office, and competitors can be found in the pauper population of our large towns for the privilege of holding a broom at the corner of the street, there yet is one employment to which men can devote themselves without being much distressed by competition: if lawyers and merchants are many, and priests are few, whose is the fault? The gifts of grace are the reward of prayer. So our Lord has expressly said: "Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He send labourers into His harvest."†

It is indeed true that Catholic priests are sadly wanted. Their work no other men can do for them. The dispensation of the Sacraments is in their hands, the offering of Sacrifice, and upon these more than upon movements of armies and conferences of statesmen the future of the human race depends. According as the hearts of men are filled with criminal ambition, or are upright in the sight of God, will be the good or the evil of the part they play in history.

If souls are to be saved at all there must be priests, and to save more souls there must be more priests. If the world is not to go from bad to worse, the Church must be served by a numerous and effectual body of priests.

Those who have not received power by the imposition of hands cannot exercise the works of the Christian ministry. Those who are called to receive that power cannot be converted from laymen into priests in a day or in a year. Long and careful preparation of mind and heart is needed. May God in mercy to His Church, and in pity to a sinful generation, scatter with liberal hand vocations to the Church, and may He Himself preserve His gift intact, and so dispose that no hostile measures may prevent, or malign influences mar, in France or anywhere, the proper training of Catholic priests. They are not likely to be too numerous, and they cannot be too learned, or too pure.

+St. Luke x. 2.

PRAYER.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus! through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer Thee all the prayers, labours, and crosses of this day, in union with those intentions for which Thou dost unceasingly offer Thyself a Victim of love on our altars. I offer them to Thee in particular to obtain for Thy Church priests according to Thy Heart. Defeat, dear Lord, the impious scheme contrived to keep the ranks of Thy priesthood unrecruited, and put aside all obstacles that might impede the chosen ones of Thy right hand in carrying out their high vocation. Amen.

Brief of Pope Leo the Thirteenth,

All the Members of the Apostleship of Prayer may claim their part in the encouragement and the blessing of the following Brief, which we publish with grateful hearts.

To Our Beloved Son H. Ramière, of the Society of Jesus, Director General of the Work of the Apostleship of Prayer, and of the periodical called Le Messager du Cœur de Jésus.

LEO XIII., POPE.

Beloved Son, Health and Apostolic Benediction,

If Moses by his prayers, Beloved Son, many times held back the arm of God outstretched in anger against a guilty race; if with hands uplifted to Heaven he put to flight the Amalecites contending against Josue; if, when Samuel cried to the Lord in Israel's behalf, the Philistines were slain; if Elias, solicitously praying, procured that rain should fall after it had been withheld three years and six months; if, by the entreaty of Joachaz, although a sinner, Israel was released from the hands of the Kings of Syria, Hazael and Benadad; if so often

in later times, upon the invocation of the Majesty of God, the enemies of Christendom were overthrown; Christ Himself having said: "Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My name I will do it:" it is with good reason, certainly, that the glorious name of Apostleship has been bestowed upon an association which demands with persevering prayer, that the Divine power may in the present necessities of the Church work out the same great consummation, which it has wrought once by the Apostles and many a time by apostolic men; that the strength of Hell may be broken, that the schemes of human malice and impiety may be frustrated, that minds now darkened by the mists of error may receive the light, that vice may give place to virtue, that the zeal of the ministers of religion may be inflamed, that piety may find fresh life and flourish everywhere, and that the Church, freed from all her tribulations, may serve the Lord in peace and liberty. But since this Apostleship derives all its efficacy from Him Who unites in Himself infinite charity and omnipotence; most fittingly, Beloved Son, you and your Associates have proposed by means of your Messager du Cœur de Jésus to turn the minds and hearts of the faithful to the SACRED HEART OF JESUS, from which the Church issued, and by Which she is loved with a love which no words can tell. To effect this purpose you strive to place before the eyes of the faithful the inexhaustible treasure of the charity of that Sacred Heart, that so they may recognize in the Son of God united to our nature the beginning and the end of all creatures made by Him; and learning to refer all the events of life to Him as to their centre, forasmuch as all are ordained by Him to His own glory and the good of the Church, they may with renewed courage direct all their actions to that end, and unite their prayers more earnestly to the perpetual prayer of that Sacred Heart, and may obtain thereby every blessing which they desire and seek. We rejoice, moreover, that your design has so powerfully attracted the

piety of the faithful, that your writings, reproduced in several languages, have received the attention of very many readers. And as this cannot fail to promote the worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to strengthen faith and charity, so, too, most certainly, it will be to the Christian people profitable unto salvation, and it will hasten the coming of the days of mercy. This is the glorious reward reserved for all the labours undertaken by you and your Associates. And while we point your hopes, Beloved Son, to this the great reward of many labours undertaken by you and your Associates, we lovingly impart to you and them and to all others who assist your work, Our Apostolic Benediction as an assurance of the Divine approval and Our paternal care.

Given at Rome, in St. Peter's, on the 23rd of September of the year 1878, the first of Our Pontificate.

LEO XIII., POPE.

The Holy League of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. For the triumph of the Church and Holy See, and the Catholic regeneration of nations.

NOVEMBER, 1878.

I. GENERAL INTENTION: Vocations to the Priesthood.

II. PARTICULAR INTENTIONS.

1. Fri. ALL SAINTS.-COMMUNION OF REPARATION, &c.-FRIDAY OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS.-GENERAL COMMUNION OF THE HOLY LEAGUE.-Desire of heaven; 24,860 various intentions.

2. Sat. ALL SOULS.-Compassion for the Souls in Purgatory; 12,869 dead.

3. SUN. Twenty-first after Pentecost.-S. Winefride, V.M. — (S.J., The Maternity B.V.M. 3rd Sunday October.)-Simplicity; 42,648 children.

4. Mon. S. Charles Borromeo, B.C.-Respect for the Ministers of the Altar; 1,546 seminaries and novitiates.

5. Tues. Of the Octave.-(S.J., S. Winefride, V.M.)-Contempt of the world; 3,403 temporal affairs.

6. Wed. Of the Octave.-Love of recollection; 7,996 religious.

7.. Thurs. Of the Octave.-Docility to our spiritual director; 5,182 ecclesiastics.

8. Fri. Octave of All Saints.-Gratitude; 4,537 acts of thanksgiving.

9. Sat. Dedication of our Saviour's Basilica.-Generosity; 2,670 spiritual works.

10. SUN. Twenty-second after Pentecost.S. Andrew Avellino, C.-(S.J., The Purity of B.V.M. 4th Sunday of October.)-Christian innocence; 3,768 parishes.

II. Mon. S. Martin, B.C.-The spirit of faith; 6,714 spiritual graces.

12. Tues. S. Martin, P.M.- Fervour in virtue; the grace of perseverance for 5,337 persons.

13. Wed. S. Didacus, C.-(S.J., S. STANISLAUS, S.J., C.)-Horror of sin; 23,030 young

men.

14. Thurs. S. Erconwald, B.C.-Zeal for good education; 1,823 houses of education.

15. Fri. S. Gertrude, V.-Care to preserve our hearts pure; 8,102 nuns.

16. Sat. S. Edmund, B.C.-Spiritual wisdom; 2,292 superiors.

17. SUN. Twenty-third after Pentecost.S. Hugh, B.C.- Resignation; 4,086 sick

persons.

18. Mon. Dedication of Basilicas of SS. Peter and Paul.-Zeal for souls; 38,573 sinners. 19. Tues. S. Elizabeth of Hungary.Household duties; 15,761 families.

20. Wed. S. Edmund, K.M.-(S.J.. Octave of S. Stanislaus.)-Charity to the unfortunate; 2,832 persons in affliction."

21. Thurs. THE PRESENTATION B.V.M.Love of innocence; 5,101 first communions.

22. Fri. S. Cecilia, V.-Love of praising God; 6,648 young persons.

23. Sat. S. Clement, P.M.-Docility to the call of God; 4,453 vocations.

24. SUN. Twenty-fourth after Pentecost. -S. John of the Cross.-Reverence; 2,340 communities.

25. Mon. S, Catharine, V.M.-Purity of faith; 8,550 heretics and schismatics.

26. Tues. S. Felix of Valois, C.-Love for the Word of God; 4,577 missions and retreats. 27. Wed. S. Gregory Thaumaturgus, B.C. -Confidence; 5,776 fathers and mothers.

28. Thurs. Of the Blessed Sacrament. (S.J., S. Edmund, K.M. Nov. 20.)-Affability; 2,936 graces of reconciliation.

29. Fri. Vigil.-Of the Vigil.-(S.J., S. Didacus, C. Nov. 13.)-Activity in the service of God; 1,449 promoters.

30. Sat. S. Andrew, Ap.-Zeal for the glory of God; 1,237 foreign missions.

Intentions sent for publication must arrive in London not later than the morning of the first day of the month. It is recommended that they should be written on a page by themselves. An Indulgence of 100 days is attached to all the Prayers and Good Works offered up for these Intentions.

The Intentions of the Archconfraternity of St. Joseph of Angers, and the Children of St. Joseph at Brussels, are recommended to the prayers of the Associates.

Application for Diplomas of Affiliation to the Apostleship of Prayer, Tickets of Admission, &c., for England, is to be made to the Rev. A. G. Knight, S.J., III, Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, London, W.; for Ireland, to the Rev. M. Russell, S.J., 50, Upper Sackville Street, Dublin. Sheets of the Living Rosary, adapted to the requirements of the Association, may be had of Messrs. Burns and Oates. Price 2d. the Sheet.