The Health and All the Grace We Need

During Wednesday’s feast of St. Alphonsus Liguori, Pope Benedict XVI gave his General Audience on the topic of prayer:

Dear friends, this is the central question: what is really necessary in our lives? We answer together with St. Alphonsus: "The health and all the grace we need”, meaning not only the health of the body, but primarily that of the soul which Jesus gifts to us. More than anything else we need his liberating presence that makes us truly fully human, and thus our existence full of joy. And only through prayer can we accept Him, His grace, which, by illuminating us in every situation, helps us discern the truth, and, by fortifying us, renders our will capable of implementing what we know to be good. We often know what is good, but are incapable of doing it. Through prayer, we can.The disciple of the Lord knows he is always exposed to temptation and in prayer never fails to ask God for help to conquer it.

According to St. Alphonsus, prayer is "a means necessary to salvation and the graces we need to achieve it.” Let us open our hearts to God, then, and ask His Holy Spirit to teach us how to pray.