Extracts from the Dux Spiritualis by the Venerable Louis
de Ponte SJ
Chapter 2.1 – How God is glorified by prayer
HALLOWED BE THY NAME. The 1st way in which the
excellence of prayer shines forth is because it is one of the chief means by
which the name of God is sanctified, known, and glorified by us and in us: so
that by our tongues and still more by our manner of life God is glorified in us
in the sight of men. For prayer obtains those heavenly lights by which the Father
of Lights [James i. 17] instructs and moves men to believe in Him. It obtains
the highest virtues and strength to perform heroic deeds.
From this St Gregory [Lib 1 Dial., c. 8] concludes and St
Thomas [S. Th. II-II, Q. lxxxiii, art 2] explains at greater length that prayer
is the principal means by which Divine Providence carries out what it has
decreed since all eternity; for sometimes it is the case that God made the fulfilment
of His decrees so depend upon prayer that without it He will not carry them
out.
It was by prayer that the Fathers of the Old Covenant
obtained the execution [fulfilment] of the Incarnation of the Son of God, so
long promised; the Son of God Himself obtained it by prayer, according to the
words of David: Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thine
inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession. [Psalm
ii, 8]
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