holiness of our conduct declare it so. Let all our actions and behaviour be so framed, that they who see our conversation and the works that we do, may glorify thee, our Father in heaven.
Let this be fixed in our heart, frequent in our mouth, and acceptable in our work: HALLOWED BE THY NAME.
Here is a most easy exercise of purity of intention, to be practised frequently during the day.
After this primary desire, the next is that of the glory of God relatively to ourselves, that we may enjoy it as our highest good. And this affection takes its birth from the love of God, since by it we love ourselves in God; thence we pray,
Thy kingdom come.
We ask this, O Lord, because we are here strangers and exiles from our country, shut out from the most sweet presence of our dear Father, and overloaded with the heavy yoke of the prince of this world. Make us to pant after thee in heaven with our whole heart. Permit us not to love the world or the things that are in the world, but to have a taste for and to seek the things that are above. But when the end of our pilgrimage here is come, make us to despise with a calm and joyful mind this kingdom of the world and all its pomps, and seek the kingdom that is above with an ardent desire; that so we may find with joy that inheritance which has been prepared for us from the beginning of the world, where thou wilt grant us to enjoy thee, and with thee eternal glory for ever.
Now to obtain the Supreme Good, we have need of some other goods besides, as means and props. Of these, obedience to the commands of God is the chief. For he who does not his will, is not fit for the kingdom of God; and he who keeps not the commandments, merits not to enter into life. But without his aid who commands us, how shall we be able to keep them? Hence we rightly pray.
Thy will be done.
For thou, O Lord, knowest that, because the flesh is weak, prone to evil, and wars against the spirit, our spirit, though ready, finds not how to do thy will. For the body, which is corrupted, weighs down the mind, so that from his youth man’s senses are almost always more violently inclined to evil than to good. And hence it is that we often know not what to pray for, or how to pray, or what is best for us. But thou knowest this most perfectly, because thou knowest all things. Make us, therefore, to know what thou wouldest have us to do, and so direct our wills by thy effi-
