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edward
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2003/5/28 下午 07:13:08
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St. Thomas assigns four distinct values to prayer: satisfactory, meritorious, impetratory and a certain spiritual delight. While we are most interested in pointing out the impetratory prayer, we must first say a word about the other three values.
Effects - The satisfactory value of prayer is evident. It is clear not only from the fact that it always presupposes an act of humility and subjection to God, whom we have offended by our sins which are rooted in pride, but also because prayer springs from charity, the source of all satisfaction for sin. Finally, a prayer well made is of itself a difficult task for imperfect souls, by reason of the attention and firmness of will which it requires; hence it is also satisfactory as regards the difficulty involved.[34] The Council of Trent expressly mentions the satisfactory value of prayer.[35]
Like any other act of supernatural virtue, prayer receives its meritorious value from charity, from which it springs by means of the virtue of religion, of which it is a proper act. As a meritorious act, prayer is subjected to the conditions for any other virtuous act and is ruled by the same laws. In this sense prayer can merit de condigno whatever can be merited in this way as long as the proper conditions are fulfilled.[36]
The third effect of prayer is a certain spiritual delight of the soul. This effect is produced by the mere presence of prayer - as St. Thomas says, praesentialiter efficit.[37] But in order that prayer actually produce this spiritual delight, attention is absolutely necessary; spiritual delight is incompatible with distractions, voluntary or involuntary. For that reason, ecstatic prayer, in which the attention of the soul is the greatest possible by reason of the concentration of all one's psychological energies on the object contemplated, carries with it the greatest delight that can be attained in this life. And it is natural that this should be so. Prayer nourishes our intellect, arouses our sensibility in a holy manner, and stimulates and strengthens our will. It is truly a refectio mentis which by its very nature is meant to fill the soul with sweetness.
Prayer As Petition - But it is the impetratory value of prayer which interests us most as an element of increase and development of the Christian life independent of merit. Let us first see the principal differences between the meritorious and impetratory aspects of prayer. As a meritorious act, prayer implies a relation of justice in regard to a reward; its impetratory value implies a relation simply to the mercy of God. As meritorious, it has an intrinsic efficacy for obtaining a reward; as impetratory, its efficacy rests solely on the promise of God. The meritorious efficacy is based above all on charity; the impetratory value is based primarily on faith. The object of merit and of impetration is not always the same, although sometimes these two aspects may coincide. Let us now examine the question of the infallible efficacy of prayer.
Fourth Conclusion Prayer, when it fills the requirements, infallibly obtains what is asked in virtue of the promises of God.
This thesis is definitely de fide, based as it is on innumerable significant scriptural texts:
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened (Matt. 7:7-8). And all things whatever you ask for in prayer, believing, you shall receive (Matt. 21:22). And whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, in order that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it (Jn. 14:13-14). If you abide in me, and if my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it shall be done to you (Jn 15:7). Amen, amen I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto you have not asked anything in my name. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full (Jn. 16:23-24). And the confidence that we have towards him is this, that if we ask according to his will, he hears us. And we know that he hears whatever we ask; we know that the requests we make of him are granted (I Jn. 5:14-15).
It is possible to speak more clearly or with more insistence. The divine promise regarding an answer to prayer stands out in full certainty in the sources of revelation. But what conditions are required that prayer infallibly obtain and fulfill the divine promises? St. Thomas assigns four of them to which all the others which are listed by other authors can be reduced: that one pray for himself; that one pray for that which is necessary for salvation; that one pray piously; and that one pray with perseverance. [38] Let us examine each of these conditions in particular.
First Condition
The reason that one must pray for himself is that the granting of a divine grace always demands a subject who is properly disposed, and it may be that one's neighbor is not disposed to receive that which is asked in prayer. On the other hand, he who prays for himself, if he does it fittingly, is by that very fact disposed to be heard. If it were otherwise, his prayer would not be true prayer at all. This is not to say, however, that prayer for others is always inefficacious. On the contrary, it often obtains what is asked; but we cannot have infallible certainty of an answer because we cannot be certain of the dispositions of the person for whom we pray. We may ask God that he dispose our neighbor for a certain effect through his infinite mercy, but God has not promised this to anyone and therefore we cannot obtain it infallibly.
Second Condition
One must pray for those things necessary for salvation. This means anything at all which in any way is necessary or useful for salvation. As such it falls under the infallible impetration of prayer. Hence we can impetrate by prayer the growth or increase of the infused virtues and of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and even those things which cannot in any way be merited. It is evident from this that the area of impetration is much wider than that of merit. Thus by impetration one can petition actual efficacious grace in order not to fall into a grave sin or to perform some salutary act or even the gift of final perseverance which is infallibly connected with eternal salvation. The Church, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, frequently begs in the liturgy for these graces which no one can merit in the strict sense of the word.
Third Condition
One must pray piously, and by this word St. Thomas refers to all the conditions which are required on the part of the individual who prays ╳V humility, confidence, attention and petition in the name of Christ. Some authors include all these subjective conditions under the heading of the state of grace, without which, they say, no one can pray piously. But they are mistaken. St. Thomas raises this very objection, and this is his solution: "The sinner cannot pray piously in the sense that his prayer is informed by the supernatural habit of the virtue of piety, which he lacks, but he can pray piously in the sense that he can ask for something that pertains to piety, just as he who does not have the habit of justice may nevertheless desire something that is just. And although the prayer of the sinner is not meritorious, it can nevertheless have an impetratory value, because merit is based on justice, while impetration is based on pure gratuity or liberality.[39]
Consequently, although the state of grace is undoubtedly most fitting for the infallible efficacy of prayer, it is not absolutely necessary. It is one thing to demand a wage that is due in justice, but it is something quite distinct to beg for an alms. In the second case, no other titles are necessary but one's need. What is always necessary, however, is the previous impulse of an actual grace, which can be given and actually is given to sinners.
Fourth Condition
The prayer must be made with perseverance. The Lord repeated time and again the necessity of perseverance in prayer until we obtain what we ask. Recall the parable of the friend who came to beg for bread (Luke 11:5-13), of the evil judge and the importunate widow (Luke 18:1-15), the moving episode of the woman of Cana who insisted in spite of an apparent rebuff (Matt. 15:21-28), and the sublime example of Christ himself, who frequently spent the whole night in prayer and in Gethsemane prayed in great anguish to his heavenly Father (Luke 6:12; 22:44).
Such are the conditions for the infallible efficacy of prayer. In practice, however, we obtain many things from God without fulfilling all these conditions because of the superabundance of the divine mercy. But if we do fulfill all the conditions, we shall infallibly obtain, by reason of the divine promise, even those graces which we could not merit in an absolute sense.
[33]Cf. St. Thomas, Summa, III, q. 89, a. 5 and ad 3.
[34]Cf. ibid., II-II, q. 83, a. 12
[35]Cf. Sess. XIV, can. 13; Denz. 923
[36]Cf. St. Thomas, Summa II-II, q. 83, a. 7, ad 2; a. 15
[37]Ibid., a. 13
[38]Cf. ibid., a. 15, ad 2.
[39]Ibid., a. 16, ad 2.
以上資料，取自：
Antonio Royo, O.P., & Jordan Aumann, O.P. - The Theology of Christian Perfection (The Priory Press, Dubuque, Iowa - 1962)
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