e of the Divine Office
with contemplation of and devout affections towards God and Divine
things fully satisfies his obligation. So, too, a man who aims at
meditation on the Passion of Christ and devout affections on it during
the whole Office, undoubtedly satisfies his obligation, for he is making
use of a better means for keeping in touch with the Divinity than if he
merely dwelt upon the meaning of the words. At the same time, he must be
ready to lay this aside if in the course of the Office he finds himself
uplifted to Divine things, for at this he must primarily aim. One who so
prays, then, must make the Passion of Christ a means and not an end; he
must, that is, be prepared to ascend thereby, if God grants it, to
Divine things. In short, we may make use of any one of the species of
attention enumerated above provided we do not exclude the higher forms.
Thus, for example, if a man feels that it is more suited to his small
capacity to aim simply at making no mistakes, and habitually makes use
of this form of attention, he must still use it as a means only; he
must, that is, be at God's disposition, for God may have mercy upon him
and grant him, by reason of his dispositions, some better form of
attention.

Again, when a person prays for things needful for his support in life he
must not be so occupied with the thought of these things as to appear to
subordinate Divine things to human, as though prayer was but a means and
his daily living the end. We must bear in mind the doctrine laid down
above[216]--viz., that _all our prayers should tend to the attainment of
grace and glory_. We must occupy ourselves with the thought of eternal
glory, or of the glory of the adoption of sons during this life, or with
the virtues as means to arriving at our eternal home, and as the
adornment of the inhabitants of heaven, and the commencement here of
heavenly "conversation"; such things as these must be counted as the
highest forms of attention (_on_ 2. 2. 83. 13).

_S. Augustine: Give joy to the soul of Thy servant, for to Thee, O Lord,
I have lifted up my soul. For Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild._[217] It
seems to me that he calls God "mild" because He endures all our
vagaries, and only awaits our prayers that He may perfect us. And when
we offer Him our prayers He accepts them gratefully and hears them.
Neither does He reflect on the careless way in which we pour them out,
He even accepts prayers of which we are hardly conscio