Page:TheYoungMansGuide.djvu/455

 Canon of the Mass. "Dona nobis pacem!" is the third petition of the "Agnus Dei," "Give us peace!" And in the beautiful prayers before communion the Church again asks for peace. ' ' Pax huic domui!" " Peace be to this house! " the priest says on entering a sick-room to administer the last sacraments. "Pax," is the simple device of the illustrious Order of St. Benedict, in connection with the watchword: "Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus!" "That in all things God may be glorified!" This is substantially the same as the chant of the angels: "Gloria in ex celsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus!" "Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to men of good will! " To seek God's glory means peace and happiness to man. His glory and our happiness are inseparably united. This is man's destiny, as the little catechism teaches: "To know God, to love Him, to serve Him and to be happy with Him forever." This is true philosophy: Man tends naturally to happiness as to his last end, "a state of freedom from all evil and enjoyment of every good that can be desired, joined with the certainty of its everlasting duration."

In this world real happiness consists in the peace and joy of a good conscience and in the hope of an eternal reward which springs from a well -spent life. "In the next world," as Archbishop Meurin says in his "Ethics," "happiness consists in the fullest knowledge of