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THIS Manual contains, in addition to forms in general use, various devotions selected from approved continental works. The Prayers, Litanies, &c., have been collected from the Latin originals, wherever such were known to exist. The English versions of the Psalms here given, have been constructed by a comparison of the authorized Douay text, (to which in substance it adheres,) with the several other versions, which from time to time have been sanctioned for the purpose of devotion. The indulgenced prayers have been literally translated from the Raccolta, Rouviers' Treatise on Indulgences, and the best edition of the Cœleste Palmetam. The particulars connected with the Confraternities, &c., to which indulgences are attached, have been carefully collected from authorized sources.

The American Edition has been enlarged by the addition of THREE HUNDRED PAGES of matter, under the supervision of a Rev. Gentleman of this city. Many new translations have been made expressly for it, and a great number of Prayers have been added, which are in constant use in this country. The Illustrations are appropriate and well executed.

We send this book confidently before the public, with the assurance that no expense has been spared to make it (what it really is) THE MOST COMPLETE PRAYER BOOK EVER PUBLISHED IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

THE PUBLISHER.

February, 1896.

Prayer.

PRAYER is a raising up of the heart to God in which ercise we ay our necessities before hini, to beg his grace and every other good gift; it is an act of religion, whereby we acknowledge the supreme power and dominion of God, together with our own weakness and total dependence upon bim. That the duty of prayer is indispensable, follows vidently from the consideration of his sovereign power on the one hand, and of our own weakness on the other.

With God all things are possible. His power is infinite; the heavens were formed by the word of his might-the firmament on high is his work, with all its glorious show! He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength! He removeth the mountains-he shaketh the earth out of its place, and the pillars thereof tremble! He commandeth the sun, and shutteth up the stars as under a seal! He spreadeth out the heavens: he walketh upon the waves of the sea! The noise of his thunder shall strike the earth: he shall destroy and swallow up at once! He shall lay waste the mountains and the hills, and shall make the grass to wither! Yet at his word the wind is still; and with his thought he appeaseth the deep! The whole world in his sight is as a grain in a balance, or as a drop of the morning dew that falleth upon the earth! He hath measured the waters in the hollow of lus hand: he hath weighed the heavens with his palm! The Dations are before him as if they had no being they ars erunted to him as vanity and nothing! Who. then, can stand before the face of his wrath? Who shall resist the

fierceness of his anger? His indignation is poured out as fire: the rocks are melted by him! Thou art mighty. O Lord: thy truth is round about thee! Thine are the heavens, and thine is the earth! The world and the fulness thereof thou hast founded: great and wonderful are thy works, O King of Ages! Who shall not fear thee and magnify thy naine ?