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Prayer: The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection St. Alphonsus Liguori Doctor of the Church 1759 With Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur Chapter 1: The Necessity of Prayer, Section 3 Invocation of the Saints1. IS IT GOOD AND USEFUL TO HAVE RECOURSE TO THE INTERCESSIONOF THE SAINTS?   Here a question arises, whether it is necessary to have recourse also to the intercession of the Saints to obtain the grace of God.   That it is a lawful and useful thing to invoke the Saints, as intercessors, to obtain for us, by the merits of Jesus Christ, that which we, by our...

Prayer: The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection St. Alphonsus Liguori Doctor of the Church 1759 With Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur Chapter 1: The Necessity of Prayer, Section 2 Without Prayer It is Impossible to Resist Temptations and to Keep the Commandments        Moreover, prayer is the most necessary weapon of defense against our enemies; he who does not avail himself of it, says St. Thomas, is lost. He does not doubt that the reason of Adam's fall was, because he did not recommend himself to God when he was tempted: "He sinned because he had not recourse to...

SIX DISCOURSES ONNatural Calamities, Divine Threats, AND THEFour Gates of HellBy ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI CITATIONS:  Referring to Some Particular Calamities 1. Earthquakes ----- "The earth shook and trembled: the foundations of the mountains were troubled and were moved, because He was angry with them." -----Ps. 17:8. -----" The earth shall be moved out of her place for the indignation of the Lord." -----Is. 13:13. -----"With shaking shall the earth be shaken as a drunken man." -----Is. 24:20. On these words Cardinal Hugo makes the following comment: -----"The earth shall eject sinners." St. John Chrysostom says: -----"The cause of the earthquake...

SIX DISCOURSES ONNatural Calamities, Divine Threats, AND THEFour Gates of HellBy ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI SIXTH DISCOURSE: God Chastises Us in This Life for Our Good, Not for our Destruction "Non enim delectaris in perditionibus nostris." "For thou art not delighted in our being lost." -----Job 3:22. Let us feel persuaded, my brethren, that there is no one who loves us more than God. St. Teresa says that God loves us more than we love ourselves. He has loved us from eternity. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. -----Jer. 31:3. It is the love He has borne us...

Chapter 1: The Necessity of Prayer, Section 1 Prayer is a Means Necessary to Salvation One of the errors of Pelagianism was the assertion that prayer is not necessary for salvation. Pelagius, the impious author of that heresy, said that man will only be damned for neglecting to know the truths necessary to be learned. How astonishing! St. Augustine said: "Pelagius discussed everything except how to pray," [Da Nat. et Grat. c. 17] though, as the Saint held and taught, prayer is the only means of acquiring the science of the Saints; according to the text of St. James: "If...

SIX DISCOURSES ONNatural Calamities, Divine Threats, AND THEFour Gates of HellBy ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI FIFTH DISCOURSE: External Devotions are Useless if we do not Cleanse our Souls from Sin, Part 1 "And now do not mock, lest your bonds be tied strait." -----Isa. 27:22. God commands Jonas to go and preach to Ninive. Jonas, instead of obeying God, flies by sea towards Tharsis. But, behold! a great tempest threatens to sink the ship; and Jonas knowing that the tempest was raised in punishment of his disobedience, said to the crew of the vessel: Take me up and cast me into...

SIX DISCOURSES ONNatural Calamities, Divine Threats, AND THEFour Gates of HellBy ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI FOURTH DISCOURSE The Four Principal Gates of Hell, Part 4: Impurity We have now, lastly, to speak of the fourth gate of Hell, which is impurity, and it is by this gate that the greater number of the damned enter. Some will say that it is a trifling sin. Is it a trifling sin? It is a mortal sin. St. Antoninus writes, that such is the nauseousness of this sin; that the devils themselves cannot endure it. Moreover, the Doctors of the Church say that certain...

SIX DISCOURSES ONNatural Calamities, Divine Threats, AND THEFour Gates of HellBy ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI FOURTH DISCOURSEThe Four Principal Gates of Hell, Part 3: Theft Let us now pass on to the consideration of the third great gate of Hell by which so large a portion of the damned enter; I mean theft. Some, so to speak, adore money as their God, and look upon it as the object of all their desires. The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold. But the sentence of condemnation has already been pronounced against such: Nor thieves . . . nor extortioners shall...

SIX DISCOURSES ONNatural Calamities, Divine Threats, AND THEFour Gates of HellBy ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI FOURTH DISCOURSE The Four Principal Gates of Hell, Part 2: Blasphemy Let us pass on to the second gate of Hell, which is blasphemy. Some, when things go wrong with them, do not attack man, but endeavor to wreak their vengeance upon God Himself by blasphemy. Know, my brethren, what manner of sin blasphemy is. A certain author says: "Every sin, compared with blasphemy, is light;" and first of all, St. John Chrysostom says, there is nothing worse than blasphemy. Other sins, says St. Bernard, are...

SIX DISCOURSES ONNatural Calamities, Divine Threats, AND THEFour Gates of HellBy ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI FOURTH DISCOURSE The Four Principal Gates of Hell, Part 1: Hatred "Her gates are sunk into the ground." Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. Hell has then different gates, but these gates stand on our earth. Her gates are sunk into the ground. These are the vices by which men offend God, and draw down upon themselves chastisements and eternal death. Amongst the other vices, there are four which send. most souls to Hell, and on...

SIX DISCOURSES ON: Natural Calamities, Divine Threats, And The Four Gates of Hell By ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI SECOND DISCOURSE: Sinners Will Not Believe in the Divine Threats Until the Chastisement Has Come Upon Them, Part 2 Let sin be no more for us, my brethren; let us be converted if we wish to escape the scourge which hangs over us. If we do not cease from sin, God will be obliged to punish us: For evil-doers shall be cut off.-----Ps. 26:9. The obstinate are not only finally shut out from Paradise, but hurried off the earth, lest their example should...

THIRD DISCOURSE: God Is Merciful for a Season, and Then Chastises, Part 1 Thou hast been favorable to the nation, O Lord, thou hast been favorable to the nation; hast thou been glorified? -----Isa. 26:15. Lord, Thou hast often pardoned this people; Thou hast threatened it with destruction by earthquake, by pestilence, in neighboring countries; by the infirmities and death of its own citizens; but Thou hast afterwards taken pity on them: Thou hast been favorable to the nation, O Lord, Thou hast been favorable to the nation, hast Thou been glorified? Thou hast pardoned us, Thou hast dealt...

SIX DISCOURSES ON AND THE: Four Gates of Hell By ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI THIRD DISCOURSE: God Is Merciful for a Season, and Then Chastises, Part 2 And let us know, that when God wishes to punish, He is able and knows how to do it. The daughter of Sion shall be left . . . as a city that is laid waste. -----Is. 1:8. How many cities do we not know to have been destroyed and levelled with the ground, by reason of the sins of the inhabitants, whom God could no longer bear with! One day, Jesus Christ being...

SIX DISCOURSES ON: Natural Calamities, Divine Threats, and Four Gates of Hell By ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORISECOND DISCOURSE: Sinners Will Not Believe in the Divine Threats Until the Chastisement Has Come Upon Them, Part 1 "Except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish." -----Luke 13:5. After our Lord had commanded our first parents not to eat of the forbidden fruit, unhappy Eve approached the tree and was addressed from it by the serpent who said to her: Why has God forbidden you to eat of this delightful fruit? Why hath God commanded you? Eve replies: God hath commanded us that...

Natural Calamities, Divine Threats, And The Four Gates of Hell By ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI FIRST DISCOURSE: God Threatens to Chastise Us in Order to Deliver Us from Chastisement "Ah, I will comfort Myself over My adversaries: and I will be revenged of my enemies." -----Isa. 1:24. Such is the language of God, when speaking of punishment and vengeance: He says that He is constrained by His justice to take vengeance on His enemies. But, mark you, He begins with the word Heu, "Ah:" this word is an exclamation of grief by which He would give us to understand, that if...

At Fatima, Our Lady gave a basic message: conversion or chastisement. Conversion is not happening, and we are living in a moral crisis that is a real chastisement. But we are also experiencing a chastisement in the form of natural disasters. The disasters are also invitations to conversions. St. Alphonsus Liguori, tells us how God uses natural calamities such as floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes, to warn people to change their ways, rather than as punishments. He show proves that God uses these disasters to warn us to change our ways. Here are the facts: -- Mother's Day brought a devastating...