§ 3. On the Necessity of Prayer

346. Proposition. Prayer is not only useful and fitting for all adults, but is also necessary by a necessity of precept, and indeed commonly also by a necessity of means.

That prayer is useful and fitting is evident a) from the fact that it is so excellent an act of religion, and b) from the fact that it procures such signal benefits.

The necessity of prayer has indeed been exaggerated too much by some, namely by the Euchites,¹⁰³ who taught that nothing else is required, but prayer alone suffices for eternal salvation; but it has been diminished too much by many, especially by those who deny divine providence (the Deists), or who assert that all things are ruled by a rigid fate (the Fatalists).

1. That prayer is necessary for all adults by a necessity of precept is evident from many texts of Sacred Scripture. Thus, e.g., Christ admonishes: "Watch ye, and pray."¹⁰⁴ "We ought always to pray, and not to faint."¹⁰⁵ "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."¹⁰⁶ The Apostles likewise inculcate prayer: "Pray without ceasing."¹⁰⁷ "Be instant in prayer; watching in it."¹⁰⁸ "Be prudent therefore, and watch in prayers."¹⁰⁹ The Holy Fathers and theologians hand down the same thing with unanimous opinion. Hence the Church also manifests this necessity in the Mass, where the Lord's Prayer is introduced: "Admonished by saving precepts and formed by divine instruction, we dare to say: Our Father," etc.

2. That prayer is also necessary for all adults by a necessity of means (at least commonly and by ordinary law) is the far more common and more probable opinion. Nevertheless, the sense of this proposition is not that God bestows no graces unless he is first entreated by us; for it is manifest that God confers upon us many actual graces without any preceding prayer. Thus, e.g., the grace of conversion was bestowed upon Saul, certainly not praying but persecuting the Church. Therefore the absolute necessity of prayer is asserted only in this sense: that God, in view of the order of present providence and considering the infirmity and indigence of human nature, does not confer final perseverance in grace unless an adult man has at some time poured forth pious prayers. The proposition thus understood is easily proved both a) by authority and b) by reason.

a) By authorities. The author of the book On Ecclesiastical Dogmas¹¹⁰ writes: "We believe that no one comes to salvation unless God invites him; that no one merits assistance unless he prays." St. Augustine¹¹¹ teaches the same thing, asserting that God does not command impossible things, and consequently that you, a man, ought "to do what you can, and to ask for what you cannot." The Council of Trent¹¹² made these words its own: "God does not command impossible things, but by commanding he admonishes you both to do what you can and to ask for what you cannot." The Commented Rule of St. Benedict¹¹³ beautifully expresses this necessity of praying: "As breath is always necessary to us for the life of the flesh, so continual prayer is altogether necessary for the health of the mind"; and: "I would more easily believe that a man could subsist without a soul than that a perfect religious could subsist without prayer." The same St. Thomas¹¹⁴ teaches: "Every [adult] man is bound to prayer from the very fact that he is bound to procure spiritual goods for himself, which are given only by God; whence they cannot be procured in any other way than that they be asked from him." The Roman Catechism¹¹⁵ also upholds the same doctrine: "Since God owes nothing to anyone, it assuredly remains that we ask of him by prayers the things which we need; which prayers he has given us as a necessary instrument for obtaining that which we desire, especially since it is certain that there are some things which it is not possible to obtain without his assistance." John of St. Thomas,¹¹⁶ Sylvius,¹¹⁷ Sporer,¹¹⁸ St. Alphonsus,¹¹⁹ and almost all theologians teach the same opinion.

b) By theological reasons. 1. Acts of faith and charity are necessary for an adult by a necessity of means, as was proved above in I, nn. 496 and 561. But prayer on the part of man is necessarily joined with these acts, especially when he is placed in necessity. For he who believes in God omnipotent and merciful; who truly loves this God above all things; and who, finally, intimately senses his own necessities and miseries, necessarily raises his mind to God with pious affection, asking assistance. But such a pious affection is prayer. 2. It is necessary to worship the divine majesty. But it is impossible to worship God without a pious affection of the mind toward God; and this is prayer, at least in the broad sense. 3. No nation has ever existed without religion. But the principal act of religion is prayer. Hence no nation has existed which did not pour forth prayers to the Deity. This, moreover, is a sign that the act of prayer arises from the very condition of human nature and consequently that it is absolutely necessary. Yet it does not follow from this that God cannot save an adult man who has not prayed. For this would be false. Nothing prevents God from conferring sanctifying grace upon an adult pagan and then causing him to die at once, without time for praying being present.¹²⁰ This alone is asserted with St. Alphonsus:¹²¹ according to the ordinary course of things, no adult is in fact saved who has not prayed.

¹⁰³ On the Euchites and Messalians cf. Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlex. II, 1309, s.v. "Messalianer."

¹⁰⁴ Matt. 26:41.

¹⁰⁵ Luke 18:1.

¹⁰⁶ Matt. 7:7f.

¹⁰⁷ 1 Thess. 5:17.

¹⁰⁸ Col. 4:2.

¹⁰⁹ 1 Pet. 4:7.

¹¹⁰ More probably this author is Gennadius of Marseilles, about the year 495 (Migne, Patr. lat. 58, 995). Several other texts of the Holy Fathers are adduced by Concina, l.c., c. 5, where the reasons of the few authors who do not admit that prayer is necessary by a necessity of means are also refuted.

¹¹¹ De natura et gratia c. 43 (Migne, Patr. lat. 44, 271).

¹¹² Sess. 6, c. 11 (Denz. n. 804).

¹¹³ In Migne, Patr. lat. 66, 329.

¹¹⁴ IV Sent., dist. 15, q. 4, a. 1, sol. 3.

¹¹⁵ Part IV, c. 1, q. 3f.

¹¹⁶ Comm. in 2, 2, q. 83, disp. 36, a. 3.

¹¹⁷ Comm. in 2, 2, q. 83, a. 2.

¹¹⁸ De praec. Decal. tr. 2, c. 7.

¹¹⁹ Theol. mor. l. 3 at the beginning; Gran mezzo della preghiera Part II, c. 4 at the end, where the Holy Doctor says according to the German translation: "I assert and repeat it, and I shall continue to repeat it until my last breath, that our salvation depends entirely upon prayer. Therefore all writers in their books, all preachers in their sermons, and all confessors in the administration of the sacrament of penance ought to impress nothing upon the faithful so emphatically as praying without ceasing. Unceasingly they ought to admonish them and cry out to them: 'Pray, pray, and do not cease to pray! For if you pray, your salvation is secure; but if you cease to pray, your perdition is equally certain.' ... From all that we have said, the conclusion is to be drawn that he who prays will certainly be saved, and that he who does not pray will certainly be damned." Cf. also Tillmann, Das Gebet nach der Lehre der Heiligen, 136ff.

¹²⁰ Cf. Billuart, De gratia diss. 6, a. 3.

¹²¹ L.c.

347. The time of obligation. Once the necessity of prayer has been established, the question immediately arises: When does this precept of praying oblige?

The response is: The precept of praying obliges (just as also the precept of eliciting faith, hope, and charity) per se and per accidens.

This precept obliges per se several times in life; but it cannot be determined precisely how often we ought to pray by divine law.

Theologians commonly teach that this precept obliges per se: 1. At the beginning of the moral life, namely when a man, having attained the full use of reason, ought to turn himself to God.¹²² For this turning to God is already prayer. 2. In danger of death. For then also a man ought to turn himself with pious affection to God, asking his assistance for having a happy death. 3. Several times in life. There are some who say that the precept of praying obliges per se every week; others, with St. Alphonsus,¹²³ every month or certainly every two months; others think that this precept (at least under grave sin) does not oblige except every year. All these opinions cannot be strictly proved; hence let it suffice to say that the precept of praying obliges per se several times in life. Meanwhile, however, the faithful are most earnestly to be admonished to pour forth at least some pious prayers every day. For the rest, good Catholics ought not to be anxious about the fulfillment of this divine precept, since it is already sufficiently observed by hearing Mass on Sundays and feast days.

Note. Since the divine precept of praying obliges per se several times in life, penitents who for a long time have neither received the sacraments nor heard Mass are to be asked in confession whether throughout that time they also neglected prayer. The reason is that negligence of this kind is a special sin (at least objectively speaking).

¹²² Cf. above I, nn. 502 and 563.

¹²³ Gran mezzo della preghiera Part I, c. 3, § 3.

348. The precept of praying obliges per accidens: 1. whenever another precept presses which cannot be fulfilled without prayer, e.g., hearing Sunday Mass; 2. when a grave temptation to sin arises, especially a temptation against the virtue of chastity. For it is certain from experience that some temptations cannot be conquered without prayer; 3. in grave calamities, especially public ones. For charity demands that we then have recourse to the most efficacious assistance of prayer.

No common law is found anywhere prescribing morning and evening prayers or prayers before and after a meal; and therefore the omission of such prayers is not of itself a sin, either mortal or venial, and consequently is not even sufficient matter for absolution.¹²⁴ In practice, however, to omit these prayers without sufficient reason is almost always a venial sin, because it manifests sloth and deprives one of graces necessary for daily life. Hence the faithful are to be exhorted not to omit these prayers (which were already customary among Christians from the first centuries of the Church). Not praying before and after a meal in public inns is indeed not a sin of itself; nevertheless it is usually much better if the faithful also make brief prayers in such places as a sign of religion.

¹²⁴ Thus the Salmanticenses, Curs. theol. mor. tr. 21, c. 9, n. 17. Concina treats this matter well, In Decal. l. 2, diss. 1, c. 5.