give me grace to fulfil this commandment. I desire to love every neighbour, whether friend or enemy, in thee, and for thee. I renounce every thought, word, and deed, that is contrary to this love. I forgive all that have in any way offended me, and I beg thy mercy, grace, and salvation for all the world.

How do you make an act of contrition for your sins?-O my God, who art infinitely good, and always hatest sin, I beg pardon from the bottom of my heart for all my offences against thee; i detest them all and am heartily sorrow for them, because they offend thy infinite goodness, and beg I may rather die than be guilty of them any

more.

ACTS OF FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY,

RECOMMENDED TO THE FREQUENT USE OF THE FAITHFUL.

A Prayer to be said before these Acts.

O Almighty and eternal God, grant to us an increase of faith, hope, and charity; and that we may deserve to obtain what thou promisest, make us 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 virgin Mary's womb, 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 hea ven, from whence he shall come to repay the just everlasting glory, and the wicked everlasting punishment; moreover I believe whatever else

the Catholic Church proposes to be believed, and this because God, who is the sovereign Truth, who 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 Almighty power and thy infinite mercy and goodness, and because thou art faithful to thy promises, I trust in thee that thou wilt grant me 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 the glory which thou hast promised in heaven,

An Act of Charity,

O Lord, my God, I love thee with my whole neart, and above all things, because thou, O God, art the sovereign Good, and for thy own infinite pefections art most worthy of all thy 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 perfections, 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 the occasions of sin.

26

402

APPENDIX, No. 2.

THE CATHOLIC SERVANT'S APOLOGY,

FOR REFUSING TO ATTEND AT ANY PLACE OF
WORSHIP BUT HIS OWN.

An Irish lady of fashion, whose servants were all Roman Catholics, having endeavoured, but in vain, to persuade them to go with her to the parish church during her temporary residence in a part of this country where no Catholic priest nor chapel could be found, at length committed her arguments to writing, and handed the paper. to her waiting-maid, the daughter of a tenant of his lordship, in hopes that she at least, might be prevailed upon to accompany her thither. The young woman having modestly declared her inability to answer the arguments therein stated, requested, and obtained her ladyship's permission, to submit them to the perusal of a friend, promising, that if they appeared to him conclusive, she would no longer refrain from complying with her ladyship's wishes. Accordingly, on the arrival of the family in London shortly after, she presented the paper to Mr. O'Leary, whose answer thereto was as follows:

THE foregoing reasons for inducing Catholic servants to go to a Protestant church on Sundays, although probably written with a pure and charitable intention, are founded on a misrepresentation of the Catholic religion. Roman Catholics neither worship the Virgin Mary, nor any other object but one God in three persons: they nevertheless do not consider it any more deroga tory to the honour of God to pray to the Virgin Mary that she may pray for us, than if a Protestant sinner, or sick person, requested the prayers of a congregation for his conversion, or the recovery of his health. In this sense praying to the Virgin Mary was certainly the practice of the purest ages of the Christian religion, as it is evident from the example of the fathers who condemned Nestorius for denying her to be the Mother

of God. If a Catholic says, Hail Mary, full of grace, &c. the angel Gabriel and St. Elizabeth said the same many ages ago. The Arabian women, mentioned in the paper, and the divine worship they paid to the Virgin, was condemned by the Ronan Catho lic church, as may be seen in ecclesiastical history, where mention is made of the Collyridians, heretics so called from the cakes they offered to her. But it is the misfortune of Catholics to be charged with the very doctrines their church condemns. Any person is authorised to frame a creed for them.

The same mistake occurs as to Prayer, which is no more than an elevation of the soul to God, beseeching him to preserve us from sin, and to grant us the favours and blessings, spiritual and temporal, we stand in need of. Every person knows his own wants and necessities, and the manner of asking the blessings of the Almighty, who knows all hearts and languages. Such Catholic Servants as can read and afford to buy books, may have the Mass and other prayers in the English Language, and such as can neither read nor buy books, know that the Mass is the commemoration of the passion of Christ. As often as ye do this, says St. Paul, you will show forth the death of the Lord till he comes.

To meditate on the passion of Christ, during the celebration of the divine mysteries, with sentiments of love, thanksgiving, and repentance-to beg of the Almighty both grace and forgiveness, through the merits of our Redeemer, during the time of divine worship, is certainly to pray, and to pray in such a manner as is within the reach of the most ignorant as well as the most learned. To pray thus, is not to pray in an unknown tongue, because every one knows the object of his prayers, and God pays greater regard to the sincerity and fervour of the heart, than to a combination of words, or quaintness of expression.

It was upon the condemnation of Nestorius that the last part of the prayer was made, "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, Amen."

Should any thing be alleged from St. Paul, who in the 14th chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians, speaks of praying in an unknown tongue, it must be observed, that what he there says, only relates to the miraculous and extemporary gift of tongues, so frequent in his time for it is evident from the same chapter, that when Christians used then to meet together, they spoke on a sudden divers tongues, which they themselves did not understand, as appears from the following words: and therefore let him that speaketh by a tongue, pray that he may interpret. And in the same chapter, v. 27, If any speak with a tongue, let it be by two; or at the most by three, and in course let one interpret; but if there be no interpreter, let him hold his peace in the Church, and speak to himself and to God. No person is now endowed with the miraculous gift of tongues, but the most ignorant can pray, and know what to ask of the Almighty, if he has the least spark or sentiment_of religion.

If the mass be said in Latin, the reason is, because the western church has always retained her public liturgy in that language from the earliest ages of Christianity-a language, which, to this very day, is generally understood in every quarter of the world where Europeans have any establishments; and hence that uniformity of religious worship whereby a Catholic, through whatever country he travels, meets with the same identical form of divine worship and ceremonies as he was accustomed to at home. In a word, the most ignorant, as well as the most learned Catholic, knows that the Mass is that pure sacrifice, which the prophet Mulachi foretold should be offered in every place:-he knows that it is an unbloody commemorative oblation of the same identical sacrifice which Christ once offered in a bloody manner on Mount Calvary for the sins of mankind; and though the minister of religion officiates in a language he can