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Prayer, the Great Means of Salvation

Prayer to obtain confidence in the merits of Jesus Christ, and in the intercession of Mary

St. Alphonsus de Liguori

AI-assisted English translation from the Italian; selected passages reviewed. Source, method & review limits

Eternal Father, I thank You, as much as I can, on my own part and on that of all men, for the great mercy You have shown us in sending Your Son to become man and to die, to obtain salvation for us; I thank You for it, and in thanksgiving I would wish to render You as much love as so great a benefit deserves. Through His merits You forgive our sins, since those merits have satisfied Your justice for the punishments we deserved; through them You receive into Your grace us miserable sinners, who deserve nothing but hatred and chastisements; through them You admit men to reign in paradise; through them, in short, You are bound to grant every gift and grace to whoever asks it of You in the name of Jesus Christ.

I thank You also, O infinite Goodness, that to aid our confidence, besides Jesus Christ whom You have given us as Redeemer, You have given us also as advocate Your beloved Daughter Mary, so that with that heart full of mercy which You have given her she may never cease to succor with her intercession every sinner who has recourse to her; and this intercession of hers You have made so powerful with You that You cannot deny her whatever grace she asks of You.

Hence You will that we should have a great confidence in the merits of Jesus and in the intercession of Mary. But this confidence is Your gift, and a great gift, which You bestow only on those whom You will to be saved. This confidence, then, in the blood of Jesus Christ and in the patronage of Mary I ask of You, and I ask it of You through the merits of Jesus and of Mary. To You also I turn, my dear Redeemer; for this end You sacrificed Your life on the cross, to obtain for me, worthy only of chastisements, this confidence in Your merits; fulfill, then, the end for which You died: make me hope for all things, trusting in Your Passion. And You, O Mary, my Mother and my hope after Jesus Christ, obtain for me a firm confidence, first in the merits of Jesus Your Son, and then in the intercession of Your Prayers — omnipotent Prayers, which obtain from the Lord whatever they ask. O my beloved Jesus, O my sweet Mary, to You I entrust, to You I consign my soul; You who have loved it so much, have pity on it, and save it.

About this translation

This English translation from the Italian was drafted with AI assistance using SWE-2 Max and prepared as a reading edition for this library. Review has included source provenance, section structure, and selected source comparisons and corrections. It has not included a complete independent, sentence-by-sentence translation audit.

Translated from the Italian author text transcribed by IntraText from Opere ascetiche, volume II (Rome, 1962), pages 3–178. Modern editorial apparatus is excluded. Inherited bibliographic citations are incomplete; the introductory note describes the restored passages and review limitations.

This is a reading copy, not a critical edition. No professional translation certification or ecclesiastical approval is claimed for this modern edition.

No general reuse licence is specified for this modern translation or its source transcription. The age of the original work does not by itself establish their reuse terms.

Remember Eternity · remembereternity.org. AI-assisted English translation drafted with SWE-2 Max from the Italian; selected source comparisons and corrections only. No complete independent translation audit or ecclesiastical approval is claimed. Translated from the Italian author text transcribed by IntraText from Opere ascetiche, volume II (Rome, 1962), pages 3–178. Modern editorial apparatus is excluded. Inherited bibliographic citations are incomplete; the introductory note describes the restored passages and review limitations. No general reuse licence is specified for this modern translation or its source transcription.