because he is our tender and loving Father. Moreover, we have the happiness of knowing that, when we are doing the Will of God, we are working out our own salvation, for God has made our eternal happiness in the next world to depend upon doing his holy Will in this.

How then, you will ask, are we to know what the Will of God is; for if we can only find that out, the road to heaven is straight before us. Listen and I will tell you.

has made known his "I am the Lord thy

In the first place, Almighty God Will to us by his commandments. God," he said to the Jews, "Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," &c. Whoever, therefore, breaks any of the Ten Commandments goes against the plain and distinct Will of God.

In the second place, God makes his Will known by his Church. "He that heareth you," says our Lord, "heareth me, and he that despiseth you, despiseth me" (Luke x. 16). Whoever, therefore, breaks the commandments of the Church, for example, by eating meat on Friday, missing Sunday's Mass, &c., evidently transgresses the express Will of Almighty God.

Thirdly, God makes his Will known to us by our Superiors, that is, our parents, masters, or those whom he places over us. Our Superiors are to us in the place of Almighty God. If we disobey them, we disobey God; if we murmur against them, we murmur against God himself.

Fourthly, God makes his Will known by all that happens to us, since all that happens in the world happens by God's direct sending, or by his permission. Thus, if sickness comes to us, we know that it is God who has sent it; if we lose some dear friend or relative by death, we know that it is God who has taken him away; and if we are ill treated or badly spoken of, we know that, though this seems to come from our neighbour, still it has happened to us by God's special permission, and that he has certainly some good design in permitting it to befall us. And not only is this the case in great and impor

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tant things, but even in the least events that happen to us, so that we have the opportunity every moment of gaining immense merit by cheerfully and readily submitting to the Will of God in everything that he sends us. For example, we are to go on a pleasant excursion, and a storm comes on and prevents us; we lose a nice prize which we expected to get; we find the weather too cold in winter and too hot in summer. In all these things we should recognise the Will of God, who, with a wonderful providence, rules and directs everything for our good, so that what he sends us is always the best thing that could happen to us. Whoever, therefore, grumbles and murmurs at any thing which befalls him, grumbles and murmurs against the Will of Almighty God, and in reality against his own good. But whoever, on the contrary, seeks in all things to follow and conform himself to the Will of God, is walking in the footsteps of the Saints, on the straight and direct road to eternal life.

Our B. Redeemer, who is the perfect model by which we are to form our lives, teaches us in many places that the life of a Christian upon earth should be employed only in doing the Holy and Adorable Will of God. But what he has taught us by his Divine Words, he teaches us still more powerfully by his own example. Hence he says of himself, "I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the Will of Him that sent me" (John vi. 38). And, again, "My meat is to do the Will of Him that sent me" (John iv. 34).

EXAMPLE OF OUR BLESSED LORD.

Follow our B. Lord, my dear children, through every circumstance of his painful life, and you will find him employed only in doing the Will of his Heavenly Father. If he was born in a stable, subjected to every suffering and privation at his very entrance into the world, and exiled into Egypt in his earliest infancy, it was to fulfil the Will of his Father who had so decreed it. If again he remained for thirty years in a poor cottage, working at the laborious trade of a carpenter, and obedient in all things to his own creatures, it was because his Heavenly Father so willed it. And if in the end he was subjected to so many cruel torments in his Passion, and closed his life by an agonizing death upon the cross, it was that he might accomplish in all things the Adorable Will of his Father.

Wherefore, he says by the mouth of his prophet, "In the head of the book it is written of me, that I should do thy will. O my God, I have desired it, and thy law in the midst of my heart" (Ps. xxxix. 8, 9). And St. Paul adds, " He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross" (Phil. ii. 8).

But if you wish to see more clearly how powerfully the love of his Father's Will ruled in the heart of our Lord, and how entirely it guided every action of his life, go with him in spirit to the Garden of Olives on the night before his Passion. There all the torments which he was about to suffer came before his mind, one by one, in the most clear and distinct manner, and oppressed his soul with a mortal sadness. "He began," says the evangelist, "to grow sorrowful and to be sad" (Matt. xxvi. 37). Prostrate on the ground he prayed to his Heavenly Father, but he seemed to be rejected by Him, laden as he was with the sins of the whole world, which he had taken it upon himself to atone for. The ingratitude of mankind, which he so clearly foresaw, their many horrible sacrileges, and the loss of innumerable souls in spite of his sufferings, filled up the cup of his bitterness. "And being in agony," says St. Luke, "he prayed the longer, and his sweat became as drops of blood trickling down upon the ground" (Luke xxii. 43, 44). And what was his prayer?"My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matt.

xxvi. 39).

O beautiful prayer, model of the prayer of every Christian, when in suffering and affliction! Like our B. Redeemer we may pray indeed for our sorrow to be removed, but always let us add, "Yet not my will, but thine be done." "Thy Will be done on earth as it is done in heaven."

PATIENCE OF DAVID.

The holy king David, when driven from Jerusalem and supplanted on the throne by his undutiful son Absalom, whom he had loved above all his other children, acknowledged at once the hand of God punishing him for his sins, and resigned himself entirely to the accomplishment of the Divine Will. The few followers who remained faithful to him, accompanied him in his flight with tears in their eyes, and uttering loud lamentations. Among them was Sadoc the high priest, who, attended by the Levites, bore with him the Ark of the Lord, that David might be consoled in his affliction by the presence of so sacred an object. But the holy king, deeming himself unworthy of so great a favour, bade him return with it to the city. "Carry back," said he, "the ark into the city. If I shall find grace in the sight of the Lord, he will bring me again, and he will show me it and his tabernacle. But if he shall say, thou pleasest me not, I am ready; let him do that which is good before him."

Having crossed the brook of Cedron, he was met by a man named Semei, of the family of Saul, who cursed him as he went along, and loaded him with insults and reproaches. Not content with offering him these outrages, he had the insolence even to throw stones at David and his followers. The latter begged the king to allow them to avenge the insult; and one of them, Abisai, said, “I will go and cut off his head." But David said, "Let him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord hath bid him curse David; and who is he that shall dare say, Why hath he done so?" (2 Kings xv. xvi.)

TWENTIETH INSTRUCTION.

The Lord's Prayer concluded-Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Petitions.

In the first part of the Our Father, my dear children, our petitions were directed to what immediately regards the glory of Almighty God himself-hallowed be thy Name, thy Kingdom come, thy Will be done. In the second half which we now come to, our prayers are for our own wants -we ask for our daily bread, pardon for our sins, help under temptations, and deliverance from every evil. Thus you see that the pure love of God does not exclude a true love for our own souls, and by the zeal which we show for God's glory, we have greater reason to hope for his help in our various necessities.

Q. What do we pray for, when we say, "Give us this day our daily bread"?

A. When we say, "Give us this day our daily bread," we pray that God may give us daily all that is necessary for our souls and bodies.

In this fourth petition of the Our Father, the catechism tells us that we pray that God may give us daily all that is necessary for our souls and bodies. For the word bread means, in this place, both the spiritual bread or food of our souls, which is the grace of God and the Holy Communion; and also, the food, clothing, and other necessaries of life which we require for the support of our bodies. But notice, that we do not ask for anything more than God sees to be necessary or good for us; wherefore our B. Lord makes use of the word bread, bread being of all things the most necessary for our existence. And notice,

too, that he bids us ask only what we require for the present day, "Give us this day our daily bread," to show our daily dependence on his Divine Goodness, and teach us to avoid too great care and anxiety. For, as he tells us himself, in one of his beautiful instructions, we have a Heavenly Father ever watching over us, who knows well the wants of his children, and is always ready to provide for those wants, if we daily have recourse to him by fervent prayers. Thus, you remember, when God fed the Jews with manna in the desert, he bade them collect only as much each morning as would be sufficient for the want of the day; and if any of them tried to hoard up a quantity to keep himself and family during the week, and save himself the trouble of going every day to collect it, he was surprised to find that he had lost his labour, for what he had gathered was all corrupted and spoilt by the following morning.

Do not however imagine that because God is good, and willing to supply your wants, you are excused, after you have prayed, from making any further effort on your own part, and that you are to sit down in idleness, expecting everything from his Bounty. No; this would be presumption, and not a well-founded hope in the Divine Goodness. God, as they say, helps those who help themselves, that is, by their own efforts. It is necessary therefore, that while we ask of God to give us grace, we should make use also of the means which he has given us to obtain it, for example, by hearing Mass devoutly, and going to the Sacraments. In the same way, while we beg relief in our corporal wants, we must do our best by our own honest industry and labour to provide for them. At the same time, in making these efforts we must never forget that all depends on the blessing of God, which we therefore ask continually in this petition, Give us this day our daily bread.

OUR HEAVENLY FATHER.

"Be not solicitous," says our Lord, "for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat and the body more than the raiment?