vation. By your prayers and merits obtain for me, I beseech you, of God, by the guidance of his grace, so to live this day that I may live with you, rejoice with you and praise God with you in eternity. Amen.
AN EXERCISE OF GREAT MERIT AND EFFICACY, OR HEROIC ACT, AND COMPACT TO BE ENTERED INTO WITH GOD.
From Philip Rovenius, Archbishop of Philippi, Vicar of Hollaud, in his Institutes of Christian Piety, and F. Mart, of the Mother of God, of the Order of Barefooted Carmelites, in his Practice of Christian Philosophy, who may be more fully consulted on the force and excellence of this sort of exercise.
A good person who desires to praise God without ceasing, and with little labour to gain much merit, may enter into such a compact as this with God. At certain fixed signs, as the sound of a hell, the sight of the" sky, the striking the breast, &c. (for signs may he taken and multiplied at will), he may wish for, and take satisfaction in whatever work that is good and pleasing to God which has ever been, or is on that day, or will, or can ever be done hereafter. Again, he may at all such times wish to offer himself to God, mourn for his sins, renew vows previously made, adore or praise God, Ac.
To what an enormous amount of guilt would one bind himself who were to resolve that, whenever he heard a bell, or looked at the sky, Ac., he would wish confirmed, and take satisfaction in all the evil ever done, and hereafter to be done! Can that which is of such efficacy in the case of what is bad, fail to possess a large amount of virtue and merit in its application to good? Of such a compact the following is a formula:
O most bountiful Father of mercies, my God, my Lord, and my Creator! From thee, by thee, and in thee, are all things; for in thee we live, move, and are, and, therefore, in right of thy supreme dominion all things serve thee. Hence it is that I also am thine, as I now give thee myself, by a perpetual engagement to be thy servant for ever; that every moment of my life, and all that is within me and around me, may bless thy name. But as the necessities of this life do not admit of my mind being incessantly occupied in thy praises, I desire, O Lord,’ to establish with thee this compact.
Whenever I look up to the sky, or strike my breast, or behold a sacred image; whenever I hear the clock, or the signal for Mass, or the eleva-
