they had been scourged, "rejoiced exceedingly that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus." [1] Like them, we too shall sing in transports of joy: "Princes have persecuted me without cause; and my heart hath been in awe of thy words; I will rejoice at thy words, as one that hath found great spoil." [2]
AMEN.
THIS word " Amen," St. Jerome, in his commentary on St. Matthew, calls what it really is, " the seal of the Lord's prayer." [3] As then we have already admonished the faithful with regard to the preparation to be made before holy prayer, so we deem it necessary that they should know, why we close our prayers with this word, and also what it signifies: devotion in concluding does not yield in importance to attention in beginning, our prayers to God. The faithful, then, are to know that the fruits, which we gather from the conclusion of the Lord's prayer, are numerous and abundant; and of these, the richest is the attainment of the objects of our prayer, a matter on which we have already been sufficiently diffuse. By this concluding word, not only do we obtain a propitious hearing from God, but also receive other blessings of a higher order still, the excellence of which surpasses all powers of description. By prayer, as St. Cyprian observes, we commune with God; and thus the divine Majesty is, after an inexplicable manner, brought nearer to those who are engaged in prayer than to others, and enriches them with peculiar gifts. Those, therefore, who pray devoutly, may not be inaptly compared to persons who approach a glowing fire: if cold, they derive warmth; if warm, they derive heat, from its intensity. Thus, also, those who approach God in prayer depart with a warmth and ardour proportioned to their faith and fervour: the heart is inflamed with zeal for the glory of God: the mind is illumined after an admirable manner; and the soul is enriched exceedingly with a plenteous effusion of divine grace, as it is writ ten, "Thou hast prevented him with blessings of sweetness." [4] Of these astonishing effects of prayer, Moses affords an illustrious example; by intercourse and converse with God, Moses shone with the reflected splendours of the Divinity, so that the Israelites could not look upon his eyes or countenance. [5]
Those who pray with such fervour enjoy, in an admirable manner, the benignity and majesty of God: "In the morning," says the prophet, " I will stand before thee and will see; because thou art not a God that wiliest iniquity." [6] The more familiar
