and place, and in accordance with their needs and devotion, the faithful are enabled to use the Raccolta as a prayer-book—nay, as the best of prayer-books,—without, at the same time, any interference with the order, arrangement, and character of the work. It is proper, in conclusion, to state that, in preparing this translation of the Official Raccolta, free use has been made as well of the existing translation of the former Raccolta, as of many other manuals of devotion. In all cases, however, a thorough revision has been made, in order to secure at once fidelity to the original, and, as far as possible, correctness and elegance of expression.
May this labor of love prove acceptable to the faithful, and aid them to draw in great abundance, both for themselves and for the suffering souls in purgatory, from the treasures which the maternal solicitude of the Church places at their disposal.
