God wills that all be saved: Omnes homines vult salvos fieri—“God will have all men to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4). And he wills to give to all the help necessary to save themselves; but he grants it only to those who ask it, as St. Augustine writes: Non dat nisi petentibus—“He gives only to those who ask.” Hence it is the common teaching of the theologians and the holy Fathers that prayer is necessary for adults with the necessity of a means; that is to say, that whoever does not pray, and neglects to ask of God the helps needful to overcome temptations and to preserve the grace received, cannot be saved. The Lord, on the other hand, cannot fail to grant his graces to whoever asks them, because he has promised it. Clama ad me, et exaudiam te—“Cry to me, and I will hear you” (Jer. 33:3). Quodcumque volueritis, petetis, et fiet vobis—“Whatsoever you will, you shall ask, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). Petite, et dabitur vobis—“Ask, and it shall be given you” (Matt. 7:7). These promises, however, are not to be understood as made for temporal goods, since these God does not give save when they are profitable to the soul; but for spiritual graces he has promised them absolutely to everyone who asks them; and having promised them, he is bound to give them: Promittendo debitorem se fecit—“By promising, he made himself a debtor,” says St. Augustine.
We must observe, moreover, that God has promised to hear prayer, but on our part it is a grave precept to pray. Petite, et dabitur vobis—“Ask, and it shall be given you” (Matt. 7:7); Oportet semper orare—“We ought always to pray” (Luke 18:1). These words, petite, oportet, as St. Thomas teaches (III, q. 39, a. 5), import a grave precept, which binds throughout life, and especially when a man sees himself in danger of death, or of falling into sin; for then, if he has not recourse to God, he will certainly be overcome. And he who is already fallen into the disgrace of God commits a new sin if he has not recourse to God for help to come forth from his miserable state. But can God hear him, seeing him made his enemy? Yes, he hears him well, when the sinner, humbled, prays him from his heart to pardon him; for it is written in the Gospel: Omnis enim qui petit, accipit—“For every one that asks, receives” (Luke 11:10). It says omnis, every one—be he just or be he sinner: when he prays, God has promised to hear him. In another place God says: Invoca me, et eruam te—“Call upon me, and I will deliver you” (Ps. 49:15): call upon me, and I will deliver you from the Hell to which you stand condemned.
No, there will be no excuse on the day of judgment for him who dies in sin. Nor will it avail him to say that he had not the strength to resist the temptation that troubled him; for Jesus Christ will answer him: If you had not this strength, why did you not ask it of me, since I would surely have given it to you? And if you had already fallen into sin, why did you not have recourse to me, since I would have delivered you from it? Therefore, my reader, if you wish to save yourself and to keep yourself in the grace of God, you must often pray him to hold his hands over you. The Council of Trent declared (Session 6, ch. 13, can. 22) that, for a man to persevere in the grace of God, the general help that he gives to all does not suffice, but there is need of a special help, which is not obtained except by prayer. Hence all the Doctors say that everyone is bound, under grave fault, to recommend himself often to God by asking him for holy perseverance, at least once a month; and he who finds himself amid many dangerous occasions is bound to ask the grace of perseverance more often.
It greatly helps, moreover, toward obtaining this grace, to maintain a particular devotion to the Mother of God, who is called the Mother of Perseverance. He who does not recommend himself to the Blessed Virgin will hardly have perseverance; for St. Bernard says that all the divine graces, and especially this of perseverance, which is the greatest of all, come to us through Mary.
Oh, would to God that preachers were more attentive to instill into their hearers this great means of prayer! Some, in their whole course of Lenten sermons, will scarcely name it once or twice, and as it were in passing, when they ought to speak of it expressly many times, and almost in every sermon: a great account will they have to render to God if they neglect to do so. So too, many confessors attend only to the penitents’ resolution not to offend God again, and take little care to instill into them prayer for the time when they shall be tempted anew to fall; but we must be persuaded that, when the temptation is strong, if the penitent does not ask help of God to resist, all the resolutions he has made will profit him little: prayer alone can save him. It is certain that he who prays is saved, and he who does not pray is damned.
And therefore, my reader, I repeat: if you wish to save yourself, pray continually to the Lord to give you light and strength not to fall into sin. In this we must be importunate with God, in asking him for this grace: Haec importunitas, says St. Jerome, apud Dominum opportuna est—“This importunity is opportune with the Lord.” Every morning fail not to pray him to deliver you from the sins of that day. And when some evil thought, or some bad occasion, presents itself to your mind, at once, without setting yourself to reason with the temptation, have recourse to Jesus Christ and to the holy Virgin, saying: My Jesus, help me; Mary most holy, succor me. It is enough then to name Jesus and Mary, for the temptation to vanish; but if the temptation persists, go on invoking Jesus and Mary for help, and you will never be overcome.