NECESSITY OF PRAYER.
We ought always to pray, and not to faint. -Luke xviii. 1.
Watch ye, and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. -Matt. xxvi. 41.
Ask and it shall be given you. -Ibid. vii. 7.
Without Me you can do nothing. -John xv. 5.
Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. -2 Cor. iii. 5.
God bestows some favors without prayer, such as the beginning of faith; others, such as perseverance, are granted only to those who pray. -St. Augustine.
To enter heaven, continual prayer is necessary after baptism; for although all sins are remitted by that sacrament, there still remain concupiscence to assail us from within, and the world and the devil to attack us from without. -St. Thomas.
All the graces, which God hath prepared for us from all eternity, will be granted only to prayer. -St. Thomas.
God wishes to give, but He gives only to those who ask. -St. Augustine.
To prayer may be traced the beginning, the progress, and the perfection of all virtues. -St. Charles Borromeo.
Who are we, or what is our strength, that we should be able to resist so many temptations? God certainly wished, that we, seeing that we are deficient, and that out of Him there is no assistance for us, should, with all humility, have recourse to His mercy. -St. Bernard.
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From "Prayer-Book for Religious"
by Rev. F.X. Lasance
Copyright 1904, 1914
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