vation. Of this fruit of prayer we are admonished, in these words of the Psalmist; " Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." [1]
Another most pleasing and invaluable fruit of prayer, when heard by God, is, that it opens to us heaven; " Prayer is the key of heaven," says St. Augustine; " prayer ascends, and mercy descends; high as are the heavens, and low as is the earth, God hears the voice of man." [2] Such is the utility, such the efficacy of prayer, that through it we obtain the plenitude of heavenly gifts, the guidance and aid of the Holy Spirit, the security and preservation of the faith, escape from punishment, protection under temptation, victory over the Devil; in a word, there is, in prayer, an accumulation of spiritual joy: " Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full." [3]
Nor can we, for a moment, doubt that God is, at all times, ready to hear our petitions; a truth to which the sacred Scriptures bear ample testimony. As, however, the texts which go petitions. to establish it are easy of access, we shall content ourselves with citing a few from the Prophet Isaias. " Then," says he, " shalt thou call, and the Lord will hear: thou shalt cry, and he will say, here I am;" [4] and again, " It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will hear: as they are yet speaking, I will hear." [5] With regard to instances of persons, who have obtained from God the objects of their prayers, they are almost innumerable, and too much within the reach of all to require special mention.
But our prayers are sometimes unheard? True; and God then consults, in a special manner, for our interests, bestowing on us other gifts, of higher value, and in greater abundance; or withholding what we ask, because, far from being necessary or useful, its concession would prove not only superfluous, but even injurious. " God," says St. Augustine, denies some things in his mercy, which he grants in his wrath." [6] Some times, also, such is the remissness and negligence with whkrh we pray, that we ourselves do not attend to what we say. If prayer is an elevation of the soul to God, [7] and if, whilst we pray, the mind, instead of being fixed upon God, is lost in wandering distractions, and the tongue slurs over the words at random, without attention, without devotion, with what propriety can we give to such empty sounds the name of prayer? We should not, therefore, be at all surprised, if God does not comply with our requests; we who, by our negligence, and by our ignorance of the very object of our petitions, afford practical proof that we are regardless of being heard by him; or who, if we pray with attention, solicit those things, which, if granted, must be prejudicial to our eternal interests. To those who pray with devout attention, God grants more than they ask.
