Patriot, 1874-06-27

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Here Patriot Truth tier glorious precepts draw,
Pledged toifteligiun, Liberty and Law.
ESTABLISHED 1833.)
ST. JON'S, NEWFOUNDLAND, SATURDAY,  JUNE   27,  1874.
(No. 21..
^THI^IG'JNTILLIGENGE.
FATHER BURKE'S Discourse
on the Ifuty of Prayer.
Os the 15th ult., Father Burke de^
livered a discourse on " The  Duty of
Prayer," to a crowded congregation at |
at St. Mary's, Cork, where he was con-  "
ducting a " Retreat."
The /cry Rev. gentleman asked his II
hearers to let him recall to their minds
the great truth with which they had
started in that retreat,namely—that Almighty Qod created us and placed us in
this world in order that we might be
united to Him; th-- union beginning
here in. grace, and to be perfected hereafter in glory. Everything in the life of
a true Christian man must be reduced
to perfect conformity with that union ;
everything must tend to it—just as a
man preparing for any particular trade
or profession directs his attention, conforms his habits, shapes all his studies
and turns his mind to the acquisition of
the knowledge antl skill necessary for
' that pursuit. And now that they had
considered the nature of sin, and God's
dealings with sin, both in the order of
llis justice and of His mercy; now that
he wast trying to lead their thoughts up
to a higher union with God, he came to
speak to them on a subject very high
and very spiritual, but at the same time,
absolutely necessary, without which no
man could be united to God—and" that
subject was the iudispensible duty of
Prayer. What did he mean by Prayer ?
Some were perfectly satisfied if they
could say, " Oh Father, I say my prayers ;" but in the minds of many men
that waa a very different thing' from
Prayer. Many a man recited certain
forms of Prayer, morning and evening,
but without recollection, earnestness, or
fixedjpur pose, apd between the morning
and evening there was not a single
thought of God, any more than if He did
not exist at all. And yet that .man jl
thought he prayed, because he " says j
his prayers." That waa not the Prayer j|
of which he was going to speak to them. '
Amongst the complaints which Almighty God made of His people, there was
this one: " This people," said He,
"honor Me with thejr lips, but their
heart is far, far from Me." What was
•he curse He put upon them for that?
He said " their prayer shall be turned
Hito a sin." That was the moat fearful
of all—that a man's prayer instead of
being answered by the Divine Mercy,
should be turned into a sin and flung ||
back upon him! The prayer of which
he spoke was the elevation of the heart,
So''l, and spirit to God—a conscious
communication with God—an earnest,
i-npassioned petition to God; the prayer
*hich penetrated a man's whole being,
*'hich was performed as the mttat important of all duties—nay more, which,
Performed in the morning, remaihed
hovfirfn'g' dver the man's soul the whole
•%, and .took the form of habitual and
■"roost' constant communication with '
('od. He gpoke not of the occasional
Practice of prayer, but   the spirit fcf
prayer, which made a man's life a life
of prayer.    Some meu imagined if a
thing was high, grand, spiritual,   that
f>r   that   very   reason   they were hot
to lose a thought about it—that it' was
above them.    That was not so.    How
could anything'be too grand or   too
high fir men who  received the   Body
and Blood of Jesus  Christ? What was
there in heaven   to which they ought
not to aspire, seeing how the Lord God
of Heaven cane and mo, le Himself their
own? Prayer was necessary for   rain's
salvation, because he could hot be saved
without' the grace of God—he could not
live for a'siugle instant as hrf ought   to
live without that grace.  ' Without its
help he could not so much as think a
good thought, nor mention, as he ought
to mention, the name of Jesus  Christ.]
Soabaolutely necessary was Divine ..-racey
for the Christian that ro purchase-it for
him, God canednvuft'o.n heaven, was'
incarnate  by  the   Holy Ghost .if the
Virgin M-try, antl was made man ; that!)
he shed His blood and died on the Cross,
like price th is pud -.va-- s > great  that
Almighty God   opened up  the   whole
treasury of His grace, and gave it all to
i :s.' There was not a single grace in the
1 and of God that was beyond the ambition of any ordinary  Christian   man.
Did he want purity  like  that of the
Blessed Virgin?—love, tender and strong
as that of St. John the Fivangelist?—sorrow as deep and salutary as that of Mary
Magdalen?—that and every other grace
was held in the hand of God,, aud belonged to man, through the  blood  of
Jesus Christ.    But God had  attached
j,") the granting of any grace one indis-
pensible condition.  That was  prayer,
'•'hey must ask for it. So true was this
that they read in the epistle of St James
that certain of the earlv Christians complained that they were falling- into sin,
antl asked •*-hy they had not the  grace
of God ? The Apostle answered them ;
" 1 herefore, you have not received, because you have not asked." If any man
asked why was he constantly failing and
falling? the answer was—because he
did not  practice prayer. Why did the
Son of God remain thirty-three years
amongst us ?   Tbat He might build up
in Himself and leave us a noble specimen of the true than—that He might
be a model man for every mau to form
himself upon  unto the end  of time,
standing up before us the great original
•—-the grandraan—the matjt who, in his
own lite, showed of how much grandeur
and sancitity a man was capable ? Was
not our  Lord emphatically a man of
prayer ? They read of his prayer of forty
days and nights, and that after his day's
hard work he spent, the night in prayer
wilh God. How grand, how brave   the
heart of Jesus Christ was in that practice
of prayer! He knew  that Judas  waa
about (to  betray him, that ' his awful
Passion  wa3  approaching; and   they
were told by the Evangelist that  when
supper was ovei, He went, " according
to 1 is custom," into the .garden to pray.
"* According to his cusVom.'' It was,, hjs
very life. He did'not require, says St.
Ambrose, anything for himself; but we
required the light of his example, to
show us that the only man who can
keep the grace of God, and hold his
own soul, is the man who has the spirit
and   the practice of prayer. Even if
prayer were not so necessary to a man's
salvation,  still it would.be necessary,
because    God    had   commanded   it.
" Watch and pray," He said ; and elsewhere. ** You must always  pray,"- and
the   Apostle,   repeating his   Master's
words,.said, "Beinstant and constant
in prayer." The rain who best knew
how to pray waa he who knew his own
wants, who knew what he was asking
for, and who knew how to ask for it.
Some men did not know what they .were
asking for in prayer—they never asked
for anything specific at all. -  That was
not prayer. On the contrary "God said
the vain and foolish petition was an
abomination to him. If any one amongst
them wanted a favor from some great
man, he would  not tell him  that he
wanted something in general—he  did
not know what. And yet men   would
c >me before  God and ask for nothing
prarticular, for the simple reason that
they did not know their own  wants.
The first thing, then, for a man to do
"•■before prayer was to consider what he
was most in need of—what passion, for
example, he was bound first to break
down ; and when he had ascertained
that, go to God, not with mere distracting words upon his lips, but with an earnest purpose.   Remember how hard was
the struggle for eternal salvation, and
that the Kingdom of Heaven and lheir
souls  were at stake.   When a man's
prospects in life depended on his obtaining a certain favor, did he not use every
available means to procure j**, throwing
his whole heart and soul int. the effort?
When he came to pray, was i; not aques-
tion of life antl death with us ?    When
he prayed before God he said, " MyGod,
I know you have made me a priest, and
that you require of me a spirit of poverty,  despising  all the things of this
world ; you require of me purity like to
the angels'; you require of me perfect
obedience and deep humility. You have
entrusted to me the duty of preaching
your Word, and although the exercise of
that duty is conducive to vour glory and
the salvation of souls, it has sent thousands of preachers to hell through pride.
Hell is under my feet, if I give way to
pride. Oh, God, since you haye imposed
these obligations upon me, if 1 fail in
them, I am damned for ever. Therefore,
that 1 rnay not fail in them, O, ray God,
grant me the grace to practice poverty,
chasiity, obedience, humility."    If he
failed in any of these the next thing
they would hear of him was, " He is
gone!   he is gone !    He pretended he
could not believe in the Pope's Infallibility—that he thought the Church was
going astray, and he could not follow
her.    He is  gone!    But it turns out
now that he wanted to gratity his passions—that he wanted to many a woman
and he ha* done so.   -He is-»gone-!-"*-----
Waa it not the same with any one of
them ?    Almighty  God sait   to them,
«f If you do not struggle vith Me in
prayer, -1 will not grant^you the grace
y0u need ; but, as sure.as you pray ear
nestly and constantly,  there is not a
grace in heaven that I won't give. But,
you must pray constantly and earnestly."
Again*, iniependent of that humility,
earnestness and constancy in  prayer,
thetrje was something even higher still
involved in the word of our Lord: " You
must always pray." By that he required
that we should throw the spirit of prayer over our whole life.   That was done
by the easy and most salutary, practice
of trying, from time to time,, frequently
throughout the whole day,-to remember
the preseuce of God, and make a short
interior prayer, offering to God one's
heart, the business he was engaged in
and suchlike aspirations.   The sense of
the presence of God thus fostered, hovered-round us like a guardian angel. In *
that way a. man fulfilled, literally, the
precept, " You must always pray ;'* for
he sent the golden thread of prayer
through every action of his life, passing,
it hither and thither, until his whole
life  was an uniform and continuous
prayer.   The advantage of that was—.
the sense of the presence of God frequently recalled, that offering of his
actions,   those aspirations   frequently
made, would preserve a man from tenip-
tatiou.    He lived in an atmosphere of
God—he lived in a charmed circle of
sanctity, into which the ruder demons
of the grosser sins never dare intrude.
Perhaps they would say it was too much
to ask them to take up the practice of
that spirit of prayer.    Why, he had met
Protestants, Methodists, Quakers, who
lived in that atmosphere of prayer.—
Was it of any advantage to them without faith and the sacraments ?   He was
•not prepared to answer.    He knew that
if tli-fey were in the state of invincible
ignorance of the faith, that spirit of
prayer would save their souls.   One-
thing was certain, it kept them de facto
from committing many sins.   .But,  fit
did so much for those who were outside-
the pale of the Church, what would it
not do for those who were living in the-
full blaze of God's holy light, and fortified with the plenitude of God's holjr
grace ?   There would be an end of un-
charitableness, of. impurity, of drunkenness, of all the real sorrows oi' life, if
Catholic men would only consent to be*
men  of prayer.    But there was one-
moment in the life of every man, and
it came very often to us, when piayer
became an actual necessity then and.
there, when a man's salvation depended
upon his instant prayer:—when, if he
did not pray, he was lost.   That moment was the moment of temptation.
The positive  precept of prayer came
down upon him then- with all its force.
Then the man who praya is -saved, and
the man who doesnot pray is lost.—
When St. Peter was. walking on the
waters, he felt the waters under him as
solid as a rock, and he waa walking
fearlessly to our 1,-ord, when suddenly
the waters gave way, and he felt himself rapidly sinking out of sight, the
waves gathering up around him, and in
another instant he \u>uld be disowned.
The moment he felt himself giving way,
that moment he cried out, -?Lord; save
me, or I perish •"' and* ttene:*? instant,