But if Prayer be so powerful, it is no less necessary: our poverty and indigence; our manifold wants, infirmities, and miseries; the various dangers to which we are continually exposed; the frequent temptations we have to encounter; our absolute insufficiency of ourselves, and inability to do the least good without the grace of God; are corroborating proofs of the indispensable necessity of Prayer. {8} Though every good gift comes from the Father of Lights, who knows our wants, and is always inclined to relieve us, yet he requires that we have recourse in all our necessities, corporal and spiritual, to the throne of his mercy, under the assurance that whatever we ask with confidence, humility, piety, and perseverance, in the name of Jesus, shall be granted. However, the idea of Prayer is not to be confined to that of Petition, as frequently happens. Many Christians, indeed, pray to God; but where are they to be found, who, like David, are incessantly employed in singing the mercies of the Lord, and have the remembrance of them deeply engraven in their hearts? They call upon God, to represent to him their wants, either temporal or spiritual; they appear only in his presence with a hand lifted up to receive, as if they imagined he was indebted to them, and that he never gave them enough. They have a heart but to wish, and a tongue but to ask. Their wants are eloquent and pressing, their gratitude cold and silent; for how seldom do they think of appearing before him to bless and praise him, and to celebrate the wonders of his love for us! Alas! to recollect his benefits, to thank him for them, to feel confused at the sight of their own ingratitude, to excite themselves, from this motive, to confidence and love, to be ready to do all, to suffer all, for a God who has shown them so much goodness, is a practice which is known but to a small number of fervent souls. We are all earnest in asking; but in general so deficient in thanksgiving, that, like the Lepers in the Gospel, it is to be feared not above one in ten gives due thanks to God for the blessings received. {9} Nevertheless, nothing would be more pleasing to God, nor more proper to draw down upon us new graces. To facilitate, therefore, the exercise of this important duty, certain forms of vocal prayers have always been recommended, particularly such as have been used by the Saints, and drawn from the divine Psalms, which are so full of sublime ideas, of tender sentiments of piety, of fervent aspirations, of transports and raptures in God, that all the subjects of Prayer which are suitable either to the penitent way, the illuminative way, or the unitive way, are to be met with therein. The Manual now offered to the piety of Irish Catholics, will be found, on a diligent perusal, to have no small claim to this merit. The many editions it has gone through, the high esteem it is held in by interior souls, the constant and universal demand for it, is all we shall say in its praise.