Prayer is necessary for our salvation
3 min • Digitized on August 18, 2021
From St. Joseph’s Life, Virtues, Privileges, Power, page 328
By Very Rev. Archdeacon Kinane, P.P.
“Without me you can do nothing” (John, xv. 5).
“Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency ie from God” (2 Cor. iii. 5).
“For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish to his good will” (Phil. ii. 13).
Reflect that by prayer we lift our hearts to God and pay Him supreme homage.
By prayer we acknowledge God to be the Creator, the supreme Lord and Master of the entire universe, of heaven and earth, and of everything that therein exists.
By prayer we thank God for all that we are and all that we have, for all the gifts and graces of soul and body. All are from the hands of God.
By prayer we beg pardon of God for our daily sins, and beg of God grace and help to sin no more.
Prayer is the communing of the soul with its Maker and Redeemer.
For an adult, prayer is absolutely necessary for salvation. Without grace we cannot be saved, and grace is obtained by prayer.
It is of faith that without the grace of God we cannot elicit one supernatural act, or advance one step on the road to salvation.
“If any one saith,” defines the Council of Trent, “that without the prevenient inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and without his help, man can believe, hope, love, or be penitent, as he ought … let him be anathema” (Sess. vi. Can. iii).
“Without me,” says our Blessed Saviour, “you can do nothing.”
And St. Paul says: “Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Cor. iii. 5).
And again the Apostle says: “For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish according to His good will” (Phil. ii. 13).
Prayer is necessary for salvation, because God has so commanded.
The Word of God says:
“We ought always to pray” (Luke, xviii. 1).
“Pray lest ye enter into temptation” (Luke, xxii. 40).
“Ask and you shall receive” (John xvi. 24).
“Pray without ceasing” (lst Thess. v. 17).
Prayer alone can meet and conquer the three mortal enemies of our salvation, viz., the world with its seductions, the flesh with its concupiscences, and “the devil as a roaring lion goeth about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter, v.8).
Without prayer we cannot overcome “the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John, ii. 16).
Without salt meat soon corrupts. Without the dew of heaven the tender plant fades and dies; so without prayer the soul is soon tainted by sin, and dies a spiritual death by losing the grace of God.
St. Joseph, enlightened by the Spirit of God in every grace and virtue, and living for so many years under the influence of the divine light of Jesus Christ Himself, knew better than any man that ever lived the necessity of prayer for poor fallen man.