dispositions, in order to receive the grace of the Sacrament.

Q. What are the proper dispositions in order to receive the grace of the Sacrament of Matrimony?

A. In order to receive the grace of this Sacrament, they must be free from all mortal sin, they must consult God before they embrace this state of life, and enter it with a view to work out their salvation.

Q. What motive ought principally to determine a person in accepting another in marriage?

A. Virtue, good character, and a conformity of pious habits.

Q. What are we to think of persons who live together without being married by the Church?

A. We must think that they are living in continual disobedience to God and the Church, and consequently always in a state of mortal sin.

LESSON LXXXIX.

SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE CATECHISM, AND THE CONNECTION BETWEEN EVERY PART OF IT.

Q. Why has God created us?

A. God has created us to know him, and to love him, and by these means to obtain eternal happiness.

Q. How does the Catechism teach us to know God?

A. The Catechism brings us to the knowledge of God, by teaching us that he is our Creator, our Saviour, and the sanctifier of our souls.

Q. In what part of the Catechism do you learn this?

A. I learn this in the first part, that is to say, in the Creed.

* Q. When we know God, are we not disposed to receive the gift of Faith?

A. Yes, when we know God we are disposed to receive the gift of faith; because, in knowing him as the source of all truth, we are prepared to believe firmly all that he teaches us.

Q. When we have Faith are not our souls also disposed to have Hope?

A. Yes, because when we have Faith, we believe in the promises which God has made to us, and we cannot believe in the promises of God without hoping in him.

Q. When we have Faith, are we not disposed to have Charity also?

A. Yes, when we have Faith we are also disposed to have Charity.

Q. Why so?

A. Because we cannot believe that God is our Creator, our Saviour, that he is infinitely amiable and our Supreme Good, without being disposed to love him above all things.

* Q. Does not Hope lead us also to Charity?

A. Yes, Hope leads us also to Charity, because we cannot hope in the magnificent rewards which God has promised, without being disposed to love him above all things, and consequently to have Charity.

Q. Does not faith dispose us to obey the commandments of God?

A. Yes, faith disposes us to obey the commandments of God. We cannot believe by faith that God has created us out of nothing, and that he is the supreme Master of all, without being disposed to obey him. We cannot believe that God is our Saviour, and that he has ransomed us from eternal misery, without being disposed to obey him. We cannot believe that God is our Sanctifier, and that he strengthens or restores

the life of the soul which we had lost by sin, without being disposed to obey him.

Q. Can we have Hope without being disposed to obey God?

A. No, we cannot hope for infinite and eternal happiness, and at the same time be disposed to lose it, by disobeying God, who has promised it to us.

* Q. Can we have Charity without obeying God? A. No, if we love God above all things we cannot disobey him: a child does not disobey a father whom he really loves.

* Q. How do we obey God?

A. We obey God by keeping his Commandments.

Q. If we obey the Commandments of God, shall we not also practise the Christian virtues?

A. Yes, in obeying the Commandments of God, we shall also practise the Christian virtues, as we have seen in the second part of the Catechism. (Lesson 44.)

* Q. Can we observe these Commandments, and practise these virtues without supernatural assis· tance?

A. No, we can neither observe the commandments, nor practise the christian virtues, without supernatural assistance, which we call grace. * Q. How can we obtain this grace?

A. We can obtain this grace by prayer, which is either interior or exterior: the first constitutes interior worship, and the second exterior worship.

Q. By what other means can we obtain grace? A. We can also obtain grace by frequenting the Sacraments.

* Q. Explain to me how we can obtain grace by the Sacraments.

A. I will thus explain it to you: By Baptism we become Christians, that is, the friends and cherished children of God: by Confirmation we become perfect Christians: by Penance, we re

cover that grace which we received in Baptism, and lost again by our sins: by the Eucharist. we receive the Author of all grace; Extreme Unction assists us to die happily: Holy Order bestows grace on the pastors of the Church, to enable them to exercise their ministry for the benefit of the faithful: and Matrimony is intended to form good Christians in each family.

Q. Is there, then, a connection between all the parts of Christian doctrine, and all the duties of Christianity?

A. Yes, by Faith, we believe in God, and in all the truths which the Creed teaches us; this Faith disposes us to fulfil the Commandments, which is the same thing as the practice of Christian virtues; prayer and the Sacraments are the sources of the graces which we need, in order to practise those virtues, and observe those Commandments.

SUPPLEMENT TO THE CATECHISM.

LESSON XC.

ON FESTIVALS AND PUBLIC PRAYERS.

A. Are there any days especially consecrated to God?

Q. Yes, there are some days more especially consecrated to God than others: these are Sundays and the great festivals.

Q. In what manner are they consecrated to God?

A. They are consecrated to God, because on

these days the Church reminds us of all the duties which we have explained in the three parts of the Catechism.

Q. Explain this.

A. I will explain it: on great festivals and Sundays, the Church reminds us; 1st. Of the truths which we must believe: 2nd. She excites us to the practice of virtue, and the observance of the Commandments of God: 3rd. in order to give us strength to observe them faithfully, she invites us to obtain, by prayer and the Sacraments, those graces of which we stand in need.

Q. How many kinds of festivals are there?

A. There are two kinds of festivals, viz., those which are intended to honour God, as the Feast of the Holy Trinity, the Feast of the Holy Ghost, or of Pentecost, and the Feasts of our Lord: 2nd. The Feasts of the Blessed Virgin, and of the Saints.

Q. How can we worthily honour the Blessed Trinity?

A. We cannot worthily honour the Blessed Trinity, except through Jesus Christ, the Mediator and Saviour of all mankind.

Q. How can we worthily honour the Holy Ghost?

A. We cannot worthily honour the Holy Ghost, except by the same Saviour. It is also by his merits that we obtain the graces of the Holy Ghost.

Q. What object has the Church in celebrating the Feasts of our Lord.

A. In celebrating the Feasts of our Lord, the Church proposes to honour the Saviour of the world, in the two great mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption.

Q. And what was the object of our Lord in these two mysteries?

A. The object which our Lord proposed to himself in these two great mysteries, was to redeem