e saints, when He would not grant mine.
"Therefore I beseech the Blessed Mary ever Virgin," etc., "to pray to
the Lord our God for me."

When we kneel down to say the Confiteor, if we could imagine what I have
just described to take place, how well we should say it! With what
attention, respect, and sorrow we should ask the prayers of the saints!
When we say the Confiteor, and indeed any prayer, we say it in the
presence of God, and of the whole court of Heaven, though we are not in
Heaven and cannot see God. The angels and saints do hear us and will
pray for us. When, therefore, you are saying the Confiteor, imagine that
you see all I have described, and you will never say it badly.

AN ACT OF FAITH

O my God! I firmly believe that Thou art one God in three divine
persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost; I believe that Thy divine Son
became man, and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the
living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy
Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, Who canst
neither deceive nor be deceived.

An "act," i.e., a profession, of faith. The whole substance of the act
of faith is contained in this: I believe all that God has revealed and
the Catholic Church teaches. We might mention one by one all the truths
God has revealed, i.e., made known to us, and all the truths the
Catholic Church teaches as revealed by God. For example, we might say, I
believe in the Holy Trinity, in the Incarnation of Our Lord in the Holy
Eucharist, in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, in the
infallibility of the Pope, and so on, till we write an act of faith
twenty pages long, and yet it would all be contained in the words: I
believe all God has revealed and the Catholic Church teaches. Hence we
find in prayerbooks and catechisms acts of faith differing in length and
words, but they are all the same in substance and have the same meaning.
The act of faith in our Catechism gives a few of the chief truths
revealed, that it may be neither too short nor too long, and that all
may learn the same words.

AN ACT OF HOPE

O my God! relying on Thy almighty power and infinite goodness and
promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of Thy grace, and
life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and
Redeemer.

The substance of this act is: I hope for Heaven and the means to obtain
it. The means by which I will obtain it are the p