yers: She prays that unbelievers may believe: God then brings them to
the Faith. She prays that the faithful may persevere: God gives them
perseverance to the end. And God foreknew that He would do these things.
For this is the predestination of the Saints whom _He chose in Christ
before the foundation of the world_[116] (_Of the Gift of Perseverance_,
vii. 15).

"Thou hast taught me, O God, from my youth; and till now I will
declare Thy wonderful works. And unto old age and grey hairs, O
God, forsake me not, until I shew forth Thy arm to all the
generation that is to come."[117]

III

Is Prayer an Act of the Virtue of Religion?

In Ps. cxl. 2 we read: _Let my prayer be directed as incense in Thy
sight_, and on these words the Gloss remarks: "According to this figure,
in the Old Law incense was said to be offered as an odour of sweetness
to the Lord." And this comes under the virtue of religion. Therefore
prayer is an act of religion.

It properly belongs to the virtue of religion to give due reverence and
honour to God, and hence all those things by which such reverence is
shown to God come under religion. By prayer, however, a man shows
reverence to God inasmuch as he submits himself to Him and, by praying,
acknowledges that he needs God as the Author of all his good. Whence it
is clear that prayer is properly an act of religion.

Some, however, maintain that prayer is not an act of the virtue of
religion, thus:

1. Prayer is rather the exercise of the Gift of Understanding than of
the virtue of religion. For the virtue of religion comes under Justice;
it is therefore resident in the will. But prayer belongs to the
intellectual faculties, as we have shown above.

But we must remember that the will moves the other faculties of
the soul to their objects or ends, and that consequently the
virtue of religion, which is in the will, directs the acts of
the other faculties in the reverence they show towards God. Now
amongst these other faculties of the soul the intellect is the
noblest and the most nigh to the will; consequently, next to
devotion, which belongs to the will itself, prayer, which
belongs to the intellective part, is the chief act of religion,
for by it religion moves a man's understanding towards God.

2. Again, acts of worship fall under precept, whereas prayer seems to
fall under no precept, but to proceed simply from the mere wish to pray;
fo