at a session) is fatal to careful and pious reading.  Another hint is, to read everything, every word (e.g., Pater Noster, Ave, Credo), and to repeat nothing from memory, because the printed words meeting the eyes and the spoken words reaching the ears help to fix the attention and there is less risk of their passing unnoticed.  This was the practice of St. Charles Borromeo.  St. Philip Neri never recited from memory even in saying the small Hours.  St. Vincent de Paul always spent a great time in saying his Breviary.  His intense fervour was helped by his careful reading of every word, and this practice of keeping his eyes fixed steadily on the printed matter of the book he recommended to his congregation of priests.  Some holy priests maintained that they could recite from memory with greater fervour than from the reading of the pages of the Breviary; but the practice is not one for the many.  Another hint to help pious recitation is to earnestly wish to say the Office worthily, attentively and devoutly.  This wish must bring up before the mind the thought of how displeasing to God and how great is the daily loss—­not to speak of a lifetime’s loss-to the soul of a priest who prays carelessly, tepidly and mechanically.  But in spite of all precautions, it may be noticed during the recitation of the Hours that, without our own fault, the words are said too quickly.  It is advised, then, to pause and to say mentally what the Venerable Boudon was wont to say to his soul in similar circumstances:  “To punish and mortify thee, I will go more slowly; I will devote to my office to-day a longer time” (Bacquez).

IV.  To prevent distractions and to banish them are no easy matters.  It is impossible to avoid all distractions.  Involuntary distractions do not hinder merit; still it is important that an effort be made to diminish and repress the quality of such disturbing elements in prayer.

First of all, we can never totally avoid all distractions, nor can we entirely and completely remove them when they enter our souls.  The human soul cannot pray for any notable time without distraction.  The greatest saints knew this well.  St. Augustine wrote, “Vult se tenere ut stet, et quodammodo fugit a se nec invenit cancellos quibus se includat” (in Psalm 95).  St. Thomas wrote “Vix unum Pater noster potest homo dicere quin mens ad alia fertur.”  The author of the Imitation of Christ wrote, “For I confess truly that I am accustomed to be very much distracted.  For oftentimes I am not there where I am bodily standing or sitting, but am rather there where my thoughts carry me” (Bk. iii. c. 48).  The same writer wrote, “And I, a wretch and the vilest of men....  I can hardly spend one half hour as I ought.”  St. Teresa wrote, “I am not less distracted than you are during Office, and try to think that it arises from weakness of head.  Do not fear to think so, too.  Does not our Lord know, that when we perform this duty we would wish to do it with the greatest possible attention?”