Consider the power of the prayer of a soul in the state of gra | Heathens Begone

Consider the power of the prayer of a soul in the state of grace. By the fact that you are in the state of grace, your prayer has a power over the heart of God that, in a certain sense, is absolute.

Your prayer is the cry of a child to God his Father. For God, in seeing you as redeemed by the Precious Blood of His beloved Son, beholds no longer a mere human creature. He sees instead the reflection of His own divine life, for when you are in the state of grace, your entire being shares in the life of the triune God. Your prayer, then, partakes of that which is properly divine. By grace, you are a member of the family of God, our Father, and you have been given a right to the eternal inheritance of the Beatific Vision.

If you are in the state of grace, your prayer has another claim on God: it is always made in the name of Jesus Christ. You will not, in your own sinfulness, presume to ask, but you speak in the name of Jesus, by His own command. Our Lord Himself assures you, “Whatsoever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

Jesus taught that through prayer you can ask for every gift, whether it be for the gifts of the Holy Spirit or for the daily bread you need. You can use prayer to storm Heaven and secure its treasures and thus reach the heart of God. Through prayer you can win untold graces and blessings and favors for yourself and for the whole human race.

Prayer wins for yourself and others the things that make life happy and eternity sure. Do not neglect to pray for others. St. John Chrysostom wrote, “We are compelled to pray for ourselves, but the love of our brethren engages us to pray for others also. Now, far more acceptable to God is the prayer that proceeds not from the pressure of our wants, but from the love of our neighbor.”