An Universal Prayer for all things necessary to salvation.

O my God, I believe in thee; do thou strengthen my faith. All my hopes are in thee; do thou secure them. I love thee; teach me to love thee daily more and more. I am sorry that I have offended thee; do thou increase my sorrow.

I adore thee as my first beginning; I aspire after thee as my last end. I give thee thanks as my constant benefactor; I call upon thee as my sovereign protector.

Vouchsafe, O my God, to conduct me by thy wisdom, to restrain me by thy justice, to comfort me by thy mercy, to defend me by thy power.

To thee I desire to consecrate all my thoughts, words, actions, and sufferings; that henceforward I may think of thee, speak of thee, refer all my actions to thy greater glory, and suffer willingly whatever thou shalt appoint.

Lord, I desire that in all things thy will may be done, because it is thy will, and in the manner that thou willest.

I beg of thee to enlighten my understanding, to inflame my will, to purify my body, and to sanctify my soul.

Give me strength, O my God, to expiate my offences, to overcome my temptations, to subdue my passions, and to acquire the virtues proper for my state.

Fill my heart with tender affection for thy goodness, hatred of my faults, love of my neighbour, and con tempt of the world.

Let me always remember to be submissive to my superiors, condescending to my inferiors, faithful to my friends, and charitable to my enemies.

Assist me to overcome sensuality by mortification, avarice by alms-deeds, anger by meekness, and tepidity by devotion.

O my God, make me prudent in my undertakings,

courageous in dangers, patient in affliction, and humble in prosperity.

Grant that I may be ever attentive at my prayers, temperate at my meals, diligent in my employments, and constant in my resolutions.

Let my conscience be ever upright and pure, my exterior modest, my conversation edifying, and my comportment regular.

Assist me, that I may continually labour to overcome nature, to correspond with thy grace, to keep thy commandments, and to work out my salvation.

Discover to me, O my God, the nothingness of this world, the greatness of heaven, the shortness of time, and the length of eternity.

Grant that I may prepare for death; that I may fear thy judgments, that I may escape hell, and in the end obtain heaven; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.

ACTS OF FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY, AND CONTRITION.

Preparatory Prayer.

O almighty and eternal God, grant to us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and that we may deserve to obtain what thou dost promise, make us to love what thou commandest; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

An Act of Faith.

I firmly believe there is one God; and that in this one God there are three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; that the Son took to himself the nature of man from the womb of the Virgin Mary, by the operation of the power of the Holy Ghost; and that, in this our human nature, he was crucified, and died for us; that afterwards he rose again, and ascended into heaven, from whence he shall come to repay the just everlasting glory, and the wicked everlasting punishment. Moreover, I believe whatsoever else the Catholic

Church proposes to be believed, and this because God, who is the Sovereign Truth, and can neither deceive nor be deceived, has revealed all these things to this his Church.

An Act of Hope.

O my God, relying on thy alınighty power, and thy infinite mercy and goodness, and because thou art faithful to thy promises, I trust in thee that thou wilt grant me the forgiveness of my sins, through the merits of Jesus Christ thy Son; and that thou wilt give me the assistance of thy grace, with which I may labour to continue to the end in the diligent exercise of all good works, and may deserve to obtain in heaven the glory which thou hast promised.

An Act of Charity.

O Lord my God, I love thee with my whole heart, and above all things, because thou, O God, art the Sovereign Good, and, for thy own infinite perfections, art most worthy of all love; and, for thy sake, I also love my neighbour as myself.

An Act of Contrition.

O my God, for the sake of thy sovereign goodness and infinite perfection, which I love above all things, I am exceedingly sorry from the bottom of my heart, and am grieved for having offended by my sins this thy infinite goodness; and I firmly resolve, by the assistance of thy grace, never more to offend thee for the time to come, and carefully to avoid all occasions of sin.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR HEARING MASS.

I. What the Mass is, and for what end it is to be offered. FROM the beginning of the world the servants of God were always accustomed to offer sacrifice to Him, by way of acknowledging his sovereignty and paying their homage to Him; and in all ancient religions, true or false, this worship of sacrifice was always looked upon as a most solemn act of religion due to the Deity which was worshipped.

In the law of nature, and in the law of Moses, there was a great variety of sacrifices: some bloody, in which the victim was slain; others unbloody. Some were called holocausts, or whole burnt-offerings, in which the whole host or victim was consumed in fire upon God's altar, for his honour and glory; others were called sin-offerings, which were offered for sins; others were offerings of thanksgivings; others were pacific or peace-offerings, which were offered for obtaining favours of God,-the word 'peace' in the Scripture style signifying all manner of good and prosperity.

All these sacrifices of the law of nature, and of the law of Moses, were of themselves but weak and needy elements, and only figures of a sacrifice to come, viz. that of Jesus Christ: in consideration of which sacrifice only, and of the faith of the offerers, by which they believed in the Redeemer to come, those ancient sacrifices were then accepted by the divine Majesty when they were accompanied with the inward sacrifice of the heart: but not for any intrinsic worth or dignity of the things offered; for no other blood but the blood of Christ could wash away sins. Hence, in the 39th Psalm,-spoken in the person of Christ to his Father, we read: "Sacrifice and oblation Thou didst not desire, but a body Thou hast prepared for me" (so St. Paul reads it, Heb. x. 5). "Burntoffering and sin-offering Thou didst not require; then said 1, Behold, I come.' All which gives us to understand, that by reason of the insufficiency of the sacrifices

of the old law, Christ himself would come to be our sacrifice, and would offer up his own body and blood for us.

Accordingly our Saviour Jesus Christ, at the time appointed by his Father, having taken flesh for us, was pleased to offer Himself a sacrifice for us, dying upon the cross for the sins of the whole world. By this one offering we were completely redeemed, inasmuch as our ransom was paid, and all mercy, grace, and salvation, were purchased for us. Neither can there now be any need of his dying any more, or purchasing any other graces for us than those for which He has already paid the price of his blood.

Nevertheless, for the daily application of this one eternal redemption to our souls, and that the mercy, grace, and salvation, which He has purchased for us may be actually communicated to us, He not only continually appears in our behalf in the sanctuary of heaven, there representing and offering to his Father his death and passion for us, but has also instituted the blessed Eucharist, the night before his passion, in which He has bequeathed us his body and blood, under the sacramental veils, not only to be received by us as a sacrament, for the food and nourishment of our souls, but also to be offered and presented by his ministers to his Father (mystically broken and shed) as a sacrifice: not by way of a new death, but by way of a standing memorial of his death; à daily celebrating and representing his death to God, and an applying to our souls the fruits of it.

This eucharistic sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ, daily offered under the forms of bread and wine, in remembrance of his passion, is what we call the Mass. This is the solemn liturgy of the Catholic Church. This is that pure offering which is made to God in every place among the Gentiles, according to the prophecy of Malachi (i. 10, 11). By this Christ is a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech (Ps. cix.), whose sacrifice was bread and wine (Gen. xv.).

This sacrifice of the Mass is the same in substance with that which Christ offered for us upon the cross, because both the victim offered, and the priest, or principal offerer, is the same Jesus Christ. The difference is only