When we pray God not to lead us into temptation, our primary request is that we may not be assailed by any temptation which God, in His knowledge of the future, sees will be too much for us. We ask Him in His mercy to avert it in some way, to have pity on our weakness and frailty. We know, indeed, that the temptation will be accompanied by a grace sufficient to enable us to withstand it, but we distrust ourselves and pray God to have mercy on our weakness, and not to allow any temptation to befall us to which He knows that we, through our own fault, shall give consent.

We also ask that in every temptation that God permits to assail us, He will give us an efficacious grace to resist, that is, a grace which is of such a nature that it will enable us to emerge victorious. Such graces are of inestimable value, they are a panacea against sin. They are not easily won: we cannot obtain them without earnest prayer; without prayer we are quite certain to be defeated, since the world, the devil, and the flesh are very powerful, and we are very weak.

When we offer this petition, we must be determined on our part to avoid all dangerous occasion. It is a mere mockery to pray that we may not be led into temptation, and then to run into it of our own accord. We must keep far away from all that experience has taught us is, to us, a cause of sin, or that tends to sin. We must look forward, and be ever on our guard. Is this my plan of action, or do I recklessly expose myself to danger, trusting that somehow I shall escape uninjured?