CHAPTER II

OF THE UTILITY OF PRAYER

QUESTION I

What are the First Fruits resulting from the Necessity of Prayer

But this necessity [of prayer] is also fraught with most abundant spiritual fruits. Of these fruits of prayer, the pastor will, when necessary for the instruction of the faithful people, draw copiously from the pages of sacred writers. From their accumulated treasures, we have made a selection of such matter as appeared to us suited to our present purpose. Now the first fruit which we receive from prayer, is, that by it we honour God, prayer being a certain indication of religion, and being compared in Scripture to incense: Let my prayer, says the prophet, be set forth before thee as incense. Wherefore we thus confess our subjection to God, whom we acknowledge and proclaim to be the author of all good things; to whom alone we look; whom we have as the only refuge and bulwark of our safety and salvation. Of this fruit of prayer we are also admonished in these words: Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

QUESTION II

Of the Second Fruit of Prayer

Another most abundant and most pleasing fruit of prayer, when heard by God, follows; for, in the opinion of St. Augustine, prayer is the key of heaven: For, says he, prayer ascends, and the mercy of God descends: high as are the heavens, and low as is the earth, yet God heareth the voice of man. Such is the efficacy, such the utility of prayer, that thereby we receive the fulness of heavenly gifts; for we both obtain the guidance and aid of the Holy Spirit, the preservation and security of the faith, an escape from punishment, the divine protection under temptations, and victory over the devil. In a word, there is in prayer a singular accumulation of joy: wherefore the Lord has said: Ask, and you, shall receive, that your joy may be full.

QUESTION III

The Divine Majesty is ever ready to hear our Petitions

Nor can we for a moment doubt that the benignity of God awaits and hearkens to this our petition; a truth to which the Scriptures in many places bear ample testimony. As, however, the texts which establish it are easily met with, we shall cite only the following, by way of example, from Isaiah: Then, says he, shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. And again: It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. Instances of persons who have obtained from God the objects of their prayers, because almost innumerable and easily met with, we omit.

QUESTION IV

Why our Prayers are sometimes unheard

But it sometimes happens that we obtain not from God what we ask. True; but God the best consults our interets, either bestowing upon us other greater and more ample goods, or withholding what we ask, because neither necessary nor useful to us; nay, perhaps, if granted, it might prove superfluous and most injurious: God, saith St. Augustine, denies some things in his mercy, which he grants in his wrath. Sometimes also it happens, that such is the remissness and negligence with which we pray, that we ourselves attend not to what we say. Now, if prayer be an ascent of the soul unto God, and if, in prayer, the mind, instead of being fixed on God, wanders, and the tongue rambles over the words at random, without attention, without devotion, how shall we give to such empty sounds of speech the name of Christian prayer? It is therefore marvellous, if God does not accommodate himself to our will, when we ourselves, by our negligence and inattention to prayer, almost prove that we do not wish for what we ask, or ask what would be prejudicial to us.

QUESTION V

To Devout Prayers God grants more than they ask

But on the contrary, to those who pray with enlightened attention, God grants much more than they ask, as the apostle testifieth in his epistle to the Ephesians; and as is declared in the parable of the prodigal son, who would have deemed himself fortunate in being admitted into the number of his father’s hireling servants. Nay, if we reflect aright, God accumulates his favours on us, even when we ask them not; and this, not only in abundance, but also without delay. Without even waiting for their utterance, God prevents the inward and silent desires of the poor, according to these words of Scripture: Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble.

QUESTION VI

Third Fruit of Prayer

Another fruit of prayer is, that by it we exercise and augment the Christian virtues, particularly faith; for as they who have not faith in God, pray not as they ought: How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? so, the faithful, the more fervently they pray, the stronger and the more assured faith do they possess in the divine care and providence, which principally requires of us, that whilst we submit our wants to its dispensations, we make them all the objects of our prayers.

QUESTION VII

Why God, knowing what Things we want, wishes to be entreated by our Prayers

God, it is true, might bestow on us all things abundantly, although we asked them not, nor even thought of them, as he bestows on irrational creatures all things necessary for the support of life; but our most beneficent Father wishes to be invoked by his children; he wishes that, praying as we ought daily, we may pray the more confidently; he wishes us, having obtained those things that we ask, to testify and proclaim daily more and more his benignity towards us.

QUESTION VIII

In what manner our Charity towards God is augmented by Prayer

Charity is also augmented [by prayer]; for, recognizing God as the author of every good and every advantage to us, we embrace him with the utmost love. And as, by interviews and conversation, lovers are more inflamed to love; so, by holding intercourse with God in prayer, and supplicating his benignity, pious men, experiencing at each interview, the oftener they as it were converse with God, a more exquisite sense of delight, are the more ardently excited to love and serve him.

QUESTION IX

By Assiduity in Prayer we both become worthy the Divine Grace, and attain Humility, and Arms against the Devil

Moreover, he will have us make use of this exercise of prayer, that, glowing with the constant desire to ask what we desire, we may, by this assiduity and zeal, make such advances as to be worthy to obtain those blessings, which the soul, before weak and contracted, could not contain. Besides, [God] wishes us to know and always confess what is the fact, that, unaided by heavenly grace, we can of ourselves obtain nothing, and therefore should apply ourselves to prayer with all the power of our souls. These arms, as it were, of prayer are most powerful against our implacable foes: With the cries of our prayers, says St. Hilary, we must fight against the devil and his armed hosts.

QUESTION X

Fourth Fruit of Prayer

From prayer we also derive this important benefit, that, inclined as we are to evil, and to the indulgence of sensual appetite, through the fault of innate infirmity, [God] permits himself to be conceived in our minds; that, whilst we address him in prayer, and strive to merit his gifts, we may receive from him the love of innocence, and, by effacing all our sins, be purified from every stain.

QUESTION XI

Last Fruit of Prayer

Finally, as St. Jerome observes, prayer disarms the wrath of God. Hence God thus addressed Moses: Let me alone, when, by interposing his prayers, he was preventing him from inflicting on that people the punishments with which he wished to visit them; for nothing so appeases God, when his wrath is kindled, retards and averts his rage even when he is ready to strike the wicked, as the prayers of pious men.