Third.  We must invoke God’s aid by prayer.  No prayer is more suitable than the prayer given as a preparatory prayer in the Breviary, “Aperi, Domine, os meum ...  Open Thou, O Lord, my mouth to bless Thy holy name; cleanse my heart from vain, evil and wandering thoughts; enlighten my understanding, inflame my will, that so I may worthily, attentively and devoutly recite this Office and deserve to be heard in the presence of Thy Divine Majesty.  Through Christ our Lord.  Amen.  O Lord, in union with that divine intention wherewith Thou whilst here on earth didst Thyself praise God, I offer these Hours to Thee.”

Fourth.  To unite ourselves with Jesus Christ.  In the prefatory prayer “Aperi, Domine,” we say “Domine, in unione,” etc.  In Baptism, Christians are united to Jesus, to His life, to His spirit.  He is the Head of the Church and we are its members.  And this union should be a real, explicit, vivifying union when we fulfil our ministry of social prayer.  This union with Christ is sought for by Himself, by the Apostles, by the Church, and is practised ever by God’s saints.  The words of the prayer should be reduced to action.

1.  Christ our model in all things is our model in prayer, and so He teaches us that when we pray we must say “Our Father, Who art in Heaven,” that is, to use His very words and sentiments.  And this desire of our Lord, that souls should be united to Him in prayer, has often been manifested by Him to His saints.  To St. Gertrude He said, “My daughter, behold My Heart; look upon It in future as supplying your own defects.  When you would pray, ask It to help you to give My Father the homage you owe Him.  I shall be ever ready to second you as soon as you call Me to your aid.”  St. Bernard, schooled in this practice by the Holy Ghost, knew all its sweetness:  “David,” he says, “rejoiced of old to have found his heart to pray to his Master and his God—­Invenit servus tuus cor tuum ut oraret te oratione hac (II.  Kings viii. 27).  And I, that I may pray, have found the heart of my King and my Brother, of my sweet Saviour; shall I not then also pray?  Yes, certainly, for I am, too, happy, as I have, if not the Heart of Jesus in place of mine, at least have I mine in that of Jesus” (Bacquez, p. 191).

2.  St. Paul recommends us to offer our prayers through Jesus Christ.  “By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise always to God, that is to say, the fruit of lips confessing to His name” (Heb. xiii. 15).

3.  The Church wishes this union with Christ and mentions it several times in her prayers, Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum.  She expresses her wish in the preparatory prayer, Aperi, Domine; she wishes the words and sentiments of the psalms to be applied to Jesus, the Saviour, whom David typified, and to whom the psalms in great number relate.  And in the frequent repetition of the Pater Noster, we speak Christ’s sentiments and words.