St. Thomas Aquinas taught that four conditions are required for prayer to be effective. He wrote, “four conditions are laid down; namely, to ask – for ourselves – things necessary for salvation – piously – perseveringly; when all these four concur, we always obtain what we ask for.”
The first condition of prayer is that you make it for yourself. According to St. Thomas, we cannot “merit” on our accord salvation for another person. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t pray for others. St. Basil taught that prayer, by virtue of God’s promise, is infallibly efficacious, even for those for whom we pray, provided they put no positive impediment in the way.
St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote, “True it is that God has not promised to grant our requests, when those for whom we pray put a positive impediment in the way of their conversion; but still, God of his goodness has often deigned, at the prayer of his servants, to bring back the most blinded and obstinate sinners to a state of salvation, by means of extraordinary graces. Therefore let us never omit, when we say or hear Mass, when we receive Holy Communion, when we make our meditation or our visit to the Blessed Sacrament, to recommend poor sinners to God. And a learned author says that he who prays for others will find that his prayers for himself are heard much sooner.”
The second condition assigned by St. Thomas is that we ask those favours which are necessary to salvation. Commenting on the words of the Gospel, “Whatever you ask in my name” (Jn 14:13), St. Augustine said that “nothing which is asked in a way detrimental to salvation is asked in the name of the Saviour.”
The saint wrote, “He who faithfully prays God for the necessaries of this life, is both mercifully heard, and mercifully not heard. For the physician knows better than the sick man what is good for the disease.”
St. Alphonsus wrote, “When we ask of God these temporal favours, we ought always to ask them with resignation, and with the condition, if they will be useful to our souls; and when we see that God does not grant them, let us be certain that he then denies them to us for the love he bears us, and because he sees that they would be injurious to the salvation of our souls.”
The third condition of prayer is that it is to be made piously, which means with humility and confidence.
St. Augustine wrote, “the presumption of stability renders many unstable; no one will be so firm as he who feels himself infirm.” St. Philip Neri humbly said, “I am in despair for myself; but I trust in God.”
St. Bernard wrote, “Neither, O Lord, do you put the oil of your mercy into any other vessel than that of confidence.” St. Basil said, “You have not asked rightly, because you have asked doubtingly, you have not received grace, because you have asked it without confidence.”
The fourth condition of prayer is to pray perseveringly, which means continuing to pray until death.
St. Alphonsus explained: “The grace of salvation is not a single grace, but a chain of graces, all of which are at last linked with the grace of final perseverance. Now, to this chain of graces there ought to correspond another chain (as it were) of our prayers; if we, by neglecting to pray, break the chain of our prayers, the chain of graces will be broken too; and as it is by this that we have to obtain salvation, we shall not be saved.”
St. Thomas said “After baptism continual prayer is necessary to a man in order that he may enter heaven.” Regarding the grace of perseverance, St. Robert Bellarmine said, “It must be asked day by day, that it may be obtained day by day.”
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有效祈禱的四個條件
聖多馬斯教導了祈禱要能有效的四個條件。他寫道：『四個規定的條件是，要求—為自己—為救贖所需的事物—虔誠—鍥而不捨；當這四樣都齊全，我們經常都得獲所求。』
祈禱的第一個條件是要為自己的。據聖多馬斯說，我們不能將我們『贏得』的救贖送與他人。這並不是說我們不應為他人祈禱。聖巴西略教導說，因為天主的承諾，祈禱總是奏效的，甚至我們為他們祈禱的那些人，只要他們沒有架上正面的阻撓。
聖亞豐索寫道：『真的，天主沒有承諾允許我們的所求，當我們為他們祈禱的那些人，在皈依上架上正面的阻撓；可是仁慈的天主經常在他僕人的祈禱下屈尊，通過非凡的恩寵使最盲目和頑固的罪人回到救贖的狀態。所以讓在我們參與彌撒時，在我們領受聖體時，當我們默想或朝拜聖體時，我們要永不忽略為可憐的罪人向天主祈禱。一位有學識的作者說，為他人祈禱的人會發覺為自己的祈禱會更快被俯聽。』
聖多馬斯所說的祈禱第二個條件是我們所求的是要為得救所需要的恩典。聖經話語：『你們因我的名無論求父什麼，我必要踐行，為叫父在子身上獲得光榮。』（若望14：13）聖奧思定說：『凡是以有損救恩的方式祈求的，都不是奉救主的名祈求的。』 他寫道：『為今生的必需品忠實地向天主祈禱的人，既被仁慈地聽到，又被仁慈地不被聽到。 因為醫生比病人更清楚什麼對疾病有好處。』
聖亞豐索寫道：『當我們向天主要求現世的恩典，我們要時常順從並只要對我們靈魂有用的；當我們見到天主沒有允許，讓我們肯定，祂拒絕給我們是因為祂愛我們，因為祂知道這些都是會對我們靈魂的救恩是有害的。』
第三個條件是祈禱應該是虔誠的，就是說以謙遜和信心祈禱。
聖奧斯定寫道，『穩定的假設使許多人不穩定； 沒有人會像感到自己軟弱的人那樣堅強。』聖斐理伯、內里謙遜地說：『我對自己是絕望的，但我信賴天主。』
聖伯爾納鐸寫道：『主啊，除了信心的容器，你也不要把你的慈悲油放入任何其他容器中。』聖巴西略說：『你沒有正確地祈求，因為你懷疑地祈求，你沒有得獲聖寵，因為你的祈求沒有信心。』
祈禱的第四個條件是鍥而不捨，就是說繼續祈禱直至死亡。
聖亞豐索解釋道：『救恩的恩寵不是單一的恩寵，卻是一連串的恩寵，他們全部最後與最終堅持到底的恩寵相連。現在，在這一系列的恩寵中，應該有另一條（好像是）我們的祈禱鏈。 如果我們疏於禱告，打斷了我們禱告的鎖鏈，恩寵的鎖鏈也會被打斷； 既然我們必須以此獲得救恩，我們就不會得救。』
聖多馬斯說：『人領洗後必須持續地祈禱才能進入天堂。』有關堅持到底的恩寵，聖羅伯、白敏說：『必須天天問，才能天天得到。』
