free submission 
 to the divine will on earth, by bestowing Himself 
 upon man, the Original upon Its likeness, does 
 nothing else than crown Himself as it were, man's. 
 
PRAYER IN GENERAL. 25 
 
 creation, meritorious life, and happy death, being 
 altogether the gratuitous gift and effect of His un- 
 bounded love for His image and likeness. Thus it 
 is true what St. Paul says : " What hast thou, that 
 thou hast not received ? And if thou hast received, 
 why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received ?" 
 (I Cor. iv., 7.) " For of Him, aud by Him and 
 in Him are all things : to Him be glory forever. 
 Amen." (Rom. xi., 36.) Oh, great and admirable 
 wisdom of God, which has established for man's 
 salvation and sanctification so easy and so infallible 
 a means as that of prayer ! What can be more im- 
 portant and more essential for man than the faith- 
 ful fulfilment of this duty of praying? And yet, 
 strange and painful to say, what is less understood, 
 less anxiously attended to than this duty ? The ne- 
 glect, forgetful ness, or ill performance of this duty 
 has ever been the true source of all moral evils, 
 even of infidelity and idolatry themselves. The 
 more man neglects to communicate with God, the 
 true life of his soul, the more he will experience the 
 weakness of his will to resist sin and vice ; his pas- 
 sions, the temptations of the devil and the allure- 
 ments of the world will draw him headlong from 
 one abyss of religious errors and moral evils into 
 another. When in imminent danger of death or 
 of a considerable loss of fortune, as, for instance, 
 :ip\vreck or fire, or the like, the greater part of 
 men will, indeed, remember their duty of praying 
 3 
 
26 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 to God, as the only one who can save them from 
 death. In such dangers even infidels will take off 
 the mask of their infidelity and make a profession 
 of faith in an Omnipotent God, crying out : " Lord 
 save us! We are perishing! Lord, have mercy 
 on us, — spare our lives, — save us from this fatal ac- 
 cident !" This case excepted, the most of men do 
 not care for prayer. Would to God they loved their 
 souls as much as their bodies and the perishable 
 goods of this world ! Would to God they under- 
 stood the danger in which they are of being damned 
 to the everlasting pains of hell ! Certainly, they 
 would just as naturally feel impelled to pray to the 
 Almighty for the grace of their conversion and 
 final salvation. 
 
 But, alas ! they love the darkness of their evil 
 ways more than the necessary practice of the pre- 
 cept of prayer. Hence, as the Lord in the Old 
 Testament found it necessary to give to His people 
 the precepts of the Decalogue, not indeed as new 
 laws, but rather as a renewal and development of 
 the law of nature, the divine light of which was 
 obscured and almost extinguished^ by the crimes 
 and perversity of man, so in like manner, the same 
 Lord of all goodness, Who never delights in the 
 spiritual death of man, but wishes, like a celebrated 
 artist, to see, by means of prayer, the natural fresh- 
 ness of life preserved in His own image and like- 
 ness, in the soul of man, the master-piece of crea- 
 
PRAYER IN GENERAL. 27 
 
 Hon, the Lord, I say, has never failed to call man's 
 attention to the importance and necessity of this 
 practical truth. He has declared it in most distinct 
 language on almost every page of Holy Scripture. 
 " Seek ye the Lord," He says by theKoyal Prophet, 
 "and be strenghened : seek His face evermore." 
 (Ps. civ., 4.) " Let nothing keep thee from pray- 
 ing always." (Eccles. xviii., 22.) What God 
 inculcated so clearly in the old law, is still more 
 clearly and more forcibly inculcated by Jesus Christ 
 in the new law. " And He spoke a parable to 
 them that they ought always to pray and not to 
 faint." (Luke xviii., 1.) And again: ". Watch 
 ye and pray." (Matt, xxvii., 41.) This precept, 
 always to pray and not faint, was taught and em- 
 phatically inculcated in His name by the Apostles 
 also. " But we will give ourselves continually to 
 prayer," says St. Peter. (Acts vi., 4.) "By all 
 prayer and supplication," writes St. Paul to the 
 Ephesians, " praying at all times in spirit and in 
 the same watching with all instance and supplica- 
 tion for all saints." (Ephes. vi., 18.) And again : 
 "Be instant in prayer, watching in it in thanks- 
 giving." And to the Thessalonians he writes : 
 "Pray without ceasing." (IThessal. v., 17.) And 
 to His beloved disciple Timothy: "I will, there- 
 fore, that men pray in every place, lifting up pure 
 hands without anger and contention." (I Timothy 
 ii., 8.) Can the necessity of prayer be more clearly 
 
28 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 and more forcibly expressed than it is in these pas- 
 sages of Holy Scripture ? It is not said in any of 
 them that it is well to pray, or that you may pray, 
 you are at liberty to do so, and the like. No ; in 
 most distinct language it is said : ' You must pray/ 
 c pray.' Neither is it said l you must pray now and 
 then/ No, but ( you must pray always,' ' without 
 ceasing ;' you must ' not faint' in prayer, you must 
 watch in it 'at all times' and 'in all places.' All 
 these expressions imply, according to St. Alphonsus 
 and other theologians of the Church, a formal pre- 
 cept of God to pray, so much so, that, in their opin- 
 ion, a man who would not pray for a month, could 
 not be excused from mortal sin. 
 
 Had we then no other evidence for believing in 
 the necessity of prayer than the fact that Jesus 
 Christ and His Apostles have always inculcated 
 and insisted upon it with so much force, this fact 
 alone ought to be sufficient to convince us of its 
 necessity and make us profess our practical belief in 
 it by continual application to this holy exercise. 
 For, as we firmly believe that there are three per- 
 sons in God, without requiring any other evidence 
 for this belief than the certainty of the fact that 
 Jesus Christ Himself taught this truth, so in like 
 manner ought we to be firmly convinced of the ne- 
 cessity of prayer for the simple reason that Jesus 
 Christ Himself taught it in most express and clear 
 language, because being God and truth itself, He 
 
PRAYER IN GENERAL. 29 
 
 could never have taught anything to be necessary 
 unless it were really so. 
 
 But as there is no more persuasive way of instruc- 
 tion than by example, our Lord Jesus Christ adopted 
 this mode of teaching us the necessity of prayer, 
 even before He taught it by His word. Is it not 
 truly strange and surprising to behold the Son of 
 God, Eternal Wisdom Itself, Who came into this 
 world to teach men the way of salvation, to instruct 
 them in the truths of eternal life ; Who, in His 
 childhood, might have preached and wrought mira- 
 cles for the conversion of sinners just as easily as in 
 His advanced age of thirty years ; is it not very sur- 
 prising, I say, to see Him spend thirty years in 
 retirement and obscurity, unknown to the world, 
 and losiDg, according to our manner of judging, His 
 precious time and life which it would seem He would 
 have spent more profitably in teaching men and 
 converting them from their evil ways ? But, if a 
 wise man does nothing without a wise intention, 
 how wise, then, must have been the intention of 
 Jesus Christ, Supreme Wisdom Itself, in spending 
 thirty years of His life in retirement and solitude, 
 and three years only in teaching publicly I Truly, 
 whosoever does not feel struck by this fact in our 
 Saviour's life must never have seriously reflected 
 i it, or must feel quite indifferent towards what- 
 ever He has done for us during His mortal career. 
 Now, what was His principal occupation during the 
 3* 
 
30 OS THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 space of thirty years ? It was prayer — continual 
 prayer. No one, however, will believe and say that 
 Jesus Christ stood in need of it. But it was neces- 
 sary that we should learn the necessity of prayer 
 for our salvation, and be convinced of it more by 
 His example than by His words. Thirty years of 
 His life were consecrated to this holy exercise, and 
 three years only to the instruction of the people, 
 and even of this short period of three years He 
 spent the greater part in prayer. How often did 
 He not say to His disciples: " Withdraw a little 
 from the multitude?" And for what purpose? In 
 order to be more at liberty to pray. Moreover, do 
 we not read in the Gospel that, after having spent 
 the day in instructing the people, He would retire 
 to a lonesome mountain, there to spend the whole 
 night in prayer? "And it came to pass that He 
 went out into a mountain to pray, and He passed 
 the whole night in prayer of God." (Luke vi. 12.) 
 This was a custom of our Saviour, as we may gather 
 from the fact that Judas, the traitor, did not go 
 with the soldiers to seek Him in the city of Jerusa- 
 lem, but went straight on to the Mount of Olives, 
 because He knew that Jesus was accustomed to go 
 to that place to pray during the night. 
 
 Again, wishing to be glorified by His Heavenly 
 Father, He prayed for it. "And lifting up His 
 eyes to heaven, He said: "Father, the hour is 
 come, glorify Thy Son." (John xi. 1.) On this 
 
PRAYER IN GENERAL. 31 
 
 prayer Father Crasset, S. J., comments thus : 
 " Jesus prays His Father to glorify His body. Was 
 it not His due ? Had He not merited it ? Could 
 His Father refuse Him ? Why did He ask it ? 
 God did not design to grant any favor to man, not 
 even to His Divine Son, except by means of prayer, 
 which is t^ie channel through which all graces 
 flow. 'Ask, My Son/ saith He, ' all the nations 
 of the earth, and I will give them to Thee for Thy 
 inheritance.' Jesus merited the empire of the 
 whole universe, notwithstanding which He obtained 
 it only after asking it." And how did He close His 
 life on earth ? Was it not by most touching prayer ? 
 " Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." 
 (Luke xxiii. 46.) Thus His life, from the begin- 
 in g to the end, was but a continual practice of 
 prayer. His glorious life is not less so. He still 
 continues to pray for us in heaven, according to St. 
 Paul : ' c Who also intercedes for us with His Hea- 
 venly Father." He has been doing this for more 
 than eighteen hundred years, and He will continue 
 to do so to the end of the world. He likewise inter- 
 cedes for us in the Sacrifice of the Mass ; for Mass 
 is, according to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, 
 a sacrifice of impetration, in which Jesiis Christ 
 asks of His Heavenly Father everything necessary 
 for our temporal and spiritual welfare. Now, if we 
 consider that Mass is said at every hour of the day, 
 it follows that Jesus Christ, for more than eighteen 
 
32 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 hundred years, has been praying for us under the 
 Sacramental Species, and that He will continue to 
 do so at every hour until the end of the world. 
 Truly, if this example of our Saviour does not open 
 the eyes of our understanding and convince us of 
 the necessity of prayer, it will be in vain to look 
 for other and more striking proofs in support and 
 confirmation of this truth. Hence St. Augustine 
 remarks: (De Orat. Dominica) "If Jesus Christ, 
 the Lord of heaven and earth, happy in and by 
 Himself, and standing in no need of anything what- 
 soever, prays, shall man, misery itself, not pray ? 
 Jesus Christ, our Divine Physician, lies prostrate in 
 prayer, and man, sick in body and soul, shoul '. not 
 humble himself to pray? Jesus Christ, innocence 
 itself, prays, and man, laden with sin, should not 
 pray ? Jesus Christ, the judge of the living and 
 the dead, prays, and guilty man should not pray ? 
 St. Augustine means to say that Jesus Christ 
 came into this world to instruct us both by His 
 words and example : " I have given you an exam- 
 ple, that as I have done, so do you also." (John 
 xiii. 15.) And to leave this example of His unno- 
 ticed, as it were, is to have lost common sense, to 
 forsake the order of God's goodness in order to en- 
 ter into that of His justice ; to leave Him as a friend 
 in order to have Him for an enemy ; to give up the 
 ways of His consolation in order to enter into those 
 of His severity ; to fly from His beneficent will in 
 
FRAYER FOR SINNERS. 33 
 
 •order to fall under the effects of His powerful will. 
 Not to follow our Lord's example in prayer is to 
 make all our steps wandering, our paths perilous, 
 our plans illusions, our works useless, our pleasures 
 miseries, our prosperity chastisement, our adversity 
 and afflictions despair, our existence a hell wherein 
 we shall only know bitter tears and sighs. On the 
 contrary, to follow this example, is to place our- 
 selves in perpetual rest and security, to oblige the 
 Wisdom of God to govern us, His Power to defend 
 us, His Goodness to console us, His Grace to sanc- 
 tify us, His Mercy to encompass us, His Sanctity to 
 purify us, His Happiness to defend us from evil and 
 sustain us in good, and to make all succeed and go 
 well with us, according to our wishes for time and 
 ■eternity. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER FOR SINNERS. 
 
 AFTER having shown so much at length the 
 necessity of prayer in general, it might seem 
 almost useless to show this necessity for sinners or 
 the just in particular. But as this truth is of so 
 
 vital importance in the way of salvation and sancti- 
 
 UNIVERSITY 1 
 
34 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 fication, it seems to me that it can never be toe- 
 much discussed. This and the next chapter will 
 confirm still more what I have said in the preceding 
 one. 
 
 Jesus Christ, speaking of the just man, said : 
 " As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it 
 abide in the vine, so neither can you unless you 
 abide in Me." (John xiii., 4.) If this be true of 
 one who already enjoys God's grace and is His 
 friend, with how much more right must it be ap- 
 plied to a sinner, who has forfeited the grace of 
 God ; for no one feels more forcibly the truth of the 
 above-cited words, than a poor sinner. In his state 
 of the privation of God's grace, he is like that poor 
 little infant, which, after its birth, was cast by its- 
 cruel mother into the most filthy place of the house, 
 where it helplessly died. In like manner the sin- 
 ner, being buried in the mire of sin, feels himself 
 helpless and unable to rise from this state and be 
 reconciled with God. If without God's grace I am 
 not at all able to preserve His friendship, how much 
 less am I able to recover it after having lost it by 
 sin? " If any one asserts," says the Council of 
 Trent, "that, without a preceding inspiration and 
 grace of the Holy Ghost, man can believe, hope, 
 and love, or repent in such a manner as he ought,, 
 let him be anathema." Consider well the words: 
 " Repent in such a manner as he ought." Behold,. 
 Judas, too, repented, for Holy Scripture says of 
 
PRAYER FOR SINNERS. 35 
 
 him : et Then Judas, who betrayed Him, seeing 
 that He was condemned, repenting himself, brought 
 back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests 
 and ancients, saying : I have sinned in betraying in- 
 nocent blood." (Matt, xxvii. 3.) But this was no 
 such repentance as is required for justification, pro- 
 ceeding as it did, from natural motives only, it led 
 Judas to despair. "And he went and hanged himself 
 with a halter." (Matt, xxvii. 5.) Man, it is true, 
 can, by himself, commit sin and offend God griev- 
 ously ; but, to rise again from his fall, he cannot, ex- 
 cept by God's assistance. I can pluck out my eyes, 
 but to set them in right again is beyond my power. 
 I can likewise deprive myself of the grace of God, 
 but to restore it again to my soul without God's 
 assistance, is more than I am able. I may cast my- 
 self into a deep well, but to get out of it again with- 
 out any one's assistance is not possible. In like 
 manner I may, by mortal sin, give myself up into 
 the power of the devil, but to escape it again, with- 
 out God's particular grace, is not within the reach 
 of human nature. St. Peter remained chained in 
 prison until an Angel came and said to him : " Arise, 
 and the chains fell off from his hands." (Acts xii. 
 7.) Had St. Peter not been awakened by the An- 
 gel he would not have thought of rising, and should 
 he have thought of it, he would not have been able 
 to free himself from his fetters. In like manner, 
 the soul which has once been chained by sin, will 
 
36 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 scarcely ever think seriously of converting and 
 returning to God by repentance, and should it ever 
 do so, all its natural efforts will not suffice to break 
 the chains of sin, and free it from the slavery of the 
 devil, if God's grace does not come to its aid. St. 
 Anselm met one day with a child in the street, 
 keeping a bird tied with a thin string at its feet, 
 and seeking pleasure in letting it flutter about. 
 The bird was always flying upwards, endeavoring 
 to obtain its liberty, but the child soon pulled it 
 down, and the poor animal would fall to the ground, 
 at which the child would laugh and leap up for joy. 
 St. Anselm looked at this play for a considerable 
 time, and felt compassion for the bird. At once 
 the string broke and the poor animal was free. 
 The child commenced to cry and weep, but St. An- 
 selm laughed and rejoiced. The spectators were 
 astonished to see a great prelate pay attention to 
 such a play of a child, and show compassion in the 
 beginning and joy at the end of it. But Anselm 
 said: " Did you see how the child amused itself 
 with the bird ? Do you know what I thought of 
 it ? Behold, it is thus, I said to myself, that the 
 devil amuses himself with many souls. Having 
 them once tied with a string, he plays with them as 
 he pleases, drawing them from one sin into another." 
 Some he ties by making them indifferent towards 
 God and religion and their own salvation ; others, 
 by enkindling in them too great love and affection 
 
PRAYER FOR SINNERS. 37 
 
 for the goods of this world ; some again by the sin 
 of avarice ; others by the sin of uncleanliness, theft, 
 fraud and so forth. Many a one of these unfortu- 
 nate souls, seeing its great misery, will sigh and 
 groan : " Would to God that I were once free from 
 this great misery, from the abominable habit of 
 drinking, swearing, sinning against the angelic 
 virtue, and visiting those bad companions ! What 
 am I to do?" What happened to that bird hap- 
 pens to such a sinner also ; he wants to fly upwards 
 to obtain his liberty, but in vain.; he feels he cannot 
 succeed, the devil keeping him tied up and pulling 
 him into the old sin of drunkenness, injustice, un- 
 cleanliness ; and the poor captured sinner remains a 
 slave, and hence it is that many give up to despair ; 
 cast off all hope of ever returning to a better life, 
 to God's grace and friendship ; nay, many even 
 turn so bad, so hardened, so obstinate as to resem- 
 ble incarnate devils, so much so, that they would 
 sin, in spite of God, should He even stand before 
 them, with fire and sword in hand, to take revenge 
 on them. Others are so miserable that they do not 
 see their misery at all, or do not want to see it, or 
 anything of it, in order to feel no stings of 
 conscience and conceive no desire of amendment. 
 ould like to amend, and feel the good will 
 and desire for it, but they lack courage and energy ; 
 -, on the contrary, have no desire and good- 
 will (o reform ; others, no confidence ; others again 
 4 
 
38 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 lack courage, good-will and confidence at the same 
 time. Oh, misery of miseries ! Whence shall 
 such men obtain light to understand their misery ? 
 Whence shall good-will, courage and confidence 
 come to them to rid themselves of it? From God 
 alone can they obtain it ; He alone can grant it. 
 
 The heart of man, says Holy Scripture, is in the 
 hand of God, withersoever He likes He turns it ; or, 
 in other words, He can, in a moment, enlighten the 
 understanding of a sinner so as to enable him to 
 comprehend the misery and danger of his state ; 
 He can move his will so powerfully that he forms 
 an unalterable resolution to amend, and He can, at 
 once, inspire his heart with so great a confidence in 
 His mercy, that he firmly hopes for the forgiveness 
 of all his sins. But under what condition does God 
 dispel the darkness of the sinner's mind, the obsti- 
 nacy of his will, and the diffidence and despair of 
 his heart ? Under the only one condition, that the 
 sinner ask it of Him, for God does not^wish for the 
 sinner's death, but that he may be converted and 
 live. Hence, He is at all times ready to receive 
 him again into grace, provided he sincerely wishes 
 for it. The Lord has declared this by the Prophet 
 Ezechiel (chap, xxxiii.) upon solemn oath. But 
 this very merciful God wills, I say, that the sinner, 
 who feels himself destitute of all courage and firm 
 will to amend his life, of strength and constancy to 
 overcome his passions and evil habits, and to give 
 
PRAYER FOR SINNERS. 39 
 
 up his bad companions, should ask of Him, with 
 all humility, this courage, this firm, determined 
 will, this constancy, this grace to change his life, 
 for then God will not fail to assist him to remove 
 all obstacles to His grace, and receive him again 
 into His friendship. 
 
 The Lord's conduct towards sinners is almost like 
 that of the Lacedemonians towards their children. 
 Wishing to make sharp-shooters of them, they 
 would not give them bread into their hands, but 
 placing it high, said to them : " Behold ! children, 
 there is. bread ; shoot it down if you want it." In 
 like manner God seems to speak to sinners. Be- 
 hold ! helpless sinners, My grace and help is ready 
 for you at any time ; aim at it, that is, pray to Me 
 for it if you want it ; for, as many graces will fall 
 down upon you, as you will shoot down by the darts 
 of your prayer, and should you have no desire to 
 pray for My grace, or should you not be earnest 
 enough in asking it, ask of Me the grace to pray 
 with all earnestness and fervor, and be sure this 
 grace shall be given you ; but if you neglect to do 
 so you will perisli through your own fault. I have 
 told you often enough, and again I repeat, " Call 
 on Me and I will hear you ;" " ask and you shall 
 receive." (John xvi. 23.) ''Whatever you ask 
 you shall receive." (Matt. xxi. 22.) And in order 
 that no one might believe that this promise applied 
 to the just only, I have added purposely : " Every 
 
40 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 one who asks shall receive." (Matt. vii. 7.) Every 
 one, then, without exception, no matter whether he 
 be a just man or a sinner, shall receive what He 
 asks of Me, but ask he must. Thus God, in His 
 infinite goodness, has promised to give everything 
 to him who prays. Hence St. Alphonsus says that 
 one of the greatest pains of the damned will be the 
 thought that they could so easily have saved them- 
 selves by asking of God to give them true sorrow 
 for their sins and a firm will to amend their lives. 
 No one, therefore, says St. Alphonsus, will have 
 an excuse before God by saying that his salvation 
 was impossible on account of the difficulties and 
 obstacles with which he met in the way of salva- 
 tion. God will not listen to such an excuse ; He 
 will answer, if you had not strength and courage 
 enough to overcome all obstacles and difficulties in 
 the way of your salvation, why did you not ask Me 
 to come to your assistance ? It would have been My 
 greatest pleasure to help you. If a man has fallen 
 into a deep well and does not take hold of the rope 
 let down to draw him up, no one will feel pity for 
 him if he perish. Thus the sinner, too, is lost 
 through his own fault, if he neglect to pray for his 
 salvation. " For so many years, the Lord will say, 
 did I wait in the hope you would at last commence 
 to ask of Me the grace of true repentance and 
 amendment of your sinful life. I would have given 
 you this grace quicker than a man can pull another 
 
PRAYER FOR SINNERS. 41 
 
 out of a well. I would have delivered you from 
 your miserable state of sin just as fast as I delivered 
 Jonas from the whale, for no sooner had he prayed 
 to Me in the belly of the whale than I delivered 
 him from all danger. To pray to Me, and to call 
 OH Me for assistance, and to be delivered and saved, 
 is but one and the same thing. Fire does not burn 
 straw as fast as I forgive sinners when they ask for- 
 giveness of Me." The woman of Cana had no 
 sooner said, " Lord, help me," than she was heard 
 and received the grace of conversion. The Samari- 
 tan woman, too, received the grace of conversion as 
 soon as she had asked our Lord to give her of the 
 wholesome water of which He was speaking to her. 
 No sooner had the publican prayed in the temple : 
 u Lord, be merciful to me a poor sinner," than he 
 orgiven and left the temple as a just man. No 
 sooner had the good thief on the cross said to our 
 Saviour : " Lord, remember me when Thou comest 
 into Thy kingdom/' than he was forgiven and re- 
 l the promise of our Saviour that he would be 
 with Him in paradise on that day. 
 
 Father Humolt, S. J., relates of a certain vicious 
 young man who often sincerely wished to change his 
 life and be reconciled again to God, that, on account 
 of his deeply-rooted evil habits, he believed his con- 
 version utterly impossible, and that whatever he 
 might do would be of no avail to excite true sorrow 
 and contrition in his heart. One day he left home 
 4* 
 
42 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 to dissipate his sad and melancholy thoughts in 
 company with others. On leaving the house he 
 met at the door a poor beggar. As soon as he saw 
 him, he remembered what our Lord Jesus Christ 
 has said: " Whatsoever you have done to the least 
 of your fellow-men, you have done to Me." He 
 then went to take a loaf of bread, and throwing 
 himself on his knees before the beggar, he gave it 
 to him, thus praying in his heart: " My Lord Jesus 
 Christ, I adore Thee in the person of this poor man ; 
 most gladly would I give Thee my whole heart, but 
 I cannot, because it is too hardened ; for this time, 
 take, I beseech Thee, this loaf of bread which I 
 am still able to give ; do, even against my will, with 
 my heart what Thou pleasest." Oh, the wonderful 
 power of prayer ! No sooner had he thus prayed 
 than his heart felt a most bitter sorrow for all his 
 sins, so much so that he shed a torrent of tears. 
 He made a good confession, performed his penance, 
 and ever afterwards received many extraordinary 
 graces. (Hunolt's Eleventh Sermon on the Follow- 
 ing of Christ.) 
 
 Would to God that all those saints of heaven 
 who, for sometime, led a sinful life on earth, would 
 stand before you in this moment, I would request 
 you to put to them the following questions: Most 
 beloved souls, how did it happen that, for some 
 time you offended God and committed sins ? They 
 all, I am sure, would unanimously say, it was be- 
 
PRAYER FOR SINNERS. 43 
 
 cause we neglected to pray to God in the moment of 
 temptation. But why did you not die in your sins? 
 Why did God show mercy to you, forgiving all your 
 offences against Him ? They all \v T ould answer 
 again, it was because we implored Him for mercy 
 and forgiveness of our sins. But how did it come 
 to pass that you did not relapse into your former 
 sins, but persevered in leading a penitential life 
 until death ? And they all would again unani- 
 mously exclaim : Beloved brethren, know, that this 
 good will, this strength and courage came not from 
 ourselves, no, of ourselves we were weak like you, 
 we were often tempted to commit the same old sins 
 again, but as we had at once recourse to prayer, God 
 assisted us and we were preserved from sin. But 
 well-beloved blessed souls, one more question : 
 Were the devils never able at all to make you com- 
 mit a mortal sin after your conversion? Know, 
 dear brethren, know, they would say, that the devils 
 often tempted us most frightfully to that effect, sug- 
 gesting all kinds of evil thoughts and works, but 
 know and consider, that man, when he commences 
 to pray is more powerful than all the devils united, 
 so much so, that no evil spirit can do him the least 
 injury ; nay the devils fly away from a man who js 
 
 ing, fearing the power God grants to his soul. 
 No sooner did he grievously tempt us than we ex- 
 claimed, Jesus help us, Mary p ray for us, save us, 
 
 ill Dot into temptation, deliver in from the evil 
 
44 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 of consenting to sin. By this means we were enabled 
 to give upjsin, to lead a penitential life, not to fall 
 back into sin again and to die as holy penitents. 
 
 Would to God that now, also, some of the damned 
 souls of hell would stand before you. As the saints 
 confess and avow that their salvation and sanctifi- 
 cation is owing to their prayer, so in like manner 
 the damned would confess that their eternal damna- 
 tion is owing to their neglect of prayer. What do 
 you think would be the answer of the bad thief, 
 crucified at the same time with our Saviour ? Lis- 
 ten ! he would say, I confess I was a very wicked 
 sinner and a great malefactor during my mortal 
 life, I committed many a murder and other evil 
 deeds, for which I have deserved hell a thousand 
 times, but my companion on the cross was not less 
 guilty, and his sins cried just as much as mine to 
 heaven for vengeance, and yet he ascended from his 
 cross into heaven, whilst I from mine was hurled 
 down into the depth of hell ; he rejoices forever 
 and I am tormented in the everlasting fire of hell. 
 What brought him to heaven ? What brought me to 
 hell ? Behold, when hanging on the cross, he most 
 sincerely prayed to his Lord and God : " Lord, re- 
 member me when Thou cometh in Thy kingdom." 
 For this short prayer he obtained the forgiveness of 
 his sins, and the promise to be with his Lord in 
 paradise on that very day. I, on the contrary, did 
 not pray at all, and thus I remained obstinate in 
 
PRAYER FOR SINN BBS. 45 
 
 my sins and died as a reprobate. In like manner 
 all the damned would answer if commanded to tell 
 the cause of their damnation. most frightful 
 language for obstinate sinners who do not wish to 
 be converted from their evil ways and reconciled to 
 God again ! most sweet and consoling language 
 for all those who will pray to be delivered from 
 their sins, and received as children of God. 
 
 Would to God I could stand on a high mountain, 
 surrounded by all the sinners in the world ! I would 
 cry out at the top of my voice: Pray, pray, pray, 
 and you will not die in your sins, you will be de- 
 livered from them and be saved. God does not re- 
 quire from you that you should go and sell every- 
 thing and give it to the poor, or undergo most 
 frightful penances, or be put to a rack, or be nailed 
 to a cross, in order to be saved ; such hard condi- 
 tions as these He has not made for your salvation. 
 He has made but the easiest in the world ; all that 
 He wishes is, that you should pray to Him and ask 
 of Him with a sincere heart, what you need. He is 
 still the same God, just as powerful, just as merciful 
 to help, to forgive, to receive you into His grace as 
 as when He said to the good thief, " This day 
 shalt thou be witli Me in paradise." He is and 
 will be to you the same powerful, the same merciful 
 God that II*' was to St. Magdalene, the penitent, to 
 St. Augustine, to St. Margaret of Cortona, to St. 
 Mary of Egypt, and to many other souls whom He 
 
46 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 delivered from their sins, converting them from 
 being sinners into saints ; but you must avail your- 
 selves of His promise, " Amen, amen I say unta 
 you, whatsoever you ask the Father in My name 
 He shall give it to you." (John xvi. 23.) Jesus- 
 Christ has made this promise, it never failed to be 
 fulfilled in any one who profited by it. Heaven 
 and earth will pass away rather, but the fulfilment 
 of this promise shall never fail. Lost is he who 
 prays not ; saved is he who prays. Witnesses of 
 this truth will be all the saints of heaven on the 
 day of the last judgment ; witnesses of this truth 
 will be all the damned in hell, and you also who- 
 read this, will on the day of judgment, bear witness 
 to this truth, standing either on the right or on the 
 left of the Divine Judge. You will be a witness of 
 this truth with the elect on the right, if you pray ; 
 on the left, with the damned, if you do not pray. 
 Choose what you please. 
 
PRAYER FOR THE JUST. 47 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OX THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER FOR THE JUST. 
 
 IF a man knows that lie has never deserved the 
 good graces of a noble lord, that the friendship 
 which he enjoys is a pure gift, without any merit 
 on his part, and that the duration of its enjoyment 
 depends solely and entirely on the will of that lord, 
 would he not he obliged to ask of his benefactor not 
 to withdraw it in case he wished always to enjoy it ? 
 Now, this is the case with the just in regard to the 
 grace and friendship of God ; it is a pure gift which 
 no man can obtain by himself, and when obtained, 
 no one can preserve it until death unless God assists 
 him in so doing. To live in the grace of God until 
 death is so great a grace that, according to the 
 teachings of the holy Fathers of the Church, no 
 one can merit it by any good works whatever. God 
 must bestow this gift gratuitously, and He grants 
 it, as St. Augustine teaches, to all those who daily 
 pray for it. The Saint says we must pray for it 
 daily, because even the just are daily in danger of 
 losing it. It will be well here to consider this daily 
 danger, as it will thoroughly convince us that the 
 
48 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 just stand in constant need of prayer. St. Paul the- 
 Apostle says : "He that striveth for the mastery is 
 not crowned except he strive lawfully." (II Tim. 
 ii. 5.) No one, says the Apostle, shall be crowned 
 with life everlasting unless he fight lawfully, until 
 death, against his enemies, the devil, the world and 
 his own corrupt and perverse nature. This warfare 
 between the just and their spiritual enemies, is al- 
 ways dangerous, on account of the weakness of 
 man and the subtlety of his enemies. As to the 
 devil, St. Peter says that " he goeth about as a 
 roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." (I 
 Pet. v. 8.) He persuaded Adam and Eve to eat of 
 the forbidden fruit ; he suggested to Cain to slay 
 his brother Abel ; he prevailed upon Saul to pierce 
 David with a lance ; he instigated the Jews to deny 
 and crucify Christ, our Lord ; he induced Ananias 
 and Sapphira to lie to the Holy Ghost : he tempted 
 Nero, Decius, Julian, Diocletian, and other heathen 
 Emperors, to put the Christians to a most cruel 
 death ; he inspired the authors of heresies, such as 
 Arius, Martin Luther, and others, to deny certain 
 articles of the one true Catholic faith. In like man- 
 ner the devil, now-a-days, still tempts all men, es- 
 pecially the just, trying to make them lose the grace 
 of God ; he tempts numberless souls to indifference 
 towards God and their own salvation ; to others he 
 represents the deceitful happiness of the goods, 
 riches and pleasures of this world ; to others again. 
 
PRAYER FOR THE JUST. 49 
 
 he suggests the notion of joining certain secret so- 
 cieties ; yes, even to conceal their sins in confession 
 and to receive Holy Communion in this state of un- 
 worthiness ; or to cheat their neighbor in their 
 dealings with him ; or to give themselves up to 
 excess in drinking ; or to despair of the forgiveness 
 of their sins, and their salvation — in a word, the 
 devil leaves nothing undone in order to make the 
 just fall and commit sin, attacking almost every 
 one in his weak point, which is, for most persons, 
 that strong natural inclination to the vice of impu- 
 rity. In most men he knows how to excite the lust 
 of the flesh to such a degree that, as St. Alphonsus 
 says, they begin to forget all their good resolutions, 
 nay, that they even make little account of the truths 
 of their holy faith, losing almost all fear of hell 
 and the divine judgments. It is an undoubted fact 
 that the greater number of those who yield in this 
 warfare with the devil, is far greater than the num- 
 ber of those who gain the victory over him. If 
 this be true of the warfare with their weakest ene- 
 my, it is far more so of the warfare with their' two 
 other enemies, they being much stronger and more 
 dangerous than all infernal spirits united. If all 
 the just, who have lost their baptismal innocence, 
 11 how they happened to lose it, they would 
 all say much the same thing, viz : by such and 
 such a person I was initiated in sin and evil deeds. 
 I would still be innocent had I never seen that com- 
 
50 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 panion, that relative, that friend of mine. Bad 
 example is like an unsound apple, one is sufficient 
 to infect an entire heap ; in the same manner, the 
 "bad example of one vicious person does more harm 
 than all the devils united. Small,, indeed, is the 
 number of those who understand how to resist bad 
 example. Besides, there is another truth to be con- 
 sidered here. St. Paul the Apostle says : " All 
 that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer per- 
 secution." (II Tim. iii. 12.) All those who en- 
 deavor to serve our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully, 
 and persevere in His service, will have to suffer in 
 some way or other from their fellow-Christians, 
 neighbors, relatives, friends, infidels, heretics ; from 
 jealous, envious or otherwise perverse and suspicious 
 men ; from bad comrades, whose company they 
 have given up ; they will be blamed, rashly judged 
 and condemned — now for such a word and manner 
 of acting — then for some other ; and what is the 
 most painful is, that the just man is often obliged 
 to suffer most from those very persons who, natu- 
 rally speaking, ought to be his most devoted friends 
 and companions — God thus permitting it as a trial 
 of his patience and charity. If the number of those 
 who come forth victorious from the struggle with 
 the devil be small, much smaller, then, indeed, is 
 the number of those who overcome their second 
 enemy, the world. They suffer themselves to be in- 
 fluenced and dragged along by the bad example of 
 
PRAYER FOR THE JUST. 51 
 
 others ; they cannot bear detraction and calumny ; 
 to suffer a temporal loss is almost insupportable for 
 the most of them ; to forgive an injury or an insult 
 is more than they can endure, so much so that they 
 think of it day and night ; try to avoid meeting 
 those who have offended them, and bitterly com- 
 plain of, nay, even curse them. 
 
 Now, how shall he be said to strive and fight 
 against the world who cannot patiently suffer any- 
 thing from it ? St. Paul says : fl Be not overcome 
 by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Rom. xii. 
 21.) That is to say, by patience and meekness we 
 should overcome everything that men may say or do 
 against us. But just the contrary happens. The 
 most men strive to overcome evil by evil ; they 
 curse, ill-treat, persecute, slander, mock all those 
 who curse, ill-treat, slander, persecute, or scoff at 
 them. Instead of loving, praying for, and doing 
 good to such men, as Jesus Christ has commanded, 
 they do the very contrary. Many will accuse them- 
 selves of it in confession, but few truly repent of 
 their sins. Wli;it a hard task it often is for the 
 ssor to induce such penitents to forgiveness, 
 and not to harbor feelings of revenge. 
 
 come to consider our third enemy, 
 namely, our perverse nature, we shall not wonder 
 at the saying of our Lord : " Many are called, but 
 few are chosen." Bad we not to fight with thifl 
 third enemy, the devil and the world would not gain 
 
52 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 so much over us ; but tnis third enemy plays the 
 traitor, and generally gains the victory over the 
 most of the just when the two others fail. This 
 enemy is always near, nay, ever with us, and, there- 
 fore, more dangerous. Even the greater number of 
 the just seem not to understand and believe this ; 
 hence it is they are so little on their guard against 
 this enemy, who, on that account, but too often suc- 
 ceeds in betraying and delivering them up into the 
 hands of the devil and his associates. And why is 
 our corrupt nature our greatest enemy ? Because, 
 by nature, we are all inclined to evil from our in- 
 fancy. 
 
 As it is natural for fire to burn, for water to flow, 
 for the sun to diffuse light and heat, so it is, in like 
 manner, quite natural for man to follow his pas- 
 sions and evil inclinations, and to commit sin as 
 long as no superior power prevents him from doing 
 so. Hence St. Paul said : M I do not that good 
 which I will, but the evil which I hate, that I do." 
 (Rom. vii. 15.) He means to say : I wish not to do 
 evil, and I try to avoid it, but I experience within 
 myself a continual inclination to do evil, although 
 I wish to do good. I endeavor to do it, but I feel 
 within myself a great reluctance thereto, and I 
 must do violence to myself when I wish to act 
 aright. Every one has experienced the same from 
 his childhood, feeling more inclined to anger than 
 to meekness ; to disobedience than to submission ; 
 
PRAYER FOR THE JUST. 53 
 
 to hatred thau to love ; to the evil desires of the 
 flesh than to the practice of holy purity ; to the 
 gratification of the senses than to the mortification 
 of them ; to enjoying himself than to visiting Jesus 
 Christ in the Blessed Sacrament or receiving Him 
 in holy Communion ; to indifference towards God 
 and His holy religion than to fervor in His holy 
 service ; to the reading of bad than of good, edify- 
 ing books ; to listen to scurrilous talk than to the 
 word of God; feeling more inclined, in fine, to 
 vanity, vain-glory, pride and levity, than to humil- 
 ity, self-contempt and the spirit of mortification, 
 and being ever ready to join a bad society rather 
 than a "pious confraternity of the Church. And 
 these evil inclinations are so much the stronger the 
 more and the longer they may have been gratified, 
 so that we may say, in all truth, that man is more 
 inclined to go to hell than to heaven ; more in- 
 clined to follow the devil than to love God, his 
 Maker and Redeemer. And why is this? It is 
 because the first man, in Paradise, listened rather 
 to what the devil told him than to the words of 
 God. Hence this strong tendency to evil is but a 
 just punishment of God for original sin. Baptism, 
 it is true, cancels original sin, but it does not de- 
 stroy this inclination to evil, which remains in man 
 until death, and deservedly so. 
 
 Before Adam had committed sin, he knew not 
 what indifference in the service of God, anger, ha- 
 
54 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 tred, cursing, blasphemy, impurity, vain ambition 
 and the like were. In punishment of his sin, God 
 permitted the inclination of man, to all that was 
 good, to be changed into inclinations to evil. Man, 
 then, having, by his own free will, forfeited the 
 kingdom of God, having exchanged heaven for hell, 
 God for the devil, good for evil, the state of grace 
 for the state of sin, it is certainly but just and right 
 that he should not only repent of his great prevari- 
 cation, but should, as long as he lives, fight against 
 his evil inclinations, and, by this life-long warfare 
 against his enemies, declare himself for God and 
 heaven, acknowledging his guilt and giving, in 
 some measure, satisfaction to God for the great infi- 
 delity of his apostasy, thus rendering himself, in 
 some degree, again worthy of his former rights and 
 claims upon heaven. Taking, then, into serious 
 consideration this continual warfare with three pow- 
 erful enemies, the extreme weakness of man, and 
 the sad experience of all ages, that the greater part 
 of men do not overcome even one of their enemies, 
 we see verified the words of our Lord Jesus Christ : 
 " Wide is the gate and broad is the way that lead- 
 eth to destruction, and many there are who go in 
 thereat. How narrow is the gate, and straight 
 is the way that leadeth to life, and few there are 
 that find it." (Matt. vii. 13-14.) Who will then be 
 able to find this straight way — that is to say, who 
 will be able to conquer, until death, these three 
 
PRAYER FOR THE JUST. oo 
 
 enemies of our everlasting happiness ? Whence 
 shall come sufficient strength, courage and patience ? 
 Truly, with Josaphat, the king, we must exclaim : 
 u As for us, we have not strength enough to be able 
 to resist this multitude which cometh violently upon 
 us. But, as we know not what to do, we can only 
 turn our eyes to Thee, our God." (II Paralip. xx. 
 12.) By our own strength we shall not be able to 
 overcome any one of our spiritual enemies, but by 
 the strength that God grants to those who ask it, 
 we shall overcome all. Prayer is that powerful 
 means which God has given us to preserve ourselves 
 in His grace and friendship. Should the temptations 
 of the devil appear insurmountable, the bad exam- 
 ple of men and the revolts of nature quite irresisti- 
 ble, the words of St. Paul will always be verified : 
 " God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be 
 tempted above that which you are able, but will 
 make issue also with the temptation, that you may 
 be able to bear it," (I Corinth, x. 13.) on condition, 
 however, that we pray to Him for a happy issue 
 with the temptation, "for," says St. Augustine, 
 " God does not command anything impossible; if 
 He commands anything, He admonishes you to do 
 what you are able, and to ask Him for what you are 
 i Me, and then He will help you, that you may 
 1-- aide." 
 
 John Chry6ostom speaks in the same manner : 
 11 As a city, fortified by strong walls, cannot easily 
 
Ob ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 be taken, so, in like manner,' a soul, armed and for- 
 tified by prayer, cannot be prevailed upon by the 
 devil to commit sin." If the soul likes to pray, the 
 Saint means to say, prayer will be for it a wall, a 
 dam, a bulwark, preventing the devil from doing it 
 any injury ; but, if it does not love prayer, the 
 devil will soon conquer it, " for," continues the 
 same holy doctor, "the devil is afraid of approach- 
 ing a soul fortified by prayer, fearing the courage 
 and strength granted by God to the soul in 
 prayer, which strengthens and invigorates it more 
 than food does the body." As long as the soul 
 prays, so long will God be its strength and support, 
 of which it will be bereft as soon as it gives up 
 prayer. 
 
 Sin will be unavoidable; "for," continues St. 
 John Chrysostom, " as the body, without the soul, 
 is dead, so, in like manner, a soul without prayer is 
 dead, emitting a bad odor" — that is to say, "the 
 stench of all kinds of sins." A soul, then, wish- 
 ing to remain in the grace and friendship of God, 
 must love prayer, for, " as plants cannot remain 
 fresh and green without moisture," says St. John 
 Chrysostom, " so a soul stands in need of prayer to 
 be saved. St. Augustine says the same in almost 
 the same words : "As the body cannot live without 
 food, so the soul cannot preserve the grace of God, 
 its life, without prayer." The more, then, the soul 
 is given up to prayer, the more it is nourished and 
 
PRAYER FOR THE JUST. 5T 
 
 strengthened ; and the less it practises prayer, the 
 weaker it feels. "Nay," says St. John Chrysos- 
 tom, " if you do not pray you will be like a fish out 
 of the water. As a fish must remain in water, not 
 to lose its life, so a soul must persevere in prayer." 
 A plant, generally speaking, prospers only in its 
 native soil. The same happens to the soul. God, 
 by creating the soul, became its true home. Trans- 
 plant it and it will not live. Prayer is the meana 
 by which the soul cannot be uprooted and carried 
 away from this home by the temptations of the 
 devil, the allurements of the world, and the sinful 
 pleasures of the flesh. Prayer keeps the soul united 
 to God, and God to the soul, and thus it lives hap- 
 pily. This is most emphatically expressed by St. 
 John Chrysostom, in the following terms: " Every 
 one who does not pray, and does not wish to keep 
 up a continual communication with God, is dead, is 
 destitute of life, nay, even of common sense ; and 
 he must be insane who does not understand the 
 great honor of praying, and who is not convinced of 
 the truth that not to pray is to bring death upon 
 the soul, it being impossible to lead a virtuous life 
 without the aid of prayer. For how would one be 
 able to practise virtue without throwing himself in- 
 cessantly at the feet of Him from Whom alone men 
 derive all their strength and courage. " (St. John 
 st., lib I., de orando Deum.) St. Augustine is 
 of the same opinion. " He who does not know how 
 
•58 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 to pray well," says he, u shall never know how to 
 live well." (Homil. 43.) "Nay," says St. Francis 
 of Assissium, u never expect anything good from a 
 soul that is not given up to prayer." And Saint 
 Bernard used often to repeat : " If I notice one who 
 is not very anxious to pray, I at once think to my- 
 self, such a one will hardly attain any virtue." 
 These Saints mean to say that, as we in vain seek 
 for precious things from a poor man, so it is even 
 more useless to expect to find virtues in one who is 
 not accustomed to pray. Hence St. Charles Bor- 
 romeo says in one of his pastoral letters : (Act. 
 Eccl. Med., p. 1005,) "that of all means left by 
 Jesus Christ for our salvation, prayer occupies the 
 first place," or, in other words, that prayer is the 
 principal means of salvation. Or, as Cornelius a 
 Lapide says, Prayer is more necessary for Christians 
 than any other spiritual weapon ; (In Ephes., vi. 
 18,) because, in the combat with temptations, God 
 alone can grant the victory, for which we must im- 
 plore His grace and assistance. " Nay," says the 
 learned St. Alphonsus, in his preface to his little 
 book on prayer, " in the ordinary course of Provi- 
 dence, our meditations, resolutions, and promises 
 will all be fruitless without prayer, because we will 
 be unfaithful to the Divine light and inspiration if 
 we do not pray ; for, in order to be enabled to do 
 good as we ought, to overcome temptations, to prac- 
 tise virtues, in a word, to keep the commandments 
 
PRAYER FOR THE JUST. 59 
 
 of God in a perfect manner, we need, besides Divine 
 light, meditations, and resolutions, the actual assist- 
 ance of God also, which the Lord grants to those 
 only who pray for it, and who pray for it unceas- 
 ingly. , Divine lights, pious considerations, and 
 resolutions, make us pray when strongly tempted 
 to transgress the commandments of God, and thus 
 we obtain the Divine help necessary not to yield to 
 the temptations ; as, on the contrary, we should un- 
 doubtedly be lost, if we would not pray." Hence, 
 St. Thomas Aquinas is of the belief that Adam 
 committed sin because in his temptations he ne- 
 glected to pray to God for assistance. St. Gelasius 
 says the same of the fallen Angels. " In vain did 
 they receive the grace of God, because, as they did 
 not pray, they could not persevere." (Epist. 5., 
 ad. Ep. in P.) Saint Alphonsus relates, in the pre- 
 face to his book, " Triumphs of the Martyrs, No. 
 25," " that the head of an old Japanese was, in the 
 defence of his faith, sawed off by slow degrees. 
 After having endured this cruel torture for a long 
 time, even to the point of death, he nevertheless 
 died an apostate, because he had ceased to recom- 
 mend himself to the Lord. Would to God that all 
 might learn from this that our salvation depends on 
 our perseverance in praying to God for aid to resist 
 u-iMptations, and to bear patiently the sufferings and 
 . sities of this life." Father Paul Segneri re- 
 lates that a young man called Paccus, in order to 
 
"60 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 do penance for his sins, retired into a wilderness, 
 where, after some years of penanoe, he was so vio- 
 lently assaulted by temptations that he thought it 
 impossible to resist any longer, and often yielded to 
 them. In his despair of salvation he thought of 
 taking his own life, believing it would be better for 
 him to die immediately, and go to hell then, than 
 after having committed many more mortal sins, for 
 which he would have to suffer so much the more in 
 hell. One day he picked up a venomous snake, 
 provoking it in every possible way, in order that it 
 might inflict upon him a poisonous wound, but the 
 good creature did not hurt him in the least. " Oh ! 
 God !" said Paccus, " so many men die who are so 
 much afraid of death, and I, who wish so much for 
 it, cannot die." He then heard a voice saying to 
 him, " Poor wretch ! do you imagine you could 
 overcome temptations by yourself? Pray to God 
 for assistance, and temptations will no longer injure 
 you." Encouraged by this voice, he prayed most 
 fervently, and obtained by his prayer such great 
 courage and strength, that he lost all fear of temp- 
 tations and the infernal spirits. 
 
 But why should I quote examples of this kind ? 
 Almost every one of us may serve as an example to 
 prove the truth that to neglect prayer is to fall into 
 sin and lose the grace of God. Let every one who 
 has committed sin reflect whether he prayed in the 
 moment of temptation, and he will be forced to 
 
PRAYER FOR THE JUST. 61 
 
 avow that he did not. Every sin we commit is a 
 standing proof of the truth that the grace of God 
 cannot be preserved without incessant prayer. 
 Hence, Saint Cyprian wrote to the Christians of 
 Africa, who were daily becoming more lukewarm 
 and less fervent in the service of God, committing 
 sin after sin to such an extent that many fell away 
 from the faith. " I have learned that you have be- 
 come lukewarm and remiss in prayer, and that you 
 are not watchful in it." Lukewarmness and neglect- 
 fulness in the service of God. keep pace with luke- 
 warmness and neglectfulness in prayer. As boiling 
 water slowly cools when removed from the fire, and 
 at last becomes cold, so the soul and will of man 
 will cool in the love of God in proportion as he gives 
 up prayer. Hence, if you notice sinful disorders in 
 a family, or in a community, be sure that prayer is 
 forgotten there. Even all victories gained by the 
 just over their spiritual enemies will, on the day of 
 judgment, be so many evident proofs of the truth 
 in question. For this reason Cornelius a Lapide 
 says, that Christians cannot make any better use of 
 their leisure time than by spending it in prayer. 
 The Saint>. therefore, being so intimately convinced 
 of this truth, loved and practised nothing so much 
 as prayer. King David, knowing no other means 
 besides prayer to escape the snares of the devil, 
 would often say to the Lord : " Lord, look upon me 
 tod ivy on me : for 1 am alone and poor." 
 
 
 
62 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 (Ps. xxiv. 16.) " I cried with my whole heart — 
 hear me, Lord ; let Thy hand be with me to save 
 me." (Ps. 118.) And thus he prayed without 
 ceasing, according to his own words in Ps. xxiv. 15 r 
 " My eyes are ever towards the Lord, for He shall 
 pluck my feet out of the snare." And again in 
 Ps. 118 : " How have I loved Thy law, Lord ; it 
 is my meditation all the day." Daniel, says St. 
 John Chrysostom, preferred to die rather than to 
 give up prayer. St. Philip Neri, being one day 
 commanded to apply to prayer a little less than 
 usual, said to one of his Fathers : " I begin to feel 
 like an animal." Hence Blessed Leonard, of Port 
 Maurice, used to say a Christian should not let a 
 moment pass by without saying : " My Jesus, have 
 mercy on me !" It was by means of prayer that 
 the Saints overcame all temptations of the world, of 
 the devil, and of the flesh. They suffered most 
 patiently all their crosses, tribulations, and perse- 
 cutions until death. The more acute and painful 
 their sufferings were, the more they prayed, and the 
 Lord came to their assistance ; thus they triumphed 
 over all their enemies. After St. Theodore had 
 been cruelly treated in many different ways, he was 
 at last commanded by the tyrant to stand on red hot 
 pot-sherds. Finding this kind of torture almost too 
 great to endure, he prayed to the Lord to assuage it, 
 and the Lord at once granted him courage and forti- 
 tude to stand these torments until death. (Triumphs 
 
PRAYER FOR THE JUST. 63 
 
 of the Martyrs, by St.Alphonsus.) By prayer alone 
 is to be obtained courage, protection, fortitude, 
 magnanimity, and endurance in sufferings and 
 adversities. This we learn especially by the Angel 
 who descended with the three children into the fiery 
 furnace of Babylon. But the Angel of the Lord 
 went down with Azarias and his companions into 
 the furnace. (Dan. iii., 49.) But the angel of the 
 Lord had already descended into the flames before 
 them, otherwise they would have been burnt up im- 
 mediately, but they did not see him before they had 
 prayed in the manner related from verse 24 to verse 
 46. After that prayer, they saw him, how he drove 
 the flame of the fire out of the furnace, and made 
 the midst of the furnace like the blowing of a wind 
 bringing dew. (Verse 49, 50.) Thus the Angel of 
 the Lord wished to indicate, as Cornelius a Lapide 
 remarks, that in persecutions and tribulations prayer 
 is the only means to be saved. Those who made 
 use of it have always been victorious ; those who 
 did not make use of it have universally given way 
 and perished. " I have known," says St. Cyprian, 
 "and I have shed tears over many who seemed to 
 possess great courage of heart and fortitude of soul, 
 and when on the point of receiving the crown of 
 life everlasting, they fell away in the end and denied 
 Him Whom they had professed for many years. 
 What was the cause of it ? They had turned away 
 theii eyes from Him Who alone is able to give 
 
64 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 strength to the weak. They had given up prayer, 
 and commenced to look for aid and protection from 
 man ; they considered their own human weakness ; 
 the red hot gridirons, those points of iron, those 
 swords, and all the other instruments of martyrdom 
 so frightful to look at ; and compared the acuteness 
 of the pains with their strength, and hence it came 
 that they lost the victory ; for as soon as one thinks 
 to himself i I can suffer this but not that,' his mar- 
 tyrdom will never he crowned with a glorious end. 
 He only who abandons himself entirely to the Divine 
 will, and who looks for help from God alone, will 
 remain firm and immovable and persevere to the 
 end. But this can be expected only from him who 
 is gifted with a lively faith which does not tremble, 
 nor examine and consider how great the tyrant's 
 cruelty, and how weak human nature is, — but how 
 great is the power of the Almighty Who fights and 
 conquers in His members. Nor should any one, on 
 experiencing some great bodily or spiritual afflic- 
 tion, lose courage on that account. Let him trust 
 in the Lord, Whose battles he fights. He will not 
 permit any one "to be tempted beyond what he is 
 able, but will grant a happy issue to all sufferings." 
 Hence, we read that all the martyrs would con- 
 stantly pray in their torments, and the more their 
 pains increased the more they would pray, and thus 
 they triumphed and gained the glorious palm of 
 martyrdom. " Weall," says St.Alphonsus, " ought 
 
PRAYER FOR THE JUST. 65 
 
 to be firmly convinced that we are, as it were, stand- 
 ing over a very deep abyss of sin, and are kept 
 there by the slender thread of Divine grace ; if this 
 thread breaks we fall into the abyss, and shall com- 
 mit the most atrocious crimes. " Unless the Lord 
 had been my helper, my soul had almost dwelt in 
 hell." (Ps. lxliii.,17.) "Unless the Lord keep 
 the city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it." 
 (Ps. cxxvi., 1.) "Unless the Lord preserves the 
 soul from sin, all its endeavors will be in vain to 
 avoid it." "Lord," exclaimed Philip Neri, " keep 
 Thy hand over me this day, otherwise Thou wilt be 
 betrayed by Philip." Now, what a St. Augustine, 
 a St. Cyprian, a St. John Chrysostom, a St. Alphon- 
 sus, and many other Saints have said on prayer, as 
 a most necessary means to preserve the grace of 
 God until death, is confirmed by many of the clear- 
 est passages of Holy Scripture. " Woe to you that 
 devise that which is unprofitable and work evil. . . 
 because your hand is against God ;" (Micheas ii., 
 1.) that is because you do not raise up your hands in 
 prayer to God. Behold, how powerful prayer is 
 with God, and how great the evils are that flow 
 from the neglect of prayer. Those Israelites thought 
 of nothing but of robbing and cheating. And how 
 did it happen that they became so bad ? It was, as 
 Holy Scripture says, because "they did no 
 longer raise up their hands in prayer to God." 
 Had they prayed to the Almighty, as the Holy 
 
66 ON THE NECESSITY OF 
 
 Ghost gives to understand, they would have been 
 mindful of God and His judgments, terrified by 
 which they would have stopped perpetrating any 
 more heinous crimes ; as the Lord, on account of 
 their prayer, would have prevented them with His 
 efficacious grace, inspiring them to quit their evil 
 ways, and to return to true repentance of their sinful 
 lives. Again, how did it happen that those two 
 elders went so far in their perverseness as to try to 
 violate the most chaste Susannah ? It was, as Daniel 
 the prophet says, (chap, xiii., 9) because " they per- 
 verted their own mind, and turned away their eyes, 
 that they might not look into heaven nor remember 
 just judgments." And what does David, the royal 
 prophet, say in this respect? Speaking of the im- 
 pious, (Ps. xiii.,) " they are corrupt, and they are 
 become abominable in their ways. . . . They 
 are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable to- 
 gether ; there is none that does good, no, not one. 
 .... Destruction and unhappiness are in their 
 ways." . . . He at last, in verse 5, adds the 
 reason for their evil ways, saying : " They have not 
 called upon the Lord." This was the cause of their 
 wickedness. And St. Paul writes, in his second 
 letter to the Corinthians: (chap, xiii., 7",) " Now 
 we pray God that you may do no evil." Prayer, 
 he means to say, will keep sin far from you. We 
 read in the book of Machabees that Judas, the 
 Machabee, by means of a small force, gained many 
 
PRAYER FOR THE JUST. 67 
 
 great victories over Antiochus. How did this hap- 
 pen? It was for the fervent prayer which he 
 addressed to God before each engagement. But 
 Holy Scripture does not say this of him in his last 
 battle, and hence the cause of his defeat. For him, 
 then, says St. Isidore, (lib. 3, de summo bono, ch. 
 8,) who is overwhelmed with temptation, there is 
 no other remedy left than prayer, to which he must 
 have recourse as many times as he is tempted ; for 
 frequent recourse to prayer subdues all temptations 
 to sin. " Which of the just," asks Saint John Chry- 
 sostom, (Sermo de Mose) " did ever fight valiantly 
 without prayer? Which of them did ever conquer 
 any one of his enemies without prayer?" Neither 
 any of the prophets, nor any of the Apostles, nor 
 any of the martyrs, nor any of the confessors, nor 
 any of the holy virgins and widows, nor any of the 
 just, — no matter how many thousands soever there 
 may be, either in heaven or on earth. "Nay not 
 to pray," a pious Jesuit Father used to say, "and 
 yet remain free of sin ; not to pray and yet perse- 
 vere in good ; not to pray and yet be saved, is to 
 tempt God ; is to ask of Him a miracle ; is just as 
 much as to think one can see without eyes, hear 
 without ears, walk without feet." "Wo believe 
 and are firmly convinced," we must say then with 
 St. Augustine, " that no one can work out his sal- 
 vation without the help of God, and that this help 
 is granted to him only who asks for it?" Nay, 
 
68 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 every one must, with St. John Chrysostom, declare 
 this to be utterly impossible, saying : " It seems to 
 me it must be with every one a clear and undoubted 
 truth that it is altogether impossible for one to lead 
 a virtuous life without frequent recourse to prayer." 
 (Lib. I, de orando.) Hence, I beseech you, brethren, 
 I say with St. Bernard, " always to have recourse 
 to prayer as to the surest weapon of defence." Let 
 prayer be your first act in the morning, the com- 
 mencement of all your actions ; let prayer accompany 
 and finish them. Oppose prayer to the devil when 
 he tempts you to lukewarmness, to impatience, to 
 impurity, or to any other sin. With prayer arm 
 yourself in your dealings with the wicked world, 
 and in the combat with your own corrupt nature ; 
 let prayer never leave your heart and lips ; let it be 
 the faithful and inseparable companion on all your 
 journeys ; let prayer close your eyes after having 
 gone to rest at night ; let prayer be your exercise 
 of predilection. Any other loss can be made up 
 for, but never that of prayer ; if, on account of a 
 delicate constitution, you cannot fast, you may give 
 alms ; have you no occasion to confess, you may ob- 
 tain forgiveness of your sins by making an act of per- 
 fect contrition ; nay, even the Sacrament of Baptism 
 may be supplied by the real desire of it, and a perfect 
 love of God, but no other means of salvation is left 
 for him who does not love to practise prayer. Every 
 other occupation should then be given up rather 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 69 
 
 than that of prayer. Persevere in it, as Jesus 
 Christ and all the Saints did, closing your life and 
 breathing forth your last breath with it. " Father,, 
 into Thy hands I commend my spirit. "' Thus, prayer 
 will conduct you to heaven, there to reign eternally 
 with our Lord Jesus Christ and all the just in ever- 
 lasting joy and glory. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON THE NECESSITY OP PRAYER FOR ECCLESIASTICAL 
 STUDENTS. 
 
 " Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.' ' 
 
 [Lukk xi. 1. 
 
 ONE of the most important duties of a pastor is 
 to teach the people the necessity and efficacy 
 of prater, and how they are to pray and for what 
 they are to pray. Hence it is said, in the Catechism 
 of the Council of Trent, that " amongst the duties 
 of the pastoral office, it is one of the highest im- 
 portance to the spiritual interest of the faithful to 
 instruct them in Christian prayer, the nature and 
 
10 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 efficacy of which must be unknown to many, if not 
 enforced by the pious and faithful exhortations of 
 the pastor. To this, therefore, should the care of 
 the pastor be directed in a special manner, that the 
 faithful may understand how and for what they are 
 to pray." 
 
 Oh ! how unspeakable a pleasure is given to Jesus 
 Christ, by a pastor, who often, either in public or 
 in private, complies with this duty. Would to God 
 that all pastors would adopt the sentiments of St. 
 Alphonsus, and could say with him: "I would 
 wish to do nothing else than speak and write on 
 this great means of prayer ; for, on the one hand, 
 I see that the Holy Scriptures, including both the 
 Old and New Testament, exhort us to pray, to ask 
 and cry aloud if we wish for the divine grace ; and 
 on the other hand, I must openly confess that I can- 
 not help complaining of preachers, confessors and 
 spiritual writers, because I see that none of them 
 speak as much as they ought of the great means of 
 prayer. And in the many courses of Lenten ser- 
 mons which have been published, where shall we find 
 a discourse on prayer ? Scarcely do we find a few 
 passing words concerning this important means of 
 grace. Hence I have written at length on this sub- 
 ject in so many of my little works, and whenever I 
 preach, I always repeat these words : Pray, pray, if 
 you wish to be saved and to become Saints. It is 
 true that, to become Saints, we must have all vir- 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. VI 
 
 tues, mortification, humility, obedience, and princi- 
 pally, holy charity, and to acquire these virtues 
 other means besides prayer are necessary, such as 
 meditation, Holy Communion and good resolutions ; 
 but, unless we pray, all our Communions, medita- 
 tions and resolutions will not make us practise either 
 mortification, humility or obedience. We will 
 neither love God nor resist temptations, in a Vord, 
 we will do no good. Hence St. Paul, after having 
 enumerated many virtues necessary for a Christian, 
 tells us to " be instant in prayer," (Rom. xii. 12.) 
 thereby giving us to understand, as St. Thomas re- 
 marks, " that to acquire all necessary virtues, we 
 must always pray, because, without prayer, we 
 would be deprived of the assistance of God, without 
 which it is impossible to practise virtue." (Spouse 
 of Christ on Prayer, No. 13.) 
 
 These sentiments and this practice of St. Alphon- 
 sus were common to all the Saints. Should you 
 ever hear any one oppose them, rest assured that he 
 cannot say in truth, with St. Paul : "I think that 
 I also have the spirit of God (I Cor. vii. 40) ; nor 
 
 ' you believe that he is of the seed of those 
 men by whom salvation was brought to Israel." 
 I tfach. v. 02.) 
 
 I us, in imitation of the Saints who were filled 
 with the spirit <»f God, never feel weary of repeat- 
 ing this sacred truth, in public and in private, for 
 
 but too true, as St. Augustine says : " The un- 
 
72 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 derstanding flies ahead, but resolution and action 
 follow on slowly, or not at all." Our will is still 
 weaker and more powerless to embrace what is 
 right than the understanding is to comprehend. 
 Hence people must often be told the same thing. 
 Witness St. Paul, who says : "To write the same 
 things to you, to me is not wearisome, but to you is 
 necessary." (Philip iii. 1.) The Apostle did not 
 want matter to write, for he who had been enrap- 
 tured to the third heaven was able to say many new 
 and sublime things, but he deemed it necessary often 
 to repeat to them the same thing, judging this 
 course to be the more profitable for them. Hence 
 it was the opinion of St. Francis de Sales that a 
 preacher should not take the least notice of those 
 fastidious minds who are displeased when a preacher 
 repeats a thing and goes over the same ground 
 again. What ! is it not necessary, in working iron, 
 to heat it over and over again, and in painting, to 
 touch and retouch the canvass repeatedly? How 
 much more necessary, then, is it to repeat the same 
 thing again and again in order to imprint eternal 
 truths on hardened intellects and on hearts con- 
 firmed in evil ? Now, what can be more necessary 
 and more profitable than often to imprint on souls 
 the doctrine of prayer ? 
 
 But, alas ! how does it happen that this most 
 essential duty of a pastor is neglected by so many ? 
 It is principally because they themselves have never 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 73 
 
 learned how necessary prayer is, and how efficacious 
 if performed well. 
 
 A man will not speak what he knows not, nor 
 will he give what he does not possess. To he ena- 
 bled to discharge this pastoral duty properly, a 
 priest must have learned, whilst as yet a student, to 
 lead a holy life, and to practise faithfully medita- 
 tion and prayer. For this reason it has seemed 
 necessary to me to add a chapter on the great obli- 
 gation under which ecclesiastical students are to 
 sanctify themselves, in the course of their studies, 
 by the practice of solid virtue, and by prayer and 
 meditation, in order that, after their ordination, 
 they may be the better enabled to inculcate this im- 
 portant truth of salvation the more forcibly on every 
 mind and heart. 
 
 Above all, I must remark that I am far from be- 
 lieving that all who study for the priesthood are 
 called to it. Alas ! there are but too many who 
 study from low and worldly motives, seeking, in 
 the ecclesiastical state, nothing but temporal advan- 
 tages. To this kind of students, I have but a few 
 w« lids to say. In order to save your souls, you 
 ought to consider that it is necessary to embrace 
 that state of life to which God has called you, for 
 in that state only you occupy the place for which 
 God has destined you from all eternity, and in it 
 ill favor you with all the graces necessary to 
 fulfil the duties of vour state ; out of it, it will be 
 7 
 
74 ON THE NECESSITY OP PRAYER 
 
 very difficult for yon, not to say altogether impos- 
 sible, to work out your salvation. This is true for 
 every state of life, but is far more so in regard to 
 the ecclesiastical state. Any one receiving Holy 
 Orders, without having the signs of a true vocation 
 from God, is guilty of mortal sin. This is the 
 teaching of St. Alphonsus, and of many learned 
 theologians, especially of St. Augustine, who says, 
 when speaking of the punishment of Core, Dathan 
 and Abiron, who wished to exercise the duties of 
 the High Priest without being called thereto, " they 
 have been damned in order that every one may be 
 deterred from taking upon himself the office of a 
 High Priest without being called to it by God. 
 This fate will befall all those who, as Bishops, 
 Priests or Deacons, intrude themselves into these 
 holy dignities." (Serm. 98.) The reason for this 
 is, first, because it is a very grievous presumption for 
 one to dare to enter into the holy of holies without 
 a divine vocation ; secondly, because such a one 
 will be deprived of the proper means and graces to 
 comply with the duties of this holy state, which 
 duties, strictly speaking, he might be enabled to 
 comply with, but having missed the right road, he 
 will find every other very steep and most difficult to 
 walk in, and he will be, as it were, like a misplaced 
 member of the human body, which, indeed, may 
 still perform some services, but not without great 
 difficulty and many defects. Hence St. Ephrem 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 75 
 
 considers as reprobates all those who dare become 
 Priests without a divine vocation. M I am as- 
 tounded," says he, " at the folly of those who are 
 so bold as to perform the functions of the priest- 
 hood without having grace for it from Jesus Christ. 
 Unhappy wretches, who do not know that by doing 
 so, they are preparing for themselves everlasting 
 fire." (De Sacerdot.) Most assuredly the sooner 
 these students renounce their course of life the bet- 
 ter it is for themselves and others. 
 
 Now, as to those students of whom Jesus Christ 
 has said : "You have not chosen Me, but I have 
 chosen you," (John xv. 16), let them consider 
 well to what they are called. To be called to the 
 priesthood is to be called to the highest dignity on 
 earth, unsurpassed by any dignity whatsoever. 
 Hence Innocent III. says of the Priest, that he is 
 placed between God and men, and is, as such, less 
 than God, but more than man. This dignity sup- 
 poses, besides the divine vocation, positive holiness 
 of life, which means that whosoever is to be invested 
 witli it must not only be free from sin and vice, but 
 he must also be enriched with all kinds of virtues ; 
 for which reason the Church, during eleven centu- 
 ries, excluded from this holy state every one who 
 committed, but once, a mortal sin alter bap- 
 tism, and if any one, after having received Holy 
 rf, fell into a mortal sin, he was deposed for- 
 -for the simple reason that he who is not holy 
 should not touch what is holy. 
 
76 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 This severe discipline of the Church, it is true, 
 lias been abandoned ; but, at all times, it was neces- 
 sary that he who was guilty of grievous sins, and 
 desired to receive Holy Orders, should previously 
 have led a pure life for a considerable time. It 
 would, therefore, be a mortal sin for one to receive 
 any of the Holy Orders when still given up to a very 
 sinful habit. "If I consider your vocation," says 
 St. Bernard, "I am seized with horror, especially if 
 no true penance has preceded." 
 
 Being well persuaded of this truth, many of the 
 Saints did all in their power not to receive Holy Or- 
 ders. For this end St. Ephrem feigned craziness ; 
 St. Mark cut off his thumb ; St. Ammonia hia ears 
 and nose, and when the people still insisted upon 
 his being ordained, he threatened to cut out his 
 tongue also, upon which they desisted from their 
 endeavors. 
 
 It is well known that St. Francis of Assisium 
 could never be prevailed upon to become a Priest, 
 because God revealed to him that the soul of a 
 Priest must be as pure as the water which he showed 
 him in a crystal vessel. 
 
 The Abbot Theodore was a Deacon only, and he 
 would not even exercise the functions of this Order, 
 because, whilst at prayer, he beheld a fiery column, 
 hearing at the same time a voice, saying, " if thy 
 heart is as fiery as this column, thou mayst exer- 
 cise the functiona of thy aacred Order." 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 77 
 
 Strange to say, there seems to be a natural in- 
 stinct in every one that a candidate for the priest- 
 hood should be holy ; the least fault in him appears 
 to be great, even in the eyes of the most perverse. 
 "I have appointed you," says our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, "that you should go, and should bring 
 forth fruit, and your fruit should remain." (John 
 xv. 16.) This fruit, that is to say, holiness of life, 
 will not be brought forth unless a student seriously 
 endeavors, in the course of his studies, to sanctify 
 himself. Let him not imagine that sanctity will be 
 infused into his soul by the sacrament of Holy Or- 
 ders ; rest assured, that such as the student is, such 
 also will be the Priest. 
 
 A light-minded student will be a light-minded 
 Priest — a proud, unmortified and sensual student 
 will make a proud, unmortified and sensual Priest. 
 
 You must study, it is true, to acquire the neces- 
 sary science, without which you would be unfit for 
 the functions of the sacred ministry. But, my dear 
 friend, it is not learning, but purity of life that 
 qualifies for the priesthood. For this reason an an- 
 cient author says of those who, full of sinful habits 
 still dare to receive Holy Orders : " They are more 
 fit to be led to a place of execution than to the 
 Church to receive Holy Orders." But it is not 
 enough to be free of sin ; he must, moreover, have 
 led a pious life, and have acquired a certain facility 
 in the practice of virtue. Hence, should a candi- 
 7* 
 
78 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 date for any of the Holy Orders he habitual in com- 
 mitting any grievous sin, especially that of impu- 
 rity, at the time when he is to he ordained, he is, 
 though he should otherwise he worthily disposed to 
 receive the sacrament of penance, not fit to receive 
 either. For, in order to receive the sacrament of 
 penance worthily, he must also he disposed to re- 
 ceive that of Holy Orders worthily. 
 
 Hence, a Confessor, hy absolving such a candi- 
 date, would make himself guilty of mortal sin, and 
 should he give him good testimonials, on which a 
 Bishop might ordain him, he will, moreover, render 
 himself guilty of all those sins which such an un- 
 worthy candidate will still commit. 
 
 Holy Orders, then, to he received worthily, must 
 he preceded by a virtuous life. St. Bernard could 
 not refrain from weeping at the consideration that 
 so many were hasty in receiving Holy Orders with- 
 out minding the great holiness of life which is re- 
 quired for their worthy reception. 
 
 According to St. Thomas Aquinas, Priests must 
 be possessed of greater interior holiness than even 
 religious, on account of the holy and sublime 
 functions of the sacred ministry, especially on ac- 
 count of the Holy Sacrifice of Mass. St. Augustine 
 says : " A good religious will hardly make a good 
 Priest," so that a Priest cannot be called good as 
 yet, if he does not surpass in virtue a good religious. 
 
 My fears for students are not as to the acquisition 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 79 
 
 of knowledge, but that they will not acquire suffi- 
 cient holiness of life before receiving Holy Orders. 
 The Holy Church is not in want of learned Priests, 
 but of very holy ones, for the reason that her can- 
 didates for the priesthood do not, whilst they are stu- 
 dents, make sufficient efforts to sanctify themselves. 
 I have'always observed that the greater portion 
 of ecclesiastical students make great efforts to ac- 
 quire sufficient knowledge for the sacred ministry, 
 but small indeed is the number of those who earn- 
 estly try to lead a holy life. A certain natural am- 
 bition of appearing learned before others, united to 
 the consideration of being surrounded by all de- 
 scriptions of unbelievers and heretics, induces them 
 to use every exertion to learn how to refute every 
 error and defend the truth of our holy religion ; and 
 so seriously do they apply themselves to their 
 studies, that their minds become altogether ab- 
 sorbed in them. Especially will this be the case if 
 they hear or read a consideration like the follow- 
 ing : u We live in a most anti-christian age, princi- 
 ples are disregarded, and iniquity is held in venera- 
 tion ; we see nothing but confusion in religion, in 
 government, in the family circle. Sects spring up 
 and swarm like locusts, destroying not only re- 
 vealed religion, but rejecting even the law of Nature. 
 Fraud, theft and robbery are practised almost as a 
 common trade ; the press justifies rebellion, secret 
 societies, and plots for the overthrow of established 
 
80 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 governments. The civil law, by granting divorce, 
 has broken the family tie ; children are allowed to 
 grow up in ignorance of true religious principles, 
 their fathers being without religion or given up to 
 the most detestable vices, or their mothers destitute 
 of virtue and infected with the spirit of vanity in 
 the highest degree, the natural consequence of which 
 is that they are regardless of their parents. How 
 great is the tendency to act contrary to the spirit of 
 religion, manifesting itself both in education and in 
 action. The number of apostates is on the increase, 
 at least in the younger generation ; immoral books 
 and tracts circulate freely ; daily journals, weekly 
 magazines, the great organs of public opinion, be- 
 come more unchristian every day, so much so that 
 no one who has at heart the morality of his fellow 
 men, especially of youth, can, with propriety, re- 
 commend them for perusal ; and yet how eagerly are 
 they sought for and devoured, as it were, by every 
 class of men. It is indeed lamentable that many 
 whose duty it is to oppose themselves to the torrent 
 of these and many other evils too tedious to enume- 
 rate, rather encourage them by their manner of 
 living." 
 
 Such diseases of the human mind and heart, the 
 student will think, require remedy. He will think 
 that, to counteract and check them, will require 
 much learning and information, and that, therefore, 
 an exact and serious study of philosophy and theol- 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 81 
 
 ogy will be an excellent means of stemming this 
 torrent of moral evils. But here lies the stumbling 
 block for the generality of students ; they endeavor 
 to cultivate the mind rather than the heart ; to fill 
 their memory with the principles of philosophy and 
 the profane sciences rather than with the doctrines 
 of Jesus Christ and His Saints ; to care more for 
 knowing their lessons well than for making a good 
 meditation ; to trouble themselves more for appear- 
 ing prepared before their professor and school mates 
 than before Jesus Christ in Holy Communion ; they 
 will endeavor to find the best way of connecting 
 one point with another in a discourse, rather than 
 making a good examination of conscience ; to be 
 more anxious to acquire a reputation for learning 
 and great capabilities than for true humility and 
 sincere charity ; they will be more pleased with the 
 flatteries and praises of the world than the good 
 pleasure of Jesus Christ and His holy Angels ; to 
 be able to show acuteness in reasoning, and ability 
 in delivering a learned discourse, will be with them 
 of greater weight than to manifest the spirit of 
 meekness, forbearance, condescension, obedience and 
 submission in all their words and actions. Their 
 desire will be more for profane, frivolous books, than 
 for those which nourish piety and inspire love for 
 solitude and prayer. In a word, they will make 
 greater efforts to acquire the wisdom of the world 
 than that of Jesus Christ and His Saints. To this 
 
82 ON THE NECESSIIY OF PRAYER 
 
 end all of their thoughts, words and actions will be 
 directed, and thus study becomes for them rather a 
 means of greater separation from God than of closer 
 union with Him. 
 
 My complaint of students is not for their applica- 
 tion to studies, but for their attaching too much im- 
 portance to them, and for the erroneous manner by 
 which they acquire the various sciences. I consider 
 that many students attach too much importance to 
 sciences, imagining that by means of them they 
 will convert the world. 
 
 Now, learning can do something, it is true, but 
 however much it may accomplish, experience teaches 
 in the present as in the past, that moral evils never 
 yield to any force but that of the grace of G-od. A 
 learned man may enlighten the mind of his fellow 
 men and expel its darkness and errors, but for all 
 that their hearts will not embrace the truth. Hence 
 St. Vincent de Paul, writing to one of his priests, 
 says : "No, it is neither philosophy, nor theology, 
 nor eloquence which moves the soul." This was 
 felt keenly by St. Bernard whilst at Paris, 1123, 
 where he was invited by the high schools to deliver 
 a learned discourse on one of the principal questions 
 in philosophy. Having prepared himself most care- 
 fully for the occasion, he delivered an eloquent dis- 
 course before a large auditory, but without making 
 the least pious impressions on his hearers. This 
 made him sad and ashamed of himself, so much so 
 
I UNIVERSI 
 
 FOR BOCLBSASnCAL STUDENTS. 83 
 
 that, shutting himself up in his room, he lamented 
 his failure with many sighs and tears, and with 
 earnest prayer to God, implored the Divine assist- 
 ance. 
 
 The day after he spoke again in public, but now 
 it was the Holy Ghost that spoke by his mouth and 
 guided his tongue, and his discourse made so deep 
 an impression on his hearers, that several priests 
 followed the Saint to Clairvaux, there to lead a per- 
 fect life under his wise direction. (History of St. 
 Bernard by Theo. Katisbonne, vol. I., chap. 11.) 
 It is related in the life of this saint, that mothers 
 would keep their children, wives their husbands, 
 and friends their friends from hearing him, because 
 the Holy Ghost gave such great power to his words 
 that no one could resist them, but every one felt 
 drawn to follow him or lead at least altogether 
 another life. 
 
 Alas, there are but too many who imitate St. 
 Bernard in his first discourse at Paris. Like him 
 they, too, know how to prepare most learned dis- 
 courses, lectures, sermons and instructions, using 
 the most eloquent terms of the language to convey 
 their ideas to the minds of their hearers, but they 
 fail in reaching the heart, and derive from their 
 efforts no other fruit than a few remarks from the 
 If, calculated to flatter their self love and nour- 
 pride. " How well," they will say, " he has ac- 
 quitted himself ! What an eloquent tongue ! What 
 
84 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 profound knowledge ! What an admirable memory ! 
 What a fascinating preacher ! What a pleasure it 
 is to listen to such a man ! I never had such a 
 treat in my life I" Would to God they would imi- 
 tate St. Bernard in his preparation for his second 
 •discourse ; how different would be the fruit of their 
 labors. Let us hear the saints in reference to this 
 point. " You must consider," says St. Vincent de 
 Paul, "that learning without humility has ever 
 done much harm to the Church, that pride has 
 always led the most of learned men, like the rebel- 
 lious angels, to everlasting perdition, and that God 
 does not need learned men to carry out His wise 
 designs and accomplish His works. Nay, that gen- 
 erally speaking, He makes use of the simple to con- 
 vert men and procure the welfare of His Church, as 
 Pie did of the Apostles, and in recent times of St. 
 Catherine of Sienna, and of St. Teresa," and of 
 late, I may add, of the Cure of Ars in France. St. 
 Ignatius says, " it is of greater importance for stu- 
 dents to advance in virtue than in science ; if they 
 cannot do both at the same time, virtue must have 
 the preference, minus scientia?, plus virtutis." (Life 
 by C. Genelli.) St. Francis of Assisium said to 
 those who, on entering his order, were already sci- 
 entifically prepared, and wished to apply themselves 
 to the study of Holy Scripture : "I am well pleased 
 with this, provided, according to the example of 
 Jesus, Who seems to have devoted more time to 
 

 FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 85 
 
 prayer than to anything else, they do not neglect 
 the exercise of prayer, and study to practise what 
 they have learned rather than to know what they 
 have to speak." " The truths of the Gospel," he 
 would say, "are better understood by those who prac- 
 tise them than by those who know them, but neglect 
 to put them into practice. A man possesses know- 
 ledge and eloquence only in as much as he prac- 
 tises what he knows and says. We behold many 
 who endeavor to acquire great learning, but happy 
 is he who knows Jesus Christ crucified." Those 
 studies which are applied to from the motive of 
 vanity, to earn the praises and flatteries of men 
 rather than from the pure motive to gain souls to 
 God, were an abomination in his eyes. " In the 
 day of tribulation," he would say of these men, 
 " their hands will be empty ; it would be better for 
 them now to endeavor to be strengthened and con- 
 firmed in virtue in order to have the Lord for sup- 
 port at that time, for the time will come when 
 books will be rejected as useless articles. My breth- 
 ren should, therefore, endeavor to be grounded in 
 humility, simplicity, in prayer, and in the virtue of 
 poverty. This is the only sure way of edifying 
 their neighbor and of procuring his salvation, be- 
 cause they are called to imitate Jesus Christ, Who 
 did not follow or show any other road. Many will 
 abandon these virtues under the specious pretext of 
 edifying their neighbor by their learning, but they 
 8 
 
86 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 will go so far that the possession of sciences by 
 which alone they thought they would be filled with 
 light, devotion and love for God, will be for them 
 the cause of interior coldness and emptiness. Hence, 
 it will come to pass that, having lost their time in 
 vain and false studies to live up to the spirit of their 
 state of life, they will find themselves incapable of 
 returning to their primitive vocation." 
 
 St. Francis was by no means averse to sciences, 
 on the contrary, he inculcated to his brethren, 
 whose duty it was to teach others, to apply them- 
 selves properly to study ; but he always opposed 
 strenuously that vain, proud science, which is always 
 without devotion, preaching itself instead of the Cru- 
 cified. He would always have before his eyes the fol- 
 lowing passages of Holy Scripture : u Many will say 
 to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophe- 
 sied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, 
 and done many miracles in Thy Name ? And then 
 will I profess unto them, I never knew you ; depart 
 from Me, you that work iniquity." (Matt. vii. 22- 
 23.) And again : " If I speak the tongues of men and 
 of Angels, and have not charity, I am become as a 
 sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." (I Corinth, 
 xiii. 1.) And: " I chastise my body and bring it 
 into subjection, lest, perhaps, when I have preached 
 to others, I myself should become a cast away." 
 (I Corinth, ix. 27.) 
 
 Besides, he was aware that man is naturally more 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 87 
 
 inclined to know than to practise, and that virtues 
 which purity the soul are more necessary and more 
 precious gifts than learning, which enlightens the 
 mind only. He knew very well that " knowledge 
 puffeth up," (I Corinth, viii. 1) and that a learned 
 man is easily inclined to be proud and self-conceited 
 if Christian charity does not keep him humble. 
 
 St. Alphonsus spoke in the same manner : ft The 
 Apostle St. Paul," said he, " wrote of this world's 
 wisdom : ' Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edi- 
 fieth. If any man think he knoweth anything, he 
 hath not yet known as he ought to know.' I Cor. 
 viii. 1-2.) 
 
 Knowledge, united to the love of God, is most 
 useful to us and to our neighbor, but if charity does 
 not accompany it, it does us much harm by making 
 us proud and leading us to despise others ; for the 
 Lord is merciful to the humble, but severe to the 
 proud. Happy is the man to whom God has given 
 the wisdom of the Saints, which He bestowed on 
 the righteous Abel. ' He gave him the knowledge 
 of the holy things.' (Wisdom x. 10.) The Holy 
 Spirit speaks of this as the greatest of all gifts. 
 How many do we not see who are puffed up because 
 they understand mathematics, literature, languages 
 and antiquities ? What does religion gain by their 
 knowledge? What do they do for their own spirit- 
 ual advancement ? What do those numerous learned 
 men gain from their knowledge whose mind, though 
 
OO ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 adorned with so many acquirements, know not even 
 how to love God so as to practise virtue. 
 
 The Lord refuses His light to those sages of the 
 world who only labor to obtain self-renown, and he 
 grants them only to the simple. ' I confess to 
 Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because 
 Thou hast hid these things from the wise and pru- 
 dent, and hast revealed them to little ones.' 
 (Matt. xi. 25.) By little ones are to be understood 
 those only who seek to please God. 'Happy,' says 
 St. Augustine, ' is he who knows God, His Great- 
 ness and His Goodness, though he be ignorant of 
 all besides ; for he who knows God cannot help lov- 
 ing Him. Now, he who loves is wiser than all the 
 learned of the earth who have not this love/ 
 
 1 The ignorant arise/ exclaimed the same Doc- 
 tor, ' and obtain heaven ! How many ignorant 
 people, how many poor villagers sanctify themselves 
 day by day and obtain eternal life, a single instant 
 of which is preferable to the enjoyment of all the 
 goods of the earth/ St. Paul wrote to the Corin- 
 thians : c I judged not myself to know anything 
 among you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified/ (I 
 Cor. ii. 2.) Happy are we if we acquire the know- 
 ledge of Jesus Christ, of the love He has shown 
 us on the cross. Verily, by studying the books of 
 the crucifix, we shall come to love Him with love 
 more than common.' 
 
 And on another occasion, St. Alphonsus said : 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 89 
 
 " We must study, it is true, because we are labor- 
 ers, but we ought to be fully persuaded that the one 
 thing needful, and that which Jesus Christ requires 
 above everything else is, that we should endeavor 
 to be saved as Saints. We must study, but the sole 
 object of study ought to be that of pleasing God, 
 otherwise it will only cause us to be a long time in 
 purgatory, nay, even lead some, perhaps, into the 
 torments of hell, which may God forbid. Let your 
 aim, then, always be the glory of God and the good 
 of souls, and when an opportunity occurs of seem- 
 ing ignorant, do not recoil from it, for it will not 
 hurt you." 
 
 An ecclesiastical student, then, must consider 
 knowledge, in itself, only as a sounding brass, a 
 tinkling cymbal, a source of pride, and of many 
 other great evils ; or as a sharp knife, which, if 
 not handled well, may cause serious, even mortal 
 wounds to the soul. This consideration must be 
 for him a great incentive to study in a proper man- 
 ner and spirit. 
 
 I will now place before you the wise advice which 
 we find in the writings of learned and saintly men, 
 on the holy manner and right spirit of studying. 
 
 We read of Blessed Balthasar Alvarez, S. J., 
 that he employed all possible care to prevent studies 
 from doing harm to piety. He succeeded in doing 
 so by the following means : 
 
 First. Above all, he tried to inculcate to the stu- 
 8* 
 
90 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 dents' minds some striking truths, such as these — 
 virtue and knowledge are the two trees planted by 
 God in Paradise ; they are the two luminaries, the 
 one greater, the other smaller, created by Him to 
 light up the world ; they are the two Testaments, 
 the Old and the New Law, and Grace ; they are 
 the two sisters, Martha and Mary, living under one 
 roof in great union and harmony, and giving sup- 
 port to one another. Holiness gives authority and 
 weight to knowledge. Knowledge, if only theo- 
 retical, is indeed very poor to persuade ; it is the 
 living up to it that gives it persuasive power. 
 Hence the Apostle said to Timothy: "Take heed 
 to thyself and to doctrine ; for, in doing this, thou 
 shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee." 
 (Tim. iv. 16.) From this truth he derived another 
 one on which he insisted very much, viz : that the 
 acquisition of knowledge becomes so much the easier 
 the more one endeavors to acquire virtue. " Who 
 does not know," said he, t( that knowledge is a gift 
 of God, Who communicates it so much the more 
 readily to those who ask it the more they purify 
 their conscience." Hence, an ecclesiastical student 
 should make greater efforts to avoid sin and correct 
 his faults than to study learned authors, and run 
 through many books. For, according to Cassian, 
 " it is purity of life that enlightens the mind and 
 sees God." To such a one it is given to understand 
 everything without difficulty. 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 91 
 
 Secondly. This zealous director of souls was not 
 less careful to inspire the students with love for 
 mortification as another means to make them ad- 
 vance equally in perfection and science. 
 
 But who would imagine that mortification could 
 be an aid for advancing in science ? Nevertheless, 
 he knew how to persuade them of this also. " Try 
 it," he said, " especially in regard to study, and 
 you will find out that there is nothing better cal- 
 culated to remove difficulties. For by mortification 
 you will overcome your enemy, and your natural 
 desire tempting you to occupy your mind with study 
 when there is no time for it, as, for instance, at the 
 time of prayer. By it, you will do violence to pride, 
 which feels hurt by the questions of the Professor, 
 and the objections of your fellow-students." 
 
 Thirdly. Mortification will induce you to apply 
 only to such branches of science as are assigned for 
 you, and to learn only what is useful, and not what 
 is an incentive to curiosity. 
 
 Fourthly. By it you will prefer the advice of your 
 professors to your own views and opinions, studying 
 one thing and not another. This was the counsel 
 of St. Augustine when he said, " That student 
 knows much who knows how to profit by the advice 
 of his professor. If the latter has the eyes of know- 
 ledge, the former should have the eyes of docility." 
 " You ought to look upon yourselves as so many 
 little children," said St. Alphonsus. " It is for the 
 
92 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 master to judge what is fit for you, and to supply 
 you with the occupations which may be best fitted 
 to cultivate your minds. Many remain ignorant for 
 wishing to know too much." 
 
 Fifthly. By it you will be prevented from boasting 
 before others of more knowledge than you really 
 possess, and from pretending to acquirements which 
 you have not. 
 
 Sixthly. Mortification will make you study dili- 
 gently and perseveringly, for by it you will overcome 
 a certain disgust and reluctance, a certain laziness 
 and indolence, trying to keep in your room and 
 avoid useless conversation. 
 
 Seventhly. By it you will study without anxiety 
 of heart and mind. Nothing is more detrimental 
 to the acquisition of solid science than overgreat 
 anxiety in studying, in consequence of which every- 
 thing is superficially learned. As discretion is a 
 virtue, so too much ardor is a vice. " Sapere, et 
 sapere, ad sobrietatem." 
 
 Eighthly. By mortification you will overcome both 
 a certain shame to ask for an explanation of such 
 things as you do not fully understand, and a certain 
 laziness to take a memorandum of what was ex- 
 plained, or of useful things which you read. " Multa 
 scribendo didici," says St. Augustine. 
 
 Ninthly. From a spirit of mortification you will 
 refrain from looking through the Sacred Orators 
 during the course of study, and from making a se- 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 93 
 
 lection of subjects for the pulpit. " This is but a 
 mere temptation," said St. Alphonsus, " because by 
 that you neglect what is essential for a mere acces- 
 sory." To collect materials with any good result, 
 he ought to have finished his studies, for otherwise 
 he derives no profit from it, and does not study as 
 he ought. 
 
 He often impressed on the minds of the students 
 the necessity of studying with a pure intention. 
 11 The life of a student/' he would say, " is, in it- 
 self, a very quiet one, and how little soever his 
 efforts may be to regulate it well, he will easily 
 learn a good deal without relaxing in zeal and 
 fervor for his perfection. Should his fervor dimin- 
 ish, it will certainly be his own fault, which, no 
 doubt, he will avoid, if he always endeavors to study 
 with a pure intention. ft The right manner of learn- 
 ing," says St. Bernard, "is to know the true end 
 for which everything should be learned, namely, not 
 to study to obtain food for vain glory, and for the 
 spirit of curiosity, or for something similar, but for 
 one's own edification, or for that of our neighbor. 
 There are some who wish to know merely for the 
 sake of knowing. This is a detestable curiosity ; 
 others wish to know in order to become known 
 themselves, and this is an execrable vanity ; others 
 again, learn in order to sell their science, and this 
 is hateful profit. But there are others who try to 
 acquire learning in order to be enabled to edify their 
 
94 ON THE NECESSITY OP PRAYER 
 
 fellow men, and this is Charity. Others, again, 
 apply to the study of sciences in order to edify them- 
 selves, and this is Wisdom. These two latter kinds 
 of men do not abuse knowledge, studying as they 
 do, in order to do good." (Serm. 26 in Cantel.) 
 
 A student, then, to comply in peace of heart with 
 his duty of advancing in piety and knowledge at 
 the same time, must have in view no other object 
 than the good pleasure of God. It is something 
 great, Father Alvarez used to say, to know theology, 
 but what greater fruits can he derive from it than 
 to learn by it so to regulate his life as never to wish 
 for anything contrary to God's holy will. Hence, 
 he will not feel uneasy if he does not learn more 
 than he can or is allowed. "Let us not feel dis- 
 turbed about not knowing what God does not wish 
 us to know. To know that He does not will it must 
 suffice to resign ourselves to His adorable will." 
 " Knowledge," says St. Bonaventure, "which is 
 neglected for the sake of virtue, will afterwards be 
 acquired easily by virtue." 
 
 Finally, he spared no efforts and trouble to inspire 
 the students with a great love for prayer, as a most 
 efficacious means to make rapid progress, both in 
 virtue and in science. He knew this but too well by 
 his own experience, but his modesty would not allow 
 him to speak of himself, hence he would cite to them 
 the example of the Abbot Theodore, of whom 
 Cassian relates that he had acquired great learning, 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 95 
 
 more by endeavoring to purify his heart, and by 
 assiduous application to prayer, than by reading 
 many books. On a certain day, wishing to know 
 the meaning of a passage of Holy Scripture, he 
 studied long over it without success. He com- 
 menced to pray, and at once he understood its 
 meaning/' 
 
 It was by prayer that Solomon obtained his great 
 wisdom, and taught us to obtain it by the same 
 means. "Give me Wisdom that sitteth by Thy 
 throne, and cast me not off from among Thy 
 children ; for I am Thy servant, a weak man, and of 
 short time, and failing, short of the understanding 
 of judgment and laws. Send her out of Thy holy 
 heaven, and from the throne of Thy Majesty, that 
 she may be with me, that I may know what is 
 acceptable to Thee. For she knoweth and under- 
 standeth all things. The thoughts of men are 
 fearful, and our counsels uncertain. For the cor- 
 ruptible body is a load upon the soul, and the 
 earthly habitation presseth down the mind that 
 museth upon many things, and hardly do we guess 
 aright at things that are upon earth, and with labor 
 do we find the things that are before us. But the 
 things that are in heaven, who shall search out ; 
 and who shall know Thy thoughts, except Thou 
 give wisdom, and send Thy Holy Spirit from above. 
 And so the ways of them that are upon earth may 
 be corrected, and men may learn the things that 
 
96 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 please Thee. For by wisdom they were healed, 
 whosoever have pleased Thee, Lord, from the be- 
 ginning." (Wisdom 9.) 
 
 And in the next chapter, he praises the wonderful 
 deeds which, by means of this wisdom, were per- 
 formed by Adam, Lot, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and 
 the Hebrews. "This wisdom," says Solomon, 
 "preserved him that was first formed by God, the 
 father of the world, (Adam) when he was created 
 alone, and she brought him out of his sin, and gave 
 him power to govern all things." 
 
 She delivered the just man (Lot) who fled from 
 the wicked that were perishing when the fire came 
 down upon Pentapolis. She conducted the just 
 when he fled from his brother's wrath (Jacob flying 
 from Esau) through the right ways, and showed 
 him the kingdom of God, and gave him the know- 
 ledge of the holy things, made him honorable in 
 his labors, and accomplished his labors, that he 
 might overcome and know that wisdom is mightier 
 than all. __ 
 
 She forsook not the just when he was sold, 
 (Joseph) but delivered him from sinners. She went 
 down with him into the pit, and in bands she left 
 him not, till she brought him the sceptre of the 
 kingdom, and power against those that oppressed 
 him, and showed them to be liars that had accused 
 him, and gave him everlasting glory. 
 
 The delivered the just people (Israelites) and 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 97 
 
 blameless seed from the nations (Egyptians) that 
 oppressed them. She entered into the soul of the 
 servant of God, (Moses) and stood against dreadful 
 things, iu wonders and signs." 
 
 In the same manner St. Anthony, the Hermit, 
 asked wisdom of God, and obtained it. 
 
 " He was," says St. Athanasius in his life, " very 
 wise, and what was most admirable in him was, that 
 he was most ingenius, most discreet, constant, and 
 meek, although he had never studied anything. 
 Heathen philosophers came to him, believing they 
 would be able to deceive him by their arguments. 
 But he answered them, c If you have come to a fool 
 then your trouble is useless, but if you consider me 
 as a wise man, then imitate what you see. Had I 
 come to you, I would try to imitate you ; but as you 
 have come to me as to a wise man, you should be 
 what I am — Christians.' The philosophers admired 
 the acuteness of his mind. 
 
 St. Anthony asked them again : ' Which of these 
 two is the best, good sense or knowledge, and what 
 is the beginning of either ? Does good sense pro- 
 ceed from knowledge, or knowledge from good 
 sense?' 
 
 When they answered him, that good sense was 
 the author and inventor of science, he said,, ' Well, 
 then, he who has perfect good sense needs no science.' 
 Just as if he said, ' I am one who never applied to 
 
 nire knowledge, but I am taught by God.' " 
 9 
 
98 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 St. Ambrose, too, obtained wisdom in the same 
 manner, as Paulinus relates in his life : "When he 
 dictated the forty-third Psalm, I saw come upon him 
 a little flame of fire, (indicating the Holy Ghost) 
 which sat down upon his head, and by degrees en- 
 tered his mouth, as into a house there to live, after 
 which his face became like snow." 
 
 When the Abbot Kupert was required to tell who 
 were his fathers and teachers, he answered, "I 
 hereby confess that to be visited from above is better 
 for me than ten fathers and teachers. I dictate 
 whatever that heavenly monitor suggests tome." 
 
 St. Thomas Aquinas publicly avowed that he 
 owed his wisdom more to prayer than to his efforts 
 in studying. 
 
 When St. Ephrem prayed, saying, " Pour out, 
 Lord, upon me the waters of Thy grace," he re- 
 ceived in a vision from the angels, a book, and with 
 it heavenly wisdom, and the gift of eloquence to 
 such a degree that howsoever overflowing the source 
 of his words was, they never could fully express 
 what he had conceived in his mind. For the pro- 
 foundness of his doctrine and the quickness of his 
 thoughts were such as to absorb his tongue, so that 
 it was unable to speak out the conceptions of his 
 mind. (Life by Nyssenus.) 
 
 In our own times we have a most striking exam- 
 ple in the Cure of Ars. "How could this man," 
 says the writer of the "Spirit of the Cure of Ars," 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 99 
 
 " who had nearly been refused admittance into the 
 great seminary because of his ignorance, and who 
 had, since his promotion to the Priesthood, been 
 solely employed in prayer, and in the labors of the 
 confessional, how could he have attained to the 
 power of teaching doctrine, like one of the Fathers 
 of the Church ? Whence did he derive his aston- 
 ishing knowledge of God, of nature, and of the 
 history of the soul ? How was it that his thoughts 
 and expressions so often coincided with those of the 
 greatest Christian geniuses, St. Augustine, St. Ber- 
 nard, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Sienna, 
 St. Teresa?" 
 
 The spirit of God has been pleased to engrave 
 on the heart of this holy Priest all that he was to 
 know, and to teach to others. And it was the more 
 deeply engraved as that heart was the more pure ; 
 the more detached and empty of the vain science of 
 men ; like a clear and polished block of marble 
 ready for the chisel of the sculptor. 
 
 The faith of the Cure of Ars was his whole 
 science ; his book was our Lord Jesus Christ. He 
 sought for wisdom nowhere but in Jesus Christ, in 
 nis death and in His Cross. To him no other wis- 
 dom was true, no other wisdom useful. He sought 
 it not amid the dust of libraries, not in the school 
 of the learned, but in prayer, or on his knees, at 
 his Master's feet, covering his Divine feet with 
 tears and kisses ; in the presence of the Holy Taber- 
 
100 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 nacle, where he passed his days and nights, before 
 the crowd of the Pilgrims had as yet deprived him 
 of liberty day and night, he had learnt it all. 
 
 Thus prayer is a most powerful means of becom- 
 ing truly learned. " If any one wants wisdom let 
 him ask it of God, who giveth to all men abundant- 
 ly, and it shall be given to him." (James i., 5.) 
 
 But there are, besides this, other reasons of 
 greater weight, and more persuasive for an ecclesi- 
 astical student to apply himself earnestly and 
 assiduously to prayer. " In order to be enabled to 
 draw souls to God, he himself must first be drawn 
 by God," says St. Alphonsus. But this is done in 
 prayer only. Men truly holy and Apostolic knew 
 this but too w r ell. Hence, we read in the lives of 
 St. Dominic, St. Francis Xavier, St. Francis Regis, 
 St. Alphonsus, Blessed Leonard of Port Maurice, 
 that having labored during the day for the salvation 
 of souls, they would at night retire to pray. 
 
 For this reason Father Vincent Caraffa, in writing 
 to the young ecclesiastics, who applied to study in 
 order to save souls, addressed to them the following 
 remarkable words: " In order to effect great con- 
 versions, much prayer is of far greater service than 
 eloquence. Eternal truths make quite a different 
 impression when they proceed from the heart, than 
 when they are preached from the lips. Hence, the 
 practice of ministers of the Gospel ought to be in 
 conformity to their teaching ; in a word, they ought 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 101 
 
 to show that they are quite detached from the world, 
 and from themselves, and only occupied in procur- 
 ing God's glory, and making Him loved by all." 
 
 St. Fraucis de Sales confessed of himself that his 
 • 3 and prayers had contributed more towards 
 the conversion of the province of Chablais than all 
 his talents. "The Apostles," said he, "never 
 preached the word of God without having sent most 
 fervent prayers to heaven. Deceived is he who 
 wishes to convert infidels, heretics, or great sinners, 
 by other means than those which Jesus Christ and 
 his Apostles made use of. God alone can, by His 
 grace, change the hearts of men, for which we can 
 never sufficiently pray." 
 
 " The labor of a Priest who is not given up to 
 prayer/' says St. Vincent de Paul, "will be of 
 little or no avail, whilst, on the contrary, with 
 prayer, he will touch hearts and convert souls. Yes, 
 give me a man of prayer, and all things-will suc- 
 ceed with him. He will be able to say, with St. 
 Paul, ' I can do all things in Him Who strength- 
 ened me.' Prayer is a large sermon book, by 
 means of which they will draw the eternal truths 
 from their source, and then communicate them to 
 the people." 
 
 Indeed, such a one may say with our Lord Jesus 
 
 -t, " I speak that which I have seen with My 
 
 Father," (John nil., 38,) and with St. John, 
 
 "That which was from the beginning, which we 
 
102 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, 
 which we have looked upon, we declare unto you 
 that you also may have fellowship with us, and our 
 fellowship may be with the Father, and with His 
 Son, Jesus Christ. " (John i., 1, 3.) What the 
 people said of Jesus Christ, they will say also of 
 him. " He was teaching as one having power, and 
 not as the Scribes and Pharisees." (Matt, vii., 29.) 
 
 "St. Francis de Sales," said the Duchess de 
 Montpensier, in speaking of this Saint, " has done 
 me an immense harm, since all other preachers of 
 the word of God do no longer please me, because, 
 whilst others are losing themselves in lofty lan- 
 guage, he endeavors to catch souls by attacking the 
 hearts and rendering himself perfect master of 
 them." 
 
 " The Cure of Ars is a most admirable example of 
 this truth. When persons have heard this saintly 
 priest so ready to proclaim his ignorance, discourse 
 upon heaven, on the sacred Humanity of our Lord, 
 on His dolorous passion, His Keal Presence in the 
 Most Holy Sacrament of our altars, on the Blessed 
 Virgin Mary, her attractions, and her greatness, or 
 the happiness of the Saints, the purity of the Angels, 
 the beauty of souls, the dignity of man, on all those 
 subjects which were familiar to him, it often hap- 
 pened that they came away from the discourse quite 
 convinced that the good Father saw the things of 
 which he had spoken with such fullness of heart, 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 103 
 
 with such eloquent emotion, in such passionate 
 accents, with such abundant tears ; and, indeed, 
 his words were then impressed with a character of 
 Divine tenderness, of sweet gentleness, and of pen- 
 etrating unction, which was beyond all comparison. 
 There was so extraordinary a majesty, so marvellous 
 a power in his voice, in his gestures, in his looks, in 
 his transfigured countenance,, that it was impossible 
 to listen to him and remain cold and unmoved. 
 
 " Views and thoughts, imparted by a Divine light, 
 have quite a different bearing from those acquired 
 by study. Doubt was dispelled from the most re- 
 bellious hearts, and the admirable clearness of faith 
 took its place before so absolute a certainty ; an ex- 
 position at once so luminous and so simple. 
 
 " The word of the Cure of Ars was the more effica- 
 cious because he preached with his whole being. 
 His mere presence was a manifestation of the truth, 
 and of him it might be well said that lie would 
 have moved and convinced men even by his silence. 
 When there appeared in the pulpit that pale, thin 
 and transparent face, when you heard that shrill, 
 piercing voice, like a cry, giving out to the crowd 
 sublime thoughts, clothed in simple and popular 
 language — you fancied yourself in the presence of 
 one of those great characters of the Bible, speaking 
 BO in the language of the Prophets. You were 
 already filled with respect and confidence, and dis- 
 posed to listen, not for enjoyment, but for profit. 
 
104 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 u To those to whom it was given to assist at his 
 catechetical instructions, two things were equally 
 remarkable — the preacher and the hearer. They 
 were not the words that the preacher gave forth — it 
 was more than words ; it was a soul, a holy soul, 
 all filled with Faith and Love, that poured itself 
 out before you, of which you felt in your own soul 
 the immediate contact, and the warmth. As for the 
 hearer he was no longer on the earth ; he was 
 transported into those purer regions from which dog- 
 mas and mysteries descend. As the Saint spoke, 
 new and clear views opened to the mind — heaven 
 and earth, the present and the future life, the things 
 of Time and Eternity, appeared in a light that you 
 had never before perceived. 
 
 " When a man coming fresh from the world, and 
 bringing with him worldly ideas, feelings and im- 
 pressions, sat down to listen to his doctrine, it 
 stunned and amazed him ; it set the world so utterly 
 at defiance, and all that the world believes, loves, 
 and extols. At first he was astonished and thun- 
 derstruck, then by degrees he was touched and 
 surprised into weeping like the rest. 
 
 "No eloquence has drawn forth more tears, or 
 penetrated deeper into the hearts of men. His words 
 opened a way before them like flames, and the most 
 hardened hearts melted like wax before the fire. 
 They were burning, radiating, triumphant ; they 
 did more than charm the mind ; they subdued the 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 105 
 
 •whole soul, and brought it hack to God. Not by 
 the long and difficult way of argument, but by the 
 paths of emotion, which lead shortly and directly 
 to the desired end. 
 
 " He w r as the oracle that people went to consult, 
 that they might learn to know Jesus Christ. Not 
 only the sinful, but the learned, not only the fervent, 
 but the indifferent, found in it a Divine unction 
 which penetrated them, and made them long to hear 
 it again. The more they heard, the more they 
 wished to hear ; and they always came back with 
 love to the foot of that pulpit as to the place where 
 they had found beauty and truth. Nothing more 
 clearly showed that the Cure of Ars was full of the 
 Spirit of God, who alone is greater than our heart. 
 AVe may draw from His depths without ever exhaust- 
 ing them, and the Divine satiety which He gives 
 only excites a greater appetite. 
 
 "The Cure of Ars spoke without any other prepa- 
 ration than his continual union with God. He 
 passed without interval or delay from the confes- 
 sional to the pulpit ; and yet lie showed an 
 imperturbable confidence which sprang from com- 
 plete and absolute forgetfulness of himself. Besides, 
 no one was tempted to criticise him. People gene- 
 rally criticise those who are not indifferent to their 
 opinion of them. Those who heard the Cure of 
 Ars had something else to do — they had to pass 
 judgment on themselves. 
 
106 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 " This real power of his word supplied in him the 
 want of talent and rhetoric. It gave a singular 
 majesty and an irresistible authority to the most 
 simple things that issued from those venerable lips. 
 He loosed his words like arrows from the bow, and 
 his whole soul seemed to fly with them. 
 
 "In these effusions, the pathetic, the profound, 
 the sublime, was often side by side with the simple 
 and the ordinary. They had all the freedom and 
 irregularity, but also all the originality and power 
 of an improvisation. We have sometimes tried to 
 write down what we had just heard, but it was im- 
 possible to recall the things which had most moved 
 us, and to put them into form. What is most Divine 
 in the heart of man cannot be, expressed in writing. ' ' 
 (The Spirit of the Cure of Ars.) 
 
 Alas, how true is that saying of St. Thomas of 
 Villanova : " Experience shows every day that 
 a priest of moderate learning, but full of the love 
 of Jesus Christ, converts more souls than seve- 
 ral learned orators put together, whose eloquent 
 discourses charm whole populations. With fine 
 thoughts, curious allusions and ingenious reflec- 
 tions, it is easy to send away the auditors in 
 admiration, but they also return cold in Divine love, 
 and perhaps colder than they were before. Of what 
 use are such discourses to the people and the 
 preacher ? They only serve to render him more 
 vain and more culpable towards the Divine Majesty. 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 107 
 
 To convert sinners, and draw them out of the mire 
 of vice, requires arrows of fire, or words full of 
 Divine love." 
 
 Hence, St. Jerome would say that " One man in- 
 flamed with this love is sufficient to convert a whole 
 nation." 
 
 "One word," says St. Alphonsus, "uttered by 
 a priest inflamed with Divine love will produce 
 more good than a hundred sermons composed by a 
 great Divine, who has but little love for God." 
 
 "' A polished discourse/' says St. Jerome, "only 
 gratifies the ears ; one which is not so, makes its 
 way to the heart." 
 
 " I have always said ever since," says St. Francis 
 de Sales, "that whoever preaches with love, preaches 
 sufficiently against heresy, although he may not 
 utter a single word of controversy against it. For 
 these thirty-three years that God has called me to 
 the sacred office of breaking the bread of His Word 
 to the people, I have certainly remarked that prac- 
 tical sermons, wherein the subject is treated with 
 devotion and with zeal, are so many burning coals 
 thrown into the faces of the Protestants who hear 
 the in ; that they are always pleased and edified by 
 them, and are thereby rendered more docile and 
 reasonable when we come to confer with them on 
 disputed points." 
 
 Now, it is not in the study of books, but in holy 
 : an-1 meditation, that the hearts become en- 
 
108 ON THE NECESSIIY OF PRAYER 
 
 kindled with Divine love, zeal and devotion. For 
 this reason, St. Alponsus exclaims: "Alas! how 
 much more did St. Philip Neri learn in the cata- 
 combs of Kome, where he spent whole nights in 
 prayer, than in all the books he studied? How 
 much more did St. Jerome learn in the grotto of 
 Bethlehem than in all his other studies." 
 
 St. Paulinus writes (Ep. 27) : " Let the philoso- 
 phers of this world have their philosophy ; the rich 
 their riches ; kings their kingdoms, our wisdom, 
 our riches ; our kingdom is to know Jesus Christ. "■ 
 Hence we must exclaim, with St. Francis of Assisi : 
 M My God and my all I" For this reason, an eccle- 
 siastic ought so to study as to make, at the same 
 time, greater progress in the science of the Saints, 
 in prayer, and in the love of God, than in the ac- 
 quisition of other sciences. 
 
 "It will often happen," says St. Alphonsus, 
 " that in prayer you will learn more in one moment 
 than in a ten years' study." 
 
 "Incomparably greater knowledge of God," says 
 St. Bonaventure, (Theo. Myst. c. 3, p. 2.) " is com- 
 municated to the soul by a strong desire of being 
 united to Him in love than can be obtained by any 
 study whatever." 
 
 "Great talents are required," says St. Alphon- 
 sus, " to acquire profane sciences, but to acquire the 
 science of the saints, one needs but a good will." 
 
 "He who loves God more," says St. Gregory > 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 109 
 
 11 has also a greater knowledge of Him." He who 
 relishes God by loving Him sees and knows Him 
 more clearly. He who has tasted of honey knows 
 more of it than all the philosophers who explain its 
 nature without having ever tasted it... 
 
 M reover it takes much time and trouble to ac- 
 quire profane sciences, but to acquire the science of 
 the saints it suffices, says St. Alphonsus, " to will it 
 earnestly and ask it of God." The wise man says, 
 11 wisdom is easily seen by them that love her, and is 
 fouwl by them that seek her. She preventeth them 
 that covet her, so that she first showeth herself unto 
 them. He that awaketh early to seek her shall not 
 labor, for he shall find her sitting at his door." 
 (Wisdom vi. 13 — 16.) But this wisdom or love of 
 God must be sought and asked in prayer, as St. 
 James the Apostle writes. I am, however, far from 
 denying that study is necessary ; I wish only to 
 say that the study of Jesus Christ crucified is more 
 necessary. 
 
 St. Paulinus, in w r riting to a certain Jovian, who 
 studied so much the writings of philosophers "with- 
 out caring for his progress in virtue, excusing him- 
 self by saying that he had no time, answers him : 
 " You have time to become a philosopher, and you 
 have none to be a Christian." 
 
 There are many students who spend almost their 
 whole time in studying mathematics, geometry, 
 astronomy, profane history, philosophy, etc., ex- 
 10 
 
HO ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 cusing themselves that there is no time left them 
 for prayer and meditation. With truth, you may 
 answer them : You have time to become a learned 
 man and you have none to prepare yourself wor- 
 thily for Holy Orders. Did not Seneca tell a great 
 truth when he said: "We do not know what is 
 necessary, because we learn what is surperfluous ?" 
 (De brev. irt. c. 1.) Certainly, it would be much 
 better for a student to give up studying than to let 
 his studies interfere with his spiritual progress. 
 
 The Apostles had received from our Lord Jesus 
 Christ a most important mission, to go and preach 
 the Gospel to all nations, and yet they looked upon 
 prayer as on something more necessary and more 
 important. Hence, when they saw that their too 
 numerous labors interfered with this sacred duty, 
 they chose seven Deacons, that they might do part 
 of their work, saying : u But we will give ourselves 
 continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the 
 Word." (Acts vi. 4.) They say expressly, we 
 must give ourselves first to prayer, and then only 
 to tire preaching of the Word of God, knowing very 
 well that preaching, without prayer having pre- 
 ceded, would be fruitless. 
 
 St. Teresa wrote the same to the Bishop of Osma, 
 who, for over great zeal for his flock, gave but little 
 time to prayer and meditation. "Our Lord," 
 writes the Saint (8th letter), " gives me to under- 
 stand that you need what is most necessary — prayer 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. Ill 
 
 and meditation, and perseverance therein, from the 
 want of which proceeds that dryness from which 
 your soul suffers." 
 
 St. Bernard, too, told Pope Eugene never to omit 
 prayer for the sake of exterior occupations, as oth- 
 erwise his heart might become so hardened as not 
 even to mind any longer the stings of conscience 
 for faults committed ; nay, might become so in- 
 different as not to detest even faults committed. 
 Hence St. Ignatius did not hesitate to remove many 
 from study who could not apply to it with calmness 
 of heart, and, therefore, found in it an obstacle to 
 their spiritual advancement. " It may be," he said, 
 that they are fit for study, but study is not fit for 
 them." " For what does it profit a man," he would 
 say, " if he gaineth the whole world but cometh to 
 suffer the loss of his soul." "For this end," said 
 he, " he must always labor ; everything else must 
 be but a means tending thereto. By this principle 
 he must be guided in all his actions." (Life by 
 C. Genelli.) 
 
 St. Charles Borromeo made it a rule that a candi- 
 date for the priesthood should, before his ordination, 
 be asked in particular whether he was in the habit 
 of making his meditation, and in what manner he 
 did it ; and Father Avila, S.J., dissuaded every one 
 from becoming a priest who was not given up to 
 prayer. 
 
 Indeed, a student who is not fond of meditation 
 
112 ON THE NECESSITY OP PRAYER 
 
 and prayer, will never be a good and holy priest. 
 Whatever has been said in the preceding chapters 
 on the necessity of prayer for all men, in order to 
 sanctify themselves, is more justly applicable to an 
 ecclesiastical, student ; for, intending, as he does, to 
 embrace so holy a state, he is under greater obliga- 
 tion than the laity to sanctify himself, which he will 
 never do without being addicted to prayer. Woe to 
 him, should he be ordained without having given, 
 during the course of his studies, the preference to 
 prayer, above all his other exercises and occupations. 
 His heart will be like a barren soil and a hard rock. 
 Experience teaches that nothing is more apt to dry 
 up the heart than studies without prayer. Like a 
 sponge, they absorb all the waters of its pious sen- 
 timents and devotion. As a man attacked by 
 cholera feels cold all over his body, so, and far more 
 so, does a student feel in his soul, without a love for 
 prayer. By degrees his heart becomes like a pond 
 that has a larger outlet than inlet of water. The 
 dry land will soon make its appearance. " He saw 
 that the face of the earth was dried." (Genesis 
 viii., 13.) 
 
 Studies without prayer, are, in reality, a cholera 
 upon heart and soul. Destitute of interior light as 
 he is, he will neither think of the necessity of sanc- 
 tifying himself, nor of the obstacles thereto, and of 
 the obligations he must comply with to save himself 
 and others. Having no lively faith, his genuflections 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 113 
 
 at the altar will be like the bows of a puppet. 
 Could you see his interior disposition in the per- 
 formance of the rites, in the administration of the 
 sacraments, you might be tempted to believe that 
 you saw an actor on the stage, or in the recital of 
 his office, a harlequin going through his role. He 
 will, as far as interior spirit and devotion are con- 
 cerned, not be much unlike a bird which has been 
 taught to sing. In preaching, he will resemble a 
 boy reciting a lesson which he was forced to learn by 
 heart. When speaking of the love of God, or on 
 other virtues, he will belike a man who writes geog- 
 raphy in his room, without having ever seen any other 
 part of the world than his native place. In a word, 
 the functions of his ministry, instead of being for him 
 a source of Divine graces and benedictions, will be- 
 come as many sources of maledictions ; for our Lord 
 Jesus Christ did not say in vain, " Many will say 
 to me in that day, ' Lord, Lord, have we not pro- 
 phesied in Thy Name, and cast out evils in Thy 
 Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name/ (by 
 administering the sacraments,) and then will I pro- 
 fess unto them, I never knew you ; depart from Me 
 you that work iniquity." (Matt, vii., 22.) 
 
 It is not my object to show here how far this 
 iniquity will progress by degrees, nor to insist any 
 longer upon the necessity of prayer for an ecclesias- 
 tical student. I content myself by saying, with 
 Father Avila, that should he not have loved and 
 10* 
 
114 OX THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 
 
 practiced prayer in the course of his studies, he will 
 be unfit for ordination, because he cannot possess 
 any such solid virtue as is required for the worthy 
 reception of Holy Orders, and as gives hopes that 
 he will be faithful to God, M for," says St. Bernard, 
 " if I see one not possessed of great love for prayer, 
 I think at once to myself that there is scarcely any- 
 thing good in him." " Little good," says St. Yin- 
 cent de Paul, "is to be expected from a man who 
 does not love to commune with God." 
 
 Hence St. Francis of Assisi said to St. Anthony 
 of Padua : "lam well pleased that you teach the- 
 ology to your brethren, provided you do it in such 
 a manner that neither in you, nor in your brethren, 
 love and fervor for prayer may be diminished." 
 (His life.) 
 
 And St. Alphonsus wrote to the students, after 
 the departure of a certain professor who had intro- 
 duced among them a forced application to study, 
 which very much afflicted Alphonsus, because he 
 could not suffer it : "I am not sorry when I see you 
 retrench your studies and give more time to prayer. 
 We have been called to succor poor destitute souls ; 
 for this reason we have more need of sanctity than 
 of* science. If we are not holy, we are exposed to 
 the peril of falling into a thousand imperfections. 
 I repeat to you once more, if, to give to spirituality, 
 you retrench some from your studies, far from being 
 
FOR ECCLESIASTICAL STUDENTS. 115 
 
 sorry, I shall, on the contrary, experience great 
 consolation." (Life, V. vol. p. 34.) 
 
 Father John de Starchia, Provincial of the Friars 
 Minor in Lombardy, having been upbraided in vain 
 by St. Francis of Assisi, for having introduced 
 forced studies, and made regulations more favora- 
 ble to science than to piety, was publicly cursed by 
 this Saint, and deposed at the ensuing chapter. 
 The Saint, on being entreated to withdraw this 
 curse and give his blessing to Brother John, who 
 was a learned nobleman, answered: "I cannot 
 bless him whom the Lord has cursed." A dreadful 
 reply, which was soon after verified. This unfor- 
 tunate man died, exclaiming: "I am damned and 
 cursed for all eternity/ ' Some frightfur circum- 
 stances, which followed after his death, confirmed 
 his awful prediction. Such a malediction, whicli 
 pride and (Jisobedience, the natural consequences of 
 neglect of prayer, brought upon this learned man, 
 ought to strike terror into those vain men, espe- 
 cially those ecclesiastics who forsake piety and prayer 
 for science, and in whom learning and talents have 
 no other effects than to produce in them great at- 
 tachment to their own conceits and proud indocility, 
 which induces them at length even to revolt against 
 the Church. To escape these, or similar fatal con- 
 sequences, and to render themselves always more 
 worthy of their sublime vocation, ecclesiastics must 
 adopt the motto of St. Alphonsus, " Soli Deo etstu- 
 
116 ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER, AC. 
 
 diis," or that of Father Passerat, " D'abard l'orai- 
 son et puis l'etude ;" prayer first and then study. 
 
 Hoping that none of those who read this book 
 will belong to that class of men of whom our Lord 
 Jesus Christ has said : " I know that My word has 
 no place in you ;" (John viii. 37.) " And why do 
 you not know My speech? Because you cannot 
 hear My word ;" (Vers, xliii. 45.) " If I say the 
 truth to you, why do you not believe Me ; he that 
 is of God heareth the words of God, therefore you 
 hear them not because you are not of God," I 
 conclude by saying, that if you put in practice what 
 has been said you will gather a large treasure of 
 science and piety, from which, as a learned and holy 
 scribe in the kingdom of God, you will one day 
 " bring forth new things and old," (Matt. xiii. 52), 
 proving yourself a faithful minister and steward, 
 (I Cor. xiii. 8), and like a good and faithful ser- 
 vant, being found worthy to be placed by your Lord 
 over many things." (Matt. xxv. 23.) 
 
THE PRAYER OF THE JUST. 117 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON THE EFFICACY OF THE PRAYER OF THE JUST. 
 
 MY dear reader, were I to ask you : ' Is there 
 any power in the world to which God Him- 
 self submits ?' Most undoubtedly you would an- 
 swer : •' No ; there is none, and to maintain the 
 contrary is to incur the guilt of heresy and blas- 
 phemy.' Nevertheless, in spite of all this, I dare 
 assert, without the slightest fear of committing the 
 sin either of heresy or of blasphemy, that there is a 
 power to which Almighty God feels Himself obliged 
 to yield. 'And what is this power?' you will 
 eagerly ask. ' It is the power of the prayer of the 
 just.' Innumerable passages in Holy Writ, and in 
 the lives of the Saints, prove this great truth. I 
 selected several for this chapter, in the hope 
 that you will find them interesting, and that they 
 will contribute to inflame your heart with still 
 greater love and fervor for prayer. 
 
 We read in Exodus (c. 32, v. 10), that God was, 
 one day, very much incensed against the Jews ; for, 
 in spite of the astounding miracles He had wrought 
 in their behalf, when freeing them from the galling 
 
118" ON THE EFFICACY OF 
 
 yoke of Egyptian slavery, they had fallen into the 
 most heinous crime of idolatry. Exasperated at 
 this most provoking offence, the Lord resolved to- 
 blot out this ungrateful people from the face of the 
 earth. He was on the point of pouring out His 
 wrath upon them when He desisted and refrained 
 from giving full vent to His just indignation. 
 Why ? Because there was one to interpose and 
 arrest His anger. Who was it ? Moses. By what 
 means did he bring about the reconciliation of God 
 with His people? By prayer. Moses, the holy 
 and faithful servant of God, the leader of the Isra- 
 elites, interceded for them, and, by dint of earnest 
 entreaty, arrested the arm of God uplifted to smite 
 an ungrateful people. " Let me alone," says the 
 Lord to Moses, " that My wrath may be kindled 
 against them and that I may destroy them." 
 
 Behold the struggle between an angry God and 
 His suppliant servant ; between justice and prayer. 
 " Let Me alone," ah ! beloved Moses, let Me alone ; 
 let Me alone, that My wrath may be kindled against 
 them. "Let Me alone;" do not oppose Me any 
 longer ; I will and I must take revenge ; I cannot 
 forbear any longer. " Let Me alone ;" let Me exe- 
 cute justice ; if you yield to My wish, I will make 
 of you a great nation, i. e., the leader of another 
 great nation. Certainly, as St. Jerome (in Ezech. 
 c. 13) remarks, " he who says to another : ' Let me- 
 alone,' gives to understand that he is in his power, 
 under his control !" 
 
THE PRAYER OF THE JUST. 119 
 
 But Moses did not yield ; on the contrary, he 
 boldly demanded pardon of the Lord for the Jews, 
 saving : " Why, Lord, is Thy indignation aroused 
 against Thy people whom Thou hast brought out of 
 the land of Egypt, with great power and with a 
 mighty hand ? Let not the Egyptians boast, I be- 
 seech Thee : He craftily brought them out that He 
 might kill them in the mountains and efface them 
 from the earth : let Thy anger cease, and be ap- 
 peased upon the waywardness of Thy people." 
 What was the issue of this well-contested struggle 
 between God and Moses? Which of the two came 
 off victorious? Was it the Lord? No; He saw 
 Himself subdued by the power of Moses' prayer, for 
 "the Lord was appeased," says Holy Scripture, 
 " from doing the evil which He had spoken against 
 His people." 
 
 Something similar took place at the time of the 
 prophet Jeremias. Again the Jews had committed 
 atrocious crimes, and the wrath of the Lord was 
 kindled anew. Again He wanted to reject and an- 
 nihilate them. " And I will cast you away from 
 before My face, as I have cast away all your breth- 
 ren." (Isais. vii. 15.) But before inflicting this 
 punishment, the Lord had to entreat His servant 
 Jeremias not to intercede in behalf of the victims 
 is anger. And the Lord said to the prophet: 
 •• Therefore do not thou pray for this people, nor 
 tab- to thee praise and supplication for them, and 
 
120 ON THE EFFICACY OF 
 
 do not ivithstand Me" (Verse 16), for if you do, the 
 Lord means to say, I shall not be able to pour out 
 My wrath upon this people. 
 
 Again, God visited this perverse people with a 
 destructive fire as a chastisement for their sinful 
 lives. Great, indeed, must have been the anger of 
 God which obliged Him to send this frightful 
 plague, yet still greater was the power of Aaron's 
 prayer, since it prevailed again upon the Lord and 
 induced Him to quench the fire immediately. Moses 
 said to Aaron : ls Take the censer, and putting fire 
 in it from the altar, put incense upon it, and go 
 quickly to the people to pray for them, for already 
 wrath is gone out from the Lord and the plague 
 rageth." (Numbers xvi. 46.) What was the re- 
 sult? " A blameless man (Aaron) made haste to 
 pray for the people, bringing forth the shield of his 
 ministry, prayer, and by incense making supplica- 
 tion, witJistood the ivrath and put an end to the calam- 
 ity, showing that he tvas Thy servant." (Wisdom 
 xviii. 21.) Thus Aaron checked this devouring flame 
 which had already consumed fourteen thousand and 
 seventy men, not indeed by water, but by placing 
 himself between the living and the dead, offering 
 fervent prayer to the Lord. " And standing be- 
 tween the dead and the living, he prayed for the 
 people and the plague ceased." (Num. xvi. 48.) 
 
 At the time of the deluge, Noah became the re- 
 conciler of man with God, as we read in the Book of 
 
THE PRAYER OF THE JUST. 121 
 
 Ecclesiasticus, chap. xliv. 17, God, for his sake, 
 putting an end to the deluge, and saving in him 
 and his family the whole human race. "Noah 
 was found perfect, just." Hence it was that he 
 could appease the wrath of God : " And in the 
 time of wrath he was made a reconciliation." 
 
 What made Attila, the scourge of God, retreat 
 so suddenly and give up his plan of invading Italy ? 
 It was the prayer of St. Leo, Pope, in deference to 
 which God sent so great a consternation upon Attila 
 that he felt himself forced to withdraw. What put 
 an effectual check to the ravages of pestilence at the 
 time of St. Gregory ? Nothing but the prayers of 
 this Saint. What terminated the persecutions of 
 the ten Roman emperors ? Was it not the prayer 
 of St. Silvester, who healed, converted, and bap- 
 tized Constantine the Great ? Do we not come 
 across similar examples in almost all the lives of 
 the Saints ? The hands of God are, then, so to 
 speak, bound By the prayer of men eminently just, 
 fat He feels free to act if such men cannot be found. 
 A- Be Himself declared by the prophet Ezechiel : 
 (chap. xxii. 30.) " And I sought among them a 
 man that might set up a hedge and stand in the 
 gap before Me in favor of the land, that I might 
 not destroy it ; and I found none. And I poured 
 out My indignation upon them ; in the fire of My 
 wrath I consumed them." 
 
 The terrible fate of Sodom, as related in the Book 
 11 
 
122 ON THE EFFICACY OF 
 
 of Genesis, is an evident proof of this truth. No 
 sooner had Abraham learned that God intended to 
 destroy this city with its inhabitants, than he com- 
 menced to intercede for it, saying to the Lord : 
 " Wilt Thou destroy the just with the wicked? If 
 there be fifty just men in the city, shall they perish 
 withal ? and wilt Thou not spare that place for the 
 sake of the fifty just, if they be therein? Far be it 
 from Thee to do this thing, and to slay the just with 
 the wicked, and for the just to be in like case with 
 the wicked, this is not beseeming Thee : Thou Who 
 judgestall the earth, wilt not make this judgment." 
 And the Lord said to him: " If I find in Sodom 
 fifty just within the city, I will spare the whole 
 place for their sake." And Abraham answered and 
 said : Seeing I have once begun, I will speak to my 
 Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes. What if there 
 be five less than fifty just persons ? Wilt Thou for 
 five and forty destroy the whole city ? And He 
 said : I will not destroy it if I find £ve and forty. 
 And again he said to Him : But if forty be found 
 there what wilt Thou do ? He said : I will not de- 
 stroy it for the sake of forty. Lord, saith he, be 
 not angry, I beseech Thee, if I speak : What if 
 thirty shall be found there ? He answered, " I will 
 not do it if I find thirty there." "Seeing," saith 
 he, " I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord." 
 " What if twenty be found there ? He said : I will 
 not destroy it for the sake of twenty. I beseech 
 
THE PRAYER OF THE JUST. 123 
 
 Thee, saith lie, be not angry Lord, if I speak yet 
 once more : What if ten should be found there ? 
 And he said, I will not destroy it for the sake of 
 ten.*' (Gen. xviii. 23-32.) And the Lord de- 
 parted, fearing, as it were, Abraham might ask 
 Him to spare the city if but four, or three, or even 
 one just soul could be found there ; for there was 
 that number to be found there, viz : Lot, his wife 
 and two children. But in order that they might 
 not perish with the rest, God, through the ministry 
 of his angels, led them out of the city. But had 
 the Lord found there but ten just men, surely He 
 would have spared the city. Nay, at the time of 
 Jeremias, God declared, through his prophet, that 
 He would be propitious to the city of Jerusalem, if 
 but one just man could be found therein. " Go 
 about through the streets of Jerusalem and see, and 
 consider, and seek in the broad places thereof if you 
 can find a man that executeth judgment and seeketh 
 faith, and I ivill be merciful unto it.' (Chap. v. 1.) 
 God seeks men to whom may be applied what is 
 said of St. John the Baptist : " He was great before 
 the Lord," that is, great with God by their holiness 
 of life, and great by the power of their prayer. 
 
 Such was St. Athanasius, who for God ana 1 for 
 the sake of religion, opposed the dreadful heresy of 
 Arins and triumphed over it. Such was St. John 
 ('lirysostom, St. Basil, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, 
 who, to the end of their lives, fought the battles of 
 
124 ON THE EFFICACY OF 
 
 the Lord. In what great esteem must the just be 
 held,, though despicable and wretched exteriorly, 
 because, for their sake, God spares whole cities 
 sunk in vice ; they are the stays and pillars of 
 realms. Such was David, of whom God said to 
 Ezechias : I will protect this city and will save it 
 for My own sake, and for David My servant's sake." 
 (IV. Kings xix. 34.) 
 
 Such was St. Paul, to whom, when in danger of 
 shipwreck, the Angel of the Lord said : Cl Fear not, 
 Paul, for thou must be brought before Caesar ; and 
 behold, God hath given thee all that sail with thee." 
 (Acts xxvii. 24.) Hence Cornelius a Lapide re- 
 marks : " God values one just man more than a 
 thousand sinners, than heaven and earth ;" " nay," 
 says St. Alphonsus, " God esteems one eminently 
 just man more than a thousand ordinary just men. 
 As one sun imparts more light and warmth to the 
 whole world than all the stars united, in like man- 
 ner a holy man benefits the world more than a 
 thousand ordinary just men." " Who will call 
 into doubt that the world is sustained by the prayers 
 of the Saints," says Huff. Praefat. in vit. Patr. 
 
 On this account, St. Gregory writes : " Oh, how 
 I arm grieved to the very heart, when I see that God 
 banishes holy men and women from one country 
 into another, or summons them to Himself. This 
 is to me an evident sign that He intends to punish 
 such a country, and it will be, indeed, very easy for 
 
THE PRAYER OF THE JUST. 125 
 
 Him, when there is no one left to stay His anger.' ' 
 Hence St. Augustine was right in saying: "The 
 prayer of the just man is a key to heaven ; let his 
 prayer ascend and God's mercy will descend.'' 
 (Serni. 226 de Tempore.) 
 
 All the just men, of the Old and the New Testa- 
 ment, employed this key of prayer very freely to 
 unlock God's inexhaustible treasures, and to obtain 
 for themselves and others whatever blessing they 
 needed, whether temporal or spiritual. With this 
 key the prophet Elias closed the heavens, and no 
 rain fell for three years and a half ; and with this 
 same key he opened them again, and again rain fell 
 in abundance. With this key Ezechias brought 
 back the shadow of the lines by which it was gone 
 down in the sun-dial of Achaz, with the sun ten 
 lines backwards. " And the sun returned ten lines 
 by the degrees by which it was gone down." (Isais. 
 xxxviii. 8.) 
 
 With this key also, Josue arrested the sun in its 
 ■••, to have a longer day for gaining a complete 
 victor the Amorrhites : " Move not, sun, 
 
 towards Gabaon, nor thou, moon, towards the 
 valley of Ajalon." (Josue x. 12.) What hap- 
 pened? "And the sun and the moon stood still, 
 till the people revenged themselves of their ene- 
 
 So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, 
 and i i not to go down the space of one day. 
 
 was not before nor after so long a day, the. 
 
 11* 
 
126 ON THE EFFICACY OF 
 
 Lord obeying the voice of a man." (Verse 13.) 
 Thus Josue exercises power over the heavenly plan- 
 ets, suspending their revolutions, as if king thereof, 
 and keeping them at his beckon. 
 
 With the key of prayer Jacob, the Nisibite, keeps 
 the gates of Nisibis closed against Sapor, and sets 
 all his schemes at naught, as Theodore writes in 
 this Abbot's life ; Bessarion, the Abbot, turns sea 
 water into sweetwater ; St. Raymond of Pennafort, 
 standing on his mantle, traverses the sea for a dis- 
 tance of one hundred and sixty miles ; the Monk 
 Publius prevented Azazel, Julian the Apostate's 
 devil (dispatched by this Impious emperor to bring 
 news from the Occident, as is related in Vitis. Pat. 
 lib. 6, tome. 2, No. 12), from proceeding farther 
 west than where he lived ; St. Hilarion, Macarius, 
 and other Saints, drove out the devil from possessed 
 persons ; Theonas, the Abbot, made robbers stand 
 immovable ; St. Gregory Thaumaturgas moves a 
 mountain to obtain a site for a church ; St. Francis 
 of Assisium renders a wolf quite tame and gentle ; 
 St. Alphonsus stems a lava-torrent of Mount Vesu- 
 vius, and turns its destructive course from the city 
 of Naples ; St. Stanislaus, the Martyr, restores a 
 man to life who had died three years before, and 
 presented him before the court, to testify that he 
 had bought a certain spot, as a situation for his 
 church, from him, and had paid him in full. 
 
 " My dear Lord," says St. Coletta, after the 
 
THE PRAYER OF THE JUST. 127 
 
 death of her Prior, " give me back my Prior, for I 
 need his aid still in erecting some more monaste- 
 ries/' and our Lord is pleased to restore this Saint, 
 her Prior, alive, and he rendered valuable services 
 during the fifteen years he lived afterwards. 
 
 St. Francis de Paul, learning that his parents 
 were to be executed for the supposed murder of a 
 man, whose body had been found in their garden, 
 says to our Lord: " My God, let me be with my 
 parents by to-morrow." In the same night he was 
 carried by an Angel to his parents, at a distance of 
 four hundred leagues. The next day he commands 
 tin- dead man, in the presence of the people, to de- 
 clare whether the murder had been justly laid to 
 the charge of his parents. " No," says he, u your 
 parents are guiltless." The Saint again says to the 
 Lord: u Lord, return me to my convent," and the 
 Angel bore him back again. 
 
 Ah ! how powerful is the prayer of the just ! It 
 not only exercises its power over all kinds of crea- 
 tures, rational and irrational ; over those in heaven, 
 on earth and under the earth ; it not only disarms 
 the wrath of God against entire nations, lost to 
 the fear and love of their Creator ; it exercises a 
 mightier sway ; it gives free access to the spiritual 
 treasures of God ; it causes them to flow in per- 
 il streams upon sinners, as well as upon the 
 just, operating wonders in their interior. Sinners, 
 from being enemies of God, become His friends; 
 
 
 
128 ON THE EFFICACY OF 
 
 from being reprobates, they become chosen vessels 
 of election ; from being children of the devil, they 
 become children of God ; from being heirs of hell, 
 they become heirs of heaven. 
 
 Now, if prayer opens to sinners the road to hea- 
 ven, if it produces such wonderful effects in their 
 souls, how much more wonderful are the transfor- 
 mations which it brings about in the souls of the 
 just ? To give a full and accurate description of 
 them is utterly impossible ; no human eye ever saw 
 them, nor did any human understanding ever fully 
 comprehend them. Could they be seen or under- 
 stood, the whole world would covet them, and re- 
 gard all else as vanity and unworthy of man's am- 
 bition. 
 
 Now let me enumerate some of these wonderful 
 effects. Innumerable are the evil tendencies from 
 which the sacred waters of baptism could not free 
 the soul ; then, the slight blemishes which tarnish 
 the soul, even after the remission of grievous sins 
 in the sacrament of penance, such as temporal pun- 
 ishments due to every actual sin, a certain lassitude, 
 inconstancy and discouragement in combatting the 
 temptations of the devil, the world and the flesh ; a 
 certain proneness and affection for the vanities of 
 life, a sovereign horror for suffering, contempt and 
 the like. Prayer removes these blemishes, according 
 to what St. John Chrysostom tells us. "Although 
 we may be filled with sins, yet, if we continue to 
 
THE PRAYER OF THE JUST 129 
 
 pray, we shall soon be quite free of them ;" that is 
 to say, not only free of sins themselves, but also of 
 temporal punishments due to them; "for," con- 
 tinues the Saint, " no sooner had the leper prostrated 
 himself at the feet of our Lord, than he felt com- 
 pletely cleansed of his leprosy." 
 
 In prayer God enlightens the soul the better to 
 know and understand the enormity and heinousness 
 of sin and its ingratitude towards God. If, in the 
 first instant of conversion, its sorrow proceeded 
 from the imperfect motives of having lost heaven 
 and deserved hell, it now commences to repent more 
 from the perfect motive of the love of God, Whom, 
 instead of offending, it should have endeavored to 
 love above all things. It sometimes weeps over its 
 offenses offered to God, and sheds tears of grati- 
 tude towards Him, Who, instead of punishing it in 
 hell, gives it still time for tears and penance ; its 
 will soon conceives such a hatred of sin, that the 
 very name of this evil will inspire it with horror. 
 ", the soul's generous resolve rather to undergo 
 loss, even that of life itself, than to commit 
 again the least fault ; it will become penetrated with 
 the spirit of penance, ready to accept every trial and 
 cross as a satisfaction for its sins, an effect of the 
 love of God increasing in it in proportion to its per- 
 severance and fervor in prayer. " The love of 
 God," says St. Ambrose, " having once entered 
 into a soul, is like a fire, destroying everything 
 
130 ON THE EFFICACY OF 
 
 that comes within its reach ; the love of God, in like 
 manner, effaces every spot and stain of sin in the 
 soul." Witness the good thief on the cross, who 
 heard these consoling words from the lips of our 
 Lord, as a response to his earnest petition, " To- 
 day thou shalt he with Me in Paradise." More- 
 over, prayer inspires the soul with courage to com- 
 bat all her enemies, and patiently to endure every 
 cross and trial. She was weak, now she is strong ; 
 she was indolent and slothful, now she is assiduous 
 and watchful ; from being perplexed, she becomes en- 
 lightened ; from being melancholy and cast down, 
 she becomes joyful ; from being effeminate, she be- 
 comes manful. From the tower of prayer Esther 
 comes forth courageous to brave the orders of As- 
 suerus ; Judith faces Holofernes ; a small number 
 of the Machabees set their numerous enemies at de- 
 fiance. Fortified by prayer, our Lord Jesus Christ 
 went to meet His enemies, who were to crucify Him. 
 In prayer the soul is raised above itself, to its God 
 in heaven, where it learns, nay, even sees the vanity 
 of all earthly things, despising them as mere trifles. 
 There it learns that only in heaven true riches, 
 honors and pleasures are to be found. " If we give 
 ourselves up to prayer," says St. John Chrysostom, 
 " we shall soon cease to be mortals, not. indeed, by 
 nature, but by our manner of thinking, speaking, 
 and acting, which will be divine, having, as it were, 
 already passed to eternal life ; for those who enter 
 
THE PRAYER OF THE JUST. 131 
 
 into familiarity with God, must necessarily be raised 
 above everything transitory and perishable." And 
 again : " How great a dignity is it not, to be allowed 
 to converse with God ? By prayer we are united to 
 the angelic choirs, who, lost in the contemplation of 
 God, teach us how to forget ourselves whilst at 
 prayer, so that, being penetrated with seraphic hap- 
 piness and reverential awe at the same time, we 
 may be lost to everything earthly, believing our- 
 selves standing in the midst of the Angels, and 
 offering with them the same sacrifice. How great 
 is the wisdom, how great the piety, how great the 
 holiness, how great the temperance, with which 
 prayer fills us ! Hence, it is not the slightest de- 
 viation from truth to maintain that prayer is the 
 source of all virtues, so much so that nothing tend- 
 ing to nourish piety can enter the soul without its 
 practice. (Lib. 2, de orando.) 
 
 In prayer the soul becomes aware how all the 
 crosses and sufferings of this world, poverty, sickness, 
 hunger and thirst, privations of all kinds, persecu- 
 tions, contempt, mockeries, insults, and whatever 
 may be repugnant to human nature and abhorred by 
 it, is to be made light of, and, according to St. 
 Paul, " are not worthy to be compared with the 
 glory to come, that shall be revealed in us," (Rom. 
 viii., 18,) exclaiming with St. Andrew, the Apostle, 
 " O, thou good cross, which hast received thy splen- 
 dor from the members of Jesus Christ, for which I 
 
132 ON THE EFFICACY OF 
 
 have been sighing so long, which I have always 
 loved so ardently, and which finally has been pre- 
 pared for me, 0, come and restore me to my Master, 
 in order that I may be received by Him through 
 thee, by which He was pleased to redeem me." 
 
 Hence we read that the first Christians and many 
 martyrs would suffer with joy the loss of all their 
 temporal goods, even life itself. I cannot refrain 
 from relating here what one of our Fathers told me 
 of a priest of eighty years old, with whom he had 
 one day the happiness to dine. Whilst sitting at 
 table he noticed protuberances of flesh on each side 
 of the aged Father's hands. Not knowing how to 
 account for them, he asked for an explanation. 
 The venerable old priest told him that when the 
 slaughter of priests was going on by wholesale, 
 during the French revolution, he tried to escape 
 death by hiding himself in a rack of hay. An 
 officer, probing the rack with his sword, pierced the 
 hay and his hands at the same time, which were 
 lying crosswise, thus discovering him and taking 
 him to prison, to be executed on the next day. 
 "Never in my life," said he, "did I experience 
 such agony, such deadly fear ; never did I under- 
 stand more clearly what our dear Lord suffered in 
 the garden of Gethsemane, than I did at that time. 
 According to the example of my Divine Kedeemer, 
 I commenced to pray, and prayed until three o'clock 
 in the morning. Suddenly I felt so great a comfort, 
 
THE PRAYER OF THE JUST. 133 
 
 consolation and courage that I even sighed after the 
 hour of my execution. Would to God they came, I 
 exclaimed with a sigh. Would to God they came ! 
 At last the door of the prison is thrown open. There 
 they are, Lsaid ; thanks he to God, now I am going 
 to die for Jesus Christ. But, alas ! my exceedingly 
 great joy is, in an instant, changed into an excess 
 of grief. I was told that I was not to be executed, 
 but set at liberty. " Thus, prayer changed this 
 priest's sadness into joy, his cowardice into intre- 
 pidity, his horror of torture into a longing desire 
 for the most exquisite torments. 
 
 Prayer, moreover, unites the soul to God in an 
 
 indescribably wonderful manner. This union is 
 
 much stronger, more solid, more intimate than the 
 
 best kind of cement is capable of producing between 
 
 two stones. Physical force can separate the latter ; 
 
 the former is incapable of dissolution by any natural 
 
 power whatever. As fire seems to change iron into 
 
 fire, the sun to change the air into light, in like 
 
 manner the soul becomes penetrated with God in 
 
 prayer. " But he who is joined to the Lord," says 
 
 'ml, " is one spirit." (1 Cor. vi., 17.) To be 
 
 D up to prayer, and to be joined to God, is one 
 
 and the same thing — the soul becoming with God 
 
 one spirit, one will. "For," says St. John Chry- 
 
 808tom, "if he who converses frequently with a 
 
 i and conspicuous personage must necessarily 
 
 draw from this intercourse the greatest advantages, 
 
 12 
 
134 ON THE EFFICACY OF 
 
 how much more abundant must be the blessings 
 flowing from the constant communion with God ! 
 As one who frequently enjoys the company of a 
 wise, prudent and learned man, whom he truly 
 loves and esteems, will, by degrees, adopt his man- 
 ners and his way of speaking, judging and acting} 
 so a soul which converses often and long with God 
 in prayer, will gradually receive more and more of 
 the divine attributes, exchanging, so to speak, her 
 own will for that of God. St. Bernard expresses 
 himself most beautifully and just to the point when 
 he says : " Such a one not only wishes what God 
 wishes, nay, the disposition of his will is such that 
 it cannot wish except what God wishes ; but to wish 
 what God wishes is already to be like unto God ; 
 now not to be able to will anything save what God 
 wills, is to be what God is, with "Whom to will and 
 to be is but one and the same. Hence it is said with 
 truth that we shall see Him then such as He is. 
 Now, if we have thus become like unto Him, we 
 shall be what He Himself is ; for to whomsoever 
 power is given to become the children of God, power 
 is also given, not, indeed, to be God themselves, but 
 to be what God is." (St. Bern, or Auct. tract de 
 vita solitar, towards the end.) 
 
 Hence, St. Francis of Assisium, when at prayer, 
 was oftentimes wrapped in ecstacy, and, regardless 
 of earth and the love of created things, he would 
 exclaim, in a transport of delight : " My God and 
 
Till; PRAYER OF TUB JUST. 135 
 
 my all ! My God and my all ! Let me die for the 
 love of Thee Who hast died for the love of me!" 
 
 Hence that brilliant light ever beaming on the 
 countenances of holy men when returning from fer- 
 vent prayer and familiar intercourse with God. 
 " And when Moses came down from Mount Sinai 
 
 he knew not that his face was horned 
 
 from the conversation of the Lord." (Exodus 
 xxxiv., 29.) 
 
 Those who are devoted to prayer and frequent 
 conversation' with God become like Moses, whose 
 brow was resplendent with a supernatural light. 
 This brilliancy is first visible on their countenance, 
 and then extends to the whole body. Thus Jesus 
 Christ was transfigured in prayer, and His face did 
 shine as the sun, so much so that this light not 
 only reflected upon Moses and Elias, but also upon 
 St. Peter, St. James and St. John, in which light 
 St. Peter, inebriated with joy, exclaims : " Lord, it 
 is good for us to be here ; if Thou wilt let us make 
 here three tabernacles, one for Thee, and one for 
 Moses, and one for Elias." 
 
 Thus the face of St. Anthony, who often spent 
 whole nights in prayer, would be resplendent to 
 such a degree that by the splendor, radiance, and 
 joy on his countenance, he could be recognized at 
 once among many thousands of his brethren, not 
 unlike a sun among many stars ; thus, too, St. 
 Francis of Assisium would shine, whilst elevated in 
 
136 ON THE EFFICACY OF 
 
 spirit to heaven in the act of fervent prayer, so 
 much so that he seemed to send forth fiery flames. 
 In the Breviary, we read of St. Stanislaus Koska 
 that his face was always inflamed, nay, sometimes 
 even heaming with divine light. 
 
 Thus, also, the countenance of the Blessed Virgin 
 Mary shone constantly, and in an especial manner, 
 with heavenly light, on account of her perpetual 
 union with God and the Incarnate Word, and such 
 was its dazzling splendor that, according to the tes- 
 timony of St. Dionysius, the Areopagite, she seemed 
 to be a goddess. 
 
 Now, these beams radiated in the shape of horns 
 to signify that the Saints were not only enlightened 
 in prayer, but became also cornuti-horned, i. e., 
 constant, firm, strong, intrepid, and capable of 
 undergoing every suffering, and of enduring all 
 kinds of hardships. 
 
 Thus Anna, the mother of Samuel, felt great 
 strength and courage after her prayer, according to 
 what is related of her : (I Kings, i. 18.) "And 
 her countenance was no more changed." that is, 
 from that very moment she received, with an even 
 and constant mind, both the praises of Helcana and 
 the contempt and mockery of Phenanna, consola- 
 tions and prosperity as well as desolations and 
 adversities. 
 
 Finally, prayer introduces the soul into that 
 happy country of the interior life, a country over- 
 
THE PRAYER OF THE JUST. 137 
 
 flowing with milk and honey. Here the soul learns 
 more of God in one moment than by reading all the 
 books ever written ; God speaks to the soul and the 
 soul to God in an inexplicable manner, enkindling 
 her with that strong, ardent and seraphic love for 
 Himself which made St. Paul exclaim : cc Who, 
 then, shall separate us from the love of Christ? 
 shall tribulations ? or distress ? or famine ? or 
 nakedness ? or danger ? or persecution ? or the 
 sword ? as it is written, For Thy sake we are put 
 to death all the day long. We are accounted as 
 sheep for the. slaughter." (Rom. viii. 35.) " Even 
 unto this hour we both hunger and thirst, and are 
 naked, and are buffeted, and have no fixed abode. 
 We are reviled, .... We are persecuted, 
 . we are blasphemed ; we are made as 
 the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all even 
 until now." (Corinth, iv. 11 — 13.) " Our flesh 
 had no rest, but we suffered all tribulation ; com- 
 bats without ; fears within ;" (II Corinth, vii. 5,) 
 'in many labors, in prisons more frequently, in 
 stripes above measure, in deaths often. Of the 
 Jews five times did I receive forty stripes, save one. 
 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, 
 thrice I suffered shipwreck ; a night and a day I was 
 in the depths of the sea. In journeying often in 
 perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils from 
 my own nation, in perils from the gentiles, in perils 
 in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in 
 12* 
 
138 ON THE EFFICACY OF 
 
 the sea, in perils from false brethren, in labor 
 and painfulness, in much watchings, in hunger and 
 thirst, in fastings often, in cold and in nakedness." 
 (II Cor. xi. 23-28.) " We glory in tribulations." 
 (Kom. v. 3;) " I am filled with comfort ; I exceed- 
 ingly bound with joy in all our tribulations." (II 
 Cor. vii. 4.) " In all these things we overcome, be- 
 cause of Him that hath loved us. For I am sure 
 that neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor princi- 
 palities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things 
 to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any 
 other creature, shall be able to separate us from the 
 love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 (Rom. viii. 37—39.) 
 
 What is there still that cannot be obtained 
 through prayer. " All things whatsoever you shall 
 ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive." (Matt, 
 xxi. 22.) Now, he who says all things, excepts 
 nothing. Nay, God is so good, so liberal, says 
 Origen, (horn. 9, in Numer.) that He gives more 
 than He is asked for. The Holy Church, too, ex- 
 presses this when she prays : " Oh, God, Who, in 
 the abundance of Thy kindness, exceedest both the 
 merits and wishes of Thy suppliants, pour forth upon 
 us Thy mercy that Thou mayst free us from those 
 things which burden our conscience, and mayst 
 grant us what we dare not ask." 
 
 Let us add a word in conclusion : He who under- 
 stands how to pray well becomes, as it were, the 
 
THE PRAYER OF THE JUST. 139 
 
 lord of the Lord, and the ruler of the universe. He 
 is another Jacob, who, having overcome the Lord in 
 wrestling, (in prayer) was called Israel, i. e., the 
 conqueror of God. _ By praying to God he becomes 
 Israel, " the victor of God." Hence Cornelius a 
 Lapide remarks : " If you can reason with God ef- 
 fectually in prayer, your enemies will, at once, 
 become your friends or your subjects, God so chang- 
 ing them." 
 
 This secret of conquering, and this manner of 
 obtaining whatever they wished, has always been 
 known and adopted up to the present day by holy 
 souls, who enjoy the intimate friendship of God, 
 through Whom they do wondrous things. "I can 
 do," says St. Paul, "all things in Him Who 
 strengthens me," for the hearts even of the most 
 ferocious are in the hands of the Lord Who changes 
 them at His good pleasure. "If thou 'hast been 
 strong against God, how much more shalt thou 
 prevail against men." (Gen. xxxii. 28.) Indeed, 
 whomsoever the Creator Himself obeys, the Angels, 
 the demons, men, and all creatures, are bound to 
 obey. 
 
140 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 ON THE CONDITIONS AND QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 
 
 PLUTARCH relates that, in his time, the Ro- 
 mans sent a delegation of three men to Bithy- 
 nia, in order to restore peace between a father and 
 his son. One of the delegates had his head cov- 
 ered with ulcers ; the other suffered from gout, and 
 the third from heart disease. When Cato, the 
 Roman Censor, saw them, he exclaimed: " This 
 Roman delegation has neither head, nor foot, nor 
 heart.' ' I fear, dear reader, that we often send 
 similar worthless delegations to God. Our dele- 
 gate to Him is prayer, of which David has said : 
 {l Let my prayer come before Thee ;" (Ps. lxxxvii. 
 3) on which words St. Augustine comments thus : 
 11 wonderful power of prayer, which has access to 
 God, whilst the flesh is refused admittance/ ' Now, 
 in order that our delegate may please God and 
 prove as useful and powerful to us as it has to the 
 Saints, it must have certain conditions and quali- 
 ties ; above all, 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 141 
 
 I. — The Object of our Prayer must be Lawful. 
 
 "Were we to pray for anything which it is unlaw- 
 ful for us to desire, our request would be rash or 
 indiscreet, as for instance : 
 
 1. If we petition for what might be detrimental 
 to our salvation. " A man/' says St. Augustine, 
 " may lawfully pray for the necessities of this life, 
 and the Lord may mercifully refuse to hear him. 
 As a physician, who desires the restoration of 
 his patient, will not allow him those things which 
 he knows will be hurtful to him — or as a mother 
 ought not to give a knife to her little child, al- 
 though he should ask for it, so, in like manner, 
 our Lord will turn a deaf ear to our prayers when 
 -k for such things as He knows it would be 
 inexpedient to grant. Hence, sometimes a person's 
 prayer fur temporal favors is refused, because God 
 foresees the injury they would do that person. For 
 this reason St. Philip Neri would pray only condi- 
 tionally for sick persons, because several of those, 
 who had recovered their health by his prayers, had 
 relapsed into their former excesses, and led very 
 licentious lives. It is, however, not forbidden to 
 pray for the necessaries of life, as Solomon did : 
 " Give me only the necessaries of life ;" (Prov. xxx. 
 8.) nor is it wrong to be solicitous about such 
 things, provided our anxiety with regard to them 
 
142 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 be not inordinate, and we do not set our hearts 
 upon them so absolutely as to make them the chief 
 objects of our desires. We must always ask for 
 them with resignation, and with the condition that 
 they be of advantage to our souls. We read in 
 the Life of St. Thomas of Canterbury, that a sick 
 man, who had recovered his health through the 
 Saint's intercession, reflecting afterwards that sick- 
 ness might have been better for him than health, 
 he prayed again to the holy Bishop, saying, that 
 he would prefer being sick, if health was not desi- 
 rable for him, and immediately his sickness re- 
 turned. 
 
 2. If we pray to be delivered from a particular 
 temptation, or cross, (as St. Paul prayed for deliver- 
 ance from the temptations of the flesh) which God 
 knows to be useful to our advancement in humility 
 and other virtues. 
 
 3. If we ask for something from motives of am- 
 bition, like the sons of Zebedee, who prayed to ob- 
 tain the principal offices in the kingdom of Christ. 
 
 4. If we ask for something from indiscreet zeal, 
 like the Apostles when they asked our Lord to send 
 down fire from heaven upon the Samaritans, be- 
 cause they rejected Christ our Lord. 
 
 5. If we ask for something, the granting of 
 which God delays for some time for our profit, in 
 order to increase our zeal and fervor in prayer, and 
 enable us to merit the virtue of perseverance. One 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 143 
 
 day St. Gertrude complained to our Lord because 
 she had not obtained from Him a certain favor for 
 her relatives, notwithstanding His promise to her 
 to hear all her prayers. Our Lord answered her 
 that He had heard her prayer, but would grant the 
 favor asked at some future period when it would be 
 more useful to her relatives. 
 
 6. And especially if we were to ask of God a cer- 
 tain particular state of life, as the sacerdotal, reli- 
 gious, or matrimonial, and He in His Omniscience 
 knowing that we would be more easily saved or ob- 
 tain more merit in a different state better suited to 
 our physical, intellectual, and moral constitution. 
 The appropriate prayer in such a case is daily to 
 beseech the Almighty to direct us by such means 
 and ways as will secure us from sin, make us more 
 holy, and lead us to life everlasting, saying : u Lord 
 what wilt Thou have me to do." " My heart is 
 ready, God, my heart is ready." "Show, 
 Lord, Thy ways to me, and teach me Thy paths." 
 (Ps. xxiv. 4.) " As we know not, Lord, what to 
 do, we can only turn our eyes to Thee." (II Paral. 
 xx. 12.) " Guide me, Lord, by those ways, offi- 
 ces, actions, exercises and sufferings, which Thou 
 knowest will lead me most safely to Paradise ; and 
 to greater glory in Thy heavenly kingdom." Many 
 persons are accustomed also to pray thus : " Grant, 
 Lord, what Jesus Christ, my Redeemer Himself, 
 wishes to see in me : and what He wills should be 
 
144 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 given to me ; and what, when dying on the cross, He 
 asked for me." Or : Grant me, Lord, what the 
 Blessed Virgin Mary wishes me, and what she her- 
 self asks for me, for she loves me and wishes to see 
 me saved, and knows best what I need to obtain 
 eternal happiness. This is a very pious and most 
 efficacious manner of praying. 
 
 7. If our prayers are said, as it were, at random, 
 without asking any particular grace, they are also 
 more or less defective, indiscreet, and inefficacious. 
 "You know not what you ask;" (Mark x. 38.) 
 said our Lord Jesus Christ to the sons of Zebedee 
 when they asked of Him that they might sit, one 
 on His right hand and the other on His left hand, 
 in His glory. Alas, how many Christians there 
 are to whom our Lord could address the same words, 
 you do not know what you ask of God. How many 
 are there who, if they were asked on their way to 
 church, or during their stay therein, or on their re- 
 turn, what they want or sought to obtain in their 
 prayers, would be at a loss for an answer ; not 
 knowing what they need nor what to ask for. It is 
 self-deception to go to the Altar and pray and con- 
 verse with God, asking something at random. Like 
 a person who is sick and goes to a druggist to buy 
 medicine without reflecting whether or not it will 
 suit his particular disease. Such a manner of pray- 
 ing is certainly injudicious, because it is not adapted 
 to the spiritual wants of our souls. Hence, we must 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 145 
 
 see that our prayers be so constituted as to corres- 
 pond to our particular necessities. "When at 
 prayer," says St. Francis de Sales, "let us be like 
 a strong, robust, and sensible man, who, when sit- 
 ting at table takes such food as will give him bodily 
 strength, and not like children who grasp at sweet 
 things, such as sugar, cakes, pears, apples and the 
 like." Prayer is called the food of the soul, but it 
 is so only when we pray according to its spiritual 
 wants. 
 
 8. If we pray in too general a manner, for ex- 
 ample, should a person from certain circumstances 
 in life, either from necessity or otherwise, be thrown 
 into the society of another of a quarrelsome, irrita- 
 ble, dissatisfied disposition, he would naturally de- 
 sire not to lose patience or become angry, or use 
 uncharitable words or reproaches. Should he pray 
 thus to God: "Lord, give me patience, make me 
 humble and charitable ;" this prayer might be 
 considered rather too general and indefinite. It 
 would be better to say : " Lord, make me patient 
 and charitable towards this person, give me also 
 the grace to have immediate recourse to Thee, when- 
 ever ill feelings commence to arise in my heart, at 
 that very moment make me pray that I may have 
 strength to resist them for the love of Thee." It 
 is not here intended to convey the idea that to pray 
 in a general manner l<>r our wants is not good, but 
 -»nlv that it is better to pray according to the par- 
 ticular circumstances of our wants. 
 13 
 
146 ON THE .CONDITIONS AND 
 
 9. There is yet another mode of praying in use 
 with many persons not very profitable to the soul, 
 and is, therefore,, more or less inexpedient ; it is to 
 pray by way of affections, for instance, " 0, excess 
 of love ! One heart is too little to love Thee, my 
 Jesus ; one tongue is not enough to praise Thy 
 goodness. 0, my Jesus, how great are my obliga- 
 gations to Thee ! No, I will no longer live in my- 
 self, but that Jesus alone should live in me, He is 
 mine and I am His. love ! love ! No more 
 sins ! I will never forget the goodness of God and 
 the mercies of my Saviour. I love Thee, Infi- 
 nite Majesty ; my God, I wish to love nothing but 
 Thee," &c. 
 
 Expressions like these are called devout affec- 
 tions of the heart ; but, as they do not contain the 
 least petition for any particular grace, the soul 
 will not become over rich with the gifts of God if 
 this manner of praying be adopted. If a beggar 
 were to say to a millionaire : " Oh, how magnifi- 
 cent is your house ; how splendid your furniture : 
 how elegant your grounds ; how vast your wealth, 
 it would hardly excite the rich man to almsgiv- 
 ing." But should he say : " My good sir, be kind 
 enough to assist me in my poverty ; please give me 
 some money, some clothes, some provisions," &c, 
 then the man of wealth, if charitably disposed, 
 would hardly fail to give him what he asked for. 
 In like manner our Lord is not bound to bestow 
 
QUALITIES OF RRAYER. 147 
 
 graces upon us because we admire His perfections, 
 goodness or other attributes. But if we say to 
 Him: "Lord, give me to understand better the 
 excess of Thy love ; grant that my heart may 
 never love anything but Thee, that it may ever be 
 Thine ; make me always seek only Thee ; let every- 
 thing else be distasteful to me," &c, expressions 
 like these being petitions or prayers, in which we 
 ask for particular graces, our Lord Jesus Christ, on 
 account of His promise, feels bound to grant them. 
 Although devout affections are good, and often 
 quite natural to the soul, yet, generally speaking, 
 petitions are better, far more profitable, and more 
 conformable to the examples taught us by our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the Holy Church in her authorized 
 devotions, and all the Saints. Read the prayer of 
 our Lord for His disciples in the Gospel of St. 
 John (chap. 17), or any prayer of the Church, or 
 of any Saint, and the truth of this can be seen. 
 Refer to a prayer of St. Alphonsus Liguori, justly 
 termed the Apostle of Prayer, to our Lord in the 
 Blessed Sacrament, commencing : " Oh, my Jesus, 
 Thou Who art the true life, make me die to the 
 world to live only to Thee; my Redeemer, by the 
 flames of Thy love destroy all in me that is dis- 
 pleasing to Thee, and give me a true desire to 
 gratify and please Thee in all things," &c. 
 
 The Ven. Paul Segneri used to say that, at one 
 time, he used to employ the time of prayer in 
 
148 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 reflections and affections, e< but God (these are 
 his own words), afterwards opened my eyes, and 
 thenceforward I endeavored to occupy my time with 
 petitions ; and if there is any good in me, I as- 
 cribe it to this exercise of recommending myself to 
 God." Let us likewise do the same. And it may 
 not be out of place to suggest that, in the selection 
 of a Prayer-Book, one in which the prayers are in 
 the form of petitions, is the most profitable. 
 
 Certain persons having heard or read, in the 
 lives of St. Teresa and other Saints, of the grades 
 of supernatural prayer, namely, the prayer of 
 quiet, of sleep, or suspension of the faculties, of 
 union_, of ecstacy or rapture, of flight and impetus 
 of the spirit, and of the wound of love, may feel 
 anxious to possess, and even pray fervently for 
 these supernatural gifts. The learned and pious 
 Palafox, Bishop of Osma, in a note on the 18th 
 letter of St. Teresa, says : ' c Observe that these 
 supernatural graces which God deigned to bestow 
 on St. Teresa, and other Saints, are not necessary 
 for the attainment of sanctity, since, without them, 
 many have arrived at a high degree of perfection, 
 and obtained eternal life, while many who enjoyed 
 them w r ere afterwards damned. ' ' He says that * ' the 
 practice of the Gospel virtues, and particularly of the 
 love of God, being the true and only way to sanctify 
 our souls, it is superfluous, and even presumptuous, 
 to desire and seek such extraordinary gifts." These 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYEB. 149 
 
 virtues are acquired by prayer, and by correspond- 
 ing with the lights and helps of God, Who ardently 
 desires our sanctification : " For this is the will of 
 God, your sanctification." (Thess. iv. 3.) 
 
 Speaking of the degrees of supernatur.il prayer 
 described by St. Teresa, the holy Bishop wisely 
 observes that, "as to the prayer of quiet, we should 
 only desire and beg of God to free us from all 
 attachment and afTection to worldly goods, which, 
 instead of giving peace to the soul, fill it with 
 inquietude and affliction. Solomon justly called 
 them " vanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit." 
 (Eccl. i. 14.) 
 
 "The heart of man can never enjoy true peace till 
 it is divested of all that is not God, and entirely 
 devoted to His holy love,, to the exclusion of every 
 other object. But man himself cannot attain to 
 this perfect consecration of his being to God ; he 
 can only obtain it by constant prayer. As to the 
 sleep or suspension of the powers, we should entreat 
 the Almighty to keep them in a profound sleep 
 with regard to all temporal affairs and awake only 
 to meditate on His Divine goodness, and to seek 
 Divine love and eternal goods. For all sanctity, 
 and the perfection of charity, consist in the union 
 of our will with the holy will of God. As to union 
 of the powers, we should only pray that God may 
 teach us by His grace, not to think of, or seek, or 
 wish for anything but what He wills. As to 
 13* 
 
150 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 ecstacy or rapture, let us beseech the Lord to eradi- 
 cate from our hearts all inordinate love of ourselves 
 and of creatures, and to draw us entirely to Him- 
 self. As to the flight of the spirit, we should merely 
 implore the grace of perfect detachment from the 
 world, that, like the swallow which never seeks its 
 food on the earth, and even feeds in its flight, we 
 may never fix our heart on any sensual enjoyment, 
 but, always tending towards heaven, employ the 
 goods of this world only for the support of life. 
 As to the impulse of spirit, let us ask of God cour- 
 age and strength to do that violence to ourselves 
 which may be necessary to resist the attacks of the 
 enemy, to overcome our passions, or to embrace 
 sufferings even in the midst of spiritual dryness 
 and desolation. Finally, as to the ivound of love, 
 as the remembrance of a wound is constantly kept 
 alive by the pain it inflicts, so we should supplicate 
 our Lord to wound our hearts with holy love to 
 such a degree that we may be always reminded of 
 His goodness and affection towards us, that thus we 
 may devote our lives to love and please Him by our 
 works and affections. These graces will not be ob- 
 tained without prayer, but by humble, confident 
 and persevering prayer, all the gifts of God may be 
 procured." Let us, then, always pray the Lord to 
 hear 'us, not, indeed, according to our will, but 
 rather to grant us what may be conducive to our 
 sanctification and salvation. Let us not be like the 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 151 
 
 blind man in the Gospel, whom onr Saviour asked, 
 " What wilt thou that I do to thee." (Luke xviii. 
 41.) " Indeed," says St. Bernard, " this man was 
 truly blind, God finding it necessary to ask him 
 what He should do to him ; he should have said : 
 Lord, he it far from me that Thou shouldst do to me 
 according to my will ; no, do to me according to 
 Thy will, and what Thou knowest is best for me." 
 St. Jerome writes, in his letter to Salvian, that 
 Nebridius was in the habit of asking of God to give 
 him what He knew was most suitable for him. 
 Hence St. John says : " This is the confidence 
 which we have towards God, that whatsoever we 
 shall ask, according to His ivill, He heareth us." 
 (I. John, v. 14.) 
 
 Such was the prayer of Solomon. "And the 
 
 Lord appeared to Solomon saying : 
 
 Ask what thou wilt that I should give thee. And 
 Solomon said : .... 0, Lord God, Thou 
 hast made Thy servant king, instead of David, my 
 father, and I am but a child, and know not how to 
 go out and come in, ... . give, therefore, 
 Thy servant an understanding heart ... to 
 discern between good and evil. And the Lord said 
 to Solomon : Because thou hast asked this thing, 
 and hast not asked for thyself long life, nor riches, 
 nor the lives of thy enemies, but has asked for 
 thyself wisdom to discern judgment, behold, I have 
 done for thee according to thy words, and have given 
 
152 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 thee a wise and understanding heart, insomuch that 
 there has been no one like thee before thee, nor 
 shall arise after thee. Yea, and the things also 
 which thou didst not ask, I have given thee, to-wit, 
 riches and glory, so that no one hath been like 
 thee among the kings in all days heretofore." (Ill- 
 Kings iii., 5, 6, 1, 14.) 
 
 Solomon is called the " Wise Man," and, indeed, 
 he manifested great wisdom in his prayer to God ; 
 so much so that the Lord praised him for it, and 
 granted him not only what he asked, but even far 
 more than he could expect. Let us pray like him, 
 saying : " Lord, I am living in a wicked world, 
 surrounded with dangers, which lead to perdition. 
 I am like a child, not knowing how to walk or to 
 follow the true way. Give, therefore, to Thy ser- 
 vant an understanding heart to discern between 
 good and evil. Make me understand what a great 
 evil sin is, and what a great good it is to love Thee 
 above all things. Give me a great hatred to sin, 
 and make me love Thee most ardently to the end of 
 my life." 
 
 Or, let us pray like St. Francis of Assisium : 
 " Our Father," most blessed, most holy, our Cre- 
 ator, Redeemer, and Comforter ; " Who art in 
 heaven;" where Thou dwellest with the Angels 
 and the Saints, whom Thou enlightenest and in- 
 flamest with Thy love so that they may know Thee ; 
 for Thou, Lord, art the life and love that dwell 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 153 
 
 in them ; Thou art their everlasting happiness, 
 communicating Thyself to them ; Thou art the 
 supreme and eternal source from which all blessings 
 flow, and without Thee there is none ; " Hallowed 
 be Thy name ;" enlighten us with Thy Divine 
 Wisdom, that we may be able to know Thee and to 
 comprehend the boundless extent of Thy mercies to 
 us, Thy everlasting promises, Thy sublime majesty, 
 and Thy profound judgments; " Thy kingdom 
 come ;" so that Thy grace may reign in our hearts, 
 and prepare us for Thy heavenly kingdom, where 
 we shall see Thee clearly and perfectly love Thee, 
 rejoicing with Thee and in Thee through all eter- 
 nity ; u Thy will be done on earth as it is in hea- 
 ven ;" that being occupied with Thee we may love 
 Thee with our whole heart ; with our whole soul, 
 desiring nothing but Thee, with our whole mind, 
 referring all things to Thee, and ever seeking Thy 
 glory in all our actions, with our whole strength, 
 employing all our faculties, both of body and soul 
 in Thy service, applying them to no other end 
 whatsoever than to promote Thy kingdom, seeking 
 to draw all men to Thee, and to love our neighbor 
 as ourselves, rejoicing at his welfare and happiness 
 as if it were our own, sympathizing with his neces- 
 sities and giving no offence to him ; u Give us this 
 day our daily bread ;" Thy dearly beloved Son, our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, we ask Him of Thee as our daily 
 bread, in order that we may be mindful of the love 
 
154 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 He testified for us and of the things He promised, 
 did, and suffered for us ; grant us the grace always 
 to keep them in our thoughts, and to value them 
 exceedingly ; " Forgive us our trespasses ;" through 
 Thy unspeakable mercy, through the merits of the 
 passion and death of Thy most dearly beloved Son, 
 through the intercession of the Holy Virgin Mary, 
 and of all the Saints ; " As we forgive them that 
 trespass against us ;" grant us the grace that we 
 may sincerely and truly forgive our enemies, and 
 pray earnestly to Thee for them ; that we may 
 never return evil for evil, but seek to do good to 
 those who injure us ; " And lead us not into temp- 
 tation ;" whether it be concealed, manifest, or sud- 
 den ; "But deliver us from evil;" past, present, 
 and future." 
 
 Let us also learn from this prayer, the u Our 
 Father," how pleasing it must be to God to pray 
 for others, for the petitions are all made in common, 
 not for one's self individually. This manner of 
 praying is conformable to the example of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and, therefore, it must be most accept- 
 able to Him to remember others in our prayers. 
 Indeed, His whole life was a continual prayer for 
 the just as well as for sinners. " And not for them 
 only (the Apostles) do I pray, but for them also ; 
 who, through their word, shall believe in Me, that 
 they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in me and I 
 in Thee, that they also may be one in Us, that the 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 155 
 
 world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." (John 
 xvii., 20, 21.) 
 
 " Pray one for another that you may be saved." 
 (Epis. St. James v. 16:) And we are especially 
 bound to pray for the successor of St. Peter, our 
 Holy Father, the Pope, the Bishops and clergy of 
 the Holy Catholic Church, and for all those who 
 labor for the propagation of our holy faith. This 
 our Lord Jesus Christ exhorts us to do by His ex- 
 ample. " And now I am no more in the world ; 
 and these (Apostles) are in the world, and I come to 
 Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, 
 whom Thou hast given Me ; that they may be one 
 as We also are. ... I do not ask that Thou 
 shouldst take them away out of the world, but that 
 Thou shouldst preserve them from evil. Sanctify 
 them in truth. . . . Father, I will that where 
 I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me, may 
 may be with Me ; that they may see My glory which 
 Thou hast given Me ; (John xvii. 11, 15, 17, 24.) 
 Although we should pray earnestly for the prelates" 
 and pastors of the Church, yet we must not forget 
 to recommend to God all poor sinners, as well as 
 infidels, heretics, and schismatics, this is also ac- 
 cording to the example of Jesus Christ and the 
 Saints. Our Lord's first prayer, when hanging on 
 the cross, was for the greatest sinners and His most 
 bitter enemies. " Father, forgive them, for they 
 know not what they do." (Luke xxiii. 34.) " He 
 that knoweth his brother to sin a sin which is not 
 
156 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 unto death, let him ask, and life shall be given to 
 him that sinneth not to death." (I. John v. 16.) 
 St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and the Ven. Bede and 
 others explain the words, " who sinneth not to 
 death," to mean that class of sinners who do not 
 intend to remain obstinate till death, because such 
 would require, says St. Alphonsus, a very extra- 
 ordinary grace. But for other sinners God promises 
 their conversion if we pray earnestly for them. 
 " Let him ask and life (the life of grace) shall be 
 given him for him that sinneth." The great effi- 
 cacy of such prayers, when they proceed from the 
 heart, is evinced from a variety of examples. In- 
 stances occur every day in which God rescues indi- 
 viduals of every class of sinners from the powers of 
 darkness, and transfers them into the kingdom of 
 His beloved Son, making them from being vessels 
 of wrath, become vessels of mercy, and that in real- 
 izing so happy a consummation, the prayers of the 
 pious have considerable influence no one can rea- 
 sonably doubt, "for God willingly hears the prayer 
 of a Christian," says St. John Chrysostom, " not 
 only when offered for himself, but also for another. 
 Necessity obliges us to pray for ourselves, charity ex- 
 horts us to pray for others. The prayer of fraternal 
 charity, he adds, is more acceptable to God than 
 that of necessity." (Chrysost. Horn. 14 oper. im- 
 pel*, in Matt.) The prayer for sinners, says St. 
 Alphonsus, is not only beneficial to them, but is. 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 157 
 
 moreover, most pleasing to God ; and the Lord 
 Himself complains of His servants who do not re- 
 commend sinners to Him. He said one day to St. 
 Mary Magdalen of Pazzi : " See, my daughter, how 
 the Christians are in the devil's hands, if My elect 
 did not deliver them by their prayers, they would 
 be devoured." Inflamed by these words with holy 
 zeal, this Saint used to offer to God the Blood of 
 the Redeemer fifty times a day in behalf of sin- 
 ners, and she was quite wasted away with the de- 
 sire for their conversion. " Ah," she would ex- 
 claim, " how great a pain it is, Lord, to see how 
 one could help Thy creatures by dying for them 
 and not be abl'e to do so." In every one of her 
 spiritual exercises she would recommend sinners to 
 God, and it is related in her life that she scarcely 
 spent an hour in the day without praying for them ; 
 she would even frequently arise in the middle of 
 the night to go before the Blessed Sacrament to offer 
 prayers for them. She went so far as to desire to 
 endure even the pains of hell for their conversion, 
 provided she could still love God in that place, and 
 God granted her wish by inflicting on her most vio- 
 lent pains and infirmities for the salvation of sin- 
 ners ; and yet after all this she would shed bitter 
 tears, thinking she did nothing for their conversion. 
 "Ah, Lord, make me die," she would exclaim, 
 "and return to life again as many times as is 
 necessary to satisfy Thy justice for them." God, 
 14 
 
158 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 as is related in her life, did not fail to give the 
 grace of conversion to many sinners on account of 
 her fervent prayers. Hence, St. Alphonsus says : 
 " Souls that really love God will never neglect to 
 pray for poor sinners." 
 
 How could it be possible for a person who really 
 loves God and knows His ardent love for our souls, 
 and how much He wishes us to pray for sinners, 
 and how much Jesus Christ has done and suffered 
 for their salvation, how can such a one, I say, look 
 with indifference on so many poor souls, deprived 
 of God's grace, being so many slaves of hell, with- 
 out feeling moved to importune God with frequent 
 prayers to give light and strength to these wretched 
 beings in order that they may come out of the mis- 
 erable state of spiritual death in which they are 
 slumbering ? True it is, God has not promised to 
 grant our petitions in the case of those who put 
 a positive impediment in the way of their con- 
 version. Yet God, in His Goodness, has often 
 deigned, through the prayers of His servants, to 
 bring back the most blind and obstinate sinners to 
 the way of salvation by means of extraordinary 
 graces. Therefore, we should never fail to recom- 
 mend poor sinners to God in all our spiritual exer- 
 cises ; moreover, he who prays for others will expe- 
 rience that his prayers for himself will be heard 
 much sooner. In the life of St. Margaret of Cor- 
 tona, we read that she would pray more than 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 159 
 
 a hundred times a day for the conversion of sin- 
 ners, and, iudeed, so numerous were their conver- 
 sions, that the Franciscan fathers complained to her 
 of not being able to hear the confessions of all those 
 who were converted by her prayers. 
 
 The Cure of Ars, who died a few years since in 
 the odor of sanctity, in one of his catechetical in- 
 structions, relates as follows: " A great lady, of 
 one of the first families in France, has been here 
 and went away this morning. She is rich, very- 
 rich, and scarcely twenty-three. She has offered 
 herself to God for the conversion of sinners and the 
 expiation of sin. She mortifies herself in a thou- 
 sand ways, wears a girdle all armed with iron 
 points ; her parents know nothing of it ; she is as 
 white as a sheet of paper." (Spirit of Cure of 
 Ars.) The same saintly pastor said one day to a 
 priest who complained of not being able to change 
 the hearts of his parishioners for the better, " you 
 prayed, you wept, you sighed, but did you fast also, 
 did you deprive yourself of sleep, did you sleep on 
 the bare ground, did you scourge yourself. Do not 
 think you have done all if you have not yet done 
 these penances." If we do not love poor sinners 
 that much, if we think it above our strength to 
 perform similar penitential works for their conver- 
 sion, let us at least do something, let us recommend 
 them to the sacred hearts of Jesus and Mary, or 
 ourselves for a week or two as a holocaust to 
 
160 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 God to be disposed of according to His good pleas- 
 ure, suffer some cold, some heat, some inconve- 
 nience, some contradiction and contempt in silence, 
 let us deny ourselves some agreeable visits, or other 
 natural pleasures ; or let us make a Novena, or hear 
 Mass daily for a week and offer up our Communions 
 with this intention. We may be assured by these 
 and such exercises we shall give great pleasure to 
 Jesus Christ, contribute much to the honor of His 
 heavenly Father, win His heart over to ourselves, 
 force it sweetly to give the grace of conversion to 
 many sinners, and obtain for ourselves a large share 
 of Divine Grace. 
 
 II. — Our Prayer must be Humble. 
 
 t ll Two men went up into the temple to pray ; the 
 one a Pharisee, the other a Publican. The Phar- 
 isee, standing, prayed thus to himself: ( God, I 
 give Thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, 
 extortioners, unjust adulterers, as also is this Pub- 
 lican. I fast thrice in the week ; I give tithes of 
 all I possess/ And the Publican, standing afar off, 
 would not so much as lift up his eyes towards hea- 
 ven, but struck his breast, saying : ' Lord, be 
 merciful to me a sinner.' I say to you, this man 
 went down to his house justified rather than the 
 other." (Luke xviii. 10-14.) In this parable of 
 the Pharisee and the Publican, our Lord Jesus 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 161 
 
 Christ teaches us that prayer without humility ob- 
 tains nothing. As the Pharisee left the temple 
 just as had and as sinful as he entered, so shall we 
 not improve by prayer if we pray with the same 
 sentiments of pride and self-conceit. Even com- 
 mon sense tells us that prayer, to be good, must be 
 humble. Should a poor man beg alms in a haughty 
 and impudent manner, he would be despised and 
 rejected by an interior conviction, telling every per- 
 son that to beg and to be proud at the same time is a 
 most despicable thing ; yea, an abomination in the 
 eyes of all men. True beggars know this but too 
 well ; they study different manners and ways to 
 show themselves humble ; they take the last place ; 
 they adopt humble language ; if you meet them, 
 they fall prostrate before you, asking alms with 
 joined hands and with tears often artfully expressed. 
 Should they have a good suit of clothes, they will 
 put on ragged and tattered ones when they go out 
 begging. How many humble reasons do they not 
 allege, such as not having eaten anything for the 
 whole day. They pretend they are suffering innu- 
 merable infirmities, and so lamentable are their 
 sighs that even hearts of stone could not help feel- 
 ing for them. No one blames them for this con- 
 duct ; every one, on the contrary, approves of it, 
 and condemns the opposite manner of acting. 
 
 If humility, then, is required from men when 
 asking relief of their fellow-men, how much more 
 14* 
 
162 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 will it not be required from us by the Lord of 
 heaven and earth, when we address Hirn in prayer? 
 To know that we are sinners, and have so often 
 grievously offended the Divine Majesty ; that we 
 have crucified our Lord Jesus Christ by our heinous 
 sins ; to know that if God did not assist us every 
 day we would commit most shameful and atrocious 
 crimes, becoming even worse than the brute, is un- 
 doubtedly a sufficient reason why we should always 
 remain humble, and pray with sentiments of exte- 
 rior and interior humility, saying with the Publican, 
 " Lord be merciful to me a sinner," that we, like 
 him, may always come forth from prayer more ac- 
 ceptable, more justified, and more sanctified in the 
 sight of God, the Lord of heaven and earth. 
 " From the beginning have the proud not been ac- 
 ceptable to Thee," said Judith, " but the prayer of 
 the humble and the meek hath always pleased 
 Thee." (Judith ix., 16.) 
 
 How great was not the wisdom which Solomon, the 
 Wise, received in prayer. But in what manner and/ 
 with what sentiments did he pray ? Holy Writ 
 says that Solomon, when praying, " had fixed both 
 knees on the ground, and had spread his hands 
 towards heaven." (III. Kings, viii., 54.) St. 
 Stephen effected by his prayer the conversion of St. 
 Paul the Apostle, and many others of his enemies. 
 But how humble was not his prayer. " Falling on 
 his knees," says Holy Scripture, " he cried with a 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 163 
 
 loud voice, saying : Lord, lay not this sin to their 
 charge." (Acts vii., 59.) How humble must not 
 have been the prayer of St. James the Apostle ; 
 for most of the time he would pray on his knees ; 
 for this reason the skin of his knees had be- 
 come as hard as that of a camel. St. John Chry- 
 sostom adds that also the skin of his forehead 
 had become quite hard from lying with it prostrate 
 on the ground whilst at prayer. Kibadeneira and 
 others relate the same of St. Bartholomew the 
 Apostle. 
 
 The good thief received the forgiveness of his 
 sins, but before asking it, he humbled himself, 
 avowing before the whole world what he was, and 
 wli.it he had deserved. " We receive the due re- 
 ward of our deeds." (Luke xxiii., 41.) The 
 woman of Canaan suffers herself to be compared to 
 a dog by our Lord Jesus Christ ; she does not feel 
 herself insulted by this comparison, believing, as 
 she did, that she deserved this name. Our dear 
 Saviour wondered at this, saying: " Oh, woman, 
 great is thy faith." (Math, xv., 28.) Her faith was 
 so great because her humility was astonishingly 
 great. Hence she heard from the mouth of our 
 Lord these consoling words : " Be it done to thee 
 as thou wilt." The prodigal son says : "Father, 
 I have tinned against heaven and before thee ; I am 
 not now worthy to be called thy son ; make me as 
 one of thy hired servants." (Luke xv., 18.) The 
 
164 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 father, seeing this great humility and sorrow in his 
 son, forgot all his guilt at once,, receiving him as 
 one of his best children. God will treat us in the 
 same manner, if we present ourselves before Him 
 with the like sentiments of humility and unworthi- 
 ness. When our Lord Jesus Christ said to the 
 Centurion, "I will come and heal thy servant," 
 the Centurion answered : Ci Lord, I am not worthy 
 that Thou should enter under my roof." (Math, 
 viii., 8.) This humility and faith of the Centurion 
 pleased our Saviour so much that He said to him : 
 " Go, and as thou hast believed, so be it done to 
 thee, and the servant was healed at the same hour." 
 (Math, viii., 13.) 
 
 Now, in what manner did our Lord Jesus Christ 
 Himself pray. " Kneeling down, he prayed." 
 (Luke xxii., 47.) Nay, He did more: "He fell 
 upon His face praying and saying : { My Father, if 
 it be possible, let this chalice pass from me.' ' 
 (Math, xxvi., 39.) St. Thais did not even dare so 
 much as to pronounce the narne of God when pray- 
 ing, after her conversion from her sinful life. Hence 
 she would say : " Thou "Who madest me have pity 
 on me." St. Paul the hermit, was so much accus- 
 tomed to pray on his knees, and with his hands 
 lifted up to heaven, that he died in this posture,, 
 remaining so after death. Is it, then, astonishing 
 that the Saints should have received so many and 
 so great favors from God, since their humility was 
 
QUALITIES OF PRATER. 165 
 
 so great and so pleasing to Him? " To the humble 
 God giveth grace," says the Apostle St. James. 
 " Their prayer shall pierce the clouds." (Eccles. 
 xxxv., 21.) 
 
 ' ? Yes," says St. Alphousus, " should a soul have 
 committed ever so many sins, yet the Lord will not 
 reject it, if it knows how to humble itself." ci A 
 contrite and humble heart, God, Thou wilt not 
 despise." (Ps. 1. 19). As He is severe and inex- 
 orable to the proud, so is He bountiful, merciful 
 and liberal to the humble. " Know, My daugh- 
 ter," said Jesus Christ one day to St. Catherine of 
 Sienna, " that whosoever shall humbly persevere 
 in asking graces of Me, shall obtain all virtues." 
 n Never did I," said St. Teresa, " receive more fa- 
 vors from the Lord, than when I humbled myself 
 before His divine Majesty." 
 
 III. — Our Prater must be Fervent. 
 
 Well hath Isaias prophesied of you saying, 
 this people honoreth me with their lips ; but 
 their heart is far from me." (Matt. xv. 8.) In 
 these words our Saviour gives us to understand, 
 that a prayer which proceeds not from the heart, or 
 which is not devout and fervent, is not heard by His 
 Heavenly Father. There are many Christians who 
 recite their prayers without thinking of what they 
 say. Should they be required to tell what they 
 
 i '. 
 
166 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 asked of our Lord, they would be at a loss for an 
 answer. The prayers of such Christians are quite 
 powerless with God. As the pipes of an organ will 
 not produce their musical sounds unless inflated by 
 the bellows, so, in the same manner, prayer, unless 
 prompted by the fervor of the heart, will fail to be 
 agreeable to the ears of God. One Our Father, 
 said with fervor, is better and obtains more from 
 God than the entire Kosary recited a dozen times in 
 a careless manner. St. Bernard once saw how an 
 angel of the Lord wrote down in a book the divine 
 praises of each of his brethren when they were reci- 
 ting the Divine Office ; some were written in letters 
 of gold to express the devotion and fervor with 
 which they were recited ; others in letters of silver, 
 on account of the pure intention with which they 
 were performed ; others were written with ink, to 
 signify that they were said by way of routine and 
 in a slothful manner ; others again were written 
 with water color, to indicate that they had been 
 performed with great lukewarmness and without 
 devotion or fervor. Of some religious the divine 
 praises were not written down at all, but instead of 
 the chanted psalms, the following words were writ- 
 ten : ei This people honoreth Me with their lips, 
 but their heart is far from Me," (Isai. xxix. 13.) 
 to signify that the Angel of the Lord was much 
 displeased with this kind of prayer. 
 
 Holy Angels ! show us once your book that we 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 167 
 
 may see in what colors the prayers of so many 
 Christians are written down, especially in time of 
 prosperity, when no calamity forces them to have 
 recourse to God. There is good reason to fear, that 
 the prayers of many are written down in letters of 
 ink, others in water color, and the greater number 
 of them, I fear, are not written down at all ; so 
 that the devil himself must rejoice and laugh at 
 them, as he did at the prayers of two friars, of 
 whom Jourdanus speaks : " They recited the Divine 
 Office in such a careless manner, that at the conclu- 
 sion of it, the devil appeared and cast an intoler- 
 able odor around, at the same time, exclaiming with 
 great laughter, such incense is due to such prayer.' ' 
 Moreover, how many are there not who say their 
 prayers without being at all in earnest to obtain 
 what they ask. They recite, for instance, the Our 
 Father a hundred, yea, a thousand times, without 
 wishing, at all, that any of its seven petitions 
 should be granted. Let us examine them briefly. 
 The first petition is: " Hallowed be Thy name," 
 that is, give me, and to all men, the grace to know 
 Thee always better and better ; to honor, praise, 
 glorify, and love Thee ; to comprehend the great- 
 ness of Thy blessings, the duration of Thy promises, 
 the sublimity of Thy Majesty, and the depth of Thy 
 judgments. All this is included in the first petition 
 of the Our Father. But where are those who truly 
 and wish this for themselves and for 
 
1G8 ' ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 others. This is not wished for by any of those who r 
 when entering the church, do not even think of 
 bending the knee to express their faith in the name 
 of God. 
 
 Secondly, nor by those who do not desire to listen 
 to the divine word in sermons and Christian in- 
 structions, that they may better learn their duty 
 towards God, themselves and their fellow-men. 
 
 Thirdly, nor by those who never think of pray- 
 ing fervently for the conversion of sinners, heretics, 
 Jews, or heathens. 
 
 Fourthly, nor by those who dishonor the name of 
 God, by cursing and swearing, thus teaching others 
 the language of the devil. 
 
 Fifthly, nor by those who are ashamed of giving 
 good example, who think, speak and act bad, when 
 others do the same. 
 
 Sixthly, nor by all those who grievously trans- 
 gress any of the Commandments of God, and thus 
 dishonor, despise and insult the name of God. 
 Such as these, certainly, do not praise and honor 
 God's name, and yet with their lips they will always 
 pray : " Hallowed be Thy name," without contrib- 
 uting anything at all towards the glory of the Lord 
 of heaven and earth. Of these we must think, 
 that they know not what they ask or do, nor wish to 
 obtain what they ask. 
 
 The second petition is, " Thy kingdom come." 
 Where are those who truly wish that God alone 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 165 
 
 should reign in their hearts, and that no creature 
 might have any part in it? Alas ! most men feel 
 provoked at the least temporal loss, at the slightest 
 harsh word. And what account do the generality 
 of men make of the grace and friendship of God ? 
 The readiness with which they commit sin, tells it 
 sufficiently. How difficult is it not for the priest to 
 prevail upon them so far as to make them go to 
 confession and Holy Communion ? How seldom do 
 they pray ? Shall we then believe that those who 
 neglect and refuse the means to acquire the grace of 
 God do earnestly pray, "Thy kingdom come?" 
 And where are they who truly desire to leave this 
 world for a better one ? Alas ! should death knock 
 at their door, what mourning, what alarm, what 
 tears would it produce. Nay, many even are so 
 much attached to this life, that should God offer 
 them the choice between heaven and earth, they 
 would prefer the latter ; let them pray, sigh and 
 exclaim : " Thy kingdom come," their prayer is 
 not true, because they do not wish for God's King- 
 dom. And where are those who are in earnest 
 when they pray : " Thy will be done on earth as it 
 is in heaven." Were God to say to them : " Well, 
 it is My will that you should undergo humiliations 
 and contempt ; and for this end I will make use of 
 your neighbor, of your friend, of your companion. 
 Like Job, you shall endure the loss of your good 
 name and your honor among your fellow-men, or of 
 16 * 
 
166 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 your children and all your earthly goods/' how- 
 soon would every one of them change his prayer ; 
 Lord, be it otherwise done to me, as I do not mean 
 this when I pray : u Thy will be done on earth as 
 it is in heaven. " 
 
 The fourth petition is : " Give us this day our 
 daily bread." That is, give us everything neces- 
 sary for the support of our temporal and spiritual 
 life. Of course, no one refuses the temporal ; but 
 where are those who truly hunger and thirst after 
 the food of their souls ; after prayer, the Word of 
 God, Confession and Holy Communion ? This food 
 is relished by the smallest number of men only, 
 which is an evident proof that they do not wish to 
 be heard when they make this petition. 
 
 " And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive 
 them that have trespassed against us." Neither 
 does this fifth petition of our Father proceed from 
 the heart of most of men. They all, of course, 
 wish that God should forgive them every sin, guilt 
 and punishment, but they themselves do not want 
 to forgive. How long do they not preserve, in their 
 hearts, a certain aversion, rancor, even enmity, 
 caused by a little harsh word, insult or detraction 
 of their fellow-men ? To greet them, to speak to 
 or pray for them, seems too hard ; against such 
 persons they must speak uncharitably ; slander 
 them on every favorable opportunity ; nay, even 
 curse them. How can they be sincere in saying: 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 167 
 
 <l Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that 
 have trespassed against us ?" They ask forgiveness 
 of God in the same way as they forgive others. 
 Certainly, their prayer is untrue, therefore, they are 
 insincere in this manner of praying. 
 
 "Lead us not into temptation" — that is, Lord, 
 preserve us from the temptations of the devil, of 
 the flesh, and of the world. But alas ! most men 
 love the occasion of temptations, and betake them- 
 selves wilfully unto them. How should the Lord, 
 then, preserve them from temptations? Most as- 
 suredly they do not wish at all to be heard in mak- 
 ing this petition. 
 
 " And deliver us from evil" — that is, preserve us 
 from sin ; but the greater number of men commit 
 them deliberately every day, not doing the least 
 violence to themselves by trying to avoid the occa- 
 sions thereof; or to have immediate recourse to 
 prayer in the moment of temptation ; or to receive 
 the'Sacraments frequently. As they do not make 
 use of the means which God has given us to be pre- 
 served from sin, how cab they pray in truth or in 
 st: " Deliver us from evil?" They do not 
 mean it. In conclusion, to all these petitions they 
 say: " Amen" — that is, Lord, grant everything 
 that we have asked in these seven petitions. But 
 as often as these petitions are repeated by most 
 men, as often do they prove untrue ; and the word 
 Amen is also identified in the same untruthfulness : 
 
168 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 "We do not mean or desire it in this sense." 
 What, then, must Almighty God think of such a 
 prayer ? What would you think of me were I to 
 ask of you what you knew I would be afraid to re- 
 ceive ? Would you not consider me as a rash man, 
 wanting to test your kindness and liberality, or to 
 turn it into ridicule? Certainly, you would feel 
 angry, and order me away from your presence. 
 Will the Lord, then, who knows full well what is 
 meant in my prayer, hear me, although my con- 
 science tells me that I do not sincerely wish to be 
 heard ? Will He force His gifts and graces upon 
 us whilst we do not appreciate them, or have any 
 real desire for them ; nay, are even afraid of receiv- 
 ing them ? Will He hear such a prayer ? 
 
 We must, then, be in earnest to obtain by our 
 prayer what we ask in it. "Wilt thou be made 
 whole?" said our Lord to the man languishing 
 thirty-eight years. (John v. 6.) " What will ye 
 that I do to you?" our Lord asked the two blind 
 men. (Matt. xxix. 32.) Had He noticed that they 
 were not in earnest in their petition for health, He 
 would have left them alone. Holy Scripture says 
 of those who pray to God in earnest and with fer- 
 vor, that they cry to the Lord. Thus holy David 
 says of himself: "In my trouble I cried to the 
 Lord and He heard me." (Ps. cxix. 1.) And the 
 Lord has promised to hear such a prayer. " He 
 shall cry to Me and I will hear him." (Ps. lxL 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 169 
 
 15.) Now, to cry to the Lord means, according to 
 St. Bernard, to pray with an earnest and great 
 desire to be heard. The greater this desire is the 
 more piercing is this cry of prayer to the ears of 
 God. In vain do we hope that God will hear our 
 prayer if it be destitute of this earnest desire, fer- 
 vor, sighing, crying and effusion of the heart. 
 Hence the prophet Jeremias says : " Arise, give 
 praise in the night, in the beginning of the watches ; 
 pour out thy heart like water before the face of the 
 Lord ; lift up thy hands to Him for the life of thy 
 little children that have fainted for hunger." (Jer- 
 emias ii. 19.) Now, what is it to pour out our 
 heart before the Lord? It is to pray, to sigh, to 
 cry with a most vehement desire to be heard by our 
 Lord. Hence St. Bernard says: " Great crying in 
 the ears of the Lord is a vehement desire," for God 
 considers more the ardent desire and love of the 
 heart than the cries of the lips. And St. Paul says, 
 in his Epistle to the Romans : " The spirit himself 
 asketh for us with unspeakable groanings." (Ch. 
 viii. 26.) Hence the royal prophet says of his 
 prayer: " In His sight I pour out my prayer." 
 (Ps. cxli. 3.) And in Ps. (Ixi. 9.) he says : " Pour 
 out your heart before Him." It was thus that 
 Anna poured out her heart before the Lord and ob- 
 tained the holy child Samuel. (I Kings i. 15.) 
 " As Anna had her heart full of grief, she prayed 
 to the Lord, shedding many tears ; and it came to 
 15* 
 
170 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 pass, as she multiplied prayers before the Lord," 
 etc. ; here the holy Fathers ask what is meant by 
 this long prayer of Anna, since she besought the 
 Lord only in a few words to grant her a child. St. 
 John Chrysostom answers and says: "Although, 
 her prayer consisted of a few ^vords, yet it was long, 
 on account of the interior fervor and ardent desire 
 with which she poured out her heart before the 
 Lord, for she prayed more with her heart than with 
 her lips, according to what is related in Holy Scrip- 
 ture.: "Now Anna spoke from her heart, whilst 
 her lips only moved, but her voice was silent." (I 
 Kings i. 13.) " Our Lord will, therefore, hear us, 
 provided we understand how to pour out our hearts 
 in prayer — that is, to lay open before Him all the 
 wishes and desires of our soul, its griefs, sufferings, 
 cares, solicitudes and anxieties, laying them, as it 
 were, into His paternal heart and into the bosom of 
 His Divine Providence, in order that He may come 
 to aid, relieve and comfort us." Nay, according 
 to St. Paul, we ought to do still more. In his 
 Epistle to the Ephesians, (chap. vi. 18.) we read : 
 "By all prayer and supplication, praying at all 
 times in the spirit," he wishes us to understand 
 that we ought to go as far as even to conjure God 
 by everything sacred, beseeching Him, by the death 
 of our Divine Saviour upon the cross, and by the 
 precious blood of Jesus Christ ; by sighing, crying, 
 and striking our breast ; by falling prostrate and 
 
QUALITIES OP PRAYER. 171 
 
 the like, in order to manifest the most earnest 
 fervor and ardent desire of our heart in prayer. 
 Should we, then, experience, in our will, a certain 
 languor, sloth and tepidity ; nay, even a certain 
 repugnance and resistance to ask favors of God 
 with fervor and earnestness, we must beseech our 
 dear Lord, as the Holy Church does in one of her 
 prayers, to compel our rebellious wills, by means 
 best calculated to effect this holy fervor in our 
 hearts, in order that we may make sure of being 
 heard and of receiving what we pray for. 
 
 In order* to produce this holy fervor in our 
 hearts, God often sends us troubles, crosses, sick- 
 ness, and adversities of every description, nothing 
 being better calculated to make us pray with fervor 
 than afflictions, tribulations and crosses. Let the 
 soul be under heavy sufferings which it would like 
 to cast off, surely it will not need a prayer-book. 
 Then, like unto hungry beggars, it finds a flow of 
 words to produce the most heartfelt and fervent 
 prayer. In prosperous times the prayer-book is 
 recurred to, but in the hour of adversity it is the 
 heart that speaks. If before the lips only moved, 
 it is now the whole heart that is put in motion, 
 from its over-great desire to be heard and find relief 
 and comfort. Then, like David, men will say : 
 " All the day I cried to Thee, Lord. I stretched 
 out my hands to Thee." (Ps. Ixxxvii., 10.) u Con- 
 sider and hear me, Lord, my God." (Pp. xii., 4.) 
 
172 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 Such prayers are most pleasing to God, and He 
 cannot refuse hearing them, according to what 
 David says : " In my trouble I cried to the Lord, 
 and he heard me." (Ps. cxix., 1.) Holy Scrip- 
 ture abounds in examples of this truth. When the 
 Prophet Jonas was swallowed by the whale, and car- 
 ried about in the depths of the ocean, he prayed most 
 fervently to the Lord, his God, saying : " Thou 
 hast cast me forth into the heart of the deep sea, 
 and a flood hath encompassed me ; all Thy billows 
 and waves have passed over me." (Jonas ii., 4.) 
 He then said, "I cried out in my affliction to the 
 Lord, and He heard me. I cried out of the belly of 
 hell, and Thou hast heard my voice." (Verse 3.) 
 How great was the affliction of Sara, on being ac- 
 cused of having murdered seven husbands, but who 
 were killed by a devil named Asmodeus at their 
 first going in unto her. At this reproach, says 
 Holy Scripture, she went into an upper chamber of 
 her house, and for three days and three nights did 
 neither eat nor drink, but continuing in prayer 
 with tears,, besought God to deliver her from this 
 reproach. u And her prayers were heard in the 
 sight of the glory of the Most High God." (Job 
 iii., 10, 11.) With what great fervor did not the 
 Apostles cry out to our Lord Jesus Christ amidst 
 the storms of the sea. " Lord save us, we perish." 
 And He heard their cry, and commanded the winds 
 and the sea, and there came a great calm. (Math. 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 173 
 
 viii., 2."), 26.) Yes, in tribulation is truly verified 
 what is related by the Ruler in the Gospel : "And he 
 himself believed and his whole house." (John iv., 
 53.) Not only one member of the family will pray ; 
 nay, father, mother, children, servants, relatives, 
 will unite in beseeching the Lord. for assistance, be- 
 cause grief and affliction have come upon the whole 
 house. Thus the Latin proverb is verified : "Qui 
 nescit orare, eat ad mare/' Let him who does 
 not know how to pray with fervor make a voyage 
 at sea. There the storms and dangers of death will 
 teach him to pour forth most fervent prayers. Such 
 prayers are most powerful with and heard by the 
 Lord. 
 
 I cannot omit remarking that tears in prayer are 
 most powerful with God to obtain our petitions. 
 The Fathers of the Church are profuse in bestowing 
 praises upon humble tears of the soul. The Holy 
 Scriptures and the lives of the Saints abound in 
 examples to prove their power with God. " 0, 
 how great is the power which the tears of sinners 
 exercise with God," says St. Peter Chrysolbgus. 
 (Serm. 93.) u They water heaven, wash the earth 
 clean, deliver from hell, and prevail upon God to 
 recall the sentence of damnation pronounced over 
 every mortal sin." " Yes," says Anselmus Laudu- 
 nensis, commenting on the words of the Book of 
 Tobias, chap, iii., 11, "continuing in prayer, with 
 tears he besought God." " Prayer appeases God, 
 
H4 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 hut if tears are added, He feels overcome and unable 
 to resist any longer. The former is for him an 
 odoriferous balm — the latter is a sweet tyranny." 
 Hence Julianus (lib. de. Ligno Vitae, c. ix.) ex- 
 claims with truth: " 0, humble tears, how great 
 is your power, how great is your reign ! You need 
 not fear the Tribunal of the Eternal Judge ; you 
 silence all your accusers, and no one dares to pre- 
 vent you from approaching the Lord ; should you 
 enter alone you will not come out empty. What 
 more ! You conquer the unconquerable, you bind 
 the Omnipotent, you open heaven, you chase all 
 the devils." " Indeed," says Peter Cellensis, (lib. 
 de Panibus, c. xii.,) " the infernal spirits find the 
 flames of hell more supportable than our tears." 
 Hence Cornelius a Lapide remarks : " One tear of 
 the sinner, produced by the sorrow of his heart, is 
 capable of making God forgive and forget many, 
 even the most atrocious crimes." For this reason, 
 St. Leo the Pope, says of the tears of St. Peter, 
 (Serm. 9 de passione) : "0 ! happy tears of thine, 
 holy Apostle St. Peter, which were for thee a holy 
 baptism to cancel thy sin of denying the Lord." 
 St. Magdalen asks of our Lord the forgiveness of 
 her numerous and great sins; but in what manner? 
 ■" She began to wash His sacred feet with her 
 tears." (Luke vii. 38), and these tears moved His 
 compassionate heart, by saying, " Many sins are 
 forgiven her, because she hath loved much." Why 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 175 
 
 was it that the holy patriarch Jacob, when wrestling 
 with the angel of the Lord, received his blessing? 
 (Gen. xxxii.) it was because he asked it with tears 
 in his eyes. "He wept and made supplication to 
 him." (Osee xii. 4.) In the fourth Book of Kings, 
 chap, xx., we read as follows : " In these days 
 Ezechias was sick unto death, and Isaias the 
 prophet came to him and said : Thus saith the Lord 
 God : give charge concerning thy house, for thou 
 shalt die and not live. And he turned his face to 
 the wall and prayed to the Lord saying : I beseech 
 Thee, Lord, remember how I have walked before 
 Thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have 
 done that which is pleasing before Thee. And 
 Ezechias wept with much weeping." What was the 
 effect of it ? Hearken : ' ' And before Isaias was gone 
 out of the middle of the court, the word of the Lord 
 came to him saying : Go back and tell Ezechias, 
 thus saith the Lord : I have heard thy prayer and 
 I have seen thy tears ; and behold I have healed 
 thee ; on the third day thou shalt go up to the Tem- 
 ple of the Lord. And I will add to thy days fifteen 
 years." Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself often 
 prayed with tears in His eyes, according to what 
 St. Paul the Apostle writes : " Who in the days of 
 His flesh, with a strong cry and tears offering up 
 prayers and supplication, was heard for His rever- 
 ence." Kb. v. 7.) In his comment, chap. xii. 
 of Zacharee, Cornelius a Lapide relates that St. 
 
1*76 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 Dunstan, after the death of King Edwin, from 
 whom he had received many ill treatments, saw, 
 whilst at prayer, several black men running off 
 with the soul of the king in their hands. Forget- 
 ting all the injuries and ill treatments which he 
 had received from Edwin, he took pity on him in 
 his miserable condition, shedding torrents of tears 
 before the face of the Lord, for the deliverance of the 
 king's soul, and he did not cease weeping and pray- 
 ing until the Lord heard him. Soon after, he saw 
 the same black men again, but their hands were 
 empty, and the soul of the king was no longer in 
 their possession. They then commenced to curse, 
 and swear, and utter the most abominable impreca- 
 tions against the servant of God, to which St. Dun- 
 stan paid no attention, but thanked God for the 
 extraordinary great mercy shown to the king." Let 
 us, then, with Judith (chap. viii. 14), pray to the 
 Lord with" tears, asking His pardon, His graces, and 
 all His favors, and let us rest assured, that as a 
 mother cannot help consoling her weeping child, 
 neither will our dear Lord refuse the petitions of 
 our weeping souls. 
 
QUALITIES OF TRAYER. 177 
 
 IV. — Our Prayer must be Followed by Amend- 
 ment of Life. 
 
 The sinner who prays to God for salvation with- 
 out having the desire to quit the state of sin, must 
 not expect to be heard. " There are," says St. 
 Alphonsus, " some unhappy persons, who love the 
 chains with which the devil keeps them bound like 
 slaves. The prayers of such are never heard by 
 God ; because they are rash, presumptuous and 
 abominable. For what greater presumption can 
 there be than for a man to ask favors of a Prince, 
 whom he not only has often offended, but whom 
 he intends to offend again?" And this is the mean- 
 ing of the words of the Holy Spirit, when He says, 
 that the prayer of him who turns away his ears so 
 as not to hear what God commands, is detestable 
 and odious to God: " He who turneth away his 
 ears from learning the law, his prayer shall be an 
 abomination." (Prov. xxviii. 9.) To these people 
 God says, " it is of no use your praying to Me, for 
 I will turn My eyes from you and will not hear 
 you : when you stretch forth your hands I will turn 
 away My eyes from you, and when you multiply 
 prayer I will not hear." (Isai. i. 15.) Why was 
 the Lord so severe to the Jews, His chosen people, 
 inflicting upon them the hardest punishments, such 
 as the Egyptian bondage in which they suffered for 
 so many years ? How often did they not pray for 
 16 
 
178 ON TIIE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 their deliverance ? And why did the Lord not hear 
 them? The prophet Ezechiel says: " And they 
 committed fornication in Egypt; in their youth they 
 committed fornication." (Chap, xxiii. 3.) Hence 
 they prayed and cried to God in vain. But, no 
 sooner had they done away with their sins of idola- 
 try and fornication, than the Lord graciously heard 
 them. "And the children of Israel, groaning, 
 cried out, because of the works ; and their cry 
 went up unto God from the works, and He heard 
 their groaning, and remembered the covenant 
 which He made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ; 
 and the Lord looked upon the children of Israel, 
 and He knew them." (Enoch, ii. 23, 25.) The 
 Ark of the Covenant was a great treasure for the 
 Jews. When it was carried around the city of 
 Jerico, the walls of the city fell down ; when the 
 Jews had arrived with it at the river Jordan, the 
 waters of the river divided, the lower part flowing 
 off and the upper part rising like a mountain. 
 Now, after the Jews had lost four thousand men in 
 one day, in a war against the Philistines, they had 
 the Ark brought into the camp, hoping by this that 
 the Lord would protect them, and deliver their ene- 
 mies into their hands." And the ancients of Israel 
 said : u Why hath the Lord defeated us to-day be- 
 fore the Philistines ? Let us fetch unto us the Ark 
 of the Covenant of the Lord from Silo, and let it 
 come in the midst of us that it may save us from 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 179 
 
 the hands of our enemies. And when the Ark of 
 the Covenant of the Lord was come into the camp, 
 all Israel shouted with a great joy, and the earth 
 rang again." (I. Kings iv.) Now, they thought 
 they had no more to fear from other enemies, who, 
 at the sight of the Ark of the Covenant, were 
 panic-stricken, so much so, that they cried out : 
 " God is come into the camp." And sighing they 
 said : " Woe to us ; who shall deliver us from the 
 hands of these high Gods?" With new courage 
 they commenced to fight. Were they victorious ? 
 By no means ; they were defeated worse than ever, 
 losing thirty thousand men, besides the Ark of the 
 Covenant. One might ask here : Did God then 
 cease to love the Israelites ? Most assuredly not, 
 His love still remained the same as before. Why, 
 then, were they defeated in the presence of the Ark 
 of the Covenant, which was given to them as a sign 
 of the divine blessing and protection? " But for 
 the love of His Ark," says Theodoret, "God did not 
 wish to protect His people, because, after having 
 grievously offended Him, they did not repent of their 
 sins. It was with sinful hearts they paid outward 
 honor to the Ark. They shouted with great joy as 
 soon as they beheld it, but there was not one who 
 shed a tear of repentance, no one prayed and sighed 
 with a sorrowful heart. Hence, the Ark brought 
 down no blessing upon them at that period." 
 " Why, then, should we wonder," says Dionysius, 
 
180 ON THE CONDITIONS AND , 
 
 the Carthusian, " if we see miseries and calamities 
 increase among the Christians, notwithstanding 
 their prayer to avert them. 'Tis because they pray 
 with sinful and criminal hearts, not being sorry, in 
 the least, for their evil deeds, nor showing the slight- 
 est desire to amend their lives." Let them wear 
 upon their persons as many Agnus Deis, Relics of 
 the Saints, Gospels of St. John as they may wish ; 
 let them even pray and cry to heaven as much as 
 they will, all these articles of devotion, prayers and 
 cries will be of no avail, if, at the same time, they 
 rent out their hearts to the devil, not wishing to 
 give up his worship and service. Instead of being 
 heard, they will, according to St. Augustine, be so 
 much the more severely punished. " Punish- 
 ments," says the Saint, " become more frequent 
 every day, because the number of sins is daily in- 
 creasing." 
 
 If, therefore, we wish God to hear our prayers, 
 we must endeavor to be sorry for our sins and 
 amend our lives. " Above all," says St. Ambrose, 
 " we must weep and then pray." The Lord Him- 
 self has declared this quite distinctly by the prophet 
 Isaias : "I will not hear you;" why not? " for 
 your hands are full of blood ;" (Isaias i. 15,) full 
 of sins and iniquities. 
 
 But, on the contrary, the Lord has promised, by 
 the same prophet, that He will hear the prayers of 
 those who truly amend their lives. "Loose the 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 181 
 
 bands of wickedness ; undo the bundles that op- 
 press Then shalt thou call, and the 
 
 Lord shall hear ; thou shalt cry, and He shall say : 
 Here I am," (Isai. lviii.), that is to help you. By 
 the command of God, the Prophet Jonas had to an- 
 nounce to the Ninivites that within forty days their 
 city would be destroyed. The Ninivites at once 
 commenced to pray to God and ask His pardon. 
 God heard their prayers. Why ? Because they 
 repented of their sins, did penance for them and 
 amended their lives. The prayers of a true and 
 sincere repentant, are acceptable in the sight of 
 God and heard by Him. Hence, according to the 
 advice of St. Paul, we must endeavor always to pray 
 to God with a contrite heart. " I will, therefore, 
 that men pray in every place, lifting up pure 
 hands." (I. Tim. ii. 8.) When are our hearts 
 pure? " If they are free of sin," says St. Ambrose. 
 From what has been said, the sinner should, 
 however, not infer that, being a sinner and in the 
 disgrace of God, his prayer could not be acceptable 
 to God, and therefore abandon it. No, it would be 
 entirely wrong for a sinner to argue thus. For as 
 long as he does not sin unto death, that is, if he 
 has not the will to live and die in sin, but desires 
 to amend his life, and prays for it, God will listen 
 to bii prayer, and hear it, if he perseveres in it. 
 11 There are others," says St. Alphonsus, " who sin 
 through frailty, or by the violence of some great 
 10* 
 
182 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 passion, and who groan under the yoke of the 
 enemy, and who desire to break these chains of 
 death and to escape from their miserable slavery, 
 let them ask the assistance of God; for their pray- 
 er, if persevered in, will certainly be heard, for 
 Jesus Christ has said: " Every one that asks re- 
 ceives, and he who seeks grace finds it." (Math, 
 vii. 8.) His prayer, it is true, is not heard on ac- 
 count of his meritorious works, which he does not 
 possess, but is heard through the merits and prom- 
 ises of Jesus Christ, Who has declared to hear 
 every one that asks. lc Therefore, when we pray," 
 says St. Thomas, " it is not necessary to be friends 
 of God, in order to obtain the grace we ask ; for 
 prayer itself restores His friendship to us." Hence, 
 St. Bernard says : " The desire of the sinner to es- 
 cape from sin is a gift which is certainly given by 
 no other than God Himself, Who most undoubtedly 
 would not give this holy desire to the sinner unless 
 He intended to hear him." Witness the publican 
 in the Gospel, who went into the temple to pray : 
 " And the publican standing afar off would not so 
 much as lift up his eyes towards heaven ; but struck 
 his breast, saying : God, be merciful to me a sin- 
 ner. I say to you, this man went down into his 
 house justified." (Luke viii. 13-14.) 
 
 But the sinner may say, I have no sorrow for my 
 sins, and do not desire to amend my life, therefore, 
 according to what you have said, God will not hear 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 183 
 
 my prayer, consequently I may abandon it alto- 
 gether. I answer, by no means relinquish it ; you 
 must^not, on this account, give up your prayer, 
 although God will not hear you as long as you per- 
 severe in these dispositions of heart ; yet, for the 
 sake of your prayer, God spares you, waiting pa- 
 tiently for your conversion. " Hence no sinner," 
 says St. Alphonsus, "should ever give up his 
 prayer, as otherwise he would be lost forever. God 
 would sooner send sinners to hell, if they ceased to 
 pray, yet, on account of their perseverance in 
 prayer, He still spares them." But let him who has 
 no sorrow for his sins, no desire for the amendment 
 of his life, ask of God this sorrow and grace of a 
 thorough conversion, and let him persevere in ask- 
 ing for it, if he does, he may rest assured that God 
 will finally enlighten his mind by making him 
 understand the miserable state in which he is liv- 
 ing, and touch his heart with sorrow for it, and 
 also strengthen his will to make serious efforts to 
 rise from it. Another will say, I have not only no 
 sorrow for my sins, but I have not even the least 
 desire to ask God's grace to be sorry for them. 
 How can I, then, pray, not having the least desire 
 to obtain anything? This, I must confess, is a 
 pitiable but not a desperate state, for, if you will 
 pray with perseverance, God will give you the de- 
 sire to pray for the grace of contrition. Has He 
 not declared : "I desire not the death of the 
 
184 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 wicked, but that he be converted and live V* God 
 has the greatest desire to see all sinners saved, and 
 is ready at any time to give them the graces neces- 
 sary for their salvation ; but He wishes that they 
 should pray for every good thought and desire, and 
 for efficacious grace to put their good desires into 
 execution. Let such a sinner pray : " Lord, give 
 me a true desire to pray to Thee for my salvation ;" 
 let him persevere in thus praying, and then let him 
 rest assured that he will not be lost. The conver- 
 sion of King Manasses is a most striking proof of 
 this truth. Manasses was twelve years old when 
 his father died. He succeeded him on the throne, 
 but not in his piety and fear of the Lord. As pious 
 as the father was, so impious was the son towards 
 God and His people. He introduced again all the 
 abominations of the Gentiles which the Lord had 
 extirpated from among the children of Israel ; he 
 apostatized from the Lord ; he introduced again 
 and encouraged idolatry ; even in the temple of the 
 Lord he erected an altar to Baal ; he introduced 
 into the temple of the true God such abominations 
 as were never heard of before, and which are too 
 shameful to relate. To crown his impiety, he made 
 his son pass through fire in honor of Moloch ; used 
 divination, observed omens, appointed pythons and 
 multiplied soothsayers to do evil before the Lord 
 and to provoke Him. (IV Kings, xxi. 1-7.) The 
 Lord often warned him by His prophets, but in 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 185 
 
 vain. At last " the Lord spoke to His prophets, 
 saving : Because Manasses, king of Juda, hath 
 -done these most wicked ahominations, beyond all 
 that the Amorrhites did before him, and hath made 
 Juda also to sin with his filthy doings, therefore, 
 thus saith the Lord the God of Israel : Behold, I 
 will bring on evils upon Jerusalem and Juda, that 
 whosoever shall hear of them both his ears shall 
 tingle. I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of 
 Samaria and the weight of the house of Achab, 
 and I will eiFace Jerusalem, as tables are wont to 
 be effaced . . . and I will deliver them into 
 the hands of their enemies, and they shall become a 
 prey and a spoil to all their enemies." (Vers. 10- 
 14.) Manasses, instead of entering into himself, 
 added cruelty to idolatry. He shed so much inno- 
 cent blood that, to use the words of Holy Writ, 
 " he rilled Jerusalem up to the mouth." (Verse 
 16.) According to Josephus (Antt. x. 31), " he 
 went, in his contempt for God, so far as to kill all 
 the just of the children of Israel, not sparing even 
 the prophets, but taking away their lives day by 
 day, so that streams of blood were flowing through 
 the streets of Jerusalem." Now, do you think such 
 an impious wretch could be converted? Oh, won- 
 derful power of prayer ! So great is thy efficacy with 
 God, that a man, should he be ever so impious and 
 perverse, will not fail to obtain forgiveness of God 
 if he prays for it with a sincere heart. " And the 
 
186 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 Lord," says Holy Writ, " brought upon Jerusalem 
 the captains of the army of the king of the Assy- 
 rians, and they took Manasses and carried him, 
 hound with chains and fetters, to Babylon. In 
 this great distress and affliction, he entered into 
 himself, and he prayed to the Lord his God and did 
 penance exceedingly before the God of his fathers, 
 and he entreated Him and he besought Him earn- 
 estly ; and the Lord heard his prayer and brought 
 him again to Jerusalem unto his kingdom. From 
 that time forward he endeavored to serve the Lord 
 the more fervently the more grievously he had of- 
 fended Him. He abolished idolatry, destroyed the 
 temples, altars, groves on the high places put up 
 in honor of heathenish deities ; repaired the altar of 
 Jehova, in the temple of Jerusalem, and sacrificed 
 upon it victims and peace offerings and offerings of 
 praise, and he commanded Juda to serve the Lord 
 the God of Israel." (II Paral. 33.) 
 
 I again repeat what I have said elsewhere : How 
 great will be the pain and misery of the damned, 
 seeing that they might have been saved so easily, 
 provided tbey had prayed to God for their salva- 
 tion. How true is it not what St. Alphonsus says : 
 " All spiritual writers in their books, all preachers 
 in their sermons, all confessors in their instructions 
 to their penitents should not inculcate anything 
 more strongly than continual prayer ; they should 
 always admonish, exclaim, and continually repeat: 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 187 
 
 pray, pray, never cease to pray, for if you pray 
 your salvation will be secure ; but if you leave off 
 praying your damnation will be certain. All 
 preachers and directors ought to do this, because, 
 according to the opinion of every Catholic school, 
 there is no doubt of this truth that he who prays 
 obtains grace and is saved ; but those who practise 
 it are too few, and this is why so few are saved." 
 (Chap. iv. on Prayer.) 
 
 V. — Our Prayer must be United with Forgiveness 
 of Injuries. 
 
 " And when you shall stand to pray, forgive if 
 you have aught against any man." (Mark xi. 25.) 
 l: Leave thy offering before the Altar, and go first to 
 be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming thou 
 Shalt offer thy gift." (Matt. v. 23.) 
 
 In these words our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us 
 that our prayer will not please His heavenly Father, 
 nor be heard by Him so long as we entertain in our 
 hearts feelings of dislike towards any of our fellow- 
 If you have recourse to prayer, He says, and 
 at the same time have aught against any man, go 
 first and be reconciled to your brother, or at least 
 forgive him from the bottom of your heart, and then 
 come and offer up your prayers, otherwise I will not 
 even listen to vou. He has made everv man his 
 
188 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 representative on earth by creating him according 
 to His own image and likeness ; He has redeemed 
 all men with His most precious Blood ; He has, 
 therefore declared that whatever we do to the least 
 of our fellow-men for His sake we do to Him. 
 Now, by commanding us to love our enemies, to do 
 good to those that hate us, and to pray for those 
 that persecute and calumniate us, (Matt. v. 44.) 
 He asks of us to give to Him in the person of His 
 representatives that which we can give so easily. 
 It would be great presumption to ask His gifts and 
 favors without being willing on our part, to give 
 Him what He requires of us in all justice. To re- 
 fuse this request of our Lord would, indeed, on our 
 part, be great injustice. We ask of Him the great- 
 est gifts, such as the pardon of innumerable and 
 most grievous offences, final perseverance, deliver- 
 ance from hell, everlasting glory, and so many 
 other countless favors for both body and soul. 
 What He asks of us is little or nothing compared 
 with His graces. 
 
 I will give you what I can, says He, if you give 
 Me what you can. If you will not, neither am I 
 bound to give anything to you. Hence, I have 
 said, " that if two of you shall consent upon earth 
 concerning anything whatsoever they shall ask, it 
 shall be done to them by my Father, Who is in 
 heaven." (Matt, xviii. 19.) Our Saviour means 
 here to say that your heavenly Father is so much 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 189 
 
 pleased with the prayers of those who have no feel- 
 ings of hatred towards one another, that He will 
 grant to them whatsoever they ask of Him ; but if, 
 on the contrary, they entertain such feelings, their 
 prayer will not be heard. " As singing is not 
 pleasing nor attractive to any one if the voices are 
 not in perfect harmony, so neither," says Origen, 
 " will the prayers of Christian congregations give 
 any pleasure to God if they be not of one heart and 
 one soul, nor will He hear their prayer." 
 
 We must, then, whenever we betake ourselves to 
 prayer, banish from our hearts all willful enmity, 
 hatred, rancor, and all uncharitable sentiments 
 which may arise in our soul, by saying a short but 
 fervent prayer for all those towards whom such feel- 
 ings arise, or by offering up to God for each one of 
 them the precious Blood of Jesus Christ, and all 
 His merits, in union with those of His blessed Mo- 
 ther, and of all His Saints. 
 
 To pray for those who wish us evil is an ex- 
 tremely difficult act, and one of the most heroic 
 charity. It is an act free of self-love and self-in- 
 terest, which is not only counselled but even com- 
 manded by our Lord. (Matt. v. 44.) The insults, 
 calumnies, and persecutions of our enemies, relate 
 directly to our own person, wherefore, if we forgive, 
 nay, even beg God also to forgive our enemies, we 
 give up our claim to our right and honor, thus 
 raising ourselves to the great dignity of true chil- 
 17 
 
190 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 dren of God, nay even to an unspeakably sublime re- 
 semblance to His divinity, according to what Jesus 
 Christ says: "If you pray for those who hate, ca- 
 lumniate and persecute you, you will be children 
 of your Father, Who is in heaven, Who maketh 
 His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth 
 upon the just and the unjust;*' (Matt. v. 45,) to 
 whom there is nothing more peculiar, nothing more 
 honorable than to have mercy and to spare ; to do 
 good to all his enemies, converting them to be His 
 friends, His children and heirs of His everlasting 
 glory. 
 
 Now, by imitating His goodness in a point most 
 averse to our nature, we give Him the greatest 
 glory, and do such violence to His tender and 
 meek Heart as to cause it not only to forgive the 
 sin of our enemies, but even to force it to grant all 
 our prayers. He does so because He wishes to be 
 far more indulgent, far more merciful, and far more 
 liberal than it is possible for us ever to be. Holy 
 Scripture, and the lives of the Saints, furnish us 
 with most striking examples in proof of this great 
 and most consoling truth. 
 
 The greatest persecutor of St. Stephen was St. 
 Paul the Apostle before his conversion, for, accord- 
 ing to St. Augustine, he threw stones at him by the 
 hands of all those whose clothes he was guarding. 
 What made him from being a persecutor of the 
 Church, become her greatest Apostle and Doctor? 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 199 
 
 do His will perfectly, that He not only grants their 
 prayers, hut even anticipates them. Tauler relates 
 (serin. 1, de Circumcis.) of a pions virgin, whose 
 spiritual director he was, that many people would 
 come and recommend their affairs to her prayers. 
 She always promised to pray for them, but would 
 often forget to do so. Nevertheless, the wishes of 
 those who had recommended themselves to her 
 prayers would be fulfilled. Now, these persons 
 would come and thank her, feeling persuaded that 
 through her prayers God had helped them. She 
 would blush and confess that although she had in- 
 tended to pray for them, she had forgotten to do so. 
 Wishing to know the reason why our Lord blessed 
 all those who recommended themselves to her 
 prayers, she said to Him: " Why, 0- Lord, dost 
 Thou bless all those who recommend themselves to 
 my prayers, notwithstanding my forgetfulness to 
 recommend them?" Our Lord answered her, " My 
 daughter, from that very day on which you gave up 
 your will, in order always to do Mine, I gave up 
 Mine to do yours, wherefore I even comply with the 
 pious intentions which you forget to carry out." 
 Thus it is true what the Lord has promised by 
 \ the Prophet Isaias, (chap. lxv. 24.) " And it shall 
 ie to pass that before they call I will hear." 
 Would to God that all men could understand what 
 has just been said, and practise it most faithfully. 
 H<>\\ happy would they make themselves and 
 
200 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 others. Let us often say the following prayer of 
 the Church, or one similar to it : " Almighty, eter- 
 nal God, give us an increase of Faith, Hope and 
 Charity, and in order that we may deserve to obtain 
 what Thou promisest, make us love what Thou com- 
 mandest" 
 
 VII. — Our Prayer must be Confident. 
 
 According to the Apostle St. James, one of the 
 principal defects of prayer is a want of faith or a 
 want of confidence in God that He will hear our 
 prayer. " Let him who wavereth, that is he who has 
 no confidence in the Lord, not think that when he 
 prays he will receive anything of Him/' says the 
 Apostle. "A diffident prayer," says St. Bernard, 
 " cannot enter into heaven, because immoderate 
 fear restrains the soul so much, that when it prays 
 it not only has no courage to raise itself to heaven,, 
 but it dares not even so much as stir. Now it hopes 
 to be heard, then it doubts, saying to itself: U I 
 shall obtain what I ask ; no, I shall not. God will 
 grant what I pray for ; no, He will not do so, or He 
 will do so when too late. He will give it sparingly. 
 I deserve to be heard ; no, I do not deserve it. I 
 am worthy of it ; no, I am unworthy of it. God is 
 merciful and liberal, but He is a just God. His 
 mercy is great, but my sins are too numerous and 
 too great to be heard." Hence, it happens that in 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 201 
 
 this fluctuation of thoughts and doubts, he at one 
 time prays to God with patience, then complains 
 of and murmurs against Him with impatience ; 
 again, he is resolved to wait until God is pleased to 
 hear him ; at another time he loses courage and 
 feels angry, because he is not heard at once. 
 Hence, he is, as St. James says, " like the waves of 
 the sea, which are moved and carried about by the 
 wind/'' giving himself up to these thoughts and 
 doubts without making any serious effort to combat 
 them ; especially so when he meets with any trou- 
 ble, adversity, cross or the like. Thus Moses began 
 to doubt, on account of the unworthiness of the re- 
 bellious Jews, saying, " Hear ye rebellious and in- 
 credulous, can we bring you forth water out of this 
 rock." (Numbers xx. 10.) In punishment for his 
 want of confidence, he had to die in the desert. 
 And the Lord said to Moses: "Because you have 
 not believed Me, you shall not bring this people 
 into the land which I will give them." St. Peter 
 also, when walking upon the water at the com- 
 mand of Jesus, and perceiving the great wind, com- 
 menced to doubt and lose confidence in His word. 
 Our Lord reproached him for it, saying : "0 thou 
 Of little faith, why didst thou doubt ?" (Matt. xiv. 
 31.) Hence, if we wish to be heard in prayer, we 
 must, as the Apostle says, "pray with faith." 
 Bat this faith to be good must have three qualities. 
 First, it most be right faith in its true meaning,, 
 18 
 
202 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 free from hesitation or doubt, as otherwise it would 
 be infidelity or heresy ; secondly, it includes confi- 
 dence, or certain, firm hope, free from diffidence or 
 despair ; and thirdly, it comprises a firm conviction 
 of obtaining what we ask, excluding all wavering, 
 or the fear and belief of not obtaining what we ask. 
 First. The Apostle St. James requires, for prayer, 
 right faith in its true bearing, not only in general, 
 that is to say, faith in God's omnipotence, provi- 
 dence, munificence, veracity, paternal care and love 
 for us all ; that as God, He is able, and as Father, 
 inclined to do good to us, His children ; but also in 
 particular, that is, that He will give us what we ask, 
 provided it be not detrimental to us. This is the 
 very promise of Him Who is Truth itself, and can 
 neither deceive nor be deceived: " And all things 
 whatsoever you shall ask in prayer believing you 
 shall receive." (Math. xxi. 22, Mark xi. 23, and 
 elsewhere.) We believe with a divine faith that 
 God is faithful to His promises, giving us what we 
 ask of Him in prayer, and as it is impossible for 
 God to deny Himself, so in like manner is it impos- 
 sible for Him to break His promises. This faith 
 our Lord often required of those who asked of Him 
 their health or the like. To the blind, for instance, 
 He said : " Do you believe that I can do this unto 
 you?" And when they said: " Yea, Lord," He 
 said to them : i( According to your faith, be it done 
 unto you : And their eyes were opened." (Math, 
 xxviii. 29.) 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 203 
 
 Secondly. This faith produces hope and confidence, 
 on which account St. Paul calls it "the substance 
 of things to be hoped for," (Heb. xi. 1), because 
 faith, in the omnipotence and veracity of God, is 
 the strongest foundation and ground-pillar of hope, 
 and of all things to be hoped for. For this reason, 
 St. Augustine says : "If this faith is gone, prayer 
 is gone with it." (Serin. 36, de verbo Dom.) It 
 is for this very reason that the Apostle said, when 
 exhorting to prayer : "Whosoever shall call upon 
 the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. x. 
 13), thus giving us to understand that prayer 
 necessarily supposes, not only true faith, but also 
 hope, by a natural consequence, because hope is the 
 nurse of prayer. As a river will cease to flow if 
 its source be dried up, so, in like manner there can 
 be no longer any prayer, if its source, that is, hope 
 and confidence have fled. This confidence was 
 likewise demanded by Jesus Christ, when He said to 
 the man sick of the palsy : " Be of good heart, son, 
 thy sins are forgiven thee." (Math. ix. 2.) And 
 again to the woman : " Be of good heart, daughter, 
 thy faith hath made thee whole," (ver. xxii.), from 
 which it is evident that Jesus Christ requires not 
 only faith, but confidence, proceeding from faith. 
 Hence, St. Thomas Aquinas says : " Prayer derives 
 its efficacy of meriting from charity, but its efficacy 
 of obtaining (impetrating) from faith and confi- 
 dence," (2, 2, 9, 83, Art. 15 ad 3), as the Apostle 
 St. James said. 
 
204 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 Thirdly. As faith produces hope and confidence, 
 so in like manner do these produce a certain per- 
 suasion in the mind, that God will grant what we 
 ask of Him. Now, the greater the hope and the 
 confidence of the heart, the stronger will be this 
 persuasion in the understanding to obtain the grant 
 of our prayer. 
 
 This three-fold faith makes prayer efficacious. It 
 is, indeed, a great gift of the Lord to a soul, and 
 almost a certain sign that He will hear its prayer, 
 even though a miracle should be necessary to that 
 effect. This is that wonder-working faith, that is, 
 faith joined to a firm confidence in God's aid for the 
 working of the miracle. This confidence is pro- 
 duced by an interior impulse of the grace of God, 
 Who animates the Thaumaturgus (the performer of 
 the miracle), promising him, as it were, His assist- 
 ance for the miracle which he intends to work. Of 
 this confidence Jesus Christ says : " Amen I say to 
 you, if you shall have faith and stagger not, not 
 only this of the fig-tree shall you do, but also if 
 you shall say to this mountain, take up and cast 
 thyself into the sea, it shall be done." " And all 
 things whatsoever you shall shall ask in prayer, be- 
 lieving, you shall receive." (Math. xxi. 21-22.) 
 
 Now, in order to conceive great confidence, to in- 
 crease it, and to become strengthened and confirmed 
 in it, we must consider what God is in relation to 
 us, and what we are in relation to Him. 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 205 
 
 First. What is God in relation to us? No one 
 could tell this better than Jesus Christ, His well- 
 beloved Son. " No one," said He, " knoweth 
 wlio the Father is but the Son." (Luke x. 22.) 
 Now, He has told us in distinct language, that 
 " God is our Father." "Thus, therefore, shall 
 you pray : ' Our Father Who art in heaven.' " 
 (Matt. vi. 9.) "God is our Father," says Jesus 
 Christ. But what kind of a Father is He ? He is 
 a Father Whose liberality surpasses all human 
 understanding. What are we to consider in a 
 father ? It is the degree of fondness with which he 
 communicates himself and all his goods., as far as 
 possible, to his children. The greater this fond- 
 ness is the greater will be his liberality. Now, 
 God being our Father, there is in Him as such, un- 
 bounded fondness of communicating Himself. This 
 infinite desire of communicating Himself is essen- 
 tial to God's nature, for God is infinite love ; love, 
 however, culminates in the reproduction of itself, 
 that is, in generating its own image. Hence faith 
 teaches us that God is Father, and as such, eter- 
 nally generates another Himself (Self), Who is 
 His Son, His most perfect Image ; He, together 
 with His Son, eternally generates a third Himself 
 (Self), proceeding from both, Who is their recipro- 
 cal love — the Holy Ghost ; so that the one and the 
 same Divine Essence is quite the same in each of 
 the three Divine Persons. But, as there can be no 
 18* 
 
206 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 multiplication of the infinite simple Divine Es- 
 sence, the infinite love which God has to Himself 
 prompted Him to turn to what is not Himself, that 
 is to say, to the creation of things, which are by 
 Him, in Him, through Him, and yet are not Him- 
 self, that He might lavish upon them His perfec- 
 tions to a certain degree, but more especially so 
 upon rational creatures, Angels and men, without 
 ever diminishing Himself in the least, no matter 
 how much He bestows upon them, and making 
 them, at the same time, partake of His plenitude. 
 As the sun, by sending forth its rays, exercises its 
 influence over all nature, thus illuminating, warm- 
 ing and vivifying it, so God, in like manner, by 
 sending forth the rays of His goodness upon all 
 creatures, especially upon Angels and men, commu- 
 nicates Himself to them, illumining them by the 
 light of His wisdom, that He may thereby inflame 
 them with love of Himself, and vivify them by His 
 grace and glory, and that they, too, in their turn, 
 may impart it to others. 
 
 St. Dionysius says of Divine love : " That it is a 
 power moving and drawing upwards to God, Who 
 alone is good and perfect by Himself.' ' We have 
 evident proofs and effects of this love, beneficence 
 and communion in the Incarnation of the Divine 
 Word, for the purpose of teaching and saving man- 
 kind, in His Preaching, His Miracles, His Passion, 
 His Death ; in the sending of the Holy Ghost ; in 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 207 
 
 the Holy Sacraments, especially that of the Holy 
 Eucharist, in which He may he said to have ex- 
 hausted His Omnipotence, His Wisdom and His 
 Love for man, as well as in His most wonderful 
 care for His Church in general, and for each faith- 
 ful soul in particular. 
 
 Again, in the justification and sanctification of 
 every one, God not only communicates Himself to 
 the soul hy grace and charity, and other virtues, 
 hut also hy Himself, giving, in reality, the Holy 
 Ghost, and along with Him the other Divine Per- 
 sons, according to St. Paul, writing to the Komans 
 (v. 50) : " The charity of God is poured forth in 
 our hearts hy the Holy Ghost, Who is given to us ; ,} 
 and, "If any one love Me, he will keep My word, 
 and My Father will love him, and We will come to 
 him and will make Our abode with him." (John 
 xiv. 23.) By thus communicating Himself, He 
 raises the just man to Himself, transforming him 
 into Himself, thus making him, as it were, divine, 
 especially him who gives himself up to Him wholly 
 and entirely, and without reserve. Divine love en- 
 raptures the loving soul, raising it above itself in 
 order to transmute it into the beloved, and to unite 
 it to Him most intimately ; to make it become one 
 with Him, so that being, as it were, embodied in 
 Him, it may live, feel and rejoice solely in Him 
 alone. Thus the soul that truly loves God becomes 
 entirely destitute of itself, passing over into God 
 
208 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 and dissolving, so to speak, into Him. It thinks, 
 understands, feels only for God, desiring, seeking 
 and rejoicing in His goods alone. He who thus 
 adheres to God becomes but one spirit with Him, 
 divesting himself entirely of self and putting on 
 God, as if there were a transformation into the 
 Divine Nature. Hence all his thoughts and affec- 
 tions are in God, he being of those for whom Christ 
 asked when He prayed : " Holy Father, keep them 
 in Thy name whom Thou hast given Me, that they 
 may be one as We also are One" (John xvii. 11) ; 
 and (vers. 21), "That, they all may be one, as 
 Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee, that they also 
 may be one in Us." It must be observed that this 
 communication and overflow of God's beneficence is 
 prodigious and most wonderful, for five reasons : 
 
 First. On account of the greatness and majesty 
 of the Lover and Giver ; for what can be greater 
 or more sublime than God ? 
 
 Secondly. On account of the condition of those 
 to whom He communicates Himself with all His 
 goods ; considered in their nature, they are men, 
 the lowest of rational beings ; considered in the 
 quality of their soul, they are proud, ungrateful, 
 carnal sinners, incapable of doing any good, and 
 prone to every evil ; considered in the quality of 
 their body, they are but mortal, corrupt, vile and 
 disgusting creatures, destined to be soon the food of 
 worms. Thus did the Psalmist exclaim with truth : 
 
£*LiFOftKV£, 
 
 QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 209 
 
 •• What is man that Thou art mindful of him, or 
 the son of man, that Thou visitest him." (Ps. 
 nii. 5.) 
 
 Thirdly. On account of the manifold and pro- 
 digious goods which He partly confers on them and 
 partly offers them. These are a rational soul, cre- 
 ated according to His own image and likeness, His 
 grace, the promise of glory, the protection of His 
 Angels, the whole visible world, and finally, His 
 •own well-beloved Son. " For God so loved the 
 world as to give His only begotten Son ; that who- 
 soever believeth in Him may not perish, but may 
 have life everlasting." (John iii. 16). 
 
 Fourthly. On account of the end for which He 
 ■confers benefits ; namely, for the happiness of man, 
 not for His own happiness ; for God does not expect 
 to receive any gain or advantage from man. 
 
 Fifthly. On account of the manner in which He 
 •communicates and bestows Himself, which is also 
 manifold. 
 
 First. Because it is peculiar to the divine benig- 
 nity to lower itself to what is vile and despicable, 
 to heal what is ailing, to seek what is rejected, to 
 exalt what is humble, and to pour out His riches 
 and His assistance where they are most needed. 
 
 Secondly. This feature of the divine benignity 
 and care shines forth most strikingly and touch- 
 in the example of our first parents. When 
 you hear them sharply reproved for having violated 
 
210 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 the command of God ; when you hear their con- 
 demnation pronounced in this awful sentence : 
 " Cursed is the earth in thy work : with labor and 
 toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life : 
 thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee ; and 
 thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth ;" (Gen. iii. 
 17-18) when you see them driven out of Paradise ; 
 when you read that, to extinguish all hope of re- 
 turn, a fiery cherub was placed at the entrance, 
 "brandishing a flaming sword, turning every 
 wav ;" (Gen. iii. 23, 24), when you know that to 
 avenge the injury done Him, God consigned to 
 them every affliction of mind and body ; when you 
 see and know all this, would you not be led to pro- 
 nounce that man irrevocably lost? That he was 
 not only deprived of all assistance from God, but 
 also abandoned to every species of misery ? But 
 although the storm of divine wrath burst over his 
 guilty head, yet the love and benignity of God shot 
 a gleam of consolation across the darkness which 
 enveloped him. The sacred Scriptures inform us 
 that " the Lord God made, for Adam and his wife, 
 garments of skins and clothed them," (Gen. iii. 21), 
 a most convincing proof that God, even when He 
 seems to be angry, does not cease to pour out the 
 inexhaustible treasures of His mercy. 
 
 Secondly. Because He often communicates Him- 
 self before He is asked, as He does in all the so- 
 called preventing graces, by which He moves the 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 211 
 
 soul to pray for subsequent ones ; for no one will 
 pray to God in that manner in which he ought, says 
 St. Augustine, unless he be incited to it by the 
 grace of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Thirdly. Even when the " Lord touches" (Job 
 xix. 21), it is not with hostile purpose, but to heal 
 by striking. If He chastises the sinner, it is to re- 
 claim him by salutary severity, and rescue him 
 from everlasting perdition by the infliction of 
 present punishment. " He visits our iniquities 
 with a rod, and our sins with stripes, but His mercy 
 He taketh not away from us." (Ps. lxxxviii. 34.) 
 " He woundeth and cureth : He striketh and His 
 hand shall heal." (Job v. 18). 
 
 Fourthly. If asked, He gives more than is asked 
 of Him. The good thief on the cross asked of 
 Jesus Christ, no more than to be mindful of him in 
 His kingdom, (Luke xxiii. 42,) but Jesus Christ 
 gave him far more, saying to him : "Amen I say to 
 thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise ;" 
 "for grace," says St. Ambrose, "is always more 
 abundant than prayer." King Ezechias prayed to 
 God to restore his health, which the Lord was 
 pleased to grant, and even much more, adding fif- 
 teen years to his life, and granting him a miracu- 
 lous victory over the Assyrians. (Isai. xxxviii.) 
 Solomon asks wisdom of the Lord, Who gave it 
 him, besides immense wealth and riches. (Ill 
 King! iii.) Daniel prayed to God for the deliver- 
 
212 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 ance of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity,, 
 and the Lord revealed to him the time of the 
 coming of the Messiah, Who was to deliver the 
 whole world from the captivity of the devil. (Dan. 
 ix. 24). David prayed for a son, and God prom- 
 ised him that the Messiah would descend from him. 
 (II Kings vii. 12). 
 
 Fifthly. Because He often lavishes His gifts on 
 those whom He foresees will be ungrateful ; nay, even 
 upon the impious, upon infidels, heretics, atheists, 
 blasphemers and reprobates, according to what our 
 Lord says in the Gospel : " Love your enemies ; do 
 good to them that hate you, etc., that you be the 
 children of your Father, Who is in heaven, Who 
 maketh the sun to rise upon the good and the bad, 
 and raineth upon the just and the unjust." (Matt, 
 v. 4, 5.) Who will dare deny, after these considera- 
 tions, that God is, for us, the best, the kindest and 
 most liberal of Fathers ? Jesus Christ knew this 
 but too well, and knowing, at the same time, that 
 every one has most confidence in his own father, 
 and that His heavenly Father wished us to have 
 the greatest confidence in Him, especially when we 
 pray, He wanted to call our attention to His rela- 
 tionship with us, to His infinite love, fondness and 
 promptness of communicating Himself and all His 
 gifts to us by saying : " Amen, amen, I say to you, 
 if you ask the Father anything in My name, He 
 will give it you." (John xvi. 23.) It is some- 
 
QUALITIES OF TRAYER. 213 
 
 thing quite remarkable, that our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 when exhorting us to pray, would never use the 
 expressions : " If you ask your Creator, your God, 
 your Lord," and the like, but He always says : "If 
 you ask the Father anything." God exhorts all 
 men, by the wise man, "to be mindful of Him in 
 the days of their youth." But in doing this, He 
 does not use the expression "Father," but "Cre- 
 ator." "Remember thy Creator," He says, "in 
 the days of thy youth." (Eccles. xii. 1.) If He 
 reproaches His people with ingratitude, or reminds 
 them of His benefits, He makes use of the title of 
 " Redeemer" or " Saviour." " I am the Lord thy 
 God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour, I have 
 given Egypt for thy atonement, Ethiopia and Saba 
 for thee." (Isai. xliii. 3.) Whenever He gave 
 commands to His people, He would say : " Thus 
 saitli the Lord," or, " the mouth of the Lord hath 
 spoken it ;" if threatening with punishments, He 
 would say : "I will visit you, saith the Lord, with 
 war, famine, pestilence, and then you shall know 
 t li.it I am your Lord and God." But whenever He 
 speaks of prayer, and wants to be besought for His 
 graces and gifts, He calls Himself (as I have just 
 said), by the meekest, sweetest and most amiable 
 name of "Father." Thus, therefore, shall you 
 pray: "Our Father Who art in Heaven" (Matt. 
 
 and again, "thou, when thou shalt enter 
 into thy chamber, and haying shut the door, pray 
 
 19 
 
214 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 to thy 'Father' in secret, and thy 'Father,' Who 
 seeth in secret, will repay thee." (Matt. vi. 6.) 
 At another time: " Amen, amen, I say to you, if 
 you ask the Father anything in My name, He will 
 give it you." (John xvi. 23 ; xv. 16 ; xiv. 13, 14.) 
 And again: "If you, then, being evil, know how 
 to give good gifts to your children, how much more 
 will your Father, Who is in heaven, give good 
 things to them that ask them." (Matt. vii. 11.) 
 Behold, then, whenever our Lord Jesus Christ 
 speaks of prayer, He intimates to us, on the part of 
 His heavenly Father, that He wishes us to call 
 Him, not by the title of "Almighty," or "Crea- 
 tor," or "Saviour," but by that of "Father." 
 Why is this ? First, because this name is, above 
 all others, the most pleasing one we can give Him, 
 and by calling Him " Father," we confer more 
 honor upon Him than by any other appellation. 
 According to St. Cyril, " it is something far greater 
 in God to be Father than to be Lord, because, as 
 Father, He generates His Son, Who is His consub- 
 stantial equal ; but as Lord He made creatures, 
 which are infinitely less than His Son." (Lib. I., 
 Thesauri c. 6.) Secondly and principally, He wishes 
 us to call Him by the name of Father, in order that 
 we might have in Him, as our Father, the most 
 perfect confidence in its widest acceptation. "Oh, 
 the great dignity of a praying man, to have God for 
 Father," exclaims St. Cajetan ; "for you will not 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 215 
 
 approach Him with your petition as a servant ap- 
 proaches his master, or a subject his prince, or a 
 criminal his judge ; no, you come to Him, like a 
 child to his father, with love, and a firm confidence 
 that nothing will be refused to you." 
 
 The Apostle, writing to the Romans, says : " You 
 have not received the spirit of bondage again in 
 fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of 
 sons, whereby we cry : Abba (Father)" (Rom. viii. 
 15), just like little children stretching forth their 
 hands after their father, and crying: " Father" — 
 an expression of the most tender love and affection, 
 and of the most unbounded confidence. Certainly 
 it would be the height of folly not to have confi- 
 dence in one's own father. Were you to ask a favor 
 of the President of the United States, and should 
 he leave the grant of it to your father, would you 
 hesitate for a moment to believe that your request 
 would be complied with ? Could the President give 
 you a more favorable answer than by saying : "Go 
 to your father, I will ratify his decision?" Oh, 
 how kind is our Lord ! As often as we pray for 
 something, He points out to us His and our hea- 
 venly Father, Who is kindness, mercy, charity, 
 liberality aud love itself. It is to Him that we are 
 to address our petition, saying: " Abba : Father." 
 This word alone will touch His heart, in which love 
 and mercy have taken up their abode. Absalom 
 was a degenerated son, rebelling against David, his 
 
216 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 own father, and yet, how many and bitter were the 
 tears which David shed when he heard of the death 
 of his son. u The king, therefore, being much 
 moved, went up to the high chamber over the gate, 
 and wept ; and as he went, he spoke in this man- 
 ner : c My son Absalom, Absalom ; my son, who 
 would grant "me that I might die for thee. Absa- 
 lom, my son ; my son, Absalom.' " (II Kings xviii. 
 33.) But, holy king, over whom dost thou weep ? 
 Is it not over a rebellious son who intended to de- 
 throne thee, to become king in thy stead ? Now, 
 has not his death been the means of thy deliver- 
 ance ? Shouldst thou not rather rejoice ? St. Greg- 
 ory, answering for him, says : " You cannot fathom 
 the feelings of a father's heart. Absalom, it is 
 true, was an impious son ; but he was my son, 
 whose death I deeply lament, and over which I am 
 inconsolable." 
 
 The prodigal son also knew, but too well, how 
 guilty he was in the sight of his father : yet, re- 
 membering the affectionate love of his father's 
 heart, he felt quite consoled and full of confidence, 
 and said to himself: " I will arise and will go to 
 my father, and say to him : Father, I have sinned 
 against heaven and before thee." (Luke xv. 18.) 
 "How do you dare," asks St. Peter Chrysologus, 
 " to go and see your father,, against whom you have 
 so much offended ? What hope can you have to be 
 received again?" And he answers: u He is my 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 217 
 
 father. I have not behaved, it is true, like a good 
 son, yet, for all that, my father's heart and love for 
 me have not died away. His heart will speak for 
 me far more powerfully than could my words. No 
 sooner shall I have called him by the name of 
 father than his heart will feel moved to the quick ; 
 I will go to him without fear." This being true, 
 with how great a confidence ought we not, then, to 
 pray to our heavenly Father, of Whom, Tertullian 
 says, " that no one can ever equal Him in kindness, 
 in amiability and liberality." He says of Himself y 
 by the prophet Isaias : " Can a woman forget her 
 infant so as not to have pity on the son of her 
 womb ? And if she should forget, yet will I not 
 forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee in my 
 hands." (Ch. xlix. 15, 16.) Jesus Christ assures 
 us of the same, when He says : " And I say not to 
 you, that I will ask the Father for you ; for the 
 Father Himself loveth you." (John xvi. 26, 27.) 
 
 . let us suppose that we were all children of 
 one father ; that that father was in heaven, and 
 that God would reveal to us that He would give 
 him power to grant us anything we should ask — 
 oli ! with how great a confidence would we not pray 
 to our father. Which of us, for a moment, would 
 doubt that his prayers would be heard? No ; every 
 
 would say : " My father loves me too much to 
 refuse my prayer ; I shall obtain whatever I ask of 
 him.' 1 Yet, it will always be true that the love of 
 19* 
 
218 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 our natural father, were it even to equal that of the 
 Blessed Virgin Mary, would always be limited to a 
 certain degree, because he is a creature. Now, if, 
 nevertheless, our confidence would be exceedingly 
 great in our natural father, how much greater 
 ought it not to be in our heavenly Father, Whose 
 power, goodness, liberality and love for us are in-» 
 finite ? Were you, then, not to pray with as much, 
 nay, with far more confidence to your heavenly 
 Father, you would certainly do Him a great injus- 
 tice, believing Him, as it were, to be less powerful, 
 less good, less liberal, and less affectionate towards 
 you than your earthly father. Far be it from you 
 ever to make yourself guilty of this great blas- 
 phemy. 
 
 If the relation which Grod bears to us must neces- 
 sarily inspire us with the greatest possible confi- 
 dence, the relation we bear to Him is not less calcu- 
 lated to do so, for, if He be our Father, then we are 
 his children, and the laws of all nations, in accord- 
 ance with those of nature, grant to children a holy 
 right to, and claim upon, their father's goods, espe- 
 cially so if they were given to him to transmit them 
 to his children. The following parable will illus- 
 trate this right of children : A poor man, by the 
 name of Peter, came one day to his friend Paul, 
 and exposed to him his great wants and troubles : 
 " Dear friend," said he, " do you not know any one 
 who could help me?" " Yes, I do," replied Paul. 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 219 
 
 " Go to Mr. N .... he will help you." "lam 
 afraid," said Peter, "to go to him on account of 
 his elevated position." " You need not be afraid," 
 said Paul, "because this gentleman is goodness, 
 liberality and charity itself; he receives and listens 
 to every one with the greatest affability. He even 
 published a circular, some time ago, in which he 
 styled himself ' the father of the poor,' inviting 
 them all to come and make him acquainted with 
 their wants ; he never feels happier than when with 
 the poor, to relieve them. He is exceedingly rich, 
 so much so that I think he could provide for all the 
 poor in the world. He had a most amiable and 
 darling son, to whom he made over all his posses- 
 sions ; but his son died a short time ago. In his 
 will, he instituted the poor, without any exception, 
 as heirs to all his goods, leaving his father execu- 
 tor of his will. Hence it is that this gentleman, 
 besides his natural affection for the poor, feels him- 
 self bound in conscience to give them whatsoever 
 they need. There is no reason, then, why you 
 should fear to go and call on him, for you will cer- 
 tainly receive what you want." Peter, hearing 
 this, went (juitc confidently to this gentleman, and 
 received whatever he needed. In this parable the 
 poor man represents ourselves, and the rich lord 
 thereof is (iod. He has published a circular re- 
 corded in Holy Scripture ; it is as follows : " Every 
 one that afiketh. receiveth" (Luke xiii. 10); and, 
 
220 ON THK CONDITIONS AND 
 
 " all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, 
 believing, you shall receive." (Matt. xxi. 22.) 
 He also gave up everything to His Son Jesus : "All 
 things are delivered up to Me by My Father." 
 (Matt. xi. 27.) But His Son Jesus died, having 
 made us heirs to all His merits and riches of divine 
 grace and gifts, and His Father considers us as His 
 dear children, who, in justice, claim the merits and 
 graces of His Son. Our Lord Jesus Christ called 
 our attention to this right of ours when He said : 
 " If you ask the Father anything in My name He 
 will give it to you." (John xvi. 23.) You must 
 represent to your heavenly Father, He means to 
 say, that He is your Father, and that you are His 
 children, and have as such, according to all divine 
 and human laws, an indisputable claim upon His 
 goods. Your claim is also the greater as I, His 
 Son, became man, suffered so much, and died so 
 cruel and ignominious a death, for no other pur- 
 pose than this : to merit for you all goods and all 
 treasures of the Divine power, goodness and mercy. 
 Not on account of your own merits and works are 
 you to claim everything from Him, but for the sake 
 of My merits, My virtues, My life, My sufferings, 
 My death, My dignity, and the authority which I 
 enjoy with Him, you must ask His graces. Rep- 
 resent this to Him and say: "Father, shouldst 
 Thou not hear our prayers, certainly Thou wouldst 
 give us reason to think that Thou dost not love Thy 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 
 
 99 
 
 Son, Who said : ' Whatsoever you shall ask the Fa- 
 ther in My name, He will give it to you.' Shouldst 
 Thou not do this, Thou wouldst give Him the lie, 
 and make us believe, as it were, that His merits 
 were not great enough to obtain everything for us; 
 would this not be very injurious to His honor? 
 Again, shouldst Thou not hear us, Thy justice will 
 be accused for not giving us what Thy Son gained 
 for us during thirty-three years of hard labor and 
 sufferings. Alas, our Father, shall ever such accu- 
 sations be brought against Thee ? No ; Thou wilt 
 give a thousand times more to Thy children than 
 they ask rather than give the least cause to think 
 unbecomingly of Thy power, goodness, liberality 
 and love for Thy well-beloved Son." 
 
 A Sister of Charity, in the time of the war, went 
 to an officer of the United States army to obtain 
 a pass to go South, saying: "Please give me a 
 pass, for the love of God." "I have no love for 
 God," replied the officer. " Give me one for the 
 love of your wife," she asked again. " I have no 
 love for my wife," answered the officer. " Give me 
 one, then, for the love of your children," continued 
 the good Sister. u I have no love for my children," 
 was his reply. " Give me one for the love of your 
 best friend." "I have no such friend," said the 
 officer. "Well," said the Sister, "is there noth- 
 ing in the world that is dear to you and which you 
 love much? Please reflect a while." "0 yes," 
 
222 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 said the officer, after a moment's reflection ; " I 
 have a dear little child that I love most tenderly." 
 "Well, please then," said the Sister, " give me a 
 pass for the love of this dear little child." At 
 these words, the heart of the officer was touched, 
 and he gave her a pass. Truly, should God have 
 no more love for His beloved Son than this officer 
 had for his little child, He would feel obliged to 
 hear our prayer, addressed to Him in His Son's 
 name, so as not to appear less good than man. 
 Alas ! my God and Father, for having compared 
 Thy love for Thy Son to that of a father for his 
 child — Thy love being infinite like Thyself — what 
 favor and grace, then, couldst Thou refuse if asked 
 in the name of Thy beloved Son ? Thou didst hear 
 the prayers of the Jews when they asked Thee any- 
 thing in the name of Thy servants Abraham, Isaac 
 and Jacob, and shall it be said that Thou wilt not 
 hear a Christian if he asks anything of Thee in the 
 name and for the sake of the merits of Thy beloved 
 Son ? True it is, and true it always will be, what 
 St. John Chrysostom has said of the name of Thy 
 Son : "So powerful, so efficacious, and of so great 
 an authority is it with the Father, that, for the 
 sake of His name alone, He grants the most won- 
 derful things." Oh, great St. John Chrysostom ! 
 wonderful is your praise of the power of the name 
 of Jesus. But were you to unite to all the Angels 
 and Saints of heaven in describing its power, you 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 223 
 
 could not say anything more wonderful in favor of 
 it than what Jesus Christ has said of it in these 
 few words: " Amen, amen, I say to you, ivhatso- 
 ever you ask the Father in My name, He will give 
 it to you." My Father, He says, grants every- 
 thing, nothing excepted, that is asked in My name, 
 and in order that you may not hesitate in the least, 
 and have no doubt whatever to believe My words, I 
 8 wear to you that it is so : " Amen, amen, I say to 
 you," " which words imply a solemn oath," as St. 
 Augustine remarks. Who shall, then, after such 
 a solemn promise of God, confirmed even by an 
 oath on His part, continue to perform a diffident 
 prayer, still wavering in the least hope of receiving 
 what he asks of God, in the name of Jesus Christ? 
 Who does not see, after all these considerations, 
 that such a wavering, such a hesitation and doubt 
 would imply a great injury to the omnipotence of 
 God, as if not able to give ; to His goodness, as if 
 not willing to give ; to His fidelity in promising, 
 as if not caring 'about, or being bound to keep His 
 promises? Most assuredly His Holiness and Good- 
 ness would forbid Him to make promises to us if 
 |[<- did not intend to fulfil them ; but, as they arc 
 made, our faith in His veracity must forbid us also 
 to doubt them in the least, and we must, conse- 
 quently, confide and hope firmly that He will hear 
 our prayer, saying, with St. Alphonsus : " And for 
 If." says this Saint, "I speak the truth, 1 
 
224 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 never feel greater consolation, nor a greater confi- 
 dence of my salvation, than when I am praying to 
 God and recommending myself to Him. And I 
 think the same happens to all other believers ; for 
 the other signs of salvation are uncertain and un- 
 stable ; but, that God hears the man who prays to 
 Him with confidence, is an infallible truth, just as 
 it is infallible that God cannot fail in His prom- 
 ises." (St. Alphonsus on Confidence in Prayer.) 
 Nay, Jesus Christ, the Eternal Truth, has said, 
 that he who has this faith and confidence in His 
 name shall do even greater things than He Himself 
 did : "Amen, amen, I say to you, he that believeth 
 in Me, the works that I do, he also shall do, and 
 greater than these shall he do." (John xiv. 12.) 
 By what means shall we do these greater things ? 
 By invoking His name and praying for them in 
 this same name, in order that the Father may be 
 glorified in the Son, as He Himself explains it in 
 the same place when He says : " Whatsoever you 
 shall ask the Father in My name, that will I do, 
 that the Father may be glorified in the Son." I 
 leave you, my dear Apostles, He means to say, and 
 return to My Father ; but, in place of my bodily 
 presence, I leave and give to you the invocation of 
 My name, in order that, by this invocation, you 
 may ask and receive these greater things. 
 
 Do not say that it is presumption to believe that 
 God should be bound to hear our prayers. It would, 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 225 
 
 indeed, be presumption to believe that He is bound 
 to hear us on account of our own merits ; but con- 
 sidering the infinite fondness of God in communica- 
 ting Himself with all His gifts to His rational 
 creatures, and the most astonishing proofs of it, as 
 described above ; His relation to us as Father and 
 ours to Him as children ; the infinite merits of 
 Jesus Christ ; His solemn promise, confirmed by 
 His own oath, to give us whatsoever we ask the Fa- 
 ther in His name ; considering all these reasons, we 
 are, certainly, no more presumptuous in thus be- 
 lieving, than a poor man would be in believing and 
 hoping that a rich and honest man would give him 
 an old cast-off garment after promising to do so. 
 A holy presumption it may be called indeed, which 
 unhesitatingly and unshakably trusts in God's good- 
 ness; a presumption most pleasing to God, with 
 which a servant of the Lord converses with His Di- 
 vine Majesty. 
 
 St. Gregory Nazianzen relates of his sister Gor- 
 gonia, that her prayer was once quite presumptuous. 
 Being one day attacked by a severe illness, she went 
 to church and prayed there to God in a threatening 
 manner, protesting that she would not leave His 
 Altar before she should be restored to health. 
 
 Palladius relates of Paul the Hermit, that " one 
 
 day he exorcised a young man who was possessed 
 
 by an evil spirit. But, as the devil cursed all the 
 
 tinK\ saying : " You shall not make me leave this 
 
 20 
 
226 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 young man by whatever means you may adopt," 
 the holy Hermit commenced to pray to God most 
 earnestly : " Why, Lord, dost Thou not com- 
 mand the devil to obey me ? For half a day already 
 have I been praying and trying to cast him out, but 
 all in vain ; but now, be assured, I am resolved 
 neither to eat nor drink anything, but die of hun- 
 ger, rather than to rise without seeing this young 
 man delivered from the evil spirit." And behold, 
 in the same moment, the devil left the young man, 
 howling and crying, without ever returning. 
 
 Surius relates of St. Catherine of Sienna, that, 
 after her mother had suddenly died, without receiv- 
 ing the last Sacraments, she commenced to pray 
 with an unusual fervor and unlimited confidence in 
 God, saying: " Is it thus, Lord, that Thou 
 keepest Thy promise, that none of our family should 
 die an unhappy death ? How couldst Thou permit 
 my mother to die without the last Sacraments? 
 Hear, now, Lord, I will not rise from this place 
 before Thou hast restored my mother alive ;" and 
 behold, her mother arose from the dead, and lived 
 still for several years. If she prayed for anything 
 else, for instance, for the conversion of a sinner, 
 she would say : " My God, I will not let Thee 
 alone until Thou hast granted my petition." 
 
 Most wonderful indeed is what St. Ananias ob- 
 tained by his confident prayer. The king of Baby- 
 lon had commanded the Christians to remove a 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 22*7 
 
 mountain by means of their prayer, in proof of the 
 truth of their faith, as otherwise he would put them 
 to death, or force them to renounce their faith. It 
 was useless to represent to him that it was to tempt 
 God, to ask a miracle of Him without necessity, for 
 the mere purpose of satisfying curiosity. The bar- 
 barous king could not be shaken in his resolve. St. 
 Ananias, Bishop of Alexandria, hearing of the dis- 
 tress of the Christians, went to the king, and con- 
 fiding in the promise of God to hear every prayer, 
 said to him : " In order that you may know, 
 king, that the promises of the God Whom we wor- 
 ship are not false, behold, that big mountain whicli 
 you wish should move from its place, shall not only 
 move, but run even." Then raising his voice, he 
 said : " In the name of that God Who has promised 
 us the obedience of the mountains, I command thee 
 to rise and move towards the city, and do so all at 
 once." No sooner had he spoken these words than 
 he mountain rose, in the presence of the king and 
 people, and moved towards the city as fast as a ves- 
 sel, with a fair wind, on the ocean." (Petr. de 
 nat. in Cat. Sanct. I. 9. c. 19.) It knocked down the 
 trees and the houses, and the king, commencing to 
 fear it might come upon the city, and destroy it 
 altogether, requested the holy Bishop to stop the 
 mountain in its course. The Saint did so, and the 
 mountain again obeyed his voice, staying there up 
 to this day. 
 
228 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 With similar confidence in God, St. John the 
 Almoner used to say : " Should all men of the 
 whole world come to Alexandria to beg alms, I 
 would give every one, for the whole world is not 
 able to diminish or exhaust the treasures of God." 
 Hence God would change brass into silver for him, 
 and give him the hundredfold even in this life, so 
 much so that the more he would spend the more he 
 would receive." (His life by Leontius.) 
 
 Let us learn from this that God cannot refuse a 
 confident prayer. Our hope and confidence are, 
 as it were, the money with which we purchase all 
 His graces, for we have nothing else to offer Him. 
 He Himself values this confidence exceedingly, be- 
 cause He feels Himself extremely honored by it. 
 By it we show that we distrust ourselves ; that we 
 stand in need of Him ; that He is almighty, most 
 merciful and most liberal ; nay, even that He is 
 God, Father, Euler and Provider of ourselves, as 
 well as of all His creatures. Hence His gifts stand 
 in an exact proportion to our hope and confidence 
 in Him. We shall most assuredly receive what 
 we most confidently pray for. Hope and pray for 
 great things, and great things shall be given you. 
 The more room you make for confidence in your 
 soul, the more you enlarge and prepare it for the 
 reception of the gifts of God, according to what 
 holy David says : u Open thy mouth wide and 
 I will fill it." (Ps. lxxx. 11.) Whenever you go 
 
QUALITIES OP PRAYER. 229 
 
 to prayer, reanimate your confidence in the Lord by 
 calling to mind His infinite desire of communi- 
 cating Himself and all His gifts to every one. Ke- 
 member the stupendous effects of this desire in all 
 that God has done through His Son ; do not forget 
 His relation, as Father to you, and yours as a child 
 to Him ; bear in mind His infallible promise to 
 give whatsoever is asked in the name of Jesus 
 Christ ; do not lose sight of the confidence with 
 which the Saints would pray to Him, and obtain 
 most wondrous things. Imagine you hear, as it 
 were, the voice of Jesus Christ whispering into your 
 ear : " Whatsoever you ask, believing, you shall 
 receive ;" or saying, as it did one day to the mother 
 of St. Gregory of Tours, who was weeping bitterly, 
 believing, as she did, that every member of the 
 family would die of the epidemic which had widely 
 spread in the city of Arveon : "Pray," said the 
 voice, "and you shall be delivered." (St. Greg. 
 Touron. apud Luc. in vit. St. Benigni.) She went 
 to the grave of St. Benignus, and obtained there, 
 by her fervent and confident prayer, the grace that 
 none of her family should be attacked by the epi- 
 demic. Yes, pray ; but pray with confidence and 
 you shall be delivered from all the miseries of your 
 soul ; from darkness and blindness of the under- 
 standing ; from weakness and lethargy of the will ; 
 from lukewarmness of the heart ; from coldness to- 
 wards Jesus Christ. You will be delivered from 
 20* 
 
230 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 your feebleness of faith in the sacred mysteries of 
 our holy religion ; from tepidity and indevotion in 
 your prayers and other spiritual exercises ; from 
 attachment to sensual pleasures ; from sins and 
 punishments due to them. Pray with confidence, 
 and confident prayer will deliver you from all these 
 and many other evils of the soul ; nay, it will do 
 more, it will introduce into your soul all graces, 
 gifts and virtues in an eminent degree ; for " Be- 
 hold, the hand of the Lord is not shortened that it 
 cannot save, neither is His ear heavy that it cannot 
 hear" (Isai. lix. 1) ; or, as Jesus Christ says : " I 
 tell you, God is able of these stones to raise up 
 children to Abraham." (Matt. iii. 9.) Can you 
 doubt this truth without being guilty of blas- 
 phemy ? Was He not able, and did He not change 
 the heart of Saul, who was such a bitter enemy of 
 the Catholic Church, into the heart of Paul, the 
 most zealous defender and propagator of the holy 
 faith ? Could He not, and did He not change the 
 sinful heart of the good thief ; of St. Augustine ; 
 of St. Mary of Egypt ; St. Margaret of Cortona, 
 and thousands of infidels, Jews, heretics and sin- 
 ners, into most just and holy hearts, replenishing 
 them with all His gifts and the treasures of His 
 grace ? Will He not, and must He not, do the 
 same for you, especially so, as He made an express 
 promise to give this very grace, when He said : "If 
 you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts 
 

 
 QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 231 
 
 to your children, how much more will your Father 
 from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask 
 Him?" (Luke xi. 13.) " Hitherto you have not 
 asked anything, especially this good Spirit, in My 
 name. Ask and you shall receive, that your joy 
 may he full." (John xvi. 24.) 
 
 VIII. — Our Prayer must be Persevering. 
 
 When Holofernes was besieging the city of Be- 
 thulia, so that none could escape, all, men, women 
 and children, young and old, commenced to pray 
 and to fast, crying to the Lord, with tears in their 
 eyes : c ' Have Thou mercy on us, because Thou art 
 good." (Judith vii. 20.) But the Lord deferring 
 to come to their aid, they began to yield to despair. 
 Ozias, their leader, rising up all in tears, said : 
 " Be of good courage, my brethren, and let us wait 
 for these five days for mercy from the Lord ; but if, 
 after five days be past, there comes no aid, we will 
 do the things which you have spoken," that is, 
 deliver up the city into the hands of the enemy, if, 
 after having prayed for five days more, we have not 
 yet received any aid from the Lord. Now, it came 
 to pass that, when Judith heard of this, she came 
 out and said to them : " What is this word by which 
 Ozias hath consented to give up the city to the Assy- 
 rians, if, within five days, there come no aid to us? 
 
loZ ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 And who are you that tempt the Lord, and you have 
 appointed Him a day, according to your pleasure?" 
 (Judith viii. 10, 11, 13.) Thus Judith reproaches 
 the Jews and their leader for their rashness of hav- 
 ing fixed upon the time within which God was to 
 come to their aid. This is not the way to obtain 
 mercy from God, hut rather to excite His indigna- 
 tion ; "this is not a word that may draw down 
 mercy, hut rather that may stir up wrath and enkin- 
 dle indignation." (Judith viii. 12.) 
 
 Jesus Christ has, it is true, promised to give us 
 everything we ask of Him, hut He has not promised 
 to hear our prayers immediately. The holy Fa- 
 thers assign many reasons for which He often defers 
 the grant of our petitions : 
 
 First. That He may the better try our confi- 
 dence in. Him. 
 
 Secondly. That we may long more ardently for 
 His gifts and hold them in higher esteem . "He de- 
 fers the grant of them," says St. Augustine, " in or- 
 der to increase our desire and appreciation of them." 
 
 Thirdly. " That He may keep us near Him," as 
 St. Francis de Sales says, " and give us occasion to 
 pray with greater fervor and vehemence. He acted 
 thus towards His two disciples at Emmaus, with 
 whom He did not seem willing to stay, before they 
 forced Him, as it were, to do so." 
 
 Fourthly. He delays, because by this contri- 
 vance, He wishes to unite Himself more closely to 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 233 
 
 us. " This continual recourse to God in prayer," 
 says St. Alphonsus, "and this confident expectation 
 of the graces which we wish to obtain from God, 
 oh! what a great spur and chain of love are they 
 not to inflame us and to bind us more closely to 
 God!" We must not, therefore, imitate the Jews 
 by appointing the time within which God is to hear 
 our prayer, as otherwise we would deserve the 
 above reproach of Judith, but let us humble our- 
 selves before the Lord, and pray to Him with tears 
 that according to His ivill, so He would show His 
 mercy to us." (Judith viii. 16, 17.) If we are 
 patient, resigned and determined to persevere in 
 prayer until He is pleased to hear us, we shall not 
 be disappointed in our hope and expectation to re- 
 ceive what we ask of Him. Our Lord Jesus Christ 
 taught us this when He said : " Ask and you shall 
 receive ; seek and you shall find ; knock and it shall 
 be opened to you." (Luke xi. 9.) It might seem 
 that He would have said enough, by simply saying 
 "Ask," and that the words "seek" and "knock" 
 would be superfluous. "But no," says St. Alphon- 
 sus, "by them our Saviour gave us to understand, 
 that we must imitate the poor when they ask alms. 
 If they do not receive the alms they ask they do 
 not, on that account, cease asking ; they return to 
 ask again ; and if the master of the house does not 
 show himself, they commence to knock at the door, 
 until they become so troublesome and importunate 
 
234 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 that he prefers to give them an alms, rather than to 
 suffer their importunity any longer." If we pray, 
 again and again in like manner, and do not give 
 up, God will, at last, open His hands and give us 
 abundantly. " When Thou openest Thy hand they 
 shall all be filled with good." (Ps. ciii. 28). 
 
 If men sometimes give alms to poor beggars, 
 merely for the sake of ridding themselves of their 
 importunity and annoyances, "how much more," 
 says St. Augustine, " will the good God give, Who 
 both commands us, and is angry if we do not ask." 
 Hence St. Jerome, commenting on the parable of 
 the man who would not give his loaves to his 
 friend in the middle of the night, until he became 
 importunate and annoying in his demands, says : 
 "Not only once, but twice, yea, three times must 
 we knock, and we must continue to do so, until the 
 door of God's mercy be opened." Perseverance is a 
 great thing ; if it becomes importunate it will prove 
 a better friend to us than the one mentioned in the 
 parable. 
 
 "Let us humbly wait for the consolations of the 
 Lord our God," (Judith viii. 20), and imitate the 
 perseverance of the servants of God in prayer. 
 Moses was a very great servant of the Lord, Who 
 would not have granted him a complete victory over 
 the Amalekites, had it not been for his perseverance 
 in prayer. " By perseverance in prayer," says St. 
 John Chrysostom (in his sermon on Moses), "he 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 235 
 
 rendered the victory complete." Isaac was very 
 dear to the Lord, and yet, in order to obtain an 
 offspring, he had to pray for twenty years. " Isaac 
 persevered in praying and sighing to the Lord for 
 twenty years," says the same Saint, " and finally 
 he obtained what he asked." (Horn. 94 in Gen.) 
 And how did the Lord treat the woman of Canaan ? 
 " And behold a woman of Canaan, who came out of 
 those coasts, crying out and said to Him : " Have 
 mercy on me, Lord, Thou Son of David ; my 
 daughter is grievously troubled by a devil." (Matt. 
 xv. 22.) And what does our Lord reply ? He does 
 not even as much as look at her, nor does He give 
 her any answer, "Who answered her not a word." 
 Still she continues to pray with great humility : 
 "Lord, help me." But our Lord seems not to hear 
 her, so much so, that even His disciples, being 
 wearied and annoyed with her supplication, "came 
 and besought Him saying : Send her away for she 
 crieth after us." Instead of hearing her, He rejects 
 her like a dog, saying : " It is not good to take the 
 bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs." 
 Who can discover in this conduct of our Lord, any- 
 thing of His usual kindness and condescension, 
 which He would deign to show even to the greatest 
 sinners ? Will He not, by His manner of acting, 
 intimidate or discourage this woman, so as to make 
 her give up all hopes of being heard? But no, 
 Jesus Christ had His own wise designs in thus 
 
236 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 treating her. He knew her and was much pleased 
 with her faith and confidence, which He wanted 
 to make shine forth more brilliantly. "But she 
 said : Yea, Lord, for the whelps also eat of the 
 crumbs that fall from the table of their masters." 
 True, indeed, she wished to say, I am but a poor 
 dog, but, as such, I beg to help me, Lord. And 
 the liberal hand of Jesus opens and gives her 
 what she wants. " Then Jesus answering, said 
 to her : woman, great is thy faith : be it done 
 to thee as thou wilt ; and her daughter was cured 
 from that hour." Had this woman been satis- 
 fied with the first answer of our Lord, her daugh- 
 ter would never have been cured. St. Monica (mo- 
 ther of St. Augustine) was treated in like manner; 
 she had to pray to God for seventeen years before 
 she could obtain of Him the grace of conversion 
 for her son Augustine. Had she become tired with 
 pouring out prayers and shedding tears before the 
 face of the Lord, in all probability the name of 
 Augustine would not now be shining with such great 
 lustre in the calendar of the Saints. For twenty 
 years did St. Philip Neri pray for a high degree of 
 the love of God. After that time this gift was 
 granted him in such a measure as to dislocate his 
 ribs. 
 
 Not only the servants of God, but even Jesus 
 Christ Himself was thus treated by His heavenly 
 Father. Prostrate on His face, He prays to Him, 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 237 
 
 but receives neither relief nor comfort. He prays a 
 second time in a most lamentable voice: " Father, 
 if it be possible, let this chalice pass away from 
 Me" — neither is He heard this time. He prays a 
 third time with greater intensity, and not till then 
 did the Angel come to comfort and strengthen Him. 
 
 Poor miserable creatures, wretched sinners as we 
 are ! What an exalted opinion have we not of our- 
 selves ! The heavenly Father lets His only begot- 
 ten, well-beloved, most innocent and afflicted Son, 
 like a poor beggar, knock three times at His door, 
 before He opens — and we think we have done 
 enough when we have petitioned a few times at the 
 gate of heaven ! We so readily complain of being 
 unmercifully treated by God if He does not come at 
 once to our aid, and despairing, as it were, of being 
 heard, we give up praying altogether. " Truly, 
 this is not the right way to pray," says St. John 
 Chrysostom ; " let us bewail our indolence in pray- 
 ing ; for thirty-eight years had the sick man, spo- 
 ken of in the Gospel, (John chap, iv.), waited to 
 be cured, and yet his desire had not been accom- 
 plished. Nor had it happened thus through his 
 negligence ; yet, for all that, he did not despair ; 
 but if we pray for ten days perhaps, and are not 
 heard, we think it is of no use to pray any lon- 
 ger." (Homil. 35, in Joan.) 
 
 We must then follow the advice of St. Gregory, 
 i he comments on, (Ps, cxxix.), "Let us be 
 21 
 
238 ON THE CONDITIONS AND 
 
 assiduous in prayer., and importunate in asking ; let 
 us beware of growing remiss in it, when it appears 
 the Lord will not hear us ; let us be robbers, as it 
 were, doing violence to heaven. What robbery can 
 be more meritorious, what violence more glorious? 
 Happy violence by which God is not offended, but 
 appeased, by which sin is not multiplied, but di- 
 minished." If we wish, then, to pray aright, we 
 must not only commence to pray but must also con- 
 tinue our prayer, especially if we ask something con- 
 ducive to our own spiritual welfare, or to that of our 
 neighbor. Most of men fail in this point, and this 
 is the reason why their prayer is of such little efficacy. 
 Never allow yourself to become guilty of voluntary 
 despondency. (t Keep firm to the promise of Jesus 
 Christ," says St. John Chrysostom ; " never cease 
 praying until you have received. If you present 
 yourself before the Lord with this firm determina- 
 tion, saying: "I will not leave Thee till Thou 
 hast granted my prayer, you will receive most as- 
 suredly." (Horn. 24, in Mass, c. vii.) Let us say 
 with the Apostle: " Why should I not be able to 
 do what others have done ?" What so many could 
 obtain by their perseverance in prayer, why should 
 we not be able, by our perseverance, to obtain 
 whatsoever we ask ? What a shame will it not be 
 for us to see, on the judgment-day, how the Saints 
 of heaven, by their perseverance in prayer, have 
 become what they are, whilst we, for our want of 
 
QUALITIES OF PRAYER. 239 
 
 perseverance in prayer, shall appear so very unlike 
 unto them ! Most assuredly, Almighty God will 
 manifest His power, goodness and mercy in us, as 
 much as He has done in all the Saints, provided we 
 pray for it with the perseverance of the Saints. 
 
 Co- 
 
 CHAPTE 
 
 HOW TO ACQUIRE THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER. 
 
 "I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon the inhabi- 
 tants of Jerusalejn, the spirit of grace and of prayers." 
 
 [Zacuarias xii. 10. 
 
 AFTER having heard so much of the efficacy 
 and advantages of prayer, you must doubtless 
 be anxious to know how you can acquire that spirit 
 of prayer which the Saints possessed, and which 
 the Lord promised to pour out upon the inhabitants 
 of Jerusalem. I answer, as St. Francis de Sales 
 did when asked what one should do to obtain the 
 love of God: "We must love Him," said he; 
 so in the same way, I say, we must pray in order 
 to learn how to pray. No art, no language, no 
 
240 HOW TO ACQUIRE THE 
 
 trade can be learned without the practice of it ; so 
 prayer, too, must be learned by the frequent exer- 
 cise thereof. It was in this way the Saints obtained 
 the spirit of prayer. St. Teresa was accustomed to 
 offer herself to God fifty times in the day. St. 
 Martha used to pray, kneeling one hundred times 
 in the day and one hundred times in the night. St. 
 Francis Borgias also was accustomed to pray, kneel- 
 ing one hundred times in the day. St. Philip Neri 
 made a kind of rosary of the words which the 
 Church uses in reciting the Divine Office : " O 
 God, come to my aid ; Lord, make haste to help 
 me." He recited this rosary sixty-three times in 
 the day, and enjoined his penitents to do the same. 
 St. Gertrude repeated the third petition of the "Our 
 Father" : " Thy will be done on earth as it is in 
 heaven," three hundred and sixty-five times a day. 
 Blessed Leonard of Port Maurice, recommended 
 himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary two hundred 
 times in the day. We read of St. Francis de Sales, 
 that by means of very frequent ejaculatory prayers, 
 he always kept himself in the presence of God, even 
 amidst his many pressing occupations. Blessed 
 Brother Gerard was often beaten by his foreman 
 who could not endure to see him praying even whilst 
 at work. It is related of St. Elizabeth of Hun- 
 gary, that when she played as a young girl, with 
 other children of her age, and her turn came to sit 
 down and rest, she would profit by these leisure 
 
SPIRIT OF PRAYER. 241 
 
 moments to say a " Hail Mary." Of another 
 Saint, it is related, that for thirty years he said no 
 other prayer than " Lord, have mercy on me!" 
 and at the end of this time the Lord poured out 
 His mercy upon him most abundantly, bestowing 
 on him a high degree of contemplation, and raising 
 him to a state of eminent sanctity. Blessed Leon- 
 ard of Port Maurice used to say, we should not 
 allow a moment to pass without repeating the 
 words: " Have mercy on me! oh Jesus, have 
 mercy on me !" He relates that he knew a man 
 who repeated this prayer: " Jesus, have mercy on 
 me !" three hundred times in a quarter of an hour. 
 We read of the Apostle St. Bartholomew that he 
 used to offer to God two hundred adorations daily. 
 In the Roman Breviary we read of St. Patrick, that 
 when guarding the cattle, he prayed to God a hun- 
 dred times in the day and a hundred times in 
 the night, and when a Bishop, he daily said the 
 psalter, containing one hundred and fifty psalms, 
 and many canticles and hymns, besides two hun- 
 dred other different prayers ; he also made three 
 hundred genuflections every day, in adoration of 
 the Blessed Trinity, and the sign of the cross one 
 hundred times at each canonical hour. Before St. 
 Margaret of Cortona had attained to contempla- 
 tion, her devout exercises consisted simply of Pa- 
 ter Nosters ; but so many were they in number, 
 that they daily exceeded a thousand. She said 
 21* 
 
242 HOW TO ACQUIRE TIIB 
 
 three hundred in honor of the Blessed Trinity ; 
 one hundred in honor of the great Mother of God ; 
 one hundred for each of her kindred most "beloved 
 "by her ; one hundred for her sins ; one hundred for 
 the Franciscan Order ; one hundred for the people 
 of Cortona ; one hundred for those who injured her, 
 and many hundred more for the Sovereign Pontiff, 
 for all ecclesiastical orders, for sinners, heretics, 
 schismatics, Turks, Jews, etc. St. Alphonsus, he- 
 fore going to sleep, would make the following good 
 acts : Ten acts of love ; ten acts of confidence ; ten 
 acts of sorrow ; ten acts of conformity to the will of 
 God ; ten acts of love to Jesus Christ ; ten acts of 
 love to the Blessed Virgin ; ten acts of love to 
 Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament ; ten acts of confi- 
 dence in Jesus Christ ; ten acts of confidence in the 
 Blessed Virgin ; ten acts of resignation to suffer- 
 ing ; ten acts of ahandonment to God ; ten acts of 
 abandonment to Jesus Christ ; ten acts of abandon- 
 ment to Mary, and ten prayers to know and do the 
 will of God. If this Saint made so many good 
 acts previous to going to bed, how many must he 
 not have made in the course of the entire day ? 
 But how is it possible, you will say, for one to pray 
 so much in the course of the day ? St. Alphonsus 
 answers: " Give me a soul that truly loves God, 
 and it will tell you." It is easy for love to think 
 of the Beloved and to converse frequently and 
 familiarly with Him. But I cannot pray, you will 
 
SPIRIT OF PRAYER. 243 
 
 say, as much as the Saints did ; it would be neces- 
 sary for me to be a Saint myself; if I cannot ac- 
 quire the spirit of prayer unless I do as much as 
 they did, I give up all hope of ever obtaining it. 
 Do not be alarmed, but remember that neither did 
 the Saints know all at once how to pray so well and 
 so much ; most of them learned it by slow degrees. 
 The practice of prayer was not familiar to them in 
 the beginning ; but, perseveringly increasing it, 
 they gradually acquired that great facility which 
 raised them to contemplation. As the speaking of 
 a language, the exercise of a trade, or an art, be- 
 come more easy in proportion to the practice of 
 them, so does the practice and exercise of prayer, 
 The following example is a striking illustration of 
 this : Father Pergmayr, S. J., relates in his wri- 
 tings, vol. 3, of Father Didaucs Martinez, S. J., fa- 
 mous for his sanctity, many miracles and thousands 
 of conversions wrought among the heathens in Peru, 
 that this holy man was so constantly united with 
 God that he would spend whole nights in prayer, in 
 the open air, in which God communicated Himself 
 so much to him that this Apostle of the Lord would 
 often be seen raised in the air above the highest 
 trees, surrounded by a heavenly splendor, between 
 two columns of fire. But he was not satisfied with 
 this prayer of the night, and being overburdened 
 with labor during the day, he satisfied his great 
 ardoi for prayer by constant ejaculations, which be- 
 
244 HOW TO ACQUIRE THE 
 
 came so frequent that they exceeded four thousand, 
 sometimes even five thousand a day. He attained 
 to this great union with God by a small beginning. 
 On entering the novitiate, he resolved to raise his 
 heart to God seven times in the day. After awhile 
 he increased this number of ejaculations to one hun- 
 dred, and before the end of his novitiate, to five 
 hundred every day. At last this manner of pray- 
 ing became so familiar to him that his ejaculations 
 were from four to five thousand every day. 
 
 Eest assured that most of the Saints made use of 
 frequent ejaculations of the heart as one of the 
 most efficacious means to acquire the spirit of 
 prayer, though there is no mention made of it in 
 their lives ; and you, too, will be greatly advanced 
 in the spirit of prayer by this means, provided you 
 use it as the Saints did, with increasing fervor and 
 perseverance. But how can I, you will say, count 
 my ejaculations and aspirations of the heart? It 
 is too troublesome ! I answer, if you truly love 
 your soul, you will soon find out a way to count 
 them, just as well as a merchant knows how to 
 count every cent he spends or receives. For this 
 purpose you can make use of beads like those of St. 
 Philip Neri, or you can count your ejaculations by 
 the hours of the day, making a stated number of 
 them during each hour; for until you have acquired 
 the salutary and holy habit of praying everywhere 
 and always, it will be advisable for you to count 
 
SPIRIT OF PRAYER. 245 
 
 your ejaculations, in order to be confident whether 
 you advance or retrograde in prayer. Should you 
 have resolved to say seven times in the day, the 
 "Our Father;" or, " Lord, come to my aid;" or, 
 " Jesus, have mercy on me ;" or, " Lord, Thy holy 
 will be done ;" or, " Lord, do as Thou pleasest with 
 me;" or, " Jesus, make me love Thee more and 
 more ;" or, " Jesus, pour out upon me the spirit of 
 prayer," or some other aspiration with which you 
 may be inspired, you should be careful to make 
 the number of ejaculations you have enjoined on 
 yourself, and when you have acquired a facility in 
 making the proposed number in an hour, increase 
 this number by five, and after having succeeded in 
 regularly making twelve an hour, increase again 
 this number, and so go on until this manner of 
 prayer has become a second nature to you, as it 
 were, and an ind'ispen sable want of your soul. 
 Should you, in the beginning, be unable to make 
 these ejaculatory prayers with the heart only, be 
 careful to make them with the fervor of the will, 
 and by degrees you will, like the Saints, pass 
 from vocal prayer to a better and easier kind 
 of prayer, viz : that of the heart. And in order 
 the sooner to accomplish this, you must imitate a 
 person who wishes to learn a language or music in 
 a short time. Now what does this person do to 
 succeed in his design ? He refrains from everything 
 that does not positively concern him, caring only 
 
246 HOW TO ACQUIRE THE 
 
 for what he so much desires soon to learn and 
 understand ; to this all his thoughts are directed 
 day and night. Now, if you wish to learn in a 
 short time how to pray well, you, too, must let 
 everything alone that is not your business, caring 
 and striving only to learn the science of the Saints. 
 It is certainly not your business to gratify your 
 natural inclinations, desires and passions ; there- 
 fore let them alone. To attach your heart to the 
 enjoyments, comforts and pleasures of this world is 
 surely not your business ; therefore, refrain from 
 them. To wish to be praised, honored and to do 
 your own will in everything, is not your business ; 
 therefore mortify this desire ; otherwise your case 
 will be the same as that of a man who undertakes all 
 sorts of business, and succeeds in none of them per- 
 fectly, because the one is an obstacle to the good suc- 
 cess of the other. To wish to hear, to see and to 
 enjoy everything in this world — to love and esteem 
 all that it loves and esteems, is to put great obstacles 
 in the way of your sanctifi cation and of acquiring 
 that spirit of prayer which the Saints possessed ; 
 you will always have to complain of having but 
 little desire to pray, and of feeling a great reluc- 
 tance to prayer, of performing it with much luke- 
 warmness, with many distractions, of almost de- 
 spairing of any success or progress in it, but no 
 one will be able to afford you any consolation as 
 long as you do not make serious endeavors to 
 
SPIRIT OF PRAYER. 2-±T 
 
 detach your heart from everything in this world. 
 Can you press sweet cider from sour apples, gather 
 grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles ? Such as 
 is the corn put into the mill, such, also, will he the 
 flour. In vain do we expect our heart to con- 
 ceive many holy desires and produce fervent aspi- 
 rations and ejaculatory prayers, if it is continually 
 occupied with vain and frivolous ohjects, wholly 
 unworthy of the heart and soul of a Christian. 
 As a farmer will reap what he has sowed, so will 
 your heart and mind he occupied in the time of 
 prayer with those worldly ohjects for which you 
 cherish any disorderly affection. Your heart will 
 he where your treasure is, says our Lord in the 
 Gospel. The devil, well aware of this truth, in 
 order to prevent you from praying, or from making 
 any essential progress in this most sublime occupa- 
 tion of man, does all in his power to present your 
 " Benjamin " your most beloved object to your 
 mind at the time of prayer. A superintendent of a 
 very important work will always endeavor to pre- 
 vent, as much as possible, all his workmen from 
 talking to others, or from doing anything but what 
 lis them to do. You, too, must forbid your 
 heart and mind to be occupied with what does not 
 concern you, and to apply only to the acquisition of 
 the spirit of prayer. Forbid all your Benjamins to 
 to y«.u in thifl holy exercise. Be determined 
 and inexorable not to permit it, imitating Count 
 
248 HOW TO ACQUIRE THE 
 
 Rougemont, of whom St. Vincent de Paul relates 
 the following: "I knew," he says, "in the Pro- 
 vince of Bresse the Chevalier Rougemont, who 
 was once so famous for his duels, in which he had 
 wounded and killed an almost incredible number. 
 After his conversion to a very edifying life, I had 
 the pleasure of visiting him at his own residence, 
 where he commenced to speak to me about his 
 devout exercises and practices of virtue, and among 
 others, of his complete independence of and detach- 
 ment from creatures. "I feel assured," said he to 
 me, " that if I am perfectly detached from creatures, 
 I will be most perfectly united to my Lord and 
 God ; for this reason I often examine my conscience, 
 asking myself if there is anything to which I feel 
 any attachment, whether to myself, to my relatives, 
 friends or neighbors ; to the riches and comforts of 
 life ; to any passion or disorderly desire whatsoever 
 that might prevent me from being perfectly united 
 to and resting entirely in God alone. I commence 
 to pray to God to enable me to cut down and root 
 out at once whatever I notice to be an obstacle to 
 my perfect union with Him." "I remember," 
 continues the Saint, "a remarkable act of his, which 
 he himself related to me, which shows how earnestly 
 he went to work to gain a complete detachment 
 from everything, and which I can never think of 
 without admiration. As he was riding along on 
 horseback one day, he stopped to reflect and find 
 
SPIRIT OF PRAYER 249 
 
 out whether, after lie had made an oblation of him- 
 self to God, there was still something to which 
 he might have at least some trivial attachment. 
 After having most carefully examined all his oc- 
 cupations, recreations, honors and even the least 
 affections and inclinations of his heart, he noticed 
 his sword, for which he still entertained some affec- 
 tion. Why do you wear this sword? he said to 
 himself. But what evil has it done you? Leave it 
 where it is ! It has rendered you many great ser- 
 vices, and enabled you to save yourself in thou- 
 sands of dangers. Should you again be attacked, 
 without it, surely, you will be lost. But should you 
 again have the occasion of a quarrel, would you 
 have the self-command to keep it where it is, and 
 not offend God again by the abuse of this sword ? 
 My God ! what must I do ? Shall I still love the 
 instrument of my confusion and of so many sins ? 
 Alas ! I see, my heart is yet attached to this sword I 
 So mean I will not be, as to allow myself to be 
 overcome by this miserable instrument ! This 
 said, he alighted from his horse, took a stone and 
 broke his sword into pieces. He acknowledged to 
 me that by this heroic victory over himself he felt 
 lii^ heart completely detached from everything, 
 caring no more for anything in this world and feel- 
 ing most powerfully drawn to love God alone above 
 all things. Behold, gentlemen, said St. Vincent in 
 conclusion, how happy we should be, and what pro- 
 22 
 
250 HOW TO ACQUIRE THE 
 
 gress we should make in virtue if, like this noble- 
 man, we would purify our hearts from all earthly 
 affections. If our hearts were completely detached 
 from all creatures, how soon would our souls be 
 united to God." Your facility in prayer and your 
 attraction for it will increase in proportion to the 
 efforts you make to detach yourself from all earthly 
 things, especially from yourself. All the Saints 
 have experienced and acknowledged this truth. 
 Christoph Gonzalve, S. J., a disciple of blessed 
 Balthazar Alvarez, was asked one day by a com- 
 panion by what means he had obtained the extra- 
 ordinary gift of prayer ; he answered : " This did 
 not cost me very much, I had only to follow the in- 
 spirations of God, to mortify and renounce entirely 
 my desire of vain glory in scientific matters." He 
 commenced his philosophical studies with an unu- 
 sual facility, by which means he gained a great pre- 
 eminence over all his companions. This superiority 
 was a strong lever to ambition and a source of con- 
 stant temptation to him, and in order to escape 
 these dangerous snares securely, he adopted the fol- 
 lowing means without, however, neglecting his 
 studies : to cause his companions to lose the high 
 opinion they had of his superior talents, he would 
 often ask them an explanation of certain points 
 which he really understood better than they did. 
 In controversies, he would give his opinion, but ap- 
 peared to be at a loss how to corroborate it ; when 
 
SPIRIT OF PRAYER. 251 
 
 objections were made he would answer the first, but 
 for the second he would pretend to have no answer ; 
 the consequence was that his professors would give 
 the most difficult and most honorable thesis to 
 others, and to him what was very easy and not pro- 
 curing any honor ; this was what he desired and 
 aimed at. By this artifice of humility, of which 
 his professors as well as his companions were igno- 
 rant, he lost with them all his renown for superi- 
 ority of talents, and he gained a complete victory 
 over self-love and ambition, in recompense for which 
 God bestowed upon him the inestimable gift of 
 sublime contemplation and great familiarity with 
 Him in prayer. Thus it is true what the Lord said 
 by the Prophet Isaias : "If thou turn away thy 
 foot from doing thy own will, . . . thou shalt 
 be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee up 
 above the high places of the earth and will feed 
 thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy Father. For 
 the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (Isaias lviii. 
 13, 14.) Now, this promise of the Lord will come 
 true in your regard also, provided you comply with 
 the conditions, viz : to purify your heart from all 
 attachment to earthly enjoyments, ambitions, and 
 desires, but especially from all attachment to your 
 own will and judgment. "Yes," says St. Francis 
 de Sales, " God is ready to grant you the gift of 
 rae soon as He sees you empty of your own 
 self-will. If you are very humble, He will not fail 
 
252 HOW TO ACQUIRE TUB 
 
 to pour it out upon your soul. God will fill your 
 vessel with His ointments as soon as it is empty of 
 the ointments of this world, that is as soon as every 
 desire of yours for earthly objects has made room 
 for that of serving and loving Him alone." 
 
 The use of frequent and fervent ejaculatory prayers, 
 and the complete detachment of your heart from all 
 creatures are, it is true, most powerful means to ac- 
 quire the spirit of prayer, but in order more quickly 
 to obtain this inexpressible gift, we must frequently 
 beg it of God ; for this grace of prayer is, according 
 to St. Francis de Sales, no water of this earth, but 
 of heaven, therefore we cannot obtain it by any 
 effort of our own ; although it is true we should 
 dispose ourselves for the reception of it with the 
 greatest care. This care should, indeed, be great, 
 but humble and calm. We must keep our heart 
 open, waiting for the fall of this heavenly dew, and 
 it will fall so much the sooner the more earnestly 
 and perseveringly we pray and sigh for it every 
 day, especially while assisting at the "divine sac- 
 rifice of Mass, receiving holy Communion and vis- 
 iting our most loving Lord in the adorable sacra- 
 ment of the Altar, saying to Him : " Lord, teach 
 me how to pray ; grant me the spirit of prayer, and 
 a great love for this holy exercise ; make me often 
 think of Thee, and find my greatest pleasure and 
 happiness in conversing with Thee ; let everything 
 of this world become disgustful to me." The more 
 
SPIRIT OF PRAYER. 253 
 
 frequently and earnestly you make these, or similar 
 petitions to obtain the spirit of prayer, the more 
 you will receive of this inestimable gift of the 
 Lord, according to the infallible promise of Jesus 
 Christ, — " All things whatsoever you ask in prayer, 
 believing, you shall receive." (Malt. xxi. 22.) 
 Continue thus asking until the Lord accomplishes 
 in you what He has promised by the Prophet Zach- 
 arias : "I will pour out upon the house of David 
 and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit 
 of grace and of prayers." (Chap. xii. 10). You 
 clearly perceive from these words of the Prophet, 
 that this gift of prayer is the spirit and gift of the 
 Lord ; you must, then, endeavor to obtain it, more 
 by asking it of the Lord with great humility, fer- 
 vor, confidence and perseverance, than by impru- 
 dent efforts of the brain and mind. Wait patiently 
 for the hour, but do not neglect to do at the same 
 time, what has been said in this chapter, and then 
 rest assured that the moment will come in which 
 the conversation with God will be easier, and more 
 familiar to you than the conversation with your 
 most intimate friend, and you will exclaim, with St. 
 Augustine : " What is more excellent, more profi- 
 table, more sublime and sweeter for the soul, than 
 prayer." You will, with Fathers Sanchez and 
 Suarez, of the Society of Jesus, prefer the loss of 
 all temporal goods to that of one hour of prayer, 
 for then will be realized in you, what St. Paul says 
 22* 
 
254 HOW TO ACQUIRE THE 
 
 in his epistle to the Romans: " The Spirit also 
 helpeth our infirmity ; for we know not what we 
 should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Him- 
 self asketh for us with unspeakable groanings." 
 (Chap. viii. 26.) Then the Holy Ghost Himself 
 will pray in you and with you, inspiring such peti- 
 tions and sighs as are pleasing to and heard by 
 Him. And when the Lord, in His great mercy, 
 has granted you this admirable gift, daily return 
 Him thanks for it, and profit by it, both for your 
 own temporal and spiritual welfare, and that of oth- 
 ers, because this is God's will. Say often with the 
 psalmist: " Take not Thy holy Spirit from me." 
 (Ps. 1. 13.) Lord, never withdraw from me this 
 spirit of grace and prayer, send me any other pun- 
 ishment for my sins rather than this. I repeat 
 again, never forget to be thankful for this gift, 
 always remembering that you can never fully un- 
 derstand or sufficiently appreciate it until after 
 death ; for in it are included all the gifts and graces 
 of the Lord. For this reason you must be very desi- 
 rous to obtain it, and take every possible means to 
 acquire it; and should you not have this ardent 
 desire for it, you must beg it of God with great fer- 
 vor and perseverance ; you should not take less 
 pains, care and trouble, or make less efforts to ob- 
 tain this great gift from God, than a good student 
 does to learn a language, an architect to erect a 
 costly and splendid edifice, or a general to gain the 
 
SPIRIT OF PRAYER. 255 
 
 victory in an important battle. Would to God you 
 understood this great and inestimable grace as per- 
 fectly and clearly as the devil does, I think you 
 would take as much trouble to acquire it, and to 
 preserve it when acquired, as he does to prevent you 
 from receiving it, and make you lose it when in 
 possession of it. 
 
 This sworn arch-enemy of our eternal happiness 
 will suffer you to perform any kind of good works, 
 such as fasting, scourging yourself, wearing hair- 
 cloths, etc. _, rather than see you striving to advance 
 in the way of prayer ; the least time you spend in 
 it is for him an insupportable torment. Although 
 he leaves you quiet at all other times, rest assured 
 that in the time of prayer he will use all his power 
 to distract and disturb you in some way or other. 
 In order to prevent you from praying well, he will 
 fill your mind with thoughts and imaginations of 
 the strangest and most curious kind, so much so, 
 that what you would never think of at any other 
 time will come to your mind at the time of prayer, 
 in such a manner even that it would seem you 
 came to prayer for no other purpose than to be 
 distracted and assaulted by a whole army of the- 
 most frightful temptations, or he will make you 
 feel peevish, and try to persuade you that prayer 
 il t lie business of old women who have nothing else 
 to do, but as for you that it is only a loss of time, 
 which could be spent much more profitably in some. 
 
256 HOW TO ACQUIRE THE 
 
 other way. If you are a priest, a religious, ot a 
 student of theology, he will artfully represent to you 
 how necessary and profitable it is to possess great 
 learning, for the salvation of souls and the greater 
 honor and glory of God, in order that the applica- 
 tion to study may become your principal occupa- 
 tion, and that you may consider prayer as something 
 merely accessory. If a Superior in a conference, a 
 Confessor in the confessional, or a Priest in a ser- 
 mon, after the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 His Apostles, and all the Saints, and in accordance 
 with the spirit of the Church, repeatedly insists upon 
 the necessity of prayer, the devil will not be slow 
 to suggest : 0, that Superior, that Priest, knows 
 but one rule, but one obligation ; he does not care 
 for science, or consider the country and times in 
 which we are living ; if you do what he tells, you 
 will never be anything but a real hypocrite and 
 devotee. Should this malignant enemy not suc- 
 ceed by these and similar artifices to prevent certain 
 souls from prayer, he will then try other means. To 
 St. Anthony, the hermit, when at prayer, he would 
 appear in the most hideous forms to frighten him. 
 He would take St. Frances of Rome, shake her and 
 throw her on the ground. When St. Eose of Lima 
 was at prayer, he would come and make a great 
 noise, like taking a basket and jumping about with 
 it. He would often cast large hail-stones upon the 
 two holy Brothers Simplician and Roman, when 
 
SPIRIT OF PRAYER. 25-7 
 
 they knelt down to pray, in order to make them 
 give up prayer, as is related by St. Gregory of Tours. 
 This implacable hatred aud incessant war of Satan 
 against prayer should alone be sufficient to convince 
 you of the necessity, importance, utility and sub- 
 limity of this holy exercise, and at the same time 
 urge you on to apply to it with all possible dili- 
 gence, that you might the sooner acquire the spirit 
 of prayer. Read the life of the seraphic St. Teresa, 
 that great mistress of prayer, and you will find how 
 she struggled for eighteen years to obtain this spirit 
 of prayer. We read of St. Catherine of Bologna, 
 that when she was Abbess, one of her daughters, 
 seeing that her whole time was taken up with busi- 
 ness, or by the intercourse she was obliged to have 
 witli the servants and strangers, asked her how, 
 with her weak health, she could endure so many 
 fatigues and cares. " Know, my daughter," replied 
 the holy Mother, "and be assured that my mind is 
 so occupied with the things which are not of this 
 world, that at whatever hour or moment I wish, I 
 am immediately united to God and separated from 
 everything bodily and temporal. I confess that 
 this has cost me innumerable sufferings, for the 
 road of virtue is narrow and hard, but, by perse- 
 verance, prayer lias become my life, my nurse, my 
 mistress, my consolation, my refreshment, my rest,. 
 my fortune, all my wealth. It is prayer that has 
 preserved me from mortal sins and rescued me from 
 
258 HOW TO ACQUIRE T1IK 
 
 death ; but it has done more than that ; it has nour- 
 ished me as a tender mother nourishes her infant 
 with milk. I ought to add, too, that prayer drives 
 away all distractions and temptations, gives us the 
 desire of doing penance, enkindles in us the Divine 
 love, and, finally, that there is no surer road to 
 perfection." 
 
 All the Saints, were they to come down from 
 heaven, would, with St. Catherine of Bologna, make 
 the same acknowledgment. The kingdom of hea- 
 ven suffers violence, and those that use this holy 
 violence will bear it away. Let us, like the Saints, 
 use this salutary violence in regard to ourselves ; it 
 will prove for us a source of joy for all eternity. 
 Let us, in imitation of the Saints, often read a 
 chapter on the great necessity, importance, advan- 
 tages and efficacy of prayer, thereby to encourage 
 ourselves constantly to persevere and increase in 
 fervor for this holy occupation ; let us be firmly 
 convinced that such a reading will be more profi- 
 table to us than any other, whatever it may be. 
 Let us, also, often make our particular examen of 
 conscience on this subject, and let us firmly believe 
 to be true what I one day heard said by a very holy 
 Priest, who was so much given to prayer as to be 
 often elevated in the air whilst in the act of 
 prayer: "Any one," said he, " who would care- 
 fully make his particular examen of conscience for 
 half a year, would not fail to attain to contempla- 
 
SPIRIT OF PRARER. 259 
 
 tion." Suppose the Lord would not favor you in 
 prayer as He has favored certain Saints, yet be con- 
 vinced you will always receive far more than you 
 deserve ; do what you can, and leave to Him to do 
 with you according to His will. " He hath filled 
 the hungry with good things," exclaimed the 
 Blessed Virgin Mary. The Lord not only gives, 
 but overloads with His gifts those who have a real 
 desire for them ; join the deed to your desires for 
 them by making use of the means here laid down 
 to acquire them, and rest assured God will deal 
 with you in a most liberal manner, as is peculiar to 
 His Paternal Heart. You will experience what one 
 of my fellow-students has experienced, who said to 
 me one day: ic Since I have given myself up to- 
 holy prayer, I am quite a different creature." 
 Would to God you had a right heart for all that 
 has been said, and did truly relish it ! If you but 
 knew the gift of God you would soon see how sweet 
 the Lord is to those who are given up to prayer. 
 You will most assuredly find Him in this holy ex- 
 ercise, for He opens to those who knock and gives 
 to those that ask. Give it a fair trial. Say with 
 David : " One thing I have asked of the Lord ; 
 this will I seek after," (Ps. xxvi. 4,) viz: this gift 
 of prayer, and I will beg and pray for it until it 
 shall be granted to me. 
 
260 EULOGIUM ON PRAYER, 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EULOGIUM ON PRAYER, 
 
 AS there is nothing more necessary or more 
 profitable to man than prayer, the Saints have 
 lavished most profuse eulogies upon this holy exer- 
 cise. St. John Climachus writes (gradu. 28 initio): 
 11 Prayer, considered in its nature or quality, is a 
 familiar conversation and union with God ; consid- 
 ered in its efficacy, it is the preservation of the 
 world, the reconciliation with God, the mother of 
 tears, the companion on journeys, the propitiation 
 for sins ; a bridge over the high waters of tempta- 
 tion ; a bulwark against all assaults of afflictions : 
 the suppression and extinction of wars ; the office 
 of the Angels ; the nourishment of all souls ; the 
 anticipation of future joy ; a perpetual occupation, 
 the source of all virtues, the channel of all graces." 
 Not satisfied with these praises, he adds still greater 
 and more important ones : " Prayer is the lever of 
 the spiritual life ; the medicine of the soul ; the 
 light of the understanding ; the expeller of de- 
 spair ; the ground-pillar of Christian hope ; the 
 solution of melancholy and sadness ; the riches of 
 
EULOGICM ON PRAYER. 261 
 
 monks ; the treasure of hermits ; the cessation ot 
 anger ; a mirror to show the progress in the spirit- 
 ual life ; the thermometer of the soul ; a declara- 
 tion of the dispositions of the heart ; a moral cer- 
 tainty of heavenly glory." To these eulogies on 
 prayer are added (Auct. serm, ad. Fratres in eremo 
 apud St. Aug. serm. 22) : " Holy prayer is the 
 column of all virtues ; a ladder to God ; the sup- 
 port of widows ; the foundation of faith ; the crown 
 of religious ; the sweetness of the married life." 
 To these praises of prayer, St. Augustine adds oth- 
 ers : "Prayer is the protection of holy souls; a 
 consolation for the Guardian Angel ; an insup- 
 portable torment to the devil ; a most acceptable 
 homage to God ; the best and most perfect praise 
 for penitents and religious ; the greatest honor 
 and glory ; the preserver of spiritual health." 
 (Aug. ad Probam.) " Prayer," says St. Ephrem, 
 " is the counter-poison of pride ; the antidote to 
 the passion of hatred ; the best rule in making just 
 laws ; the best and most powerful means to govern 
 aright ; the standard and trophy in war ; a strong- 
 hold for peace ; the seal of virginity ; the guard of 
 nuptial fidelity; the safeguard of travellers; the 
 Guardian Angel during sleep ; the source of fer- 
 tility for the farmer ; a safe harbor in the storms of 
 this life ; a city of refuge for criminals ; the source 
 of all true joy : the best friend and physician of 
 the dying." (Tract de Orat.) " Prayer," says 
 23 
 
262 EULOGIUM ON PRAYER. 
 
 Cornelius a Lapide, "is the transfiguration of the 
 soul." Prayer, I add, is, moreover, the paradise of 
 the soul ; the Ark of the Covenant ; a wonder-work- 
 ing rod of Moses ; a pillar of cloud by day and a pil- 
 lar of fire by night ; a Piscina Probatica, or pond of 
 healing-water, wherein whoever descends is healed 
 of whatsoever spiritual infirmity he may lie under ; 
 an impregnable fortress ; the milk of little children ; 
 the crosier of Bishops ; the strength, courage and 
 persuasive power of missionaries ; the conversion of 
 the world ; the Sanctuary of Priests ; the wisdom of 
 the Saints ; the true key of heaven ; the best book 
 of sermons ; the mother of good counsel ; the school 
 of eloquence ; the constancy of the martyrs ; the 
 compass of superiors ; the interpreter of the Holy 
 Scriptures ; the justification for God. If we should 
 say : " I had not sufficient grace to be saved," God 
 will answer: " Why did you not ask it of Me?" 
 the soul-insurance ; an everlasting torment for the 
 damned, seeing how easily they might have been 
 saved by prayer. " Prayer is," says St. John 
 Climachus, " a pious, gentle tyranny towards God, 
 forcing Him to give up to us everything, even Him- 
 self." Hence St. Augustine has said with truth : 
 "What can be more excellent than prayer; what 
 more profitable to our life ; what sweeter to our 
 souls ; what more sublime, in the course of our 
 whole life, than the practice of prayer?" 
 
 Being well convinced of this truth, Caspar San- 
 
EULOGIUM ON PRAYER. 263 
 
 ches, S. J., used to say : " Give me all the goods of 
 the earth, and let them last forever, and I will give 
 them all up for half a quarter of an hour of my 
 usual prayer and communion with God." In like 
 manner said Father Francis Suarez, S. J. : "I am 
 willing to lose all my science rather than one hour 
 of prayer." The saintly Priest of Ars, named Vi- 
 anney, used to say : " All the happiness of man on 
 earth cousists in prayer." One of our Fathers, a 
 holy man of great experience often repeated : ' ■ Sec- 
 ular people say, ' in the convent everything is 
 prayer ;' hut we must reverse their words and say : 
 Prayer is everything to us in the convent." Corne- 
 lius a Lapide says: "The gift of prayer is an 
 immense and incomprehensible grace of God." 
 Scarcely did ever any Saint, in fewer words, bestow 
 better praise on prayer than St. Alphonsus, in the 
 preface to his little book on prayer : "I have pub- 
 lished several spiritual works, such as Visits to the 
 Blessed Sacrament ; Considerations on the Passion 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ ; Glories of Mary ; a work 
 against the Materialists and Deists, with other de- 
 vout little treatises ; also, a little work on the In- 
 fancy of our Saviour, entitled Novena for Christmas ; 
 another, called Preparation for death, besides the 
 one on the Eternal Maxims, very useful for medita- 
 
 or for sermons, to which are added nine dis- 
 courses, suitable during seasons of divine chastise- 
 
 s. But I am of opinion that I never wrote a 
 
264 EULOGIUM ON PRAYER. 
 
 more useful book than the present, in which I speak 
 of prayer as a necessary and certain means of ob- 
 taining salvation and all the graces which we require 
 for that object. Would to God it were in my power 
 to give a copy of it to every Catholic in the world, 
 to show him the absolute necessity of prayer for 
 salvation." 
 
 Such sentiments of the Saints, and of pious souls, 
 proceed from most intimate conviction, and the 
 abundance of the spiritual gifts and graces with 
 which their hearts are overflowing ; and it is un- 
 doubtedly true that most of men, could they see 
 and comprehend but one-half of the happiness of 
 such souls, would at once give up all earthly plea- 
 sures and advantages to enjoy but for one quarter of 
 an hour the happiness of the life of saintly souls. 
 Who, after all this, will remain still cold, careless 
 and indifferent in the practice of prayer ? Most 
 assuredly, he only who is not of God, and loveth 
 darkness more than light ; this world more than 
 his soul ; the devil, and all his works and pomps, 
 more than the Lord of heaven and earth. 
 
 [The following prayers are so arranged that they can be taken 
 out and put in your prayer-book for daily use.] 
 
PRAYER 
 
 TO OBTAIN THE GRACE OF BEING CONSTANT IN PRATER. 
 
 OGOD of my soul, I hope in Thy goodness that 
 Thou hast pardoned all my offences against 
 Thee, and that I am now in a state of grace. I thank 
 Thee for it with all my heart, and I hope to thank 
 Thee for all eternity : Misericordias Domini in (ster- 
 num cantabo. I know that I have fallen, because I 
 have not had recourse to Thee when I was tempted, 
 to ask for holy perseverance. For the future, I 
 lirmly resolve to recommend myself always to Thee, 
 and especially when I see myself in danger of again 
 offending Thee. I will always fly to Thy mercy, 
 invoking always the most holy names of Jesus and 
 Mary, with full confidence that when I pray Thou 
 wilt not fail to give me the strength which I have 
 not of myself to resist my enemies. This I resolve 
 and promise to do. But of what use, my God, 
 will all these resolutions and promises be, if Thou 
 dost not assist me with Thy grace to put them in 
 23* 
 
266 PRAYER. 
 
 practice, that is, to have recourse to Thee in all 
 dangers ? Ah, Eternal Father ! help me, for the 
 love of Jesus Christ ; and let me never omit recom- 
 mending myself to Thee whenever I am tempted. 
 I know that Thou dost always help me when I have 
 recourse to Thee ; hut my fear is, that I should for- 
 get to recommend myself to Thee, and so my negli- 
 gence will be the cause of my ruin, that is, the loss 
 of Thy grace, the greatest evil that can happen to 
 me. Ah, by the merits of Jesus Christ, give me 
 grace to pray to Thee ; but grant me such an abun- 
 dant grace that I may always pray, and pray as I 
 ought ! my Mother Mary, whenever I have had 
 recourse to thee, thou hast obtained for me the help 
 which has kept me from falling ! Now I come to 
 beg of thee to obtain a still greater grace, namely, 
 that of recommending myself always to thy Son 
 and to thee in all my necessities. My Queen, thou 
 obtainest all thou dost desire from God by the love 
 thou bearest to Jesus Christ ; obtain for me now 
 this grace which I beg of thee, namely, to pray al- 
 ways, and never to cease praying till I die. Amen. 
 
PRAYER 
 
 TO BE SAID EVERY DAY, TO OBTAIN THE GRACES 
 NECESSARY FOR SALVATION. 
 
 (38g St. ^Ipbonsus.) 
 
 ETERNAL Father, Thy Son has promised that 
 Thou wilt grant us all the graces which we ask 
 Thee for in His name. In the name, therefore, and 
 by the merits of Jesus Christ I ask the following 
 graces for myself and for all mankind. And first, I 
 pray Thee to give me a lively faith in all that the 
 holy Roman Church teaches me. Enlighten me 
 also, that I may know the vanity of the goods of this 
 world, and the immensity of the infinite good that 
 Thou art ; make me also see the deformity of the 
 sins I have committed, that I may humble myself 
 and detest them as I ought ; and, on the other 
 hand, show me how worthy Thou art by reason of 
 Thy goodness, that I should love Thee with all my 
 heart. Make me know also the love Thou hast 
 borne me, that from this day forward I may try to 
 be grateful for so much goodness. Secondly, give 
 me a firm confidence in Thy mercy of receiving the 
 pardon of my sins, holy perseverance, and finally, 
 the glory of paradise, through the merits of Jesus 
 
2G8 PRAYER. 
 
 Christ and the intercession of Mary. Thirdly, give 
 me a great love towards Thee, which shall detach, 
 me from the love of this world and of myself, so- 
 that I may love none other hut Thee, and that I 
 may neither do nor desire anything else hut what is- 
 for Thy glory. Fourthly, I heg of Thee a perfect 
 resignation to Thy will, in accepting with tran- 
 quility sorrows, infirmities, contempt, persecutions, 
 aridity of spirit, loss of property, of esteem, of re- 
 lations, and every other cross which shall come to 
 me from Thy hands. I offer myself entirely to 
 Thee, that Thou mayest do with me, and all that 
 "belongs to me what Thou pleasest ; do Thou only 
 give me light and strength to do Thy will ; and 
 especially at the hour of death help me to sacrifice 
 my life to Thee with all the affection I am capable 
 of, in union with the sacrifice which Thy Son Jesus 
 Christ made of His life on the Cross on Calvary. 
 Fifthly, I beg of Thee a great sorrow for my sins, 
 which may make me grieve over them as long as I 
 live, and weep for the insults I have offered Thee, 
 the Sovereign Good, who art worthy of infinite love, 
 and who hast loved me so much. Sixthly, I pray 
 Thee to give me the spirit of true humility and 
 meekness, that I may accept with peace, and even 
 with joy, all the contempt, ingratitude and ill-treat- 
 ment that I may receive. At the same time I also 
 pray Thee to give me perfect charity, which shall 
 make me wish well to those who have done evil to* 
 
PRAYER. 
 
 269 
 
 me, and to do what good I can, at least by praying, 
 for those who have in any way injured me. Sev- 
 enthly, I beg of Thee to give me a love for the vir- 
 tue of holy mortification, by which I may chastise 
 my rebellious senses, and cross my self-love ; at the 
 same time, I beg Thee to give me holy purity of body 
 and the grace to resist all bad temptations, by ever 
 having recourse to Thee and Thy most holy Mother. 
 Give me grace faithfully to obey my spiritual father 
 and all my superiors in all things. Give me an up- 
 right intention, that in all I desire and do I may 
 seek only Thy glory, and to please Thee alone. 
 Give me a great confidence in the Passion of Jesus 
 Christ, and in the intercession of Mary immaculate. 
 Give me a great love towards the most Adorable 
 Sacrament of the Altar, and a tender devotion and 
 love to Thy holy Mother. Give me, I pray thee, 
 above all, holy perseverance, and the grace always 
 to pray for it, especially in time of temptation and 
 at the hour of death. 
 
 Lastly, I recommend to Thee the holy souls of 
 Purgatory, my relations and benefactors ; and in an 
 especial manner I recommend to Thee all those who 
 hate me or who have in any way offended me ; I beg 
 of Thee to render them good for the evil they have 
 done, or may wish to do me. Finally, I recommend 
 to Thee all infidels, heretics, and all poor sinners ; 
 give them li^ht and strength to deliver themselves 
 from sin. Oh, most loving God, make Thyself 
 
270 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 knowQ and loved by all, but especially by those who 
 have been more ungrateful to Thee than others, so 
 that by thy goodness I may come one day to sing 
 Thy mercies in Paradise ; for my hope is in the 
 merits of Thy blood, and in the patronage of Mary. 
 
 Mary, Mother of God, pray to Jesus for me ! So 
 
 1 hope ; so may it be ! 
 
 PRAYER OF CHLODWIG, (CLOVIS), 
 
 ARMY IN IMMINENT DANGER OF BEING DEFEATED BY 
 THE ALEMANNI. 
 
 " TESUS CHRIST, Thou of Whom Chlotilde (the 
 tl king's Christian wife) has often told me that 
 Thou art the Son of the living God, and that Thou 
 givest aid to the hard-pressed and victory to those 
 who trust in Thee, I humbly crave Thy powerful 
 assistance. If Thou grantest me the victory over 
 my enemies I will believe in Thee and be baptized 
 in Thy name. For I have called upon my gods in 
 vain. They must be impotent, as they cannot help 
 those who serve them. Now I invoke Thee, de- 
 siring to believe in Thee ; do, then, deliver me 
 from the hands of my adversaries." 
 
PRAYER. 271 
 
 No sooner had Chlodwig uttered this prayer than 
 the Alemanni became panic-stricken, took to flight, 
 and soon after, seeing their king slain, sued for 
 peace. Thereupon Chlodwig blended both nations, 
 the Franks and the Alemanni together — returned 
 home and became a Christian. Should any one of 
 my readers be still groping in the darkness of un- 
 belief or error, I would kindly request him to pray 
 in the same spirit, adapting King Chlodwig's 
 prayer to his own circumstances, or to say the prayer 
 which F. Thayer, a minister of the Anglican 
 Church, used to say when he was yet in doubt and 
 uncertainty, and by the use of which he obtained 
 for himself the gift of faith. 
 
 F. THAYER'S PRAYER 
 
 FOR C3-TJHD^.3SrOE ITsTTO TPlTJTIi. 
 
 GOD of all goodness, almighty and eternal Fa- 
 ther of mercies, and Saviour of mankind ; I 
 implore Thee, by Thy sovereign goodness, to en- 
 lighten my mind and to touch my heart, that, by 
 M of true faith, hope, and charity, I may live 
 and die in the true religion of Jesus Christ. I con- 
 fidently believe that, as there is but one God, there 
 can be but one faith, one religion, one only path to 
 and that every other path opposed thereto 
 
272 EJACULATION. 
 
 can lead but to perdition. This path, my God, I 
 anxiously seek after, that I may follow it, and be 
 saved. Therefore I protest before Thy Divine Ma- 
 jesty, and I swear by all Thy divine attributes, that 
 I will follow the religion which Thou shalt reveal 
 to me as the true one, and will abandon, at what- 
 ever cost, that wherein I shall have discovered 
 errors and falsehood. I confess that I do not de- 
 serve this favor for the greatness of my sins, for 
 which I am truly penitent, seeing they offend a God 
 Who is so good, so holy, and so worthy of love ; 
 but what I deserve not I hope to obtain from Thine 
 infinite mercy ; and I beseech Thee to grant it unto 
 me through the merits of that precious Blood, 
 which was shed for us sinners by Thine only Son, 
 Jesus Christ our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth, 
 &c. Amen. 
 
 Truly, such a sincere and bumble prayer will not remain un- 
 heard. 
 
 EJACULATION. 
 
 My Lord Jesus Christ, for the sake of Thy suffer- 
 ings, grant me such faith, hope, charity, sorrow for 
 my sins, and love for prayer, as will save and sanc- 
 tify my soul. 
 
 [It would be well to repeat this ejaculation often in the course 
 of the day.] 
 
 ■;NIV£RSITY J 
 

fiL 
 
 <£6. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 Books not returned on time are subject to a fine of 
 50c t»er volume after the third day overdue, increasing 
 to $1.00 per volume after the sixth day. Books not in 
 demand may be renewed if application is made before 
 expiration of loan period. 
 
 JUL 29 1923 
 
 APS 2fc 
 
 *K 
 
 \&* 
 
 J M 2» 1932 
 
 JAN 2 9 1967 5 6 
 
 RECEIVED 
 
 JAN 2 1 '67 -H AM 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 50m-7'16 
 
ivwUer 
 
 lb 
 
 6 MM 
 
 M