Sunday, October 19 : Saint John-Mary Vianney

Prayer is absolutely necessary to have the blessing of perseverence in the grace of God after having received it in the sacrament of penance. With prayer you can do anything, you are, so to speak, masters of God’s will, if I dare speak like this; And, without prayer, you are not able to do anything, and that alone is enough to show you the need for prayer. All the saints began their conversion with prayer and persevered by prayer; And all the damned were lost by their negligence of prayer. So I say that prayer is absolutely necessary to persevere. (…) But the prayer I tell you about, which is so powerful to God, who attracts so many graces, which even seems to link the will of God, which seems, so to speak, forcing him to grant us what we ask him is a prayer made in a kind of despair and hope. I say despair, considering our unworthiness and the contempt that we have made of God and his graces, recognizing us unworthy to appear before Him and to dare to ask him for our grace, we who have so many times already received, and have always paid him with ingratitude, which must carry us, at every moment of our life, to believe that the earth will open under our feet. (…) I say hope, by remembering the greatness of the mercy of God, the desire he has to make us happy, what he did that we might deserve heaven. Hosted by such a consoling thought, we will address him with great confidence. (…) Here, my brothers, the prayer that I want to talk about, which is absolutely necessary to gain our forgiveness and the precious gift of perseverance.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team