ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

New Zealand Tablet, 18 January 1917, Page 36

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

Subscriber.—The address of the Very Rev. Canon Bans is 48, Compton street, near Russell square, London, W'.C. Anxious to Know is troubled over the fact that on _ the one side and the other in this present war Catholics are praying for the success of their own armies. There is no. need to be troubled. Catholics on our side,, honestly believing in the justice of their cause, sincerely pray that that cause may triumph, and they are perfectly right in so praying, as they are in praying for any temporal or soiritual favor. Catholics on the other side, we* take it, are just as honestly convinced of the righteousness of their cause, and therefore are just as fully entitled to pray for success as we are. We have certain facts placed before us and we form our judgment about the war, and pray accordingly; our opponents do the same. God, on the other hand, listens to all His children who pray earnestly and answers their prayers in some form or other. Notice the point, 'in some form or other.' God is not bound to answer our prayers exactly as we would wish : time and time again He sees that our petitions, however well-intentioned and earnest, are not wise, and He therefore answers them in a way that will be for our greater spiritual advantage. He has so often proved our greatest Friend that we confidently leave the answering of our prayerful desires in His hands. For the rest, it is well to remember that God, for reasons of His own, does not always allow the cause of right to triumph in the immediate present. Did not His own Son's life on earth end, to all appearance, in failure . But then, as the years showed, that death was the triumph of failure. Divine plans are not worked out in our puny length of day?, but hi the eternal years.