Chapter III — On the Conditions of Prayer

Amen, amen dico vobis, si quid petieritis Patrem in nomine meo, dabit vobis (John 16:23). It is therefore a promise of Jesus Christ that whatever we ask the Father in His name, the Father will grant us; but this is always understood as meaning when we ask with the due conditions. Many (says St. James) ask and do not obtain, because they ask badly: Petitis, et non accipitis, eo quod male petatis (James 4). Hence St. Basil, following the Apostle's words, says: Ideo quandoque petis, et non accipis, quia perperam postulasti, vel infideliter, vel leviter, vel non conferentia tibi, vel destitisti. Infideliter — that is, with little faith or little confidence. Leviter — with little desire for the grace. Non conferentia tibi — seeking goods not beneficial for salvation. Vel destitisti — without perseverance. Therefore St. Thomas reduces to four the conditions required in prayer so that it may obtain its effect: namely, that a man ask pro se, necessaria ad salutem, pie, et perseveranter — for himself, things necessary for salvation, devoutly, and perseveringly.

The first condition of prayer, then, is that it be made pro se — for oneself; for the Angelic Doctor holds that a man cannot merit for others ex condigno eternal life, and consequently not even those graces that pertain to their salvation, since the promise (as he says) was made not for others but only for those who pray: Dabit vobis — He will give to you. But notwithstanding this, many doctors hold the opposite opinion, supported by the authority of St. Basil, who teaches that prayer by virtue of the Divine promise infallibly has its effect also for those others for whom one prays, provided they do not place a positive obstacle. And they base themselves on the Scriptures: Et orate pro invicem, ut salvemini; multum enim valet oratio justi assidua (James 5:16). Orate pro persequentibus, et calumniantibus vos (Matt. 5:44). And better still on the text of St. John: Qui scit fratrem suum peccare peccatum non ad mortem, petat, et dabitur ei vita peccanti non ad mortem (1 John 5:16). St. Augustine and others explain Peccanti non ad mortem as meaning, provided that sinner is not one who intends to live obstinate until death, since for such a one a very extraordinary grace would be required.

For the rest, for other sinners not guilty of such malice, the Apostle promises conversion to those who pray for them: Petat, et dabitur ei vita peccanti.

Moreover, it is not doubted that the prayers of others greatly benefit sinners and are very pleasing to God; and God complains of His servants who do not commend sinners to Him, as He complained to St. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, to whom He said one day: See, My daughter, how Christians are in the hands of the devil; if My elect did not deliver them by their prayers, they would be devoured. But the Lord especially desires this from priests and religious. The aforesaid saint used to say to her nuns: Sisters, God has not separated us from the world so that we might do good only for ourselves, but also so that we might appease Him in favor of sinners. And the same Lord one day said to her: I have given to you, My chosen spouses, the City of Refuge (that is, the Passion of Jesus Christ), so that you might have somewhere to run to help My creatures; therefore have recourse to it, and there offer help to My creatures who are perishing, and lay down your lives for them. Inflamed with holy zeal, the saint fifty times a day offered to God the Blood of the Redeemer for sinners, and consumed herself with desire for their conversion, saying: Oh, what a torment it is, Lord, to see that I could benefit Your creatures by laying down my life for them, and not to be able to do it! For the rest, in every exercise she commended sinners to God; and it is written in her Life that scarcely an hour of the day passed that the saint did not pray for them. Frequently she also rose in the middle of the night and went to the Blessed Sacrament to pray for sinners; and yet once she was found weeping bitterly, and when asked why, she answered: Because it seems to me that I do nothing for the salvation of sinners. She went so far as to offer herself for their conversion to suffer even the pains of hell, provided that there she would not have to hate God; and many times God was pleased to afflict her with severe pains and illnesses for the salvation of sinners. She prayed especially for priests, seeing that their good life was the cause of the salvation of others and their bad life the cause of the ruin of many; and therefore she prayed the Lord to punish their faults upon herself, saying: Lord, cause me to die and return to life as many times as it takes until I satisfy Your justice for them. And it is related in her Life that the saint by her prayers did indeed free many souls from the hands of Lucifer.

I wished to say something more particular about the zeal of this saint. For the rest, all souls who are truly in love with God never cease to pray for poor sinners. And how is it possible that a person who loves God, seeing the love He bears for souls, and what Jesus Christ has done and suffered for their salvation, and the desire this Savior has that we pray for sinners — how is it possible, I say, that one can then see with indifference so many poor souls living without God as slaves of hell, and not be moved and labor to pray frequently to the Lord to give light and strength to those unhappy ones, that they may escape from the miserable state in which they sleep and live lost? It is true that God has not promised to hear us when those for whom we pray place a positive obstacle to their conversion; but many times the Lord in His goodness, out of regard for the prayers of His servants, has been pleased by extraordinary graces to bring the most blinded and obstinate sinners to a state of salvation. Therefore let us never fail, in saying or hearing Mass, in making our Communion, our meditation, or our visit to the Blessed Sacrament, always to commend poor sinners to God. And a learned author says that whoever prays for others will all the more quickly see answered the prayers he makes for himself. Let this be said in passing; but let us return to examine the other conditions that St. Thomas requires for prayer to have its effect.

The other condition that the Saint assigns is that we ask for those graces that are needed for salvation — necessaria ad salutem — since the promise attached to prayer is not made for temporal graces that are not necessary for the salvation of the soul. St. Augustine, explaining the Gospel words in nomine meo cited above, says that non petitur in nomine Salvatoris, quicquid petitur contra rationem salutis — what is asked for contrary to the plan of salvation is not asked in the name of the Savior. Sometimes we ask for certain temporal graces and God does not hear us, but He does not hear us (says the same Holy Doctor) because He loves us and wishes to show us mercy: Fideliter supplicans Deo pro necessitatibus hujus vitae, et misericorditer auditur, et misericorditer non auditur; quid enim Infirmo sit utile magis novit Medicus, quam Aegrotus. The physician who loves the sick man does not grant him those things which he sees would do him harm. Oh, how many who, if they were sick or poor, would not fall into the sins into which they fall when they are healthy or rich! And therefore the Lord, to some who ask Him for bodily health or for worldly goods, denies them because He loves them, seeing that those things would be occasions for them to lose His grace, or at least to grow lukewarm in the spiritual life. For the rest, we do not mean to say by this that it is a fault to ask God for things necessary for the present life, insofar as they are compatible with eternal salvation, as the Wise Man asked: Tribue tantum victui meo necessaria (Prov. 30:8). Nor is it a fault, says St. Thomas, to have an ordered concern for such goods; the fault consists in desiring and seeking these temporal goods as our principal concern, and in having for them a disordered solicitude, as though all our good consisted in them. Therefore when we ask God for these temporal graces, we must always ask for them with resignation and with the condition that they be for the good of our soul; and when we see that the Lord does not grant them to us, let us hold it as certain that He then denies them out of the love He bears us, and because He sees that they would be harmful to our spiritual salvation.

Many times we ask God to free us from some dangerous temptation, and God does not even hear us, but permits the temptation to continue troubling us. Let us understand that God permits this also for our greater good. It is not temptations and bad thoughts that distance us from God, but bad consent. When the soul in temptation commends itself to God and with His help resists, oh, how it then advances in perfection and comes to be more closely united to God! And for this reason the Lord does not hear it. St. Paul prayed insistently to be freed from temptations of impurity: Datus est mihi stimulus carnis meae, Angelus satanae, qui me colaphizet; propter quod ter Dominum rogavi, ut discederet a me (2 Cor. 12:7). But the Lord answered him: My grace suffices for you: Sufficit tibi gratia mea. So that even in temptations we must pray to God with resignation, saying: Lord, free me from this trouble if it is expedient to free me from it; if not, at least give me the help to resist. And here applies what St. Bernard says: that when we ask God for some grace, He either gives us that or something more useful than that. God many times leaves us to suffer in the storm in order to prove our fidelity and for our greater profit. It seems that He is then deaf to our prayers; but no, let us rest assured that God then indeed hears us and helps us secretly, strengthening us with His grace to resist every assault of enemies. Here is how He Himself assures us of this through the mouth of the Psalmist: In tribulatione invocasti me, et liberavi te; exaudivi te in abscondito tempestatis, probavi te apud aquam contradictionis (Ps. 80:8).

The other conditions, finally, that St. Thomas assigns to prayer are that one pray pie, et perseveranter — devoutly and perseveringly. Pie is understood to mean with humility and confidence; perseveranter, without ceasing to pray until death. Now regarding these conditions — namely, humility, confidence, and perseverance, which are the most necessary for prayer — it is fitting to speak of each one distinctly here.