The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-02-06

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on with our prayer. If the mind has
wandered away completely from the
subject in hand, the original thought
and impression of the presence of God
should be dwelt on again for few
moments, and the prayer resumed.
If our prayer is vocal--if we are recit-
ing prayers from book-the prayer
should not be repeated from the be-
ginning, unless it be very short pray
er. 1t will suffice to go back sent
ence or two. In all this there should
be no straining of the mind or violent
effort, which would simply defeat the
end in view. All should be calm and
quiet; resolute indeed, but not agi-
tated.
! When saying vocal prayers, it is un-
idoubtedly good to have the book open
and follow the words, trying to under
stand their sense 1t is perfectly legiti-
mate, whole reciting vocal prayers, to
fix the mind upon some holy thought,
on some mystery, on God, on heaven,
and so forth; but many people find
that they pray better by following the
sense of the words. AS a rule, only
short and very well known prayers can
be attentively recited- by heart, such as
the Our Father" the Acts, the Hail
Mary and calculations.
We should give preference in our
devotions to standard prayers recon-
mended by their use in the Liturgy of
the Church or the practice of saints,
such as, first and foremost, the Our
Father" then the Hail Mary the
Salve Regina, the Anima Christi, st.
Thomas great hymns for the Office
of Corpus Christi, the Adore TIE De-
vote, and similar beautiful productions
of Catholic piety. An excellent method
is to take one of these grand prayers,
or the Apostles Greed, the Acts of
Faith. Hope, Charity and Contrition,
or any other prayer that we are in the
habit of using, and recite it slowly and
thoughtfully, with a pause between
each sentence, thus giving ourselves
time for the meaning of the words to
sink deeply into our minds. A real
meditation, too, can be accomplished
by taking one of these prayers, fixing
the time-say, a quarter of an hour
to be spent in prayer, and then pro-
ceeding as follows:
Having reverentiy and devoutly said
the first words, "Our Father" stop and
reflect upon the meaning of these
words, which will suggest many good
and holy thoughts. This reflection
should be continued as long as the
words provide matter for pious reflec-
ton. When no more can DO obtained
from this opening phrase, recite the
words that follow, ''Who art in heav-
en-" rejecting on them in the same
way. Continue to do this with each
sentence of the prayer till the time
fixed is about to finish. Then recite
the rest of the prayer and conclude
with some practical, definite and de-
tailed resolution to be carried out
without delay as the result of the re-
Elections made.
These two ways of praying are
recommended by that great master of
prayer, st. Ignatius of Loyola. Such
pious practices must soon tell upon
the spiritual life of any one who de-
voutly and sincerely makes use of
them, and will lead on to higher
things, provided that there is always
a corresponding endeavor to carry the
lessons learned in prayer into the con-
duct of daily life, thus making prayer
a means of amendment and of true
love and service of Almighty God
Finally, for our consolation let us
remember that we do not pray alone.
An old verse says:
Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.
He trembles because he sees, pray
ing with us and for us, bearing up our
feeble prayers to the throne of God on
the strong wings of their fereyent
and powerful petitions, not only all
angels and saints, and the great Moth
err of Jesus, and the Holy Church His
Spouse, but Jesus Christ Himself, the
Mediator of the New Covenant, who
lever liveth to make intercession for
us" in our heavenly home, where He
has prepared for us place that we
shall one day win by the earnest,
heartfelt prayer we offer with and in
and through Himself. The Are Maria.
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