Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/208

 repeated prayers does not offend him: on the contrary, it is pleasing and acceptable in his sight. "Prayer," according to St. John Climacus, "piously offers violence to God." Our supplications compel him, but in a manner grateful to him. He takes great complacency in seeing his mother honoured, and therefore wishes, as St. Bernard says, that all the graces we receive should pass through her hands. Hence the holy doctor exhorts us "to seek grace, and to seek it through Mary, because she is a mother, and her prayer cannot be fruitless." (de Aquæd.) When we ask her to obtain any grace for us, she graciously hears our petitions and prays for us: and the prayers of Mary are never rejected. N exhorting his disciples to be faithful to him under the persecution which they were to endure, the Saviour said: “Yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doeth a service to God." Thus, the enemies of the faith believed that in putting Christians to death they did a service to God. It is thus that many Christians of the present day act. They kill their own souls by losing the grace of God through human respect and to please worldly friends. Oh! how many souls has human respect that great enemy of our salvation sent to hell! I shall speak on this subject today, that, if you wish to serve God and save your souls, you may guard as much as possible against human respect. In the first point, I will show the importance of not being influenced by human respect; and in the second, I will point out the means by which this vice may be overcome. First Point. - On the importance of not being influenced by human respect.