p. 8Necessity of the Prayer of Petition

The necessity of the prayer of petition is twofold: first, it is expressly commanded by God, and secondly, it is the ordinary and universal means of obtaining divine grace, which is indispensable to salvation. Hence no prayer, no salvation.

I. In the first place, God Gives Us an Express Command to Pray to Him in Our Wants. St. Luke, in his Gospel, writes that “Jesus spoke a parable (to teach us that) we ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18. 1). On another occasion Jesus commands us to pray, saying: “Watch ye, praying at all times”; and why does He give us this command? That we may escape the snares in the road of salvation and “be accounted worthy to stand (at judgment) before the Son of man” (Luke 21. 36), and thus secure our salvation. The Holy Ghost expressly commands us to pray, and to pray always, for He says in Holy Scripture: “Let nothing hinder thee from praying always” (Eccli. 18. 22), that is, we should let nothing prevent us from praying to God for His assistance in all our wants, as we learn from the commands God spoke through His prophets: “Cry to Me, and I will hear thee” (Jer. 33. 3); “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee” (Ps. 49. 15); “Seek ye the Lord, and be strengthened” (Ps. 104. 4); that is, we should pray to God in our weakness, in time of temptation, or when we feel unable to perform what our duties or obligations require of us, and God will impart to us the strength we need. Moreover, in doubtful or intricate matters the apostle bids us to pray, saying: “If any man want wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all abundantly, . . . and it shall be given him” (James 1. 5). Our divine Saviour expressly commands us to pray that we may avoid or overcome temptation: “Pray that you enter not into temptation” (Mat. 26. 41). Therefore, God wills that in all our wants we should pray to Him, and have recourse to Him for His help. And this is a strict injunction of Jesus Christ Himself: “Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Luke 11. 9).

II. Secondly, Prayer Is an Absolutely Necessary and Universal Means of Salvation, for every one who prays as he should, will surely be able to keep all the commandments of God, to avoid sin, to practise all the Christian virtues and persevere unto death in the grace of God and thus reach his place in Heaven. On the other hand, he who neglects prayer, will not be able to keep all the commandments of God, to overcome difficult and strong temptations, to avoid grievous sin, to obtain the p. 9forgiveness of his sins, or to persevere in divine grace until death. This will now be made plain to the attentive and reflecting reader, for prayer is absolutely necessary for both the sinner and the just.

1. In the first place, there can be No Salvation for the Sinner Who Will Not Pray. The sinner, in order to be saved, needs before all and above all, the grace of conversion; but, in the ordinary course of divine Providence, he will not obtain that most necessary grace, unless he earnestly prays for it. We need God’s help, or grace, for everything in the order of salvation, for our divine Saviour Himself says to us all: “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15. 5); and with God’s grace we can do all that is necessary to our salvation, for St. Paul expressly declares: “I can do all things in Him Who giveth me strength” (Phil. 4. 13); and Jesus Himself says: “He that asketh, receiveth” (Mat. 7. 8). The reason why we must pray to God for the graces we need, is because God will not force the means of salvation on the unwilling, but is ever ready to grant them to the willing, to those who desire and ask for them. Such persons are desirous of the graces of God, and manifest their desire by praying for them; and the stronger and more earnest their desire, the more earnest and persistent will be their prayer. Wherefore, in the ordinary course of divine Providence, the sinner who lacks the desire of conversion and does not pray for the grace of conversion, of amending his life, will not receive that grace, but will live and die in sin. On the other hand, the sinner who sincerely and earnestly prays for the grace of conversion, will assuredly obtain the divine assistance to change his life, and, however sinful and obdurate he may have been previously, he will be able to give up sin and amend his life. In the Gospel we read of the conversion of some sinners by prayer. The publican was converted and received forgiveness through prayer, saying: “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18. 10). The Samaritan woman received the grace of conversion only when she had besought Jesus to give her some of “the living water” (John 4. 15). The penitent thief, dying on the cross near Jesus, received the grace of repentance and conversion and the promise of paradise, when he prayed Jesus to “remember him when He would come into His kingdom” (Luke 23. 42). St. Paul, a rabid persecutor of the Church, received the grace of conversion when, struck down and blinded, he asked Jesus: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” (Acts 9. 6). In fact, the sinner who has not the courage to give up sin or its occasions, yet, if he persists in prayer for the divine assistance, he will not become hardened in sin, but sooner or later will be able to muster up the necessary courage and strength to change his life, and obtain the forgiveness of his sins and the grace to persevere in his amendment. But the sinner who does not pray, far from amending his life, will grow obdurate in his evil ways, and die impenitent, and thus be eternally lost.

2. Prayer Is Absolutely Necessary for the Just and Holy. However good and virtuous a man may be, he stands in constant need of divine grace to observe the commandments of God, to resist and overcome the temptations of the devil, the allurements of the world and the violence of his own passions, to perform the good works and duties of his state, and especially to persevere in the grace and friendship of God. But to be able to do all this, he must pray frequently and earnestly, otherwise he will not persevere, for the invariable rule is, “no prayer; no special grace, no perseverance, nor salvation.” He who will not pray God for a necessary grace, does not really desire it; his lack of desire shows that he does not care for it, that he really does not want it. But, says St. Paul, “God is not mocked” (Gal. 6. 7), and, therefore, He does not impart grace to him who does not want it or care for it. Hence the good, the just who neglect to pray for the graces they need, will lack the graces necessary for their perseverance, and will become spiritually weak and helpless, especially when assailed by strong temptations and by the violence of their passions, and the result will be that, sooner or later, they will fall into some grievous sin, lose the state of grace and God’s friendship and will run the risk of living and dying in sin, as has happened to so many, once virtuous and holy, for neglecting to pray in the time of temptation. St. Alphonsus, Doctor of the Church, who has written so well and beautifully on Prayer, maintains and proves that prayer is the ordinary sufficient grace which God gives to every man to enable him to save his soul, for if a man prays to God for the means of salvation, in all his spiritual wants, God will impart to him all that he needs to save his soul.

On the other hand, if the holiest person on earth were to neglect prayer, he would soon meet the same fate that befell St. Peter for not heeding the injunction of Jesus to watch and pray. St. Peter truly loved our divine Saviour, and probably with a greater love than any of the other apostles. And nevertheless he basely denied his Divine Master three times, and not only did he deny Him, but even swore with fearful imprecations that he did not know Him. How did he happen to fall so low, so deeply? It was because he had neglected to pray. Let us see how this came to pass. After the Last Supper Jesus betook Himself with His apostles to the Mount of Olives. “Jesus saith to them: You will all be scandalized in My regard this night, for it is written: I will strike the shepherd and the sheep shall be dispersed. . . . But Peter saith to Him: Although all shall be scandalized in Thee, yet not I. And Jesus saith to him: Amen I say to thee, to-day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny Me thrice. But Peter spoke p. 11the more vehemently: Although I should die together with Thee, I will not deny Thee.” Then Jesus left eight of the apostles at the entrance of the garden of olives, and took with Him Sts. Peter, James and John and “saith to them: My soul is sorrowful even unto death, stay you here and watch.” Then Jesus went forward a little to pray His heavenly Father, “if it might be, . . . to remove the chalice” (of His passion and death) from Him. Then He came to the three apostles, “and findeth them sleeping. And He saith to Peter: Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst thou not watch one hour? Watch ye and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Far from performing this injunction, St. Peter continued to sleep and did not pray. He was tired, and saw no necessity for praying, for was not his mind made up to stand faithfully by Jesus? Hence when the time of trial came, he was left to his weakness. When Judas came with the armed multitude to arrest Jesus, Peter at first showed his bravery by striking with the sword; but as Jesus soon after allowed Himself to be arrested, bound and led away, Peter took to flight, just like the other apostles; but seeing that he was not pursued, he turned to follow Jesus, but only from afar, and having reached the place of the Saviour’s trial, he mingled outside in the court-yard among the servants and idlers, awaiting the issue. “When Peter was in the court below,” writes the evangelist, “there cometh one of the maid-servants of the high-priest. And when she had seen Peter warming himself, looking on him she saith: Thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied, saying: I neither know nor understand what thou sayest. And he went forth before the court (yard); and the cock crew. And again a maid-servant seeing him, began to say to the standers-by: This is one of them. But he denied again. And after a while they that stood by said again: Surely thou art one of them, for thou art also a Galilean. But he began to curse and to swear, saying: I know not this man of whom you speak” (Mark 14). Had Peter obeyed the injunction of his divine Master, he would not have so shamefully fallen and denied Him, for his prayer would have obtained for him the grace and strength to remain true and steadfast.

The greatest saint on earth stands in absolute need of prayer for his perseverance, because frequent, constant prayer is the indispensable means the just have to persevere in God’s grace and friendship. The crowning grace of perseverance cannot be deserved by any amount of good works. Had we acquired as much virtue, accumulated as many merits and labored as much and as zealously as St. Paul for the glory of God and the salvation of our fellow-men, we could not thereby have deserved the priceless grace of final perseverance. This grace is so great, so precious, that no amount of good works and merits can deserve it, and God is not p. 12obliged to give it to any one. Nevertheless, we can obtain it through constant and persistent prayer. We must pray for it daily, as we daily pray for our daily bread, that we may obtain it every day. If we thus faithfully pray for it every day, God will surely grant it to us, for as we shall see in the following Chapter, God has solemnly promised to give us all we pray for; and this includes the grace of perseverance for the day on which we pray for it. Hence we should say to God each day: “Our Father, who art in heaven, give me this day my daily perseverance,” just as we pray “this day for our daily bread.” We have just seen that prayer is absolutely necessary for both the sinners and the just; the sinners cannot be converted without prayer, nor can the just persevere in God’s grace and friendship without prayer. Hence without prayer there can be no salvation, no place in heaven for either the sinners or the just.

3. Every man can be saved by prayer, because Prayer Is in the Power of Every Man. In fact, it is so easy to pray, that every man can pray whenever he wishes. No learning is required to pray, to speak to God, to ask for His help. And since God is our Father, and our divine Saviour has taught us to address Him as our Father, we have no reason to dread or fear Him, for since He is the most kind and loving of fathers and we are His beloved children, He is most willing and ever ready to help us and to supply our wants. Our own experience testifies that He does so; hence in all our wants we should go to Him with the same confidence which little children have in their good, kind father, and, in the simplest and plainest language ask Him for what we need. And since God is everywhere, He is always present to us and ready to hear us, day and night, at all times and in all places, and therefore we need not fear disturbing or importuning Him. In fact, the more and the oftener we go to Him like little children, the better He will be pleased with us, and the more readily and bountifully He will supply our wants. To pray to God we are not required to be in good health, to be strong, rich, powerful, talented, learned or smart, to belong to a select or influential class, to wear fine clothes or costly jewels. To pray to God, we need not be fasting, to go a long distance, to pay a sum of money, to work hard, to give abundant alms, or to perform severe penances; for we need only to raise our mind and heart to God, conscious of our helplessness and misery, with our heart full of good desires, and simply tell Him our wants, and beseech Him to grant them to us. We can pray to God at every moment of the day and night, wherever we may be, at home, at our place of work or business, in church, in the street, in bed, sitting down, kneeling, standing, walking, riding, in company, alone, at our meals, when recreating ourselves, or playing games. God is ever ready to listen to us and to grant our prayers for His assistance, for His grace. p. 13We can pray to God in all the conditions of life, as was done by Moses as leader of an immense multitude, by Samuel in the temple, by Esther on the throne, as Daniel in the lions’ den, as the three youths in the fiery furnace, as King Ezechias in the throes of death, as St. Paul in irons in the prison, as St. Joseph in his workshop, as Sts. Germaine and Paschal tending their flocks, as St. Isidore tilling the ground, as St. Bonaventure writing books, and as St. Thomas engaged in deep study, for, says the Holy Ghost, “let nothing hinder thee from praying always” (Eccli. 18. 22); “It behooveth always to pray” (Luke 18. 1), and “pray without ceasing” (I Thess. 5. 17). How beautiful is not the example of the Prophet Daniel who as usual continued thrice daily to pray prostrate towards Jerusalem, although he knew that he thereby exposed himself to be cast in the lions’ den to be devoured by them! Let us profit by the salutary remark of St. John Chrysostom concerning those who show little zeal for prayer: “We who retire to rest at night,” he says, “and know not whether we shall live to rise in the morning; who rise in the morning, being uncertain whether we shall live to retire to rest when the night comes, who are uncertain of our salvation and are perhaps heavily laden with sins, nevertheless care so little about praying as to forget or neglect prayer altogether, just as if we were self-sufficient and able to get along without God!” What a blindness! What an inexcusable and fatal neglect? We cannot say that we do not need any help or favor from God, nor can we allege that we do not know how to pray, how to tell God our wants, whilst in all that concerns our temporal interests we are fully capable of making known our desires, our wants, and are very eloquent in our applications for work, for an office, in making known our wants to those who are able or ready to supply or relieve them. Although God knows our helplessness and our wants far better than we do, He justly requires us to acknowledge our dependence upon Him, and to ask Him to relieve them. As to those who neglect to pray under the plea of their many occupations, or that they have too much to do, and have no time to pray, or feel too tired to pray, they would find plenty of time to pray, if they curtailed the time they devote to gossip, to reading the papers, or light literature, or making or prolonging more or less unnecessary visits, or attending plays or other amusements, or indulging in other pastimes. Let us be honest with ourselves and with God also, and acknowledge that if we sincerely wished, we could without increasing our fatigue or neglecting our obligations and temporal interests, frequently raise our mind and heart to God in order to pray for the grace to be more patient, more charitable, for the forgiveness of our sins, for the grace to forgive those who have injured us, to overcome temptation, to conquer our passions, to keep out of sinful p. 14occasions, and also to say now and then an Our Father or a Hail Mary, or make a pious aspiration to Jesus or to His Blessed Mother.