Yesterday, 01:35 PM
Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908
THIRTY-THIRD OBJECTION. GOD HAS NO NEED OF MY PRAYERS. HE KNOWS MY WANTS WITHOUT MY TELLING THEM TO HIM.
Answer. Undoubtedly he knows them; but you would be very wrong if you were to conclude from that that you could dispense with prayer.
God has no need of your prayers, it is true. Your prayers and homage in no way change His eternal beatitude. But He exacts from you this homage, this adoration, these thanksgivings, these prayers; because you, His creature and His child, owe Him these things.
To your thought, of which He is the author, He has a right; He desires that you should direct that thought to Him; and that heart which He has also given you, He has a right to its love, and He desires that, by love, you freely bestow it upon Him.
God knows all your wants. That is also perfectly true. It is not to make them known to Him, that you must acknowledge them to Him. It is that you may not lose sight of your utter helplessness without His succor; it is that you may ever keep in mind your dependence on Him.
It is for your sake that He has commanded you to pray, not for Himself. He wills that you should pray, first, because it is right and just that you should adore your God, that you should think of that Being who ever thinks of you, that you should love Him who is the Supreme Good and your great benefactor; and finally, because it is good, profitable, and absolutely needful for you to pray.
What can be more sublime, what more simple, more easy, than prayer!
It is the noblest occupation of man in this world; it is that which ennobles, exalts, and renders worthy of a reasonable being, all our other occupations.
It is human thought applied to its most worthy object, to God.
It is the heart uniting itself to a God of infinite goodness, of infinite perfection, of infinite love, who can alone fully satisfy it.
It is the child speaking to his beloved father.
It is the friend holding familiar converse with his friend.
It is the pardoned criminal tenderly thanking his Saviour, the weak and infirm sinner praying for mercy to that God who has said, "I will never reject him that cometh to me."
Prayer is our consolation in all our troubles. It is that treasure of inward happiness, which nothing can take away from us. For prayer is in us; it is ourselves, I may say: because it is ourselves thinking of God and loving God.
It is the same with prayer as with the love of God. It is a thing so sweet and consoling, that God, in imposing this obligation on us, has only commanded us to be happy.
Thus, our Lord Jesus Christ, who came into the world to render us happy by rendering us good, recommends to us nothing so much as prayer: "Pray without ceasing," said he, "and do not weary." That is, accustom your soul to think of God, and to love Him above all things. Prayer is the very foundation of the Christian life.
Pray, and with earnestness; not merely with your lips, but from the bottom of your heart. Be faithful in rendering to God your filial homage at the beginning and at the close of the day.* Pray in your troubles; pray in your dangers; pray in your temptations. Pray after your faults and falls, to obtain their pardon. Pray in all the principal circumstances of your life.
Mingle your daily actions with prayer. Thus accompanied, nothing is insignificant before God; nothing is lost for Paradise. You will be pure and good, if you have constant recourse to prayer. Your heart will be at peace. In the midst of the sorrows of this life, you will have that internal joy which alleviates their bitterness; and when the time of your probation is at an end, you will reap a hundredfold the fruit of your faithfulness.
THIRTY-THIRD OBJECTION. GOD HAS NO NEED OF MY PRAYERS. HE KNOWS MY WANTS WITHOUT MY TELLING THEM TO HIM.
Answer. Undoubtedly he knows them; but you would be very wrong if you were to conclude from that that you could dispense with prayer.
God has no need of your prayers, it is true. Your prayers and homage in no way change His eternal beatitude. But He exacts from you this homage, this adoration, these thanksgivings, these prayers; because you, His creature and His child, owe Him these things.
To your thought, of which He is the author, He has a right; He desires that you should direct that thought to Him; and that heart which He has also given you, He has a right to its love, and He desires that, by love, you freely bestow it upon Him.
God knows all your wants. That is also perfectly true. It is not to make them known to Him, that you must acknowledge them to Him. It is that you may not lose sight of your utter helplessness without His succor; it is that you may ever keep in mind your dependence on Him.
It is for your sake that He has commanded you to pray, not for Himself. He wills that you should pray, first, because it is right and just that you should adore your God, that you should think of that Being who ever thinks of you, that you should love Him who is the Supreme Good and your great benefactor; and finally, because it is good, profitable, and absolutely needful for you to pray.
What can be more sublime, what more simple, more easy, than prayer!
It is the noblest occupation of man in this world; it is that which ennobles, exalts, and renders worthy of a reasonable being, all our other occupations.
It is human thought applied to its most worthy object, to God.
It is the heart uniting itself to a God of infinite goodness, of infinite perfection, of infinite love, who can alone fully satisfy it.
It is the child speaking to his beloved father.
It is the friend holding familiar converse with his friend.
It is the pardoned criminal tenderly thanking his Saviour, the weak and infirm sinner praying for mercy to that God who has said, "I will never reject him that cometh to me."
Prayer is our consolation in all our troubles. It is that treasure of inward happiness, which nothing can take away from us. For prayer is in us; it is ourselves, I may say: because it is ourselves thinking of God and loving God.
It is the same with prayer as with the love of God. It is a thing so sweet and consoling, that God, in imposing this obligation on us, has only commanded us to be happy.
Thus, our Lord Jesus Christ, who came into the world to render us happy by rendering us good, recommends to us nothing so much as prayer: "Pray without ceasing," said he, "and do not weary." That is, accustom your soul to think of God, and to love Him above all things. Prayer is the very foundation of the Christian life.
Pray, and with earnestness; not merely with your lips, but from the bottom of your heart. Be faithful in rendering to God your filial homage at the beginning and at the close of the day.* Pray in your troubles; pray in your dangers; pray in your temptations. Pray after your faults and falls, to obtain their pardon. Pray in all the principal circumstances of your life.
Mingle your daily actions with prayer. Thus accompanied, nothing is insignificant before God; nothing is lost for Paradise. You will be pure and good, if you have constant recourse to prayer. Your heart will be at peace. In the midst of the sorrows of this life, you will have that internal joy which alleviates their bitterness; and when the time of your probation is at an end, you will reap a hundredfold the fruit of your faithfulness.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre