Episode 73 -- Spiritual Combat c44.3 -- Four Other Conditions for Prayer

Are there seven basic conditions for praying as we should? Yes!

In this episode we finish reading chapter 44 of the Spiritual Combat, Fr. Scupoli’s opening chapter on prayer. We will look at his discussion of the last four conditions of prayer, plus an eighth condition that should follow our prayers. We have seen so far that we must have/do the following:

1. Devotion, that is a desire to serve God 
2. Holy Confidence that God can answer our prayers
3. Right Intention of conforming our tainted and selfish will to the Divine WILL—> we will look at what are the conditions of being heard by God.
4. Practice what we pray for. We must strive in our actions to become what we are asking God to become. Our moral lives and prayer life are interconnected. We live as we pray and we pray as we live.
5. Thank God for past benefits before asking for new ones.
6. Ask in the name of Jesus and through His merits.
7. Persevere in asking. Do not give up! Knock and it will be opened!

In the previous episode we saw that there are some things that are so pleasing to God that we can ask for them without conditions: grace, virtue, salvation, etc.

There are other gifts from God that we should only CONDITIONALLY ask God to give us; in other words, Lord, grant me x, y, z, [here is the condition] if it will truly benefit our spiritual lives. The if = the condition. We should only ask for the following kinds of things conditionally: house, job, better health, etc.

One day St. Philip Neri begged God to save this woman’s life. He fulfilled all the conditions set out by Fr. Scupoli: devotion, confidence, right intention, good actions, thanksgiving, asking in the name of Jesus, and persevering. The Lord heard his prayer. The woman got better. But then she did not change her life and obey God. She became worse and worse in how she lived. St Philip then told people: “that is the last time I ever pray for someone’s health unconditionally. From now on, I will only ask for healings on this condition: the person will get closer to God.”

Let us ponder St. Philip’s words. In all our requests, let us ask for conformity to God’s will. Fr. Scupoli tells us that no matter the outcome of our prayer: we must be resigned to God’s will (an 8th condition!).