Fifth Sermon for Lent: On the Necessity of Prayer and the Objects We Should Pray for

“ Whatsoever you shall ask in prayer believing, you shall receive.” —Matt. xxi. 22.

The charity wherewith I am solicitous for your souls, dearest brethren, obliges me to address you to-day ; and under its influence I should exhort you more frequently were I not hindered by the multiplicity of my occupations. Nor is it anything strange that I should feel anxious concerning you, since I can discover in myself abundant matter and motives for anxiety. For as often as I consider my own miseries and manifold dangers, my soul, I assure you, becomes troubled within me. And not less than for my own soul is my solicitude for every one of you, if yet I truly love you as I love myself. But He Who “ searcheth all hearts ” (1 Par. xxviii. 9) can bear me witness how often in my heart the solicitude I have for you is even greater than that which I feel for myself. And be not surprised that I am so full of fear and uneasiness with regard to you all, since I behold you burdened with such misery and surrounded with such danger. For, as is only too manifest, we all of us carry in ourselves the source of our own danger and bear about with us everywhere our own worst enemy: I speak of this flesh which was born in sin and nurtured in sin, which has been all corrupted in its origin, and vitiated still more by habits of evil. This is the reason

ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 95 why it “lusteth against the spirit ” (Gal. v. 17) so strongly, why it murmurs so constantly, why it is so impatient of discipline, why it suggests things unlawful, why it refuses to be guided by the judgment, why no kind of fear is able to hold it in check.

The crafty serpent has formed an alliance with this our domestic foe, co-operating with it, and employing it for our destruction. For he has no other desire, no other object, no other occupation, save to shed the blood of souls. He it is that is for ever plotting evil, that arouses the desires of the flesh, that with his evil suggestions blows into a blaze the natural fire of concupiscence, that excites illicit motions, provides oceasions for sin, and with a thousand pernicious arts never wearies of tempting the souls of men. He it is that binds our hands with our own girdle and, as the saying is, uses our own staff to beat us : that is to say, the flesh which was given us to be a help, has become for us through his malice a snare and a danger.

But, my brethren, what does it profit you that I point out to you your danger, unless I can also give you some consolation and provide you with some remedies? Great in truth is our peril and very trying the conflict we have to sustain against our domestic enemy ; especially since we are only strangers here, whereas it—viz., the flesh—is a native; it is at home in this earthly life where we are but exiles and pilgrims. There is also fearful danger for us in having to endure so many or rather such continuous combats with the cunning and deceitful serpent, whom we cannot even see, and who is so extremely astute, both on account of his natural subtlety and also by reason of his long experience in malice. Nevertheless, the victory is always in our power, unless we desire to be vanquished. “Thy lust, O man, shall be under thee, and thou shalt have dominion over it” (Gen. iv. 7). The enemy has power to excite in thee the motions of temptation, but it depends altogether on thine own choice to yield or to withhold consent. It lies within thy competence, if thou so desirest, to make a servant of even thine enemy, so that “all things shall work together unto good ” for thee (Rom. viii. 28). Thus, for example, the devil awakens in thee a desire for food, or he inspires feelings of vanity or impatience, or he excites the motions of carnal concupiscence: do thou only take care not to consent to him, and as often as thou resistest, thou hast added a new gem to thy crown.

However, it cannot be denied that these combats are very laborious, yea, and very perilous too. But even in the heat of the struggle, if we resist manfully, we shall feel in our souls a peculiar and pious tranquillity, which is the fruit of a good conscience. And I believe that if, after adverting to the presence of evil thoughts in our minds, we make no delay, but oppose them immediately with all the energy of our soul: I believe that then the wicked enemy will retire from us in confusion and will not be so anxious to resume the conflict. But who are we and “ what is our strength ”’

(Job vi. 11) that we should be able to resist so many temptations ? Now this is just what God has been aiming at, this is the term to which He has been trying to conduct us, namely, that recognising our own weakness and that to Him alone must we look for help, we should with all humility have recourse to His mercy. Therefore I exhort you, dearest brethren, to have always at hand the secure refuge of prayer, concerning

ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 97 which I remember to have spoken towards the end of my last discourse.

But whenever I begin to speak of prayer, it seems to me that I can hear the thoughts of your human hearts asking the questions which I have often been put by others, and have sometimes felt stirring in my own mind. “ How is it that, although we pray almost without intermission, none of us appears hardly ever to derive any fruit from his prayer? We seem to be just the same after we have prayed as we were before. No one has answered us a word, no one seemingly has given us anything for our trouble ; it ‘voks as if we have been labouring in vain.” But what says the Lord in the Gospel? ‘“‘ Judge not according to the appearance, but judge a just judgment ” (John vii. 24). Now what judgment is just but the judgment of faith ? For it is written, “The just man liveth by faith” (Rom. i. 17). Put your trust, therefore, che judgment of faith and not in your own experience, because faith is infallible, whereas human perception is liable to err. But where shall we find the truth of faith if not in the promises given by the Son of God Himself, Who has said, “ All things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer believing, you shall receive ” (Matt. xxi. 22)? My brethren, none of you ought to look upon his own prayer as of little value, for I assure you, He to Whom it is addressed does not so regard it. Before the prayer has time to leave our lips, He orders it to be registered in His own book. And when we pray we can always hope with confidence for one or other of two things: either that He will give us what we ask or that we shall receive something else instead which He knows will be more profitable for us. “For we know not I, 8 what we should pray for as we ought” (Rom. viil. 26); but He compassionates our ignorance, and whilst graciously receiving our prayer, refuses to give us what would not be good for us, or defers to grant what shall be more profitably bestowed later on. Our prayer, however, does not remain unfruitful. Yet so, if we have done that which we are admonished to do by the Psalmist, if we have “ delighted in the Lord.” For says holy David, “ Delight in the Lord, and He will give thee the requests of thy heart ”? (Ps. xxxvi. 4). But what meanest thou, O Prophet, by telling us so absolutely to delight in the Lord, as if such delight depended altogether upon ourselves? We are well enough acquainted with the delight to be found in food, in sleep, in rest, and in the other things that belong to our earthly life: but what of sweetness can we discover in God that we should make Him the object of our delight ? Such language, my brethren, would not surprise me, coming from the lips of worldlings; but I do not see how it could proceed from yours. For which of you has not often experienced the delight of a good conscience? Which of you has not enjoyed the sweet savour of purity, of humility, and of charity? This delight has nothing in common with the pleasure we feel in eating and drinking and other such actions, nevertheless it is a true delight, yea, and superior to all other delights. For it is a spiritual, not a carnal delight ; and when we delight in spiritual objects—such as the virtues—we manifestly delight in the Lord.

But perhaps many of you will complain to me that they experience too rarely this spiritual relish ‘‘ sweeter than honey and the honey-comb” (Ps. xviii. Ir:

ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER 99 because, namely, they are kept constantly employed in resisting the assaults of temptation. Let me tell them, therefore, that they would act more worthily if they practised virtue with all the strength, even though not with all the affection, of their souls, not for the sake of any sweetness that may be found in it, but from love of the virtues themselves and with the view of pleasing God alone. By behaving thus they would beyond doubt accomplish perfectly what the Prophet enjoins where he says, “ Delight in the Lord.” For David is speaking here of the practice of the virtues, not of any sensible pleasure in the practice. The pleasures of virtue shall bepart of our future happiness, but virtue itself consists more in action than in feeling. Consequently, when thou art told to delight in the Lord, the meaning is that thou shouldst make it thy aim and endeavour that the Lord may sometime become the object of thy delight, “and He will give thee the requests of thy heart.” Observe that the Prophet calis the “ requests of thy heart ” those which are approved by the judgment of reason. Thou hast therefore no cause to complain, but rather an additional motive for fervent thanksgiving whenever thy request is not granted ; since thy Lord has such care of thee that as often as thou askest in ignorance what would not be good for thee, He does not give that, but gives instead something better. Thus when a child asks his earthly father for bread, his petition is readily granted. But if he asks also for a knife, the father will refuse him what is unnecessary and may even be hurtful, and will rather divide the bread himself for his little one, or command some of his servants to do this, so that there may be no risk and no labour for the child.

Now it appears to me that the requests of the heart relate to three objects, besides which I know of nothing that the elect ought to pray for. Two of these objects belong to the present life, namely, the goods of the body and the goods of the soul; whilst the third, viz.; a blissful immortality, appertains to the life to come. Do not be surprised, my brethren, to hear that the goods of the body are to be solicited of God, for every kind of good, material as well as spiritual, must be the gift of His bounty. Of Him, therefore, we must ask and expect all that is necessary to support us in His service. Nevertheless, we should pray more often and more earnestly for the necessities of our souls, that is to say, for the gifts of grace and virtue. So too must we pray with all devotion and with the utmost intensity of desire for the crown of eternal life which includes the complete and perfect beatitude of both soul and body. Furthermore, with respect to these three petitions, in order that they may be in truth the petitions of the heart, three evils have to beguarded against. For the first is wont to be invaded by the desire of superfluities, the second by a wrong intention, and the third by pride. I mean to say that sometimes temporal goods are solicited as a source of pleasure ; virtues are asked with a view to ostentation ; whilst there are many perhaps who pray even for eternal life without humility, but as if relying upon their own merits. I do not deny that grace received renders our prayer more confident. But I maintain that no one ought to make this grace itself the ground of his hope to be heard. The one effect of these first

ON THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER tor gifts of God should be to make us hope that the mercy from which they have been obtained, will confer upon us other and greater favours. Accordingly, when we pray for temporal things, let our petition be confined to what is necessary; let our prayer for virtues—the goods of the soul—proceed from a pure intention, which regards nothing else but the good pleasure of God; and let our prayer for eternal life be offered up with all humility, deriving its confidence—as is only proper—from no other source than the divine compassion.