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Show ! PRAYER. J , 1 ( "Many." says the blpssed Henry ! S'iso. "pray more with the lips than i from the heart. They think only of re- j A king a certain number of 'Our j . I Fathers.' They place all their piety in j , " s the simple words. With their lips t . . ( Christians of this kind are near, but). I;. v It h their lwarts. how far they are : j from (Sod! To be near God we must 1 commune with him in snirit: In other words, we must pray. Prayer is an elevation of the soul to Cod. it is the , 0 homage which the creature pays to his ! Creator. It is an interior act in the first place, and becomes from the composite com-posite nature of man an exterior act. The idea is terminated , in words, and it is to the idea mainly that attention ; is to be paid. But there is a mystor- j j ious relation between thought and ex- ; pivssion that gives to the latter an im- . I port a nee which of itself it has not. By J. , ' the expression a sort of practice is j ; given to thought, and by frequent rep- ! j" etith n the idea becomes a habit, a pe- 1 f culiar mould. It is well known to all : who think that when a thought attains f ; force and Clearness, it finds its way into ' external acts. Thus, the lips move, the j j voice comes, the thought moves in j oids. and the words, as it were, re- j ; ;;ting. intensify the thought. Mutu- J ally. then, mental prayer and vocal i prayer help each other. It would be to indulge in a lather abstruse eonoep- ' lion of tlv subject to pursue the dis- I j cession any further on this line. ' j Enough it i- to say that of prayer is i from ;.h heart it will bear with it a t " ; j r.'.V'T on the lips. j T- e rne t a practical view of the i f i tatr-.-r it .may be asked what form yf f - ?; j er is best? Decidedly mental 5 ' prayer, which is the soul of this act i i of religion. I! is the opinion of spirit- ; mil writers that mortal sin and mental p: aver ci.nnot co-exist for any length of time in tile same soul. But aside from this incalculable h ment of spiritual j prof,t. it j.- real prayer. While saying ' this it must clearly be understood that ! orvl j.rayer is also necessary, and that j :i is s.i wilt appear from one, among iiar.y reasons, that it is the duty of a man to pise his neighbor good ex- ! s.rapie .in 1 :.id him in the path of sal- j v;;jjor,. o by this external act of as- j .iM.-uv-o he finds with the apostle that I piety is useful for all things, namely, to instruct, to convince, to correct. This j leads to the observation that it should be i no pleasure as it certainly is the duty of every man to pay ail the .worship .wor-ship to God that is formulated in every act of religion and ceremonial observance observ-ance of the church. And it may be thrown into this line of thought, that for the further reason that as the body and soul both belong to God. so the lips should voice the heart's consecration consecra-tion to God. They should be touched like the lips if the prophet with the coal of devotion, that they may preach the mission of mercy and peace. In j.rayer the mind must be fixed on God in faith, hope and charity, and the life of the man who & in earnest in the i work of his salvation will be spent in ' prayer, which is the breath of the supernatural su-pernatural life to which God calls us. This does not mean, however, that we must be always on our knees no, nor that we are to permit .vocal prayer to ; land in the way of the duties of our particular state. To do this is to sacrifice sac-rifice the substance to the form. Our duty piously Vone is perfect prayer. Performed as every act of life should !,e. for God, it may be said that we pray best when we work best. Does not a man pray beautifully when, like the go,.d Samaritan, he lifts up and binds the wounds of his brother, fallen by the wcyside? What better prayer can there be than instructing the ignorant, admonishing sinners, helping the poor souls in purgatory, feeding the hungry. ' clothing the miked and harboring the hou.cle-s' TIiuj will prayer be made J ' ' well and profitably. The spirit of prayer will live in and sanctify the daily routine rou-tine of life and its fruits will be found in domestic happiness, the habit of forbearance, for-bearance, acts of Christian kindness, and a loving, dutiful family; in a word, in a state that finds its bet and sweetest sweet-est type in the first of Christian homes, the home of Jesus, Mary and Joseph of Nazareth. |