Chapter II — On the Power of Prayer

So dear to God are our prayers that He has appointed the angels to present them to Him as soon as they are offered by us.

The angels, says St. Hilary, praesunt Fidelium Orationibus, et eas quotidie Deo offerunt — preside over the prayers of the faithful and offer them daily to God. This is precisely that sacred smoke of incense — that is, the prayers of the saints — which St. John saw ascending to the Lord, offered by the hand of the angels (Apoc. 8). And elsewhere (Apoc. 5) the same holy Apostle writes that the prayers of the saints are like certain golden vessels full of sweet odors, most pleasing to God. But to understand better how much our prayers avail before God, it suffices to read in the Divine Scriptures the innumerable promises that God makes to those who pray, both in the Old and in the New Testament: Clama ad me, et exaudiam te (Jer. 33:3). Invoca me, et eruam te (Ps. 49:15). Petite, et dabitur vobis; quaerite, et invenietis; pulsate, et aperietur vobis (Matt. 7:7). Dabit bona petentibus se (Matt. 7:11). Omnis enim qui petit accipit, et qui quaerit invenit (Luke 11:10). De omni re, quamcumque petierint, fiet illis a Patre meo (Matt. 18:19). Omnia quaecumque orantes petitis, credite, quia accipietis, et evenient vobis (Mark 11:24). Si quid petieritis me in nomine meo hoc faciam (John 14:14). Quodcumque volueritis, petetis, et fiet vobis (John 15:7). Amen, amen dico vobis: si quid petieritis Patrem in nomine meo dabit vobis (John 16:23). And there are a thousand other similar texts, which for brevity are omitted.

God wills to save us, but for our greater good He wills to save us as victors. While living in this life, then, we must live in a continual warfare, and to save ourselves we must fight and conquer. Nullus sine victoria poterit coronari, says St. John Chrysostom — no one can be crowned without victory. We are very weak, and the enemies are many and very powerful: how shall we face and overcome them? Let us take heart, and let each one say, as the Apostle said: Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat (Phil. 4:13). We can do all things through prayer, by means of which the Lord will give us the strength we do not have. Theodoret wrote that prayer is omnipotent; it is one, but it can obtain all things: Oratio, cum sit una, omnia potest. And St. Bonaventure asserted that through prayer one obtains every good and is delivered from every evil: Per ipsam impetratur obtentio omnis boni, et liberatio ab omni malo. St. Lawrence Justinian said that through prayer we build for ourselves a most powerful tower, where we shall be defended and secure from all the snares and violence of enemies: Per Orationis exercitium secum arcem erigere valet homo. The powers of hell are strong, but prayer is stronger (says St. Bernard) than all the demons: Oratio Daemonibus omnibus praevalet. Yes, because through prayer the soul acquires the Divine help, which surpasses every created power. Thus David encouraged himself in his fears: I (he said) will call upon my Lord for help, and I shall be freed from all enemies: Laudans invocabo Dominum, et ab inimicis meis salvus ero (Ps. 17:4). In sum, says St. John Chrysostom: Magna armatura precatio, tutela, portus, et thesaurus. Prayer is a weapon powerful enough to overcome every assault of the demons; it is a defense that preserves us in every danger; it is a harbor that saves us from every storm; and it is at the same time a treasure that provides us with every good.

God, knowing the great benefit that the necessity of praying brings us, for this purpose (as was said in Chapter I) permits us to be assailed by enemies, so that we may ask Him for the help He offers us and promises us. But just as much as He is pleased when we have recourse to Him in dangers, so much it displeases Him to see us negligent in prayer. Just as a king, says St. Bonaventure, would consider a captain unfaithful who, finding himself besieged in a fortress, did not ask him for help — Reputaretur infidelis, nisi expectaret a Rege auxilium — so God considers Himself as betrayed by the man who, seeing himself beset by temptations, does not have recourse to Him for help, while He desires and is waiting for him to ask, in order to assist him abundantly. This was well declared by Isaiah when, on God's behalf, he told King Ahaz to ask Him for some sign, so as to assure himself of the help the Lord wished to give him: Pete tibi signum a Domino Deo tuo (Isa. 7:11). The impious king answered: Non petam, et non tentabo Dominum. I will not ask, because I do not wish to tempt God. He said this because he trusted in his own strength to overcome the enemies without the Divine help. But the prophet then rebuked him: Audite ergo Domus David, numquid parum vobis est molestos esse hominibus, quia molesti estis et Deo meo? Signifying thereby that whoever neglects to ask for the graces that the Lord offers him is troublesome and offensive to God.

Venite ad me omnes, qui laboratis, et onerati estis, et ego reficiam vos (Matt. 11:28). My poor children, says the Savior, who find yourselves assailed by enemies and oppressed by the weight of your sins, do not lose heart; have recourse to Me in prayer, and I will give you strength to resist and will repair all your misfortunes. In another place He says through the mouth of Isaiah: Venite, et arguite me (dicit Dominus), si fuerint peccata vestra ut coccinum, quasi nix dealbabuntur (Isa. 1:18). Men (He says), have recourse to Me, and though your consciences be much stained, do not cease to come, and I give you leave even to reproach Me (so to speak) if, after you have recourse to Me, I do not make you, by My grace, become as white as snow. What is prayer? Let us hear Chrysostom: Oratio est fluctuantibus anchora, pauperum thesaurus, morborum curatio, custodia sanitatis. Prayer is a sure anchor for those in danger of shipwreck; it is an immense treasure of riches for the poor; it is a most effective medicine for the sick; and it is a sure safeguard for those who wish to preserve their health. What does prayer accomplish? Let us hear St. Lawrence Justinian: Placat Deum, postulata reportat, adversarios superat, immutat homines. Prayer appeases the anger of God, who pardons those who humbly pray to Him; it obtains the grace of all that is asked; it overcomes all the forces of enemies; in sum, it changes men from blind to enlightened, from weak to strong, from sinners to saints. Whoever has need of light, let him ask it of God, and it will be given: as soon as I had recourse to God, said Solomon, He granted me wisdom: Invocavi, et venit in me spiritus sapientiae (Wis. 7:7). Whoever has need of strength, let him ask it of God, and it will be given: as soon as I opened my mouth to pray, said David, I received help from God: Os meum aperui, et attraxi spiritum (Ps. 118:134). And how did the holy martyrs acquire such strength to resist the tyrants, if not through prayer, which obtained for them the vigor to overcome torments and death?

Whoever avails himself, in sum, of this great weapon of prayer, says St. John Chrysostom: Nescit mortem, relinquit terras, Caelos intrat, convivit Deo. He does not fall into sin, he loses his attachment to earth, he enters to dwell in heaven, and he begins even in this life to enjoy conversation with God. What use is it, then, for someone to distress himself saying: Who knows whether I am written or not in the Book of Life? Who knows whether God will give me efficacious grace and perseverance? Nihil solliciti sitis, sed in omni oratione, et obsecratione, cum gratiarum actione, petitiones vestrae innotescant apud Deum. What use is it, says the Apostle, to confound yourselves in these anxieties and fears? Away, banish from yourselves all these worries, which serve only to diminish your confidence and to make you more lukewarm and sluggish in walking the way of salvation. Pray, seek always, and make your prayers heard by God, and thank Him always for the promises He has made to you — to grant you the gifts you desire (whenever you ask for them), efficacious grace, perseverance, salvation, and all that you desire. The Lord has placed us in battle to fight with powerful enemies, but He is faithful in His promises and does not suffer us to be tempted beyond our strength: Fidelis autem Deus est, qui non patietur vos tentari supra id quod potestis (1 Cor. 10:13). He is faithful, because He immediately comes to the aid of whoever invokes Him. The learned and most eminent Cardinal Gotti writes that the Lord is not otherwise bound always to give us a grace equal to the temptation, but He is bound, when we are tempted and have recourse to Him, to provide us through grace (which He has prepared and offered to all) with sufficient strength by which we can actually resist the temptation: Tenetur Deus, cum tentamur, nobis ad Eum confugientibus per gratiam a Deo paratam et oblatam vires adfuturas praebere, et qua possimus resistere, et actu resistamus; omnia enim possumus in Eo, qui nos confortat per gratiam, si humiliter petamus. We can do all things with the Divine help, which is given to everyone who humbly asks for it; therefore we have no excuse when we allow ourselves to be overcome by temptation. We are vanquished only through our own fault, because we do not pray. With prayer all the snares and forces of enemies are easily overcome: Per Orationem cuncta noxia effugantur, wrote St. Augustine.

St. Bernardine of Siena says that prayer is a faithful ambassador, well known to the King of heaven, accustomed to entering even into His private chamber and bending by its importunity the compassionate heart of the King to grant every help to us poor wretches, who groan amid so many struggles and miseries in this valley of tears: Est Oratio Nuncius fidelissimus, notus Regi, qui cubiculum Regis adire, et qui importunitate pium Regis animum flectere, et laborantibus opem impetrare solitus est. Isaiah too assures us that when the Lord hears our prayers, He is immediately moved with compassion for us, and does not leave us long to weep, but at that very moment answers us and grants us what we ask. Plorans nequaquam plorabis, miserans miserebitur tui, ad vocem clamoris tui, statim ut audierit, respondebit tibi (Isa. 30:19). And elsewhere the Lord speaks through the mouth of Jeremiah, and complaining of us says: Numquid solitudo factus sum Israeli, aut terra serotina? Quare ergo dixit Populus meus: Recessimus, non veniemus ultra ad te? (Jer. 2:31). Why (says God) do you say that you will no longer have recourse to Me? Is My mercy a barren land for you, that cannot yield you any fruit of graces? Or a tardy land, that yields its fruit too late? By this our loving Lord wished to give us to understand that He never fails to hear, and promptly to hear, our prayers; and by this He also wishes to reproach those who cease to pray to Him out of distrust of being heard.

If God admitted us to lay our supplications before Him only once a month, it would still be a great favor. The kings of the earth give audience only a few times a year, but God gives audience always. Chrysostom writes that God is continually ready to hear our prayers, and there never occurs a case in which He, being prayed to as He ought, does not hear the one who prays to Him: Deus paratus continue ad vocem Servorum suorum est, nec unquam ut oportet vocatus non obaudivit. And elsewhere he says that when we pray to God, before we have finished presenting our supplications, He has already heard us: Semper obtinetur, etiam dum adhuc oramus.

Indeed, of this we have the promise of God Himself: Adhuc illis loquentibus, ego audiam (Isa. 65:24). The Lord, says David, is near to everyone who prays to Him, to satisfy him, hear him, and save him: Prope est Dominus, omnibus invocantibus eum; omnibus invocantibus eum in veritate — that is, as one ought. Voluntatem timentium se faciet, et deprecationem exaudiet, et salvos faciet illos (Ps. 144:19). This was what Moses gloried in, saying: Non est alia Natio tam grandis, quae habeat deos appropinquantes sibi; sicut Deus noster adest cunctis obsecrationibus nostris (Deut. 4:7). The gods of the Gentiles were deaf to those who invoked them, because they were miserable creatures that could do nothing; but our God, who can do all things, is not deaf to our prayers, but is always near to those who pray to Him and ready to grant all the graces they ask: In quacunque die invocavero te, ecce cognovi, quoniam Deus meus es (Ps. 55:11). Lord (said the Psalmist), in this I have recognized that You are my God, all goodness and mercy: that whenever I have recourse to You, You immediately come to my aid.

We are poor in all things, but if we ask, we are poor no longer. If we are poor, God is rich; and God is entirely generous, says the Apostle, to all who call upon Him: Dives in omnes, qui invocant illum (Rom. 10:12). Since then (St. Augustine exhorts us) we have to deal with a Lord of infinite power and infinite riches, let us not ask Him for small and base things, but let us ask Him for something great: Ab Omnipotente petitis, aliquid magnum petite. If someone were to ask a king for a vile coin, a farthing, he would seem to do the king a dishonor. On the contrary, we honor God, we honor His mercy and His generosity, when, seeing ourselves as wretched as we are and unworthy of any benefit, we nonetheless ask Him for great graces, trusting in the goodness of God and in His faithfulness to the promise He has made to grant to those who pray whatever grace they ask: Quodcumque volueritis petetis, et fiet vobis (John 15:7). St. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi used to say that the Lord feels so honored and takes so much consolation when we ask Him for graces, that in a certain sense He thanks us, since by doing so we seem to open the way for Him to benefit us and to satisfy His own desire, which is to do good to all. And let us be persuaded that when we ask graces from God, He always gives us more than we ask. Si quis indiget sapientia, postulet a Deo, qui dat omnibus affluenter, nec improperat (James 1:5). So says St. James, to signify to us that God is not like men, miserly with His goods. Men, however rich, however pious and generous, when they distribute alms, are always tightfisted, and for the most part give less than what is asked of them, because their wealth, however great, is always finite; hence the more they give, the less they have. But God gives His goods, when He is asked, affluenter — that is, with an open hand, always giving more than is asked, because His wealth is infinite; the more He gives, the more remains for Him to give. Quoniam tu Domine suavis, et mitis, et multae misericordiae omnibus invocantibus te (Ps. 85:5). You, my God, said David, are exceedingly generous and gracious to those who invoke You; the mercies You show them are all abundant, surpassing their requests.

In this, then, must consist all our attention: in praying with confidence, certain that by praying all the treasures of heaven will be opened in our favor. Hoc studeamus, et aperiemus nobis Caelum. Prayer is a treasure; the more one prays, the more he receives. St. Bonaventure says that every time a man has devout recourse to God through prayer, he gains goods worth more than the whole world: In quacumque die lucratur homo oratione devota plus, quam valeat totus Mundus. Some devout souls spend great time in reading and meditating but give little attention to praying. There is no doubt that spiritual reading and meditation on the eternal truths are very useful things; but far more useful, says St. Augustine, is prayer. In reading and meditating we learn our obligations, but through prayer we obtain the grace to fulfill them: Melius est orare quam legere; in lectione cognoscimus quae facere debemus, in oratione accipimus quae postulamus. What use is it to know what we are obliged to do and then not do it, except to make us more guilty before God? Let us read and meditate as much as we wish; we shall never satisfy our obligations unless we ask God for the help to fulfill them.

And therefore St. Isidore observes that at no other time does the devil work harder to distract us with thoughts of temporal cares than when he sees that we are praying and asking graces from God: Tunc magis Diabolus cogitationes ingerit, quando orantem aspexerit. And why? Because the enemy sees that at no other time do we gain more treasures of heavenly goods than when we pray. The greatest fruit of mental prayer is this: asking from God the graces we need for perseverance and for eternal salvation. For this reason principally, mental prayer is morally necessary for the soul to preserve itself in the grace of God, because if a person does not recollect herself during the time of meditation to ask for the helps necessary for perseverance, she will not do it at any other time; for without meditating she will not think of the need she has to ask for them. On the other hand, whoever makes his meditation every day will see clearly the needs of his soul, the dangers in which he finds himself, the necessity he has of praying; and so he will pray and obtain the graces that will then make him persevere and be saved. Speaking of himself, Father Segneri used to say that at first in meditation he spent more time making affections than in prayer, but then, recognizing the necessity and immense benefit of prayer, from that time on in the great amount of mental prayer he made, he applied himself mainly to praying.

Sicut pullus hirundinis, sic clamabo, said the devout King Hezekiah (Isa. 38:14).

The young of swallows do nothing but cry out, seeking by this means help and nourishment from their mothers. So must we all do if we wish to preserve the life of grace: we must always cry out, asking God for help to avoid the death of sin and to advance in His holy love. Father Rodriguez relates that the ancient Fathers, who were our first masters of the spiritual life, held counsel among themselves to see which exercise was most useful and most necessary for eternal salvation, and they resolved that it was the frequent repetition of the brief prayer of David: Deus in adjutorium meum intende. The same (writes Cassian) must be done by whoever wishes to be saved, always saying: My God, help me; my God, help me. This we must do from the moment we wake in the morning, and then continue doing it in all our needs and in all the occupations in which we find ourselves, both spiritual and temporal, and more especially when we see ourselves troubled by some temptation or passion. St. Bonaventure says that sometimes grace is obtained more quickly with a short prayer than with many other good works: Quandoque citius brevi oratione aliquis obtinet, quod piis operibus vix obtineret. St. Ambrose adds that whoever prays, while he prays, already obtains; for the very act of asking is receiving: Qui petit a Deo, dum petit, accipit; ipsum namque petere est accipere. Hence St. Chrysostom wrote that there is no one more powerful than a man who prays — Nihil potentius homine orante — because such a one becomes a participant in the power of God. To ascend to perfection, said St. Bernard, meditation and prayer are needed: through meditation we see what we lack, through prayer we receive what we need: Ascendamus meditatione, et oratione; illa docet quid desit, haec ne desit obtinet.

To be saved, in sum, without praying is most difficult — indeed impossible (as we have seen) according to ordinary Divine Providence; but by praying, salvation is certain and most easy. It is not necessary for salvation to go among the infidels and give one's life; it is not necessary to retire to the deserts and feed on herbs. What does it take to say: My God, help me; Lord, assist me; have pity on me? Is there anything easier than this? And this little will suffice to save us, if we are attentive to doing it. St. Lawrence Justinian especially exhorts us to make an effort to pray at least at the beginning of every action: Connitendum est, ut in primordio saltem cujusque operis dirigatur oratio. Cassian attests that the ancient Fathers most earnestly urged frequent recourse to God with short but frequent prayers. Let no one make little account (said St. Bernard) of his prayer, since God makes account of it, and will either give us what we ask or what is more useful for us: Nemo parvipendat orationem suam, quia Deus non parvipendit eam... aut dabit quod petimus, aut quod novit utilius. And let us understand that if we do not pray, we have no excuse, because the grace of praying is given to everyone; it is in our power to pray whenever we wish, as David said, speaking of himself: Apud me oratio Deo vitae meae, dicam Deo, susceptor meus es (Ps. 41:9-10). On this point we shall speak at length in the Second Part, in which I shall make sufficiently clear that God gives to all the grace of praying, so that by praying they may then obtain all the helps, even abundant ones, for observing the Divine Law and persevering until death. For now I say only this: that if we are not saved, all the fault will be our own, and it will be on our account alone, because we shall not have prayed.