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Chapter 3: The Conditions of Prayer
4. The perseverance required in prayer
Why God delays granting us final
perseverance. Conclusion
But, some one will say, since God can give and wishes to give me
the grace of perseverance, why does He not give it me all at
once, when I ask Him?
The holy Fathers assign many reasons:
1. God does not grant it at once, but delays it, first, that He
may better prove our confidence.
2. And, further, says St. Augustine, that we may long for it
more vehemently. Great gifts, he says, should be greatly
desired; for good things soon obtained are not held in the same
estimation as those which have been long looked for: "God wills
not to give quickly, that you may learn to have great desire for
great things; things long desired are pleasanter to obtain, but
things "Soon given are cheapened." [Serm. 61, E.B.]
3. Again, the Lord does so that we may not forget Him; if we
were already secure of persevering and of being saved, and if we
had not continual need of God's help to preserve us in His grace
and to save us, we should soon forget God. Want makes the poor
keep resorting to the houses of the rich; so God, to draw us to
Himself, as St. Chrysostom says, and to see us often at His
feet, in order that He may thus be able to do us greater good,
delays giving us the complete grace of salvation till the hour
of our death: "It is not because He rejects our prayers that He
delays, but by this contrivance He wishes to make us careful,
and to draw us to Himself." Again, He does so in order that we,
by persevering in prayer, may unite ourselves closer to Him with
the sweet bonds of love: "Prayer," says the same St. Chrysostom,
"which is accustomed to converse with God, is no slight bond of
love to Him." This continual recurrence to God in prayer, and
this confident expectation of the graces which we desire from
Him, oh, what a great spur and chain is it of love to inflame
us, and to bind us more closely to God!
But, till what time have we to pray! Always, says the same
Saint, till we receive favourable sentence of eternal life; that
is to say, till our death: "Do not leave off till you receive."
And he goes on to say that the man who resolves, I will never
leave off praying till I am saved, will most certainly be saved:
"If you say, I will not give in till I have received, you will
assuredly receive." The Apostle writes that many run for the
prize, but that he only receives it who runs till he wins: "Know
you not that they who run in the race, all run indeed, but one
receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain." [1 Cor. 9: 24]
It is not, then, enough for salvation simply to pray; but we
must pray always, that we may come to receive the crown which
God promises, but promises only to those who are constant in
prayer till the end.
So that if we wish to be saved, we must do as David did, who
always kept his eyes turned to God, to implore His aid against
being overcome by his enemies: "My eyes are ever towards the
Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the snare." [Ps. 24: 15]
As the devil does not cease continually spreading snares to
swallow us up, as St. Peter writes: "Your adversary the devil,
as a roaring lion, goeth about, seeking whom he may devour;" [1
Peter 5] so ought we ever to stand with our arms in our hands to
defend ourselves from such a foe, and to say, with the royal
prophet, "I will pursue after my enemies; and I will not turn
again till they are consumed." [Ps. 17: 38] I will never cease
fighting till I see my enemies conquered.
But how can we obtain this victory, so important for us, and so
difficult? "By most persevering prayers," says St.
Augustine,-----only by prayers, and those most persevering; and
till when? As long as the fight shall last. "As the battle is
never over," says St. Bonaventure, "so let us never give over
asking for mercy." As we must be always in the combat, so should
we be always asking God for aid not to be overcome. Woe, says
the Wise Man, to him who in this battle leaves off praying: "Woe
to them that have lost patience." [Ecclus 2: 16] We may be
saved, the Apostle tells us, but on this condition, "if we
retain a firm confidence and the glory of hope until the end;"
[Heb. 3: 6] if we are constant in praying with confidence until
death.
Let us, then, take courage from the mercy of God, and His
promises, and say with the same Apostle, "Who then shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or danger or persecution, or the sword?" [Rom. 8: 35,
37] Who shall succeed in estranging us from the love of Jesus
Christ? Tribulation, perhaps, or the danger of losing the goods
of this world? The persecutions of devils or men? The torments
inflicted by tyrants? "In all these we overcome" [it is St. Paul
who encourages us], "because of Him that hath loved us." [Ibid.]
No, he says, no tribulation, no misery, danger, persecution, or
torture, shall ever be able to separate us from the love of
Jesus Christ; because with God's help we shall overcome all, if
we fight for love of Him who gave his life for us.
F. Hippolitus Durazzo, the day when he resolved to relinquish
his dignity of prelate at Rome, and to give himself entirely to
God by entering the Society of Jesus [which he afterwards did],
was so afraid of being faithless by reason of his weakness that
he said to God, "Forsake me not, Lord, now that I have given
myself wholly to Thee; for pity's sake, do not forsake me!" But
he heard the whisper of God in his heart, "Do not thou forsake
Me; rather," said God, "do I say to thee, Forsake Me not." And
so at last the servant of God, trusting in His goodness and
help, concluded, "Then, O my God, Thou wilt not leave me, and I
will not leave Thee."
Finally, if we wish not to be forsaken by God, we ought never to
forsake praying to Him not to leave us. If we do thus, He will
certainly always assist us, and will never allow us to perish,
and to be separated from His love. And to this end let us not
only take care always to ask for final perseverance, and the
graces necessary to obtain it, but let us, at the same time,
always by anticipation ask God for grace to go on praying; for
this is precisely that great gift which He promised to His elect
by the mouth of the prophet: "And I will pour out upon the house
of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of
grace and prayers." [Zach. 12: 10]
Oh, what a great grace is the spirit of prayer; that is, the grace
which God confers on a soul to enable it to pray always! Let us,
then, never neglect to beg God to give us this grace, and this
spirit of continual prayer; because if we pray always, we shall
certainly obtain from God perseverance and every other gift
which we desire, since His promise of hearing whoever prays to
Him cannot fail. "For we are saved by hope." [Rom. 8: 24] With
this hope of always praying, we may reckon ourselves saved.
"Confidence will give us a broad entrance into this city." This
hope, said Venerable Bede, will give us a safe passage into the
city of Paradise.
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