Peacemakers
who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.
James
3:18
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Necessity of Prayer
Pope
John Paul II indicates that people sometimes say they don't know how to
pray. "How to pray? This is a simple matter. I would say: Pray
any way you like, so long as you do pray." You can pray the
way your mother taught you; you can use a prayer book. Sometimes it takes
courage to pray; but it is possible to pray, and necessary to pray. Whether
from memory or a book or just in thought, it is all the same. See, John
Paul II, The Way of Prayer, Crossroad Publishing Co. (1995).
Let
us also reflect on the necessity of prayer. St. Chrysostom says that,
as the body without the soul is dead, so the soul is dead without prayer.
He also teaches that, as water is necessary to prevent the decay of plants,
so prayer is necessary to preserve us from perdition. God wills that
all men be saved (1Tim 2:4), - and is
unwilling that any be lost. The Lord. . . dealt patiently for Your sake,
not willing that any one should perish, but that all should return to
penance. (2 Peter 3:9) But he also wishes
that we ask him for the graces necessary for salvation. For, on the one
hand, it is impossible for us to observe the divine commands, and save
our souls, without the actual assistance of God; and on the other, ordinarily
speaking, God will not give us his graces unless we ask them from him,
Hence the holy Council of Trent has declared that God has not commanded
impossibilities; because he either gives us the proximate and actual grace
to fulfill his precepts, or he gives us the grace to ask him for this
actual aid. (session 6, c 11.) St. Augustine teaches, that God gives without
prayer the first graces, such as vocation to the faith and to repentance;
but all other graces, and particularly the gift of perseverance, he gives
only to those who ask them.
Hence, theologians, after St. Basil, St. Augustine,
St. John Chrysostom, Clement of Alexandria, and others, teach,
that for adults prayer is necessary as a means of salvation; so that,
without it, it is impossible to be saved. And the most learned Lessius
says that this doctrine must be held as of faith.
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