restoring her dead son to life, and by confirming her in the true faith. Works of mercy draw down on us the grace of God.
The power of prayer. At Elias’s prayer the heavens were shut, so that no rain fell for a long time. By prayer he raised the dead boy to life. At the brook Carith he spent his days in prayer and contemplation. His prayer was efficacious, firstly, because he prayed with devotion, humility and confidence; and secondly because he was a just man, lived in the grace of God, and avoided sin.
The soul is the life of the body (chapter III). As soon as the soul is separated from the body, the latter dies; and if the dead body is to be restored to life, the soul must return to it. It was thus therefore that Elias prayed: “Let the soul &c.”
The raising of the widow's son by Elias is, according to St. Augustine, a type of the spiritual resurrection of the sinful world through Christ. The world lay dead in sin; but Jesus Christ has restored it to life by stretching Himself on the cross.
As Elias stretched himself three times on the body of the boy, breathing on his face, so, when administering holy Baptism, the priest bows himself three times over the person to be baptized and breathes upon him, as a sign that by sanctifying grace the soul is raised to a supernatural state of life.
Application. Do you pray willingly and devoutly? He who wishes to pray well, must accustom himself to pray diligently. Each time you pray, place yourself in the presence of God and say: “Lord, help me to pray.”
Could you not sometimes give an alms or do some service of love to your fellow-men, either to your comrades or to some sick or poor person? Make a resolution to do something of the sort to-day.
Chapter LXIII.
THE SACRIFICE OF ELIAS.
[3 Kings 18.]
AFTER the earth had remained three years[1] and six months without rain or dew, the Lord spoke to Elias: “Go and show thyself to Achab that I may give rain upon the face of
- ↑ Three years. During these three years and a half nothing could grow, so that both men and beasts were in a state of great want. Many died, for the necessaries of life, brought in from other countries, cost a great deal. In the third year of the famine Achab said to the governor of his house: “Go into the land unto all fountains of water and into all valleys, to see if we can find grass and save the horses and mules, that the beasts may not utterly perish” (3 Kings 18, 5). By this we can see how great the want was. Trees were withered, meadows burnt up, gardens and fields bare. Nothing green was to be seen, and the parched earth cried out for life-giving rain.
