conditionally — that is, under the condition that they either promote our salvation, or at least do not interfere with it; for we should never lose sight of this saying of Our Lord: " What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?" (Matt. xvi. 26.)
"God," says St. Alphonsus, speaking on this subject, "has pledged Himself to grant us, not temporal, but spiritual goods, goods necessary or conducive to our salvation; for we can not ask ' in the name of Jesus ' for what is or may prove hurtful to our salvation. God does not and can not grant it. Why? Because He loves us. A physician who has any regard for his patient will not permit him things which he knows will prove injurious to him. Many people ask for health or riches, but God does not give them because He foresees that they will be an occasion of sin or of tepidity in His service. When we ask for temporal favors, we ought always to add this condition — if they are profitable to our souls. And when we see that God does not give them, let us rest assured that He refuses them only because He loves us, and because He sees that what we ask would, if He were to give them to us, redound to our spiritual injury."
The prayers of many persons are not heard
