we can sustain neither the life of our bodies nor that of our souls.
Thus far in the Lord’s Prayer we have been seeking good things. Next we ask to be preserved from evils of soul and body, imploring deliverance from our trespasses and sins which would exclude us from the kingdom of God. We then pray for victory over temptation which would hinder us from doing God’s will. In concluding this beautiful prayer, we ask to be delivered from all those evils which might imperil our spiritual or temporal life, such as sudden death, famine, war, pestilence and the like.
For Whom We Should Pray
BY the use of the word “our” in the Lord’s Prayer it is clear that God wishes us to pray not only for ourselves, but for others, and therefore it is also our duty to offer supplications for all mankind, imploring for them first spiritual, then temporal benefits. In a special manner, however, we are bound to pray for our relatives, pastors, friends and benefactors, for our country and its rulers, for the just and the faithful departed, for enemies and sinners.
We should not omit offering frequent prayers of thanksgiving for the numerous and weighty blessings which God continually bestows upon us and on the whole human race, and thanking Him particularly for the crowns of victory and glory with which He has adorned the Blessed Virgin and the saints. Thanksgiving and peti-
