Our prayers and petitions also regard those who have forfeited the purity of baptism, and sullied the robe of innocence thus introducing again into their unhappy souls the foul spirit that before possessed them. We desire, and beseech God, that in them also may his name be hallowed; that, entering into themselves, and returning to the paths of true wisdom, they may recover, through the sacrament of penance, their lost holiness, and become pure and holy temples, in which God may dwell.
We also pray that God would shed his light on the minds of all, to enable them to see that " every good and perfect gift, coming from the Father of light," [1] proceeds from his bounty, and to refer to him temperance, justice, life, salvation. In a word, we pray that all external blessings of soul and body, which regard life and salvation, may be referred to him, whose hands, as the Church proclaims, shower down every blessing on the world. Does the sun, by his light, do the other heavenly bodies, by the harmony of their motions, minister to man? Is life maintained by the respiration of that pure air which surrounds us? Are all living creatures supported by that profusion of fruits, and of vegetable productions, with which the earth is enriched and diversified? Do we enjoy the blessings of peace and tranquillity, through the agency of the civil magistrate? All these, and innumerable other blessings, we receive from the infinite goodness of God. Nay, those causes, which philosophers term " secondary," we should consider as instruments wonderfully adapted to our use, by which the hand of God distributes to us his blessings, and showers them upon us with liberal profusion.
But the principal object to which this petition refers is, that all recognise and revere the Spouse of Christ, our most holy mother the Church, in whom alone is that copious and perennial fountain, which cleanses and effaces the stains of sin; from whom we receive all the sacraments of salvation and sanctification, which are, as it were, so many celestial conduits, conveying to us the fertilizing dew which sanctifies the soul; to whom alone, and to those whom she embraces and fosters in her maternal bosom, belongs the invocation of that divine Name which alone, under heaven, is given to men, whereby they can be saved. [2]
The pastor will urge with peculiar emphasis, that it is the part of a dutiful child not only to pray for his father in word, but, in deed and in work, to endeavour to afford a bright example of the sanctification of his holy name. Would to God that there were none, who, whilst they pray daily for the sanctification of the name of God, violate and profane it, as far as on them depends, by their conduct; who are sometimes the guilty cause why God himself is blasphemed; and of whom
