Basics of Prayer and Gratitude

January 3, 2022 • 2 min

From The Sinner’s Guide, page 436
By Venerable Louis of Granada

Section VII.

Prayer.

Having in another work treated more fully of this subject, I would here only urge you to turn to God in childlike prayer whenever afflictions or temptations come upon you.

Strive, moreover, to maintain the spirit of prayer, and thus you will preserve a continual recollection of God. You will live in His presence, and His love will abide in your heart.

Finally, prayer will enable you most faithfully and frequently to testify your filial reverence and love for your Heavenly Father.

Section VIII.

Gratitude.

Gratitude, which should be in our hearts and on our lips, is a virtue which excites us to praise God unceasingly for all His benefits:

“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall be always in my mouth. Let my mouth be filled with praise, that I may sing Thy glory, Thy greatness all the daylong.” [Ps. xxxiii. 1, and lxx. 8.]

Since God not only gives us life, but continues to preserve it, protecting us, lavishing blessings on us, and causing all creatures to serve our necessities and desires, is it not just that we should continually praise Him?

Thanksgiving, therefore, should be the first of all our exercises, and, according to St. Basil, it should form the beginning of all our prayers.

Morning and evening, and at all times, we should render thanks to God for His many benefits, general and particular, of nature and of grace; but, above all, for the incomprehensible benefits of Redemption and the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.

Let us bear in mind that in all these blessings He sought only our welfare. He could expect nothing; He desired nothing from us. Out of pure love for us He gave us all.