Page:Stalphonsuspraye00ligu.djvu/11

 xviii. i). Watch ye,  and  pray  that  ye  enter  not  into temptation  (Matt. xxvi. 41). Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given you  (Matt. vii. 7).

Theologians are  of  opinion  that  this  way  of  speaking imposes  the  precept  and  denotes  the  necessity of prayer. Hence the  learned  Lessius  asserts  that it cannot  be  denied,  without  sinning  against  faith, that for  adults  prayer  is  necessary  to  salvation;  since it is  evident  from  the  Scriptures  that  prayer  is  the only means  of  obtaining  the  aids  necessary  to  salvation.

The reason  of  this  is  that,  without  the  help  of grace,  we  can  do  nothing  good. Without Me,  says Jesus Christ,  you  can  do  nothing  (John  xv.  5). St. Augustine remarks  on  this  subject  that  Oar  Saviour did not  say,  You  can  complete  nothing  without  Me; but, You  can  do  nothing. This truth  was  proclaimed at  the  second  Council  of  Orange,  when  it was  defined  that  man  does  no  good  thing  except what God  enables  him  to  do  by  the  operations  of His  grace. Man is  therefore  quite  unable  to  work out his  own  salvation  unassisted,  since  it  is  God's will  that  all  he  has  or  can  have  should  come  to  him by the  help  of  grace. Now, this  grace  God  only grants, in  the  ordinary  course  of  His  providence, to those  who  pray  for  it. According to  the  maxim laid down  by  Gennadius,  "No  man  can  attain  salvation without  the  help  of  God:  no  man  can  obtain this  help  except  by  prayer." This does  not  mean, says St.  Thomas,   that  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  pray in order  that  God  may  know  of  what  we  stand  in need;  but  that  we  must  pray  in  order  that  we  ourselves may  understand  our  need  of  having  recourse  to God  to  obtain  the  aid  necessary  for  our  salvation, and may  thus  acknowledge  Him  as  the  only  author of all  our  good.