are taught in St. Luke (xviii.) to pray always and faint not. We
should pray with attention and devotion, with confidence and humility.
We are told in the Lord's Prayer to pray for others as well as for
ourselves, and God's choicest blessings will be granted us through Jesus
Christ Our Lord. The best of all prayers is the one God taught us--the
Lord's Prayer. Other prayers common in the Church are Litanies,
Rosaries, the Angelus, Stations, and the Funeral Service for the dead.
The Litanies most in use in the Church are the Litany of All Saints, of
the Blessed Virgin, of the Holy Name of Jesus. In these Litanies we ask
God to have mercy on us and the saints to pray for us; but we ask
everything through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Few practices of the Church
are more widespread than the _Rosary_ of the Blessed Virgin. It consists
of the best of all prayers--the Apostles' Creed, the Our Father, three
Hail Marys, and the Glory be to the Father; then the Our Father and ten
Hail Marys repeated five times. This constitutes the beads, or one-third
part of the Rosary. During the recitation of these prayers the mind
should be occupied meditating on the principal mysteries of the life of
Our Lord. These mysteries are divided into the five joyful mysteries:
the Annunciation by the angel Gabriel, the Visitation of the Blessed
Virgin to St. Elizabeth, the Birth of Our Lord, the Presentation, and
the Finding in the Temple; the five sorrowful mysteries: the Agony in
the Garden, the Scourging, the Crowning with Thorns, the Carrying of the
Cross, and the Crucifixion; and the five glorious mysteries: the
Resurrection, the Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and the Crowning of the Blessed Virgin
in heaven. Any one of these mysteries furnishes sufficient material to
occupy the mind of man for hours. These mysteries contain the whole
history of the Redemption. The prayers and meditations of the Rosary
satisfy the minds of the humblest, while they are sufficient to occupy
the attention of the most exalted and most cultivated. The _Angelus_ is
a beautiful prayer, said morning, noon, and night. In Catholic countries
the bell is rung, when all cease their occupations, kneel, and recite:
"The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived by the Holy
Ghost"--a Hail Mary. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord--be it done unto
me according to Thy Word"--a Hail Mary. "And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt a