The Lord's Prayer today


The Lord’s Prayer Today
by

Very Reverend Ignatius Smith, O. P., S. T. L., Ph. D.,
LL. D., Professor of Philosophy and Teacher of

Preaching, Catholic University of America.

Eight addresses delivered in the Catholic Hour, spon-
sored by the National Council of Catholic Men,

with the cooperation of the National
Broadcasting Company and its

Associated Stations.

(On Sundays from August 13 to October 1, 1933)

I. OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN
II. HALLOWED BE THY NAME
III. THY KINGDOM COME
IV. THY WILL BE DONE

V. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

VI. FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES

VII. LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION

VIII. DELIVER US FROM EVIL

National Council of Catholic Men
Sponsor of the Catholic Hour

1312 Massachusetts Ave.

Washington, D. C.





The Lord's Prayer Today
by

Very Reverend Ignatius Smith, 0. P., S. T. L., Ph. D.,
LL. D., Professor of Philosophy and Teacher of

Preaching, Catholic University of America.

Eight addresses delivered in the Catholic Hour, spon-

sored by the National Council of Catholic Men,

with the cooperation of the National

Broadcasting Company and its
Associated Stations.

(On Sundays from August 13 to October 1, 1933)

I. OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN
II. HALLOWED BE THY NAME

III. THY KINGDOM COME
IV. THY WILL BE DONE

V. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

VI. FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES

VII. LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION

VIII. DELIVER US FROM EVIL
Second Edition 13,000

National Council of Catholic Men
Sponsor of the Catholic Hour

1312 Massachusetts Ave.

Washington, D. C.



IMPRIMATUR:

JOHN FRANCIS NOLL, D. D.,

Bishop of Fort Wayne.



FOREWORD
There is a growing conviction among men who are not

professionally religious that national recovery will be condi-
tioned by the ability of our people to take spiritual soundings
of their personal lives. Evidently there has been antagonism
between the irresponsible spirit of greed and the spirit of
the Nazarene. One stands by the philosophy that we should
want more than we can get and get all that we want. The
other is based on the philosophy that we should not have all
that we want or want all that we have. At heart the problem
is one

.
of desires and the coordination of them.

The Lord’s Prayer can play an important part in the re-
adjustment that must be made. In teaching us what we may
ask for it teaches us the things that are worth while desiring.
Aside from its value as an instrument for creating contacts
between the nation and its God it is an epitome of the basic
principles of the Gospel. At no time in the history of our
nation could an experiment with these principles be better
made.

The Master has done His part; and it is in the hope of
reopening partnership with Him for our audiences that these
addresses have been delivered at this time.

Ignatius Smith, 0. P.



Printed and distributed by Our Sunday Visitor

Huntington Indiana



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 5

OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN
(Address delivered on August 13, 1933)

There are few images more impressive than that

of a strong man in deep and earnest prayer. No
more constructive and helpful memory can be left
by a father to his son than that of a parent who was
prayerful. No more beautiful or more persuasive
pictures have been left by Christ to His followers

than those which represent Him so frequently en-
gaged in solemn communion with God the Father.
Many times each day He prayed. On board ship He
prayed. In the quiet of the mountain He prayed. In
the fastness of the desert wilderness He prayed. In
the temple He prayed. Before important works that
confronted Him He prayed. After some magnificent
triumph He poured forth His gratitude, in prayer,
to His Father. He prayed for His friends, for His
enemies, for Himself, and for His nation. He prayed
because He was the High Priest, and also because
He was man. He prayed because it is a real man’s
duty to acknowledge the supremacy of the Father
by prayer. He prayed for personal help and consola-
tion. He prayed that He might give example to us
and He placed upon us the inescapable obligation to
reproduce in our own lives His practice of prayer.
At all times He prayed impressively so that the by-
standers were affected by His affection. Even His
intimate companions, the Apostles, were moved by
the earnestness of His prayers. They envied Him
the consolation that prayer brought Him. They
throbbed so with eager envy of His power to pray
that they called to Him, “Master, teach us how to
pray.” To the example that inspired them, to the



6 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

command that obligated them Jesus added, during
the sermon on the Mount, the prayer that He wished
them and us to use. “Thus therefore shall you pray

:

Our Father who art in heaven; hallowed be thy
name

;
thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth

as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but
deliver us from evil. Amen.” This is the origin of
the Lord's prayer, of the “Our Father.”

The prayer of Christ immediately became the
prayer of the people, and for nineteen hundred years
it has stirred their hearts and fallen from their lips
in every walk of life and in every crisis of history.
Cloistered monk and condemned criminal alike found
that this prayer brought them to God and brought
God to them. Among the unlettered as well as among
enlightened geniuses it has given order and direc-

tion of life. In the peaceful quiet of the home it has
brought rest to families and among the fiendish
horrors of the battlefield it has made terror less
gruesome. On the burning sands of the Sahara and
along the tractless wastes of the arctic it has brought

the companionship of another world into the lives of

lonely men. From lips that were vibrant with health
it has leaped with gratitude to a beneficent God.

From feeble lips on a bed of pain it has crept to the
Almighty as a plea for help. Triumphantly and glor-

iously it has resounded from the lips of men who
were successful. Throbbingly and piteously it has

escaped from men who were crushed in defeat.
Christians of every shade of belief have cherished

this prayer in every condition of life, in every gener-

ation of the last nineteen hundred years and in every



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 7

nation of the earth. At every crisis in history, when
the progress of civilization was threatened, when
men feared to penetrate into the unknown and to
experiment with progress, when civilization hesi-
tated between advancement and relapse into barbar-
ism, this prayer stood at the cross roads. The magni-
ficent doctrine of it enlightened the minds of men;
the sentiments it breathes fired their hearts; the

power of it made contact with heaven and energized
the faltering steps of the race. Not alone by the best
minds have we been saved in the past but by the best
hearts, and the best hearts have been hearts whose
love of the race has been fired by love of God, a love
which this prayer has helped to produce.

Thinking men of this day believe that this nation
is confronted by difficulties, which if not overcome,
will jeopardize the foundations of civilization itself.

They have asked us to supplement their enlightened
thinking with the most earnest of prayers for the
help of the Omnipotent God to Whom this nation
owes much. They want from God the light that we
may see

;
they want from God the courage demanded

to make those sacrifices without which reconstruc-
tion will be a mere shattered dream. It is with the
glorious history of the Lord’s prayer in mind

; it is

with the needs of the present crisis in mind that I
selected the “Our Father” as the subject of my eight
addresses to you. I pray that I may call it to the at-
tention of the citizens of this country who have not
known it or who have forgotten it. I pray that I may
help those who use it to say it more intelligently and
sincerely. I present it as the prayer of Jesus Christ;
as the prayer which contains the expression of every-
thing that we may legitimately desire

; as the prayer



8 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

which helps us to establish the proper values of life

;

as the prayer with nineteen hundred years of service
in organizing the affections and sentiments of men.

It is sure to be heard because it was framed by
God to Whom it is addressed. It asks from heaven
only that which heaven taught us to ask for. It is
devout and Christ-like in that it avoids many words,
the prolixity in prayer which Christ feared. This
prayer will challenge heaven for ourselves and our
nation because it does not demand; it pleads, humbly
pleads, and casts all of our fears on God. It is there-

fore with confidence and with a serious conviction
of its far reaching importance that we approach
those words which fell from the lips of Christ and
which we learned so young, at the knees, perhaps, of
a mother who has passed away: “Our Father Who
art in Heaven/’

He is the Father. He is the Father because of the
special creation to which He had recourse to form
our souls and to make us human. He is Father be-
cause of the paternal and kindly government to
which He asks us to submit, a government that re-
spects human freedom and liberty and emancipates
us from the iron law of compulsion to which He has
subjected lower creation. He is Father because
Jesus is His Son and we have been adopted by Christ
as His brothers.

He is our Father; ours
;
not just mine

;
not just

of this race, or of this church, or of this nation,

or of this city, or of this economic or social class.

We are, all of us, the sons of God, and all men are
our brothers and to all of us our God is our Father.

He is our Father in heaven, above the limitations
of this world but deeply interested in the welfare of



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 9

men. It is not an impersonal and a blind fate that

drives us on. It is not an impersonal force that sus-

tains us. It is a Father Who can do all things and
Who loves us even more than we can love ourselves.
Hundreds of thousands of fathers in this country,

deeply loving their children, are impotent to

help them at this moment because they are
plunged in the throes of depression and econ-

omic misfortune. Greater is the love of the heavenly

Father, and unlimited by the paralyzing factors of

defeat in this world. He is in the heavens, not so high
as not to care, because we know that He has protected
us

;
not so far away as to be undiscoverable, because

we know that so many millions of our people who
have sought Him have found Him. These sublime
and consolatory thoughts will fill my mind when I
take from the lips of Christ and utter for myself and
my country those words, “Our Father Who art in
Heaven.”

But I must translate these thoughts into action.
If I hope to challenge the attention of heaven this

prayer must come not only from my lips, but from
my heart and from my life. If He is our Father,
then I must honor Him, I must imitate Him, I must
be obedient to Him, I must be patient with Him. I
must honor Him with praise and glory, with decency
of life and with justice to all men, His sons. I must
imitate His love of all men and especially of those
with whom I come into daily contact. I must imitate
His perfection and consider it a duty and an honor,
not a caprice or a disgrace, to be godly among men.
I must imitate His mercy to those who are in dis-
tress. If He is my Father then I must be obedient
to Him, obedient even unto death as was His divine



10 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

Son Jesus, my Brother. I must be patient with the
sacrifices He demands of me, with the delayed plea-
sures of this world; with the frustrated hopes and
blasted dreams. He is my Father and no matter how
unwisely I ask He will give only what is good for me
and I must be patient.

Oh my God, filled with these thoughts, animated
by these sentiments, and firm in these resolutions, I
call to Thee, for my own needs, for the welfare of my
fellow-citizens, and for the reconstruction of our

nation.

“Our Father Who art in Heaven.”



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 11

HALLOWED BE THY NAME
(Address delivered on August 20, 1933)

The name that we give to the Creator of this
world, to the Supreme Architect of the Universe, and
to the Last End of all existence is God. In the second
petition of the Lord’s prayer we ask that this sacred
name be hallowed. Hallowed be Thy name ! Hallow-
ed be the sacred title by which we are permitted to
address the Deity. Hallowed be the name of God.
It is a name that is marvelous because by its power
it has made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the
lame to walk, and the dead to come to life. It is a
lovable name because it is the symbol of service to
mankind. It is a venerable name since at the very
mention of it the angels in heaven bow in adoration
and the devils in hell tremble and quake with fear.
It is a mysterious name filling the world with a holy
spirit of awe just as it fills with awe the mind of the
little child who hears the name of God for the first
time at his mother’s knee. Hallowed therefore be
that sacred title God.

But your name means something more than the
title by which you are addressed. Your name means
the fame and the honor that come to you from the
recognition of your great qualities of mind and heart.
And so it is with our way of speaking in the Our
Father of the name of God. His name means not
only the title by which He is addressed but also the
honor and the glory that should be extended to Him
because of His divine attributes. His name means
His Infinity, His Justice and Mercy, His Providence
and His Love, and the recognition in word and in
action of all of these qualities by men. Hallowed be



12 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

Thy name, 0 God. Hallowed be Thy glory and Thy
honor. Hallowed be Thy fame among men. Hallow-
ed be, among men, the recognition of the excellences
of Thy Godhead.

Hallowed? What do we mean by that? We mean,
let Thy name be manifested to those who do not
know it. Let it be held by all men as holy and let it
not be bandied about like the common names of men.
Let it be used only in prayer or in the most supreme
reverence and awe. See to it, 0 God, that the things
of God are dealt with by men with respect. All this
we mean when we pray to God, “Hallowed be Thy
name.” And it would be well for us to understand
in these days of reconstruction some evidences of
needed spiritual reconstruction, evidences of the fact

that in many places the name of God is not hallowed,
is not recognized as holy and awesome. It is well
for us to know these spiritual sores so that in healing
them we may be the better qualified to stand before
our Maker and to ask for help for ourselves and our
country.

In the world of science there are two kinds of
men. One is the believer who finds in his discoveries
what God placed in nature—beauty, order, law—the
confirmation of his belief and the inspiration of his
praise of God. The other is the man, not by any
means any more scientific, whose scientific apparatus
are the milestones that mark the way of his apostasy
from God and his abuse of the supreme Deity. To
the latter the name of God is anathema, a supersti-
tion; His honor and glory are but myths; His per-
sonality is a fiction and the whole world of spirit is

a dream and a delusion. They demand that the name
of God be not hallowed; they demand that it be



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 13

erased from the minds of men. They curse it ; they

scoff at it, while the patient Deity Who might blot
out their existence with one word waits with tolerant

condescension for the dawn in their lives of the day
for which we pray, the dawn of the day of enlighten-
ment when they shall say with more scientific men,
“God, hallowed be Thy name.”

For inculcating reverence and respect for the

name and the prerogatives of God there is no pulpit
so powerful as the pulpit of the home. Most of you

who listen to me and who are familiar with your
God first learned about Him at home. There at the
knee of a mother or father, in answer to the ques-

tions which every child asks from that divine curios-
ity planted in the child-mind by God Himself, you
were told about your Maker, about His power and
His love, about the beauty of His name and how you
must hold it holy. And from that knowledge was
born in you that character which makes of you a
prayerful citizen of this republic, makes of you that
kind of citizen of which this nation stands in such
great need at this moment. But do you realize that
the pulpit in many homes has become mute in
preaching to our future citizens respect for the name
and rights of God? Do you realize that in hundreds
of thousands of American homes millions of our
American youth reach maturity without having had
explained to them the meaning of the name of God
and the obligation to worship Him ? What a paradox
this is in a nation whose destinies were entrusted by
the Fathers of the Republic to the Providence of the

God Whose name it is now so tardy to hallow and
bless.

In the social world around us and in the world of



14 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

amusement is the name of God hallowed and blessed?
If it be true that half of our people are without reli-

gious worship then the name of God is not hallowed.
If it be true that in our courts of justice the habit of

perjury is increasing, the habit of bringing down the
sacred name of God in testimony of a volley of lies,
then the name of God is not hallowed. If it be true
that the habit of using the name of God lightly, the
habit of cursing and blasphemy is on the increase,
then the name of God is not hallowTed. It is also true
that in the name of realism, the name of God is being
abused in the literature we read, in some of the pic-
tures we see, and in the talkies to which we listen.
In the name of realism we are profaning and not
hallowing the name of God.

This is not meant to carry into your homes an
excoriation or a denunciation. This is merely a diag-

nosis revealing conditions that do not indicate the

proper respect for the name of God requested by
Jesus in the Lord's prayer when He said, “Hallowed
be Thy name". This is a presentation revealing con-
ditions of irreverence and neglect that perhaps make
God hesitant to help us in our hour of need and
which by a return to prayer and piety we may
remedy.

But thanks be to God, there are countless millions

who find the hallowing and praising of God's name
reasonable, godly and consolatory at all times. In

sickness and health, in wealth or poverty, in victory

or defeat, they call to heaven, “Praised be God ! Hal-

lowed be Thy name." They look upon this not only
as a duty but as a need as well. They know our
Savior asked nothing unreasonable when He com-
manded that we pray for the hallowing of the name



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 15

of God. Pagan philosophers and statesmen were

quick to see that failure to recognize and implore

the help of their deities would mean the quick dis-
solution of their nation and they even invented gods

whom it would be pleasant for their people to pray
to and to praise.

The revealed word of God in Psalm one hundred
and forty-eight beautifully expressed what God ex-
pects from the hierarchy of creation and the reason-
ableness of His demands:

“Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: Praise ye him in
the high places.
Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts.
Praise ye him, 0 sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars
and light.
Praise him, ye heavens of heavens: and let all the waters
that are above the heavens praise the name of the Lord.
For he spoke, and they were made: he commanded, and
they were created.
He hath established them for ever, and for ages and ages

:

he hath made a decree, and it shall not pass away.
Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all ye
deeps

:

Fire, hail, snow, ice, stormy winds, which fulfill his word

:

Mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars:
Beasts and all cattle: serpents and feathered fowls:
Kings of the earth and all people: princes and all judges
of the earth:
Young men and maidens: let the old with the younger,
praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is
exalted.

The praise of him is above heaven and earth: and he hath
exalted the horn of his people.
A hymn to all his saints: to the children of Israel, a
people approaching to him. Alleluia.”

In this great symphony which hallows the name
of God you find a place along with hundreds of mil-
lions of persons in the world today who have not for-
gotten their God and who do not forget to praise His
holy name. And suppose you have forgotten to
praise Him? Shall you continue to deny yourselves



16 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

that peace and comfort that God sends to them who
praise Him? Shall you continue to deny your nation
the help of a God Who has been neglected ? Shall you
continue to deny to that God the payment of the debt
that you owe Him and which is so easily absolved?
Hear the Psalmist (Psalm One Hundred and Fifty) :

“Praise ye the Lord in his holy places: praise ye him in
the firmament of his power.
Praise ye him for his mighty acts: praise ye him accord-
ing to the multitude of his greatness.
Praise him with sound of trumpet: praise ye him with
psaltery and harp.
Praise him with timbrel and choir: praise him with
strings and organs.
Praise him on high sounding cymbals: praise him on
cyhibals of joy:
Let every spirit praise the Lord. Alleluia.”

Make the name of God holy in our own speech
and in our own lives, and thus make it an honorable
name to others, in fulfillment of the command of
Christ, “So let your light shine before men, that they

may see your good works, and glorify your Father
Who is in heaven.” God grant that in common pur-
suance of the purposes of a godly people we may
challenge our God with the words of Christ, “Father
I have revealed Thy name to men.”



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 17

THY KINGDOM COME
(Address delivered on August 27, 1933)

Mountains and men, mice and meteors, heaven

and hell, devils and angels, cosmic rays and deep

rooted forces of the earth, all of these stand as sen-

tinels of the Kingdom of God. For the Kingdom of
God in one sense is nothing more than the execution
of the plans of divine Providence, the government by

the Omnipotent God of the universe that He has
created. In every corner of it, whether men admit
it or not, He rules. He rules by the participation of
His Essence, by His inescapable and penetrating

Presence and by the majesty of His Power. He rules
in heaven by the law of love. He rules on this earth
and in the heavens by the iron law of compulsion
that binds them to the fulfillment of His will and to
the achievement of the harmony of the world. He
rules on this earth among thinking men and women,
either by the law of hope, the law of love, or the law
of justice. He rules amid the suffering souls of pur-
gatory by the law of promise. He rules among the
damned souls in hell by the law of relentless and
rigorous justice. In this sense the Kingdom of God
exists, it can not be extended, and for its coming we
do not pray.

In another sense the Kingdom of God is made up
of intelligent beings among the one billion, eight
hundred million men and women on this earth who
recognize the existence of a Supreme Being, who
acknowledge His right to make laws for the control
of the minds and the hearts of mankind, who dedi-
cate themselves to the worship of their God and who
make Him the companion of their daily lives. The



18 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

Kingdom of God in this sense is world wide but even
after all these centuries it does not embrace all of the
nations or all of the persons on the face of the

earth. And for the coming of this Kingdom we pray
in the words of Jesus Christ, “God, my Father, Thy
Kingdom come.” God, may Thy Kingdom be brought
to the pagan peoples who have never known the one
true Father. May the modern nations who have pro-
scribed Thy name and who have profaned Thy
temples be brought to the light and may the happi-
ness that comes to men from the worship of Thee be
brought into their lives. And may those free men
and women who once knew Thee, who once prayed
to Thee—some of whom now listen to me as I speak
about Thee, and who have wandered from Thy King-
dom of religion and worship—may they be brought
again under Thy blessed sovereignty.

In still another sense the Kingdom of God on. this
earth is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. To Him is
granted Lordship over men both because He is their
God and also because He is their Redeemer. In the
world wide triangle of love—love and appreciation
of oneself because upon us have been poured the

blood of Christ, love of our neighbor for the sake of

God, and love of God for His own sake—in this great
world wide triangle of love Jesus has gathered His

Kingdom within which there are more than six hun-
dred millions of Christian men and women. It is the
Kingdom based upon the sovereignty of Christ the
incomparable Man and Christ the incomparable God.
It reaches out and grips the teeming millions of His

followers, to cement them in a solid union of grati-

tude to and love of Him, and of mutual love and ser-

vice of one another and of all men. Out of this union



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 19

there radiates to the peoples of the world the im-

pulse for progress and civilization. Lashed on by the

example of Christ the followers and the imitators of
Him, the citizens of His Kingdom on earth, practice
those virtues which the reconstruction of civilization

demands, those virtues which the neglect of Christ

has killed, those virtues which paganism old or new
can not produce. Outside of the Kingdom of Christ
on earth there are even in this country countless mil-

lions who must be reached. They must be reached
for the sake of their own personal happiness and for
the sake of the country whose happiness we are seek-
ing to restore, for the sake of that conscience on

which the success of every program of reconstruc-
tion depends. They must be reached. By the preach-
ers and their sermons, by the laity and their ex-
ample, they who have never known the Kingdom of
Christ, and they who have surrendered their citizen-
ship in His Empire, must be reached. To hasten the
success of this task we pray from our hearts, “Thy
Kingdom Come”.

The power and authority behind the sovereignty
and the kingship of Jesus Christ have been transmit-

ted to His Catholic Church. In this sense and for this

reason the Kingdom of God on earth is the Catholic
Church. It is a Kingdom to which He entrusted the
continuation of His authority, the guardianship of

His teachings, the preservation of His sacraments,

and the fulfillment of His mission to the troubled
peoples of the earth. It is a Kingdom to which He
entrusted these duties and to which He also gave
organization and the divine promise of unshakable
perpetuity in the service of God and of men. It is a
Kingdom over which there rules, by divine commis-



20 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

sion of Christ Himself, His Vicar on earth, the suc-

cessor of St. Peter, our Holy Father Pius XI. We of
Catholic faith pray for the coming of this Kingdom
—not that it has not yet arrived, because it presents
an unbroken existence of nineteen hundred years;
not that it is depopulated, because it numbers from
every nation in the world more than three hundreds
of millions of intelligent and believing people—but
we pray that its membership may be widened and
that its influence may be deepened. And it is well
for all to understand that when we pray that there
be but one fold and one Shepherd, that there be but

one Kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth, we are anim-
ated by a desire not to create a monopoly for the
authority of our kingdom, but rather to bring within

the uplifting and consoling power of all the teachings
and sacraments of Christ, groping minds and hungry

hearts that seek and yearn for the true and the good.

It is for this we Catholics pray when we take from
the lips of Christ the words, “Thy Kingdom Come”.

There is yet another sense in which we under-
stand the Kingdom of God. It is the Kingdom that
is held out as a reward to those who are not too
proud or too great to live in the Kingdom of God's
grace on this earth. It is the Kingdom of God in
Paradise, it is the Kingdom of indescribable and
eternal bliss prepared in another world by God for
those who serve Him in this. For this Kingdom
we are hoping, not only for ourselves but
for all men. For this Kingdom, God grant, we
are working for ourselves and for others. It
is for this Kingdom that we pray when in the
Lord's prayer we say. “Thy Kingdom Come”. We
want this Kingdom and we pray for it because of



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 21

the blessed company into which it will bring us
;
into

the society of God; into the companionship of the
saints, the blessed heroes and heroines of the King-

dom of God on earth; into the companionship of
those whom we loved and held dear in this world and
whom death has taken from us. We want this King-
dom of God in Paradise because of the liberty that it
will bring us. There we shall be the slaves of no
worry, the subjects of no unfair masters. There we
shall be tyrannized over by no fears or dreads of
miserable defeat and disaster. There we shall be
free and happy citizens of a never ending empire. We
desire that Kingdom of God in Paradise because
there we shall be rewarded most richly for the sacri-
fices and struggles we have made in this life in the
name of conscience. Every vicious inclination that
we have curbed

;
every sorrow that we have expres-

sed for misdeeds; every effort that we placed here
for decency, justice, faith, religion, and mercy, will
bring its rich reward in the Kingdom of God in the
next world. And that is why we pray, or should
pray, from the depths of our hearts, and vibrant with
feeling, “God, my Father, Thy Kingdom Come”. And
we make this not only a prayer of the lips but a
solemn dedication of life, of a life that is ruled by the
grace of God here, and will be rewarded by the hap-
piness of heaven hereafter.

I see a picture. It is the palace of Pilate. There
on the porch stands Pilate and by his side the
mangled and bleeding Christ. I hear Pilate speak to
the rabble that is gathered beneath him, “Behold the
man. Whom will you that I release unto you, Jesus
or Barabbas” ? I hear the terrible answer of the mob,
“Away with Him. Pvelease unto us Barabbas.” I hear



22 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

Pilate speak almost in desperation, “Behold, how I
have scourged Him”. Again the mob, “Away with
Him, let Him be crucified/ ’ Hear Pilate : “Behold
your King”. And then hear the mob: “We have no
King but Caesar”. Would you want to be found in
that mob declaring independence of the Kingship of
Jesus Christ? Neither should we be found this after-
noon failing to acknowledge the dignity, the right

and the power of our King.

I see another picture. It is Calvary. On its crest
and on its cross there hangs Jesus Christ writhing

and shuddering in the agony of death. A storm of
blasphemy and sedition beats against His ears, hurl-

ed not only by the mob but also by the thieves who
are crucified with Him. It is stilled for a moment.
There is a hush that is broken by the single piteous
voice of the good thief who confidently asks, “Mas-
ter, remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy
Kingdom.” And Jesus, even in the moment of His
agony is not too occupied to listen, not too pain-rack-

ed to answer, “This day thou shalt be with me in
Paradise”.

I hae this in mind, my God, when I call to Thee

:

Thy Kingdom come, to me, to all—the Kingdom of
Thy grace, here; the Kingdom of Thy glory here-
after. Thy Kingdom Come.



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 23

THY WILL BE DONE
(Address delivered on September 3, 1933)

In heaven, in that happy companionship of the

blessed and the angels with Almighty God, unity,

peace, and order, reign supreme. And the secret of
this peace, order, unity, rest, and harmony, is that in

heaven the Will of God is always done.
In the world of nature around us there is also

peace, harmony, and order. The eclipse of the sun
last year was foretold by scientists almost to thevery
second. They were able to do this because of the
order and the regularity and constancy that exist in

the forces of nature. And the secret of this order and
regularity is the fact that all nature is fulfilling with-

out protest or deviation the Will of the Almighty

God.

Among men we find a different picture. Here on
earth there is misery, purposelessness, and disorgan-

ization. In our homes there are contention, misun-
derstandings, misery, disobedience, and self will

;
one

out of every five homes in the nation is disrupted by
separation and divorce. And the reason for this
miserable uncertainty is that among free men the
Will of God is rejected and selfishness reigns in its
place. In the economic life of our people there is like-

wise confusion and turmoil, fear and restlessness,
great chasms between wealth and poverty, great mis-
understandings between affluence and want. And
the reason for this turmoil and uncertainty is that
in the economic activity of the nation the Will of
God has not been done. In our neglect of our God we
have robbed the nation of the mutual sacrifice and
the common purpose which obedience to the Will of



24 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

God always confers on a people. In international
affairs there is great uncertainty about the

future, about the ability of governments to endure
in their present form, and about the ability

of nations to avoid another destructive war. And the
reason for this uncertainty and for this dread is that

the nations of the world in their relations with their

peoples and in their mutual relations with one an-
other have not been guided by those qualities that re-
present the Will of God. Even in the religious world
what is called by great religious leaders “the scan-
dal of Christianity” splits it into more than two hun-
dred conflicting sects with consequent uncertainty

about belief and confusion about the basic principles

of moral deportment. And the reason for this is the
rejection of the Will of God.

Ask me why the fulfillment of the Will of God
produces peace and order in this world and I will tell

you that the secret of this order and harmony lies
in the fact that the Will of God is nothing more than
the intelligence and benevolence of the Omnipotent

projected into the affairs of men. To pray that the
Will of God be fulfilled is a manifestation of supreme
intelligence; to work to fulfill it is a noble service.
To ignore that Will is an act of dastardly and de-
structive rebellion against intelligence, human and
divine. To ignore the Will of God is to exile from
this world the highest enlightenment at our com-

mand and to exile with it the source of order, har-
mony, and happiness for our people.

We might be excused for the abuse of our liberty
and for our apostasy from the Will of God if the
loving Deity had not been so generous in making
His Will known to men. From the very beginning



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 25

men have known what theWill of God demands in the
way of belief, worship, and moral deportment. With
the coming of Christ mankind was left in no doubt
about the content of the Will of God. He summed up
the Will of God in just two laws of love, the love of
God and the love of neighbor. He elaborated this by
restating them in the terms of the counsels and spir-
itual works of mercy. Regarding no important
phase of life were we left without some en-
lightenment as to what the Will of God demands
of us. He instituted a Church which in the past
has stood at the cross roads of civilization to

point out with authority the path one must follow
in order to do the Will of God. The Will of
God is also made known to us in the commands that
are issued to us by lawfully constituted authority
everywhere, in the home, in the state, at our work,

and in our Church
;
commands which I obey not be-

cause of the eminence of the superior but because
they represent to me the Will of God and make
for unity and harmony among men. The Will of God
is made known to us in the private whisperings of
the Holy Spirit sent to us in answer to our prayers
for help. The Will of God is made known in the ex-
ample of holy men and women around us, millions
of them in every walk of life, of every color and
creed, who teach by their noble conduct what the
Will of God is. And thus are marvelously multiplied
for each one of us, every day, the manifestations of

the Will of God, presenting to us what our duty is
and taking away from us all excuse that we do not
do the Will of God because we do not know what it
is. He has made His Will known not to punish us
with laws that add weight to the yoke of life but to



26 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

show His merciful providence and marvelous intelli-
gence and to reveal to all men and to all nations the
secrets of happiness that otherwise might be known
only by an aristocracy of the elite.

To do the Will of God is not to suffer an
inevitable fate that presses on us

;
we are not stupid

animals; we are intelligent beings who are able to
see the wisdom of God’s commands. To do the Will
of God is not externally to submit to His laws
and inwardly to murmur and to challenge His Judg-
ments. Neither is it to blame God for the
criminal negligences and failures of men. The epi-
demic of disease that comes from man’s neglect
of the laws of sanitation and hygiene is easily

dismissed by ignorant persons as the Will of God.

God permits such evils because He knows how to
turn them into good but the Will of God is not to be
blamed for the malicious and the vicious mistakes of
men. To do the Will of God means action. It means
the intelligent and humble recognition of the fact
that if there be a God at all His intelligence must be
superior to mine and His love of me must be deeper
than my own concern for myself. Otherwise I would
be greater than He is and He would not be God.
Doing His Will means doing what is best for me and
for my nation. Praying that His Will be done on
earth, as it is in heaven, means the introduction of
the peace and happiness of heaven into this world.
It means, “My God ; may Thy Will be done in me, by
me, and through me, at all times, and in all cases.

They will be done, 0 my God, with everything that
I have with my mind, with my heart, with my life,
withmy fortune, with my friends, and, with my all.”

There is difficulty in saying this prayer well be-



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 27

cause human nature recoils from the sorrows, from
the losses and from the crosses that it brings to us.

But we may be sustained by the example of Jesus
Christ. If anyone might be excused for proclaiming

himself independent of God the Father it is the mag-
nificent Christ. But He announces, “I come down
from Heaven not to do my own Will but to do the
Will of Him that sent me.” His entire life is an act
of submission to authority and an act of obedience

to the Will of God. At home, at work, in the temple,
before the authorities, He does the Will of the
Father. He rebukes Peter who sought to defend Him
with the sword, “Put up thy sword into the scab-

bard. The chalice which my Father hath given me
shall I not* drink it?” He could close His life on Cal-
vary's cross after reviewing during three hours' sil-

ence the demands that had been made of Him by the
Will of God with these words, “It is consummated.”
“It is done.”

Doing the Will of God honors and ennobles us.
It tunes me with the Father and makes me a brother
of Christ. It puts something divine into my life. It
protects me from the weakness, the limitations, and
the fickleness of my own will. We are fickle even
about those things upon which depend the salvation
of our souls. We have spasms of piety and spasms
of indifference ; spasms of virtue and spasms of sin

;

spasms of happiness and spasms of despair
;
spasms

of optimism and spasms of depression. Against these
the Will of God saves us because it is constant and
sustaining. It transforms us from weak and vacilla-
ting cowards into heroes and heroines of God. It has
made weak and timid Christians walk bravely into
the face of roaring lions and tigers, and the holy cry,



28 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

“God wills it” has been behind the constructive and
civilizing efforts of every great servant of the human
race. It has translated the dreams of heaven into
action for men on earth because men have heard

—

“Not every one who saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doth the
Will of my Father he shall enter into the Kingdom of
Heaven.” This prayer has blessed the world in the

past and it can transform it again today if we but
learn to say it with sincerity and truth: “Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

I see another picture today. It is the garden of
Gethsemane, and Jesus kneeling there bathed in

blood that presses itself from every pore under the
anguish that fills Him when He contemplates His
death and the sins of men. Bravely He staggers to
His feet and then advancing a little farther He falls
on His face praying, “Father, if it be possible, let

this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless not as I will
but as Thou wilt.” Again as He looks into the chalice
that is filled with the ingratitude of men and nations
He breaks out anew with the sweat of blood, He
flings Himself on the ground and prays, “My Father,
if this chalice may not pass away, but I must drink
it, Thy will be done.”

My God, what Christ did for me I can try to do
for Him. The chalice prepared for me may be filled
with sorrows and sacrifices, losses and crosses. But
Almighty God, for my peace and happiness, for the
salvation of my soul, for the welfare of our nations
and for the progress of civilization, Thy Will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 29

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD
(Address delivered on September 10, 1933)

In the first part of the Lord’s Prayer we are con-
cerned with the interests of Almighty God. Now we
begin to think of our own needs. In the first part
of the prayer we praise the name of God; we pray
that His kingdom come and that His will be done.

Now we turn to God and we cry for bread : “give us
this day our daily bread.”

What a history stands behind that simple term,
bread, representing the simplest element of human
support, the staff of life. It is the symbol of the gen-

erosity of a God Who during all these centuries has
not failed to push out of the ground the means of
sustenance for the entire human race. It is the sym-
bol of humanity and altruism of man for man, the
token of the glorious record of humanity and its
sopntaneous willingness to share its bread with the

distressed members of the human family. The his-
tory of charity is the history of bread. This simple

element of human fare is also the symbol of the dis-
tress and degradation of mankind in the great cal-
amities that have befallen it during the course of its

history. The cry for bread is the cry of utter and
total distress, an admission that while God has been
good in sending into this world His gifts, the malice

and selfishness of men prevent the distribution of
them to all the members of the race. Bread
has great meaning in the human history of man.

Bread has been dignified and ennobled by God
Himself and the story of its divine contacts is writ-
ten in the inspired word of God. It becomes the sym-



30 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

bol of man’s punishment when God says to Adam:
“In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt earn thy
bread.” It becomes the symbol of the attack of hell
on Jesus Christ when Satan says to the Lord: “If
thou be God command that these stones be turned in-
to bread.” It becomes the symbol of the divinity of
Jesus when, in the desert, He multiplies the five loaves
into enough to feed five thousand people. It becomes
the symbol of the word of God when Jesus, watching
the crowds that follow Him to obtain bread, says to
them: “Not by bread alone doth man live but by
every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.”
Bread becomes not only the symbol of, but the actual
living body of the Savior in the upper cenacle at Jeru-

salem when He takes not gold, not platinum, not dia-
monds, but bread, and changes it into His own Body
and Blood. And thus bread, our daily bread, the
bread on your table assumes tremendous dignity, and

it is with a wealth of meaning in our minds that we
pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

When we pray for bread we ask first of all not
only for enough to eat; we ask for all the material
necessaries of life which it represents. We ask for
drink, for shelter, for clothing. We ask for freedom
from bodily harm and from sickness. We ask for the
means by which all of these material needs may be
secured—health, employment, money, or the charity
of men. For all of these material things we ask
when we say, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
We ask for the means that will satisfy the hunger
of the mind; we ask for the word of God. We ask
also for the food that will satisfy the hunger of the

soul; we ask for the grace of God and the living
bread of life, the Blessed Eucharist. For all of these



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 31

we pray when we cry, “Give us this day our daily
bread.”

Take for a moment this prayer, as it is, a peti-
tion for material bread; may I show you how it
should be said? I ask the good God to give me this
day, to give. The pantry may be filled, the granaries
may be bursting, my bank account may be large and
safe. I may have plenty, oh my God, but I know that
all of it is due to the fact that Thou hast given. Jesus
had within Him the power to make bread out of
nothing but upon His knees He humbly prayed,
“Give”. I may have power, money, or a position that
seems to make me independent, but Thou canst take
them away over night. “Give, oh God, and continue
to give.”

And give us. Do not give just to me. I am a part
of that great brotherhood that meets in the common
democracy established by Jesus Christ. All men are
my brothers. The afflicted victims of rumbling
earthquakes and death-belching volcanoes are my
brothers. The homeless peoples in the flood-swept
countries of the world are my brothers. The millions
of hungry American citizens in this country tonight
are my brothers. God, they who are in need have
more right to Thy bounty than I have. Give to them.
Give not just to me. “Give to us our daily bread.”

I pray Thee, oh God, for bread for this day. Lord,
for tomorrow and its needs I do not pray. Give us
bread, bread, bread this day. I must not live life as
if there were to be no God tomorrow. I must not
hoard as did the man in the gospel who was con-
demned by Christ. I must not be solicitous as were
the pagans. I must trust for the morrow the good
God Who provides for the lilies of the field. Who



32 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

marks the sparrow’s fall, and Who will all the more
take care of me. God I pray Thee, give us this day
our daily bread.

“I pray Thee, oh my God, to give us this day our
daily bread. Not for that which belongs to others do

I pray. That is not the practice of the divine Son.

The ordinary necessaries of life have been sent into
this world for the common use of all men. I keep
not in my greed that which I do not need and that
which might save the lives of others. In this time of

distress I do not ask to enjoy luxuries while others

starve. I pray Thee to give us what is ours. I pray
Thee to take that of mine which I do not need and

to give it to others.” I am an employer or some one
with a job. I shall be satisfied with less so that suf-

fering men and women may have more, more em-
ployment, more leisure, more of the bread of life. To
say this may be difficult; but to say this prayer in
this spirit is to say it as it was said by Jesus Christ.

And in this spirit this prayer has rolled against
the battlements of heaven for thousands of years.

And during these thousands of years it has been
answered. There are some who, when they review
the distress and hunger of peoples, believe that God
has failed in His duty. But that is not true. Not as

He did to the Jews in the desert does God open the
heavens and flood down manna upon this earth ; but
He has continued during the centuries to advance the
productivity and fertility of the soil. The peoples of
the earth have prayed, “Give us this day our daily

bread,” and God has continued to give life to the
seed, to wrap it in the warmth of the earth, to clothe
it with the life-giving protection of the sun, and to

bring forth from it grain. The peoples of the earth



.
THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 33

have prayed, “Give us this day our daily bread” ; and

God has inspired the brains of men to produce new
and better machinery for reaping, for threshing, for

milling, for baking, and for distributing the bread

for which He has been responsible. All of these years
have men taken from the bosom of the earth their
daily bread, their shelter, their clothing—and still
the beneficence of God goes on. And here in our own
country after tapping the resources of our land for

generation after generation we still have the means
to support without great and intensive effort, not one

hundred, but five hundred millions of people. Yes,

this prayer has been answered most generously by
God, directly by Himself and indirectly through men.
And if amidst plenty there are some who starve this
is not due to God but to men, who in their greed have
forgotten that they have been commissioned by God
not to accumulate for themselves but to distribute to

all mankind.

I have said that when we pray for bread we have
in mind both the material bread of the body and the
other needs of the body—but also the bread of the
mind, which is the word of God. The hunger of the
mind is often more distressing than the hunger of
the body. Men have gone stark mad from hunger of
the body, you will tell me. Yes—and I will tell you
that men have gone insane from the tortures of an
unrequited mind. Ask the restless inventor looking
for something new, ask the restless scientist seeking

to capture a new force of nature, ask any man who
has searched in vain for the truth—and then you
will know what torture can come from hunger of
mind. And then you know the great blessing of hav-
ing at our command the revealed word of God, giv-



34 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

ing to the mind the comforting truths of this and
another world, satisfying us with answers to the
great problems of human origin and destiny. To some
this truth has been given and then taken away ; and
whether it was an individual or a nation the loss of
the word of God and the loss of faith has spelled sav-
agery and barbarism, all the consequences of pagan-
ism, and ultimate misery. To others the civilizing
force of the word of God and the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, has never been given. “Give us this day our

daily bread,” we pray. Take not away from us, Oh
God, the precious gift of faith and the inspiration of
Thy holy Gospel. For these we are grateful and for
the preservation of these this day we pray. Give
them unto the peoples of the earth. Give them this
day to those who have forgotten them or who have
never been taught them.

Jesus Himself gave us the last meaning of the
word “bread” when he said, “I am the bread of life.
Unless a man eat of this bread he shall not have life
in him.” He promised and He fulfilled His promise
and the bread of life is the presence of Jesus Christ

in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. Hunger
of body and hunger of mind are nothing when com-
pared to the hunger of the soul for the presence of

God and for the happiness which it brings. Peace
and rest for the soul are impossible without the

grace of God and the life which this grace creates
within the spirit of man. You see this verified in the
restless dissatisfaction, in the misery, in the aimless

and purposeless lives of those who deprive them-
selves of the Sacrament of the Bread of Life, the

sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
You see it verified in the happiness and rest of those



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 35

whose souls are filled with the life of Jesus Christ
by frequent reception of Holy Communion.

Continue, oh my God, to give to us the Eucharis-
tic Presence of Thy divine Son. Continue to feed our
souls with this precious strength. Continue to bless

the world with the insuperable results of the Euchar-

ist. Give It to those who as yet know It not. Reveal
the secret of Its life giving power to those whose
souls are starved for the Bread of Life. It is this we
should have in mind when we pray, “Give us this
day our daily bread.”

Happy prayer. Holy prayer. Democratic prayer.
The prayer of divine love. The prayer of human
dependence. The prayer that brings God into the
commonest things of life. The prayer that writes
an alliance between the human and the divine. The
prayer that bespeaks the fraternity of all men.

“Give us this day our daily bread.”



36 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES
(Address delivered on September 17, 1933)

The discussion of sin is not a pleasant topic;
many recoil from it. But sin is an almost universal
fact. The Scriptures say, “He who says that he is
without sin deceiveth himself and the truth is not
in him.” It is not only spread out among all people,
it assumes an infinite variety of forms. Sin of
thought, word, and deed; sins of omission; sins

against ourselves, sins against God, sins against our

neighbors; sins committed by the lower elements;
sins that are pet foibles of the elite. But beneath all
of them is the one common leveling element that they
are a revolt against Almighty God. Beneath all of
them also is the fact that they do not leave the aver-
age sinner unaffected. I do not refer to the punish-

ment that sin deserves from God. I refer to the result
of sin in our own characters, in our own conscience
and consciousness.

There are some abnormal creatures who can pile
sin on sin and remain unaffected. They are abnor-
mal. They have been punished by God with total
indifference to the nature and consequences of sin.

But the average, normal, intelligent, and principled

person, entertains, after sinning, a sense of shame, a

sense of guilt. There are two ways in which this
sense of shame is manifested. Some are so over-
whelmed by their sense of guilt that they despair.
Either they do not know of the forgiving mercy of
God or they feel that their sins are too much even
for the mercy of the Omnipotent. The rest of us in

our sense of guilt and shame turn to Almighty God
and ask for mercy and forgiveness. It is of this that



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 37

we speak tonight. Consider this call on God for for-
giveness from God’s point of view and then from

ours.

It is a natural impulse of the human heart that
impels us to ask pardon of those whom we have of-
fended. It is an aspect of good fellowship and ordin-

ary sportsmanship on which all society insists. We
teach it to the young and we demand it of the old
that they ask pardon of those whom they have of-
fended among men. We are eager to get a new start,
to wipe the slate clean, to set our feet in new paths

—

and we accomplish this by asking for forgiveness
and obtaining pardon. We have been encouraged by
God to manifest the same impulse toward Him. Ask-
ing pardon of Him is the satisfaction of a noble im-
pulse of the heart. It is the display towards God of
a basic requirement of decency.

From the standpoint of Almighty God our cry
for mercy and forgiveness reaches a God Who finds
it easy and intelligent to forgive. It is easy for Him
because of the merits of the Passion of His Divine

Son. It is intelligent because, in forgiving, God
shows no familiarity or leniency with sin; it is the
sinner with whom He is patient. The sin God hates

;

the sinner God loves.

But you will find that in sin it is God Who has
been offended; it is God Who is asked for pardon
and forgiveness. It is therefore God and not man
Who has the right to state the conditions on which
this pardon and forgiveness will be granted. If we
deny this right to God and entrust it to man, the sin-
ner, we are destroying the omnipotence and sover-
eignty of the Maker and Judge. Not only is this
right reasonable but the conditions that God places



38 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

for forgiveness are reasonable. These conditions,

for our purposes today, are just two. The ordinary
means for obtaining forgiveness from God are, first,
that we have recourse to the Sacrament of Penance,
and secondly, that we forgive those who have tres-
passed against us. Let us take them in detail.

At various times men have thought out various
plans for obtaining from God forgiveness of sins
that were less embarrassing than the confession of
sins to a priest. And while all of these are recogni-
tion of a noble impulse of the human heart, all of
them labor under the common limitation of ignor-
ing God’s rights in the matter of the forgiveness of

sins and also the incontrovertible facts of history.

Jesus by His miracles showed that He is God.
He manifested this divine power, despite great ob-
jections on the part of his fellow men, by forgiving
men their sins. A Magdalen comes before him in
public acknowledgment of her guilt and in public
expression of her repentance. She is rewarded with

the words, “Many sins are forgiven thee because
thou hast loved much.” A woman taken in adultery
and about to be stoned to death is told, “Neither will

I condemn thee. Go sin no more.” A man with the
palsy is told, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” Despite
the protests of the bystanders, Jesus forgave sins.

Jesus provided for the continuation of this merci-

ful power after His death by entrusting it to His
Church. What a marvelous and reasonable act of
foresight that we have not been deprived of that
startling mercy of the Master ! “Whose sins you shall
forgive they are forgiven them

;
whose sins you shall

retain they are retained. Whatsoever thou shalt bind

on earth shall be bound also in heaven. Whatsoever



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 39

thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed also in

heaven/’ To the apostles and their successors, the
authorized priesthood of Jesus Christ, is entrusted

the absolving power of the God-Man of Palestine.

To the Church of Christ is indicated, by the con-
duct of the Master and from His words, the condi-
tions that are to surround the Sacrament of Penance
and the forgiveness of sins. There is to be genuine

sorrow, sorrow of such depth that it expresses itself
in a firm determination, “Insofar as I am able I shall
never commit this sin again.” There is to be a com-
plete and humble confession of sins to the priest.
Perhaps you find this embarrassing and unpleasant.

Some priests find it embarrassing to go to confes-
sion. Perhaps the Pope in his weekly confession
finds it embarrassing. But it is well that Jesus chose
a man to be a priest and to hear confessions, a man
and not an angel, a man whose human nature en-
ables him to sympathize and to help. And in the
Sacrament of Penance he is just the instrument that
receives your voice and carries it to Jesus. And
Jesus, when you have met the conditions, raises the
hand of that priest over you in absolution and bene-
diction, leaving to you the penance or the satisfac-
tion of your sins. These conditions of the Sacrament
of Penance Jesus, the forgiving God, has left to His
Church that you might have answered your prayer,
“Forgive us our trespasses.” And in this sacrament
three hundred million people, encouraged by its sec-
recy and enlivened by its help, learn the importance
of that other condition set by Jesus for forgiveness
—that we forgive those who have trespassed against
us. No doctrine of Christ was so revolutionary as
this one and none was so constantly and forcefully



40 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

proclaimed. In the old law people had been taught

to hate their enemies, to demand an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth, to render evil for evil. Christ
begins a great crusade against all hatred, against

revenge, retaliation, grudges, resentment, and all
bitterness. We are to do good to those who hate us, to
pray for our enemies, and to forgive those who have
injured us. Perhaps it was because this teaching was
so revolutionary and demanded so much from human
nature that Jesus preached it so often.

He told the story of the wicked servant who had
been forgiven a debt of ten thousand talents and

then refused to cancel a debt of a few dollars that
was owed to him by another servant. He told them
that the unforgiving servant was cast into prison
until the debt was paid and promised them similar
punishment in another world if they were unforgiv-
ing in their hearts. Not even a gift could be made
with spiritual profit at the altar unless we first for-
gave our enemies. Even Peter, the Prince of the
Apostles, must have been amazed at the sternness of
this teaching because he asked if it were sufficient to

forgive his enemy, as the Jewish law demanded,

seven times a day. He was told that we had to for-
give seventy times seven times a day. Christ said

that if we shall not forgive men we shall not be for-
given by God. He said that he who hates his brother
is a murderer. Forgiveness of our sins is impossible

and entirely out of the question unless we forgive
those who have injured us. He insisted that the prac-
tice of the virtue of forgiveness was to be a badge
of Christianity, a sign of discipleship with Christ.

And this is what the early Christians made of it.
They were easily distinguished among the citizens



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 41

of Rome and they were pointed to as they passed by,
“They are Christians; see how they love one an-
other; see how they forgive.” Not just in the wear-
ing of medals, in the building of churches, in the ma-
terial and ostentatious display of religion, is Chris-

tianity to be demonstrated. Christ says that we are
to reach down into our hearts, to root out of them all
rancor and bitterness and whole-heartedly to forgive
those who have injured us, to restore them to fellow-
ship, to lay siege to them with loving kindness, to do
unto them as we would have God do unto us.

Reenforcing the teaching of the Master is the

noblest example of forgiveness this world has ever
witnessed. No one had as much reason to hate as
Jesus did because on no one has this world heaped

such abuse and torture. Physical torture, social dis-
grace, mental anguish—all these He suffered. And
He is God. And this fiendish malice and hellish tor-
ture is interrupted on Calvary by His cry, “Father,

forgive them for they know not what they do.” He
preaches forgiveness of injuries. He forgives His
enemies. He excuses. He forgets.

We who find it difficult to forgive will find it eas-
ier when we keep in mind the example of Jesus
Christ and when we remember that most of the in-
juries that we think have been done us have not been
intended. We are too sensitive. We are too ready to
take offence. There are few people who really mean
to hurt us. They are not half as ready to give offence
as we are to take it. Some people think that it makes
them big and superior to harbor grudges and not to
forgive

; it places the trespasser at our mercy. But it
is the small, narrow, and mean person who lives on
piques. Big men and great men have always been



42 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

quick to forgive. It was said of Lincoln, “He had a
heart as big as the whole world but in it there was
no room for the memory of a wrong.” It was said
of King Henry VI of England, “He never forgot any-
thing but an injury.” It has been said of another
great man of that day that the best way to get from
him a favor was to do him a wrong. Great charac-
ters are quick to forgive and quick to forget. Small
men and mean nations are tremendous haters. The
Book of Proverbs says that, “The learning of a man
is known by patience and his glory is to pass over
wrongs.”

Take out of this world the habit of forgiveness
and you will send the human race into the savagery
and barbarism of the jungle. Make every man his
own judge and executioner; permit each individual
to pass sentence and judgment on the person who
has offended him and you will spread among men the
tong warfare of the Chinese, the guerilla warfare

of the underworld, the retaliation of the gangster,

the savagery of the forest. It is well to keep this in

mind when the unforgiving spirit of many of our
homes is producing separation and divorce, when
among the nations it is producing war, when among
the peoples of the earth it is gradually spelling the

collapse of civilization. Help to bring the peace of

Jesus Christ to the world by bringing back His spirit

of forgiveness. Let us begin with ourselves and with

those we dislike. Begin in your own homes, in your
own office! Begin today this new crusade for for-
giveness of injuries!

All the reasons that can be alleged for forgiving

those who have injured us go back to the most im-
portant one of all—that we ourselves can not be for-



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 43

given by God unless we forgive our fellowmen. We
who say that we can not forgive tear down the
bridge over which we must pass to heaven. We who
take pleasure in hatred surrender our right to ask

God for pardon.
Have you ever envied Simon the Cyrenean who

lightened the burden of Christ by carrying His cross

up Calvary? Have you ever envied the service of
Joseph of Arimathea who buried the crucified
Savior? Have you ever envied the Magdalen who an-
ointed the feet of the Nazarene? Have you ever
envied the merits of the martyrs who shed their blood
for Him? Envy none of them. On the authority of
Gregory Nazienzen you reach the supreme heights

of Christian faith, the peak of service of Jesus

Christ, when you pray for your tormentors, when
you forgive, when you excuse, when you forget, when
you sincerely pray : “Forgive us our trespasses as we
forgive those who trespass against us.”



44 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION
(Address delivered on September 24, 1933)

Large automobile manufacturers have proving

grounds where, under severe conditions, their cars
are tested to bring out the perfections and to bring
out the weaknesses of their products. The United
States Army and Navy have proving grounds where
their large and small guns are tested for the same
purposes. Large employers of men test their honesty
and efficiency in various ways before they trust them
implicitly. Almighty God acts in a similar way with
all of us. He offers occasions to us wherein we may
prove our ability to do good and to avoid evil. He
tests us and this test is called temptation. It is not

as many think an inducement nor an enticement to
sin, deliberately placed in our path by the Almighty.
This misconception of temptation is popular with

those who insist on misunderstanding God ; but it is
erroneous. Temptation, from the divine point of
view, is a test, a trial, a proving, a chance to show
the inherent goodness within us.

Temptation in its spiritual meaning is intimately
involved in the fundamental concept of Christian

life. This time of man on earth is not supposed to be
a period of inertia or of supine peace. Christianity

is a religion of action, of continued effort to prove

our faith; it is a warfare; it is a struggle against

the enemies of eternal salvation
;
it is a constant and

unending battle against inducements to abandon God
and His law that come from the world, the flesh, and

the devil. In all of this God desires us to prove our-
selves bigger and stronger than the subtle coaxing

to abandon Him, and to merit added divine approval

for the display of our faith and courage. This war-



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 45

fare is the price that we pay for our freedom and
liberty, a freedom that we hope, with the help of
God, we shall always use for Him. For this we pray
when we call on God in the words of Jesus Christ,
“Lead us not into temptation,” meaning “Lead us
not into those temptations which we shall not be able
to conquer.’’

Life might be more serene and the struggle for
spiritual existence less difficult, were our good reso-
lutions left undisturbed. But we are men and not
angels and the flesh lusteth against the spirit. And
as you who are interested in social and religious
work know, the instinct of imitation does not always
focus on a model that is worthy of reproduction.
Even those with a fine family and a great heritage
are likely to go wrong in a vicious environment and
amid evil companionship. Furthermore, even though
the statement be greeted with laughter, the existence

of devils is an historical fact guaranteed by the

Scriptures themselves, and we have no reason to be-
lieve that they have ceased to operate against the

best laid plans of God and man.

The cry for release from overpowering tempta-
tions comes from men and women who really want
to be good and who realize that it is impossible with-
out divine help. It comes from a hatred of vice and
sin and springs from the humble recognition of the
weakness of the human will, from the fear that wise
men have that they too may become dishonest, im-
moral, and vicious, if the pressure of temptation is
strong enough. The cry to God for help in tempta-
tions arises from the dread that if this surrender to
the devil and his temptations continues, death may
find one in the midst of it and send his immortal



46 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

soul into eternal punishment. This cry of really good

people who are haunted and taunted by temptations
is akin to the anguished cry of St. Paul, “In my mind
I serve the law of God; in my flesh the law of sin.
The good that I wish I do not. The evil that I hate
I do. Miserable man, who will liberate me from the
bondage of this death ?”

“Lead us not into temptation.” 0, it is a cry
that comes only from those who want to be good.
They who revel in the wild riot of the “concupiscence
of the eyes, the concupiscence of the flesh, and the
pride,of life,” are not bothered by temptations; they
enjoy them. It was Ruskin who said that the devil
does not tempt vicious persons but that they tempt
the devil. But persons who want to be good are on
the alert, watchful and prayerful for the help of

God. They know that faith is attacked by doubts,
that hope is tempted by despair, that charity is chal-

lenged by hatred and bitterness, that prudence is

waylaid by rash impulses, that justice is assaulted
by the demons of dishonesty, that temperance is
threatened by the lusts and the thirsts of the flesh,

and that courage is beset by weariness and human
respect. They know that not only every virtue but
also that every faculty of the human soul, every
avenue of approach to the soul from the outside
world is raided and invaded by temptation. The

devil makes sin most attractive and sometimes puts
it in the guise of virtue. No age or station of life is
immune

;
no hour of the day or night is safe without

the help of God. No place, be it ever so holy, offers
complete sanctuary and total freedom from tempta-
tion. Is it any wonder then that persons who want
to be good and true to their nobler selves will cry



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

out to God, “Lead us not into temptation; lead us

not into those temptations before which we may
fall.”

To hope in this life to be left undisturbed and
free from temptations is futile because God does not
withdraw temptation from the lives of even those
whom He loves most. St. Peter was tempted ; so was
St. Paul; so was St. Benedict; so was St. Catherine
of Sienna and St. Francis of Assisi. What God re-
fused to do for them He is not likely to do for us;
and we have to look upon temptation as an inescap-
able fact of life in which it is wise for us to see ad-
vantages to our spiritual welfare. And one of these
advantages is the illustrious company in which it
places us.

Christ leads the procession of those who have
been tempted only to show their strength and forti-
tude. The devil sought the allegiance of Christ with
promises of comfort, of power, and of riches, and he
approached Christ, as he frequently comes to us, in
an hour of physical weakness and depression, when
Christ was hungry after forty days and nights in the
desert. Another advantage of temptation is that it

gives us the right to pray for special help from God.
He has promised, according to the testimony of St.
Paul, the special help that we need to conquer all
temptation. “God is faithful who will not permit you
to be tempted above your strength but will make
with temptation issue that you may triumph/’
Temptations if they be rightly accepted and honestly
combatted will turn our minds to God, press us to
our knees, and force from our lips the cry, “Lead us
not into temptation in which we may fall.”

There is great personal profit in temptations be-



48 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

cause they develop character, they develop virtue

and they accumulate for us great merit in heaven.
The experience which temptations bring carves out
a character that is sympathetic and helpful to others,
broad in understanding and tolerant of the mistakes
of the weak. Temptations develop humility and dis-
trust in our own strength, and they develop confid-
ence in the help of God. Out of the heavens, after
Christ has turned a deaf ear to the temptations of

Satan, came a legion of angels to comfort Him ; and
out of the temptations we successfully resist comes
the approval of God and the consciousness of power
over hell. St. James had this in mind when he said,
“Count it all joy when you fall into temptations. . .
happy the man who suffers temptation since, when
he is proved he will receive a crown of life/’ The
unusual duties that are sometimes demanded of you
in your home and in the nation, and against which
many protest; the great sacrifices which you are
called upon to make, and against which many rebel

;

the afflictions of body and mind and of fortune,
against which many murmur and protest; all of
these may have been for some the occasion of dam-
nation—but they have been instruments to cut a
path straight through life to heaven for those who
drew down God’s help with the earnest prayer, “Lead
us not into temptation.”

There are temptations which are of our own mak-
ing, dangerous persons, places, and things, that en-

danger our happiness here and hereafter, and which

can be avoided and should be avoided. There are

others from which it is impossible for us to escape,
persons from whom we cannot escape, places that we
cannot avoid, and things that are always present for



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 49

us to see, to hear, and to enjoy. What shall we do
about these ? What do we do about dangerous dyna-
mite that we must keep in our cities for works of
construction? We protect persons and property by
restrictions and safeguards. What do we do about
gasoline, enough of which is kept at every filling

station to blow up that section of town? We pro-
tect property and life by laws and restrictions. What
do we do about dangerous and infectious and con-
tagious diseases which we cannot eliminate and
which are dangerous to the health of the commun-
ity? We surround them with safeguards and re-
strictions. What shall we do about occasions of sin
from which we cannot escape but which endanger
our salvation? We shall keep them under control
and surround them with sensible and reason-
able restrictions that make them less dangerous. We
shall push them as far from us as we can. We shall
resist the first devil that comes and we shall persis-
tently resist the seven other devils he brings back

with him to tempt us. We shall keep the mind right,
just and clean. We shall refuse to be decoyed into
curiosity that is dangerous. We shall resist in the
very beginning, in the very beginning aware of what
the poet said, “Vice is a monster of so frightful

mien, as to be hated needs but to be seen ; Yet seen

too oft, familiar with her face, we first endure, then
pity, then embrace.

,, And above all we shall pray
for the help of God. “Our struggle,’' said St. Paul,

“is not against flesh and blood
;
but against princi-

palities and powers, against the rulers of the world

of this darkness, against the spirit of wickedness in

high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of

God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day



50 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

and to stand in all things perfect.” Prayer is the
secret of success. The Prayer of Christ, the Lord's
prayer with its heavenly words

:

“Lead us not into temptation.”



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 51

DELIVER US FROM EVIL
(Address delivered on October 1, 1933)

This last petition of the Lord’s prayer deals with

what many think to be a great monster that has
stalked the earth since the beginning of recorded

history. It burrows within the bosom of nature to
rack and writhe it in convulsions and volcanoes. It

creeps beneath the surface of the sea to whip and
lash it into a fury of tempests and tidal waves. It

reaches out into the ether and with snarling fury

whips it into typhoons and hurricanes destructive of

human life. It steals within the bodies of the young
and the old and with subtle cunning strikes with pain

to rob them of their ease, strikes with disease to
break down health. It steps between the body and
the soul, reading an edict of separation that spells

death, creating a long divorce between body and soul,
and taking out of our homes and out of our lives
those whom we love. This hideous monster, evil,
squirms into the very soul itself and spreads the
black pestilence of sin over its beautiful counten-

ance, and sends it for all eternity into the pest house
of all evil, the citadel of hell.

This monster besieges the human mind, crushes
its eagerness and power to discover the truth, and
infects it with ignorance, error, and superstition.
It beleaguers the human heart, disrupts its noble im-
pulses, and fills it with bigotry, prejudice, and hos-
tility to men and to God. It openly and impudently
walks among men and women

;
it steps between man

and wife to alienate and separate them forever; it
maliciously steps between friend and friend and
sends them away cursing, hating and killing. With



52 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

insidious power this monster, evil, scars the face of
society with drunkenness and drugs, saps the bodies
of the nations with intrigue and hatred, blights their
souls with war. This is the progress of the hideous

monster evil, from the day that he stalked into the
garden of Eden until the present moment when he
is still active in spreading physical, moral, mental,

and social ruin. He has made himself a dreaded and
mysterious thing about which the people of all time
have asked for information and of which they pray,
“Deliver us from evil.

,,

Whence evil? Why evil? These questions the
philosophers of all time have taken into the sanc-

tuary of the mind to find an answer and to fit it in
with their philosophy of life. This problem the

founders and theologians of all religions have dis-
sected to find an explanation that would not bar the
progress of man to his Maker. This problem the
scientist has taken into his laboratory to confront

the universal and undeviating laws of the universe

with the unexpected and unwanted phenomena of
evil. This problem is the bug-bear, the great mys-

tery of life to the ordinary man in the street, re-
gardless of his race, creed, or social position. He is
bewildered and baffled by the diverse and conflicting

answers given to him by so-called experts.

We have been told by some that evil does not
exist, that it is an imaginary monster that has been

created by the human mind with the help of religion
and other superstitions. But that this is an absurd-
ity we know from our reason and from experience.
There is nothing imaginary about real pain. There

is nothing imaginary about the death that has taken

away our mothers. We are told by some that the



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 53

evil of this world is more prevalent than good. This

is the pessimism that says that this is the worst pos-

sible world that God could have made. We are told
by others that this is the best possible world that

God could have made and that evil is rare and scarce.
It is evident that the truth lies some place between
these two exaggerations. We are told by some that
evil is due to the perversity of the human will and
that there it finds its source. But we know that the
human will did not reach through the black turmoil
of the night and drag the Akron with its crew down
to a watery grave. We are told by others that evil
springs out of the nature of God, by which God is
limited or limits Himself. What strange gods men
have made for themselves! We are told by still
others that competing with God for the sovereignty
of this world is another omnipotent spirit of evil

from which all disasters proceed.

We are told by some religious thinkers that evil
in the world has no purpose except to manifest the

anger and ill will of a hateful god seeking to make
life on this earth as miserable as possible for man.
But this lugubrious explanation cannot be squared
with the many manifestations of a God Who gave
to this world not only many opportunities but also
His own divine Son for the salvation of the race.

The conflicting and erroneous explanations of
the experts have left the man in the street bewilder-
ed; and it is both amusing and pitiable to make a
survey of their attitudes. Some contend that about
evil we know everything. Some say that about it
we can know nothing. Some accept it with the docil-
ity and submission of dumb brutes without thinking
and without reward. Some, with that facile impud-



54 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

ence with which the moron frequently challenges the
genius, with which the puny dwarf challenges the
giant, ridicule God for the mistakes He is supposed
to have made. It makes one think of the impudent
illiterate who would stand before a canvas of Murillo
and would criticize the design and the coloring of

the master. It is consoling in this welter of con-

fusion about the problem of evil that we have an
explanation that is based on not only the highest

findings of human intelligence, but also on the en-
lightenment of divine revelation.

We recognize the existence of evil just as Christ
did, arid like Him, when He stood on the promontory
overlooking the city of Jerusalem weeping bitterly,

we deplore the evil and the misery of the world to-
day. There are real evils, there are imaginary evils,

and some so-called evils that are not evils at all. It
is a test of religion to have a definite standard of

judgment in the moral order, to enlighten its ad-
herents lest they make evil things seem good, and
lest, like many professional reformers, they make
innocent things, like dancing and drinking, seem
evil. This standard of judgment is necessary in
order to avoid the exaggerated optimism which says
that the world is getting steadily worse. The Cath-
olic Church has a standard of judgment, revealed by
God, she has an experience of nineteen hundred

years, and she has the courage to speak the truth.

Evil in itself is not a substantial reality. It is a

defect. It is the absence of perfection that things

ought to have. War is the absence of peace. Sick-
ness is the absence of health. Death is the absence
of life. Evil is a negation. The physical element in
sinful actions is indifferent; the sin consists in the



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 55

defective lack of harmony between the action and

the law of God.

The part that God plays in the existence of evil

is that he permits it. As the Infinite Ideal of Good-
ness, God could not desire what is evil either in the

natural, the moral, or the mental world. So that the

things in this world that we count evil are either not
evils at all in the scheme of God or they have been

produced through the carelessness of men.

In the existence of evil man plays a most im-
portant part. Most of the calamities that are blamed

on God are usually due to the deficiencies of men;
and the moral evil or sin with which agnostics like to

taunt God comes from man’s ignorance and his per-
verse abuse of his free will. He has it within his
power to prevent many evils. He may eliminate
drunkenness, impurity, and dishonesty, if he wills it.

He is not forced by God to practice virtue. He has
free will and he abuses it by committing sin.

Original sin, by corrupting the nature of men,

by destroying the harmony between the body and
the soul and between the soul and God, is remotely
responsible for the existence of many evils in this
world. To this can be traced the weakness of many
persons and the existence of many evils. And reli-
gions, which reject the teaching of original sin, leave
the problem of evil unexplained.

Evil would be a source of even greater difficulty
if we did not know that it fulfills a great purpose in
the world. Except for the dark shadows in a pic-
ture, the high lights would not stand out. Except
for the minor chords in a musical composition, the
brilliant and thrilling melody would not command
attention. Except for the hideous evil that exists in



56 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

the world, virtue and goodness would not be appre-
ciated. Evil teaches us to know what is good. If
there were no valleys the mountains would seem
lower. If there were no evil the beauty of the uni-
verse would disappear. If there had been no original
sin there would have been no Christ the Redeemer.
That is the reason why our Church chants about sin,
“0 happy fault which brought to us such a Saviour.”

Evil develops the beauties of human character.
If there were no evil in the world, then the world of
mercy by which we save our souls and by which we
reveal the nobility of human nature would be im-
possible. If there were no homelessness, no hunger,
no sickness, no ignorance, no death, then there would

be none of these magnificent services of charity by

which our faith in human nature is redeemed.
Evil reveals the omnipotence and Providence of

God. There is no evil from which He cannot and
from which He does not bring some good. And if
we look back on what we think were the big calami-
ties in our lives we can see now that there was a
silver lining to every cloud and that there was some
good that came from every misfortune. The agnostic
and infidel cannot find the good that is behind every
evil because he refuses to look. It is an Omnipotent

and a Provident God Who reveals Himself in the
control of evil. *

The teaching on which the Catholic Church is
most certain and definite and for which we are
thankful, is the relative importance of evils in this

world. Ask the people around you the greatest
calamity that has befallen the world in the last ten

years. Different will be their answers. Some will
tell you earthquakes, others volcanic eruptions,



THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY 57

others will point to shipwrecks, others to calamities

in the air, others will point to the epidemics of dis-

ease. But you know that these mean merely the loss
of property and life which, while they are serious

and painful, are insignificant when compared to the
loss of that which only God can give, the loss of the
soul and its enlivening grace. The fiend that kills
this life of the soul is sin. The evil of sin is the
greatest calamity in the world, and in the fearful

consequences that it produces in the world. It is the

greatest of evils because it breaks off not our rela-

tions with people and life, but breaks off our rela-

tions with God. It is the greatest calamity and evil

because it must be paid for by an eternity of hell.

It is this teaching we keep in mind when we pray
to God : “Deliver us from evil.” We ask not so much
to be relieved from the afflictions of this life. These,
when we pray, we trust as Jesus did to the mercy of
God, and to His wisdom and providence. But from
the evil of sin that may damn our souls “Oh God
deliver us.”

We may pray to God for deliverance from the
evils of this world. As a matter of fact in the Litany
of the Saints we are very definite in the mention of
the evils for which we pray “Oh Lord deliver us.”
But we beg deliverance under this condition, that
God will judge whether or not for us they are evils
and that we shall abide by His decision and accept
gratefully whatever He shall send.

When I ask for deliverance from evil, oh my God,
I do not ask that my life be without any worry or
disturbance. Send evils if Thou wilt. Remove them
if Thou wilt. But if Thou dost will to send evils and
afflictions then send me also consolations, oh my God.



58 THE LORD’S PRAYER TODAY

Send me favors to make me forget. Send me con-
solations to make my burden lighter. Turn the evils
that beset me to my eternal glory and profit. And
God, deliver me from spiritual evil or sin. Spare me
from the evil attacks of the evil spirit, the devil.
Spare our people from the incursions and the sallies
of an evil world. Spare us from eternal damnation.
“Deliver us from evil. Amen.’’



CARDINAL HAYES STATES AIMS
OF THE CATHOLIC HOUR

(Extract from his address at the inaugural program in the

studio of the National Broadcasting Company, New York
City, March 2, 1930.)

Our congratulations and our gratitude are extended to the

National Council of Catholic Men and its officials, and to all
who, by their financial support, have made it possible to use
this offer of the National Broadcasting Company. The heavy
expense of managing and financing a weekly program, its
musical numbers, its speakers, the subsequent answering of

inquiries, must be met. . . .
This radio hour is for all the people of the United States.

To our fellow-citizens, in this word of dedication, we wish to
express a cordial greeting and, indeed, congratulations. For

this radio hour is one of service to America, which certainly

will listen in interestedly, and even sympathetically, I am
sure, to the voice of the ancient Church with its historic

background of all the centuries of the Christian era, and

with its own notable contribution to the discovery, explora-
tion, foundation and growth of our glorious country. . . .

Thus to voice before a vast public the Catholic Church is
no light task. Our prayers will be with those who have that
task in hand. We feel certain that it will have both the
good will and the good wishes of the great majority of our

countrymen. Surely, there is no true lover of our Country
who does not eagerly hope for a less worldly, a less material,
and a more spiritual standard among our people.

With good will, with kindness and with Christ-like sympa-
thy for all, this work is inaugurated. So may it continue.
So may it be fulfilled. This word of dedication voices, there-
fore, the hope that this radio hour may serve to make known,
to explain with the charity of Christ, our faith, which we
love even as we love Christ Himself. May it serve to make
better understood that faith as it really is—a light revealing
the pathway to heaven: a strength, and a power divine
through Christ: pardoning our sins, elevating, consecrating
pur common every-day duties and joys, bringing not only
justice but gladness and peace to our searching and ques-
tioning hearts.



Hear and Help the Catholic Hour
Produced! by the National Council of Catholic Men,

1312 Massachusetts Ave., Washington, D. C.

Presented by the National Broadcasting Company, and the
following associated stations:

Asheville, N. C. WWNC
Atlanta, Ga. WSB
Baltimore, Md. WFBR
Billings, Mont. KGHL
Birmingham, Ala. WAPI
Bismarck, N. D. KFYR
Boston, Mass. WEEI
Buffalo, N. Y. WBEN
Butte, Mont. KGIR
Cincinnati, Ohio WSAI
Charlotte, N. C. WSOC
Chicago, 111.

WMAQ or WENBJ
Cleveland, Ohio WTAM
Columbia, S. C. WIS
Covington, Ky. WCKY,
Dallas, Texas WFAA
Des Moines, Ia.WOC-WHO
Denver, Colo. KOA
Detroit, Mich. WWJ
Duluth-Superior WEBC
Fargo, N. D. WDAY
Fort Worth, Tex. WBAP
Hartford, Conn. WTIC
Hot Springs, Ark. KTHS
Houston, Tex. KPRC
Indianapolis, Ind. WKBF
Jackson, Miss. WJDX
Jacksonville, Fla. WJAX
Kansas City, Mo. WDAF
Los Angeles, Calif. KECA

Louisville, Ky. WAVE
Madison. Wis. WIBA
Memphis, Tenn. WMC
Miami, Fla. WIOD
Nashville, Tenn. WSM
New York, N. Y. WEAF
New Orleans. La. WSMB
Norfolk, Va. WTAR
Oklahoma City, Okla. WKY
Omaha, Neb. WOW
Philadelphia, Pa. WITT
Phoenix, Ariz. KTAR
Pittsburgh, Pa. WCAE
Portland, Me. WCSH
Portland, Ore. KGW
Providence, R. I. WJAR
Richmond, Va. WRVA
St. Louis, Mo. KSD
St. Paul, Minn. KSTP
Salt Lake City, Utah KDYL
San Antonio, Tex. WOAI
San Francisco, Cal. KPO
Schenectady, N. Y. WGY
Seattle, Wash. KJR
Shreveport, La. KTBS
Spokane, Wash.

KGA or KHQ
Tampa, Fla. WFLA
Tulsa, Okla. KVOO
Washington, D. C.. WRC
Worcester, Mass. WTAG

(Most of these stations present the Catholic Hour every
Sunday at six o’clock, New York Time [D. S. T. during
summer], though some of them suspend it periodi-

cally because of local commitments, etc.;

YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO THE CONTINUANCE OF
THESE WEEKLY BROADCASTS OF CATHOLIC

TRUTH IS NEEDED AND SOLICITED.



CATHOLIC HOUR ADDRESSES
OUR SUNDAY VISITOR Is the authorized printer and distributor

of addresses delivered in the Catholic Hour (sponsored by the
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CATHOLIC MEN, 1312 Massachusetts
Ave., N. W., Washington, D. C.) The addresses published to date,
all of which are still available, are listed below. Others will
be published as they are delivered.

“The Divine Romance,” by Rev. Dr. Fulton J. Sheen, 80 pages
and cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid. In quantities, $9.00 per 100.

“The Moral Order” and “Mary, the Mother of Jesus,” by Rev.
Dr. George Johnson, 64 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid.
In quantities, $6.00 per 100.

“A Trilogy on Prayer,” by Rev. Thomas F. Burke, C. S. P.,
32 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid. In quantities, $5.00
per 100.

“The Story of the Bible,” by Rev. Dr. Francis L. Keenan, 64
pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid. In quantities, $6.00
per 100.

“Four Religious Founders,” by Rev. Dr. Francis J. Connell,
C. SS. R., Rev. Benedict Bradley, O. S. B., Rev. Thomas M.
Schwertner, O. P., Rev. Sigmund Cratz, O. M. Cap., and 1 ev. M.
J. Ahern, S. J., 56 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid. In
quantities, $6.00 per 100.

“The Philosophy of Catholic Education,” by Rev. Dr. Charles L.
O’Donnell, C. S. C., 32 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid.
In quantities, $5.00 per 100.

“Christianity and the Modern Mind,” by Rev. John A. Mc-
Clorey, S. J., 64 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid. In
quantities, $6.00 per 100.

“The Moral Law,” by Rev. James M. Gillis, C. S. P., 88 pages
and cover. Single copy, 25c postpaid. In quantities, $9.50 per 100.

“Christ and His Church,” by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Joseph M. Corri-
gan, 88 pages and cover. Single copy, 25c postpaid. In quantities
$9.50 per 100.

“The Marks of the Church,” by Rev. Dr. John K. Cartwright.
48 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid. In quantities, $5.50
per 100.

“The Organization and Government of the Church,” by Rev.
Dr. Francis J. Connell, C. SS. R., 48 pages and cover. Single copy,
15c postpaid. In quantities, $5.50 per 100.

“Moral Factors in Economic Lifer” by Rev. Dr. Francis J. Haas
and Rev. Dr. John A. Ryan, 32 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c
postpaid. In quantities, $5.00 per 100.

“Divine Helps for Man,” by Rev. Dr. Edward J. Walsh, C. M.,
104 pages and cover. Single copy, 30c postpaid. In quantities,
$11.00 per 100.

“The Parables,” by Rev. John A. McClorey, S. J., 128 pages
and cover. Single copy, 35c postpaid. In quantities, $12.00 per 100.

“Christianity's Contribution to Civilization,” by Rev. James
M. Gillis, C. S. P., 96 pages and cover. Single copy, 5c pastpaid.
In quantities, $10.00 per 100.

“Manifestations of Christ,” by Rev. Dr. Fulton J. Sheen, 128
page

,
s
,w?'

nd cover- Single copy, 35c postpaid. In quantities, $12.00npr i fifi

“The Way of the Cross,” by Rev. Dr. Fulton J. Sheen, 32 pages
quantities,

1
"

$4.00
a
per 100.

OlC SlZe) - Sins.e copy, Ifc postpaid. In

“Christ Today,” by Very Rev. Dr. Ignatius Smith, O. P., 48pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid. In quantities, $5.50 per

“The Christian Family,” by Rev. Dr. Edward Lodge Curran. 68
P
eTi

S

o
and cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid. In quantities, $7.00



‘“The Dublin Eucharistic Congress,” by His Eminence William
Cardinal O’Connell. An address rebroadcast from Dublin, 12 page*
and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid. In quantities, $3.75 per 100.

“Rural Catholic Action,” by Rev. Dr. Edgar Schmiedeler, O.
8. B., 24 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c postpaid. In quantities,
$4.50 per 100.

“Religion and Human Nature,” by Rev. Dr. Joseph A. Daly,
40 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid. In quantities,
$5.50 per 100.

“The Church and Some Outstanding Problems of the Day,”
by Rev. Jones I. Corrigan, S. J., 72 pages and cover. Single copy,
20c postpaid. In quantities, $8.00 per 100.

“Conflicting Standards,” by Rev. James M. Glllls, C. S. P., 80
pages and cover. Single copy, 20c postpaid. In quantities, $9.00
per 100.

“The Hymn of the Conquered,” by Rev. Dr. Fulton J. Sheen,
128 pages and cover. Single copy, 35c postpaid. In quantities, $12.00
per 100.

“The Seven Last Words,” by Rev. Dr. Fulton J. Sheen, (pray-
er-book size), 32 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid. In
quantl ies, $3.00. per 100

“The Church and the Child,” by Rev. Dr. Paul H. Furfey, 48
pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid. In quantities, $5.60
per 100.

“Love’s Veiled Victory and Love’s Laws,” by Rev. Dr. George
F. Strohaver, S. J., 48 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid.
In quantities, $£.50 per 100.

“Religion and Liturgy,” by Rev. Dr. Francis A. Walsh, O.S.B.,

per? 100
8 and cover ' SIn&le copy. 10c, postpaid. In quantities, $5.00

“The Lord’s Prayer Today,” by Very Rev. Dr. Ignatius Smith,
O. P., 64 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid. In quantities,
$6.00 per 100.

• “God, Man and Redemption,” by Rev. Dr. Ignatius W. Cox,
S. J., 64 pages and cover. Single copies, 15c postpaid. In quanti-
ties, $6.00 per 100.

“This Mysterious Human Nature,” five addresses delivered by
the Rev. James M. Gillis, C. S. P., a 48-page pamphlet. Single
copy, 15c postpaid. In quantities, $5.50 per 100.

“The Queen of Seven Swords,” by Rev. Dr. Fulton J Sheen, 32
pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid. In quantities, $3.00
per 100.

“The Eternal Galilean,” by Rev. Dr. Fulton J. Sheen, 160 pages
and cover. Single copy, 50c postpaid. In quantities, $16.00 per 100.

“The Catholic Teaching on Our Industrial System,” by Msgr.
John A. Ryan, 32 pages and cover. Single copy, 10c, postpaid. In
quantities, $5.00 per 100.

“The Happiness of Faith,” by Rev. Daniel A. Lord, S. J., 80
pages and cover. Single copies, 20c postpaid. In quantities, $9.00
per 100.

“The Salvation of Human Society,” by Rev. Peter J. Bergen,
C. S. P., 48 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid. In
quantities, $5.50 per hundred.

“Faith,” by Rev. Vincent F. Kienberger, O.P., 48 pages and
cover. Single copy, 15o postpaid. In quantities, $5.50 per hundred.

“Catholic Education,” by Rev. Dr. George Johnson, 40
pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid. In quantities, $5.50
per hundred.

“The Church and Her Missions,” by Rt. Rev. William Quinn,
P. A., 32 pages and cover. Single copy, 15c postpaid. In quantities,
$5.00 per 100.

“The Church and the Depression,” by Rev. James M. Gillis,
C.S.P., 80 pages and cover, 20c postpaid. In quantities, $9.00 per
hundred.

“The Fullness of Christ,” by Very Rev. Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen,
172 pages and cover, 60c postpaid, In quantities, $16.00 per 100.
Complete Lot of 41 Pamphlets to one address for $4.50 postpaid.

Address: OUR SUNDAY VISITOR, Huntington, Indiana