law, it is not sufficient to have received divine lights, to have meditated, and to have taken firm resolutions. God's actual help is also necessary. Now, this actual help is only granted by Our Lord to those who pray perseveringly for it. The lights we receive, and the earnest consideration and firm resolutions which we make, have the effect of inciting us to have recourse to prayer in the time of temptation and when in danger of offending God; by prayer we obtain the divine help necessary for keeping us from sin, and if, under these circumstances, we were to neglect praying, we should undoubtedly be lost."
This truth is emphasized by other saints
"Nothing good can be expected from a man who does not pray." —St. Francis of Assisi.
"God bestows some favors without prayer, such as the beginning of faith; others, such as perseverance, are granted only to those who pray." — St. Augustine.
"To enter heaven, continual prayer is necessary after Baptism; for although all sins are remitted by that sacrament, there still remain concupiscence to assail us from within, and the world and the devil to attack us from without." — St. Thomas.
"By prayer is obtained the possession of every good, and deliverance from every evil." — St. Bonaventure.
It follows from these various sayings that without prayer there can be no true virtue, strength to resist evil, no good death, no
