Page:Prayerbookforrel00lasa 0.djvu/57

 our souls  to  God  in  acts  of  love,  thanksgiving,  filial  fear, confidence, and  joy,  and  spend  thus  as  long  a  time  as  we desire  before  going  on. And all  this  and  much  more  on the  first  simple  words,  "Our  Father."

Next come  the  words  "Who  art  in  heaven." Our Father is  in  heaven — therefore  heaven  is  our  country; and the  devout  soul  may  make  acts  of  desire  and  longing for  her  heavenly  home. Again, wherever  God  is,  by His  grace  and  love,  there  is  heaven. His presence  makes heaven. Now we  know  by  divine  faith  that  God  is  everywhere, and  intimately  present  in  all  things  and  in  all places; therefore,  He  is  present  in  our  own  souls;  and in a  special  manner,  as  He  is  more  particularly  present to spiritual  substances  than  to  other  things. He is present  there  really  and  actually,  at  every  moment,  by His  essence  and  His  power,  and,  let  us  humbly  and  confidently trust,  also  by  His  grace  and  love. Therefore, heaven is  in  our  souls. Every time  we  say:  ' '  Our  Father, Who art  in  heaven,"  we  can  look  at  God  continually abiding  in  the  very  centre  and  essence  of  our  souls,  so that  He  is  not  far  off  from  us,  nor  must  we  go  to  the heavens  above  to  find  Him,  as  St.  Teresa  says,  but  He is  very  near  to  us,  as  near  as  our  own  souls  to  our  own bodies.  And  this  all  the  time,  at  any  and  every  moment; and  with  the  Father  we  have  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Ghost. So  there  are  the  Three  Persons  of  the  Trinity,  enacting their  wonderful  relations  one  with  another,  working Their  mighty  works,  upholding  the  entire  universe,  all within  our  own  soul — wondrous  thought'.  And  since Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  is  God  the  Son,  then  Jesus  our Lord  is  present  in  our  souls,  making  heaven  there;  and, by  a  sort  of  spiritual  concomitance,  we  can  represent  to ourselves  His  sacred  humanity  as  present  also,  and  His blessed Mother,  too,  who  is  not  separated  from  Him,  and the saints  and  angels  who  constitute  His  court;  these  also we can  represent  to  ourselves  as  present,  though  in  a spiritual  sense  and  not  with  the  same  actuality  that  the