When you pray for salvation for yourself and your family, stand guard over the soil of your soul, for hearing the word is not enough to save you. No one part is sufficient for our salvation; there is required first a careful hearing, and a continual recollection, then fortitude, then contempt of riches, and deliverance from all worldly things. Do not suppose that this prayer alone secures the gift, for the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the seed, and vainglory, pleasure, gluttony, and envy all belong to this same worldly soil. Examine your life, therefore, and root out every thorn, lest you ask for salvation in words while your deeds war against it.
When you also plead for healing and protection, understand the medicine God often employs. Whether we be afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation, which works in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. The sufferings of Christ abound in us, not to destroy us but to make us partakers with Him. So if trial or sickness comes near your household, do not be confounded; the death of Jesus was the salvation of the world, and the things done for our salvation are proclaimed even through bonds and affliction. Your hope for your family is steadfast when you receive suffering as a fellowship, knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you are of the comfort.
Do not delay to lay hold of the gift you seek, for behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. The remainder of time is not only short but is the only season available for this work. Let there be no putting off of salvation to the latest breath, as if washing away the charges against you requires no labor of your own. He who will save his life shall lose it, and whoever shall lose it for Christ shall save it. Count the cost, then, and draw your family not only by prayer but by a life so transformed that they see the common salvation you have embraced.
If those in your own household do not yet know this, weep for them as for the dearest friends who are perishing, because the word of the Cross seems foolishness to them. Yet do not be troubled, for it is no strange event that things truly great are mocked by those who are beside themselves. The many are not so much attracted by sublime words about God as when they see an act of graciousness, something pertaining to the salvation of the hearers. Let them observe your patient endurance, your deliverance from worldly cares, and your refusal to pray against any enemy. Strip away that unlawful prayer and every enhancement of sin, for how shall we have hope if we add to our negligence a spirit that wars against love?
The God of mercies Himself delivers us, and He also works through the prayers of the faithful. He who sent the Son willed not to judge the world but to save it. These things He speaks for your salvation, not for your condemnation. Rise then from hearing to doing, from a soft and unmanly faith to fortitude. Let your whole household see that you hold nothing back from the rock of patient obedience, and in this way may they be drawn to the Gift who alone takes away the sin of the world.