Prayer - Very Necessary

St. Alphonsus Ligouri observes, "God gives to every creature the means to support itself. Man alone myst struggle to support his life. God Himself wants to be man's support." However, God has made us free. He will not force HIs help upon us. We must acknowledge our own weakness and ask for His help. So, prayer is absolutely necessary for us. God can always give us His grace. But His plan seems to be to give His special graces only in answer to prayer. "Ask and you shall receive" (Mathew 7:7). All the graces God has decided to give us, He wants to give through prayers, not because prayer is necessary for God to know what we need, but it is necessary for us to understand our needs. (St. Thomas).

You and I, everyone would like to become a saint. To be a saint, one must practice charity to a heroic degree. But charity is impossible withour prayer. A saint is a man of prayer.

The secret of all our strenght is prayer. Prayer is all powerful with God. It places the infinite power of God at our disposal. Every problem in life is overcome with faith and prayer. Great is the power at the disposal of every one. It is the most universal of all helps. When God wishes to elevate a soul, He increases its spirit of prayer.

Workaholism (over work) and lack of fidelity to prayer can be destructive forces in the active lives of apostolate of priests and religious. If we increase our "social service" without without proportionate increase in prayer-life, we are at the brink of danger! If we have more work, we must pray more.

We have to make our relationship with God the axis of our life, the central point around which all else revolve. When we are very busy, we may give up recreation, study time and sleep, before our prayer time is invaded. The more we pray, the more we find that we need to pray, and the less we pray, the less we realize our need to spend time with God. One who is too busy to find time for prayer will lose his faith. If we do not seek a personal relationship with God, we will start forgetting Him.

Courtesy: Prayer with the heart, Fr. C. Bernard, C.R.