If the Lord did not want to grant us graces, why should he continually urge us to ask for them?
Newsdesk (July 14, 2021 8:45, PM Gaudium Press) Many people pray, do not obtain what they expect because they do not ask as they should: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly…” (James 4:3)
Prayer: attention, humility and trust
1- To pray well, one needs, in the first place, attention. For distracted persons does not please God, as they divide their cognitive capacity into small fractions and thereby, they do not raise their minds to heaven.
2- Next: humility. God resists the proud and does not grant their requests. Instead, He gives His grace to the humble (James 4:6) and does not leave their requests unfulfilled. “The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds, and he will not be consoled until it reaches the Lord.”(Eccl 35, 17) And this happens even if the person has previously been a sinner since God will not despise a contrite and humble heart. (Ps 50:19)
3- Finally, we need confidence. It makes us hope for everything through the merits of Jesus Christ and the intercession of Mary Most Holy. “Who ever called upon him and was overlooked?” (Sirach 2:10) Jesus Christ himself teaches us that when we have some grace to ask for, we should call Him by no other name than that of Father: Our Father so that we pray with all the confidence that is proper of a son toward his father. He who asks with confidence obtains everything. “Therefore I tell you,” says the Lord, “whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will.” (Mark 11:24)
Perseverance in prayer
And who can fear, asks St. Augustine, to be deceived in what has been promised by the Truth itself, which is God? Scripture assures us that “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should repent.
Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfil it?” (Num 23, 19) St. Augustine adds: If the Lord did not want to grant us graces, why should he continually encourage us to ask for them? By promising, He has contracted the obligation to give us the graces that we beg of Him.
What matters above all is to have perseverance in prayer. Cornelius a Lapide explains that the Lord “wants us to be persevering in prayer even to importunity” as the following texts of Scripture explain: Pray always; (Lk 18, 1) Watch always, praying (Lk 21, 16); Pray without ceasing. (1 Thess 5, 17) They also mean: “Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find; knock at the door and it shall be opened unto you.” (Lk 11, 9)
Let us not stop praying, if we want to be saved
Final perseverance cannot be obtained without continuous prayer. We cannot merit perseverance, but we merit it somehow, says St. Augustine, through prayers. Let us always pray without interruption if we want to save ourselves. Let confessors and preachers never cease to encourage prayer if they wish souls to be saved. For he who prays shall be saved, and he who does not pray shall be condemned.
My God, I trust that You have already forgiven me; but my enemies will not cease to fight me to the death. If You do not help me, I will succumb again. I beg You, through the merits of Jesus Christ, to grant me holy perseverance. Do not allow me to drift away from You. I ask the same favour for all those who are presently in your grace. Trusting in your promises, I am sure that you will give me perseverance if I keep asking for it. But I fear that I will no longer turn to You in temptations and so fall into sin again. I ask You, therefore, for the grace never to stop praying. Grant that I may always commend myself to You on dangerous occasions and call to my aid the holiest names of Jesus and Mary. I resolve to do this always, and I hope to do it by your grace. Attend me for the love of Jesus Christ. – O Mary, my Mother, grant that in the dangers of losing my God, I may always have recourse to You and Your Son. (EPC)
Compiled by Gustavo Kralj
