Book 1. Meditation, Prayer, and the Particular Examen, 7/28

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