The Necessity of Prayer – St. Alphonsus Liguori

One of many errors of Pelagianism was the assertion that prayer isn’t mandatory for salvation. Pelagius, the impious creator of that heresy, stated that man will solely be damned for neglecting to know the truths essential to be discovered. How astonishing! St. Augustine stated: “Pelagius mentioned all the pieces besides the way to pray,” although, because the saint held and taught, prayer is the one technique of buying the science of the saints; in accordance with the textual content of St. James: “If any man lacks knowledge, let him ask of God, who provides to all abundantly, and upbraids not” (James 1:5). The Scriptures are clear sufficient in declaring how mandatory it’s to hope if we’d be saved. “We ought at all times to hope and to not faint” (Luke 18:1). “Watch and pray, that you just enter not into temptation” (Matt. 26:41). “Ask, and it shall be given you” (Matt. 7:7). The phrases “we ought,” “pray,” “ask,” in accordance with the overall consent of theologians, impose the principle and denote the need of prayer. Wickliffe stated that these texts are to be understood, not exactly of prayer, however solely of the need ofgood works, for in his system, prayer was solely properly doing; however this was his error and was expressly condemned by the Church. Therefore Lessius wrote that it’s heresy to disclaim that prayer is critical for salvation in adults, as “it evidently seems from Scripture that prayer is the means with out which we can not acquire the assistance mandatory for salvation.”

The rationale of that is evident. With out the help of God’s grace, we are able to do no good factor: “With out me, you are able to do nothing” (John 15:5). St. Augustine remarks on this passage, that Our Lord didn’t say, “With out me, you possibly can full nothing,” however “with out me, you are able to do nothing”; giving us to grasp that with out grace we can not even start to do a superb factor. Nay extra, St. Paul writes that of ourselves we can not even have the want to do good. Not that we’re adequate to assume something ourselves, however our sufficiency is from God (2 Cor. 3:5). If we can not even assume a superb factor, a lot much less can we want it. The identical factor is taught in lots of different passages of Scripture: “God works all in all” (1 Cor. 12:6). “I’ll trigger you to stroll in my commandments, and to maintain my judgments, and do them” (Ezek. 36:27). In order that, as St. Leo I says, “Man does no good factor, besides that which God, by his grace, allows him to do,” and therefore the Council of Trent says: “If anybody shall assert that with out the earlier inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and His help, man can consider, hope, love or repent, as he ought, in an effort to acquire the grace of justification, let him be anathema.”

However this grace isn’t given in God’s abnormal windfall besides to those that pray for it; in accordance with the celebrated saying of Gennadius: “We consider that nobody approaches to be saved, besides on the invitation of God; that nobody who’s invited works out his salvation, besides by the assistance of God; that nobody deserves this assist, until he prays.” From these two premises, on the one hand, that we are able to do nothing with out the help of grace; and on the opposite, that this help is just given ordinarily by God to the person that prays, who doesn’t see that the consequence follows that prayer is completely essential to us for salvation? And though the primary graces that come to us with none cooperation on our half, equivalent to the decision to religion or to penance, are, as St. Augustine says, granted by God even to those that don’t pray; but the saint considers it sure that the opposite graces, and specifically the grace of perseverance, aren’t granted besides in reply to prayer: “God provides us some issues, as the start of religion, even when we don’t pray. Different issues, equivalent to perseverance, He has solely offered for individuals who pray.”

Therefore it’s that the generality of theologians, following St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Augustine, and different Fathers, train that prayer is critical to adults, not solely due to the duty of the principle (as they are saying), however as a result of it’s mandatory as a method of salvation. That’s to say, within the abnormal course of Windfall, it’s unimaginable {that a} Christian needs to be saved with out recommending himself to God and asking for the graces essential to salvation. St. Thomas teaches the identical: “After Baptism, continuous prayer is critical to man, so that he might enter Heaven; for although by Baptism our sins are remitted, there nonetheless stay concupiscence to assail us from inside, and the world and the satan to assail us from with out” (III, q. 39, artwork. 5). The rationale, then, which makes us sure of the need of prayer is shortly this: in an effort to be saved, we should contend and conquer: “He that strives for the thriller isn’t topped besides he try lawfully” (2 Tim. 2:5). However with out the divine help we can not resist the may of so many and so highly effective enemies: now this help is just granted to prayer; subsequently with out prayer there isn’t a salvation.

Furthermore, that prayer is the one abnormal technique of receiving the divine items is extra distinctly proved by St. Thomas in one other place, the place he says that no matter graces God has from all eternity decided to provide us, He’ll give provided that we pray for them. St. Gregory says the identical factor: “Man by prayer deserves to obtain that which God had from all eternity decided to provide him.” Not, says St. Thomas, that prayer is critical so that God might know our requirements, however so that we might know the need of getting recourse to God to acquire the assistance mandatory for our salvation and will thus acknowledge Him to be the creator of all our good. As, subsequently, it’s God’s legislation that we must always present ourselves with bread by sowing corn and with wine by planting vines, so has He ordained that we must always obtain the graces essential to salvation by way of prayer: “Ask, and it shall be given you; search, and also you shall discover” (Matt. 7:7).

We, in a phrase, are merely beggars who don’t have anything however what God bestows on us as alms: “However I’m a beggar and poor” (Ps. 39:18). The Lord, says St. Augustine, needs and wills to pour forth His graces upon us however won’t give them besides to him who prays: “God needs to provide, however solely provides to him who asks.” That is declared within the phrases, Search, and it shall be given to you. Whence it follows, says St. Teresa, that he who seeks not doesn’t obtain. As moisture is critical for the lifetime of crops, to forestall them from drying up, so, says St. Chrysostom, is prayer mandatory for our salvation. Or, as he says in one other place, prayer vivifies the soul, because the soul vivifies the physique: “Because the physique with out the soul can not dwell, so the soul with out prayer is lifeless and emits an offensive odor.” He makes use of these phrases as a result of the person who omits to advocate himself to God directly begins to be defiled with sins. Prayer can be known as the meals of the soul as a result of the physique can’t be supported with out meals; nor can the soul, says St. Augustine, be stored alive with out prayer: “Because the flesh is nourished by meals, so is man supported by prayers.” All these comparisons utilized by the holy Fathers are meant by them to show absolutely the necessity of prayer for the salvation of everybody.