mind ought not to trouble us; and they may conduce to our perfection even more than the most sublime and affecting prayers if we earnestly strive to overcome them, and submit with humility to this experience of our infirmity.  But to dwell willingly on frivolous and worldly things during prayer, to make no effort to check the vain thoughts that intrude upon this sacred employment and come between us and the Father of our spirits—­is not this choosing to live the sport of our senses, and separated from God?

2.  We must also ask with faith; a faith so firm that it never falters.  He who prays without confidence can not hope that his prayer will be granted.  Will not God love the heart that trusts in Him?  Will He reject those who bring all their treasures to Him, and repose everything upon His goodness?  When we pray to God, says St. Cyprian, with entire assurance, it is Himself who has given us the spirit of our prayer.  Then it is the Father listening to the words of His child; it is He who dwells in our hearts, teaching us to pray.  But must we confess that this filial confidence is wanting in all our prayers?  Is not prayer our resource only when all others have failed us?  If we look into hearts, shall we not find that we ask of God as if we had never before received benefits from Him?  Shall we not discover there a secret infidelity that renders us unworthy of His goodness?  Let us tremble, lest, when Jesus Christ shall judge us, He pronounce the same reproach that He did to Peter, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”

3.  We must join humility with trust.  Great God, said Daniel, when we prostrate ourselves at Thy feet, we do not place our hopes for the success of our prayers upon our righteousness, but upon Thy mercy.  Without this disposition in our hearts, all others, however pious they may be, can not please God.  St. Augustine observes that the failure of Peter should not be attributed to insincerity in his zeal for Jesus Christ.  He loved his Master in good faith; in good faith he would rather have died than have forsaken Him; but his fault lay in trusting to his own strength, to do what his own heart dictated.

It is not enough to possess a right spirit, an exact knowledge of duty, a sincere desire to perform it We must continually renew this desire, and enkindle this flame within us, at the fountain of pure and eternal light.

It is the humble and contrite heart that God will not despise.  Remark the difference which the evangelist has pointed out between the prayer of the proud and presumptuous Pharisee and the humble and penitent publican.  The one relates his virtues, the other deplores his sins.  The good works of the one shall be set aside, while the penitence of the other shall be accepted.  It will be thus with many Christians.  Sinners, vile in their own eyes, will be objects of the mercy of God; while some, who have made professions of piety, will be condemned on account of the pride and arrogance that have contaminated