Page:Prayerbookforrel00lasa 0.djvu/52

 Religious should  say  the  beads,  hear  Mass,  and  offer holy communion  frequently  for  our  holy  Mother  the Church, for  our  holy  Father  the  Pope,  for  bishops, priests, and  superiors,  for  the  needs  of  our  country, for universal  peace,  for  the  conversion  of  sinners,  and all those  who  do  not  belong  to  the  one  fold  of  Christ; and last,  but  not  least,  for  the  holy,  suffering  souls  in purgatory.

Father Girardev,  dwelling  on  the  subject  of  prayer, writes:

"In praying  for  temporal  favors  for  ourselves,  we  can claim  unconditionally  only  the  necessaries  of  life,  for  in the  Our  Father  'our  daily  bread'  is  equivalent  to  the necessaries  of  life,  but  does  not  include  its  superfluities or  luxuries;  and  the  words  '  deliver  us  from  evil '  do  not necessarily  include,  as  we  have  seen,  deliverance  from physical  evils,  for  the  evil  here  meant  is  sin  and  all  that leads  to  sin.  We  have  no  reason  to  hope  that  God  will hear  our  prayers  for  those  temporal  favors  that  may  prove hurtful  to  our  salvation,  or  that  He  will  exempt  us  from certain  corporal  pains  and  trials,  if  such  an  exemption would  lead  us  to  sin  or  endanger  our  salvation.  The granting  of  such  prayers  would  be,  not  a  favor,  but  a terrible  punishment.  We  should,  then,  ask  for  temporal favors conditionally — that  is,  under  the  condition  that they may  promote  our  salvation,  or  at  least  not  hinder  it. We ought  never  to  lose  sight  of  this  saying  of  our  loving Redeemer: 'What  doth  it  profit  a  man,  if  he  gain  the whole world,  and  suffer  the  loss  of  his  own  soul?'  (Matt, xvi.  26.)

"Let us  not  be  so  solicitous  for  temporal  favors,  which, after  all,  may,  as  we  have  seen,  prove  hurtful  to  our  soul, but  let  us  rather  pray  for  what  is  conducive  to  our  eternal welfare.  When  we  pray  for  temporals,  and  God,  in  His mercy,  refuses  them  to  us,  it  is  because  they  would  prove hurtful  to  us.  'But,'  says  St.  Gregory  of  Nazianzen,  'he who  asks  God  for  a  real  favor  (that  is,  for  a  favor  that  is