taught His disciples to make use of a special form of prayer, the "Our
Father."

The form of the Rosary helps appreciably in rendering the Rosary the
great prayer it is. The Rosary has been aptly called the "lay
breviary." For many centuries the faithful joined in the reciting of
the breviary. As late as in the eleventh century St. Peter Damian
urgently exhorted the faithful to participate in the ecclesiastical
"hours" of prayer. And when gradually participation in the
ecclesiastical prayer ceased, Divine Providence supplied the Rosary to
take for the laity the place of the breviary. It may thus properly be
called the "lay breviary." In fact it reminds of the breviary of
priests, for it contains verbal prayer and meditation, and the hundred
and fifty "Hail Marys" of the Rosary correspond to the hundred and
fifty psalms of the breviary.

Let us now consider how appropriate the form of the Rosary is, and how
it renders the Rosary a perfect prayer.

The form makes the Rosary both an excellent devotion and a perfect
prayer. Prayer is the first duty of all men. It is an article of faith
that no man can work out his salvation without prayer. The real essence
of prayer consists in the union of vocal prayer with meditation, or
interior prayer. The true prayer is a conversation, or intercourse, of
man with God. The combination of meditating with vocal prayer is an
excellent means of participating in Divine grace. Meditation makes us
realize our needs, the faults which we should lay aside, and the
virtues which we must acquire. Sin makes man blind, meditation opens
his eyes. Vocal prayer alone is not of itself a protection from sin,
daily experience teaches this. There are many who say vocal prayers and