Wherever we cast our eyes, wherever we turn our thoughts, the admirable light of the divine goodness and beneficence beams upon us. What have we that is not the gift of his bounty? If, then, all things are the gifts and favours bestowed on us by his goodness, why should not every tongue, as much as possible, celebrate the praises of God, and every heart throb with the pulsation of gratitude, for his boundless beneficence?
Of these duties of petition and thanksgiving each contains many subordinate degrees. In order, therefore, that the faithful may not only pray but also pray in the best manner, the pastor will propose to them the most perfect manner of praying, and will exhort them to it with the greatest earnestness. What, then, is the best manner and the most exalted degree of prayer? That which is made use of by the pious and the just, who, resting on the solid foundation of the true faith, rise successively from one degree of purity and of fervour in prayer to another, until, at length, they reach that height of perfection, whence they can contemplate the infinite power, beneficence, and wisdom of God; where, too, they are cheered with a bright prospect, and animated with the assured hope, of obtaining not only those blessings which engage their desires in this life, but, also those unutterable rewards, which lie beyond the confines of this world, and which God has pledged himself to grant to him who piously and religiously implores his assistance. [1] Soaring as it were to heaven on these two wings, the soul approaches, in fervent desire, the throne of the Divinity; adores with rapturous praise and thanksgiving, that Great Being from whom she has received such inestimable blessings; and, like an only child, animated with singular piety and profound veneration, lays open to her most beloved Father all her wants. This sort of prayer the Sacred Scriptures express by the words " pouring out:" "In his sight," says the prophet, " I pour out my prayer, and before him I declare my trouble;" [2] as if he had said; "From him I suppress, from him I conceal nothing, but pour out my whole soul in prayer, flying with confidence into the bosom of God, my most loving father." To this holy exercise the Sacred Scriptures exhort us in these words: " Pour out thy heart be fore him," [3] " and cast thy care upon the Lord." [4] This is that degree of prayer to which St. Augustine alludes when he says: " What faith believes, that hope and charity implore." [5]
Another degree of prayer is that of those, who, pressed down by the weight of mortal guilt, strive, however, with what is called dead faith, to raise themselves from their prostrate condition, and to ascend to God; but, in consequence of their languid state and the extreme weakness of their faith, cannot raise themselves from the earth. Impressed with a just sense of the enormity of their crimes, and stung with remorse of conscience,
