On prayer and the contemplative life · Aquinas, Saint Thomas
1. It is said in the Gospel, Now we know that God doth not hear
Chapter 50 of 107 · 1 min read
sinners; and this accords with those words of Proverbs; He that turneth away his ears from hearing the law, his prayer shall be an abomination. But a prayer which is "an abomination" cannot win anything from God.
But, as S. Augustine remarks, the words first quoted are due to the blind man as yet unanointed—viz., not yet perfectly illumined—and hence they are not valid; though they might be true if understood of a sinner precisely as such, and in this sense, too, his prayer is said to be "an abomination."
