of God, from the saints who are described as His friends, or from the Blessed Virgin, who is His very Mother.

We are taught, then, to pray to the saints because, as the Catechism teaches, they have great power with God. Yet, still the Church makes a marked distinction in the form of the prayers addressed to the saints and those addressed to God. When we pray to God, we say, as in the Litanies, Deliver us, Have mercy on us, Spare us; or we ask Him immediately for those gifts or graces which He is the sovereign Lord of, and can give to whom He will. But when we pray to the saints, we address them not as having themselves power to grant our requests, but as interceding for us with Him who has that power. "Holy Mary, and all saints, intercede for us with our Lord that we may merit to be helped and saved by Him." This prayer, which forms part of the daily office of Prime, is an example of the difference of expression which is used in praying to the saints and to God.

We are are also taught by the Church not merely that we may pray to the saints, but that it is useful to do so.* It is not, indeed, a matter of strict obligation, like praying to God, but, as we are bound to save our souls, so we are bound to take the means to do so; and in proportion to the importance of the means, so is the danger of neglecting it. Theologians, therefore, lay it down that since praying to the saints, and above all to the Blessed Virgin, is a very great means of obtaining those graces and helps on which our very salvation depends, a person could not be excused from sin who entirely neglected it.

The doctrine of the Church on this subject is confirmed by Holy Scripture, which teaches us both that the Heavenly Spirits know what passes on earth, and that they interest themselves in it. Thus in the Book of Daniel we have an account of the Angel Gabriel appearing to the prophet, and telling him that from the first day that he set his heart to understand, to afflict himself in the sight of his God, his words had been heard, and he (the angel) was come for his words (chap. x. 12). In the Apocalypse St. John says that he beheld "the four living creatures and * "It is good and useful to invoke them." Council of Trent, s. 25.

the four-and-twenty ancients fall down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints" (chap. v. 8). And our Blessed Lord Himself says that "there shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance" (St. Luke xv. 10). It is plain, therefore, that, as the Catechism says, the saints and angels know what passes on earth, and that they interest themselves in our behalf. It is observable that while Protestants raise difficulties as to how the good angels, who have never fallen, can see and know what takes place here, they make no such difficulty about the fallen angels, and even go beyond the Catholic doctrine in attributing to the devils knowledge of secret and future things, such as God only can possess. Now while the devils, as being spirits, are not circumscribed in their knowledge and motions as we are, by being tied to the body, yet there is no reason to suppose that they are superior to the angels who stand in the light of God's countenance. We cannot conceive that their knowledge and power should be increased, but rather diminished, by their fall. Why should not the angels be at least as full of knowledge, as active and eager for our good as the devils are for our destruction.

Nor is it in any way derogatory to God's honour, or to Christ's merits, to pray to the saints. When a man desires to obtain some boon from his sovereign, unless he is high in his favour, he seeks not merely to urge his request in a personal audience, but to obtain the interest and interference of those who stand next the throne, and are continually in the presence of the sovereign. And no one dreams that this is in any way derogatory to his honour or good-will towards his subjects. It is, then, in the same way that we invoke the saints, not so as to take away from God's honour, but precisely because He is so great and we are so small. It is not because of the insufficiency of Christ's merits, but of our own, that we apply to those who stand next the throne of God, and are always in His presence, that being, as St. Bernard says, now secure of their own salvation, they may exert themselves for ours.

No Catholic ever supposes that when we pray to the saints we are giving them the honour that is due to God, or that in seeking their intercession we rest on their merits and satisfaction instead of our Lord's. The misapprehension of Protestants on this point arises from ignorance, and from explaining Catholic doctrine by their own practice. They do not pray to any but God; hence the very idea of prayer in their minds is that of divine worship; and they exclaim, as indeed any one would, at divine worship being given to the saints; while Catholics, because they acknowledge and worship a whole hierarchy in heaven, pray to the saints and angels without dreaming of giving them that honour which belongs to God alone. Protestants, again, acknowledge no intercessor but Christ; and indeed in that sense in which our Lord ever lives to make intercession for us,―(Heb. vii. 25), offering to the Eternal Father His sufferings and His Blood for us,-in this sense there is indeed " but one Mediator of God and man, the Man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. ii. 5). To ask the intercession of the saints in this way would indeed be blasphemy. But so entirely different is the sense in which we ask the saints to intercede for us, that it would be no less blasphemy were we, in this sense of the word, to ask our Lord to intercede or mediate for us at all. So far, then, from the invocation of the saints derogating from God's glory or honour, it is chiefly from the consideration of God's greatness and majesty that its reasonableness and importance is seen.

CHAP. LXXXI. The Lord's Prayer: First Part.

THE "Our Father" is called the Lord's Prayer, because actually composed by our Lord Himself, who also taught His disciples to use it. St. Luke (ch. xi.) narrates the occasion: "One of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And He said to them, When you pray, say, 'Our Father,' &c." It is also given by St. Matthew in the 6th chapter as part of our Lord's sermon on the mount. In some versions of the New Testament, especially the Greek, we have a dox

ology added at the end: "For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.” But it is pretty certain that this is an addition, though a very ancient one, to the words which our Lord taught; and so the Church does not teach us to use it.

Division of the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer begins with an address to God, as our Father who is in heaven. It contains, besides, seven petitions, of which the first three are made for what relates to God's greater glory, as it can be promoted by us, and the four last to our own more immediate wants, whether spiritual or temporal. Just as the first commandments relate to our duty to God, as the first and most important thing, so the first petitions of the Lord's Prayer teach us in like manner to seek first the kingdom of God and His justice."

Our Lord has given us a prayer that should not be suited to any one particular class of persons, but to all; and this is a wonderful characteristic of it, that it is fitted for persons of every age and sex and degree of intelligence. It is so short that it can be easily learnt and remembered, and yet in its brevity it contains a petition for every thing that we want to ask for. It is easy to be understood, and yet contains depths of suggestive meanings, so that the most intellectual and spiritual can ever repeat it with relish. Whether we design to pray for our neighbour or ourselves, whether for spiritual or temporal blessings, we still find it contain what we want. And it seems even to adapt itself to each one's frame of mind, so that, according to our present spiritual state or condition, we find it express the very meaning that is most suitable to us. That this should be so is nothing more than what we might expect of a prayer composed and given to us by God Himself. Yet this is a good deal overlooked, because so little pains is taken to make children understand the Lord's Prayer. When it is carefully studied, and its various meanings, literal and spiritual, are brought out, it serves as a most solid foundation for the art of praying. When children are well instructed in this, prayer becomes no longer the sort of dull unmeaning obligation which so many seem to regard it as.

Our Father who art in heaven. These words, "Our Father who art in heaven," form the introduction to the Lord's Prayer, and, if properly understood, powerfully help to produce in us the requisite dispositions for praying well. We are reminded by the word "our" that we are to pray, not only for ourselves, but likewise for all others, and especially for those who belong to the household of the Church. We are to appear before God as the children of a common Father, united together by mutual charity, and having one desire in common to promote His greater glory, and to implore of His divine bounty the graces and blessings which are needful for us. We call God our Father to awaken a filial trust and confidence in Him, and by this tender name to move His clemency to grant us what we ask for. The very name 'Father' is a prayer 'for us, because it is the duty of a father to provide for the necessities of his children, and not to visit with severity the faults which they commit, but to be always ready to pardon and forgive. The repentant prodigal returning to his home made use of the same tender address, to obtain the forgiveness of his undutiful conduct: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee" (St. Luke xv. 18). St. Augustine observes that in the Old Testament God is called Lord or Master, and not Father, because under the Mosaic dispensation men were His servants or slaves; but we are His children: "For we have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. For the Spirit Himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God" (Rom. viii. 15, 16). Though some interpreters are of opinion that the Lord's Prayer is addressed to the Father alone, or First Person of the Blessed Trinity, it seems more true to say that it is addressed to the three Divine Persons in common. God is called our Father because He created us, because He preserves us by His providence, because He has redeemed us and regenerated us by His grace. But these benefits proceed alike from the three Divine Persons, and therefore when God is styled Father in relation to us, the name belongs equally to each of the three Divine Persons.

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