Page 23 - pastoral-letters-sjm

St. Joseph Marello - 1891

God! How can we say that they pray with a lively faith? That is
why they soon become tired and so, along with the internal
spirit, they also lack that perseverance which is not only useful
but also necessary, as we said before, to be heard by God: we
must pray always and never tire of it: oportet semper orare et
non deficere.
Therefore let our prayer not be lacking in humility, nor
lively faith nor perseverance to the end. But above all, may no
one of us lack that purity of conscience which, putting us in
God's grace, puts us in a propitious condition to implore divine
graces easily. May he who fears not being in God's grace be
intimately sorry for his sins, confess them without delay in the
tribunal of penance, and then address his supplications to God
with the confidence that they will be heard by his infinite
goodness, because God cannot resist a humbled, contrite heart:
Cor contritum et humiliatum Deus non despiciet (Ps. 50. 19).
Venerable Brothers and Dearly Beloved, this is what we
wanted to tell you concerning prayer, but we must also add that
whoever wishes to assure themselves that God will be generous
with his divine favors can not do better than to abound in works
of charity towards their neighbor. It is written: "Give and it will
be given to you... in the same measure that you give, it will be
given to you": date ed dabitur vobis;... mensura qua mensi
fueritis rremetietur vobis (Lk. 6: 38).
Now, what do we ask and expect of God, above all else?
That he forgive us our sins, that he give us his holy grace and re-
admit us to his friendship. Therefore, to have an equal measure,
we too must be ready to forgive our neighbor whatever harm or
injury he may have caused us, and never refuse him peace,
otherwise, in asking the Lord to forgive us our debts (which are
the offenses) as we forgive our debtors, wanting to be forgiven
while we refuse forgiveness to others, we would be saying to
God that he should not forgive us either. Let us also ask the
Lord to bless us, that he be generous with his favors and with

23