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In the course of my experience as a director, one deathbed scene remains imprinted on my memory—that of a young girl, fifteen years of age. She was good, pious and very intelligent. I had prepared her for her first confession and holy communion; and on both these occasions her seriousness and fervor had afforded me no little pleasure and edification. She must have been indeed an obedient and docile child; for she had had two stepmothers in succession, and each had loved her tenderly and prized her highly.
After an illness of a few days it became my painful duty to open the girl’s eyes to the danger in which she was, and to prepare her for death. What I then witnessed showed what living faith can effect in the heart of a child. The sufferer was in no way bewildered; she remained calm and resigned to the will of God, and received the last sacraments in such a manner as to edify all who were present.
About three hours later it became evident that relentless death was approaching. When I had united with her relatives in praying for the soul so soon to depart, I said to the dying girl: “My child, you will pray for us in heaven, will you not?” “Yes, yes,” she replied. Then taking my hand with a look of entreaty, she added, “but you must first pray for me, in order that I may get to heaven!” After saying farewell to all around, she repeated “Pray! pray!” This was her legacy to the bystanders.
Over and over again I would repeat to you these last words of hers, and say: “My dear child, pray! pray! Pray, because prayer is absolutely necessary for every Christian and, more especially, for every young girl.” Prayer is indeed the ladder which leads to heaven, and without it we can never hope to reach that blessed place. I have spoken before of the importance of prayer, but now, when I am treating of the exercises of piety in a more lengthy and detailed manner, I wish to explain more fully to you how necessary a thing prayer is.
Nothing is more emphasized, nothing is more earnestly enjoined upon us, in Holy Scripture, than the duty of prayer. Very numerous are the exhortations we meet with to the same effect: “Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.” Again the Saviour says: “Watch ye and pray.” St. Paul says: “Pray without ceasing.”
What do we find in the writings of the saints? They declare prayer to be the breath of the soul; they pronounce & man who does not pray & lamp without oil, a body without nourishment, a plant without water, a soldier without arms.
St. Alphonsus Liguori writes as follows: “All the blessed in heaven have been saved by means of prayer. All the reprobate were lost because they did not pray; had they prayed, they would not have been lost forever.”
St. Teresa frequently said: “A man who does not pray will become either a beast or a fiend.”
St. Augustine asserts: “He who prays aright, will live aright.”
St. Francis of Sales thus expresses himself: “One can expect nothing that is good from a man who does not pray.”
We gather from all this that without prayer there can be no real virtue, no strength to resist evil, no holy death, no salvation. Alas, for the man who ceases to pray! He is lost.
Prayer is necessary for sinners. St. Augustine, that great Doctor of the Church, states that, in the ordinary course of things, God imparts the graces necessary for salvation only to those who ask Him for them. Can anything be more calculated than these words to arouse us from tepidity in prayer? It is an awful truth that God generally forsakes those sinners who do not seek refuge in prayer. Which of us would remain during a thunderstorm in a place exposed to lightning? Who would saunter along a road on which murderers lurked? or drink a poison which usually proves to be fatal? How then can the sinner dare to despise and neglect prayer, since those who do not pray run the risk of being abandoned by God?
But not sinners alone, the just also, have need of prayer. No tongue of man can describe the happiness of the Christian who is in a state of grace. Hell is closed for him, heaven is opened, the angels and saints are his brethren, God is his loving Father. But his happiness is not complete as yet, it is not as yet assured to him. The soldier cannot sing the song of victory until the battle is ended. Even though a man be in the state of grace, he is still upon the battlefield as long as he lives. The crown of everlasting felicity is promised to him, but he must fight in order to win it. In one unhappy moment he may forfeit it. Prayer is the means which will preserve him from so terrible a misfortune; which will enable him to conquer in the strife and obtain the promised reward, the crown of everlasting life.
Have you not often seen a fruit-tree in spring, covered with thousands of fair blossoms? Look at it a few months later-what has become of all his rich promise? Comparatively few are the blossoms which have ripened into fruit; or perhaps wind, frost, and rain have altogether denuded the tree of its fruit.
Just such a bright spring morning is the day on which a soul is reconciled with God by means of the Sacrament of Penance. But do all those who have thus made their peace with Him remain hereafter free from sin? What becomes of the numerous blossoms of good resolutions? Very few, or possibly none at all, are the fruits into which they develop. Whence arises this deplorable state of things? The storms of temptation have swept over the Christian and he has been foolish enough to disregard the Saviour’s warning: “Watch ye, and pray!”
With what sorrow and concern does one behold those worldly-minded girls who have an aversion to prayer and blush to be thought pious! How can they save their souls? Not one, single saint has failed to pray, and thus to draw down upon himself the grace and mercy of God. All have made use of prayer, that unconquerable weapon; all have reached heaven by no other way than the road of the cross and the ladder of prayer.
Christian maiden, see that you never let go of this ladder to heaven. Mount upward by it If at times indifference and disgust steal over you in regard to prayer, shake off your slothfulness; say to yourself: I am not as yet in heaven; in some unhappy moment I may lose my soul; therefore I must pray. If you are duly impressed with this truth, you will be more careful in saying your morning prayers; you will more frequently raise your heart to God in the course of the day. Never fail to attend public worship whenever it is possible for you to do so; and never lie down to rest without repenting upon your knees of all the faults you may have committed and praying for the grace of a happy death. Constantly beseech God to bestow upon you the gift of prayer.
Accept, divine Redeemer,
The homage of my praise;
Take my heart and keep it, Lord,
Through all my earthly days;
Be Thou my consolation
When death is drawing nigh;
Be Thou my only treasure
Through all eternity.