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I Receive and Embrace all and every one of the things which have been defined and declared in the Holy Council of Trent, concerning Original Sin and Justification.

I Profess likewise. that in the Mass is offered to God a True, Proper, and Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead: and that in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist there is truly, really, and substantially present, the Body and Blood, together with the Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that there is made a conversion of the whole substance of the Bread into the Body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the Blood; which conversion the Catholic Church calls Transubstantiation.

I Confess also that, under each kind, Christ is whole and entire, and a True Sacrament is received.

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I constantly Hold that there is a Purgatory, and that the Souls therein detained are helped by the suffrages of the Faithful. Likewise, that the Saints reigning together with Christ, are to be honored and invocated; that they offer prayers to God for us; and that their Relics ought to be venerated.

I most firmly Assert that the Images of Christ, and of the Mother of God, ever a Virgin, and also of the Saints, are to be had and retained, and that due honor and veneration are to be given them.

I also Affirm that the power of Indulgences was left by Christ to the Church, and that the use of them is most wholesome to Christian People.

I Acknowledge the Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches; and I Promise true obedience to the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth.

I also undoubtedly Receive and Profess all other

things delivered, defined, and declared by the Sacred Canons and General Councils, and particularly by the Holy Council of Trent; and I also Condemn, Reject. and Anathematize all things contrary thereto, and al. Heresies whatsoever condemned, rejected, and anathe matized by the Church.

This True Catholic Faith, out of which none can be saved, I now truly Profess and truly Hold. And I, [N], Promise to hold, and profess the same whole and entire, with God's Assistance, to the end of my life. Amen.

DAILY REMEMBRANCE.

Remember, Christian Soul, that thou hast this day, and every day of thy earthly pilgrimage

GOD to glorify,

JESUS to imitate,

Heaven to gain,

Eternity to prepare for,

The Angels and Saints to Time to profit by,

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A soul to save,

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Neighbors to edify,

The world to despise,

Devils to combat,

Passions to subdue,

Death perhaps to suffer,
And judgment to undergo.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and first commandment: and the second is like to this-Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.-St. Matt. xxii. 37.

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1. ITS EXCELLENCE AND POWER.-2. ITS NECESSITY. 3. ITS CONDITIONS.

§ 1. The Excellence and Power of Prayer.

RAYER, says St. John Chrysostom, is the foundation and root of all virtues, and of all good to

men. By Prayer we are raised to be with the Angels, and even to the presence of God Himself, out of Whose infinite and admirable mercy we are found worthy to speak with Him, and make known to Him our petitions. When a God of infinite majesty deigns to hearken to His sinful creatures, it is in itself an inconceivable favor: but He does more, He absolutely binds himself to man in prayer.

Our Lord himself declares:

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Amen, Amen, I say unto you, if you ask the Father any thing in my name, He will give it you" (John xvi. 23). Holy Writ abounds with numberless examples of the excellence and efficacy of Prayer. It purges the soul from sin. The Publican in the Gospel said but this prayer, "O Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner," and yet he went down into his house, delivered from his sins.

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Prayer is our strong shield against all dangers in this world and the next, and against our enemies visible and invisible-most especially the great enemy of all. By the prayer of Moses on the Mountain, Josue prevailed over the Amalekites: by prayer Jeremias was

comforted in his dungeon, Daniel was triumphant among the lions, and the penitent thief on the cross entered Paradise.

Prayer penetrates the heavens, even to the throne of God, and obtains from Him all graces and helps of soul and body, necessary to salvation. It is the refuge and consolation of the Christian, banishes his pains, lightens his burdens, sweetens his happiness, sheds upon him a peace which the world cannot give, lifts him, as on wings, even to the presence of his Maker, and confirms him in everlasting glory.

§ 2. The Necessity of Prayer.

Although to the infinite wisdom of God our wants be already known, yet Prayer is necessary as the most acceptable acknowledgment we can make of our entire dependence on Him, and of our obligation every hour and moment of our lives, to recur to the succor of His overflowing mercy and omnipotence. This necessity of Prayer He has been pleased to enforce upon us in a variety of ways in the Scriptures.

Ask, and it shall be given you, says our Lord (Matt. vii. 7). We are required to ask, before we can obtain. And to impress upon us our own utter helplessness without His saving grace; again: Without me, you can do nothing (John xv. 5).

Prayer is necessary, because it is the communication of the soul with God, without which the soul languishes and is lost, as the body without the soul perishes. Hearken to the Divine warning: Watch ye and pray, that ye enter not into temptation (St. Matt. xxvi. 41). It is said by a great Saint and doctor of the Church, St. Thomas, that without continual prayer, we cannot enter Heaven; for though all sins are remitted in Baptism, there still remain the concupiscence of the flesh to assail us from within, and the world and the devil to attack us from without.

It is in Holy Writ a most remarkable and solemn instance of the necessity of Prayer, that so long as Moses on the mountain held up his hands in prayer, the children of Israel prevailed over the Amalekites; but when, becoming wearied, he held up his hands no

longer, victory inclined to the Amalekites. Shall wo not then pray always and not faint?

§ 3. Of the Conditions of Prayer.

Whatever may be said of the excellence, efficacy, and necessity of Prayer, the proper mode of performing that holy action is beyond doubt the chief thing of all to the purposes of this book, and the salvation of the Christian.

He hath learned to live well, says St. Augustine, who hath learned to pray well.

It is even so. A good life and good prayer help one another; nor can one exist without the other. A good life enforces prayer; and prayer preserves and promotes a good life.

To pray well, it is not enough to be exact in the making of prayers, devotions, and other such offices of piety. All, even the reprobate, can say off, or read, prayers and devotions. It is necessary to entertain actually the sentiments we express with our lips, or at least to have an earnest desire thereof; remembering what is written: This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me: And the reproach to the sinner, Why dost thou declare my justices?"

An illustrious saint, who, by his life and writings, has greatly enforced the virtue of prayer, says its most necessary conditions are threefold: 1. FAITH; 2. HUMILITY; and, 3. PERSEVERANCE.

We should pray with FAITH; that is, with an entire and child-like confidence that our prayers will be heard by our Heavenly Father. St. James, even when inculcating the necessity of prayer, adds: But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering....T'herefore let not him (that wavereth) think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord (St. James i. 6, 7). Our Blessed Redeemer exhorts us: All things whatsoever ye ask when ye pray, believe that you shall receive, and they shall come unto you (St. Mark xi. 24). Since in the noblest and most divine of all prayers, given to us from the lips of Christ Himself, we are allowed to call the Almighty, "FATHER," should we not approach Him in prayer with faith and confidence as little children?

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