and forgot God, and thus have heen damned. Hence St. Chrysostom exhorts us to ask in our prayers what he knows to be expedient for us. "Orantes in ejus potestate ponamus, ut nos illud petentes exaudiat, quod ipse nobis expendire cognoscit." (Hom. xv. in Matt.) We should, then, always ask from God temporal favours on the condition that they will be useful to the soul.
10. But spiritual favours, such as the pardon of our sins, perseverance in virtue, the gift of divine love, and resignation to the divine will, ought to be asked of God absolutely, and with a firm confidence of obtaining them. "If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from Heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?" (Luke xi. 13.) If you, says Jesus Christ, who are so much attached to earthly goods, cannot refuse your children the blessings which you have received from God, how much more will your Heavenly Father (who is in himself infinitely good, and who desires to give you his graces more ardently than you desire to receive them) give the good spirit that is, a sincere contrition for their sins, the gift of divine love, and resignation to the will of God to those who ask them? "Quando Deus negabit," says St. Bernard, "potentibus qui etiam non potentes hortatur ut petant?" (Ser. ii. de S. Andr.) How can God refuse graces conducive to salvation to those who seek them, when he exhorts even those who do not pray to ask them?
11. Nor does God inquire whether the person who prays to him is a just man or a sinner; for he has declared that ”every one that asketh, receiveth." (Luke xi. 10.) ”Every one," says the author of the Imperfect Work, ”whether he be a just man or a sinner." (Hom, xviii.) And, to encourage us to pray and to ask with confidence for spiritual favours, he has said: ”Amen, amen, I say to you: If you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it you." (John xvi. 23.) As if he said: Sinners, though you do not deserve to receive the divine graces, I have merited them for you from my Father: ask, then, in my name that is, through
