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Chapter 1: The Necessity of Prayer
1. Prayer is a Means Necessary to Salvation
One of the errors of Pelagianism was the assertion that prayer
is not necessary for salvation. Pelagius, the impious author of
that heresy, said that man will only be damned for neglecting to
know the truths necessary to be learned. How astonishing! St.
Augustine said: "Pelagius discussed everything except how to
pray," [De Nat. et Grat. c. 17] though, as the Saint held and
taught, prayer is the only means of acquiring the science of the
Saints; according to the text of St. James: "If any man wants
wisdom, let him ask of God, Who giveth to all abundantly, and
upbraideth not." [James 1: 5]
The Scriptures are clear enough in pointing out how necessary it
is to pray, if we would be saved. "We ought always to pray, and
not to faint." [Luke 18: 1] "Watch and pray, that ye enter not
into temptation." [Matt. 26: 41] "Ask, and it shall be given
you." [Matt. 7: 7] The words "we ought," pray," "ask," according
to the general consent of theologians, impose the precept, and
denote the necessity of prayer.
Wickliffe said, that these texts are to be understood, not
precisely of prayer, but only of the necessity of good works,
for in his system prayer was only well-doing; but this was his
error, and was expressly condemned by the Church. Hence Lessius
wrote that it is heresy to deny that prayer is necessary for
salvation in adults; as it evidently appears from Scripture that
prayer is the means, without which we cannot obtain the help
necessary for salvation. [De just. lib. 2. c. 38, d. 3]
The reason of this is evident. Without the assistance of God's
grace we can do no good thing: "Without Me, ye can do nothing."
[John 15: 5] St. Augustine remarks on this passage, that our
Lord did not say, "Without Me, ye can complete nothing," but
"without Me, ye can do nothing;" giving us to understand, that
without grace we cannot even begin to do a good thing. Nay more,
St. Paul writes, that of ourselves we cannot even have the wish
to do good. "Not that we are sufficient to think anything of
ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God." [2 Cor. 3: 5] If we
cannot I even think a good thing, much less can we wish it.
The same thing is taught in many other passages of Scripture: "God
worketh all in all. I will cause you to walk in My commandments,
and to keep My judgments, and do them." [Ezek. 37: 27] So that,
as St. Leo I says, "Man does no good thing, except that which
God, by his grace, enables him to do," and hence the Council of
Trent says: "If anyone shall assert, that without the previous
inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and His assistance, man can
believe, hope, love, or repent, as he ought, in order to obtain
the grace of justification, let him be anathema." [Sess. 6, Can.
3]
The author of the Opus Imperfectum says, that God has given to
some animals swiftness, to others claws, to other wings, for the
preservation of their life; but he has so formed man, that God
himself is his only strength." [Hom. 18] So that man is
completely unable to provide for his own safety, since God has
willed that whatever he has, or can have, should come entirely
from the assistance of His grace.
But this grace is not given in God's ordinary Providence, except
to those who pray for it; according to the celebrated saying of
Gennadius. "We believe that no one approaches to be saved,
except by the help of God; that no one merits this help, unless
he prays."
From these two premises, on the one hand, that we can do nothing
without the assistance of grace; and on the other, that this
assistance is only given ordinarily by God to the man that
prays, who does not see that the consequence follows, that
prayer is absolutely necessary to us for salvation? And although
the first graces that come to us without any co-operation on our
part, such as the call to faith or to penance, are, as St.
Augustine says, granted by God even to those who do not pray;
yet the Saint considers it certain that the other graces, and
specially the grace of perseverance, are not granted except in
answer to prayer: "God gives us some things, as the beginning of
faith, even when we do not pray. Other things, such as
perseverance, he has only provided for those who pray."
Hence it is that the generality of theologians, following St.
Basil, St. Chrysostom, Clement of Alexandria, St. Augustine, and
other Fathers, teach that prayer is necessary to adults, not
only because of the obligation of the precept [as they say], but
because it is necessary as a means of salvation. That is to say,
in the ordinary course of Providence, it is impossible that a
Christian should be saved without recommending himself to God,
and asking for the graces necessary to salvation. St. Thomas
teaches the same: "After Baptism, continual prayer is necessary
to man, in order that he may enter Heaven; for though by Baptism
our sins are remitted, there still remain concupiscence to
assail us from within, and the world and the devil to assail us
from without." [P. 3, q. 39, a. 5]
The reason then which makes us certain of the necessity of prayer
is shortly this, in order to be saved we must contend and
conquer: "He that striveth for the mastery is not crowned except
he strive lawfully." [2 Tim. 2: 5] But without the Divine
assistance we cannot resist the might of so many and so powerful
enemies: now this assistance is only granted through prayer;
therefore without prayer there is no salvation.
Moreover, that prayer is the only ordinary means of receiving
the Divine gifts is more distinctly proved by St. Thomas in
another place, where he says, that whatever graces God has from
all eternity determined to give us, he will only give them if we
pray for them. St. Gregory says the same thing: "Man by prayer
merits to receive that which God had from all eternity
determined to give him." Not, says St. Thomas, that prayer is
necessary in order that God may know our necessities, but in
order that we may know the necessity of having recourse to God
to obtain the help necessary for our salvation, and may thus
acknowledge him to be the author of all our good. As, therefore,
it is God's law that we should provide ourselves with bread by
sowing corn, and with wine by planting vines; so has he ordained
that we should receive the graces necessary to salvation by
means of prayer: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye
shall find." [Matt. 7: 7]
We, in a word, are merely beggars, who have nothing but what God
bestows on us as alms: "But I am a beggar and poor. [Ps. 39: 18]
The Lord, says St. Augustine, desires and wills to pour forth
his graces upon us, but will not give them except to him who
prays. "God wishes to give, but only gives to him who asks."
This is declared in the words, 'Seek and it shall be given to
you.' Whence it follows, says St. Teresa, that he who seeks not,
does not receive. As moisture is necessary for the life of
plants, to prevent them from drying up, so, says St. Chrysostom,
is prayer necessary for our salvation. Or, as he says in another
place, prayer vivifies the soul, as the soul vivifies the body:
"As the body without the soul cannot live, so the soul without
prayer is dead and emits an offensive odour."
He uses these words, because the man who omits to recommend
himself to God, at once begins to be defiled with sins. Prayer
is also called the food of the soul, because the body cannot be
supported without food; nor can the soul, says St. Augustine, be
kept alive without prayer: "As the flesh is nourished by food,
so is man supported by prayers."
All these comparisons used by the holy Fathers are intended by
them to teach the absolute necessity of prayer for the salvation
of everyone.
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