Chapter III — On the conditions of Prayer. Is God alone to be prayed to? Are the Saints to be invoked? And for whom must we pray?

I. Question I. What, and how many, are the conditions of prayer? Answer. 1. A condition of prayer is that it be made with deliberate will. This deliberation must be either express or virtual. If you were to read the Psalter merely to study it, you would not be praying. If you take up the Breviary with the intention of paying to God the debt owed, although you lack an express formal intention, a virtual one is present, and suffices. 2. The condition is attention, which likewise must be either express or virtual. The Theologians distinguish a threefold attention: the first to the words, the second to the sense, the third to God. Any one of these suffices. 3. The condition is piety, which looks to this — that pious, honorable, and fitting gifts be sought from God, and for a good end. 4. There is humility, by which the one praying, with lowly soul, presents himself before the divine Majesty, to whom he manifests his extreme poverty. But I am needy and poor: help me, O God, says the royal Prophet, Psalm 69. 5. There is the fervor with which we pour out our prayers to God. For a lukewarm and cold prayer is no prayer at all. The rich themselves disdain the languid prayers of the poor, as signs of a soul that makes little of what it seeks, and cares little to be heard. 6. The condition is faith, by which we firmly believe that we shall obtain what we ask. Whatsoever you ask when you pray, believe that you shall receive. Likewise hope, or confidence, which accompanies faith. 7. There is perseverance, which the Evangelists frequently inculcate, and especially Luke 11 [recte], by the parable, or example, of the friend who at midnight asked three loaves from his friend, and who, though not by the title of friendship, at least on account of importunity, obtained them.

II. Question II. What are the effects of prayer? Answer. Three: merit, satisfaction, and impetration. Merit is owed to it insofar as it proceeds from charity, through the medium of Religion. Satisfaction accompanies any meritorious work. Impetration of the thing we ask is the proper fruit of prayer. This prayer, too, as impetrating, has its efficacy from grace, as the Angelic Doctor teaches, II-II, q. 83, art. 15: But it has efficacy from the grace of God, whom we pray to, who also induces us to pray. Four conditions are necessary for impetration: namely, 1. that one pray chiefly for himself; 2. that he ask things necessary to salvation; 3. that he ask piously; 4. that he ask perseveringly. God hears the prayers of sinners, not from justice, but from mercy, as the same Angelic Doctor says there, article 16.

III. Question III. Is God alone to be prayed to? Answer. St. Thomas affirms, II-II, q. 83, art. 4, that God alone is to be prayed to, and that indeed as triune — in this sense, that God alone is the author of grace, of glory, and the all-powerful maker and preserver of all things. For prayer is an act of Religion. But Religion regards God alone as its end, to whom it exhibits worship.

IV. Question IV. Are the Saints to be invoked? Answer. The Saints are not to be invoked as authors of divine benefits, or of grace, or of glory. Nothing under this respect is to be asked of them, as all Catholics teach. But the Saints are to be invoked that they may pray and intercede for us with God. This is the sense of all Catholics, whatever the Calvinists and the rest of the Protestants fable and calumniate. Wherefore when we sometimes break forth into such words as "St. Peter, save me," we understand nothing else than that by his intercession he may procure our salvation from God. Similarly, when we address the most holy Virgin, "Mary, protect us from the enemy," we invoke her as a mere suppliant and mediatrix. Nay, in this class of intercessors, Christ the Lord is the first and chief, our advocate and intercessor, who alone reconciled the world to God, and alone offered to God a worthy and superabundant oblation for our sins. When, then, we invoke the Saints, we ask that through the merits of Jesus Christ they intercede with God for us, and we ask that they themselves pray for that which we pray for; but because they themselves are nearer to God, and more worthy, therefore we flee to their patronage and intercession.

V. The Council of Trent, session 25, defined that it is pious and useful that the Saints, whether Angels or Men, be invoked. The Theologians dispute whether this invocation is imposed upon Catholics by force of some precept. I have treated this question at length in Tome 2 on the Decalogue, book 2, dissertation 1, chapter 8, and you may read it there.

VI. Question V. Must we pray for all wayfarers, even for the souls detained in Purgatory? Answer. All Catholics affirm it. Of those who dwell on earth, not even the Heretics call this into question. For St. James, chapter 5, says: Pray for one another, that you may be saved; and St. Paul, in 1 Timothy 2, adds: I desire, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men. We must pray, then, for all — whether friends or enemies, whether faithful or infidel, whether just or sinners. As Christ died for all, so we too ought to pray for all. We must pray for sinners, that they be converted, and for the just, that they persevere and make progress, says St. Thomas, II-II, q. 83, art. 7.

VII. From our prayers are excluded the Blessed, who are at their term, just as also the damned, who are likewise at the term of damnation, where no hope of salvation is present.

VIII. That we must pray for the souls of Purgatory all Catholics teach, against the Lutherans and Calvinists; and this they draw luminously from the second book of Maccabees, chapter 12. For Judas Maccabeus sent twelve thousand drachmas of silver to Jerusalem to have a sacrifice offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection. To free themselves from this argument, the Lutherans deny that this book is to be reckoned among the divine books. But the catholic Church, led by the Spirit of God, has defined that this book is divine. The catholic doctrine is also confirmed by reason. The Church, whether militant or triumphant, constitutes one body, whose head is Christ. Therefore all the members ought to have communion with one another, and with the head. If, then, the souls of Purgatory are members of the Church, it follows that the living ought to help these same souls, just as a member of one body helps the other members. There is added the perpetual and universal custom of the Church.

IX. Question VI. Do suffrages certainly profit the souls of Purgatory to whom they are applied? Answer. Just as it is held from the divine law that these suffrages profit the departed, so it depends upon the divine will how much, more or less, they bring help to this or that departed soul. This is certain: that suffrages offered for the dead take away, either wholly or in part, the punishment of some departed soul, because God has so disposed it. But that these suffrages bring help to this or that soul — that they take away the whole or part of the punishment — depends entirely upon the divine will.

X. Question VII. Should sinners pray? Are they heard by God? Answer. Sinners who pray in public ministries in the name of the Church are certainly bound to recite the prayers, and to obtain something from God for those for whom they pray. It is likewise certain that private sinners ought to pray. As to impetration, St. Thomas teaches, II-II, q. 83, art. 16, that if a sinner asks something of God according to the desire of sin, he is never heard from mercy, but sometimes unto vengeance. Wherefore David said, Psalm 65 [recte]: If I have looked at iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. On the contrary, sinners who detest their sins, and are affected with a pious desire, generally obtain what they implore. Thus were heard Manasses, the Publican, the sinful Woman, the Thief, and innumerable others. Nor does it stand in the way that sinners are destitute of sanctifying grace: since from this it is only inferred that their prayer is not meritorious, not that it is not impetratory, as has been indicated above. When it is sometimes said in Scripture that God does not hear sinners, this is understood of sinners insofar as they are sinners, and love sin — not of sinners who detest their sins.

XI. Finally, it is certain that the Angels and Saints reigning in heaven can pray for us, and that in very deed they do pray. They pray both by asking for what they see will profit us, and by offering our prayers to God. All wayfarers, whether just or sinners, can and ought to pray. For we are all beggars, and laboring under extreme want; therefore all of us must of necessity implore from our divine Father the daily aids we need.