5. Let us recall this marvellous man's particular approach to governing the State, which enabled him to deal successfully with the very serious commitments related to the organization of the kingdom.

Historians writing on his life mention that Stephen was constantly dedicated to prayer and that he always found the time to pray, despite being overwhelmed by the many affairs of government. His soul appears in the Libellus de institutione morum ad Emericum ducem (A Manual on Moral Formation for the Duke Emeric), written for his son, Emeric:  "The observance of prayer is the greatest conquest of true salvation.... Continuous prayer is purification and the remission of sins.

Then, my son, every time you go to God's house, do so in such a way as to adore God with Solomon, son of the king, and you yourself, as king, should always say:  "Send, O Lord, Wisdom down from your glorious throne, that she may be with me and work with me, and that I may learn what is pleasing to you at all times'" (St Stephen, Libellus de institutione morum ad Emericum ducem, chap. 9:  Writers of the History of Hungary, n. 1, 11 626; cf. Wis 9,9-11).

I would especially like to stress this feature, that is, that at the beginning of the new millennium I attribute great importance to cultivating a spirit of prayer, as I wrote in my recent Apostolic Letter:  "This training in holiness calls for a Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer.... We have to learn to pray... . Especially n the face of the many trials to which today's world subjects faith, they would be not only mediocre Christians (that is, ordinary Christians) but "Christians at risk'. They would run the insidious risk of seeing their faith progressively undermined, and would perhaps end up succumbing to the allure of "substitutes', accepting alternative religious proposals and even indulging in far-fetched superstitions" (Novo Millennio ineunte, nn. 32-34; AAS 93 [2001]).