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Object and form of adoration. — Contemplative life. — Effects of prayer. (Questions 306 to 319.)

In what does adoration consist? [Question 649.]

“In the elevation of thought to God.”

Does adoration result from an innate sentiment, or is it the fruit of teaching? [Question 650.]

“An innate sentiment, like that of the Divinity. The awareness of his weakness leads man to bow before him who can protect him.”

a. Have there been peoples destitute of all sentiment of adoration? [Question 651.]

“No, because there have never been atheist peoples. All understand that above them there is a supreme Being.”

b. What is the object of adoration?

“To please God, by bringing our soul nearer to him.”

The adoration of the Divinity is a spontaneous act of man and the result of his intuitive belief in the existence of the supreme Being. It is found, under diverse forms, in all epochs and among all peoples, because it is a natural sentiment or, better said, a law of Nature.

Does adoration require outward manifestations? [Question 653.]

“No; true adoration is that of the heart. In all your actions, remember always that the Lord observes you.”

a. Is outward adoration useful? [Question 653 a.]

“Yes, if it does not consist in a vain pretense. It is always useful to give a good example. But those who do it only out of affectation and self-love, yet whose conduct belies their apparent piety, give a bad example and do more harm than they suppose.”

b. Does God have a preference for those who adore him in this or that manner? [Question 654.]

“God prefers those who adore him from the bottom of their heart, with sincerity, doing good and avoiding evil, to those who think they honor him with ceremonies that do not make them better toward their fellow beings.”

c. I ask whether there exists an outward form more fitting than another.

“It is as if you asked whether it is more agreeable to God to be adored in one language than in another. All men are brothers and children of God. He calls to himself all who follow his laws.” [Question 654.]

Adoration is independent of form; it is always agreeable to God when it proceeds from a heart that is sincere and a faithful observer of justice. The adoration that consists only in form is an act of hypocrisy by which men may be deceived, but which could not deceive God, who sees the bottom of hearts. How many people feign to humble themselves before God in order to draw the approval of men!

Is adoration in common preferable to individual adoration? [Question 656.]

“As we have already said, men, united by the communion of thoughts and sentiments, have more strength to attract good Spirits to themselves. Well then! The same occurs when they gather to adore God. But do not think that, for this reason, private adoration is less valuable, since each one can adore God by thinking of him.”

What is the object of prayer?

“To attract particular graces to oneself.”

a. Could we not merit those graces except through prayer?

“No; God knows what you need. Nevertheless, through prayer you draw his attention more particularly, because to pray is to think of God and to adore him.”

Can one pray to the Spirits? [Question 666.]

“Yes, to the good ones. To pray to them is like evoking them; and when the prayer is sincere they will not fail to come to you and assist you as much as it is permitted them: that is their mission. They are your interpreters before God.”

Is prayer agreeable to God? [Question 668.]

“Yes, when it comes from a sincere heart, for, to Him, the intention is everything, and the prayer of the heart is preferable to the one you may read, however beautiful it may be.”

Prayer in which the intelligence and the thought take no part is not a prayer: they are words that have no merit whatever in the eyes of God.

Does prayer make man better? [Question 660.]

“Yes, the prayer of the heart; but that of the lips generates hypocrites.”

a. In what manner can prayer make man better?

“God sends him good Spirits, in order to suggest good thoughts to him. Man thus becomes stronger to bear without complaint the sufferings of life.”

Can we usefully ask God to pardon our faults? [Question 661.]

“God knows how to discern good from evil; prayer does not hide faults. He who asks God for the pardon of his faults obtains it only if he changes his conduct. Good actions are the best prayer, because deeds are worth more than words.”

Do the men who consecrate themselves to the contemplative life have any merit before God, since they think only of him and do harm to no one? [Question 657.]

“No, because if they do no evil, they also do no good and are useless. Moreover, not to do good is already an evil.”

God wills that one think of Him, but he does not will that one think only of Him, for he gave man duties to fulfill on Earth. He who consumes himself in meditation and contemplation does nothing meritorious in the eyes of God, because his life is useless to Humanity, and God will ask of him an account of the good he shall not have done.

Is it possible to pray usefully for others? [Question 662.]

“The Spirit of the one who prays acts through the will to do good. Through prayer, he attracts good Spirits to himself, and these associate themselves with the good he desires to do.”

We possess within ourselves, through thought and through will, a power of action that extends far beyond the limits of our corporeal sphere. Prayer for others is an act of that will. If it is ardent and sincere, it can call good Spirits to the aid of the one for whom we pray, in order to suggest good thoughts to him and to give him the strength his body and his soul need. But, here too, the prayer of the heart is everything, that of the lips is worth nothing.

Could the prayers of others, made on our behalf, result in the pardon of our faults?

“Jesus said: to each according to his works. No one but yourselves can repair the evil you shall have done. The prayer of another can strengthen you; it cannot, however, make you obtain a pardon you have not merited by some effort.”

Is there any merit on the part of certain persons in consecrating their life to prayer?

“Ask rather what sacrifice they impose on themselves in favor of their neighbor; then you will judge their merit.”

To consecrate one's life to prayer for one's own benefit is pure egoism; to do so for others is disguised idleness. It is more meritorious, in order to succor one's neighbor, to impose upon ourselves effective privations and voluntary sacrifices than to assist them with prayers that cost nothing but the effort of uttering them.

Can we beseech God to turn aside the evils that afflict us?

“We have said that prayer is never useless, when well made, because it strengthens the one who prays, which already constitutes a great result. Help yourself and heaven will help you, as you well know. Moreover, God cannot change the order of Nature at the whim of each one, and then, of how many evils is man himself the very author, through his improvidence and through his faults! He is punished in that wherein he sinned.” [Question 663.] These evils are often in the decrees of Providence and for a good that we cannot understand. Frequently, too, God suggests to us, through the intermediary of the Spirits, thoughts by which we can, ourselves, turn them away from us or lessen their effects.