On Retreat with Father Alberione

On Retreat with Fr. Alberione

PRAYER

Our time on earth, no matter where we spend it, has always to keep very much in mind the one thing necessary: our salvation and our sanctification for the glory of God and for our eternal happiness.

Each of us has a particular, personal, mission according to the plans of God and each mission has its particular duties, plus the common Christian duties such as the Commandments.

All of us must avoid sin and do good, living as good children of God." If we are children, we are heirs also and co-heirs with Christ." The person who has sanctifying grace is a child of God but to practice virtue and to control our sinful nature we need actual grace.

Sanctifying grace comes from the Sacraments and with the Sacraments and our good conduct our grace increases. Actual grace, enabling us to live and become more virtuous, is the special fruit of PRAYER.

Prayer is defined as " the elevation of the mind to God," or it can be described as our request that God will give us what we need. St. Thomas combines these two definitions in one: prayer for him is "the elevation of the mind to God to praise Him and to ask Him for what we need for eternal life.."

The distracted person does not pray. Prayer is an act of religion.

Piety has two functions: one is directed to God- adoration, praise, thanksgiving - while the other is concerned with : pardon, purification and the graces our soul needs. The four traditional divisions are adoration, thanksgiving, reparation and supplication.

The main role of prayer is always to ask for spiritual favors but temporal needs can be requested though in a secondary sense. "Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you."

Piety   has a spiritual aspect and a practical one.   In the Pauline   Family  we  have   (according to  each  group's possibilities): Mass, Meditation, Visit, exam, prayer each day. Each month a Retreat or period of reflection on the month past. Each year, Spiritual Exercises and, as they occur, the Pauline Feasts of Jesus Master, Queen of Apostles, St. Paul.

The spirit is the soul of our piety and the practices we might call the body.  When the practices are neglected the spirit is gradually lost also. The spirit is founded on faith, hope and charity and these virtues can be of various degrees up to the supreme degree enjoyed by our Blessed Mother who is called in her Litany "singular vessel of devotion".

We are constantly in need of this or that gift and suffer from weaknesses of various kinds which only the Lord can relieve.  Thus even our human reason can grasp the need for prayer.  In every age, in every nation, in all the various types of religious beliefs, people pray with words, with rites and with sacrifices.  There are some who unwisely maintain that God does not exist, but the rest of humanity has always felt the need to turn to whatever form of God it venerated, both in times of wrong-doing and the consequent remorse, and when there were bodily needs--their own or others.

Prayer is absolutely necessary. God commands it.

"Watch and pray" (Mt 26: 41).

"We must always pray and never be disheartened" (Lk 16:1)

Praise, adoration, and thanksgiving are automatic reactions to our awareness of God, our Beginning and our End:  "I am the Lord, your God." (And as I have often suggested, a Glory be to the Father etc." is also a very good reaction to e.g. a glorious sunset, a richly-colored flower bed, a field of golden grain, the smile of an innocent child, etc.  Why confine our piety to the dark church?)

We need to pray in times of violent and stubborn temptation which can come back again and again for years.  To pray while we are tempted and afterwards. We need prayer when we are faced with unpleasant duties or painful trials so as to arrive at: "May Your will be done, Lord, not mine."

St. Augustine tells us--and the Council of Trent accepted his view--that God does not ask the impossible and when He commands, He recommends that we begin by doing what we can and asking His help to enable us to do what we can't, i.e. in times of special difficulty or when confronted with seemingly impossible challenges.  Those are the times when we must pray with special fervor and two in particular are especially important: that we persevere in our calling no matter what, and that we never stop asking for the grace of final perseverance.

St. Alphonus is famous for his brusque rule: "The person who prays will certainly be saved, and the person who does not pray will certainly be damned."  All the blessed in heaven are there because they prayed and all the damned are in Hell because they did not pray or did not pray enough and that will be one of their greatest sufferings: IF ONLY they had prayed, had turned to God, had asked His assistance...but they did not and now it is too late.

And on the other hand, we can say that a person of much prayer will become holy nor is sanctity possible without much prayer.

Two conclusions:

a) the absolute necessity of prayer, AND

b) the extraordinary sanctifying effectiveness of prayer. In fact if holiness is union with God, the shortest way to that union is the way of abundant and fervent prayer.

PRAYER HAS THREE VALUES:

1. It ASKS for favors and graces

2. It is MERITORIOUS

3. It SATISFIES for our sins

In prayer we ask for and obtain the favors we feel we need-or other favors we really need.

Prayer is a meritorious action, it is an "act of religion" in the fullest sense--an action directed totally to God. It is an act of faith.  It is a duty which also requires sacrifice:  the need to give time to it that we might spend otherwise, the need of paying attention when we pray.

It satisfies and makes reparation for our sins. Prayer, for most of us, requires time, attention, and concentration and these are all actions of our love for God.

Will our prayer be heard?  Yes, but there are conditions.

That we pray for ourselves-- if we pray with the right attitude and for what is best for us in God's plans.  Praying for others is less effective as it depends on their dispositions. (But that doesn't mean we should not pray for others.--my note)

That we ask for what is needed for our salvation. This attitude in prayer ensures that it is infallibly answered.

That we pray devoutly and with humility.

That we persevere.

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