Rev. Fr. Paul OSullivan - How to be Happy-How to be Holy

CUM PERMISSU SUPERIORUM.

APPROVED BY HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL M. CEREJEIRA, PATRIARCH OF LISBON .

All rights reserved. First published in 1943 by Edies do Corpo Santo , Lisbon, Portugal. Retypeset and reprinted in 1989 by TAN Books , an Imprint of Saint Benedict Press, LLC, with permission of Saint Martin de Porres Apostolate , Dublin, Ireland.

Typography is the property of TAN Books , and may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without written permission from the publisher .

ISBN: 978-0-89555-386-7

Library of Congress Catalog Card No .: 89-051901

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

TAN Books
An Imprint of Saint Benedict Press, LLC
Charlotte, North Carolina

Read, dear friend, these pages , and you will pray as you have never prayed before.

PATRIARCHAL PALACE LISBON

My dear Father Paul OSullivan,

I approve and recommend with all my heart the new book that you have just published: How to be HappyHow to be Holy.

The subjects you treat of are of the very high- est importance and vital interest. The counsels you give are so easy and yet so useful that every- one without exception can put them into practice. They guarantee what we all so earnestly desire, namely, a happy life and the abundant blessings of Almighty God.

I sincerely hope that this book will be read not merely once, but repeatedly by all who wish to be good Christians. From its reading they will reap the greatest benefit.

I bless you, dear Father.

M., Cardinal Pa triarch,
Lisbon, November 10, 1943

CONTENTS

Introduction

READ, CATHOLICS, READ

We venture to say that very few books will give such genuine pleasure and do so much real good to their readers as this precious booklet.

Hundreds of thousands of Catholics are daily saying their morning and evening prayers without deriving the grace, strength and consolation they might so easily derive from these lovely prayers.

They learned to pray as children, and during all their lives they continue to say their prayers with the vague ideas, the imperfect understanding that they acquired as children.

They have done little to develop, to improve, to make more clear the ideas that they got in their childhood. The result is that a vast number of Christians merely repeat the words without giving any attention to the sense of what they are saying. In other words, they have not an intelligent grasp of the act they are performing.

As a consequence they get comparatively little benefit from their prayer and do not enjoy the consolation of prayer.

This booklet has in view to teach Christians:

a) How to pray.

b) How to derive immense benefits from prayer.

c) How to enjoy the deep consolation of prayer.

It is not necessary to be a saint to enjoy prayer. Everyone who knows how to pray finds intense delight in prayer.

To pray well demands no hard or difficult effort, nothing that the ordinary Christian cannot do with pleasure if only he knows how to do it.

First of all, what is prayer and how should we pray?

Prayer is certainly not the mere repetition of words without giving any attention to their meaning though, unfortunately, this is the way that thousands of otherwise good Christians are praying every day.

What then is prayer? Prayer is nothing else than talking to God, conversing with God Himself.

When we kneel down and make the Sign of the Cross reverently, God at once turns to us and gives us all His attention as fully as if there was no one else in existence.

Can this be true? It is absolutely true, and as a consequence, when we pray we are enjoying an intimate, personal conversation with God Almighty. What a joy! What a privilege! What an immense consolation!

We are speaking to God as truly and as really as Moses spoke to Him on Mount Sinai, as truly, as lovingly as Peter and John and Magdalen when He was on earth.

True, we do not see God with the eyes of our body, but we are perfectly sure by our faith that God is really and truly listening to every word we are saying.

Oh, if Christians would only grasp this glorious truth, what delight would they not have in prayer!

This was the secret of the Saints, but it is a secret so clear and easy that anyone can understand it.

Why did the Saints love to pray? Just because they knew and they felt that they were talking to God. Therefore, far from being wearisome it was an immense joy for them to pray.

This then is the first clear idea we must have when praying, viz. , that we are talking to God in the most real and true sense of that word. There is nothing clearer, easier to understand, nothing more certain.

The second great thought is that God has bound Himself most solemnly to hear our prayers.

Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. What words could possibly be clearer? These and similar promises our Blessed Lord made over and over again.

It is quite certain that we never send up a prayer to God lovingly and confidently that He does not hear, and that does not bring us a great grace in return.

We never yet said one prayer, never yet sent up one cry to God that was not heard. Of this there can be no possible doubt.

Sometimes God may not give us what we ask because He sees that it would not be good for us, but undoubtedly in this case He will give us another and a better grace.

This, too, is an idea that we must thoroughly understand.

A third truth which we must bear in mind is that every prayer we say with reverence and trust, such as any ordinary Christian can say, gives God immense glory and pleasure.

What a joy it should be to feel that we are giving real joy to God.

But does God really bother about us? God does not only love us, but He most earnestly desires our love and affection in return. Behold the Heart that loves men so much, but is so little loved by men. These are His own very words addressed to each of us.

Fourthly, our prayers obtain for us many important graces and blessings which we shall never get and never enjoy if we do not ask for them.

If a Christian believes these truths, as he is bound to do, is he not a madman if he omits his prayers?

Fifthly, all men desire happiness, all men seek happiness, all men work for happiness.

Unfortunately, men seek happiness in a thousand different ways and never find it. They lose their time.

God alone gives happiness, as God alone gives life and health. Happiness is Gods greatest gift, for it embraces what is best for us.

God, as we have said, promises to give us all good things if we ask for them. What can be easier than to ask God every day in our prayers for happiness?

Why do not men ask God for happiness? They do not think.

True, it is not possible to have perfect happiness in this life, because we are in a vale of tears due to the sin of Adam and due to our own sins, which bring so much sorrow and suffering with them. However we can have a great measure of happiness in this life, and it is God and God alone who can and will give us this great measure of happiness if we confidently and lovingly ask Him for it. There is no better, no surer way of attaining happiness than by praying for it. Men who do not pray for happiness must be very ignorant, or very foolish.

On the other hand, all of us have to face some suffering. No one can avoid suffering, sickness, pain and disappointments.

But here again God helps us. No pain comes to us without Gods permission; not even a hair falls from our heads without His consent.