Extracts from the Dux Spiritualis by the Venerable Louis
de Ponte SJ
Chapter 2 Section 5 – FORGIVE US our trespasses
Page 37: ….prayer is all-powerful to obtain the
forgiveness of our sins, no matter how numerous or grave they may be.
What justified the publican but the prayer
he offered in the temple? [cf. St Luke xviii, 13]. What but prayer
softened the heart of the father to receive back on such easy terms the
prodigal son? [cf. St Luke xv, 21].
Oh infinite power of prayer! In comparison with which any
number of sins is little and their gravity light, for it can obtain the
remission of any debt, were it even infinite.
And because Christ Our Lord has attached to the
forgiveness of sin this condition, that we also forgive the debts of others:
this prayer itself fulfils this condition.
For it softens the heart, however hardened, of him who
makes it, inducing him to [page 38] pray for his enemies and to forgive them as
he himself hopes to be forgiven.
The furnace of prayer is like an immense fire; if thou
enter into it, though thou be as hard as iron and as cold as ice, thou shalt come forth soft as wax.
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