The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-09-30

Is IL we, ECUuSlucIa LIE CF6HJuTG s. fe!d- l
tionship to his Creator we shall easily |
realize the absolute necessity of ex-
ercising the virtue of praying. We
belong to Almighty God. Everything
we can hope for is in His hands.
Without His preserving influence we
should not be able to exist. Apart
| from Revelation, then, our condition
in life as dependent creatures clearly
shows that praying to Supreme Be-
| ing is the most natural and necessary
action that we can perform
But Our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ has not left us without divine
testimony to the value and necessity
of frequent prayer. Again and again
He has urged and exhorted us to
pray He has not been satisfied mere
1 ly to counsel us to the fulfillment of
this important duty; He has command
ed us, under pain of sin, not to neglect
| it. We are not free, therefore, ito
pray or not, as we may choose. We
are obliged to pray, and this obliga-
ton is in no way doubtfully expressed
| in Holy Scripture. Watch and pray"
Our Lord said, that you enter not
into temptation" (St Matt. XXI, Al.
In another place He taught that men
ought always to pray and not to
faint (St. Luke, xviii, u. st. Paul
urges us ito pray without ceasing,"
and the Lives of the Saints are but a
record of the holy lives of chosen
souls who kept themselves ever and
always in the closest prayerful COM
munion with their Maker.
Prayer is necessary. But it is more
than necessary, it is most desirable
and invaluable. AS Almighty God is
the Giver of every good gift, and as
our only access to the most precious
blessings we can receive is prayer,
we may reasonably say that prayer
is mans greatest privilege in life. OF
all the promises made by God to man
there is none more clearly and un-
mistakably enunciated than that by
which He has pledged Himself to re-
ward the creatures petitions with the
most generous, recompense. ASK and
We shall receive said Our Lord; and
again, Every one that asketh re-
ceiVeth." There is no supplication,
then, that will go unanswered if we
but present our petition, and present
it in the proper way.
We may ask, then, why it is that
so many of our prayers fail to bring
us the blessings and fayors for which
we ask. A consideration of the es-
sential and necessary characteristics
of good prayer will best answer the
question. Our prayer must possess
certain requisites, else it will not be
effectual. AS regards the petition it.
self, our prayer must be conformable
to reason. 1t must not be a request
for. something that is silly or whimsi-
cal. 1t must be made with the con-
ditional provision that what we en-
treat is for our own best interests, cor
pOral and spiritual and that the grant
ing of it will be conducive to the
greater glory of God and the more
perfect fulfilling of His divine will.
, If ever prayer is offered in this con-
ditional way our failure to realize the
object of our petitions will not disturb
or perplex us. We must remember that
we are always supplicating and not
> demanding. We must always be ready
: and even anxious to permit the Al
mighty to determine whether or not
what we ask for is for our advantage.
Not knowing the future, we may cas-
; lily misjudge in a question of what
is for our own good. In word, our
prayer must be humble; we must be
as little children submissive to our
Fathers divine knowledge and to His
infinite will. We may safely say that
the majority of our failures to re-
ceive what we ask for is because we
do not form humble petitions and pre-.
sent them to God in humble, docile
manner.
The efficacy of our prayer also de-
ponds upon the character of the pray
er itself A mere lip-service is no serv.
ice at all. We must be attentive in
addressing ourselves to the God who
made us. We must concentrate our
minds upon the petition we are pre-
senting. Our prayer should be of
the nature of conversation with God,
it is true, but conversation which is
not merely desultory and Indifferent,
but respectfully attentive.
Our prayer should be persevering.
Many of our requests are denied be-
cause we are not sufficiently persist
ent. We must ask again and again;
we must pray 'and faint not" We
must tire God with our petitions.
Humbly, reasonably and perseveringly
We must beseech God for aid and re-
lief in our needs and necessities. We
must pray for ourselves; for our spir-
: itual welfare, first, but for our bodily
health and prosperity as we'll. We
must pray, frequently and confidently,
for ourselves, our friends and our dear
departed ones who loved us during
life, whom we should not forget now
that they have left us.