“He who caused us to live, taught us also to pray, with that kindness evidently by which He deigns to give and confer on us every other blessing; that when we speak to the Father in the prayer and supplication which his Son taught, we might the more readily be heard.  He had already foretold, that the hour was coming when the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth; and He fulfilled what He before promised, that we, who have received the spirit and truth from his sanctification, may from his instruction offer adoration truly and spiritually.  For what prayer can be more spiritual than that which is given to us by Christ, by whom even the Holy Spirit is sent to us?  What can be a more true prayer with the Father than that which came from the lips of the Son, who is Truth?  So that to pray otherwise than He taught, is not only ignorance, but a fault; since He has himself laid it down and said, Ye reject the Commandment of God to establish your own traditions.  Let us pray then, most beloved brethren, as our teacher, God, has instructed us.  It is a welcome and friendly prayer to petition God from his own, to mount up to his ears by the prayer of Christ.  Let the Father recognize the words of his Son.  When we offer a prayer let Him who dwelleth inwardly in our breast, Himself be in our voice; and since we have Him as our advocate with the Father for our sins, when as sinners we are petitioning for our sins let us put forth the words of our Advocate.” [De Orat.  Dom. p. 204.]

“We must consider, (he says at the close of his {169} treatise on the Mortality [Page 236.],) most beloved brethren, and frequently reflect that we have renounced the world, and are meanwhile living here as strangers and pilgrims.  Let us embrace the day which assigns each to his own home ... which restores us to paradise and the kingdom of heaven, snatched from hence and liberated from the entanglements of the world.  What man, when he is in a foreign country, would not hasten to return to his native land?...  We regard paradise as our country....  We have begun already to have the patriarchs for our parents.  Why do we not hasten and run that we may see our country, and salute our parents?  There a large number of dear ones are waiting for us, of parents, brothers, children; a numerous and full crowd are longing for us; already secure of their own immortality, and still anxious for our safety.  To come to the sight and the embrace of these, how great will be the mutual joy to them and to us!  What a pleasure of the kingdom of heaven is there without the fear of dying, and with an eternity of living!  How consummate and never-ending a happiness!  There is the glorious company of the apostles; there is the assembly of exulting prophets; there is the unnumbered family of martyrs crowned for the victory of their struggles and suffering; there are virgins triumphing, who, by the power of chastity, have subdued the lusts of the flesh and the body; there are the merciful