Chapter III — Of the conditions of prayer

Amen, amen dico vobis, si quid petieritis Patrem in nomine meo, dabit vobis (Amen, amen, I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you) (John 16:23). It is, then, a promise of Jesus Christ that whatever we ask the Father in His name, the Father will grant us all; but it is always understood that we ask with the due conditions. Many (says St. James) ask and do not obtain, because they ask badly: Petitis, et non accipitis, eo quod male petatis (You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss) (Jas. 4:3). Hence St. Basil, following the saying of the Apostle, says: Ideo quandoque petis, et non accipis, quia perperam postulasti, vel infideliter, vel leviter, vel non conferentia tibi, vel destitisti (For this reason you sometimes ask and do not receive, because you have asked amiss: either without faith, or lukewarmly, or for things that do not profit you, or you have given up). Infideliter — that is, with little faith or little confidence. Leviter — with little desire to obtain the grace. Non conferentia tibi — asking for goods not profitable to salvation. Vel destitisti — without perseverance. Therefore St. Thomas Aquinas reduces to four the conditions required in prayer for it to obtain its effect: namely, that a man ask pro se, necessaria ad salutem, pie, et perseveranter (for himself, for things necessary for salvation, devoutly, and perseveringly).

The first condition of prayer, then, is that it be made pro se (for oneself); for St. Thomas Aquinas holds that a man cannot obtain for others ex condigno (by condign merit) eternal life, and consequently not even those graces that belong to their salvation, since the promise (as he says) is made not for others, but only to those who pray: Dabit vobis (He will give it to you). Nevertheless, there are many Doctors who hold the opposite, relying on the authority of St. Basil, who teaches that prayer, by virtue of the divine promise, infallibly has its effect, even for others for whom one prays, provided those others place no positive obstacle in the way. And they ground themselves on the Scriptures: Et orate pro invicem, ut salvemini; multum enim valet oratio justi assidua (And pray for one another, that you may be saved; for the continual prayer of a just man avails much) (Jas. 5:16). Orate pro persequentibus, et calumniantibus vos (Pray for those who persecute and calumniate you) (Matt. 5:44). And better still on the text of St. John: Qui scit fratrem suum peccare peccatum non ad mortem, petat, et dabitur ei vita peccanti non ad mortem (He who knows his brother to sin a sin which is not to death, let him ask, and life shall be given to him who sins not to death) (1 John 5:16). That phrase peccanti non ad mortem (who sins not to death) is explained by St. Augustine and others to mean: provided that sinner is not one who intends to live obstinately until death, since for such a one a very extraordinary grace would be required.

For the rest, for other sinners, not guilty of such malice, the Apostle promises their conversion to the one who prays for them: Petat, et dabitur ei vita peccanti (Let him ask, and life shall be given to the one who sins).

Moreover, it is not doubted that the prayers of others greatly benefit sinners and are most pleasing to God; and God complains of His servants who do not commend sinners to Him, as He complained to St. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, to whom He said one day: "See, My daughter, how Christians lie in the hands of the devil; if My elect did not deliver them by their prayers, they would be devoured." But the Lord desires this especially from priests and religious. The aforesaid saint used to say to her nuns: "Sisters, God has not separated us from the world so that we may do good only for ourselves, but also that we may appease Him on behalf of sinners." And the same Lord said to her one day: "I have given to you, My chosen spouses, the City of Refuge (that is, the Passion of Jesus Christ), so that you may have somewhere to have recourse in order to help My creatures; therefore have recourse to it, and there bring help to My creatures who are perishing, and lay down your lives for them." Hence the saint, inflamed with holy zeal, offered to God the Blood of the Redeemer for sinners fifty times a day, and consumed herself with desire for their conversion, saying: "Oh, what a torment it is, O Lord, to see that I could benefit Your creatures by laying down my life for them, and not to be able to do it!" Moreover, in every exercise she commended sinners to God; and it is written in her Life that hardly an hour of the day passed in which the saint did not pray for them; frequently she even rose at midnight and went to the Most Blessed Sacrament to pray for sinners; and with all this, she was once found weeping bitterly, and when asked why, she answered: "Because it seems to me that I do nothing for the salvation of sinners." She went so far as to offer herself, for their conversion, to suffer even the pains of hell, provided she would not have to hate God there; and several times God granted her to be afflicted with grievous pains and infirmities for the salvation of sinners. She prayed especially for priests, seeing that their good life was the cause of the salvation of others, and their bad life the cause of the ruin of many; and therefore she prayed the Lord to punish their sins upon her, saying: "Lord, make me die and come back to life as many times as needed, until I have satisfied Your Justice for them." And it is narrated in her Life that the saint by her prayers did in fact deliver many souls from the hands of Lucifer.

I have wished to say something more particular about the zeal of this saint. Besides, all souls that are truly in love with God never cease to pray for poor sinners. For how is it possible that a person who loves God, seeing the love He bears toward souls, and all that Jesus Christ has done and suffered for their salvation, and the desire this Savior has that we pray for sinners; how is it possible, I say, that he can then look with indifference upon so many poor souls who live without God, slaves of hell, and not be moved and exert himself to pray frequently to the Lord to give light and strength to those unhappy souls, so that they may escape the miserable state in which they slumber and live lost? It is true that God has not promised to hear us when those for whom we pray place a positive obstacle to their conversion; but many times the Lord, in His goodness and in regard for the prayers of His servants, has been pleased, by extraordinary graces, to bring back to a state of salvation the most blinded and obstinate sinners. Therefore let us never fail, in saying or hearing Mass, in making our Communion, our meditation, or our visit to the Most Blessed Sacrament, always to commend poor sinners to God. And a learned author says that one who prays for others will all the sooner see the prayers he makes for himself heard. Let this be said in passing; but let us return to see the other conditions that St. Thomas Aquinas requires for prayer to have its effect.

The other condition that the saint assigns is that we ask for those graces that are needed for salvation, necessaria ad salutem (things necessary for salvation); since the promise made to prayer is not for temporal graces, which are not necessary for the salvation of the soul. St. Augustine, explaining the words of the Gospel in nomine meo (in My name) cited above, says that non petitur in nomine Salvatoris, quicquid petitur contra rationem salutis (whatever is asked contrary to the order of salvation is not asked in the name of the Savior). Sometimes we ask for certain temporal graces, and God does not hear us; but He does not hear us (says the same holy Doctor) because He loves us and wishes to show us mercy: Fideliter supplicans Deo pro necessitatibus hujus vitae, et misericorditer auditur, et misericorditer non auditur; quid enim Infirmo sit utile magis novit Medicus, quam Aegrotus (He who faithfully implores God for the necessities of this life is both mercifully heard and mercifully not heard; for the physician knows better than the patient what is good for the sick man). The physician who loves the sick man does not grant him those things which he sees would do him harm. Oh, how many, if they were sick or poor, would not fall into the sins into which they fall while healthy or rich! And therefore the Lord denies to some who ask Him for bodily health or the goods of fortune — He denies them because He loves them, seeing that those things would be for them an occasion of losing His grace, or at least of growing lukewarm in the spiritual life. With all this, however, we do not mean to say that it is a fault to ask God for the things necessary for the present life, insofar as they conduce to eternal salvation, as the Wise Man asked: Tribue tantum victui meo necessaria (Give me only what is necessary for my sustenance)

(Prov. 30:8) Nor is it a defect, says St. Thomas Aquinas, to have an ordered solicitude for such goods; the defect lies in desiring and seeking these temporal goods as one's chief goods, and in having a disordered solicitude for them, as if all our good consisted in them. Therefore, when we ask God for these temporal graces, we must always ask for them with resignation, and on the condition that they are profitable to our soul; and when we see that the Lord does not grant them to us, let us hold it for certain that He then denies them to us out of the love He bears us, and because He sees that they would harm our spiritual salvation.

Many times we ask God to deliver us from some dangerous temptation, and God does not even hear us, but permits the temptation to go on molesting us. We must understand that God permits this also for our greater good. It is not temptations and evil thoughts that draw us away from God, but evil consents. When the soul in temptation commends itself to God, and with His help resists, oh how it then advances in perfection, and comes to be united more closely with God! and for this reason the Lord does not grant its petition. St. Paul prayed earnestly to be freed from the temptations of impurity: Datus est mihi stimulus carnis meae, Angelus satanae, qui me colaphizet; propter quod ter Dominum rogavi, ut discederet a me — "A thorn was given me in my flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me; therefore I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me" (2 Cor. 12:7). But the Lord answered him that it was enough for him to have His grace: Sufficit tibi gratia mea — "My grace is sufficient for you." So even in temptations we must pray to God with resignation, saying: Lord, deliver me from this affliction, if it is expedient to deliver me from it; and if not, at least give me the help to resist. And here what St. Bernard says applies, that when we ask God for some grace, He either gives us that, or something more useful than that. God often leaves us to suffer in the storm, in order to test our fidelity, and for our greater profit. It seems that He is then deaf to our prayers, but no, let us be sure that God then truly hears us, and helps us in secret, strengthening us with His grace to resist every assault of the Enemies. Behold how He Himself assures us of this by the mouth of the Psalmist: In tribulatione invocasti me, et liberavi te; exaudivi te in abscondito tempestatis, probavi te apud aquam contradictionis — "In tribulation you called upon Me, and I delivered you; I heard you in the secret place of the storm, I proved you at the waters of contradiction" (Ps. 80:8).

The other conditions, finally, that St. Thomas Aquinas assigns to prayer are that one pray pie, et perseveranter — "devoutly and perseveringly." Pie — "devoutly" — is understood as with humility and confidence; perseveranter — "perseveringly" — without ceasing to pray until death. Now of these conditions, namely humility, confidence, and perseverance, which are the most necessary to prayer, it is necessary here to speak of each of them distinctly.

c Corn. a Lapide, Sylvest. Tolet. Habert. et alii.

I. On the humility with which we should pray

The Lord indeed regards the prayers of His servants, but of His humble servants: Respexit in orationem humilium — “He has regarded the prayer of the humble” (Ps. 101:18). Otherwise He does not regard them, but rejects them: Deus superbis resistit, humilibus autem dat gratiam — “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Jas. 4:6). God does not hear the prayers of the proud, who trust in their own strength; therefore He leaves them in their own misery, and in that state, deprived of divine help, they will undoubtedly be lost. David lamented this: Priusquam humiliarer, ego deliqui — “Before I was humbled, I sinned” (Ps. 118:67). I have sinned, he said, because I have not been humble. The same happened to St. Peter. Although Jesus Christ had warned him that on that night all His disciples would abandon Him — Omnes vos scandalum patiemini in me in ista nocte, “All of you will be scandalized in Me this night” (Matt. 26:31) — nevertheless, instead of acknowledging his weakness and asking the Lord for help so as not to be unfaithful to Him, Peter trusted too much in his own strength and said that, even if all abandoned Him, he would never leave Him: Et si omnes scandalizati fuerint in te, ego nunquam scandalizabor — “Even if all should be scandalized in You, I will never be scandalized” (ibid., v. 33). And although the Redeemer again foretold to him in particular that on that night, before the cock crowed, he would deny Him three times, Peter still trusted in his courage and boasted, saying: Etiam si oportuerit me mori tecum non te negabo — “Even if I must die with You, I will not deny You” (ibid., v. 35). But what happened? Scarcely had the unhappy man entered the high priest's house and been accused of being a disciple of Jesus Christ, when he did indeed deny Him three times, with an oath, saying that he had never known Him: Et iterum negavit cum juramento: Quia non novi hominem — “And again he denied with an oath: I do not know the man” (Matt. 26:72). Had Peter humbled himself and asked the Lord for the grace of constancy, he would not have denied Him.

We must all be convinced that we stand as though on the summit of a mountain, suspended over the abyss of every sin, and supported only by the thread of grace. If that thread lets us go, we certainly fall into that abyss and shall commit the most dreadful crimes. Nisi quia Dominus adjuvit me, paulo minus habitasset in inferno anima mea — “Unless the Lord had helped me, my soul would almost have dwelt in hell” (Ps. 93:17). If God had not helped me, I would have fallen into a thousand sins and would now be in hell: so said the Psalmist, and so each of us must say. St. Francis of Assisi understood this too, when he said that he was the worst sinner in the world. “But, my father,” his companion said to him, “what you say is not true; there are many in the world who are certainly worse than you.” “What I say is only too true,” the Saint answered, “because if God did not hold His hands over me, I would commit every sin.” It is of faith that without the help of grace we can do no good work, nor even have a good thought. Sine Gratia nullum prorsus, sive cogitando, sive agendo faciunt homines bonum — “Without grace men do absolutely no good, whether in thought or in deed,” said St. Augustine.¹ As the eye cannot see without light, so, said the Saint, man can do no good without grace. The Apostle had already said this before him: Non quod sufficientes simus cogitare aliquid a nobis quasi ex nobis, sed sufficientia nostra ex Deo est — “Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Cor. 3:5). And before the Apostle, David had already said: Nisi Dominus aedificaverit domum, in vanum laboraverunt, qui aedificant eam — “Unless the Lord builds the house, they who build it have labored in vain” (Ps. 126:1). In vain does man labor to become holy unless God puts His hand to the work. Nisi Dominus custodierit civitatem, frustra vigilat, qui custodit eam — “Unless the Lord guards the city, he who guards it watches in vain” (ibid.). If God does not guard the soul from sins, it will strive in vain to guard itself by its own strength. And therefore the holy Prophet declared: Non enim in arcu meo sperabo — “For I will not trust in my bow” (Ps. 43:7). I will not, then, trust in my weapons, but only in God, who can save me.

Therefore, whoever finds that he has done something good and has not fallen into greater sins than those he has committed should say with St. Paul: Gratia autem Dei sum id, quod sum — “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10). And for the same reason he must never cease to tremble and fear falling on every occasion. Itaque qui se existimat stare, videat ne cadat — “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). By this the Apostle wishes to warn us that he who thinks himself safe from falling is in great danger of a fall. He gives the reason in another place, where he says: Nam si quis existimat se aliquid esse, cum nihil sit, ipse se seducit — “For if anyone thinks himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Gal. 6:3). Hence St. Augustine wisely wrote: Multos impedit a firmitate praesumptio firmitatis; nemo erit adeo firmus, nisi qui se sentit infirmum — “The presumption of strength keeps many from strength; no one will be so strong as he who feels himself weak” (Serm. 13, de Verb. Dom.). If someone says he has no fear, it is a sign that he trusts in himself and in the resolutions he has made. But with this harmful confidence he deceives himself: trusting in his own strength, he ceases to fear; ceasing to fear, he ceases to commend himself to God; and then he will certainly fall. Likewise each person must guard against looking with any vainglory upon the sins of others. He should instead consider himself, so far as he is concerned, worse than others, and say: “Lord, if You had not helped me, I would have done worse.”

Otherwise the Lord, in punishment for his pride, will permit him to fall into greater and more dreadful faults. Therefore the Apostle admonishes us to work for eternal salvation — but how? Always with fear and trembling: Cum metu, et tremore vestram salutem operamini — “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). Yes, because he who greatly fears to fall distrusts his own strength, and therefore, placing his confidence in God, will have recourse to Him in dangers. God will help him, and thus he will overcome temptations and be saved. Philip Neri, walking one day through Rome, kept saying: “I despair.” A certain religious corrected him, but the Saint then said: “My father, I despair of myself, but I trust in God.” So must we do if we wish to be saved. We must always live despairing of our own strength; for by doing so we shall imitate St. Philip, who, from the first moment he awoke in the morning, said to God: “Lord, hold Your hands over Philip today, for otherwise Philip will betray You.”

This, then, in conclusion, is the whole great knowledge of a Christian, says St. Augustine: to know that he is nothing and can do nothing. Hoc est tota magna scientia, scire quia homo nihil est — “This is the whole great knowledge: to know that man is nothing.”² For thus he will not cease to seek from God through prayer that strength which he does not have, and which he needs to resist temptations and to do good. Then he will do everything with the help of that Lord who cannot refuse anything to one who prays to Him with humility. Oratio humiliantis se nubes penetrabit, et non discedet, donec Altissimus aspiciat — “The prayer of one who humbles himself will pierce the clouds, and will not depart until the Most High looks upon it” (Ecclus. 35:21). The prayer of a humble soul penetrates the heavens, and, presenting itself before the divine throne, does not depart until God regards and hears it. And however many sins that soul may be guilty of, God cannot despise a heart that humbles itself: Cor contritum et humiliatum Deus non despicies — “A contrite and humbled heart, O God, You will not despise” (Ps. 50:12). Deus superbis resistit, humilibus autem dat gratiam — “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (Jas. 4:6). As severe as the Lord is toward the proud, resisting their petitions, so kind and generous is He toward the humble. This is precisely what Jesus Christ said one day to St. Catherine of Siena: “Know, My daughter, that whoever humbly perseveres in asking Me for graces will acquire every virtue”: Scito Filia, quod Anima perseverans in humili oratione adipiscitur omnem virtutem.³

It is helpful here to adduce an excellent admonition which the learned and most devout Bishop Palafox of Osma gives to spiritual souls who desire to become holy, in a note on Letter XVIII of St. Teresa. There the Saint writes to her confessor and gives him an account of all the degrees of supernatural prayer with which the Lord had favored her. The aforesaid prelate, for his part, writes that these supernatural graces which God deigned to grant St. Teresa, and has granted other Saints, are not necessary to attain holiness: many souls have indeed attained it without them; and, on the contrary, many have attained these gifts and afterwards been damned. Therefore, he says, it is needless, indeed presumptuous, to desire and seek such supernatural gifts, since the true and only way for a soul to become holy is to practice the virtues and to love God. This is attained through prayer and by corresponding to the lights and helps of God, who wills nothing but to see us holy: Haec est enim voluntas Dei sanctificatio vestra — “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3).

Thus the aforesaid devout writer, speaking of the degrees of supernatural prayer about which the Saint wrote — namely, the prayer of quiet, the sleep and suspension of the faculties, union, ecstasy, rapture, flight and impulse of the spirit, and the spiritual wound — writes wisely. Concerning the prayer of quiet, he says that what we should desire and ask of God is that He free us from attachment to, and desire for, worldly goods, which bring no peace but cause restlessness and affliction of spirit. Vanitas vanitatum, as Solomon aptly called them, et afflictio spiritus — “Vanity of vanities, and affliction of spirit” (Eccles. 1:14). Man's heart will never find true peace unless it empties itself of everything that is not God, leaving all the room for His holy love, so that He alone may possess it entirely. But the soul cannot do this of itself; it must obtain it from the Lord by repeated prayers. Concerning the sleep and suspension of the faculties, we should ask God for the grace to keep them asleep toward everything temporal, and awake only to consider the divine goodness and to aspire to divine love and eternal goods. Concerning the union of the faculties, let us pray that He give us the grace to think of, seek, and will nothing but what God wills, since all holiness and the perfection of love consist in uniting our will with the will of the Lord. Concerning ecstasy and rapture, let us pray God to draw us out of the disordered love of ourselves and of creatures, so as to draw us wholly to Himself. Concerning the flight of the spirit, let us pray Him to give us the grace to live entirely detached from this world, and to act as the swifts do: even to feed themselves they do not settle on the ground, but take their food in flight. That is to say, let us use these temporal goods insofar as they are necessary to sustain life, but always in flight, without settling on the earth to seek worldly pleasures. Concerning the impulse of the spirit, let us pray God to give us courage and strength to do violence to ourselves when necessary, to resist the assaults of our enemies, to overcome our passions, and to embrace suffering amid desolations and spiritual weariness. Finally, concerning the wound of love, just as a wound, by its pain, continually renews in a person's memory the thought of his affliction, so we should pray God to wound our heart so deeply with His holy love that we may always remember His goodness and the affection He has borne us. Thus may we live continually loving Him and pleasing Him by our works and affections. But none of these graces is obtained without prayer; and through prayer, provided it is humble, confident, and persevering, everything is obtained.

II. On the confidence with which we ought to pray

The chief admonition that the Apostle St. James gives us, if we wish to obtain graces from God by prayer, is that we should pray with confidence, certain of being heard if we pray as we ought, without wavering: Postulet autem in fide nihil haesitans ("But let him ask in faith, without wavering"). James 1:6. St. Thomas teaches that, just as prayer receives its power of meriting from charity, so it has its efficacy in obtaining what it asks from faith and confidence: Oratio habet vim merendi a caritate, efficaciam vero impetrandi a fide et fiducia ("Prayer has the power of meriting from charity, but the efficacy of obtaining what it asks from faith and confidence").⁴ St. Bernard teaches the same, saying that our confidence alone obtains the divine mercies for us: Sola spes apud Te, Domine, miserationis obtinet locum ("Hope alone finds a place for mercy with You, O Lord").⁵ The Lord takes great pleasure in our confidence in His mercy, because by it we honor and exalt that infinite goodness of His which, in creating us, He intended to manifest to the world. Let all those who hope in You rejoice, O my God, said the royal Prophet, for they will be eternally blessed, and You will always dwell in them:

Laetentur omnes qui sperant in te, in aeternum exultabunt, et habitabis in eis ("Let all who hope in You rejoice; they shall exult forever, and You shall dwell in them"). Ps. 5:12. God protects and saves all who trust in Him. Protector est omnium sperantium in se ("He is the protector of all who hope in Him"). Ps. 17:31. Qui salvos facis sperantes in te ("You who save those who hope in You"). Ps. 16:7. Oh, the great promises made in the divine Scriptures to those who hope in God! Whoever hopes in God will not fall into sin. Non delinquent omnes qui sperant in eo ("None who hope in Him shall fall into sin"). Ps. 33:23. Yes, because, says David, the Lord keeps His eyes turned toward all who trust in His goodness, to deliver them by His help from the death of sin: Ecce oculi Domini super metuentes eum, et in eis qui sperant super misericordia ejus, ut eruat a morte animas eorum ("Behold, the eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear Him and upon those who hope in His mercy, that He may deliver their souls from death"). Ps. 32:18–19. And elsewhere God Himself says: Quoniam in me speravit, liberabo eum, protegam eum... eripiam eum, et glorificabo eum ("Because he has hoped in Me, I will deliver him; I will protect him... I will rescue him and glorify him"). Ps. 90:14–15. Note the word quoniam: because this man has trusted in Me, I will protect him; I will deliver him from his enemies and from the danger of falling; and at last I will give him eternal glory. Speaking of those who place their hope in God, Isaiah says: Qui autem sperant in Deo, mutabunt fortitudinem, assument pennas sicut aquilae; current et non laborabunt, ambulabunt et non deficient ("But those who hope in God shall renew their strength; they shall take wings like eagles; they shall run and not grow weary; they shall walk and not faint"). Isa. 40:31. They will cease to be weak as they are and will acquire great strength in God; they will not fail, nor even grow weary in walking the way of salvation, but will run and fly like eagles. In silentio, et in spe erit fortitudo vestra ("In silence and in hope shall your strength be"). Isa. 30:15. In short, the same Prophet teaches us that all our strength consists in placing all our confidence in God and in keeping silence, that is, in resting in the arms of His mercy, without trusting in our own efforts or in human means.

And where has there ever been a case of anyone who trusted in God and was lost? Nullus speravit in Domino, et confusus est ("No one has hoped in the Lord and been put to shame"). Ecclus. 2:11. It was this confidence that assured David that he would never be lost. In te Domine speravi, non confundar in aeternum ("In You, O Lord, I have hoped; let me never be put to shame"). Ps. 30:1. And can God, says St. Augustine, be a deceiver, offering to sustain us in danger if we lean upon Him, and then wishing to withdraw from us when we have recourse to Him? Non est illusor Deus, ut ad supportandum se offerat, et nobis innitentibus ei se subtrahat ("God is no deceiver, that He should offer to support us and withdraw when we lean upon Him").⁶

David calls blessed the man who trusts in the Lord: Beatus homo, qui sperat in te ("Blessed is the man who hopes in You"). Ps. 83:13. And why? Because, says the same Prophet, whoever trusts in God will always find himself surrounded by the divine mercy: Sperantem autem in Domino misericordia circumdabit ("Mercy shall surround the man who hopes in the Lord").

Ps. 31:10. Thus he will be so surrounded and guarded on every side by God that he will remain safe from his enemies and from the danger of being lost.

For this reason the Apostle so strongly urges us to preserve our confidence in God, which, he assures us, certainly receives a great reward from Him: Nolite itaque amittere confidentiam vestram, quae magnam habet remunerationem ("Do not, therefore, lose your confidence, which has a great reward"). Heb. 10:35. The graces we receive from God will correspond to our trust: if our trust is great, the graces will also be great. Magna fides magna meretur ("Great faith merits great things"). St. Bernard writes that the divine mercy is an immense fountain: whoever brings to it the larger vessel of confidence carries away a greater abundance of blessings. Nec Oleum misericordiae nisi in vasa fiduciae (Domine) ponis ("You pour the oil of mercy, O Lord, only into vessels of confidence").⁷ The Prophet had already expressed this, saying: Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te ("Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we have hoped in You"). Ps. 32:22. This was fully realized in the centurion, to whom the Redeemer said, praising his confidence: Vade, et sicut credidisti fiat tibi ("Go, and as you have believed, so let it be done for you"). Matt. 8:13. And the Lord revealed to St. Gertrude that whoever prays to Him with confidence in a certain way does Him such violence that He cannot but hear him in everything he asks. Oratio, said St. John Climacus, pie Deo vim infert ("Prayer devoutly does violence to God"). Prayer does violence to God, but a violence that is dear and pleasing to Him. Therefore St. Paul exhorts us: Adeamus cum fiducia ad thronum gratiae, ut misericordiam consequamur, et gratiam inveniamus in auxilio opportuno ("Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, that we may obtain mercy and find grace for timely help"). Heb. 4:16. The throne of grace is Jesus Christ, who now sits at the right hand of the Father, not on a throne of justice but of grace, to obtain pardon for us if we are in sin, and help to persevere if we enjoy His friendship. We must always have recourse to this throne with trust, that is, with the confidence which faith gives us in the goodness and faithfulness of God, who has promised to hear whoever prays to Him with confidence—but with a confidence that is steadfast and sure. On the other hand, St. James says that whoever prays to Him with wavering should not expect to receive anything: Qui enim haesitat, similis est fluctui maris, qui a vento movetur et circumfertur; non ergo aestimet homo ille, quod accipiat aliquid a Domino ("For whoever wavers is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed about by the wind; therefore let that man not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord"). James 1:6–7. He will receive nothing, because the unjust distrust by which he is agitated will prevent the divine mercy from granting his petitions. Non recte petisti, quia dubitabundus petisti, says St. Basil ("You did not ask rightly, because you asked with doubt").⁸ You have not received the grace because you asked for it without confidence. David said that our confidence in God must be firm as a mountain, which is not moved by any blast of wind: Qui confidunt in Domino, sicut mons Sion, non commovebitur in aeternum ("Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Sion, which shall never be moved"). Ps. 123:1. And this is what the Redeemer taught us, if we wish to obtain the graces we ask: Quaecumque orantes petitis, credite quia accipietis, et evenient vobis ("Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you shall receive, and it shall come to you"). Mark 11:24. Whatever grace you ask, be sure of receiving it, and thus you will obtain it.

But where, someone will say, am I, wretched as I am, to ground this certain confidence of obtaining what I ask? Where? On the promise made by Jesus Christ: Petite, et accipietis ("Ask, and you shall receive"). John 16:24. Ask, and you will have it. Quis falli metuet, dum promittit Veritas? says St. Augustine ("Who will fear being deceived when Truth makes the promise?"). How can we doubt that we shall be heard when God, who is Truth itself, promises to grant us what we ask of Him in prayer? Non hortaretur ut peteremus, says the same holy Doctor, nisi dare vellet ("He would not urge us to ask unless He wished to give").⁹ Certainly the Lord would not exhort us to ask Him for graces if He did not wish to grant them to us. Yet this is precisely what He urges so strongly and repeats so often in the sacred Scriptures: pray, ask, seek—Orate, petite, quaerite, and so forth—and you will obtain all that you desire: Quodcumque volueritis, petetis, et fiet vobis ("You shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you"). John 15:7. And so that we may pray to Him with the confidence we ought to have, the Savior has taught us in the prayer of the Our Father that, when we have recourse to God to receive the graces necessary for our salvation, all of which are contained in the Our Father, we should call Him not Lord but Father, Pater noster. For He wishes us to ask God for graces with the same confidence with which a poor or sick child asks his own father for food or medicine. If a child is about to die of hunger, he need only make this known to his father, and his father will immediately provide him with food. And if he has been bitten by a venomous serpent, he need only show his father the wound he has received, so that his father may at once apply the remedy he already has.

Trusting, then, in the divine promises, let us always ask with confidence, not wavering, but steadfast and firm, as the Apostle says: Teneamus spei nostrae confessionem indeclinabilem; fidelis enim est, qui repromisit ("Let us hold unwaveringly to the confession of our hope, for He who has promised is faithful"). Heb. 10:23. As certain as it is that God is faithful to His promises, so certain also must be our confidence that He will hear us when we pray to Him. And although at times, finding ourselves perhaps in a state of dryness or troubled by some fault we have committed, we do not experience in prayer the felt confidence we would wish to have, nevertheless let us make ourselves pray, because God will not fail to hear us. Indeed, He will hear us all the more readily then, because we shall pray with greater distrust of ourselves and trust only in the goodness and faithfulness of God, who has promised to hear whoever prays to Him. Oh, how pleasing to the Lord, in times of tribulation, fear, and temptation, is our hoping even against hope—that is, against the feeling of distrust we then experience because of our desolation! For this the Apostle praises the patriarch Abraham, saying: Qui contra spem in spem credidit ("Who against hope believed in hope"). Rom. 4:18.

St. John says that whoever places firm confidence in God certainly becomes holy: Et omnis qui habet hanc spem in eo, sanctificat se, sicut et ille sanctus est ("And everyone who has this hope in Him makes himself holy, as He also is holy"). 1 John 3:3. For God causes graces to abound in all who trust in Him. With this confidence so many martyrs, so many young virgins, so many children, despite the terror of the torments prepared for them by tyrants, have overcome both torments and tyrants. At times, I say, we pray, but it seems to us that God is unwilling to listen. Ah, let us not then cease to persevere in prayer and hope. Let us say then with Job: Etiam si occiderit me, in ipso sperabo ("Even if He should kill me, I will hope in Him"). Job 13:15. My God, even if You were to drive me from Your presence, I would not cease to pray to You and to hope in Your mercy. Let us do this, and we shall obtain from the Lord what we desire.

Thus did the woman of Canaan act, and she obtained all that she wished from Jesus Christ. This woman, whose daughter was possessed by the devil, begged the Redeemer to deliver her: Miserere mei, filia mea male vexatur a Daemone ("Have mercy on me; my daughter is grievously afflicted by a demon"). Matt. 15:22. The Lord replied that He had not been sent to the Gentiles, as she was, but to the Jews. Yet she did not lose heart and returned to pray with confidence: Lord, You can console me; You must console me. Domine adjuva me ("Lord, help me"). Jesus Christ replied: But it is not right to give the children's bread to the dogs. Non est bonum sumere panem filiorum, et dare canibus ("It is not right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs"). But, my Lord, she added, even the little dogs are given the crumbs of bread that fall from the table: Etiam catelli edunt de micis ("Even the little dogs eat of the crumbs"). Then the Savior, seeing this woman's great confidence, praised her and granted her the grace, saying: O mulier, magna est fides tua, fiat tibi sicut vis ("O woman, great is your faith; let it be done for you as you wish"). Ibid. And who, says Ecclesiasticus, has ever called upon God for help, and God has despised him and failed to assist him? Aut quis invocavit eum, et despexit illum? ("Or who has called upon Him, and He has despised him?"). Ecclus. 2:12.

St. Augustine says that prayer is a key which opens Heaven for our good: at the very moment that our prayer rises to God, the grace we ask descends to us. Oratio Justi clavis est Caeli; ascendit precatio, et descendit Dei miseratio ("The prayer of the just is the key of Heaven; prayer ascends, and the mercy of God descends").¹⁰ The royal Prophet wrote that our supplications and the mercy of God are joined together: Benedictus Deus, qui non amovit orationem meam, et misericordiam suam a me ("Blessed be God, who has not removed my prayer or His mercy from me"). Ps. 65:20. Hence the same St. Augustine says that, when we find ourselves praying to the Lord, we should be certain that He is already hearing us: Cum videris a te non amotam deprecationem tuam, securus esto, quod non est a te amota misericordia ejus ("When you see that your supplication has not been taken from you, be sure that His mercy has not been taken from you").¹¹ And I, to tell the truth, never feel more consoled in spirit or more confident of being saved than when I find myself praying to God and commending myself to Him. I think the same happens to all the other faithful, because all the other signs of our salvation are uncertain and fallible; but that God hears whoever prays to Him with confidence is a certain and infallible truth, just as it is infallible that God cannot fail in His promises.

When we see ourselves weak and unable to overcome some passion or some great difficulty in carrying out what the Lord asks of us, let us say courageously with the Apostle: Omnia possum in eo, qui me confortat ("I can do all things in Him who strengthens me"). Phil. 4:13. Let us not say, as some do: I cannot; I do not feel able. With our own strength we certainly can do nothing, but with divine help we can do everything. If God said to someone: Take this mountain upon your shoulders and carry it, for I am helping you, would that man not be foolish or unbelieving if he replied: I do not wish to take it, because I do not have the strength to carry it? And so, when we know ourselves to be wretched and weak as we are, and find ourselves more fiercely assailed by temptations, let us not lose heart. Let us lift our eyes to God and say with David: Dominus mihi adjutor, et ego despiciam inimicos meos ("The Lord is my helper, and I shall look down upon my enemies"). Ps. 117:6. With my Lord's help I shall conquer and scorn all the assaults of my enemies. And when we find ourselves in some danger of offending God, or in some other matter of consequence, and in our confusion do not know what we ought to do, let us commend ourselves to God, saying: Dominus illuminatio mea, et salus mea, quem timebo? ("The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?"). Ps. 26:1. And let us be certain that God will then enlighten us and save us from every harm.

But I am a sinner, someone says, and in Scripture I read: Peccatores Deus non audit ("God does not hear sinners"). St. Thomas replies with St. Augustine that this was said by the blind man when he spoke before he had yet been fully enlightened: Illud verbum est Caeci nondum perfecte illuminati, et ideo non est ratum ("That saying is that of the blind man not yet fully enlightened, and therefore it is not authoritative").¹² Yet the Angelic Doctor adds that it is well said if one is speaking of the petition made by a sinner in quantum est peccator ("insofar as he is a sinner"), that is, when he asks out of a desire to go on sinning: for example, if he were to ask for help in taking revenge on his enemy or in carrying out some other evil intention. The same holds for the sinner who prays to God to save him, but without having any desire to leave the state of sin. There are some unhappy people who love the chains with which the devil holds them bound as slaves. God does not hear their prayers, because they are presumptuous and abominable prayers. And what greater presumption could there be than for a man to wish to ask favors of a prince whom he has not only offended many times, but whom he intends to go on offending? This is how we should understand what the Holy Spirit says, that the prayer of one who turns away his ears so as not to hear what God commands is detestable and hateful to God: Qui declinat aures suas, ne audiat legem, oratio ejus erit exsecrabilis ("The prayer of one who turns away his ears so as not to hear the law shall be abominable"). Prov. 28:9. To such people the Lord says: There is no point in your praying, for I shall turn My eyes away from you and shall not hear you. Cum extenderitis manus vestras, avertam oculos meos a vobis, et cum multiplicaveritis orationem, non exaudiam ("When you stretch out your hands, I shall turn My eyes away from you; and when you multiply your prayer, I shall not hear"). Isa. 1:15. Such indeed was the prayer of the wicked King Antiochus, who prayed to God and promised great things, but falsely and with his heart obstinate in sin, praying only to escape the punishment that hung over him. Therefore the Lord did not listen to his prayers, but caused him to die devoured by worms. Orabat hic scelestus Dominum, a quo misericordiam non esset consecuturus ("This wicked man prayed to the Lord, from whom he was not to obtain mercy"). 2 Macc. 9:13.

Others, however, who sin through weakness or through the force of some great passion, groan beneath the enemy's yoke and desire to break those chains of death and escape that wretched slavery, and therefore ask God for help. Their prayer, if it is constant, will surely be heard by the Lord, who says that everyone who asks receives, and whoever seeks grace finds it: Omnis enim qui petit, accipit ("For everyone who asks receives"):

et qui quaerit, invenit ("and whoever seeks finds"). Matt. 7:8. Omnis, explains the author of the Unfinished Work, sive justus, sive peccator sit ("Everyone, whether he is just or a sinner").¹³ And in St. Luke, Jesus Christ, speaking of the man who gave his friend all the loaves he had, not so much because of their friendship as because of the friend's persistence, said: Dico vobis, etsi non dabit, quia amicus est, propter improbitatem tamen surget, et dabit illi quotquot habet necessarios. Sicque et ego dico vobis, petite et dabitur vobis ("I tell you, even if he will not give because he is his friend, nevertheless because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs. And so I say to you: ask, and it shall be given to you"). Luke 11:8. Thus persevering prayer obtains mercy from God even for those who are not His friends. What is not obtained through friendship, says Chrysostom, is obtained through prayer: Quod non perfecit amicitia, perfectum est ab Oratione ("What friendship did not accomplish was accomplished by prayer").¹⁴ Indeed, the same saint says that prayer has greater power with God than friendship: Non tam valet amicitia apud Deum, quam Oratio; et quod amicitia non perfecit, perfectum est ab Oratione ("Friendship has not so much power with God as prayer; and what friendship did not accomplish was accomplished by prayer").¹⁵ And St. Basil does not doubt that even sinners obtain what they ask if they persevere in prayer: Peccatores impetrant, quod petunt, si perseveranter petunt ("Sinners obtain what they ask, if they ask perseveringly").¹⁶ St. Gregory says the same: Clamet et peccator, et ad Deum sua perveniet Oratio ("Let the sinner too cry out, and his prayer will reach God").¹⁷ St. Jerome writes the same,¹⁸ saying that even a sinner may call God his Father if he prays to Him to accept him again as His son, following the example of the prodigal son, who called Him Father—Pater peccavi ("Father, I have sinned")—although he had not yet been forgiven. If God did not hear sinners, says St. Augustine, the publican would have asked pardon in vain: Si enim peccatores Deus non exaudit, frustra ille Publicanus diceret: Deus, propitius esto mihi peccatori ("For if God does not hear sinners, that publican would have said in vain: God, be merciful to me, a sinner").¹⁹ But the Gospel attests that the publican did obtain pardon by prayer: Descendit hic justificatus in domum suam ("This man went down to his house justified"). Luke 18:14.

But above all, the Angelic Doctor examines this point in greater detail,²⁰ and does not hesitate to assert that even the sinner is heard if he prays. He says that although the sinner's prayer is not meritorious, it nevertheless has the power to obtain what it asks, because this obtaining rests not upon justice but upon the divine goodness: Meritum, says the saint, innititur justitiae, sed impetratio innititur gratiae ("Merit rests upon justice, but obtaining what one asks rests upon grace").²¹ This is precisely how Daniel prayed: Inclina, Deus meus, aurem tuam, et audi... Neque enim in justificationibus nostris prosternimus preces ante faciem tuam, sed in miserationibus tuis multis ("Incline Your ear, my God, and hear... For it is not on account of our righteous deeds that we lay our prayers before Your face, but on account of Your many mercies"). Dan. 9:18. When we pray, therefore, says St. Thomas, it is not necessary to be friends of God in order to obtain from Him the graces we ask; prayer itself makes us His friends: Ipsa Oratio familiares nos Deo facit ("Prayer itself makes us intimate with God"). St. Bernard moreover adds a beautiful reason, saying that the sinner's prayer to leave sin springs from the desire to return to God's grace. Now this desire is a gift which certainly comes to him from none other than God Himself. Why then, the saint goes on to say, would God give the sinner such a holy desire if He did not wish to hear him? Desiderium ad quid daret, nisi vellet exaudire? ("Why would He give the desire unless He wished to hear?"). Indeed, the divine Scriptures themselves contain so many examples of sinners who were delivered from sin through prayer. Thus King Achab was delivered (3 Kings 2); thus King Manasses (2 Paralip. 33); thus King Nabuchodonosor (Dan. 4); thus the good thief (Luke 23:43). What a great thing, and what great power prayer has! Two sinners die on Calvary beside Jesus Christ: one, because he prays—memento mei ("remember me")—is saved; the other, because he does not pray, is damned!

In short, Chrysostom says: Nullus ab eo beneficia dolenter postulavit, qui non impetravit quod voluit ("No one has asked Him for blessings with sorrow and failed to obtain what he desired").²² No repentant sinner has prayed to the Lord without obtaining what he desired. But what need is there for further authorities and reasons to prove this, when Jesus Himself says: Venite ad me omnes, qui laboratis, et onerati estis, et ego reficiam vos ("Come to Me, all who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you"). Matt. 11:28. By onerati, according to St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and others generally, are understood sinners who groan beneath the weight of their sins; when they have recourse to God they will surely, according to this promise, be refreshed and saved by His grace. Ah, says St. John Chrysostom, we do not desire to be forgiven so much as God longs to forgive us: Non adeo cupis dimitti peccata tua, sicut ille cupit peccata dimittere ("You do not desire your sins to be forgiven so much as He desires to forgive sins"). There is no grace, the saint adds, that cannot be obtained by prayer, even if it is offered by the most abandoned sinner there is, provided it is persevering: Nihil est, quod non obtineat oratio, etiam si mille peccatis obnoxius sit, sed vehemens, sed assidua ("There is nothing that prayer cannot obtain, even if the one who prays is guilty of a thousand sins, provided it is fervent and constant").²³ And let us note what St. James says: Si quis indiget sapientia, postulet a Deo, qui dat omnibus affluenter, et non improperat ("If anyone needs wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives abundantly to all and does not reproach"). James 1:5. Thus God never fails to hear all those who have recourse to Him in prayer and to fill them with graces: dat omnibus affluenter ("He gives abundantly to all"). But let us reflect particularly on the words that follow: et non improperat ("and does not reproach"). This means that God does not act as men do, who, when someone who has previously offended them on some occasion comes to ask them a favor, immediately reproach him with the injury they have received from him. The Lord does not act thus with whoever prays to Him. Even if he is the greatest sinner in the world, when he asks for some grace useful to his eternal salvation, the Lord does not reproach him with the offenses he has committed against Him. Instead, as though he had never offended Him, the Lord at once receives him, consoles him, hears him, and abundantly enriches him with His gifts. Above all, to encourage us to pray, the Redeemer says: Amen, amen dico vobis, si quid petieritis Patrem in nomine meo, dabit vobis ("Amen, amen, I say to you: if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you"). John 16:23. It is as though He were saying: Come, sinners, do not lose heart; do not let your sins hold you back from having recourse to My Father and hoping to receive your salvation from Him, if you desire it. You have no merits by which to obtain the graces you ask; you have only demerits deserving punishment. Do this: go to My Father in My name; ask through My merits for the graces you desire; and I promise you and swear to you—St. Augustine says that amen, amen dico vobis is a kind of oath—that My Father will grant you whatever you ask.

O God, what greater consolation can a sinner have after his ruin than to know with certainty that he will receive everything he asks of God in the name of Jesus Christ?

I say everything concerning eternal salvation, for as regards temporal goods, we have already said above that the Lord sometimes does not grant them to us, even when asked, because He sees that such goods would harm our soul. But as regards spiritual goods, His promise to hear us is not conditional but absolute. Therefore St. Augustine exhorts us to ask with assurance of receiving those things which God promises absolutely: Quae Deus promittit, securi petite ("Ask with assurance for what God promises").²⁴ And how, the saint writes, can the Lord deny us anything when we pray to Him with confidence, since He desires to bestow His graces upon us more than we desire to have them? Plus vult Ille tibi beneficia elargiri, quam tu accipere concupiscas ("He wishes to bestow blessings upon you more than you long to receive them").

Chrysostom says that the Lord is angry with us only when we neglect to ask Him for His gifts: Non nisi quando non postulamus irascitur ("He is angry only when we do not ask"). And how can it be that God would be unwilling to hear a soul who asks Him for things wholly pleasing to Him? When the soul says to Him: Lord, I do not ask You for the goods of this earth, riches, pleasures, honors; I ask only for Your grace. Deliver me from sin; give me a good death; give me Paradise; give me Your holy love—which, as St. Francis de Sales says, is the grace we should ask of God above all others; give me resignation to Your will. How is it possible that God would be unwilling to hear her? And what prayers, says St. Augustine, will You hear, my God, if You do not hear these, which are all according to Your heart? Quas preces exaudis, si has non exaudis? ("What prayers do You hear, if You do not hear these?"). But above all, when we ask God for spiritual graces, our confidence should be renewed by what Jesus Christ said: Si ergo vos, cum sitis mali, nostis bona data dare filiis vestris; quanto magis Pater vester de caelo dabit Spiritum bonum petentibus se? ("If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from Heaven give the good Spirit to those who ask Him?"). Luke 11:13. If you, says the Redeemer, who are so attached to your own interests because you are full of self-love, cannot refuse your children what they ask of you, how much more will your heavenly Father, who loves you more than any earthly father, grant you spiritual goods when you pray to Him for them?

III. On the perseverance required in prayer

It is necessary, then, that our prayers be humble and confident; but this is not enough to obtain final perseverance, and with it eternal salvation. Particular prayers will indeed obtain the particular graces that are asked of God, but if they are not persevering, they will not obtain final perseverance. Since this contains the sum of many graces together, it requires multiplied prayers, continued until death. The grace of salvation is not a single grace, but a chain of graces, all of which are then united with the grace of final perseverance. Now this chain of graces must be answered by another chain, so to speak, of our prayers. If, through neglecting to pray, we break the chain of our prayers, the chain of graces that are to obtain salvation for us will also be broken, and we shall not be saved.

It is true that we cannot merit final perseverance, as the holy Council of Trent teaches, saying: Aliunde haberi non potest, nisi ab eo qui potens est eum qui stat statuere, ut perseveranter stet — “It cannot be obtained from any other source than from Him who is able to establish the one who stands, so that he may stand perseveringly” (Sess. 6, ch. 13). Nevertheless, St. Augustine says that this great gift of perseverance can in a certain manner indeed be merited by prayers — that is, obtained by asking: Hoc ergo donum (Perseverantiae) suppliciter emereri potest, id est supplicando impetrari potest — “This gift, then, of perseverance can be humbly merited, that is, obtained by supplication.”²⁵ And Fr. Suárez adds that whoever prays infallibly obtains it. But to obtain it and be saved, says St. Thomas Aquinas, persevering and continual prayer is necessary: Post Baptismum autem necessaria est homini jugis oratio, ad hoc quod Caelum introeat — “After Baptism, however, continual prayer is necessary for man, so that he may enter heaven.”²⁶ Our Savior Himself had already said this many times: Oportet semper orare, et non deficere — “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). Vigilate itaque omni tempore orantes, ut digni habeamini fugere ista omnia quae futura sunt, et stare ante Filium hominis — “Watch, therefore, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36). The same had been said before in the Old Testament: Non impediaris orare semper — “Do not be hindered from praying always” (Ecclus. 18:22). Omni tempore benedic Deum, et pete ab eo, ut vias tuas dirigat — “Bless God at all times, and ask Him to direct your ways” (Tob. 4:20). Therefore the Apostle insisted that his disciples should never cease to pray: Sine intermissione orate — “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Orationi instate vigilantes in ea — “Be constant in prayer, watching in it” (Col. 4:2). Volo ergo viros orare omni loco — “I will, therefore, that men pray in every place” (1 Tim. 2:8). The Lord indeed wishes to give us perseverance and eternal life, but, says St. Nilus, He wishes to grant it only to those who perseveringly ask it of Him: Vult beneficio afficere in oratione perseverantes — “He wishes to bestow His benefits on those who persevere in prayer.”²⁷ Many sinners, with the help of grace, come to be converted to God and to receive forgiveness; but afterwards, because they cease to ask for perseverance, they fall again and lose everything.

Nor is it enough, says Bellarmine, to ask for the grace of perseverance once or a few times: we must ask it always, every day until death, if we wish to obtain it. Quotidie petenda est, ut quotidie obtineatur — “It must be asked for daily, so that it may be obtained daily.” Whoever asks it one day will obtain it for that day; but if he does not ask it tomorrow, tomorrow he will fall. This is what the Lord wished us to understand in the parable of that friend who would not give bread to the man who asked it of him, except after many importunate requests, saying: Si non dabit illi surgens, eo quod amicus sit, propter improbitatem tamen ejus surget, et dabit illi quotquot habet necessarios — “Even if he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needs” (Luke 11:8). Now if such a friend, says St. Augustine, merely to rid himself of the man's importunity, would give him, even unwillingly, the bread he asks for, quanto magis dabit Deus bonus, qui nos hortatur ut petamus, cui displicet si non petamus? — “How much more will the good God give, who encourages us to ask, and is displeased if we do not ask?” How much more will God, who, being infinite Goodness, so greatly desires to communicate His goods to us, give us His graces when we ask Him for them? All the more because He Himself exhorts us to ask for them, and is displeased if we do not ask. The Lord, then, indeed wishes to grant us salvation and all the graces needed for it, but He wishes us never to cease asking Him for them continually, even to the point of importunity. Cornelius a Lapide says on the Gospel passage cited: Vult nos esse Deus perseverantes in oratione usque ad importunitatem — “God wishes us to persevere in prayer to the point of importunity.” Men on earth cannot bear the importunate, but God not only bears with us; He desires us to be importunate in asking Him for graces, and especially for holy perseverance. St. Gregory says that God wishes us to do violence to Him by our prayers, since such violence does not anger Him, but appeases Him: Vult Deus vocari, vult cogi, vult quadam importunitate vinci... Bona violentia, qua Deus non offenditur, sed placatur — “God wishes to be called upon, wishes to be constrained, wishes to be overcome by a certain importunity... Good is the violence by which God is not offended, but appeased.”²⁸

Thus, to obtain perseverance, we must always commend ourselves to God: in the morning, in the evening, in meditation, at Mass, in Communion, and always — especially in time of temptation, then always saying and repeating: “Lord, help me; Lord, assist me; hold Your hands over me; do not abandon me; have pity on me.” Is anything easier than to say: “Lord, help me; assist me”? On the words of the Psalmist, Apud me oratio Deo vitae meae — “With me is prayer to the God of my life” (Ps. 41:10), the Gloss says: Dicet quis non possum jejunare, dare eleemosynas; si dicitur ei, ora, non potest hoc dicere — “Someone will say: I cannot fast or give alms; if he is told, Pray, he cannot say this.” For there is nothing easier than to pray.

But we must never cease to pray; we must continually, so to speak, constrain God to help us always — but with a constraint that is dear and pleasing to Him. Haec vis grata Deo — “This force is pleasing to God,” wrote Tertullian. And St. Jerome said that the more persevering and importunate our prayers are, the more acceptable they are to God: Oratio quandiu importuna est, plus amica est — “As long as prayer is importunate, it is the more welcome.”²⁹

Beatus vir qui audit me, et vigilat ad fores meas quotidie — “Blessed is the man who hears me and watches daily at my doors” (Prov. 8:34). Blessed is that man, says God, who listens to Me and watches continually with holy prayers at the doors of My mercy. And Isaiah says: Beati omnes qui expectant eum — “Blessed are all who wait for Him” (Isa. 30:18). Blessed are those who, until the end, await their salvation from the Lord in prayer. Therefore, in the Gospel, Jesus Christ exhorts us to pray — but in what manner? Petite, et accipietis; quaerite, et invenietis: pulsate, et aperietur vobis — “Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Luke 11:9). It would have been enough to say petite, “ask”; what need was there to add quaerite and pulsate, “seek” and “knock”?

But no, adding them was not needless. By this the Redeemer wished to teach us that we must act as the poor do when they go begging. If they do not receive the alms they ask for and are sent away, they do not cease to ask and to ask again; and if the master of the house no longer appears, they begin knocking at the doors until they become very importunate and troublesome. This is what God wishes us to do: to pray, and pray again, and never cease to pray that He assist us, help us, give us light, give us strength, and never permit us to lose His grace. The learned Lessius says that one who does not pray while in sin or in danger of death cannot be excused from grave fault; nor can one who neglects prayer for a considerable time — that is, as he says, for one or two months. But this is understood outside times of temptation; for one who finds himself assailed by some grave temptation undoubtedly sins gravely if he does not have recourse to God in prayer, asking for help to resist it, when he sees that otherwise he puts himself in proximate, indeed certain, danger of falling.

But someone will say: Since the Lord can and wishes to give me holy perseverance, why does He not grant it to me all at once, when I ask Him for it? The holy Fathers give many reasons. God does not grant it all at once, but delays it, first in order to test our confidence more fully. Furthermore, says St. Augustine, He does so that we may long for it more ardently. The Saint writes that great gifts require great desire, since goods received quickly are not afterwards held in the same esteem as those that have long been desired: Non vult (Deus) cito dare, ut discas magna magne desiderare; diu desiderata dulcius obtinentur; cito autem data vilescunt — “God does not wish to give quickly, so that you may learn to desire great things greatly; things long desired are obtained more sweetly, whereas things quickly given are held cheap.”³⁰

Furthermore, He does this so that we may not forget Him. If we were already sure of perseverance and of our salvation, and did not have continual need of God's help to remain in His grace and be saved, we would easily forget God. Need makes the poor frequent the houses of the rich. Hence the Lord, to draw us to Himself, as St. John Chrysostom says, and to see us often at His feet so that He may bestow greater benefits upon us, for this purpose withholds the full grace of salvation until the time of our death: Neque renuens nostras preces differt, sed hac arte, sedulos nos efficiens, ad Semet ipsum attrahere vult — “He delays, not because He refuses our prayers, but because by this means, making us diligent, He wishes to draw us to Himself.”³¹ Furthermore, He does this so that, by continuing to pray, we may bind ourselves more closely to Him with sweet bonds of love. Oratio, says the same Chrysostom, non parvum vinculum est dilectionis in Deum, quae cum Eo colloqui assuefacit — “Prayer is no small bond of love toward God, since it accustoms us to converse with Him.”³² That continual recourse to God in prayer, and that confident expectation from Him of the graces we desire — oh, what a great incentive and bond of love it is, to inflame us and bind us more closely to God!

But for how long must we pray? Always, answers the same Saint, until we receive the favorable sentence of eternal salvation — that is, until death. Non desistas, says the Saint, donec accipias — “Do not cease until you receive.”³³ And he adds that whoever says, “I will not cease to pray until I am saved,” will certainly be saved: Si dixeris, Nisi accepero non recedam, prorsus accipies — “If you say, Unless I receive, I will not go away, you will certainly receive.” The Apostle writes that many run for the prize, but only the one who reaches it receives it: Nescitis quod ii qui in stadio currunt, omnes quidem currunt, sed unus accipit bravium? Sic currite, ut comprehendatis — “Do you not know that those who run in the stadium all indeed run, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain it” (1 Cor. 9:24). It is not enough, then, to pray in order to be saved; we must pray always, until we come to receive the crown which God promises, but promises only to those who remain constant in praying to Him until the end.

Thus, if we wish to be saved, we must do as David did, who always kept his eyes turned toward the Lord, to implore His help and not be overcome by his enemies. Oculi mei semper ad Dominum, quia ipse evellet de laqueo pedes meos — “My eyes are always toward the Lord, for He will draw my feet out of the snare” (Ps. 24:15). As the devil never ceases laying snares for us in order to devour us, according to what St. Peter writes — Adversarius vester diabolus, sicut leo rugiens, circuit quaerens quem devoret, “Your adversary the devil goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8) — so we must continually stand with weapons in hand to defend ourselves against such an enemy, and say with the royal Prophet: Persequar inimicos meos, et non convertar, donec deficiant — “I will pursue my enemies, and will not turn back until they fail” (Ps. 17:4). I will not cease to fight until I see my adversaries defeated. But how can we obtain this victory, so important to us and so difficult? Perseverantissimis precibus, St. Augustine answers us: only by prayers, and prayers most persevering. And for how long? For as long as the battle lasts. Sicut nunquam deficit pugna, says St. Bonaventure, sic nunquam cessemus petere misericordiam — “As the battle never ceases, so let us never cease to ask for mercy” (Serm. 27, de Conf.). As we must fight continually, so we must continually ask God for help, lest we be overcome. Woe, says the Wise Man, to one who ceases to pray in this battle: Vae his qui perdiderunt sustinentiam — “Woe to those who have lost endurance” (Ecclus. 2:16). We shall be saved, the Apostle admonishes us, but on this condition: Si fiduciam, et gloriam spei usque ad finem retineamus — “If we hold fast our confidence and the glory of hope unto the end” (Heb. 3:6), if we remain constant in praying with confidence until death.

Let us, then, say with the same Apostle, encouraged by the mercy of God and by His promises: Quis ergo separabit nos a caritate Christi? tribulatio? an angustia?... an periculum? an persecutio? an gladius? — “Who, then, will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation? Or distress?... Or danger? Or persecution? Or the sword?” (Rom. 8:35). Who will separate us from the love of Jesus Christ? Will it be tribulation? The danger of losing this world's goods? The persecutions of demons or men? The torments of tyrants? In his omnibus superamus, St. Paul encourages us, propter eum qui dilexit nos — “In all these things we overcome through Him who loved us” (ibid., v. 37).

No, he said, no tribulation, distress, danger, persecution, or torment will ever be able to separate us from the love of Jesus Christ; for we shall overcome everything with divine help, fighting for love of that Lord who gave His life for us. Fr. Ippolito Durazzo, on the day when he resolved to leave the prelacy in Rome and give himself entirely to God by entering the Society of Jesus, as he afterwards did, feared his own unfaithfulness because of his weakness, and said to God: Non me deseras — “Do not abandon me”; Lord, now that I have given myself wholly to You, for pity's sake do not abandon me. But he heard God say to him in his heart: Tu non me deseras — “You must not abandon Me”; rather, God said to him, I tell you not to leave Me. And so the servant of God, trusting in the divine goodness and in His help, finally concluded: “Then, my God, You will not leave me, and I will not leave You.”

In conclusion, if we wish God not to leave us, we must never cease praying to Him always not to abandon us. If we do this, He will certainly always assist us and will never permit us to lose Him and separate ourselves from His love. To this end, let us not only strive always to ask for final perseverance and the graces necessary to obtain it; but at the same time let us always ask the Lord beforehand for the grace to continue praying. This was precisely the great gift which He promised His elect through the mouth of the Prophet: Et effundam super Domum David, et super habitatores Jerusalem spiritum gratiae, et precum — “And I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of prayers” (Zech. 12:10). Oh, what a great grace is the spirit of prayer — that is, the grace which God grants a soul to pray always! Let us, then, never cease asking God for this grace and this spirit of praying always; for if we pray always, we shall certainly obtain from the Lord perseverance and every other gift we desire, since His promise to hear those who pray to Him cannot fail. Spe enim salvi facti sumus — “For we have been saved by hope” (Rom. 8:24). With this hope of praying always, we may regard ourselves as saved. Hujus nobis Urbis fiducia latum praebebit ingressum — “Confidence will provide us with a broad entrance into this City.”³⁴ This hope, said the Venerable Bede, will give us sure entrance into the City of Paradise.