Some Practical Lessons on Prayer in the Gospel Narrative

9. The Lunatic Child

Mark 9. 13-28; Luke 9. 37-43.

“On the day following when they came down from the mountain to His disciples, He saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes disputing with them. And presently all the people, seeing Jesus, were astonished and struck with fear; and running to Him, they saluted Him, and He asked them, What do you question among you? And one of the multitude, answering, said: Master, I have brought my son, my only son to Thee. He hath a dumb spirit, who, wheresoever he taketh him, dasheth him, and throweth him down, and teareth him, so that he foameth, and gnasheth the teeth and pineth away; and he bruiseth him and hardly departeth from him. And I spoke to Thy disciples to cast him out, and they could not. And Jesus, answering, said: O incredulous generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto Me. And they brought him. And when he had seen Jesus, immediately the spirit troubled him; and, being thrown down upon the ground, he rolled about foaming. And Jesus asked his father: How long is it since this (first) happened to him? But he said: From his infancy; and oftentimes hath he cast him into the fire and into waters to destroy him. But if Thou canst do anything, help us, having compassion on us. And Jesus saith to him: If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And immediately the father of the boy, crying out with tears, said: I do believe; Lord, help my unbelief. And when Jesus saw the multitude running together, He threatened the unclean spirit, saying to him: Deaf and dumb spirit, I command thee, go out of him; and enter not any more into him. (The unclean spirit) crying out and greatly tearing him, went out of him, and he (the boy) became as dead, so that many said: He is dead. But Jesus, taking him by the hand, lifted him up, and he arose and Jesus restored him to his father. And when Jesus was come into the house, His disciples secretly asked Him: Why could not we cast him out? And He said to them: This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.”

1. Our divine Saviour had spent the night on Mount Thabor with His three favorite disciples, Sts. Peter, James and John, and, as the evangelists tell us, was transfigured before them; whilst He prayed, the shape of His countenance was altered, His face was shining as the sun, and His raiment became white and glittering. And Moses and Elias appeared in majesty and spoke with Him of His approaching passion and death in Jerusalem; and there came a cloud, and a voice, the voice of the heavenly Father, came out of the cloud, saying: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” In the morning Jesus came down the mountain with His three disciples, and beheld a large crowd around the other nine disciples. These, in the absence of Jesus had in vain endeavored to cast the devil out of a possessed boy; their failure brought them into a warm discussion with a number of Jewish legal lawyers, called scribes, who were bitter opponents of our divine Saviour. Jesus inquired about the subject of the dispute and the father of the possessed boy replied by stating the sad state to which his only son was reduced by the evil spirit, and that the apostles had not been able to cast out the evil spirit. Jesus then exclaimed: “O incredulous generation, how long shall I be with you, how long shall I suffer you!” These words were addressed, not so much to the boy’s father, as to the scribes and other scoffers who, out of sheer malice, rejected and denied His miracles and His mission. Jesus ordered the boy to be brought to Him. When the boy caught sight of Jesus, the evil spirit fearfully tormented the poor child. Jesus then inquired of his father, how long the evil spirit had possessed his boy. “From his infancy,” said the poor father, and then added imploringly, “if Thou canst do anything, help us and have compassion on us.” This was not said in a spirit of doubt or denial, but rather of a weak faith, hence our divine Saviour sought to confirm and strengthen his faith, by reminding him of the necessity of a lively and confiding faith, saying: “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” As soon as he heard this, the boy’s father weeping replied with humility and energy: “I do believe, help my unbelief.” This earnest prayer obtained for him the necessary strong and confiding faith, and Jesus cast the evil spirit out of the boy. This shows us what kind of faith will cause our prayers to be heard.

2. The apostles, who had previously been empowered by Jesus to cast out devils, when He sent them all over the country two by two to preach and work miracles, could not explain how it was that they had been unable to cast the devil out of the boy. Hence when they had returned with Jesus to the house, they asked Him the reason thereof. Jesus by His answer taught them that for certain great and important favors a simple prayer alone does not suffice, but that persistent prayer must be joined to acts of self-denial, corporal penances and austerities. This is a practical lesson for those Christians, who pray very little and never deny themselves any enjoyment, but indulge their appetite and sensuality, hardly ever keep the precepts of abstinence and fasting, and frequent all sorts of amusements, and nevertheless expect God to grant their every little wish and prayer. Let them remember that “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,” and that only those who deny themselves and follow Jesus Christ, can expect to reign with Jesus Christ in heaven.

10. The Resurrection of Lazarus

John 11. 1-45.

“There was a certain man sick, named Lazarus, of Bethania, of the town of Mary and Martha, her sister. (And Mary was she that anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) His sisters therefore sent to Him, saying: Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. And Jesus, hearing it, said to them: This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus. When He had heard, therefore, that he was sick, He still remained in the same place two days. Then after that, He said to His disciples: Let us go into Judea again. The disciples say to Him: The Jews but now sought to stone Thee; and goest Thou thither again? Jesus answered: Are there not twelve hours of the day? If a man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world; but if he walk in the night, he stumbleth, because the light is not in him. These things He said; and after that He said to them: Lazarus our friend sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. His disciples therefore said: Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. But Jesus spoke of his death, and they thought that He spoke of the repose of sleep. Then therefore Jesus said to them plainly: Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes, that I was not there, that you may believe: but let us go to him. Thomas therefore, who is called Didimus, said to his fellow-disciples: Let us also go, that we may die with Him. Jesus therefore came and found that he (Lazarus) had been four days already in the grave. (Now Bethania was near Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off.) And many of the Jews were come to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Martha therefore, as soon as she heard that Jesus was come, went to meet Him; but Mary sat at home. Martha therefore said to Jesus: Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But now also I know that whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it to Thee. Jesus saith to her: Thy brother shall live again. Martha saith to Him: I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, although he be dead, shall live. And every one that liveth and believeth in Me, shall not die forever. Believest thou this? She saith to Him: Yea, Lord, I have believed that Thou art Christ the Son of the living God, who art come into this world. And when she had said these things, she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying: The Master is come and calleth for thee. She (Mary), as soon as she heard this, riseth quickly and cometh to Him, for Jesus was not yet come into the town; but He was still in that place where Martha had met Him. The Jews therefore, who were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary that she rose up speedily and went out, followed her, saying: She goeth to the grave to weep there. When Mary therefore was come where Jesus was, seeing Him, she fell down at His feet and saith to Him: Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. Jesus, therefore, when He saw her weeping, and the Jews that were come with her (also) weeping, groaned in the spirit and troubled Himself, and said: Where have you laid him? They say to Him: Lord, come and see. And Jesus wept. The Jews therefore said: Behold how He loved him. But some of them said: Could not He that opened the eyes of the man born blind, have caused that this man should not die? Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself, cometh to the sepulchre. Now it was a cave, and a stone was laid over it. Jesus said: Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith to Him: Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he is now of four days. Jesus said to her: Did I not say to thee, that if thou believe, thou shalt see the glory of God? They therefore took the stone away. And Jesus lifting up His eyes said: Father, I give Thee thanks that Thou hast heard Me. And I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the people who stand about Me, I have said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me. When He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice: Lazarus, come forth. And presently he that had been dead, came forth bound feet and hands with winding bands; and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus said to them: Loose him, and let him go. Many, therefore of the Jews, who were come to Mary and Martha, and had seen the things that Jesus did, believed in Him.”

1. Lazarus was greatly beloved by our divine Saviour on account of his many virtues and his strong and simple faith. Jesus, whenever He went to Jerusalem always availed Himself of the generous hospitality of Lazarus. Martha and Mary, his two sisters, are mentioned in the Gospel among the pious women who were wont to minister to the wants of Jesus and His disciples during His public ministry. Mary, the sister of Lazarus is the same as Mary Magdalen whose conversion and public penance, reparation and forgiveness of her scandals, to the great indignation of the pharisees are related by St. Luke, and whom Jesus, on a later occasion, declared to “have chosen the best part, which should not be taken away from her” (Luke 7. 36-50; 10. 42). Wherefore, when Lazarus became dangerously ill, his two sisters sent to Jesus the message: “He whom Thou lovest is sick.” At that time Jesus was beyond the Jordan, whither He had retired shortly before, when the Jews in Jerusalem had sought to stone Him to death.

2. Martha and Mary in their message did not expressly ask Jesus to come and cure His beloved friend Lazarus, their brother, but they naturally expected, that Jesus would hasten to come and cure him. The very wording of the message implies this; and yet we may assume that in this matter they were resigned to whatever course Jesus would take. Thus also should we in our prayers for matters temporal strive to be resigned to God’s holy will, even if not in accordance with our desires. God’s ways are not our ways, and His ways are better than ours, for they are the only ways that will benefit us.

3. After receiving the message of the illness of Lazarus, Jesus Christ seemed to be in no hurry, although He knew that Lazarus was on the point of death, for He remained two days longer in that place, and when He told His apostles that Lazarus was already dead, He proceeded to Bethany only by slow stages, so that when He reached that town, Lazarus had been dead four days. By so deferring His arrival Jesus did far more for the sisters of Lazarus than merely to cure him, for He gave them the occasion of gaining great merit, not only by accepting their brother’s death with resignation, but also by not losing, as most of us would have done, their firm faith and loving confidence in Jesus; and besides this He raised Lazarus to life by a most striking miracle in their favor, by a miracle which furnished a palpable proof of His being the Son of God and the promised Saviour of mankind and, as He Himself declared, would give great glory to God.

4. Let us admire the conduct of Martha and Mary. When they met Jesus before their brother’s resurrection, neither of them uttered a word of complaint, dissatisfaction or disappointment that Jesus had so long deferred His coming: all they said was: “Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” Let us learn from their example not to complain or despond, when God does not hear our prayers when and as we wish.

11. The Penitent Thief

Luke 23. 39-43.

“One of these robbers who were hanged (crucified) blasphemed Jesus, saying: If Thou be Christ, save Thyself and us. But the other answering, rebuked him, saying: Neither dost thou fear God, seeing that thou art in the same condemnation. And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done no evil. And he said to Jesus: Lord, remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom. And Jesus said to him: Amen I say to thee: This day thou shalt be with Me in paradise.”

1. The rule is that “as life is, so is death.” Wherefore we would naturally expect that both of the robbers condemned to be crucified alongside of Jesus, who had until then led a life of sin and crime, would both equally die in sin and be eternally lost. And, nevertheless, this was not the case, for one of them was promised salvation by our divine Saviour and died truly penitent, and the other died impenitent, mocking and scoffing at Jesus, and was lost. St. Alphonsus explains this, saying: “One of them prayed, and was therefore pardoned and saved, and the other did not pray, and therefore died in sin and was lost.” This shows the power of prayer, and the fearful doom resulting from the neglect of prayer. The prayer of the penitent thief was humble, sincere, contrite and also full of confidence. It was humble, for he had upbraided his companion for his insults to Jesus, reminding him that both of them were criminals deserving of their disgraceful death. It was sincere, for he sought not to excuse or diminish his wickedness; it was contrite, for he was manifestly sorry for his crimes, especially because he contrasted his wickedness with the innocence of Jesus; and it was full of confidence, for he proclaimed Jesus as his Lord, and as having all power and being full of mercy, and besought Him to remember him when He would enter His kingdom. All these necessary dispositions entitled him to the full benefit of divine mercy. Let us not forget that the power of making such a prayer with such dispositions was a great grace God bestowed on him, and the fact that he profited by this grace is due to his having profited by previous graces given him by God whilst he was already hanging on the cross, as we shall now see.

2. The evangelists tell us of the insults, mockery and blasphemies leveled at Jesus raised on the cross between heaven and earth. Both thieves heard them. They also heard the admirable prayer of Jesus praying for His enemies, for those who were mocking and outraging Him so frightfully and shamefully; they witnessed His patience and meekness amid such terrible sufferings and insults. The penitent thief was at first moved to pity, then to admiration, then to consider Him as more than a mere man, as the Saviour promised to mankind; every moment new light dawned upon his mind concerning Jesus, as it were, step by step; with these graces, for graces they really were, he gradually and faithfully co-operated, and the result was his prayer to Jesus, which secured his forgiveness and salvation. But the other thief heard and saw all that was passing, as well as his companion, but obdurately refused to see and be moved, and joined the Jews in the abuse, the insult and mockery of Jesus, and far from praying, he died in sin as he had lived, and was lost. Noble and admirable indeed was the conduct of the penitent thief, when almost everybody considered, declared and insulted Jesus as an impostor deserving of the most disgraceful of deaths.

3. Let us imitate the penitent thief in his repentance, in his prayer, and however great and deeply rooted our sins are, let us contemplate Jesus on the cross; the image of the crucifix and pray to Jesus as he did, and Jesus will forgive us and fulfil in our regard His prophecy: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things (hearts) to Myself” (John 12. 32).

12. Two Parables

1. “Jesus spoke also a parable to them, that we ought always to pray, and not to faint, saying: There was a judge in a certain city who feared not God, nor regarded man. And there was a certain widow in that city, and she came to him, saying: Avenge me of my adversary. And he would not for a long time. But afterwards he said within himself: Although I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow is troublesome to me, I will avenge her, lest continually coming, she worry me” (Luke 18. 1-5).

The lesson our divine Saviour wished to teach by this parable was that we should persevere in praying for the divine benefits, of which we stand in need, until we obtain them; that we should so weary God by our prayers that He would seem to be compelled by our importunity, by our persistency, to grant us all we ask, apparently as if it were only in order to get rid of us, and not out of kindness and mercy towards us, although He loves to be importuned, as it were, by our prayers, in order to render us more worthy of being heard, and of receiving even more than we actually pray for.

2. “Which of you,” said Jesus to His disciples, who had besought Him to teach them how to pray, “shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and shall say to him: Friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend of mine is come off his journey to me, and I have not what to set before him. And he from within should answer and say: Trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say to you: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Luke 11. 5-10).

In this parable also our divine Saviour insists on p. 60our persevering in prayer until it is granted, for God wishes to be, as it were, importuned and compelled by us to grant us what we pray for; unless we do this, He will not consider us as deserving or sufficiently appreciative of what we pray for. He who ceases praying after praying a few times for a favor without obtaining it, shows that he is not very anxious to get it, or that he does not consider it worth being much prayed for. Moreover, he shows also a great want of humility, since he will not act as a beggar who is in great need, and therefore insists and urges his request again and again; he acts practically, as if he were so great a personage as to require to be treated by God with great condescension. Moreover, he lacks faith and confidence in God as the best of fathers, infinitely good and merciful, who constantly bestows His gifts upon us, who has given even His own beloved Son to the death of the cross in order to save us. Hence Jesus insists on the necessity of faith and confidence in our prayers, saying: “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask Him?” (Luke 11. 13).

Moreover, God defers granting our prayer for our own advantage, because the longer He defers granting us what we pray for, the greater will be the benefits He will add to what we pray for, provided only we persevere faithfully in prayer. The example of St. Monica will serve as a beautiful and p. 61convincing illustration of this matter. Monica was a very pious woman and when she found out that her son Augustine, at the age of seventeen years, had been led by bad companions into leading a sinful life, had lost the faith and embraced Manicheism, a most absurd heresy, set herself at once to do all in her power to reclaim him, and to pray earnestly to God for his conversion. But all her efforts and prayers seemed to be in vain. She redoubled her prayers, denied herself all amusements, all delicacies, and performed many penances and austerities, many good works that required great sacrifices on her part; followed him to Milan, and left nothing undone to bring about his conversion. The more she prayed, the more she underwent and suffered, the more holy she became, so that all who came in contact with her, revered her as a saint. For sixteen years she persevered in her efforts and prayers and, at last, Augustine was thoroughly converted, and her prayers were fully granted, and more than this by her efforts and prayers for Augustine, she sanctified herself so that the Church has declared and honors her as one of her great saints and a model of all Christians.

If we examine the lives of the saints, we shall discover that it was through persevering prayer that they became saints. Some saints, seeing the necessity of humility for salvation, exerted themselves for twenty, thirty, forty or more years by prayer and their corresponding efforts to acquire humility; and, as the Christian virtues are so intimately connected together that we cannot become perfect in one without, at the same time, becoming perfect in all the others, when they became perfect in humility, they had already become saints. What enabled Francis de Sales, St. Alphonsus to become saints? St. Francis de Sales for over twenty years strove by persistent prayer and his own corresponding efforts, to overcome his natural irascibility, and succeeded in becoming a very model of meekness and a great saint. For forty years St. Alphonsus acted in like manner to acquire the virtue of patience, and became thereby a great saint. If we henceforth set out earnestly to overcome our greatest defect by dint of persistent prayer, accompanied by our own efforts of “putting our own shoulder to the wheel,” we shall in the end succeed in saving our soul and attaining “our place in heaven.”

13. Do Not Despond, but Persevere in Prayer

Herman Cohen, known as “Herman the Pianist,” because of his wonderful skill in piano playing, was a Jew who was suddenly converted, when taking the place of the absent organist at Benediction in one of the churches in Paris. He later on entered the Order of Carmelites, receiving the name of Augustine Mary of the Blessed Sacrament, and labored in the ministry with extraordinary zeal and success in many places, and led a life of great p. 62austerities. He had the consolation of seeing nearly all the members of the Cohen family become members of the Catholic Church. But his mother, notwithstanding his persistent and fervent prayers to God, his numerous penances and austerities and appeals to her, and appeals to his hearers to obtain her conversion, remained obstinate. She died on December 13, 1855. At that time he was engaged in preaching the Advent course of sermons in Lyons. In a letter to a friend he announced the sad event of his mother’s death as follows: “The good God has just struck my heart a terrible blow . . . and I am still uncertain (as to how she died). We have, however, prayed so much for her, that we may hope that something unknown to us has passed between her soul and God in her last moments.”

We can easily imagine Father Herman’s (as we shall call him) grief on hearing of his mother’s death. He had prayed so much and so fervently, and had got so many prayers offered for her conversion, and all seemed in vain, for she had appeared before the divine tribunal without having received baptism. Having one day in a sermon alluded to St. Monica’s conversation with her son Augustine on the eve of her death, he exclaimed: “I also have a mother; I have left her to follow Jesus Christ, and she no longer calls me her good son. Her hair is already silvery and her brow is becoming furrowed by age, and I dread to see her die. Oh, no! I do not wish her to die before she loves Jesus Christ. These many years I have been expecting for my mother, what Monica expected for her son Augustine. And who knows, if God has not attached the grace of her conversion to the fruit that you will draw from my words?”

Among his prayers for her conversion was the following addressed to the Blessed Virgin: “Mary, my heavenly Mother, since, for the love of thee, I have left all who were dear to me in this world, for pity’s sake, deign to have compassion on them. Forget not that, for thy sake, I have left my mother also; like thee, she is a daughter of Jacob, and is, therefore, one of thy family. Deign to give her back to me, for thou canst not forsake her. Already her head is bending down towards the grave, that poor mother of mine. O Mary, I implore thee, deign to touch her eye-lid lightly with thy luminous garment, and she shall see, and shall rise up and follow thee; and she shall love Jesus and then come with us to heaven.”

But God seemed to have paid no heed to his prayers, to have refused all his pious and lawful desires. His faith and his love were put to a painful trial. Nevertheless, notwithstanding his deep sorrow, his confidence in the divine goodness was not cast down. On the evening of the very day on which he received the very painful news of her death he was to preach. Many a one, in his place, would have been unable, under similar circumstances, to appear in the pulpit; but after praying and weeping p. 63much, he preached as usual. His subject was death, and, according to the testimony of those who heard him preach, his words penetrated deeply into their minds and hearts and produced salutary emotions; and when, in concluding his sermon, he poured out his grief into the bosom of his audience, his words drew forth a universal and deeply felt sympathy.

Not long after he confided to the Blessed Curé d’Ars his uneasiness concerning his poor mother who had died without the grace of baptism. “Be hopeful,” replied the man of God, “be hopeful; you shall one day on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8th) receive a letter which will greatly console you.” He had almost forgotten that promise, when on Dec. 8th, 1861, six years after his mother’s death, a Jesuit Father handed him the following letter written by a well known writer of very pious works on the Blessed Eucharist, who some time later died with the reputation of being a saint.

“On the 18th of October, after receiving holy Communion, I was enjoying one of those moments of intimate union with our Lord, when He causes me to feel His presence in the Sacrament of His love in so vivid and delightful a manner, that faith no longer seems necessary to me to believe in the Real Presence. After some moments He spoke to me, and deigned to explain to me certain points concerning a conversation in which I had taken part on the preceding evening. I then recalled how, in said conversation, one of my friends had manifested her astonishment that Jesus Christ, who promised to grant everything to prayer, had, nevertheless, shown a deaf ear to the prayers which Father Herman had so often offered to obtain his mother’s conversion; her surprise at this almost filled her with discontent, and I had great difficulty in making her understand that it behooves us to adore God’s justice without seeking to penetrate His secret designs. I was bold enough to ask my Jesus to tell me, how it happened that His infinite Goodness had been able to resist Father Herman’s prayers and refuse to grant him his mother’s conversion. Here is His reply: ‘Why does Anna always seek to fathom the secrets of My justice, and endeavor to penetrate mysteries which she cannot understand? Tell her I do not owe My grace to any one, that I give it to those I please, and that, in so doing, I cease not to be just, to be Justice itself. But let her know also that, rather than fail in the promises I made to prayer, I would subvert heaven and earth, and that every prayer which has for its object My glory and the salvation of souls, is always heard, if it possesses the requisite conditions.’ Then He added: ‘And to prove to you the truth of this, I will now make known to you what happened at the moment of the death of Father Herman’s mother.’ My Jesus then enlightened me with a ray of His divine light and made known to me, or rather He enabled me to see in Him what I will now endeavor to describe. At the moment when Father Herman’s mother was about to breathe her last, while she seemed unconscious and nearly lifeless, Mary, our good Mother, presented herself before her divine Son, and prostrating herself before Him, she said to Him: ‘Forgiveness, mercy, O my Son, for that soul about to perish. Yet another moment, she shall be lost, lost forever! Deign then, I beseech Thee, to do for the mother of my servant Herman, what Thou wouldst wish him to do for Thine own, if I were in her place, and Thou in his! His mother’s soul he holds as his dearest object; he has a thousand times consecrated it to me; he has entrusted it to my heart’s tenderest solicitude. Can I allow it to perish? No, no! This soul belongs to me! I want it; I claim it as my inheritance, as the price of Thy blood and of my sorrows at the foot of the cross.’”

“Scarcely had the divine Mother ceased her supplication, when a strong, powerful grace flowed from the Source of all graces, the adorable Heart of our Jesus, and went to enlighten the soul of the poor dying Jewess and instantaneously triumphed over her obstinacy and resistance. That soul then immediately turned with a loving confidence to Him, whose mercy pursued her even in the arms of death, and she said to Him: ‘O Jesus, God of the Christians, the God whom my son adores, have mercy on me.’”

“In this cry, which God only heard, which proceeded from the inmost depths of the heart of the dying woman, were contained sincere sorrow for her obstinacy and her sins, the desire of baptism, the express will to receive baptism and to live according to the laws and precepts of our holy religion, if she would return to life. This sudden outburst of faith and hope in Jesus was that soul’s interior act. At the very moment in which she elicited it, it darted forth to the throne of divine mercy, and the feeble bonds that retained her soul in its mortal envelope, were burst asunder, and she fell at the feet of Him who had been her Saviour before becoming her Judge. Having shown all this to me, our Lord added: ‘Make this known to Father Herman; it is a consolation I wish to grant to his long-borne sorrows, in order that he may bless and cause everywhere to be blessed My Mother’s goodness of heart and her power over Mine.’”

“Being a complete stranger to Father Herman, the poor sick person, whose hand has just traced these lines, is happy in the thought that they may be able to spread a little consolation and balsam on the ever-bleeding wound of his priestly heart. She ventures to solicit the alms of his fervent prayers, and she is happy in the thought that he will not refuse them to her who, though unknown to him, is united to him by the sacred bonds of the same faith, of the same hope.”

Note.—The above facts and letter, on which the Church has passed no judgment, and which are credible on reliable human testimony only, are taken from the Life of Father Herman entitled: Vie du P. Hermann par l’Abbé Charles Sylvain, G. Oudin et Cie. Editeurs, Paris, 1909.

The foregoing narrative shows us, among other truths, that God always grants the prayers of those who pray well and with perseverance, although not always in the manner wished for and expected, but in His own way. No prayer that fulfils the necessary conditions of a good and worthy prayer, is ever lost.