[Transcriber's notes: This work is derived from https://archive.org/details/CompleteManualOfCatholicPiety/page/n5. The Author's Side notes and comments are indented. In HTML they are also in a slightly smaller font, as in the original text.]

The Complete Manual Of Catholic Piety;

Containing

A Selection Of Fervent Prayers,
Pious Reflections, And Solid Instructions,
Adapted To Every State Of Life.

To Which Is Annexed A Supplement,
Containing Excellent And Approved
Devotions, With The Epistles And
Gospels For All The Sundays And
Festivals Of The Year.

By The Rev. William Gahan, O.S.A.

DUBLIN:

Published By James Duffy,
25, Anglesea Street.
1844.

Dublin:
Printed By J. M. O'Toole,
33, Abbey-street.

Contents.

Preface.

Of all the means we can employ for our advancement in the great affair of our salvation, Prayer is certainly one of the most powerful. Saint Augustin calls it the Key of Heaven, that unlocks the treasures of God, and gives us free access to the riches of his divine bounty. It was by prayer that Elias, when he pleased, opened and shut the sluices of heaven, and caused fire to descend from above to consume his sacrifice. It was by prayer that Joshua caused the sun to stop in the midst of its course. The prayer of Moses contributed more to the signal victory obtained by Joshua over the army of the Amalekites, than all the weapons of Israel: for as long as his hands were raised up to heaven, his prayers drew down a blessing on the people of God: but no sooner did he let his hands fall, (being unable to keep them in that painful posture,) and had ceased from prayer, than the Amalekites began to prevail.

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.

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.

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.

To render it still more acceptable and more complete, the present edition has been very considerably enlarged, improved, and enriched with Instructions and Devotions for Confirmation; with an explanation of the Latin Liturgy, and of the Ceremonies used in the sacrifice of the Mass, and different pious methods of assisting thereat; with particular Devotions for every day in the Week; in short, with a great variety of Sacred Hymns of praise and thanksgiving, and of spiritual Exercises of Piety for several occasions, taken from the most approved Books of Devotion in the French and English Language. [Footnote 1]

[Footnote 1: See the Supplement attached to this Book.]

A Table Of Moveable Feasts.

Feasts And Fasts

Throughout The Year.

Holy-days On Which There Is A Strict Obligation To Hear Mass, And Refrain From Servile-works.

All Sundays in the Year.
Ascension of our Lord.
Corpus Christi.
January 1—The Circumcision of our Lord.
January 6—The Epiphany.
March 17—The Feast of St Patrick.
March 25—The Annunciation of the B.V.M.
June 29—St. Peter and St. Paul.
August 15—Assumption of the B.V.M.
November 1—Feast of All Saints.
December 25—Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[The obligation is taken away on all other days, by decrees of Popes Pius VI. and VIII.]

Fasting Days On One Meal.

All the Days in Lent, except Sundays.

The Eve of Whitsuntide.

The Quarter-tenses, or Ember-days, being the Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, next after the first Sunday of Lent; after Whit-Sunday; after September 14th: and after December 13th.

The Eves of St. Peter and St. Paul; of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary; of All Saints; and of Christmas-day.

The Fridays and Saturdays in Advent.

Days Of Abstinence From Flesh Meat.

All the Sundays in Lent, except when the use of meat is allowed by the Archbishop or Bishop of the diocese.

All the Fridays throughout the Year.

N. B.—Eggs are forbidden on Fridays, when a fast falls on them; and if a Fasting Day fall on a Sunday, the fast is kept on the Saturday before. If Christmas-day fall on a Friday, neither fast nor abstinence is observed.

N.B.—The Catholic Church commands all her children to be present at the great Eucharistic Sacrifice, which we call the Mass, and to rest from servile work, on Sundays and Holy-days.

Secondly—To abstain from flesh on all the days of fasting and abstinence, and on fasting days to eat but one meal.

Thirdly—To confess their sins at least once a year.

Fourthly—To receive the blessed sacrament at least once a year, and that at Easter, viz., between Palm and Low Sundays.

The time appointed in the Archdioceses of Dublin, for complying with the Easter Duty, begins an Ash-Wednesday, and terminates on Ascension Day. They who, without some reasonable cause, neglect this important duty, are liable to be excommunicated whilst living, and when they die, to be deprived of Christian burial, according to the fourth Council of Lateran, can. 21.

Marriage cannot be contracted by persons within the fourth degree of kindred without a dispensation, and if attempted is invalid. Spiritual kindred, contracted by baptism or confirmation, is an impediment.

Clandestine marriage is that which is not performed by the pastor of one of the party, with certificate, or by another priest, with his license, and in the presence of two or three witnesses.

Clandestine marriages are unlawful, and forbidden by the church; and are null or invalid in all the dioceses of Ireland, as the Decree of the Council of Trent, which annuls clandestine marriages, has duly been received in them all, 2nd December, 1827, and was in force thirty days after, or 1st January, 1828.

The solemnizing of marriage is forbidden from the first Sunday in Advent till after Twelfth-day; and from the beginning of Lent till Easter-Sunday. At all other times it may be solemnized.

Plenary Indulgences

Plenary Indulgences are granted to the faithful of this kingdom by complying with the usual conditions:—

On the feast of St. Patrick, or any day within the octave.

Item, on the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, or any day within the octave.

Item, at the hour of death, to such as devoutly invoke the sacred name of Jesus, at least with the heart.

The other Indulgences which are granted to the faithful of the Archdioceses of Dublin, on the feasts of the Nativity of our Lord, the Circumcision, the Epiphany, the Resurrection, the Ascension, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, on the five principal festivals of the Blessed Virgin, and the feast of All Saints, &c, are commonly published from the altars.

Note.—By an Indulgence is meant a relaxation or remission of the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven, both as to the guilt and eternal punishment. Some Indulgences are called plenary; because, when the full effect of them is gained, they remit all the debt of temporal punishment: others are called partial; for example, an Indulgence of forty or an hundred days, or of three, seven, ten, fifteen, or more years; because the penitent is only thereby released in part, or from such a proportion of the debt of temporal punishment as was formerly enjoined by the penitential canons, according to the enormity of the crimes committed, and as would have been remitted by God, had the penitent undergone, for such a space of time, the severe canonical penances which were in use in the Church until the twelfth century.

The direct and immediate effect, therefore, of an Indulgence is, to remit the debt of temporal punishment, and not to pardon or remit sin, as it supposes sin already forgiven. But the sinner's repentance being seldom so perfect as to release him entirely from the whole punishment he deserves, on account of the injury he has committed against the Divine Majesty, there usually remains some debt of temporal punishment to be discharged, either in this world or in the next. For though the mercy of God is moved by a true repentance, to pardon the guilt and eternal punishment due in hell for mortal sin; yet his justice often substitutes in its place, and reserves some debt of temporal punishment, to which the repenting sinner is liable on account of his past sins; as appears evidently from several remarkable instances recorded in holy writ, particularly Adam, King David, Manasses, the Israelites, &c.

It is to discharge and cancel this debt of temporal punishment, that works of penance are enjoined in the sacred tribunal of Confession; and that the Catholic Church, like a compassionate and indulging mother, opens her spiritual treasures from time to time, to supply the wants and make up the deficiency of her children. In virtue of the power given to her by Jesus Christ, and in imitation of St. Paul, (2 Cor. x.) and several other renowned doctors and pastors who flourished in the purest ages of Christianity, she grants indulgences to such of the faithful as are properly disposed, and apply with fervour to those works of piety and religion, charity and penance, that are required on their part, as conditions necessary to gain the benefit of an indulgence.

The Manner Of Lay Persons Baptizing An Infant In Danger Of Death.

Take common water, pour it on the head or face of the child, and while you are pouring it, say the following words: "I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."

The Roman Calendar
For The Kingdom Of Ireland:

Containing

Explanations.

The Festivals of the Holy-Days are in small capital Letters.

The Irish Saints are marked in Italic Letters.

The Founders of Religious Orders are marked thus, †

Note.—Ap. signifies Apostle, M. Martyr, B. Bishop, Ab. Abbot, C. Confessor, V. Virgin, D. Diocese.

Calendar.

January, 31 Days.

Feast of the most holy Name of Jesus, 2nd Sunday after Epiphany.

February, 28 Days.

In Leap-years February hath 29 days, and the Feast of St. Matthias is kept on the 25th.

March, 31 Days.

The Feast of the Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Friday after Passion Sunday.

April, 30 Days.

May, 31 Days.

June, 30 Days.

July, 31 Days.

August, 31 Days.

September, 30 Days.

Festival of holy Name of Blessed Virgin Mary, Sunday within Octave of Nativity Blessed Virgin Mary.—Seven Dolors, 3rd Sunday in September.