affections and such resolutions as are calculated to help you in overcoming your evil inclinations and in leading a more perfect life.
"Mental Prayer or Meditation," says St. Francis of Sales, "is an earnest thought, voluntarily repeated or entertained in the mind, to excite the will to holy and salutary affections and resolutions."
Salutary acts of the will are acts of faith, hope, charity, humility, contrition, praise, adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, oblation, and petition.
When you intend to receive holy communion, the whole time of Mass may be employed most profitably in making such acts, with or without the use of a prayer-book.
Many acts and prayers contained elsewhere in this book may be substituted occasionally for those given in the following methods of assisting at Mass, especially such as relate to the Passion, the Blessed Sacrament, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
You may also very appropriately recite the Rosary during Mass, and in particular the Eucharistic Rosary in which we meditate on the life, passion, and death of Our Lord in connection with the sacred mysteries of the altar. Formulate your own prayers occasionally.
Converse with God in a familiar manner. Prayer is the elevation of the soul to God. Speak to your heavenly Father from your heart with filial piety, simplicity, and confidence.
