results. We can, of ourselves, do nothing for our salvation, for Christ says: Without Me you can do nothing" (John xv. 5). Since God wills that we should attain a destiny beyond the reach of our natural powers. He must necessarily be willing to grant us His help to attain it, whenever we earnestly pray for it. In fact, says St. Augustine, "God is more willing to grant us favors than we are to receive them." "God is always ready," says St. John Chrysostom, "to hear the voice of His servants praying to Him; He has never yet neglected to hear it when called upon as He should be." The prophet Isaias (xxx. 19) had already said the same thing: "God will surely have pity on thee; at the voice of thy cry, as soon as He shall hear, He will answer thee." "The Lord," says the Royal Prophet, "is nigh to all them that call upon Him in truth; He will do the will of them that fear Him; He will hear their prayer, and save them" (Ps. cxliv. 18, 19).
We have the formal and solemn promise of Our Lord Jesus Christ that God will hear our prayers and grant us all we ask, for He says expressly: Amen, amen, I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it you. . . . Ask, and you shall receive" (John xvi. 23, 24). "You shall ask whatever
