Part 2, lesson 9. That we can pray to God, although we may not know him perfectly, and are even ignorant of our wants

Q. You taught me in the preceding Lesson, that the two things to be done in prayer, are to adore and glorify God, and then to ask relief in our wants. But how can we gl-orify God, since we do not know him, nor what we should ask of him for the good of our soul ?

A. This difficulty would have some foundation, if our Saviour had not made himself, in his quality of our high Priest, the prayer of his church, and of each of its members. He says him self that no one knoweth the Father but the Son,* which shows how little we know God. On the other hand, St. Paul says that we do not know what

• Neque Patrem quis novit nisi Filius. Matt, xi, 26.

is good for us, nor what we ought to ask, and besides we have not the strength to ask it. Now the same apostle teaches us that the Spirit of our Lord is the supplement of our igno rance and weakness. The Spi rit, says he, helpeth our in firmity: for,- we know not what we should pray for, as we ought: but the Spirit himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings. He that searcheth the hearts, knoweth what the Spirit desireth: because he asketh for the saints according to God.*

• Spiritus adjuvat infirmitatem nostram ; nam quid oremus, sicut oportet, nescimus, sed ipse Spiritus postulat pro nobis gemitibus inenarrabilibir* : qui

Q. How can we unite our selves with the Holy Spirit.

A. The Holy Spirit is in us, as the spouse of our soul, ready to listen to all our desires. We have only to give ourselves to him, to pray by him and in him. He will be our prayer, for, in his quality of Mediator, he prays for the whole church, though the church does not pray in him, unless it is united witn him. We must then give our selves to that Holy Spirit, as he gives himself to us.*

Marriage supposes a mutual autem scrutatur corda, scit quid desideret Spiritus; quia secundilm Deum postulat pro sanctis. Rom. viii, 26, 27.

• Charitas Dei diffusa est in cordibus gift of hearts. In a spiritual union, there must then be a mu tual exchange and consent of spirits. Jesus in the soul, and the soul in Jesus offer the same prayer, which is the principal fruit of the alliance of the Holy Spirit with the soul; so that our prayers may be considered as the offspring of that spiritual marriage. If you ask who prays, it is the soul in Jesus, and Jesus in the soul. Wishing to know more, is to wish to violate the secret of Jesus in us, and pene trate a mystery which he desires to keep hidden, as he does in re gard to the operations of the Fanostris per Spiritum Sanctum qui datus est riobis. Rom. v, 5.

ther in the Son, arid of the Son in the Father. Whose are the works of Jesus ? Do they belong to the Father, or to the Son? They belong to both, and the creature should not try to find a distinction in them; it is enough to know that Jesus per forms them in his Father, and his Father in him and with him.

Q. I never heard that our Lord was our mediator of prayer.

A. It is true that our Saviour, as is generally said, is our mediator of Redemption, be cause he offered his blood to God the Father through the Holy Spirit for our salvation, and gave his life for ours. Thus he was our supplement for our main debt, in satisfying to God for our sins by his death, which alone could satisfy fully the divine justice. But this was not all ; we were still indebted to God for many religious duties, which we were by ourselves unable to pay to him, as to adore, to love, and praise him, as He de sires and we are obi iged. It was then necessary that our Lord should be our supplement and mediator for these duties; and it is for this reason that _he was to rise again after his death, and be always living, in order that he might always intercede for us, as the apostle says,*

• Hebr. vii, 25.

that is, that he might always adore, love, and praise his Fa ther in our stead. Our Lord did all this in the old law, he does it in the church, he will do it in heaven; he was yesterday,* says the same apostle, he is to day, and he will be forever. By the word yesterday is meant the old law, by today the church, and by forever eternity, during which our Lord will be the supplement of our duties, and our mediator with his lather.

• Jesus Christus heri, et hodie, ipse et in saecula. Hebr. xiii, 8.

How Christ is our mediator with God for our religious duties, which explains a difficulty raised by heretics on the use of the Latin tongue in the public prayer of the church.

Q. The instruction which you just gave me, invites me most powerfully to unite myself to our Lord, knowing that he wishes it, that he is in us for it, and that he only waits that we do it. We would be very guilty, in deed, if, feeling in the bottom of our hearts the attraction of his di vine charity, we should resist it. It is for this reason, undoubtedly, that some saints had less fear of the judgments of God for their sins, than for their infidelity to grace, knowing that by it they had saddened the Holy Spirit, and deprived God of the honor so justly due him. It is for the same reason that St. Catherine of Sienna accused herself of the sins of the whole world, feeling that by her infidelities she had deprived souls of many graces, and deeply grieving at her resistance to the Holy Spi rit, who so frequently called her to prayer, to produce in her heart holy movements, capable of appeasing the wrath of God, and drawing down upon sinners the showers of divine mercy and an abundant effusion of victo rious graces. I am myself covered with confusion, in tell ing you these things; for I have reason to humble myself to the dust for my own infidelities, and I beg you to join with me to obtain the forgiveness of mv faults.

A. I thank God that he has given you sentiments so holy and so conformable to those of his saints. To explain better the present truth, namely, that Christ is not only our mediator of redemption, but also of our prayers, I shall observe that he was represented in this quality by the high priest of the old law, who entered into the holy of holies,* carrying in his hands * Levit. xvi.

the blood of the victims, and a censer filled with perfumes. That censer represents the chil dren of the church, figured by the grains of incense, which are consumed by the fire, as our hearts are in prayer by divine love.

This explains the objection of the heretics, who ridicule simple people and virgins con secrated to God, because they sing the praise of God in the La tin tongue, as if they prayed without fruit, because they use then alanguage which they do not Understand. This difficulty is without foundation; for in going to prayer, we have only to unite ourselves to Jesus Christ, the prayer and praise of the church; and our soul, being united to him, and entering with affec tion into all the praises he gives to his Father, and all the peti tions he addresses to him, will pray far better in this union, than if we prayed in our own spirit, and tried to adore, love and praise God by ourselves. For, by this union, the soul be comes identified with the spirit of our Lord, who prays in the whole church. This is the kind of prayer that is offered up in heaven, where the prayers of the saints wholly consist in say ing amen to the prayer of the Lamb, as we see in the Apocalypse.* They thus express the union of their hearts with Christ praying for them ; and ac knowledging their incapacity to pray by themselves, they lose themselves in Christ, to ren der to God all the praise He gives him, and all the church with him. This is also what the prophet David invites us to do, when he. says:* 0 magnify the Lord with me; and let us extol his name together. We must then, like the children in the furnace, glorify God with one spirit, one will, arid one

• Hebr. ix. f Apoc. vii, 12.

heart,* and in the dispositions and intentions of Christ.