at the Church's services, these
three points: the different kinds of vocal prayer, its necessity, and
the conditions attaching to it. For vocal prayer is divided into that
which is in common and that which is private or individual.

The general necessity of vocal prayer arises from the fact that it is
offered in the person of the Church. For since the Church is composed of
created beings dependent on the senses, prayer made through the medium
of the senses--_i.e._, vocal prayer--must needs be offered by its
ministers; else we should not know whether the worship of prayer was
being offered by God's ministers, nor should we be conscious of the gift
to God which was being offered by them in prayer; for the Church only
judges from the things that appear externally.

Our individual need of vocal prayer arises from the necessity of
stirring up our own devotion, and preserving it.

The conditions of prayer in common are twofold: it must be vocal, and it
must be out loud. Hence those who say private Masses in such a low
tone--and that consciously--as to be unintelligible to their hearers,
appear to act unreasonably and are inexcusable, unless it should happen
by accident that no one is present; in this case it is sufficient if
they can be heard by the server who is close at hand. This will also
show us what use we are to make of chant, or of recitation without
chant, in prayer in common: it must be governed by our common devotion.
And in whatever fashion such prayer may be made this rule must always be
observed: it must be said so intelligibly that the meaning of the words
may be distinctly perceived both by the reciters and by others, that so
the Church's devotion may be aroused.

And reason tells us what conditions attach to our private prayer: viz.,
our own private devotion. This shews, too, the error of those who, in
order to complete the tale of a large number of private vocal prayers
each day, lay aside meditation and mental prayer. They neglect the end
for the means (_on_ 2. 2. 83. 12).

_S. Augustine:_ Oh! How I lifted up my voice to Thee, O Lord, when I
sang the Psalms of David, those songs full of faith, those strains full
of piety which soothed my swelling spirit! And I was then but
uninstructed in Thy true love; a catechumen spending my leisure with
Alypius, another catechumen. And my mother stayed with us: clad indeed
in woman's garb, but with a man's faith, with a matron's calm, with a
mother's love, with a