Prayers For Perseverance
A Prayer to obtain Final
Perseverance
Eternal Father, I humbly adore Thee, and thank Thee for having
created me, and for having redeemed me through Jesus Christ. I thank
Thee most sincerely for having made me a Christian, by giving me the
true faith, and by adopting me as Thy son, in the sacrament of
baptism. I thank Thee for having, after the numberless sins I had
committed, waited for my repentance, and for having pardoned (as I
humbly hope) all the offences which I have offered to Thee, and for
which I am now sincerely sorry, because they have been displeasing
to Thee, who art infinite goodness. I thank Thee for having
preserved me from so many relapses, of which I would have been
guilty if Thou hadst not protected me. But my enemies still
continue, and will continue till death, to combat against me, and to
endeavor to make me their slave. If Thou dost not constantly guard
and succor me with thy aid, I, a miserable creature, shall return to
sin, and shall certainly lose Thy grace. I beseech Thee, then, for
the love of Jesus Christ, to grant me holy perseverance unto death.
Jesus, Thy Son, has promised that Thou wilt grant whatsoever we ask
in his name. Through the merits, then, of Jesus Christ, I beg, for
myself and for all the just, the grace never again to be separated
from Thy love, but to love Thee forever, in time and eternity. Mary,
Mother of God, pray to Jesus for me.
St. Alphonsus De Liguori’s Conclusion to a Short Treatise on
Prayer
Let us pray, then, and let us always be asking for grace, if we wish
to be saved. Let prayer be our most delightful occupation; let
prayer be the exercise of our whole life. And when we are asking for
particular graces, let us always pray for the grace to continue to
pray for the future; because if we leave off praying we shall be
lost. There is nothing easier than prayer. What does it cost us to
say, Lord, stand by me! Lord, help me! give me Thy love! and the
like? What can be easier than this? But if we do not do so, we
cannot be saved. Let us pray, then, and let us always shelter
ourselves behind the intercession of Mary: “Let us seek for grace,
and let us seek it through Mary,” says St. Bernard. And when we
recommend ourselves to Mary, let us be sure that she hears us and
obtains for us whatever we want. She cannot lack either the power or
the will to help us, as the same saint says: “Neither means nor will
can be wanting to her.” And St. Augustine addresses her: “Remember,
O most pious Lady, that it has never been heard that any one who
fled to thy protection was forsaken.” Remember that the case has
never occurred of a person having recourse to thee, and having been
abandoned. Ah, no, says St. Bonaventure, he who invokes Mary, finds
salvation; and therefore he calls her “the salvation of those who
invoke her.” Let us, then, in our prayers always invoke Jesus and
Mary; and let us never neglect to pray.
I have done. But before concluding, I cannot help saying how grieved
I feel when I see that though the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers so
often recommend the practice of prayer, yet so few other religious
writers, or confessors, or preachers, ever speak of it; or if they
do speak of it, just touch upon it in a cursory way, and leave it.
But I, seeing the necessity of prayer, say, that the great lesson
which all spiritual books should inculcate on their readers, all
preachers on their hearers, and all confessors on their penitents,
is this, to pray always; thus they should admonish them to pray;
pray, and never give up praying. If you pray, you will be certainly
saved; if you do not pray, you will be certainly damned.