THE END DAYS

Means of Personal Salvation

CONTENTS:

1. Prayer
1. The necessity of prayer
2. What is prayer?
3. Conditions for infallibly obtaining what is asked
• To pray piously
2. Prayers of sinners
3. Baptism
4. Faith
5. Summary of Salvation
6. Go Back to The End Days Menu Index
   

The abbreviations for the Books of the Scripture are as follows: Corinthian: Cor., Daniel: Dan., Ecclesiasticus: Ecclus., Ezechiel: Ez., Hebrew: Heb., Isaias: Is., Matthew: Matt., Proverbs: Prov., Psalms: Ps., Thessalonians: Thess., Timothy: Tim.

I. Prayer

The Necessity of Prayer

The following are extracted and rearranged for this media from the treatise The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection by St. Alphonsus De Liguori and adapted for this media.It is available through Our Blessed Lady of Victory Mission, Inc.,R.R. #2, Box 25, Brookings, SD 57006-9307, U.S.A., 605-693-3983.

1. The Scriptures are clear enough in pointing out how necessary it is to pray, if we would be saved. "We ought always to pray, and not to faint"(Luke 18:1) "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation."(Matt. 26:41) "Ask, and it shall be given you." (Matt. 7:7) The words "we ought," "pray," "ask," according to the general consent of theologians, impose the precept, and denote the necessity of prayer. prayer is the means without which we cannot obtain the help necessary for salvation.
2. The reason of this is evident. Without the assistance of God's grace we can do no good thing: "Without Me, ye can do nothing."(John 15:5) St. Augustine remarks on this passage, that our Lord did not say, "Without Me, ye can complete nothing", but "without Me, ye can do nothing;" giving us to understand, that without grace we cannot even begin to do a good thing. Nay more, St. Paul writes, that of ourselves we cannot even have the wish to do good. "Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God."(2 Cor 3:5). If we cannot even think a good thing, much less can we wish it. The same thing is taught in many other passages of Scripture: "God worketh all in all. I will cause you to walk in My commandments, and to keep My judgments, and do them."(Ez. 36:27). So that, as St. Leo I says, "Man does no good thing, except that which God, by his grace, enables him to do," and hence the Council of Trent says: "If any one shall assert, that without the previous inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and his assistance, man can believe hope, love, or repent, as he ought, in order to obtain the grace of justification, let him be anathema." (Session 6, canon 3)
3. We believe that no one approaches to be saved, except by the help of God; that no one merits this help, unless he prays.
4. From these two premises, on the one hand, that we can do nothing without the assistance of grace; and on the other, that this assistance is only given ordinarily by God to the man that prays, who does not see that the consequence follows, that prayer is absolutely necessary to us for salvation?
5. God gives us some things, as the beginning of faith, even when we do not pray. Other things, such as perseverance, he has only provided for those who pray.
6. Hence it is that the generality of theologians, following St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, Clement of Alexandria, St. Augustine, and other Fathers, teach that prayer is necessary to adults, not only because of the obligation of the precept (as they say), but because it is necessary as a means of salvation. That is to say, in the ordinary course of Providence, it is impossible that a Christian should be saved without recommending himself to God, and asking for the graces necessary to salvation. St. Thomas teaches the same: "After baptism, continual prayer is necessary to man, in order that he may enter heaven; for though by baptism our sins are remitted, there still remain concupiscence to assail us from within, and the world and the devil to assail us from without" (P. 3, q. 39, a. 5). The reason then which makes us certain of the necessity of prayer is shortly this, in order to be saved we must contend and conquer: "He that striveth for the mastery is not crowned except he strive lawfully."(2 Tim. 2:5) But without the divine assistance we cannot resist the might of so many and so powerful enemies: now this assistance is only granted through prayer; therefore without prayer there is no salvation.
7. We, in a word, are merely beggars, who have nothing but what God bestows on us as aIms: "But I am a beggar and poor." (Ps. 39:18) The Lord, says St. Augustine, desires and wills to pour forth his graces upon us, but will not give them except to him who prays. "God wishes to give, but only gives to him who asks." This is declared in the words, "Seek and it shall be given to you."
8. Whence it follows, says St. Teresa, that he who seeks not, does not receive. As moisture is necessary for the life of plants, to prevent them from drying up, so, says St. Chrysostom, is prayer necessary for our salvation. Or, as he says in another place, prayer vivifies the soul, as the soul vivifies the body: "As the body without the soul cannot live, so the soul without prayer is dead and emits an offensive odor." He uses these words, because the man who omits to recommend himself to God, at once begins to be defiled with sins. Prayer is also called the food of the soul, because the body cannot be supported without food; nor can the soul, says St. Augustine, be kept alive without prayer: "As the flesh is nourished by food, so is man supported by prayers." All these comparisons used by the holy Fathers are intended by them to teach the absolute necessity of prayer for the salvation of everyone.

What is prayer?

• The Apostle writes to Timothy: "I beseech, therefore, that first of all supplications, petitions, and thanksgivings be made." (1 Tim. 2:1) St. Thomas explains, that prayer is properly the lifting up of the soul to God. Petition is that kind of prayer which begs for determinate objects; when the thing sought is indeterminate (as when we say, "Incline to my aid, O God!" it is called supplication. Obsecration is a solemn adjuration, or representation of the grounds on which we dare to ask a favor; as when we say, "By Thy cross and Passion, O Lord, deliver us!" Finally, thanksgiving is the returning of thanks for benefits received, whereby, says St. Thomas, we merit to receive greater favors. Prayer, in a strict sense, says the holy Doctor, means recourse to God; but in its general signification it includes all the kinds just enumerated.

Conditions for infallibly obtaining what is asked

St. Thomas lists four of them: one should pray for oneself, one should pray for that which is necessary for salvation, one should pray piously, and that one should pray with perseverance.

1. The reason that one must pray for oneself is that the granting of a divine grace always demands a subject who is properly disposed. For this reason, prayer for others is always inefficacious because we cannot be certain of the dispositions of the person for whom we pray. Nevertheless, praying for other is still infallibly efficacious if the person prayed for puts no impediment in the way. This is assured by St. James (5:16): "Pray one for another, that you may be saved; for the continual prayer of the just man availeth much."
2. Since "God wills all men to be saved" (1 Tim. 2:4), it is pleasing to Him when one prays for what is necessary for one's salvation. For instance, one can petition God to "give me only the necessaries of life" (Prov. 30:8), to save oneself, to prevent oneself from committing mortal sin, to perform some salutary act, or even the gift of final perseverance.
3. To pray piously means we must pray with humility, confidence, attention, and petition in the name of Christ.
1. HUMILITY-- The Lord does indeed regard the prayers of his servants, but only of his servants who are humble. "He hath had regard to the prayer of the humble." (Ps. 101:18). "A contrite and humble heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." (Ps. 1:19) Others he does not regard, but rejects them: "God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." (James 4:6) He does not hear the prayers of the proud who trust in their own strength; but for that reason leaves them to their own feebleness; and in this state deprived of God's aid, they must certainly perish. It is of faith, that without the aid of grace we cannot do any good work, nor even think good thought. "Without grace men do not good whatever, either in thought or in deed," say St Augustine. We may conclude with St. Augustine, is all the grand science of a Christian, -- TO KNOW THAT HE IS NOTHING, AND CAN DO NOTHING. This is the whole of the Great Science, to know that man is nothing. For then he will never neglect to furnish himself, by prayer to God, with that strength which he has not of himself, and which he needs in order to resist temptation, and to do good; and so, with the help of God, who never refuses anything to the man who prays to him in humility, he will be able to do all things: "The prayer of him that humbleth himself shall pierce the clouds, and he will not depart until the Most High behold." (Ecclus 35:21).
2. CONFIDENCE -- The principal instruction that St. James gives us, if we wish by prayer to obtain grace from God, is, that we pray with a confidence that feels sure of being heard, and without hesitating: "Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering." (James 1:6) God is much pleased with our confidence in his mercy, because we then honor and exalt that infinite goodness which it was his object in creating us to manifest to the world. God protects and saves all those who confide in Him: "He is the Protector of all that hope Him." (Ps. 17:31), "Thou who savest them that trust in Thee." (Ps. 16:7) God himself says: "Because he hoped in me I will deliver him; I will protect him; I will deliver him all I will glorify him." (Ps. 90:14) lsaias says of those who place their hope in God: "They that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall take wings as the eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." (Is. 40:31) And when did it ever happen that a man had confidence in God and was lost? "No one bath hoped in the Lord and bath been confounded." ( Ecclus:2:11) David calls the man happy who trusts in God: "Blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee." (Ps. 83:13) And why? Because, says he, he who trusts in God will always find himself surrounded by God's mercy. "Mercy shall encompass him that hopeth in the Lord."(Ps. 31:10) So that he shall be surrounded and guarded by God on every side in such a way that he shall be prevented from losing his soul.
3. ATTENTION -- We should pray with attention, i.e. with concentration and focus of all our psychological energy on the prayer, on the meaning of prayer, or on God himself.
4. PRAY IN THE NAME OF CHRIST -- Our Saviour swears to us: "Amen, amen, I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it you." (John 16:23) ("Amen, amen, I say to you," which, according to St. Augustine, is a species of oath). What our Lord says amounts to: Go to My Father in My name, through My merits ask the favors which you want, and I promise and swear to you that what ever you ask, My Father will grant. O God, what greater comfort can a sinner have after his fall and to know for certain that all he asks from God in the name of Jesus Christ will be given to him! I say "all" but I mean only that which has reference to his eternal salvation: for with respect to temporal goods, we have already shown that God even when asked, sometimes does no give them; because he sees that they would injure our soul. But so far as relates to spiritual goods, his promise to hear us is not conditional, but absolute; and therefore St Augustine tells us, that those things which God promises absolutely, we should demand with absolute certainty of receiving: Those things which God promises, seek with certainty. And how, says the Saint, can God ever deny us his grace than we to receive them! "He is more willing to be munificent of his benefits to thee than thou art desirous to receive them."
4. One must pray with perseverance. The grace of salvation is not a single grace, but a chain of graces, all of which are at last linked with the grace of final perseverance. Now, to this chain of graces here ought to correspond another chain (as it were) of our prayers if we, by neglecting to pray, break the chain of our prayers, the chain of graces will be broken too; and as it is by this that we have to obtain salvation, we shall not be saved. Fr. Suarez says that anyone who prays for final perseverance will infallibly obtain it. But it is not enough, says St. Bellarmine, to ask the grace of perseverance once, or a few times: we ought always to ask it, every day till our death, if we wish to obtain it: "It must be asked day by day, that it may be obtained day by day." He who asks it one day, obtains it for that one day: but if he does not ask it the next day, the next day he will fall. The Lord repeated time and again the necessity of perseverance in prayer until we obtain what we ask. Recall the parable of the friend who came to beg for bread (Luke 11:5-13), of the evil judge and the importunate widow (Luke 18:1-5), the moving episode of the woman of Cana who insisted in spite of an apparent rebuff (Matt. 15:21-28), and the sublime example of Christ himself, who frequently spent the whole night in prayer and in Gethsemane prayed in great anguish to his heavenly Father (Luke 6:12; 22:44). "Watch ye therefore, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of man." (Luke 21:36) "Pray without intermission." (1 Thess. 5:17) To obtain perseverance we must always recommend ourselves to God morning and night, meditation, at Mass, at Holy Communion, and always; especially in time of temptation, when we must keep repeating, "Lord help me; Lord, assist me; keep Thy hand upon me; leave me not; have pit upon me!" Is there anything easier than to say Lord, help me, assist me! In the Gospel Jesus declares, "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you." (Luke 11:9).

Prayers of sinners

• St. Thomas does not hesitate to affirm that even the sinner is heard if he prays; for though his prayer is not meritorious, yet it has the power of impetration,--that is, of obtaining what we ask; because impetration is not founded on God's justice, but on his goodness. "Merit," he says, "depends on justice; impetration, on grace." Thus did Daniel pray, "Incline, O my God, Thy ear and hear... For not in our justifications do we present our prayers before Thy face, but in the multitude of Thy mercies." (Dan. 9:18) St. Bernard says that the prayer of a sinner to escape from sin arises from the desire to return to the grace of God. Now this desire is a gift, which is certainly given by no other than God himself; to what end, therefore, says St. Bernard, would God give to a sinner this holy desire, unless he meant to hear him? The Holy Scripture is full of examples in which the sinners were delivered from sin by prayer. St. Chrysostom says that the only time when God is angry with us is when we neglect to ask him for his gifts: "He is only angry when we do not pray." And how can it ever happen that God will not hear a soul who asks him for favors all according to his pleasure? When the soul says to him, Lord, I ask Thee not for goods of this world,--riches, pleasures, honors; I ask Thee only for Thy grace: deliver me from sin, grant me a good death, give me Paradise, give me Thy holy love (which is that grace which St. Francis de Sales says we should seek more than all others), give me resignation to Thy will; how is it possible that God should not hear! What petitions wilt Thou, O my God, ever hear (says St. Augustine), if Thou dost not hear those which are made after thy own heart? "What prayers dost Thou hear, if Thou hearest not these?"

II. Baptism

Sections on Baptism and Faith are taken and adapted from "The Catechism of Perseverance" by Monsignor Gaume, imprimatured by Paulus Cardinal Cullen, Archbishop Dubliniensis; reprinted in Jesus Christ Catholic by K.E. Gillette with Ecclesiastical permission, Victory Publications, Arcadia, California.

• The Necessity of Baptism. Of all the Sacraments, the most necessary is Baptism. Faith teaches us that no person unbaptized can be saved, that is, can be admitted to the vision of God, face to face in Heaven. The words of Our Saviour are formal: "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5).
• Such has been in all ages the invariable doctrine of the Church, solemnly proclaimed by the Council of Trent :"If anyone assert, that the sin of Adam, single in its source, but common to all and proper to each person by transmission, and not by simple imitation, is effaced by human effects, or by any other means than the merits of our only Mediator, Our Lord Jesus Christ, who reconciled us to God in His blood, by becoming our justice, our sanctification, and our redemption; or deny that the said merits of Jesus Christ are applied to children and adults by the Sacrament of Baptism, conferred according to the forms used in the Church: let him be anathema."
• The dogma of the Church,which cannot be changed by anyone including the Pope, states that "Baptism by water (Baptismus fluminis) is, since the promulgation of the Gospel, necessary for all men without exception, for salvation." The obligation of receiving Baptism in order to be saved began on the day when Our Lord said to His Apostles: "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." (Matt. 28:19).
• Effects of Water Baptism
1. It effaces original sin, and all the actual sins, however enormous, that one may have committed before its reception. Such has been the constant doctrine of the Church, formally defined by the Council of Trent.
2. It remits all the punishment due to sin, both eternal and temporal, so that he who dies immediately after Baptism goes straight to Heaven. The ignorance and the concupiscence (inclination to sin) which remain in us after Baptism are indeed the consequences of original sin, but they are not sins.
3. Baptism gives us a divine life, and makes us children of God. It is by Baptism that we become participators in the life of the New Adam. Hence, the Grace of Baptism is a Grace inherent to our soul, effacing all its stains, cleansing it from all its defilements, and communicating to it all the infused virtues, Faith, Hope, Charity, and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, which render it beautiful and pleasing in the sight of God. We are by this means incorporated with Our Lord, as members with their head, and God adopts us as His children and makes us the heirs of His kingdom and co-heirs with Jesus Christ
4. Baptism makes us children of the Church. It places us among the number of the faithful, gives us a right to the other Sacraments, and enables us to share in all the goods of our Mother the Church. Without Baptism we are incapable of receiving the other Sacraments, so that the ordination of a person who should he ordained priest without having been baptized would be absolutely null and it should be repeated again after baptizing him
5. Baptism imprints on the soul an indelible character, which prevents the reception of the Sacrament a second time. "As, according to the order of nature," says St Augustine, "we can be born only once, so there is only one spiritual regeneration, and Baptism can never be repeated."
6. From adults the Church requires the following dispositions: (a) consent; (b) faith; (c) instruction, that is to say a knowledge of the things which, by a necessity of means and a necessity of precept, must be believed; (d) sincere sorrow for their sins.

III. Faith

• The necessity of Faith. In order to be baptized, the person must make a profession of Faith. This is because "without Faith it is impossible to please God" (Heb. 11:6). Our Lord commanded the Apostles: "Go ye into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not, shall be condemned." (Mark 16:15-16).
• What is Faith? Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue by which we firmly believe all that the Church teaches, because God has revealed it, and He is truth itself.
1. Faith is a gift of God : that is we cannot have it of ourselves by the resources of our own minds or the efforts of our own wills. Faith is an alms, a benefit, that can proceed only from the liberality of our Heavenly Father.
2. Faith is a supernatural virtue: that is a virtue which makes us believe truths that we cannot understand by the mere light of reason, and that are intended to conduct us to an everlasting happiness, not our due.
3. All that the Church teaches: the authority which instructs us on the truths of Religion being infallible, good sense points out that we should receive all those truths alike, without its being permitted us to select some and to reject others. We say "all that the Church teaches," because it belongs to the Church alone to propose a truth as an article of Faith
4. Because God has revealed it: in point of fact, the Church invents nothing; she is content with manifesting to us the truths which God has confided for guardianship and explanation to her.
5. Because He is truth itself: the foundation of our Faith is the veracity of God, who can neither deceive us nor be deceived Himself. It follows hence that we are a thousand times more certain in regard to the truths of Faith than in regard to things that we see with our eyes, or touch with our hands, or believe on the testimony of men.
• In order to be saved, one must have Divine Faith -- actual, explicit, exterior, living Faith. Actual Faith requires one to make formal acts of Faith, implicit or explicit, such as making the sign of the cross, a Mass well heard, the recital of the Lord's Prayer, the acceptance of affliction, etc. Explicit Faith consists in knowing and believing distinctly and in detail the truths of Religion: we are not bound to know and believe them all with an explicit Faith, but only a few main articles of Faith. These articles of Faith are contained in the Apostles' Creed. To have an exterior Faith is to show our Faith by our words and our works. Living Faith is that which is animated by Charity, and joined to the practice of good works.
• Charity is a supernatural gift of God, by which we love God above all things and our neigbors as ourselves for God's sake. We show that we love God by following His Will, keeping His Commandments and the Precepts of His Church, and helping evangelize the world . For Christ says:
• Matt. 7:21. Not everyone who says to me "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kigndom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father in heaven shall enter the kingdom of heaven.

1 Tim. 2:3-4. ... Our Savior, Who will all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge to the truth.

• John 14:15. If you love me keep My Commandments.
• Matt. 28:18. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;
• 28:19. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.
• Luke 10:16. He that heareth you heareth Me, and he that despiseth you despiseth Me.
• Three eminent good works are prayer, giving alms, and fasting. (See the Mini-Catechism).

III. Summary of Salvation

• What must one do to save one's soul? To save one's soul a person must worship God by Faith, Hope, and Charity (as defined above); that is, he (she) must believe in Him, must hope in Him, and must love Him with his (her) whole heart.

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The End Days

Created July 16, 1996.