The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-01-27
80
PRAYER.

Many" says the blessed Henry
Suso. pray more with the lips than
from the heart. They think only of re-
citing certain number of Our
Fathers They place all their piety in
the simple words With their lips
Christians of this kind are near, but
with their hearts. how far they are
from God, To be near God we must
commune with him in spirit: In other
words. we must pray. PRAYER is an
elevation of the soul to God. it is the
homage which the creature pays to his
Creator. 1t is an interior act in the
first place. and becomes from the 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 q myster-
ious relation between thought and ex-
preston that gives to the latter an i'm
portance which Of itself it has not By
the expression a sort Of practice is
given to thought. and by frequent rep
etition the idea becomes a habit, pc
cuIiar mould. 1t is well known to all
who think that when a thought attains
force and clearness. it finds its way into
external acts. Thus, the lips move the
voice comes. the thought moves in
words. and the words, as it were, re
acting. intensity the thought AIutu-
ally then. mental prayer and vocal
prayer help each other II would be
to indulge in a rather abstruse cencep-
tion Of the subject To pursue the dis
cussion any further on this line
Enough it is to say that of prayer is
from the heart it viii bear with it
prayer on the lips.
TO come To d practical view of the
matter it may be asked what form of
prayer is best? Decidedly mental
prayer, which is the soul of this act !
Of religion. 4 is the opinion of spirit
ual writer's that mortal sin and mental
prayer cannot co-exist for any length Of (
time in the same. soul But aside from (
This incalculable element Of spiritual +.
profit it is real prayer While saying |
this ii must clearly be understood that
vocal prayer is also necessary, and that
IL is SD VIII appear from one, among
many reasons. that it is the duty of
"a man 10 give hiss neighbor good ex-
ample and aid him in the path of sal
walton. So by this external act Of as
sistance he finds with the apostle that
piety is useful for all things, namely,
10 instruct, to convince, to correct This
leads to the observation that it should
be the pleasure as it certainly is the
duty Of every man to pay all the wor-
ship to God that is formulated in every
act of religion and ceremonial 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 hearts consecra-
ton to God. They should be touched
like the lips of the prophet with the I
coal Of devotion, that they may preach Z
the mission Of mercy and peace. In 7
prayer the mind must be fixed on God !
in faith, hope and charity, and the life +
OF the man who d in earnest in the
work Of his salvation viii be spent in :
prayer. which is the breath of the SUI 7
pernatural life TO which God calls us. 7
This does not mean, however, that we
must be always on our lnees-no. nor :,
NAT we are 10 permit vocal prayer to ! n
stand in the way of the duties of our
particular state. To do this is to sac !,
-ifce the substance to the form Our !
luty Diously done is perfect prayer a
Performed as every act of life should n
7e for God. it may be said that we i,
pray best when we work best. Does not O
] man pray beautifully when like the i,
coed Samaritan. he lifts up and binds t.
he wounds Of his brother, fallen by n
he wayside? What better prayer can o
here be than instructing the ignorant. la
sinners, helping the poor B
ouls in purgatory feeding the hungry. s.
.iothing the naked and harboring the p
Thus VIII prayer be made n