St.
Alphonsus de Liguori: Nine
Discourses for Times of Calamities.
Following are excerpts from the Eighth Discourse: “Prayers appease
God, and avert from us the chastisement we deserve, provided we
purpose to amend.”
Would
that our prominent pro-abortion “Catholic” politicians, such as
Cuomo, Pelosi and Biden, heed these words of St. Alphonsus! The
darkness is upon us, and we see no real end to it, because there is
no purpose of amendment, no turning from our nation's sins. One of
the prayers taught by the Angel of Fatima is: O my Jesus, it is
for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and reparation for
the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Every
abortion, every act of fornication, every act of sodomy is a sin
against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
St.
Alphonsus: “In order to be delivered from the present scourge, and
still more from the eternal scourge, we must pray and hope. But it is
not sufficient to pray and to hope: we must pray and hope as we
ought. No
one hath hoped in the Lord, and hath been confounded. [Ecclus.
2:11.] There never has been and never will be found any one to hope
in the Lord and be lost, as the prophet assures us: He is the
protector of all that trust in Him. But how comes it, then, that some
persons ask graces and do not obtain them? St. James answers that it
is because they ask ill. You
ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss. [James
4:3.] You must not only ask and hope, but ask and hope as you ought.
God
is appeased by prayers, and led to withdraw the chastisement which we
deserve, provided we purpose to amend. How can God think of hearing
that sinner who prays to him that he may be freed from his
afflictions, whilst he is unwilling to abandon sin, which is the
cause of his afflictions? Thus do many act; they beg of God to
deliver them from their afflictions; they beg of the servants of God
to avert by their prayers the threatened chastisements, but they do
not seek to obtain the grace of abandoning their sins and changing
their lives. And how can such persons hope to be freed from the
chastisement when they will not remove its cause? It is not God,
then, who makes us miserable; it is sin. Sin it is which obliges God
to create chastisements: Famine,
and affliction, and scourges, all things are created for the wicked.
[Ecclus.
40: 9.]
But
some will say, we make novenas, we fast, we give alms, we pray to
God: why are we not heard? How, exclaims the Lord! how can I hear the
prayers of those who beg to be freed from their afflictions, and not
from their sins, because they do not wish to reform. What care I for
their fasts, and their sacrifices, and their alms, when they will not
change their lives.
Some
say we have our patron or some other saint who will defend us; we
have our Mother Mary to procure our deliverance. How can the saints
think of assisting us if we persist in exasperating the Lord? St.
John Chrysostom says, of what use was Jeremias to the Jews? The Jews
had Jeremias to pray for them, but, notwithstanding all the prayers
of that holy prophet, they received the chastisement, because they
did not wish to give up their sins. Beyond doubt, says the holy
Doctor, the prayers of the saints contribute much to obtain the
divine mercy for us, but when?—when we do penance. They are useful,
but only when we do ourselves violence to abandon sin, to fly
occasions, and return to God’s favor.
The
emperor Phocas, in order to defend himself from his enemies, raised
walls and multiplied fortifications, but he heard a voice saying to
him from heaven: “You build walls, but when the enemy is within,
the city is easily taken.” We must then expel this enemy, which is
sin, from our souls, otherwise God cannot exempt us from
chastisement, because he is just, and cannot leave sin unpunished.
Another time the citizens of Antioch prayed to Mary to avert from
them a scourge which overhung them; and whilst they were praying, St.
Bertoldus heard the divine Mother replying from heaven, “Abandon
your sins, and I shall be propitious to you.”
St.
Augustine says: “He who created you without your help, will not
save you without your help.” What do you expect, sinful brother?
That God will bring you to Paradise with all your sins upon you? Do
you continue to draw down upon you the divine scourges, and yet hope
to be delivered from them? Must God save you while you persist in
damning yourself? If we purpose truly to turn to God, then let us
pray to him and rejoice; even though the sins of the entire world
were ours, we should be heard, as I said to you in the beginning.
Every one who prays with a purpose of amendment, obtains mercy.”
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