In the August 1862 issue of the Revista Espírita¹, a monthly journal founded and directed by Allan Kardec from 1858 to 1869, we found a significant study on the value of prayer, which we will bring to the reader by highlighting passages that we consider important for general understanding. It deals with the study of the correspondence received by the Encoder, bringing a message signed by the spirit Angele Rouget and addressed to the medium, in which the Spirit confesses that, due to pride and envy, it harmed the medium at a certain time in his life. At the end of the confession, it informs that the only person who prayed in its intention was its sister, but that “it is your prayers that I lack. The others do not carry the seal of forgiveness for me”.

The medium asks Kardec: “Then I remembered perfectly the woman, who died about twenty-five years ago, and which I haven't thought about for many years. I wonder how the prayers of her sister, virtuous and sweet, devoted, pious and resigned, are not more fruitful than mine. Even so, I prayed and forgave”.

Kardec replies:

"The Spirit itself gives the explanation when it says:" The prayers of others do not carry the seal of forgiveness for me". Indeed, that lady, the main offended one, having suffered more due to the conduct of the other, saturated her prayer with forgiveness, which should touch even more the guilty Spirit. By praying, her sister did, so to speak, complied with a duty; on the other there was an act of charity. The victim had more right and more merit to ask for grace; her forgiveness, therefore, should reassure the Spirit even more. Now, it is known that the main effect of prayer is to act on the moral of the Spirit, either to calm it or to lead it to good. Bringing it to good, it hastens the Supreme Judge's clemency, who always forgives the repentant sinner”.

For the spirit that has a guilty conscience for the mistakes made and the evil that it did to another, and is in the phase of repentance, the prayer in its intention made by the very one whom it made suffer intensely echoes in it. The prayer performed by third parties is also pleasant and useful, however it does not have the same strength for its soul as that made by the disaffected, forgiving it. It is this forgiveness that the Spirit needs to rest its conscience in peace, thus gathering the strength to initiate reparation, since it is from the divine law that it is not enough to repent, it must pass through the trials and atonements resulting from the error perpetrated.

We see here the need and the importance of forgiveness so that prayer has its real value and reaches for the one who, disincarnated, will only be able to recover and reconstruct its journey if it feels that it is forgiven by its victim. Twenty-five years had passed, and the Angele Rouget Spirit was still suffering immensely, having the opportunity to communicate spontaneously, asking for the prayer of the medium, who had once been its disaffection. Fortunately, the medium, being a Spiritist, understood what she should do and informs Kardec that, although so much time has passed and having forgotten those events, she prayed and forgave.

Considering the importance of the matter, Kardec took the communication to be read at the meeting of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies. After reading several comments were made, highlighting the question of one of the members of the Society:

“Spirits are constantly asking mortals for prayers. Do good Spirits not pray for the suffering? In that case, why are men's prayers more effective?”

Before the question could be debated, the medium E. Vezy received the answer through a psychographics, signed by the spirit of St. Augustine. Let us see, for our enlightenment, some excerpts of this communication.

“Always pray, my children. I already told you: prayer is a beneficial dew that should make Earth less arid and dry”.

Much beyond a speech of poetic beauty, Saint Augustine's opening phrase indicates that prayer is a true balm for the soul that elevates its thought to the Creator, and that this balm also softens and touches the hearts of those we involve with our act of faith. Let us remember that in question 659 of The Book of Spirits, we learned that prayer can be used to praise, ask for and to thank and this is the reason why the spiritual benefactor asks us to always pray.

Another passage worth mentioning for our comments:

 “Who told you that our prayers did not have the virtue of spreading consolation and giving strength to weak Spirits, who cannot go to God except with difficulty and, often, without courage? If they beg for your prayers, it is because they have the merit of the earthly emanations that, voluntarily ascending to God, are always used by them, as they come from your charity and your love”.

Yes, the good Spirits always pray for all their brothers, and their prayers also comfort and encourage inferior Spirits and they are acknowledged by God; however, morally speaking, the inferior or weak Spirits are still very attached to their last earthly existence, they have a very dense perispirit (spiritual body), so they are more connected to the Earth than to Heaven, and they feel the prayers that come from the incarnates, more intensely, wrapped in love and charity and with the manifestation of forgiveness to the one who returned to the spiritual world, leaving behind him a trail of harm and disaffection. That is why the disincarnated always ask us for prayers, and in mediumistic meetings, they thank us when we pray for them, but this does not mean that they are abandoned, but they are unable to feel, to perceive, the help of the good Spirits who watch over them with all their love.

Let us now move on to another highlight of St. Augustine's message:

“For you, praying is selflessness; for us, a duty. The incarnate who prays for the neighbor fulfills the noble task of the pure Spirits; without possessing the courage and strength, they perform their wonders. It is peculiar to our life to console the Spirit who suffers and goes through difficulties; but one of your prayers is the necklace you take from your neck to give to the needy; it is the bread that you take from your table to give to the hungry. That is why your prayers are pleasant to those who hear them”.

As we are souls in evolutionary transition, in our struggle between good and evil, to pray for others is to go further, it is to strengthen our power for the benefit of a brother, and this has great merit before the Divine Law, because a good Spirit performs the prayer out of duty, while we have an act of true faith in prayer, detaching ourselves from the material world in order to enter ourselves into the heavenly world. The good Spirits have the mission of comforting and clarifying suffering Spirits. On our part, prayer is an act of charity, of renunciation, of self-denial, reaching those who, although disincarnated, still live as if in bodily existence. It is easier for the suffering Spirit to receive the prayer of an incarnate, for vibrational reasons, than that of a good Spirit, which vibrates in a higher energy range.

Let us now stick to the final paragraph of the spiritual message:

“This is the reason, my children, why the suffering Spirits, who wander around you, beg for your prayers. We must pray; you can pray. Prayer from the heart, you are the soul of souls, if I can express myself in this way; sublime quintessence that rises, always chaste, beautiful and radiant, to the wider soul of God”.

Prayer must come from the heart. Our lips must reproduce with faith our feelings. Our thoughts must vibrate in love and charity for others. Only then, obeying these conditions, will our prayer be pleasant to those they are addressed to and also to God.

We must always pray. We can always pray. Let us relieve the pains and sufferings of those who pray to be remembered and, often, forgiven, so that they can detach themselves from bodily existence and, with a more relieved conscience, begin the flight of the soul to the higher spiritual spheres of life.

Bibliography:

⁽¹⁾ KARDEC, Allan. Spiritist Magazine, August 1862. Translation: Evandro Noleto Bezerra. Brasilia: Feb, 2011.

Marcus De Mario is an educator, writer and speaker. He coordinates the Spiritist Group Seara de Luz, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. He is the founder and director of Ibem Educa. Collaborates in the Spiritist programming of Radio Rio de Janeiro.