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GENERAL PREFACE.

her canticles of praise, her enthusiasm, and even her mourning. Hence, her Prayer is as uninterrupted as her existence. Day and night is her voice sounding sweetly on the ear of her divine Spouse, and her words ever finding a welcome in his heart.

At one time, under the impulse of that Spirit, which animated the admirable Psalmist and the Pro- phets, she takes the subject of her canticles from the Books of the Old Testament; at another, showing herself to be the daughter and sister of the holy Apostles, she intones the canticles written in the Books of the New Covenant; and finally, remembering that she, too, has had given to her the trumpet and harp, she at times gives way to the Spirit which animates her, and sings her own new canticle.[1] From these three sources comes the divine element which we call the Liturgy.

The Prayer of the Church is, therefore, the most pleasing to the ear and heart of God, and therefore the most efficacious of all prayers. Happy, then, is he who prays with the Church, and unites his own petitions with those of this Spouse, who is so dear to her Lord, that he gives her all she asks. It was for this reason that our Blessed Saviour taught us to say our Father, and not my Father; give us, forgive us, deliver us, and not give me, forgive me, deliver me. Hence, we find, that for upwards of a thousand years, the Church, who prays in her temples seven times in the day, and once again during the night, did not pray alone. The people kept her company, and fed

  1. ↑ Ps . cxliii. 9 .
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