that can no longer think for itself with light, and peace, and consolation. It is not enough to administer mechanically the last Sacraments. There are needed also the last consolations and the last compassion of the Good Shepherd, who knows His sheep and is known by them as their help and solace in the last passage to eternity.
4. Another measure of the value of our time is what may be done in it by prayer. When S. Paul said "Pray without ceasing,"[1] he did not use rhetorical exaggeration. He meant that we may be always and everywhere speaking with God, by our aspirations, desires, and will. They who live in union with God, conscious of His presence, and referring all their life to Him, not only pray when they speak with God, but when they work for Him. Laborare est orare. A pastor's whole life may be a life of communion with Him. The value of time spent in prayer may be measured in two ways: first, in the answers it receives; and next, in its reaction upon ourselves. As to the answers, who can say what they lose who pray little, and what they gain who habitually speak with God? The work of priests and pastors is so expressly supernatural that we look for supernatural results, and we ask them
- ↑ 1 Thess. v. 17.
