Prayer is therefore an act of spiritual life, for all the faculties of the soul participate in it: memory, as it recalls God’s perfections, works, and gifts; reason, as it contemplates them; the heart, as it is moved by feelings; and the will, as it makes resolutions.
Without God’s grace, we could not pray properly, but God denies this grace to no one; however, the spirit of prayer, that is, a love for and focus in prayer, He grants only to those who ask for it.
How good God is to allow man to pray! For who is God? He is infinite Majesty, infinite Power, infinite Holiness, infinite Perfection. And what is man? He is but “earth and ashes,” “grass that withers,” “a leaf carried away by the wind.” Yet to this man, God permits to speak to Him, not once or twice in life, but as many times as he desires, not only in His temple but in every place and at every time. As soon as man opens his mouth or calls out with the groan of his heart, God listens to him, and even—O wondrous divine goodness—grants him almost boundless influence over Himself, unable to resist his humble and trusting prayer.
Prayer flows from the essence of man and from his necessary needs. Man is a creature of God, and therefore he ought to honor his Creator; he is a child of God, and therefore he ought to show love to his Father; he needs God’s graces, and therefore he ought to ask for them; he receives God’s gifts, and therefore he ought to give thanks for them. All this is fulfilled by prayer, and thus prayer is the homage of the creature to the Creator, the plea of a beggar at the king’s door, the cry of a sinner before the Judge’s throne, the longing of an exile for his homeland, the caress of a child in the Father’s embrace.
As soon as man feels himself to be human, he must necessarily pray; if he does not pray, he is either a devil or a beast. Today, alas, prayer is greatly neglected, and therefore people not only cease to be Christians but even to be human, and this is perhaps the worst wound of society.
But why do people not want to pray?
Some have lost faith in God; how, then, can they pray to One they refuse to acknowledge?
Others profess to believe but make no effort to know God; how, then, can they pray to One who is a stranger to them?
Others profess to believe and know God but do not love Him; what wonder, then, that prayer, as an act of humility, self-denial, and sacrifice, is distasteful to them?
Others do not pray because they have a false notion of prayer, mistakenly thinking it consists only of mechanically reciting certain words and formulas, which breeds sentimentality and boredom. Finally, others do not pray because they do not feel the need for prayer.
And yet, what is more necessary than prayer?
Prayer holds an important place in the life of a Christian, for it is the chief aid, comfort, content, and duty of that life, so much so that it can be said: the life of a Christian should be a life of prayer.
Our Divine Master commands us to pray, and even to “pray always and not grow weary”; elsewhere He says, “Pray, lest you enter into temptation,” and “Ask, and you shall receive,” from which words spiritual masters, especially St. Thomas Aquinas, deduce the obligation of prayer for all people.
This obligation never ceases, but it becomes particularly urgent in three situations: when the soul is in great temptation, in a state of sin, or in danger of death.
Theologians also assert that one who completely neglects prayer for a month, or at most two months, is not free from mortal sin. But who would be so foolish as to abandon that which is an indispensable means to attaining salvation?
We have seen that without grace, one cannot be saved; without prayer, however, one cannot obtain grace. “We believe,” says the ecclesiastical writer Gennadius, “that no one can be saved unless God calls him; that no one called can be saved unless God grants him help; and that no one can obtain help unless he prays.”
“For,” adds St. Augustine, “although some graces, such as the beginning of faith, God grants without prayer, others, such as the gift of perseverance, He gives only to those who ask for them,” so that people may recognize that God is the source of all good and refer everything to Him. Therefore, whoever needs grace—and who does not?—let him pray.
Prayer “is the key that opens the treasury of God’s mercy”; if, therefore, you experience spiritual poverty, go with this key to the treasury of mercy, for it has such power that even God cannot resist it. “There is an eternal covenant,” says St. Augustine, “between man’s prayer and God’s mercy; if you do not reject prayer, God will not withhold His mercy from you.” Hence, nothing is more powerful than a praying man, for he has power over God Himself; he is almost omnipotent, as St. Alphonsus Liguori says.
Without prayer, one cannot remain in a state of sanctifying grace; for what breath is to the body, prayer is to the soul.
To preserve sanctifying grace, one must resist temptations; but who can prevail unless God fights on his side? And what secures God’s help? Prayer—for it is the shield that protects the soul from darts.
Behold, Moses raises his hands in prayer while Israel fights, and as long as he keeps them raised, Israel prevails. Likewise, when you, O soul, are in danger, raise your hands to God, and you will surely triumph, for prayer brings God Himself to your aid. Conversely, if you neglect prayer, you will surely fall.
Hence, St. John Chrysostom rightly says: “He who falls in temptation cannot be excused; for he falls because he refuses to pray.”
Without prayer, one cannot recover lost grace, for to obtain God’s forgiveness, one must acknowledge his guilt and throw himself at the feet of the Judge, begging for mercy; this happens in prayer. Nothing is more powerful than prayer; nothing can match its strength.
Moreover, prayer prepares and disposes the soul to receive grace and cooperate with it. Man, blinded by pride and self-love, refuses to acknowledge his weakness and is too attached to his own will to submit it to God’s will; furthermore, the world and its desires create such noise in the soul that it cannot rise to God or hear His voice, all of which obstructs God’s grace.
Prayer, on one hand, humbles man by reminding him that he is a wretched beggar; on the other, it quiets the earthly clamor in the soul and detaches it, even momentarily, from the world, thereby making it easier for God’s grace to reach the mind and the will.
Since without prayer one cannot obtain grace, it follows that one cannot be saved.
“All the saints in heaven, except infants, were saved through prayer; all the damned in hell were condemned because they despised prayer.” Even of the two thieves crucified with Christ, one was saved because he prayed, while the other was lost because he did not.
“Pray, therefore,” urges St. Alphonsus Liguori, “pray, and never cease to pray, for if you pray, you will surely be saved; but if you neglect prayer, you will certainly perish forever.”
If prayer is so necessary for ordinary Christian life, how much more so for a life of perfection? Without fervent and persistent prayer, God does not grant more abundant graces, and without them, one cannot attain perfection. Hence, when God draws a soul to a more perfect service, He first grants it the gift of prayer.
“Prayer alone,” says St. Teresa, “was the door and the way to all the great graces God bestowed upon me.” If only we never closed that door, God would not pass us by.
Without humble and trusting prayer, one cannot acquire more perfect virtues; “for how,” says St. John Chrysostom, “can anyone train himself in virtue if he does not constantly turn with supplication to Him who alone can grant virtue?” Rightly, then, does this saint compare prayer to nerves, for just as nerves give the body movement and strength, so prayer gives the soul marvelous power and vitality to run swiftly on the path of perfection.
Rightly, too, did St. Bonaventure say that he who knows how to pray well also knows how to live well.
Blessed are also the fruits of prayer.
Prayer brings the soul abundant merit, for it encompasses acts of many virtues, such as faith, trust, humility, love, contrition, and mortification.
Prayer gives the soul light and wisdom, for it reveals divine mysteries and sharpens its vision to perceive them. One hour of good prayer provides more divine light than a whole day of laborious inquiry. Hence, those who love prayer and are humble come to a deeper understanding of divine things; and thus, the great sages of the Church, such as St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, St. Bernard, and others, confessed that they drew their wisdom chiefly from meditation. We read that they often placed complex problems at the feet of the Blessed Virgin or before the Blessed Sacrament, trusting more in God’s help than in the sharpness of their own minds. Do likewise.
Prayer gives the soul relief, for it lifts it from the midst of the sorrows and miseries that surround it and raises it to God, the source of all consolation. Therefore, the Apostle exhorts: “Is anyone among you sad? Let him pray.” Truly, prayer has a wondrous sweetness, for in it the bitterness of suffering vanishes.
Prayer gives the soul strength and fortitude, making everything easy for it, because prayer calls upon God Himself for help. A praying soul is stronger than the whole world, stronger than hell; conversely, a soul that neglects prayer becomes like a paralytic, lying powerless.
Finally, prayer lifts the soul toward heaven and unites it, at least momentarily, with God; hence, it has been compared to the fiery chariot that carried Elijah to heaven and to Jacob’s ladder, by which men, like earthly angels, ascend to God.
Such is the value of prayer; what wonder, then, that St. Teresa longed to climb a high mountain and cry out with a voice reaching the ends of the earth: “People, if you wish to be saved, if you wish to be perfect, pray, pray, pray!”
Precious are the fruits of prayer, but not every prayer yields them; as the Apostle himself confirms: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly.”
Józef Sebastian Pelczar, Bishop, The Spiritual Life, or Christian Perfection, Kraków 1886, Vol. I, Chapter V – On Prayer.
Catholic during the Great Apostasy 
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