the unfledged to cry for the mother bird? In spiritual matters, beggars are rich, and the self-sufficient miserably poor, for unless we ask, we need not hope to receive. Why is it that so many practical Catholics make such little progress in the spiritual life, if not that they have failed to master, or neglect, the art of praying well? They remove their sins as they do their hair or beard, leaving the* roots for another growth. Fasting, alms and such are but external remedies for sin, but our soul's maladies are from within, and prayer alone can penetrate and cleanse the heart. Life, spiritual as well as physical, comes from the heart. A heart inflamed with love softens and glorifies the entire system as does the heat the iron, and the fuel of this fire is prayer. By prayer our nature is transfigured, becoming white and glittering as did Christ on Thabor. Take a lesson from the falcon. In the moulting season he seeks a warmer climate, and flaps his wings and the old feathers fall and the new begin to grow. So we, to put off the old man and put on the new, must seek the Sun of Justice, and basking in the rays of His love, lift our hands to Him in frequent, earnest prayer.
Brethren, prayer is necessary, not only in begetting, but in preserving sanctity. By the same medicine health is restored and prolonged. Worldly prosperity and adversity powerfully influence our perseverance in good by engendering either presumption or despair. But the prayerful man is that happy mortal whom the philosopher compares to a
