CHAPTER I

ON PRAYER AND ITS NECESSITY

QUESTION I

In what manner we should pray to God

Amongst the duties of the pastoral office, it is one of primary necessity to the salvation of the faithful people, to instruct them in Christian prayer, the efficacy and nature of which must needs be unknown to many, unless it be explained by the pious and faithful diligence of the pastor. The parish priest therefore should make it a most especial object of his care, that his pious hearers understand what they should ask from God, and how it is to be asked. But the perfect requisites of prayer are entirely comprised in that divine form, which Christ the Lord wished to be known to his apostles, and through them and their successors, to all subsequently who should embrace the Christian religion. Its words and sentences should therefore be so deeply impressed on the mind and memory, as for us to have them in readiness. But that the means of instructing his faithful hearers in this form of prayer may not be wanting to the pastor, we have here set down those things, that appeared to us most opportune, taken from those writers who are most celebrated for their learning and copiousness on this head; and should it be necessary, the pastor may derive further information from the same source.

QUESTION II

Necessity of Prayer unto Salvation

In the first place, then, the necessity of prayer must be taught, a duty not only recommended by way of counsel, but also enforced by peremptory command, as Christ our Lord declares in these words: We ought always to pray. This necessity of prayer the Church also shows in that prelude to the Lord’s prayer: Admonished by salutary precepts, and formed by divine institution, we presume to say. Prayer then being necessary to Christian men, the Son of God, at the solicitation of his disciples: Lord teach us to pray, prescribed to them a form of prayer, and gave them hope to obtain the objects of their petitions; whilst he himself was to them a model of prayer, not only having recourse to it assiduously, but also spending whole nights therein. On this duty the apostles also ceased not to deliver precepts to those who were converted to the faith of Jesus Christ: for St. Peter and St. John are most earnest in their exhortations to the pious on the subject; and the apostle, mindful of its nature, exhorts Christians in many places to the salutary necessity of prayer.

QUESTION III

What are the Reasons by which Men may best be led to the Knowledge of this Necessary Duty

Besides, so numerous are our spiritual and bodily necessities, that we should have recourse to prayer as the one best interpreter of our wants, and the most efficient advocate in obtaining the object of our desires. For, to no one does God owe anything; and therefore it certainly is our duty to ask in prayer those things of which we stand in need. He has constituted these our prayers the necessary instrument to obtain the objects of our wishes.

QUESTION IV

We cannot satisfy our Wants in any other way save by Prayer

Particularly as it is clear, that there are some things which cannot be obtained without its aid. For holy prayers possess that transcendant virtue by which principally demons are cast out, as there is a certain class of demons not to be expelled save by prayer and fasting. They, therefore, who neglect to apply this practice and exercise [of prayer], deprive themselves of a powerful means of obtaining singular gifts; for, to obtain what one desires, it is necessary that our prayer be not only good but also assiduous, as St. Jerome saith: It is written: Every one that asketh receiveth: if therefore it be not given you, it is because ye do not ask: Ask, therefore, and ye shall receive.”