In these past days I had the grace of enjoying a fascinating treatise, written in 1759, by the great bishop and doctor of the Church, founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (namely the Redemptorists), patron saint of scholars and moral theology and of confessors, St. Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori. The treatise’s name is
“Prayer: The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection.”
As its title squarely unravels it deals with the topical issue of prayer. In its introduction St. Alphonsus refers to prayer as “the necessary and sure means of obtaining salvation, and all the graces we need to attain it”. The latter assertion encapsulates St Alphonsus’
comprehension of prayer. Prayer is a means because it is essentially directed to an end, precisely that of obtaining God’s fullness of life. Jesus tells us in St John’s Gospel: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Unfortunately sin distorted the fullness of life the Lord wants to give us. Yet God, in his unfathomable mercy, made Himself available for those of us who want to be united with him. But, in order for us to totally benefit from this sublime grace we must open ourselves to Him through prayer.
Otherwise we risk the tragic fate of “being lost” eternally. It is in this perspective that St. Alphonsus came up with a foundational formula which says: “He who prays is saved. He who prays not is damned!"
What did he mean by this powerful maxim? In the conclusion of the second chapter of his treatise St. Alphonsus explained that what he meant by this basic principle was that “to save one's soul without prayer is most difficult, and even impossible … but by praying our salvation is made secure, and very easy". Moreover, “if we do not pray, we have no excuse, for the grace of prayer is given to everyone … if we are not saved, the whole fault will be ours, because we did not pray” (ibid.).
When St. Alphonsus said that prayer is a necessary means he intended to encourage us to pray in every life situation we are involved in.
When seas get rough it is essential that we resort to prayer. The latter puts us in a privileged position of accomplishing and experiencing the infinite blessings which come out from the Gospel
precept: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Luke 11:9-10). Hence let us ask confidently our Heavenly Father to come to our aid in the certainty that our prayers are truly heard and, eventually, we shall be receiving the graces we have pleaded for!
In reading St Alphonsus treatise one is naturally led to pose the obvious question: What is really important in my life? The doctor of the Church replied: “Health and all the graces we need for this". In other words, the health of both the body and, especially, that of the immortal soul. Thus prayer becomes the necessary means through which we can truly welcome Jesus and the saving dynamic of His grace. Jesus’
help will always guide us in choosing what is good and empowers our will to act accordingly in every situation we are faced with.
Furthermore St Alphonsus taught us that when temptation comes along we are to pray for God’s aid so as to overcome it. If that is the case why not making the following prayer our own: “Lord, keep Thy hands over me this day; for if not, I will betray Thee?"
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap