God the Holy Ghost, Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, Have mercy on us.
Afterwards recite the Rosary by three decades, thus;
At the beginning of each decade, or at the three greater
beads, say the Lord's Prayer,
with the Angelic Hymn, taken
out of the seventh chapter of
the Apocalypse: Benediction,
and glory, and wisdom, and
thanksgiving, honour, and
power, and strength, to our
God for ever and ever. And
at each of the smaller beads,
say the words of the seraphic
Thrice Holy, in the sixth chapter of Isaias, adding the Doxology of the Church. Holy,
holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts.
The whole earth is full of his
glory. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to
the Holy Ghost: as it was in
the beginning, is now, and
ever shall be, world without
end. Amen.
Cornelius & Lapide, on the sixth chapter of Isaias, testifies that this exercise, which he calls a short Doxology, was much and very profitably practised by many learned and pious men.
1. It is a profession of faith in the Most Holy Trinity against heretics and infidels.
2. It is a religious exercise of faith, hope, charity, gratitude, and other virtues.
3. It is an incitement to devotion, and to spiritual joy, to enable us to bear temptations and adversities with fortitude, generously to overcome all difficulties and hardships; and, as it were, after the example of the royal prophet, to say. Bless the Lord at all times.
4. We emulate, in our measure, the life and office of angels, while we thus continually renew our endeavours to praise God; since this is what the angels do incessantly in heaven, and what we shall do there with them hereafter . For the life and office of an angel is, in reality, to praise God. Thus, in fact, we begin here to be blessed, and to have our conversation in heaven; for we rise above earthly things, and are occupied with God and his praises . So far Cornelius.
Further we are thus reminded to accustom ourselves to the practice and exercise of a right intention, that we may refer all things to the greater glory of God.
Thus, too, we put off, and cut away by little and little that corrupt and hurtful affection of zeal for our own glory, which seems rooted in our very nature; and, on the other hand, we profess that all glory is due to God alone, as the supreme source of all good, and to us nothing but confusion.
In order to excite and nourish in us these and similar pious
