THIS book, which was published in 1759, is one of the most
important works of Saint Alphonsus. He himself explains what it has
cost him, and the value that he sets upon it. In his preface to
the" Preparation for Death," he speaks thus: "This book, though
small, has cost me a great deal of labor. I regard it as of extreme
utility to all sorts of persons; and I unhesitatingly assert that
among all spiritual treatises, there is none, and there can be
none, more necessary than that which treats on prayer as a means of
obtaining eternal salvation." Saint Alphonsus gives the plan of his
work: "In order, then, to attach ourselves to this great means of
salvation, we must first of all consider how necessary it is to us,
and how powerful it is to obtain for us all the graces that we can
desire from God, if we know how to ask for them as we ought. Hence,
in the first part, we will speak first of the necessity and power
of prayer; and next, of the conditions necessary to make it
efficacious with God. Then, in the second part, we will show that
the grace of prayer is given to all; and there we will treat of the
manner in which grace ordinarily operates." Saint Alphonsus begins:
"ONE of the errors of Pelagian ism was the assertion that prayer is
not necessary for salvation. Pelagius, the impious author of that
heresy, said that man will only be damned for neglecting to know
the truths necessary to be learned. How astonishing St. Augustine
said: "Pelagius discussed everything except how to pray," though,
as the saint held and taught, prayer is the only means of acquiring
the science of the saints; according to the text of St. James: 'If
any man want wisdom, let him ask of God, Who giveth abundantly, and
upbraideth not.' The Scriptures are clear enough in pointing out
how necessary it is to pray, if we would be saved." Further on we
read: "We will, as we promised, demonstrate that the grace of
prayer is given to all men. But this doctrine does not please
Jansenius; he goes so far as to call it an hallucination: "It is an
hallucination to think that the grace of prayer is always present
to a man." According to his system, he considers that without the
delectation relatively victorious we cannot pray; but this delight
is not granted to all men, therefore (he adds) all men have not
sufficient grace and power to fulfil the commandments; for many are
without even the remote grace to enable them to pray as they ought,
or indeed to pray at all. "Since, therefore," he continues, "most
men either do not ask for grace to enable them to fulfil the law,
or do not ask for it as is necessary; and since God does not give
all men the grace either to pray fervently, or even to pray at all,
it is most evident that many of the faithful are without that
sufficient grace, and, consequently, without that perpetual power
of fulfilling the one precept (of the moment) which some
theologians proclaim," Before, then, we prove our own position, we
must confute his pernicious system, from which all his errors are
derived; and we must show that not we, Imt that he is laboring
under an hallucination."
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