her we
should will what He wills--as the Gloss says on the words of Ps. xxxii.
1: _Rejoice in the Lord, O ye just!_ It would seem, therefore, that we
ought not to ask for definite things from God when we pray.

Yet when in our prayers we ask for things which appertain to our
salvation, we are conforming our will to the will of God, for of
His will it is said: _He will have all men to be saved_.[136]

3. Lastly, evil things cannot be asked from God; and He Himself invites
us to receive good things. But it is idle for a person to ask for what
he is invited to receive.

God, it is true, invites us to receive good things; but He
wishes us to come to them--not, indeed, by the footsteps of the
body--but by pious desires and devout prayers.

* * * * *

_S. Augustine:_ Fly, then, by unwavering faith and holy habits, fly,
brethren, from those torments where the torturers never desist, and
where the tortured never die; whose death is unending, and where in
their anguish they cannot die. But burn with love for and desire of the
eternal life of the Saints where there is no longer the life of toil nor
yet wearisome repose. For the praises of God will beget no disgust,
neither will they ever cease. There will there be no weariness of the
soul, no bodily fatigue; there will there be no wants: neither wants of
your own which will call for succour, nor wants of your neighbour
demanding your speedy help. God will be all your delight; there will ye
find the abundance of that Holy City that from Him draws life and
happily and wisely lives in Him. For there, according to that promise of
His for which we hope and wait, we shall be made equal to the Angels of
God; and equally with them shall we then enjoy that vision of the Holy
Trinity in which we now but walk by faith. For we now believe what we do
not see, that so by the merits of that same faith we then may merit to
see what we believe, and may so hold fast to it that the Equality of
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the Unity of the Trinity, may no longer
come to us under the garb of faith, nor be the subject of contentious
talk, but may rather be what we may drink in in purest and deepest
contemplation amid the silence of Eternity (_De Catechizandis Rudibus_,
xxv. 47).

_S. Augustine:_ O Lord, my God, give me what Thou biddest and then bid
what Thou wilt! Thou biddest us be continent. _And I knew_, as a certain
one says, _that