Extracts from the Dux Spiritualis by the Venerable Louis
de Ponte SJ
Chapter 2 Section 5.2 – BUT DELIVER US from evil
Lastly, prayer delivers us from evil and from guilt and
punishment both eternal and temporal in such degrees as is expedient; that
being freed from temporal evils we may escape those that are spiritual.
Even Christ our Lord Himself healed the sick, cast out
demons, and raised the dead by Prayer, not because he had need of prayer to
work these miracles but because, says S. Ambrose [Lib. 5 in Lc], we have need
of it and he would give this example.
If thou art sick and afflicted, do not despair but pray:
for prayer expels sadness and frees from all affliction.
Should thou see thyself at the very gate of Hell, do not
leave off praying: for prayer will stand before thee to close its cruel mouth,
lest it devour thee and thou perish [S. Bonaventura in medit. Vitae Christi, c.
36].
Know this, that in whatever calamity or misery thou art
plunged, prayer is an omnipotent means of extricating thee from evil and
enriching thee with all blessings.
Cry out then, and implore, the [page 39] Divine
Omnipotence, to show His accustomed mercy. Moreover, did not David say: Blessed
be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me [Ps. lxv,
20]; giving us to understand, as S. Augustine very well explains this verse,
that prayer and the Divine mercy have entered into a compact never to separate
the one from the other.
Prayer:
O Father of mercies bestow on me the gift of prayer,
which is so certain a means of turning upon us the flood of Divine mercy.
Never, never deprive me of the power to pray, lest Thy
mercy forsake me also!
For I am certain that if prayer accompanies me
everywhere, Thy mercy will always be my protection and I shall be delivered
from every evil.
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