ASK AND YOU SHALL OBTAIN.

Qualities of prayer. — Efficacy of prayer.

— Action of prayer. Transmission of thought.

— Intelligible prayers.

— On prayer for the dead and for suffering Spirits.

— INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SPIRITS: The manner of praying.

— The happiness of prayer.

Qualities of prayer.

When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who affectedly pray standing in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. I tell you in truth that they have already received their reward. — When you wish to pray, enter into your room and, having shut the door, pray to your Father in secret; and your Father, who sees what passes in secret, will give you the reward.

Do not be anxious to ask much in your prayers, as the pagans do, who imagine that by the multiplicity of words they will be heard. — Do not make yourselves like them, for your Father knows what you have need of before you ask it of Him. (Saint Matthew, chapter VI, vv. 5 to 8.)

When you prepare yourselves to pray, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father, who is in Heaven, may also forgive you your sins. — If you do not forgive, your Father, who is in Heaven, will not forgive you your sins either. (Saint Mark, chapter XI, vv. 25 and 26.)

He also told this parable to some who placed their confidence in themselves, as being just, and despised others:

Two men went up to the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, the other a publican. — The Pharisee, standing, prayed thus, within himself: My God, I render You thanks that I am not like other men, who are thieves, unjust, and adulterers, nor even like that publican. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.

The publican, on the contrary, keeping himself at a distance, did not even dare to lift his eyes to heaven; but he struck his breast, saying: My God, have mercy on me, who am a sinner.

I declare to you that this one returned to his house justified, and the other did not; for he who exalts himself shall be abased, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. (Saint Luke, chapter XVIII, vv. 9 to 14.)

Jesus clearly defined the qualities of prayer: when you pray, he says, do not put yourselves in evidence; rather, pray in secret; do not affect to pray much, for it is not by the multiplicity of words that you will be heard, but by their sincerity; 2 before you pray, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, since prayer cannot be pleasing to God if it does not proceed from a heart purified of every sentiment contrary to charity; 3 pray, finally, with humility, like the publican, and not with pride, like the Pharisee; 4 examine your faults, not your qualities, and, if you compare yourselves to others, seek out what there is in you that is bad. (chapter X, nos. 7 and 8.)

Efficacy of prayer.

Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you will obtain it, and what you ask shall be granted to you. (Saint Mark, chapter XI, v. 24.)

There are those who contest the efficacy of prayer, on the basis of the principle that, since God knows our needs, it becomes useless to set them forth to Him.

And those who think thus add that, since everything in the Universe is linked together by eternal laws, our supplications cannot change the decrees of God.

Without any doubt, there are natural and immutable laws that God cannot abrogate at the caprice of each one; but from this to believing that all the circumstances of life are subject to fatality is a great distance.

If it were so, man would be nothing more than a passive instrument, without free will and without initiative.

In that hypothesis, it would only fall to him to bow his head beneath the yoke of events, without thinking of avoiding them; he ought not to have sought to turn aside the lightning bolt.

God did not grant him reason and intelligence that he should leave them without use; the will, that he should not will; activity, that he should remain inactive.

Since man is free to act in one direction or another, his acts bring upon him, and upon others, consequences subordinated to what he does or does not do; 8 there are, therefore, owing to his initiative, outcomes that necessarily escape fatality and that do not break the harmony of the universal laws, just as the advancing or the retarding of the hand of a clock does not annul the law of movement upon which the mechanism is founded.

It is possible, then, that God may accede to certain requests, without disturbing the immutability of the laws that govern the whole, this assent being always subordinated to His will.

From this maxim: “What you ask in prayer shall be granted to you” it would be illogical to deduce that it suffices to ask in order to obtain, 2 and it would be unjust to accuse Providence if it does not accede to every supplication made to it, since it knows, better than we, what is for our good.

It is as a judicious father proceeds who refuses his son what is contrary to his interests.

In general, man sees only the present; now, if suffering is of use for his future happiness, God will let him suffer, as the surgeon lets the patient suffer the pains of an operation that will bring him the cure.

What God will always grant him, if he asks it with confidence, is courage, patience, resignation.

He will also grant him the means of extricating himself by his own efforts from his difficulties, through ideas that He causes the good Spirits to suggest to him, thus leaving him the merit of the action;

He assists those who help themselves, in conformity with this maxim:

“Help yourself, and Heaven will help you”; and not those who expect everything from some outside aid, without making use of the faculties they possess; 8 yet, most of the time, what man wants is to be helped by a miracle, without expending the least effort. (chapter XXV, no. 1 and following.)

Let us take an example. A man finds himself lost in the desert. Thirst torments him horribly. Fainting, he falls to the ground. He asks God to assist him, and waits. No angel will come to give him drink. However, a good Spirit suggests to him the idea of rising and taking one of the paths that lie before him. By a mechanical movement, gathering all the strength that remains to him, he rises, walks, and discovers in the distance a brook. On catching sight of it, he gains courage.

If he has faith, he will exclaim: “Thank you, my God, for the idea that you inspired in me and for the strength that you gave me.”

If he lacks faith, he will exclaim: “What a good idea I had! What luck of mine to take the path on the right, instead of the one on the left; chance, at times, serves us admirably! How I congratulate myself on my courage and on not having let myself be cast down!”

But, it will be said, why did the good Spirit not tell him clearly: “Follow this path, and you will find what you need?” Why did it not show itself to him to guide and sustain him in his fainting? In that manner it would have convinced him of the intervention of Providence.

First, to teach him that each one must help himself and make use of his own strength.

Then, through uncertainty, God puts to the test the confidence that the creature places in Him and the latter’s submission to His will.

That man was in the situation of a child who falls and who, finding someone there, begins to cry and waits for them to come and lift him up; if he sees no one at all, he makes an effort and rises by himself.

If the angel who accompanied Tobias had said to him: “I am sent by God to guide you on your journey and to preserve you from all danger,” Tobias would have had no merit. Relying on his companion, he would not even have needed to think. That is the reason the angel made himself known only on their return.

Action of prayer. Transmission of thought.

Prayer is an invocation by means of which man enters, through thought, into communication with the being to whom he addresses himself.

It may have for its object a request, a thanksgiving, or a glorification.

We can pray for ourselves or for others, for the living or for the dead.

The prayers made to God are heard by the Spirits charged with the execution of His wishes; those addressed to the good Spirits are reported to God.

When someone prays to other beings than God, he does so by recourse to intermediaries, to intercessors, since nothing happens without the will of God.

Spiritism makes the action of prayer comprehensible, by explaining the mode of transmission of thought, whether in the case in which the being to whom we pray responds to our appeal, or in that in which only our thought reaches him.

To grasp what occurs in such a circumstance, we must conceive of all beings, incarnate and disincarnate, as plunged in the universal fluid that occupies space, just as we find ourselves, in this world, within the atmosphere.

This fluid receives an impulse from the will; it is the vehicle of thought, as the air is of sound, with the difference that the vibrations of the air are circumscribed, whereas those of the universal fluid extend to infinity.

When thought, then, is directed toward any being, on the Earth or in space, from incarnate to disincarnate, or vice versa, a fluidic current is established between the one and the other, transmitting the thought from one to the other, as the air transmits sound.

The energy of the current keeps proportion with that of the thought and of the will.

It is thus that the Spirits hear the prayer addressed to them, whatever the place where they may be found; 7 it is thus that the Spirits communicate among themselves, that they transmit to us their inspirations, that relations are established at a distance between incarnate beings.

This explanation is intended above all for those who do not understand the usefulness of purely mystical prayer; it does not have for its aim to materialize prayer, but to make its effects intelligible, showing that it can exercise a direct and effective action; 9 it is no less subordinated for that to the will of God, supreme judge in all things, alone able to render it efficacious.

Through prayer, man obtains the concurrence of the good Spirits who hasten to sustain him in his good resolutions and to inspire in him sound ideas; he acquires, in this way, the moral strength necessary to overcome difficulties and to return to the straight path, if he has strayed from it; and by this means, he can also turn aside from himself the evils that he would attract by his own faults.

A man, for example, sees his health ruined, in consequence of the excesses to which he gave himself, and drags out, to the end of his days, a life of suffering: will he have the right to complain, if he does not obtain the cure he desires? No, for he could have found in prayer the strength to resist the temptations.

If the evils of life were divided into two parts, one constituted of those that man cannot avoid and the other of the tribulations of which he made himself the primary cause, through his negligence or through his excesses (chapter V, no. 4), it would be seen that the second, in quantity, far exceeds the first.

It is, therefore, evident that man is the author of the greater part of his afflictions, which he would spare himself, if he always acted with wisdom and prudence.

No less certain is it that all these miseries result from our infractions of the laws of God and that, if we observed them punctually, we would be entirely happy.

If we did not go beyond the limit of what is necessary, in the satisfaction of our needs, we would not contract the infirmities that result from excesses, nor would we experience the vicissitudes that illnesses bring; 5 if we put a curb on our ambition, we would not have to fear ruin; 6 if we did not wish to climb higher than we can, we would not have to dread the fall; 7 if we were humble, we would not suffer the disappointments of pride brought low; 8 if we practiced the law of charity, we would not be slanderers, nor envious, nor jealous, and we would avoid disputes and dissensions; 9 if we did harm to no one, we would have no reason to fear vengeance, etc.

Let us admit that man can do nothing with regard to the other evils; that all prayer is useless to him for freeing himself from them; would it not already be much to have the possibility of remaining exempt from all those that proceed from his manner of conducting himself?

Now, here the action of prayer is easily conceived, since it has for its effect to attract the salutary inspiration of the good Spirits, to win from them strength to resist the evil thoughts whose realization may be fatal to us.

In that case, what they do is not to remove the evil from us, but rather to turn us aside from the evil thought that may cause us harm; they in no way obstruct the fulfillment of the decrees of God, nor do they suspend the course of the laws of Nature; they only prevent us from infringing them, by directing our free will; 13 they act, however, without our knowing it, in a hidden manner, so as not to subjugate our will.

Man is then in the position of one who solicits good counsel and puts it into practice, but retaining the liberty to follow it, or not;

God wills that it be so, in order that he may have the responsibility for his acts and the merit of the choice between good and evil.

This is what man can always be certain of receiving, if he asks it with fervor, it being, then, to this that these words can above all be applied: “Ask and you shall obtain.”

Even with its efficacy reduced to these proportions, would prayer not already bring immense results?

To Spiritism it was reserved to prove to us its action, by revealing to us the relations existing between the corporeal world and the spiritual world.

The effects of prayer, however, are not limited to those we have just pointed out.

All the Spirits recommend it.

To renounce prayer is to deny the goodness of God; and to refuse, for oneself, His assistance and, toward others, to give up the good one can do them.

In acceding to the request made to Him, God often aims to reward the intention, the devotion, and the faith of the one who prays; 2 from this it follows that the prayer of the man of good has more merit in the eyes of God and always more efficacy, since the vicious and wicked man cannot pray with the fervor and the confidence that are born only of the sentiment of true piety.

From the heart of the egoist, from that of him who prays only with his lips, only words come forth, never the surges of charity that give prayer all its power.

So clearly is this understood that, by an instinctive movement, whoever wishes to commend himself to the prayers of others does so preferably to those of those whose conduct, one feels, must be more pleasing to God, since they are more readily heard.

Because prayer exercises a kind of magnetic action, one might suppose that its effect depends on fluidic strength. Such, however, is not the case.

In exercising this action upon men, the Spirits, when necessary, make up for the insufficiency of the one who prays, either by acting directly in his name, or by giving him momentarily an exceptional strength, when they judge him worthy of this grace, or that it can be profitable to him.

The man who does not consider himself sufficiently good to exercise a salutary influence must not on that account abstain from praying for the good of others, with the idea that he is not worthy of being heard.

The consciousness of his inferiority constitutes a proof of humility, always pleasing to God, who takes into account the charitable intention that animates him.

His fervor and his confidence are a first step toward his conversion to the good, a conversion that the good Spirits feel happy to encourage.

The only prayer that is repelled is that of the proud man who places faith in his own power and his own merits and believes it possible for him to override the will of the Eternal.

The power of prayer lies in the thought, which depends in nothing either on the words, or on the place, or on the moment in which it is made.

One can, therefore, pray everywhere and at any hour, alone or in common.

The influence of the place or of the time makes itself felt only in the circumstances that favor recollection.

Prayer in common has a more powerful action, when all those who pray associate themselves in heart to one and the same thought and aim at the same objective, since it is as though many were crying out together and in unison; 5 but what does it matter that the number of persons gathered to pray be great, if each one acts in isolation and on her own account!

A hundred persons together may pray as egoists, while two or three, bound by one and the same aspiration, will pray as true brothers in God, and the prayer they address to Him will have more strength than that of the other hundred. (chapter XXVIII, nos. 4 and 5) Intelligible prayers.

If I do not understand what the words mean, I shall be a barbarian to him to whom I speak, and he who speaks to me will be a barbarian to me. — If I pray in a language that I do not understand, my heart prays, but my intelligence gathers no fruit. — If you praise God with the heart alone, how shall a man of the number of those who understand only their own language answer amen at the end of your thanksgiving, since he does not understand what you say? — It is not that your action is not good, but the others are not edified by it. (Saint Paul, 1st to the Corinthians, chapter XIV, vv. 11, 14, 16, and 17.)

Prayer has value only by the thought that is joined to it; now, it is impossible to join any thought to that which one does not understand, since what is not understood cannot touch the heart.

For the immense majority of creatures, prayers made in a language they do not understand are nothing but amalgams of words that say nothing to the spirit.

For prayer to touch, it is necessary that each word awaken an idea, and, so long as it is not understood, no idea can it awaken. It will be uttered as a mere formula, whose virtue will depend on the greater or lesser number of times it is repeated; 4 many pray out of duty; some, even, out of obedience to custom, by which they consider themselves quit, once they have said a prayer a certain number of times and in such or such order.

God sees what passes in the depths of hearts; He reads the thought and perceives the sincerity. To judge Him, then, more sensitive to the form than to the substance is to debase Him. (Chap. XXVIII, no. 2.) On prayer for the dead and for suffering Spirits.

The suffering Spirits ask for prayers, and these are profitable to them, because, ascertaining that there are those who think of them, they feel less abandoned, less unhappy.

However, prayer has upon them a more direct action: it revives them, instills in them the desire to elevate themselves through repentance and reparation and, possibly, turns their thought aside from evil; it is in this sense that it can not only relieve, but also shorten their sufferings. (See: Heaven and Hell, 2nd part: Examples)

There are persons who do not admit prayer for the dead, because, according to what they believe, the soul has only two alternatives: to be saved or to be condemned to eternal punishments, resulting, then, in both cases, in prayer being useless.

Without discussing the value of that belief, let us admit, for an instant, the reality of eternal and irremissible punishments and that our prayers are powerless to put an end to them. We ask whether, in that hypothesis, it would be logical, would be charitable, would be Christian to refuse prayer for the reprobate? Such prayers, however powerless they might be to free them, would they not be to them a demonstration of compassion capable of softening their sufferings?

On the Earth, when a man is condemned to perpetual hard labor, even when there is not the slightest hope of obtaining pardon for him, will it be forbidden to a charitable person to go and carry his chains, in order to relieve him of their weight?

When someone is stricken with an incurable malady, must one, because there is for the sick person no hope at all of cure, abandon him, without affording him any relief?

Remember that, among the reprobate, there may be a person who was dear to you, a friend, perhaps a father, a mother, or a child, and say whether, there being, according to your belief, no possibility of that being’s being pardoned, you would refuse him a glass of water to assuage his thirst? a balm to dry up his wounds? Would you not do for him what you would do for a convict? Would you not give him a proof of love, a consolation? No, that would not be Christian.

A belief that petrifies the heart is incompatible with belief in a God who places in the first category of duties the love of one’s neighbor.

The non-eternity of punishments does not imply the denial of a temporary penalty, given that it is not possible for God, in His justice, to confound good and evil; 8 now, to deny, in this case, the efficacy of prayer, would be to deny the efficacy of consolation, of encouragement, of good counsel; would be to deny the strength we draw from the moral assistance of those who wish us well.

Others base themselves on a more specious reason: the immutability of the divine decrees. God, these say, cannot change His decisions at the request of His creatures; were it not so, the world would lack stability. Man, then, has nothing to ask of God, it falling to him only to submit and to adore Him.

There is, in this manner of reasoning, a false application of the principle of the immutability of the divine law, or rather, an ignorance of the law, in what concerns future penalty.

This law is revealed today by the Spirits of the Lord, when man has become sufficiently mature to understand what, in faith, is in conformity with or contrary to the divine attributes.

According to the dogma of the absolute eternity of punishments, the remorse of the guilty one is not taken into account, nor his repentance; every desire to improve himself is useless to him: he is condemned to remain perpetually in evil.

If his condemnation was for a determined time, the punishment will cease, once that time has expired. But who can affirm that he then possesses better sentiments? Who can say that, following the example of many of the condemned of the Earth, on leaving prison, he is not as wicked as before? In the first case, it would be to keep in the pain of punishment a man who has returned to the good; in the second, it would be to grant favor to one who continues guilty.

The law of God is more provident. Always just, equitable, and merciful, it does not establish for the punishment, whatever it may be, any duration at all. It is summed up thus:

“Man always suffers the consequence of his faults; there is not a single infraction of the law of God that remains without the corresponding punishment.

“The severity of the chastisement is proportioned to the gravity of the fault.

“The duration of the chastisement for any fault whatever is indeterminate; it is subordinated to the repentance of the guilty one and to his return to the good; 4 the punishment lasts as long as the obstinacy in evil; it would be perpetual, if the obstinacy were perpetual; it lasts a short time, if the repentance is prompt.

“As soon as the guilty one cries out for mercy, God hears him and grants him hope.

But the simple regret for the evil caused is not enough; reparation is necessary, for which the guilty one finds himself submitted to new trials in which he can always, by his free will, practice the good, repairing the evil he may have done.

“Man is, thus, constantly the arbiter of his own lot; he can shorten or prolong indefinitely his torment; his happiness or his misfortune depends on his will to do the good.”

Such is the law, an immutable law and in conformity with the goodness and the justice of God.

Thus, the guilty and unhappy Spirit can always save himself:

the law of God establishes the condition in which it becomes possible for him to do so.

What most often is lacking to him is the will, the strength, the courage; if, through our prayers, we inspire in him that will, if we support and encourage him;

if, through our counsel, we give him the lights he lacks, instead of asking God to repeal His law, we become instruments of the execution of His law of love and of charity, in which He thus permits us to participate by ourselves giving a proof of charity. (See Heaven and Hell, 1st part, chaps. IV, VII, VIII.)

INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SPIRITS.

The manner of praying.

The primordial duty of every human creature, the first act that should mark his return to the active life of each day, is prayer.

Almost all of you pray, but how few are those who know how to pray! What do the phrases that you mechanically articulate to one another matter to the Lord, making of it a habit, a duty that you fulfill and that weighs on you like any duty?

The prayer of the Christian, of the Spiritist, whatever his form of worship may be, he should say it as soon as the Spirit has resumed the yoke of the flesh; 4 it should rise to the feet of the Divine Majesty with humility, with profundity, in a surge of gratitude for all the benefits received up to that day; 5 for the night passed and during which it was permitted to him, even without being conscious of it, to go and join his friends, his guides, in order to draw, in contact with them, more strength and perseverance.

It should rise humbly to the feet of the Lord, to commend to Him your weakness, to implore of Him support, indulgence, and mercy.

It should be profound, since it is your soul that must elevate itself toward the Creator, transfigure itself, like Jesus on Tabor, in order to arrive there snow-white and radiant with hope and with love.

Your prayer should contain the request for the graces of which you have need, but of which you have need in reality.

It is useless, therefore, to ask the Lord to shorten your trials, to give you joys and riches. Beg Him to grant you the more precious goods of patience, of resignation, and of faith.

Do not say, as many do: “It is not worth the trouble to pray, since God does not hear me.” What is it that, in the majority of cases, you ask of God? Have you ever remembered to ask Him for your moral improvement? Oh! no; very seldom have you done it; 11 what you preferentially remember to ask for is success for your earthly undertakings, 12 and you have frequently exclaimed: “God does not occupy Himself with us; if He occupied Himself with us, so many injustices would not occur.” Senseless ones! Ingrates!

If you descended to the depths of your conscience, you would almost always find, in yourselves, the starting point of the evils of which you complain;

ask, therefore, before all else, that you may be able to improve yourselves and you will see what a torrent of graces and of consolations will pour out upon you. (chapter V, no. 4.)

You should pray incessantly, without, for that, its being necessary that you withdraw to your oratory, or cast yourselves on your knees in the public squares.

The prayer of the day is the fulfillment of your duties, with the exception of none, whatever the nature of them may be.

Is it not an act of love of God to assist your brothers in a need, moral or physical?

Is it not an act of gratitude to elevate to Him your thought, when a happiness befalls you, when you avoid an accident, when even a simple vexation merely grazes your soul, provided you do not forget to exclaim: Be blessed, my Father?!

Is it not an act of contrition to humble yourselves before the supreme Judge, when you feel that you have erred, even if only by a fleeting thought, to say to Him: Forgive me, my God, for I have sinned (through pride, through egoism, or through lack of charity); give me strength not to err again and courage for the reparation of my fault?!

This is independent of the regular prayers of the morning and the evening and of the consecrated days; 20 but, as you see, prayer can be of every instant, without bringing any interruption to your labors. Said in this way, it, on the contrary, sanctifies them.

Hold it as certain that a single one of these thoughts, if it proceeds from the heart, is more heard by your celestial Father than the long prayers said out of habit, often without a determining cause and to which only mechanically the conventional hour calls you. — (V. MONOD. Bordeaux, 1862.) The happiness of prayer.

Come, you who desire to believe. The celestial Spirits hasten to announce to you great things. God, my children, opens His treasures, to grant you all benefits.

Incredulous men! If you knew how great a good faith does to the heart and how it leads the soul to repentance and to prayer!

Prayer! Ah! how touching are the words that come from the mouth of the one who prays!

Prayer is the divine dew that appeases the excessive heat of the passions. Firstborn daughter of faith, it sets us on the path that leads to God.

In recollection and in solitude, you are with God; for you, there are no longer mysteries; they are unveiled to you. Apostles of thought, life is for you; your soul detaches itself from matter and rolls through those infinite and ethereal worlds, which poor men do not know.

Advance, advance along the paths of prayer and you will hear the voices of the angels. What harmony! No longer are they the confused noise and the strident sounds of the Earth; they are the lyres of the archangels; they are the soft and gentle voices of the seraphim, more delicate than the morning breezes, when they play in the foliage of your woods.

Through what delights will you not walk! Your language could not express that bliss, so swiftly does it enter through all your pores, so vivid and refreshing is the spring from which, in praying, one drinks.

Sweet voices, intoxicating perfumes, which the soul hears and breathes in, when it launches itself into those unknown Spheres inhabited by prayer!

Without admixture of carnal desires, all the aspirations are divine.

You too, pray like the Christ, bearing his cross to Golgotha, to Calvary. Carry your cross and you will feel the sweet emotions that passed through his soul, although bowed beneath the weight of an infamous beam; He was going to die, but in order to live the celestial life in the dwelling of His Father. — (SAINT AUGUSTINE. Paris, 1861.)