For what and for whom should we pray?
St. Alphonsus Liguori insists repeatedly that in all our devotions, at Mass, at holy communion, in all our visits to the Blessed Sacrament, we should pray for these four graces for ourselves, viz.: the forgiveness of our sins, the love of God, the love of prayer, and final perseverance. When these graces are secured, our salvation is assured.
As loyal Catholics we should also pray according to the intentions of our Holy Father the Pope; for his welfare and for the needs and interests of our Holy Mother the Church; for bishops, priests, and superiors; for our' country; for universal peace; for the conversion of sinners, heretics, and pagans; and last but not least for the poor holy souls in purgatory.
Father Girardey, C.SS.R., in his beautiful treatise on Prayer, writes:
"In praying for temporal favors for ourselves, we can claim unconditionally only the necessaries of life; in the Our Father we are taught to pray for 'our daily bread'; this does not include superfluities or luxuries; and the words 'deliver us from evil' do not necessarily include, as we have seen, deliverance from physical evils, for the evil here meant is sin and all that leads to sin. We have no reason to hope that God will hear our prayers for those temporal favors that may prove hurtful to our saltation, or that He will exempt us from cer-
