Embed Doc
Copy Link
Readcast
Collections

CommentGo Back

Download

THE DUTY OF HAPPINESSTHOUGHTS ON HOPEByTHE REV. J. M. LELEN,Author of "Towards the Sanctuary" Towards the Altar," "Towards the EternalPriesthood," etc., etc.WITH A FOREWORD BYTHE REV. FRANCIS FINN, S. J.THE GOOD SHEPHERD PRESS,198 HIGHLANDS AVENUE, NEWPORT, KENTUCKYIMPRIMATUR. COVINGTON, HAC 7a MAII 1911. CAMILLUS PAULUS, EPIS. COVINGTON.

�

PREFACEMany times, notwithstanding our unworthi-ness, we have been invited to addressthose many souls whom God wants to embrace the religious life and who know itnot." Reluctant as we are to comply with such request, because we believe thatwhen God calls a soul, His voice is mighty enough to dispense with a human echo,we however offer the following pages, wherein we have tried to prove that bylistening to God's call and fulfilling God's desire, souls merely bind themselvesto the Duty of Happiness, here-now and here-after. Far from endeavoring "to compelthem to come in," we simply tell them: "0, taste and see that the Lord is sweet:blessed are those that hope in Him." "We believe that this is the only permissibleway to awaken a vocation and to display the Happiness of Duty."To-day, perhaps more than ever, recently said THE Boston Pilot, "we are dealingwith the problem of vocations. The field is white in every direction we turn oureyes, and the pity of it is that we stand in need of so many priests and sis-3tors to do the work of harvesting souls. One of our great communities of women hasbeen obliged to decline within the past year scores of institutions because it didnot have the sisters to take charge of those places. Should therefore this bookletbe the instrument of one vocation, we shall be more than rewarded."We have based our work on Gay's Esper-ance, on Newman's Sermons, and on Faber'sConferences. We gladly and gratefully credit to them all the fruits of life whichwill be found in The Duty of Happiness.J. M. L.FOREWORDBY THE REV. FRANCIS FINN, S. J,Cincinnati, May 2, 1911, ]\Iy Dear Father Lelen: I wish to tell you how verypleased I was with your MSS: The Duty of Happiness. There are a fervor and aneloquence running throughout it which is seldom found in spiritual books. Also,the literary touches, the elevated style, and the excellent quotations, bothpoetry and prose, give it a charm which will cause it to appeal to a large classof readers seldom interested in spiritual books.Finally, the subject itself, while most consoling, has, so far as I know, neverbeen handled before in a manner and style so popular. "With kindest regards, I amYours in X.

�

F. J. FINN, S. J.CONTENTSPAGEPREFACE,FOREWORDFPRAYER OF LA COLOMBIERE, - 7PART I.HOPE AND HAPPINESS IN THE RELIGIOUS LIFE, 9PART II.THE GROUNDS OF HOPE AND HAPPINESS, 18PART III.

THE QUALITIES OF HOPE AND HAPPINESS, - 54 APPENDIX.CONFIDENCE, THE ONLY WORSHIP, - - - 94MY GOD!I AM INTIMATELY CONVINCED THAT THOU DOST WATCH OVER ALL THOSE WHO HOPE IN THEE,AND THAT WE CAN" WANT FOR NOTHING WHILST WE EXPECT ALL FROM THEE : THEREFORE I AMRESOLVED FROM HENCEFORTH TO LIVE WITHOUT ANXIETY, AND TO CAST ALL MY CARE UPONTHEE. MEN MAY TURN AGAINST ME; SICKNESS MAYTAKE AWAY MY STRENGTH AND THE MEANS OF SERVINGTHEE; I MAY EVEN LOSE THY GRACE BY SIN; BUT I WILLNEVER LOSE MY HOPE. I WILL KEEP IT EVEN TO THE LAST MOMENT OF MY LIFE; AND ALL THEDEMONS IN HELL SHALL TRY IN VAIN TO TEAR IT FROM ME. OTHERS MAY LOOK FOR HAPPINESSFROM THEIR RICHES OR THEIR TALENTS; THEY MAY RELY UPON THE INNOCENCE OF THEIRLIVES, THE RIGOR OF THEIR PENANCE, THE NUMBER OF THEIR GOOD WORKS, OR THE FAVOR OFTHEIR PRAYERS; BUT FOR ME, O LORD, MY CONFIDENCE SHALL BE MY CONFIDENCE ITSELF.THIS CONFIDENCE HAS NEVER DECEIVED ANY ONE. No ONE HATH HOPED IN THE LORD AND BEENPUT TO SHAME. I AM SURE, THEN, THAT I SHALL BE ETERNALLY HAPPY, BECAUSE I HOPEFIRMLY TO BE SO, AND IT IS FROM THEE, O LORD, THAT I HOPE IT. I KNOW THAT I AMFRAIL AND CHANGEABLE ; I KNOW THE POWER OF TEMPTATION AGAINST VIRTUES THE MOSTFIRMLY BASED; I HAVE SEEN THE STARS OF HEAVEN AND THE PILLARS OF THE FIRMAMENTFALL; BUT NOT EVEN THIS CAN MAKE ME FEAR. As LONG AS I HOPE, I AM SAFE FROM EVERYEVIL, AND I AM SURE OF ALWAYS HOPING, BECAUSE I HOPE FOR THIS UNCHANGING HOPE. INFINE, I AM SURE THAT I CAN NOT HOPE TOO MUCH INTHEE; AND THAT I CAN NOT OBTAIN LESS THAN I HOPE FOR FROM THEE. THUS I HOPE THATTHOU WILT UPHOLD ME IN THE GREATEST DANGERS, PROTECT ME IN THE MOST VIOLENTASSAULTS, AND MAKE MY WEAKNESS TRIUMPH OVER MY MOST FORMIDABLE ENEMIES. I HOPETHAT THOU WILT LOVE ME ALWAYS, AND THAT I ALSOSHALL LOVE THEE WITH UNFAILING LOVE; AND TO CARRY MY HOPE AT ONCE AS FAR AS IT CANGO, I HOPE FOR THEE FROM THYSELF, MY CREATOR, BOTH IN TIME AND ETERNITY.The Duty of HAPPINEssPART I.HOPE AND HAPPINESS IN THE RELIGIOUS LIFE.1. Hope is the Soul of Human Life. It seems that were the sun no longer to give usheat and light, existence in this world were impossible. However, we could livemore easily without the sun than without hope."Our greatest good and what we can least spare Is hope."Hope is the deepest, the most absolute, the most constant, the most universal ofall our wants."Hope springs eternal in the human breast. Man never is, but always to be blest.""Where there is hope there is life; where hope languishes all gives way; wherehope dies all becomes frozen and still as death. "Where there is no hope there canbe no endeavor. Hope is a spur to all our enterprises, a stay in all our labors, asource of patience, an aroma without which even our joys turn into vexation anddisappointment."Hence the most vital movement mortals feel Is hope, the balm and life-blood ofthe soul,9If hope did not smile at our birth, cursed should be the coming of the new-bornbabe into the world, and if its sweet ray did not gild our grave, none, except thevery few who die without having been loved, could die without causing others todie of sorrow."Auspicious hope! In thy S\veet garden grow Wreaths for each toil, a charm forevery woe!"Always and everywhere we need hope; we like even its shadow; and rather than havenone, we accept even that proposed by illusions. A sad resource assuredly is vainhope; it is, however, less sad than despair. Moreover, if we speak of the veryroot of our hope, and of that invincible instinct which makes us believe in futuregood and happiness, this is never, absolutely speaking, deceptive and false; no,it is not even then the dream of those that wake;" for such instinct is right in

itself; it answers a law; it is the echo of the Divine Will; and if man, in whatstate soever he be, followed it legitimately (all things being providentiallydisposed as they are now), he could ascend the blessed summit where God has placedour last end. The fact is that hope belongs to the essence of our earthly life;the place "irrevocably dark" from which it is forever banished is hell; for"Where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all."2. It was impossible that hope should not have played a considerable part in thepolity 10 of the Christian religion. The natural order contains no power thatChristianity does not recognize, accept, consecrate, and employ. It could notneglect this force which is the mainspring of all others. But it has done for itwhat it has done for all things else, in appropriating it, it has divinelytransformed and ennobled its object, enlarged its horizon, strengthened its basis,and increased its capacity. It has put into it bright shoots of everlastingnessand elements of divineness. The very substance of God, that is, His life, glory,bliss, has become through Christ the regular daily bread that satisfies thishunger for happiness which we feel so keenly. Thus constituting Himself as theproper object of our hope, He has made Himself the Guarantor of it. PlacingHimself as the perfect Bliss wherein all our desires shall find their actualness,He has willed that we take Him as our Helper, so that we may derive directly fromHim the boldness to aim at our destiny, the courage to march towards itnotwithstanding the length and difficulties of the way, and the strengthsufficient to attain it.* Although hope has God for its immediate object, still, since it implies a goodnot yet possessed, it involves imperfection, and therefore, like faith, whichinvolves imperfect vision, hope will have no existence in heaven. Some indeed havethought that the blessed hope for a continuance of their beatitude, and for theresurrection of their bodies. But as St. Thomas points out, the blessed enjoyeternal life which transcends the distinctions of past, present, and future; theresurrection of their bodies is an assured certainty, and therefore can not bematter for hope, the object of which is the good which is difficult of attainment.3. Again, 0! the happy and admirable do-vice, God has made hope an obligatory law.This irresistible need, this craving of our heart, He has raised to the height ofan obligation of conscience! It seems it had been sufficient that God might havepermitted us to hope in Him; and what a grace it would have been! No moral merit,no human heroism, could purchase the favor of being able to hope for any sharewhatever in the Divine Life. "When the personal joy of God was offered to man, notonly the desire of it had to excite in us a most ardent longing, but hope had tospring up naturally from the offer made to us. God, however, did not depend onthat natural desire: He gave on this matter a formal precept. The wording of it isnot contained, it is true, in that authentic summary of the Law which we call theDecalogue. It is the same with the precept of hope as with that of faith; ofneither does the Decalogue state any express obligation. But what the Decaloguedoes not mention, God makes known to us in many passages of the Holy Scriptures;the Church has always taught; and as we have to believe in, and to love, God, sowe have also to hope in Him; and this under pain of losing Him, which is the samething as to lose all and to lose oneself. "Men," says Dr. Richards, "arefrequently tempted against hope, and lose confidence in the desire of God fortheir salvation, because they feel that they are altogether unworthy of His graceand special compassion, and that their sinfulness and negligence must repel ratherthan attract His mercy. But this 12 want of trust in His Goodness is in itself anact of negligence, for God not only invites our confidence, but even commands usto trust to His mercy, as being able and willing to overcome all obstacles andhindrances to our salvation and sanctification. 'If our hearts condemn us, God isgreater than our hearts,' says St. John. We may not be able to analyze our motivesand determine the merit or demerit of our deeds, but all these things are plain tothe Wisdom of God, and were in the mind of our Divine Lord when He offered Himselffor us on the Gross. Our way may seem difficult when we consider our weakness, butwe should remember the words of Holy Scripture: 'Commit thy way unto the Lord, and