Page:Withgodbookofpra00las.djvu/98

 just, as  well  as  for  the  sinner. "After baptism," says  St.  Thomas,  "continual prayer  is  necessary  for  man  that  he  may  enter heaven." The just  man  can  not  practise virtue without  prayer,  for,  says  St.  John Climacus, "prayer  is  the  source  of  all  virtue; it  is  the  channel  through  which  flow  to  us  all Christ's  graces  and  all  divine  gifts;  it  is  the best  and  most  indispensable  means  of  advancing in  virtue."

The just  man,  although  he  is  in  the  grace  of God,  is  nevertheless  naturally  weak,  prone  to evil,  and  beset  with  many  temptations  from the world  and  the  devil,  and  especially  from his own  passions. He can  not  escape  temptation, and  without  God's  assistance  he  can not overcome  it. St. John  Chrysostom  says: "As water  is  required  to  keep  plants  from withering,  so  also  prayer  is  necessary  to  preserve us  from  destruction.  As  fire  is  quenched by  water,  so  are  our  passions  extinguished  by prayer."

The same  misfortune  will  befall  the  just  man who neglects  to  pray  in  time  of  temptation  as befell  St. Peter when  he  failed  to  pray  according to  Our  Saviour's  injunction. St. Peter loved Our  Lord  truly  and  dearly,  and,  we  may say, with  a  greater  love  than  that  of  any  of the   other   apostles. And  nevertheless  he