Manual of the Sisters of charity/Preface
PREFACE.
THE Manual of Devotions here presented to the Public was compiled chiefly to meet the wants of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. It had been suggested that such a book would be very acceptable to the Sisters, as it would give them, in one convenient volume, not only the Exercises usually performed in the Community, but also many other Prayers, Litanies, Novenas, Instructions, &c, suited to the different festivals of the year, and to the varied wants or the special devotion of each person.
A Manual of this kind, it is believed, may find a welcome also in other Religious Communities, and prove itself perhaps better adapted to their wants than any other of the many Prayer Books which have been hitherto published in this country.
The volume may, in fine, recommend itself also to persons living in the world; and we would call their attention to it, in the hope that they will derive from its use encouragement and consolation in the practices of the spiritual life.
And if our Lord should deign to bless this little book, and enable it to increase the piety of those who will adopt it, and smooth for them the path of Christian virtue or of religious perfection, we shall be more than repaid for our labor in its compilation.
Nazareth, Ky., May 30th, 1875.