Conference Matter For Religious

Compiled by Ferreol Girardey C. SS. R. Originally published in 1914 2 Volumes in One

Notice of the Compiler.................................................................................5 Introduction..................................................................................................5 What Is a Saint?...........................................................................................9 What Is a Religious, and Especially a Teaching Religious? (C)...............15 What Is a Young Religious, and How Necessary It Is to Train Him Well. (C)..............................................................................................................23 The Misfortune of Losing One's Vocation. (C).........................................30 The Hundredfold to All, or to Each According to His Works. (C)............33 What Sin Is (C)..........................................................................................38 Sin, an Evil For Him Who Commits It, for His Family and For His Community. (C).........................................................................................46 The Great Question (C)..............................................................................49 Why The Devil Tempts Us (C)..................................................................61 Necessity of Meditation and Mental Prayer (C)........................................68 The Five Kinds of Devotion or Piety (C)...................................................77 Brother Hippolyte and His Lamp (C)........................................................81 On Perfection (E).......................................................................................87 The Desire of Perfection (E)......................................................................91 The Horror of Every Wilful Fault (E)........................................................99 In What Our Whol Perfection Consists (E)............................................105 Silence (E)................................................................................................108 Solitude of the Soul (E)............................................................................112 The Exercise of the Presence of God (E).................................................114 On Rising (E)...........................................................................................120 The Examination of Conscience (E)........................................................123 Our Meals (E)..........................................................................................125 The Recreation (E)...................................................................................128 Spiritual Reading (E)...............................................................................131 Retiring to Rest (E)..................................................................................133 The Chapter of Faults (E)........................................................................135 Ejaculatory Prayers (E)............................................................................137 Three Reasons For Making the Way of the Cross (E).............................140 Temptations (E).......................................................................................143 The Predominant Passion or Defect.........................................................148 Tepidity (E)..............................................................................................151 The Spirit of Compunction (E)................................................................154 The Spirit of Penance (E).........................................................................159 Mortification (E)......................................................................................163 Charity (C)...............................................................................................176 Fraternal Correction or Admonition (C)..................................................183 2

Detraction (C)..........................................................................................189 Silence and Discretion of Speech (C)......................................................195 How to Establish and Maintain Unity in a Community (C)....................200 Peace and Union in Religious Communities (C).....................................206 The Proof or Practice of Fraternal Charity (C)........................................214 The Life of a Religious Community (C)..................................................221 Virtues of the Family Life (C).................................................................231 In Union There Is Strengh (C).................................................................239 What It Is to Educate a Child (C).............................................................244 Necessity of Education (C)......................................................................251 A Well-Taught Catechism (C).................................................................254 The Holy Respect Due to the Child (C)...................................................259 Discipline (C)...........................................................................................264 Supervision (C)........................................................................................267 What a Teacher Should Be (C)................................................................272 The Imitation of Jesus Christ (E).............................................................287 The Love of God (E)................................................................................291 Zeal of Souls (E)......................................................................................295 Prudence (E).............................................................................................302 Gratitude (E)............................................................................................307 Patience (E)..............................................................................................311 Humility (E).............................................................................................316 Meekness (E)...........................................................................................321 Conformity to the Will of God (E)..........................................................327 Patience (G).............................................................................................332 Anger (G).................................................................................................336 Meekness (G)...........................................................................................339 Idle Curiosity (G).....................................................................................342 God's Gifts to Us, and Our Gifts to God (G)...........................................344 Negligence in Little Things and Loss of Time (G)..................................348 Refuse Nothing to God (G)......................................................................350 Mental Prayer (G)....................................................................................352 Our Falls and Their Causes (G)...............................................................356 Scandal (G)..............................................................................................360 Mary, the Mother of Jesus (G).................................................................362 Mary, Our Mother (G).............................................................................364

Notice of the Compiler

THE CONFERENCE MATTER FOR RELIGIOUS has been compiled from three sources. The first"Sentences, Lecons, Avis du Venere Pere Champagnat expliques et developpes par un de ses premiers disciples "is an admirable work intended especially for the Little Brothers of Mary, founded by Venerable Father Champagnat. The Conferences compiled therefrom are indicated by (C). The second source "Ecole de Perfection Religieuse d'apres les meilleurs auteurs, surtout St. Alphonse, St. Francois de Sales, Ste. Therese" by Rev. Hippolyte Clement, C.SS.R., is a standard work on Religious Perfection. The matter compiled therefrom is marked (E). To the aforesaid matter the Compiler has added a dozen Sketches of his own Conferences to Religious. These are marked (G). Religious will find these two volumes full of useful and practical matter for reading and self-examination, especially during their retreats. The members of the Clergy who have to conduct retreats for Religious or to give them conferences, or who have charge of Religious Communities, will find valuable help in THE CONFERENCE MATTER. All who are engaged in the work of Education, whether among the Clergy, Religious, or the Laity, will find very excellent and practical matter in the seven Conferences treating of Education, especially in the Conference 17 of Vol. II: "What a teacher should be." In fine, even the Laity who are desirous of serving God perfectly according to their state of life, will find in these volumes much to interest, enlighten and help them to serve God faithfully.

Introduction
To attain the perfection of the Religious State many efficient and powerful means are presented to us by the masters of the spiritual life. Among these means spiritual conferences hold a place of preeminence. From the very foundation of the Religious State, beginning, we may say, with our Blessed Lord's invitation to lead a life according to the Evangelical Counsels, conferences upon the nature, principles, virtues and obligations of the Religious State, have been at all times an unfailing source of spiritual nourishment to the members of every Order. The Ancient Fathers of the Desert kept alive their fervor, zeal and faithful observance of the precious Counsels of Jesus Christ, by imbibing their Master's own Spirit from the ever living, fruitful word of God, spoken to 5

them by those appointed to be their guides to life eternal. It is in the conferences addressed to Religious that the Divine Sower casts the seeds of holiness, fecundates them with the dew of His heavenly graces, and enables them to bear the rich fruit of perfection. In the spiritual conference the soul is lifted above the things of earth into that celestial atmosphere where she contemplates the infinite perfections of the heavenly Bridegroom and consequently draws from this living fountain of eternal life the precious gift of divine love. In the spiritual conference we are edified by the examples taken from the lives of the saints and from the multitude of generous souls whose lives have been consecrated to God by the most noble sacrifices that man can offer to his Creator. In the spiritual conferences we are instructed in our duties, and our obligations are brought home to us with that earnest solicitude that imparts resoluteness to our purpose and the firm conviction that fidelity to God and to sacred duty will alone purchase for us the imperishable crown promised by our Heavenly Father as His own reward to those who persevere unto the end. Thus, fortified by the unction of God's word, and strengthened by our desire to imitate Christ, we walk steadfastly and with renewed courage, along the road of self-abnegation, cheerfully taking up our cross as a sign of our union and discipleship with Him Who said: "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me." (Matt. 16.24.) In the spiritual conference, we have before our minds God and His glory and our own sanctification. In having this object in view, we may apply to ourselves the words of St. Paul: "When you had received of us the word of God, you received it, not as the word of man, but (as it is indeed), the word of God." (1 Thess. 2. 13.) The devout soul receives God's word with eagerness. It fills him with peace and happiness. It penetrates his spiritual being like a soft rain falling upon a parched soil, and enables the fervent Religious to produce the fruits of sanctity. To reap in abundance the blessed fruit of God's word in the spiritual conference, we must ever bear in mind that like Mary who chose the best part, we, too, must repose at Jesus' feet and listen with humility, docility and profit to those words that are spoken to us in His Name. If we are wanting in the holy dispositions of Mary, the seed of virtue and holiness planted in the conference may wither and die. In His admirable parable of the sowing of the seed, Jesus Christ says: "Some of the seed fell by the wayside and it was trodden down, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock, and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell 6

among thorns, and the thorns growing up with it, choked it." (Luke 8.5-7.) The seed of God's word produces no fruit in a soul in which it is prevent ed from taking root. In the fervent Religious, however, the divine seed, as our Blessed Lord says, will bear fruit a hundred fold, fruits of generous love and sacrifice, fruits of self-denial, self-surrender, prayer, recollection, fervor; in a word, fruits of perfection and holiness, fruits that will obtain for us God's hundred-fold reward here, and the possession of everlasting happiness here-after. Reflect for a moment upon our divine Saviour's own words. Jesus does not merely say: "Blessed is he that heareth the word of God," but He adds at once: "and keepeth it." (Luke 11.28.) What sanctifies us is not the words we hear, but the putting of them into practice. It is not enough merely to admire the beauty of virtue and of perfection, as we hear it explained in the conferences, we must endeavor to put into practice the means of making progress in the spiritual life as explained to us in the conferences. It behooves us to listen to the voice of our loving Shepherd alluring us in the conferences by the sweet attractions of His love. He wishes us to profit by the talent entrusted to our keeping. Of one thing we should be convinced, namely, that spiritual conferences are graces from Heaven. In the conference God allows a spark to fall into the soul. It is our duty to keep that spark alive by mental prayer and spiritual reading, and by the faithful discharge of duty in the exercise of a devout life. These volumes of Spiritual Conferences go forth on their mission to the Religious Communities of America and of the English-speaking world. The Venerable Compiler, Rev. Ferreol Girardey, C. SS. R., has embodied in these solid and instructive discourses his own experience of more than fifty years. During all those years his favorite occupation has been to compose and edit works treating of the principles and virtues of the Religious Life, as also to conduct retreats for the various Religious Communities. Religious will find in these Spiritual Conferences a most lucid exposition of their obligations, and a reliable exponent of all matters pertaining to their holy State. The conferences on education are particularly adapted to the use of those whose vocation is to instruct the young. Besides those admirable discourses on education, nearly all the occupations performed by the different Religious bodies are treated by the Venerable Compiler in these Conferences, showing the relationship and compatibility of these external works to the interior life of the Religious. It is with pleasure that I express the confidence that these instructive and useful volumes will find a place in all our Religious Communities. 7

Thos. P. Brown, C. SS. R. Provincial Superior. St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 5, 1913. Feast of the Holy Rosary.

Publishers Thoughts
We are bringing this book back into print, not only for religious, but for all who wish to truly live the Catholic way of life. Although some things are obviously for religious only, most of the advice contained in here will be found quite helpful for all who wish to save their souls. The chapters (45-51) on educating children should be in the hands of every parent and teacher. This was originally published in two volumes, but we have chosen to combine the two into one volume so that all of this wonderful material will be readily available. We pray that you will find this information as useful as we did. Saint Pius X Press www.stpiusxpress.com Box 74 Delia, Kansas

What Is a Saint?
A saint is a person who dreads sin more than all the evils in the world, and shuns it as much as death itself. A saint cannot bear sin in his soul. If, through frailty, he happens to commit a sin, remorse leaves him no rest, his sin weighs on him like a mountain, and he is satisfied and finds peace only after he has confessed it and expelled it from his heart. His motto is: "Hatred to sin! No sin!" A saint is a person possessed of solid piety, profoundly convinced that prayer is as necessary to his soul as food to his body, for whom prayer is a necessity, a consolation; a person who essentially adheres to his spiritual exercises, and always does his best to perform them well. A saint is a person who loves Jesus, sympathizes with Jesus, suffers when he sees Jesus offended, and delights whenever he has the occasion to procure His glory. "Love," says St. Augustine, "is the mark of the elect; it indicates who are the children of God and separates them from the children of Satan; it distinguishes the elect from the reprobates, and marks the degree of the soul's holiness. The soul possessing a great degree of charity, is great and exalted in sanctity; the soul that has only a middling degree, is not great in virtue; and the soul devoid of charity, is nothing, for St. Paul says: `If I have not charity, I am nothing' " (1 Cor. 13.2). A saint is a person who is obedient, who confides entirely in his superiors and allows himself to be led as a child. St. Philip Neri often said that holiness consists in giving up one's will. In religious obedience and sanctity are synonymous. Wherefore a perfectly obedient religious is a saint. Obedience is the highroad to heaven. Jesus first walked in it as the Guide of the predestined; all the saints have followed Him in it, and not one of them reached heaven by any other way. A saint is a person who is humble, who combats pride without ceasing, who, far from seeking to domineer over others, makes himself the least and the servant of all. "Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart" (Matt. 11.29). All the saints frequented the school of Jesus Christ and learned humility from Him; all were models of this virtue and were marked with this character of predestination. A saint is a mortified person, who fears neither sufferings, temptations, nor any trials whatever. Those whom God has predestined, He rendered conformable to Jesus crucified; that is, He made them go through sufferings and hardships. "Without trials, temptations and contradictions," says St. John Chrysostom, "there is no victory, because 9

there is no combat; no crown, because there is no virtue." Hence a sensual man, a man without temptations and trials, is not a saint. There is no saint that lacks these six characteristics, and no religious can pretend to be holy, unless he possesses them or earnestly strives to acquire them. They are so essentially the elements of holiness, that if one of them is wanting, there is no holiness.. He who does not dread sin and easily commits it, is not a saint, however great and brilliant his good qualities. A proud man is not a saint, were he even to perform miracles. He who disobeys or neglects to perform the orders of his superior, in order to do his own will, even were he to spend all his life in prayer and good works, is not a saint. The fear of sin, solid piety, humility, obedience and mortification are, then, the foundation of holiness. Every edifice of perfection which does not rest on these foundations, crumbles of itself or is carried away by the wind of temptations. No one is a saint, unless he shuns sin, unless he is humble and mortified. "Pride," says St. Augustine, "does not ascend to heaven; disobedience, avarice, lust, sensuality, and every other vice or defect, does not ascend to heaven with Jesus Christ." Hence, if we wish to be saints and ascend to heaven, we must combat sin, our passions, correct our defects and replace them with solid virtues: A saint is a light and a sun that enlightens and vivifies all around him. We may say of every saint what Jesus Christ said of John Baptist, that he was a burning and shining light. The saints are burning lamps, because they burn with the love of God, and spread around them the sweet warmth of charity; they, are shining lamps, because they enlighten all among whom they live and show them the way to salvation. The just man, says the Holy Ghost, lights up the way for his companions, whilst the sinner leads astray those who witness his wicked life. A saint is a model for everyone, a book in which the learned and the illiterate are able to read all that it behooves them to do in order to secure their salvation. "A saint," says Tertullian, "is an abridgment of the Gospel; his good example inspires the love of virtue, and induces all to practise it; his every action condemns all evil and sin." A saint is the instrument of God's goodness and mercy, a channel through which He causes His graces to flow to all men, a powerful means of salvation for a whole people. In fact, a saint suffices to sanctify not only a whole family, a parish, a city, but even a whole country. St. Vincent Ferrer brought back to God Spain and France; St. Francis Xavier conquered whole kingdoms to Jesus Christ. 10

A saint is a man like ourselves. Many persons fancy that the saints did not participate in Adam's fall, that virtue was natural to them, that it cost them no effort, no sacrifice to do good. This is a great mistake. The saints were men like ourselves, as inclined by nature to evil as we are, and had in themselves, as well as we, the germs of all passions and vices, and had also to struggle against the same enemies, the flesh, the world, the devil and sin. They were subject to the same temptations, and the most of them had greater and longer trials than we. They were as weak as we, met with the same hindrances, the same dangers, the same difficulties as we to remain in the grace of God and do good. It cost them constant violence to practise virtue and correspond with divine grace. The saints were always contented and never complained of the times, of the hardships they had to undergo, or the inclemency of the seasons. With the psalmist they would say: "Ye rains, bless the Lord; ye winds and storms, heat of summer, cold of winter, snow and ice, bless the Lord." Whatever happened to them was an occasion of thanking God and practising self-denial and mortification. They were content wherever obedience would send them, because they everywhere found God, the sole object of their love. But sensual men, being all occupied in gratifying nature, spend their lives in protecting themselves against the inclemency of the climate and of the seasons; at one time they complain that the place or country they are in does not suit them; at another of the cold, or of the heat which debilitates or oppresses them; all this because they lack the spirit of self-denial. The saints never complain of their employment, for, whatever it may be, they like it, because God through His representative, their superior, entrusted it to them. If it is burdensome, they like it so much the more, as being more meritorious; if it is very humiliating, they cherish it still more as a means of practising humility; they are never heard to say, like the imperfect: "I am not made for that kind of work; I do not like it; it is too much, too difficult for me; it does not agree with me; it is a disgrace for me; it is given to me, because no one likes it, no one else would have it; so and so are the cause that it is given to me." Those who are wanting in virtue, often wish to do what they cannot or should not do. The very fact that obedience imposes a certain duty on them, suffices to give them an aversion for it. They complain of their employment through inconstancy, caprice, ambition, the desire of a better one, or because they meet with some difficulty or hardship in its discharge. These religious are like some sick persons who never feel comfortable in a position and constantly ask 11

to be helped to change it, and when this is done, desire immediately another change. The saints never complain of their superiors, because they see in them the person of Jesus Christ, and receive their orders as coming from God Himself. They never consider the superior's personal qualities or defects for in him they see but one thing, the authority God has entrusted to him, by making him His representative. They never examine and never permit themselves to judge what he commands them. They leave this to the superior to whom it belongs, and think only of obeying. Since they are guided by these principles, all that the superior does and requires seems good to them, and therefore they are never tempted or inclined to complain. The religious who are peevish or wanting in virtue, easily complain, are discouraged by trifles, offended at a gesture, look or word of their superior. Seeing in him only an ordinary man, they discover defects in him and complain about almost everything he says and does. At one time, the superior is too young and, as they say, wanting in experience, prudence, tact and consideration for others; at another, he is too old, too cranky, too hard to get along with, too positive, too absolute, an old fogy, and pays no attention to what is said to him. They complain of being refused a permission, or because they are required to keep the Rule, or are reproved for their faults. How miserable is a superior whose subjects are devoid of virtue and a good spirit! On the contrary, how happy the superior whose subjects possess a truly religious spirit! The saints never complain of their brethren nor of those they live with. In their relations with their neighbor, they always bear in mind these words of St. Paul: "Put on the bowels of mercy, bearing with one another" (Col. 3.12). They are kind towards all men. Their heart overflows with compassion, indulgence and pity for the miseries of others. They never yield to suspicions or rash judgments, or to envy and jealousy; they bear, without complaining, their neighbor's defects, and help him, by means of good example and charitable admonitions, to correct them. However disagreeable his ways and his character, they bear all so cheerfully, that no one may even guess how much it costs them to practise fraternal charity. Moreover, they bear with his corporal infirmities and render him, without repugnance, all the services his state may require; also with his wrongs, ill manners, impatience, ingratitude, dissimulating how much it costs them to do so, and constantly showing him every attention and kindness. They carry the burdens of their neighbor, that is, his task by helping him to perform it, and his sorrows and afflictions, by 12

sympathizing with him, consoling and encouraging him. Finally, far from complaining about him, they seek to please him in all that is lawful, by sacrificing their own tastes, their rest, doing all they can to assist and give him pleasure. Those religious whose character is evil and their virtue not solid, see usually only the defects of their neighbor, and find plenty of matter for blame, censure and criticism in him. A word, a forgetfulness, an inadvertence, a trifle on the part of their neighbor irritates, angers them, and causes them to utter loud and bitter complaints. They expect others to be perfect and faultless, will not forgive them anything, whilst their own faults, defects and selfishness make them a burden and a cross to those who have to live with them. The saints never complain of their enemies and persecutors; they take their revenge by doing good to them. St. Catharine of Siena for a long time nursed a sick woman who had blackened her reputation. St. Adjutus sold his garden and even his best clothes to relieve the distress of one of his greatest enemies. St. Ambrose granted a pension to a man who had attempted to murder him. St. Sabinus cured the tyrant who had cut off his hand. St. Jane constantly prayed for her enemies, so that it was said of her: "It suffices to ill-treat her, in order to have a large share in her prayers." "When some persons speak ill of me," said St. Teresa, "I feel that my love for them increases." Thus act the saints; they render good for evil, suffer all and never complain of any one; their example condemns those spiteful persons, who tear up the reputation of those they complain of; who pout for weeks and months, because some one did or said something that displeased them, who never forgive a mistake, a want of attention, an offense, but, sooner or later, have their revenge on those that displeased them. The saints never complain of what the community gives them, nor of the treatment they receive. They profit by every occasion to mortify themselves, and are satisfied with the food, with their room, furniture and clothing. "Sensual men," says a pious author, "draw a bad spirit in the refectory, whilst the saints draw the spirit of mortification and great merits for heaven. All is good enough for the saints, and, far from complaining, they everywhere desire and seek what is poorest and most disagreeable." For the imperfect nothing is good enough! The saints never complain of their corporal infirmities. With holy Job they say: "God gave me health, and He hath taken it away; may His holy name be blessed!" With St. Paul they say also: "In infirmity virtue is rendered perfect." And with St. Augustine: "Lord, cut and burn me here 13

below, but spare me in eternity." "Sickness," says St. Vincent de Paul, "is not an evil to be feared, but a very effective means of sanctification; to murmur when God sends it to us, is to complain of the good He does us." The saints understand this and, far from complaining of their sickness, they thank Him for it. St. Lidwina lay on her hard couch for thirty-eight years, covered with frightful sores and a prey to most intense pains,. and never complained. St. Clara was ill for twenty-eight years and never uttered a groan. St. Theodore had all his life a large and painful sore, and was wont to say that God had given it to him to enable him to thank Him every day. "My sisters," said St. Teresa to her nuns, "learn how to bear your infirmities without letting others know them." For forty years she herself suffered great pains, and never complained. The religious who are weak-minded and deficient in virtue, when ill or infirm, instead of imitating the saints, do nothing but complain, lie down and make use of every available remedy. It is useless to speak to them of the virtues of their state, of their tasks, of the Rule; they are wholly absorbed with the care of their puny self, and consider everything lawful in order to find relief or cure. The saints do not complain of the temptations and trials that fall to their lot, because they know how necessary these are to strengthen them in virtue and to give them opportunities of gaining merit. In temptation they do these three things: first, they watch over themselves, in order to remove dangers, and carefully combat temptations by some act of virtue, and especially by contempt; secondly, they remain cheerful, and full of holy joy and confidence in God; and thirdly, they pray earnestly every day to God for the grace never to offend Him. One of the most dangerous snares of the devil, into which weak souls often fall, is to have too great a fear of temptation, to get disturbed and discouraged at being strongly and frequently tempted. We should not allow ourselves to be caught in this snare, for he who is discouraged is already half overcome. Let us imitate the saints, and temptations will serve us as means of Sanctification and opportunities of showing our fidelity to God. Finally, the saints do not complain even of their defects, but unceasingly strive to correct them. Their habitual disposition is to be always cheerful, joyful and contented. But whence come the contentment and joy visible in their very countenances? From their holy life, for a holy and pious life is always cheerful. From their good conscience, for, asks St. Bernard, "what is richer, sweeter and more secure than a good conscience?" From the thought of heaven and the reward prepared for 14

them. "The glory that awaits me," said St. Francis of Assisi, "is so great, that all sufferings fill me with joy." Holy joy and contentment in the service of God are a great proof of solid virtue and holiness. St. Bonaventure declares that "spiritual joy is a sure sign that sanctifying grace dwells in the soul." Discontent, chagrin, complaints, murmurs and sadness, on the contrary, are a bad sign, and when you see a man afflicted with this disease, pray for him, for he greatly needs it.

What Is a Religious, and Especially a Teaching Religious? (C)

1. A religious is a soul predestined to great piety, to a very pure life, to solid virtue; a soul concerning whom God has special designs of mercy. A religious is called to study Jesus Christ in a special manner, to walk in His steps, to imitate Him as far as human frailty permits, to love, praise and bless Him, to wait upon Him and thereby to compensate Him for the indifference and ingratitude of other men. The religious, says St. Bernard, is called to love God without bounds. The Christian must serve God. The religious should, as it were, be inseparably attached to God's heart and do all that is pleasing to Him. The Christian should believe in God, know Him and serve Him; but the religious should understand, relish and live by Him. The religious should be devoted to the service of God and wholly and incessantly employed in it. This is required of him, not only by the commandments imposed on all men, but also by his religious vows. The religious is predestined to a more abundant redemption, to a greater glory in heaven. To him are given all the means of salvation and perfection. If he makes a good use of them, if he is faithful to the choice graces lavished on him, a magnificent reward awaits him in eternity, a reward which Jesus Christ calls a treasure, whilst He likens to a penny the reward of the other elect. The religious is one whom nothing on earth can satisfy, one for whom the world is not vast enough, one who is contented with nought but the possession of heaven. 2. A religious is a co-operator of God, a partner of Jesus Christ in the holy mission of saving souls. To continue the work of Jesus Christ, to do what He did on earth, that is, instruct the ignorant, teach them the science of salvation, of religion, the science of the saints, oh, what a noble 15

employment! "The more I examine," says the pious Gerson, "I can find nothing grander than to teach catechism to children and remove them from the contagion of sin and vice. What a holy undertaking it is to destroy the nefarious work of Satan, to withdraw the souls of the young from the gates of hell, and to plant in the garden of the Church those young sprouts so dear to Jesus Christ, to cultivate and water them and prepare them for the wedding feast of the Lamb, their first holy Communion!" That is surely a most noble task, for, says St. Dionysius, "the most sublime, the most divine of ministries is to co-operate with God in the salvation of souls." The teaching religious who instruct youth and help them to become virtuous, gather the fruits of the cross and the blood of Jesus Christ, and maysay with St. Paul: "We are the assistants of God in the ministry of the sanctification of souls." What a glory, what an honor for a Brother, for a Sister! "If heaven were in danger of falling," says St. John Chrysostom, "and God would deign to say to us: `Help Me to support it,' would not this be a great favor to us, and would we not find therein a subject of glory" But that child that perhaps seems to you so vile and contemptible, is, in the sight of God, far nobler and greater than the heavens, for, for his sake, God created heaven and earth; God dwells in him in a more worthy manner than in His celestial mansion. He greatly honors you by calling you to support that living heaven which is falling to ruin, to repair the breaches ignorance and sin have made in his soul. What an honor, what a glory for you! To be God's partner, to co-operate with Him in preserving and rehabilitating His most perfect visible creatures, what an employment, what a glorious vocation! Truly "there is in it," says Bishop Devie, "something so great and sublime, that I would need the language of an angel to speak worthily and befittingly about it." 3. The religious is the wise man mentioned by Isaias as spending his life in laying foundations and repairing ruins. He lays the foundations of the fear of sin, by forming the conscience of the children and preserving them from evil. The heart of a child is a tablet ready for an inscription, a canvas on which nothing is yet painted, but which is ready for the brush and colors of the artist. If we early impress thereon the fear of God and the horror of sin, these sentiments will remain therein all his life, repressing all inordinate motions, enable him to rule over his passions, direct his speech, and regulate all his actions. It was the fear of God and the horror of sin that was the beginning or source of the virtues of the saints and enabled them to shun sin more carefully than death. 16

The religious, by forming the heart of the child, lays therein the foundation of all the virtues. When the education is good, the virtues sprout naturally, as it were, in the child's soul; pious habits and practices are a necessity for him, and become as a second nature to him. "We gather from a field only what has been sown therein; if wheat has been sown, we gather wheat; if cockle, we can reap only cockle." The child left to himself or badly educated, will produce fruits of death. A virtuous life and a vicious life have their foundation in the child's education. The teaching religious lays the foundation of the prosperity of families. "See," says Cardinal de la Luzerne, "those honorable families in which, from age to age, are preserved pure principles, uprightness, good morals, religion and all the Christian and social virtues; ask the heads of those families, whence they draw these virtues, and how they are perpetuated in their families; they will all answer, that it is the fruit of the good education of their children." As an abundant fountain in the midst of a garden renders it fertile and beautiful, so, in like manner, a good Catholic school in a parish produces therein fruits of every virtue. From a class of children, trained in piety and solidly instructed in the Christian virtues, there will proceed a parish of fervent and exemplary Catholics. And as from Abraham alone the chosen people of God proceeded, remarks Cardinal de la Luzerne, so also from an eminently good Catholic school a nation of saints may come forth. The religious lays the foundations of the sacerdotal ministry. The future fruit of the ministry of the pastors of the Church, is contained, as in its germ, in the first instruction given to the child; from it depends all the success of the labors of the priests. Of what use will the preaching of the priest be, if the people do not understand him? And how will he be understood, if the people were not properly instructed in the faith when they were children? To neglect the religious instruction and education of the children, is to nullify the ministry of the priest, and to deprive the children of all the benefit they could later on derive from the preaching of their pastors. "Children left without instruction," says Massillon, "are like plants left to wither from the very moment they sprout; later on, no matter how much they may be watered, the evil is without remedy, for they are incapable of further growth." Finally, the teaching religious lays the foundations of the child's eternity. Not only has the natural life of the child, but even his salvation, his eternity also, its foundation in the first education given him. The child's salvation or damnation depends, in a great measure, on the education he receives, and on the road he is made to take in his childhood. 17

The child is thus placed between two opposite roads, ready to follow the one indicated to him. Generally speaking, if he is placed on the road of virtue, he will reach heaven; if he is left on the broad road of vice, he will go straight to hell. Wherefore, the religious who devotes himself to the instruction or education of children, lays in them the foundations of virtue, piety and salvation for time and for eternity. Oh, how beautiful, then, is the mission of educating children! 4. The teaching religious replaces the parents of the children. The great plague of our age is the almost general absence or ruin of the home education. The majority of parents no longer impart religious instruction to their children, either because they are too busy with the things of this world, or because they do not know their religion well enough, not having thoroughly learned it in their youth, or even because they have but little faith and are indifferent concerning the salvation of their children. They are, indeed, lovingly solicitous in providing for their support, in amassing wealth for them, and even in procuring them a good position in the world; but they do not even give a thought to their soul, to their religious training, to their salvation, to their eternity, as if it were a matter of indifference whether their dear children should have any religion, any piety or any virtue! How many children in our times could say with St. Cyprian: "Alas! in our parents we have found murderers! We owe them our natural life, indeed, but we have soon lost in the bosom of our own families the life of grace, because our parents neglected to instruct us in the truths of salvation and to inspire us with the fear of God." "Poor children," I say to such with Gerson, "I am deeply grieved at your sad lot. Alas! what dangers surround you in your tender age, which is so easily impressed especially by all that favors our corrupt nature! What do you see and hear at home? Wicked parents addicted to cursing and other vices, and perhaps villifying religion and piety, and teaching you, by their evil examples, to transgress the commandments of God and of the Church, filling your minds with worldly notions and aspirations and inducing you even to lead a life unworthy of a Christian!" Does not Gerson, by these words, portray very many parents of our own times and the pitiful state of their children? This is, unfortunately, but too true. Whence it follows that very many children would remain ignorant of all that pertains to salvation and wallow in vice, if God, in His infinite mercy, had not had pity on them and raised pious teachers to care for them and bring them up as practical Catholics. The teaching religious are the aides of the pastors of the Church. In the early ages of the Church the bishops were the ordinary catechists. If 18

later on, when the number of the faithful had so greatly increased, they were obliged to turn over this duty to others, they appointed to this office only the most competent and virtuous members of their clergy. The History of the Church mentions among those who delighted and gloried in teaching catechism some of the greatest Doctors of the Church, such as, Sts. Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose of Milan, Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine; these holy and learned men even wrote works to train catechists in teaching children the truths and mysteries of faith. In like manner, in the course of centuries, the most celebrated priests and bishops, such as St. Gregory the Great, Gerson, St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, St. Vincent de Paul, Cardinal Bellarmine, considered it an honor to teach catechism to children. In our times it is a privilege for simple religious to share with the clergy the glorious function of catechist of the children. They are therein the assistants and co-operators of the pastors of the Church. Nevertheless the instructions given to children in the church and in the school, should be aided and completed by the parents at home. The teaching religious tend to diminish the necessity and number of the police and the criminal courts. There would be but little use for these, remarks St. John Chrysostom, if all children were properly instructed and trained in the knowledge and practice of our holy religion, for then there would be but few crimes committed, as experience proves. But where the catechism and religious instruction are banished from the schools, as is now done in France and elsewhere, the number and fearful malice of juvenile criminals so greatly increase, that the number of prisons and penitentiaries becomes wholly inadequate. The closing up of the Catholic schools in France by the expulsion of the teaching religious orders, has resulted in the frequent commission of the most atrocious crimes by minors, and in extinguishing all virtue and patriotism in a very large percentage of the French youth! 5. A teaching religious is an angel guardian to the children. Innocence holds the first place among the goods of the young, and is the most excellent of gifts. A child who has kept his baptismal innocence, is, in the sight of God, a treasure more precious than all the kingdoms in the world. But since the child does not know its value, nor the dangers threatening it, God entrusts the Catholic teacher with this infinite treasure. "I have established thee as watchman over the house of Israel," that is, over that class of children. When God thus entrusts to a religious a class of children, He seems to say to him what Jacob said to his sons when he allowed them to take Benjamin along with them: "Swear to me that you take this child under your care; from you I will demand an account of him; 19

if you do not give him back to me as innocent as I now give him to you, you shall consent that I never forgive you for it." To be a guardian angel to the children, the religious teacher must constantly exercise watchfulness over all, over each one, over their senses, over their actions. "Thou shalt so act," said our divine Saviour to St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, "according to thy ability and the grace I will give thee, as to have as many eyes as there are souls entrusted to thee." "Whatever may be the good qualities of your pupils," says Cardinal de la Luzerne, "watch over them by day and by night; never allow them to do as they please; watch even, if possible, over their thoughts, otherwise you shall not be able to keep them pure. What does the devil, that roaring lion, require to be able to devour a child by robbing him of his purity? Only one moment of neglect on your part! A spark is enough to cause a fearful conflagration, and man's heart is made, as it were, of sulphur. However great the virtue and the good conduct of your pupils, watch over them, I repeat, because even the most exquisite wines, if not well cared for, soon turn into vinegar; the most delicious fruits degenerate, if the tree that bears them is not carefully trimmed and pruned; and the finest and fattest flock wastes away, if not kept in good order by the constant watchfulness of the shepherd." But how should the religious watch over his pupils? First, over their friendships. A bad companion, is the most common and natural cause of corruption. Secondly, over their deportment. A child overtaken in an improper attitude, especially if he blushes and turns at once to his task, should be suspected and closely watched. Thirdly, over bad pupils, bad companions, for they spread the contagion of sin. A single rotten apple often suffices to spoil a whole heap; one mangy sheep may easily infest the whole flock; one case of smallpox may spread disease over a whole town; a single vicious child, like bad leaven, can corrupt a whole class. And fourthly, over their conversations, tastes, inclinations, reading and over whatever may prove dangerous to the virtue of the children. The watchful teacher will enjoy the consolation of preserving the innocence of his pupils. He will, at least, keep every one of them from committing many sins; he will prevent the spread of evildoing, compel the bad pupils to overcome their evil inclinations and to struggle, even in spite of themselves, against their passions. What a beautiful and honorable mission for a teaching religious to be a guardian angel to his pupils! 6. The teaching religious is the model and a living Gospel for his pupils and every one else. The forgetfulness of God, the love of riches and pleasures, the spirit of independence and false liberty and selfishness are 20

the five chief disorders or defects reigning in the world and always present to children. That the children may not yield to the seductions of so many incentives to evil, God gives them in their respective religious teachers models of examples contrary to these five vices of the world. Wherefore, the teaching religious, in the first place, spends his whole life in studying, meditating on and teaching the law of God; he daily devotes a considerable time to prayer and is, consequently, well fitted by his example to correct man's forgetfulness of God and to train children in piety and the fulfilment of their duties towards God. In the second place, he gave up his goods, his family, all he had in the world and all worldly prospects, and vowed holy poverty, that Jesus alone might be his portion. By his heroic conduct he openly condemns the inordinate love of riches, honors and worldly vanities, and unceasingly gives the children the example of detachment from earthly goods and of humility. In the third place, he renounced sensual pleasures by the vow of perpetual chastity. He is, therefore, well fitted to inspire children with the love of the most beautiful of virtues, and with the horror of the most shameful and dangerous of vices. In the fourth place, he made the vow of obedience and spends his whole life in absolute dependence, for all his actions by day and by night are regulated by obedience. No one, then, is better able to train children in the virtue of obedience, to correct the spirit of false liberty and independence, which is the plague of our age, and to inspire the children with the spirit of submission and obedience to God, to the pastors of His Church, to their parents and to the civil authority. In the fifth place, the life of the teaching religious is a life of devotedness, for he gave up everything on earth, goods, family, corporal interests of every kind, that he might wholly devote himself to the welfare of children, consecrating to their education all his solicitude, all his cares, actions and labors, his strength, his very life. Such an admirable example condemns the selfishness of the world, and preaches, without ceasing, charity, humility, and all the other Christian virtues. In the sixth place, by his tender charity for his pupils, his patience in bearing with their defects, his zeal in training them in virtue and useful knowledge, his watchfulness in warding off from them all that might prove hurtful to them, his daily devotedness to their spiritual and temporal welfare, he proves himself a real model for parents, a continual lesson for them, showing them what they should be and should do in order to rear their children in a Christian manner. Such is the model God has given in the religious teacher to both children and parents, and also to all the faithful. Hence the respect and confidence shown to the good and exemplary teaching religious. 21

7. The teaching religious is the sower of the Gospel. Mark that I do not call him the reaper, but the sower of the Gospel; and why? Some teaching religious complain of the little fruit of their labors among their pupils, because some of them go astray after leaving school. But the time of the harvest does not coincide with the time requisite for preparing the soil and sowing the seed. The seed does not grow up, thrive and come to maturity as soon as it is placed in the ground. For quite a while the seed seems lost; but it is not destroyed or injured by inclement weather. Whilst you are complaining, the seed you sowed is germinating in the hearts of your pupils and will come out at the proper time. When the prophet Eliseus imagined that all was lost, and that his instructions had produced no effect, God informed him, that matters were, after all, not in such a bad state, for seven thousand men had remained faithful. You withdraw your pupils from the dangers of the world and from all bad examples, you preserve them from grievous sin or evil habits till their tenth, twelfth, fifteenth, sixteenth year, you accustom them to the practices of a true Christian life, etc.; are not these great fruits? Moreover, as to the children who later on go astray, the instructions imparted to them in school prepare their return to a good life. How many who, at first, had appeared to have totally forgotten a mother's or teacher's good instructions and admonitions, and had lived an unchristian life for years, have afterwards returned to the path of virtue and become by their good life and good works an honor to our holy religion! St. Augustine could never, during his wicked life, forget the instructions of his holy mother. Had he not received them in his boyhood, he would probably never have been converted nor become the great shining light of the Church. What prospects of conversion are there for those who have not received a religious training? Scarcely any. 8. The teaching religious, like Jesus Christ, goes about doing good to all, devoting himself entirely to the service of religion and his country, and his strength and life to procure the glory of God and the salvation of his neighbor. Finally, he is a dike against evil and worldly contagion. His mission is to combat sin and vice, to ruin the empire of Satan, to sow the seeds of virtue in the hearts of the children, to weaken and destroy the man of sin, and to train the man of grace to heavenly glory.

22

What Is a Young Religious, and How Necessary It Is to Train Him Well. (C)
Some of the senior Brothers had complained of the juniors as unfit for and hurtful to the Institute. Thereupon Ven. Father Champagnat gave the former several conferences, which are here briefly summed up. The religious vocation is a great grace for all to whom it is granted. Next to baptism it is the greatest grace God can bestow on a soul, for it is a mark of predestination, a second choice or election to heavenly glory. Moreover, it is a signal favor, a grace of the first order to be called in one's youth to the religious life, to be withdrawn from the world before having become acquainted with evil, before losing one's innocence and contracting bad habits. Such a choice is a proof that God has special designs over an individual, that He calls him to a high degree of virtue, that He wishes to make use of him for His glory, for the sanctification of souls. It is also the surest means of possessing a faithful vocation, because he who gives himself to God from his very boyhood, has more strength and facility to practise the virtues, and the religious observances and regularity become, as it were, natural to him. Furthermore, he has all the time of his youth to acquire the knowledge he needs, in order to be able to fulfil the end of his vocation. Hence young religious, if well trained, are a blessing to their Institute. They are its hope, its wealth and treasure, and will one day become its ornament, its glory, its columns and its mainstay. To understand well the cares requisite for educating and training young religious, let us frankly say what they are, without dissimulating their defects, their weaknesses, for this will indicate what they need. 1. A young novice (or postulant) is a young plant which, if wild, needs grafting, that is, if he received evil principles in the world and has been somewhat spoiled by its contagion. Good principles, a solid instruction given him, and a good general confession will graft sanctifying grace in his soul, together with the Christian virtues and the good dispositions he needs to enter on the way of perfection. A young religious is a plant that needs pruning; but the pruning must be done according to the nature of the plant or tree. For the trees planted outside and exposed to every wind, it suffices to clean them annually and cut off the dried branches. This pruning is easy, requires but little care, and any one can do it; this is a figure of the cares and education to be bestowed on ordinary Christians. But how different is the pruning necessary for small trees growing in rows! This pruning is of two kinds. The first kind consists in pruning them according to some form, such as 23

round, square, in pyramids, etc. Sometimes they are arranged along walls, or in parallel rows, or as palisades. This is a faithful image of a religious trained according to the rule he has embraced, according to the object of his vocation, and who is under special care until the spirit of his Institute is personified in him. The other kind of pruning, called the pruning of fruits, helps and perfects the former. It consists in cutting off once or twice a year the proud branches, those that turn into wood or grow from the root or trunk of the tree, in order to leave all the sap for the fruit-bearing branches. This pruning is the image of the religious who is constantly tried, from whom all that is defective in his mind, heart and character is cut off, retrenched or corrected. Let us remark that the more a tree is properly pruned, cultivated, subjected and directed, the more and the better the fruits it produces. The most beautiful, largest and best fruits always grow on the trees that have been the most pruned, tied, and, as it were, crucified to props or to a wall. In like manner, the religious who have been the best trained, the most tried, the most subjected to obedience, also produce the most excellent and abundant fruits, that is, a more solid and exalted virtue, a greater and higher perfection. The religious who have been the most tried, are the bestfitted to procure the glory of God, to serve the Institute, and to do, always and every where, the most secure, durable and universal good. In a word, such religious are usually fit for and capable of everything that may be required of them. Let us bear in mind that pruning is absolutely necessary for a good tree. The vine, when left to itself, is only a shapeless, creeping shrub, which exhausts itself in sterile branches, and produces no fruit, or only sour ones; at last it grows wild. If simply pruned, it bears good grapes, but only a few. Properly pruned and propped up, it becomes a large plant and produces excellent grapes in abundance. This is a sensible image of the religious who, the more he is trained, tried and subjected to a rule, to obedience, the more virtuous he becomes, and the more fit he is for the various duties of the Institute; whilst, on the contrary, the more he is neglected and left to himself, the poorer he is in virtue, the more he becomes worthless and even vicious. Let us observe, in fine, that a good and prudent gardener does not allow a tree to bear too much fruit, lest it become exhausted thereby; he cuts off as many branches as necessary, and leaves on it only the number that will not be excessive for its vigor and size. The fruits of the virtue of a religious should be proportionate to his age and to the grace that is in him. Too much meditation would disturb his mind or dry up his heart; too many 24

privations and austerities would injure his health; too many practices of virtue would beget the worm of pride, self-will and singularity. Every one should realize that the piety, modesty, mortification, in a word, the virtue of a young religious is not that of an elderly one, and that less should be required and expected of him than of the latter. 2. A young religious is a blossom. The blossom is the principle, the germ of the fruit. But how tender and delicate is a blossom! How many accidents can cause it to perish! A breath of wind may cause it to fall. A violent temptation sometimes suffices to ruin a young religious. A little frost can kill a blossom. The harshness of a superior often suffices to discourage a young religious and cause him to give up everything. Too much rain can cause the blossom to rot and destroy the germ of the fruit. A superior's excessive kindness and indulgence, too many spiritual consolations, too prolonged a sensible devotion will soften a young religious and cause to spring up in him the worm of pride, presumption and self-will, which will surely spoil his incipient virtue. 3. A young religious is a young fruit just beginning to grow, which is exposed to numerous accidents that can cause it to perish before it reaches maturity. It may wither for want of sap, or piety; it can become worm-eaten; that is, he can be assailed by an evil passion or a fatal habit; it can be spoiled by foul air or malignant miasma;that is, he can be spoiled by bad example, by bad company, bad reading, a worldly spirit, all of which form all around him a deadly atmosphere for his virtue. It can be bitten and devoured by some animal, or injured by being struck accidentally; yes, he can be bitten by some vice, devoured by the devil incessantly hovering around him; be is liable to perish by a thousand accidents, unless he be well watched, guarded and surrounded with every care by watchful superiors. Moreover, the fruit, and. even the whole tree, can be destroyed by a nest of caterpillars, which first eat the leaves the blossoms, the fruit, and then kill the tree. But what does a nest of caterpillars mean? A defect which is nourished and pampered, into which the religious frequently falls, and which produces the habit of venial sin. The young religious, who is full of self-love and vanity and yields to countless thoughts of pride, seeks to please men only, boasts continually, who, in a word, feeds, the detestable worm of pride, daily commits many venial sins, which will, in the end, undermine his virtue. Another young religious whose capital vice is sensuality, yields to gluttony, eats and drinks between meals, seeks always to gratify nature, dreads labor, is fond of his ease and comfort, and thus keeps up a fatal habit of venial sin, which will lead him to the vice St. 25

Paul forbids to mention and to eternal death. Yes, experience teaches that he who fosters a habit of venial sin, will sooner or later fall into mortal sin. How necessary, then, is it to inspire young religious with a great horror of little faults, and to impress on them the conviction that one of the most dangerous snares of the devil, is to induce them to commit them without remorse. It is absolutely necessary to wage war against nests of caterpillars. A serpent on a tree is less to be feared than a worm that penetrates into its heart or marrow, and causes it to perish. The serpent is a figure of a violent passion which we know and combat, of a grievous fault committed in an unguarded moment, but at once repented of. The little worm is the image of a favorite defect, which is kept up, and becomes a habit of venial sin; it gnaws at our heart, weakens the strength of our soul, destroys its good dispositions and completely ruins it. Let us, then, war against gnawing worms. 4. A young religious is a child unable as yet to walk. He must be taught to walk and be held up with strings like little children. The young religious does not yet know how to walk with God in his spiritual exercises, or how to occupy himself therein, or what to pray for. Help him, therefore, with instructions and good advice; encourage him, cause him often to give an account of the use of his time during prayer, meditation, examination of conscience, spiritual reading, etc. He knows not how to walk alone, his defects and wants irritate and discourage him; his imagination leads him astray; his character, if lively, also leads him astray; if soft, it makes him careless and slothful; his heart seduces him and turns him to objects he should detest. His vacillating will knows not its wants and suffers him to be tossed about by every external impression. He knows not how to behave with his companions; carried away by the little passions which begin to bubble up, he follows only the sallies of his character, and is easily led to show no consideration, respect or charity for others. Feeling only his own wants, he sees only his own interest, and believes all others are made only to satisfy his whims and serve his fancies. He knows not how to behave in his employment; besides being a novice in all things, the least difficulty discourages him and induces him to wish to give up everything. In fine, he knows not how to act in any circumstance, and is unable to take a single step without a guide; hence he must be supported, directed, helped, encouraged, instructed, otherwise he will go astray and spoil everything. 5. A young religious is weak, inconstant and inexperienced. His reason is weak. Look at that two-year-old boy; he cannot distinguish the nature of things, their good or bad qualities, their use; he knows not the 26

dangers he runs; he will play carelessly with a sharp knife and cut himself; he is apt to put into his mouth the rankest poison as well as, a most delicious fruit; he sings and joyfully jumps on the borders of a precipice. That is a faithful portrait of the young religious who treats the great affair of his salvation, of his eternity, as if it were only a trifle. He sees not the danger of being familiar with a companion who gives him bad advice and allures him to evil-doing, or in reading a book calculated to excite the passions or inspiring him with erroneous principles; he will be wounded, he will fall and in-fallibly perish, unless a friendly hand withdraws him from the precipice, or removes from him what may bring about his ruin. His light and instruction are weak. He knows neither what he is or is capable of, nor what he should be; neither his good nor his bad qualities. He cannot distinguish the attractions of grace drawing him to God' from the feelings of corrupt nature keeping him away from God. He knows neither his duties nor why he should perform them. He is ignorant of God's designs over him, and does not even think of corresponding with them. He knows neither his predominant passion nor the snares of the enemies of his salvation. And though he may be constantly on the brink of a precipice, he walks securely, and does not perceive his fall until he is at the bottom of the precipice. He is weak in virtue. If he receives a good training, he will be good; if his training is bad, he will become wicked. With the good he is good; but with the wicked he will become wicked also. The principles and beauty of virtue, the solemnities of religion please and move him, fill him with enthusiasm and win him to God, and then he gives himself in body and soul wholly to God. But if the world smiles upon him and offers him its deceitful pleasures, its vanities, he goes blindly after them, forgetful of his promises to his Creator. There's no firmness or constancy in his virtue; he changes according to his feelings. Today he is pious, and tomorrow he will be dissipated in mind, giddy, disgusted with prayer, forgetful of God. Today he is active, obedient, because work pleases him; tomorrow he will be slothful, disobedient, because he does not like his task. He is moved by instinct, taste, feeling, imagination, and often mere whim or fancy, and not by virtue or a sense of duty. His character and his will are weak. He easily makes good resolutions, but seldom keeps them. In the morning at meditation and during holy Mass, he is full of fervor and fire, but at the least difficulty or contradiction he meets with, his ardor is cooled and he gives up everything. Although he believes he is capable of doing everything, a 27

mere nothing suffices to discourage him. When he succeeds and is praised for it, he is all joy and happiness. But when kindly admonished of a fault, of a mistake, he is all gloom and sadness. Discouragement and inconstancy are his great diseases. The least temptation suffices to cast him down and even comes near causing his ruin. It is always necessary to raise up his courage, to stir up his good will, to nourish and fortify his piety and to wind up all the faculties of his soul. If left to himself, he is a real weather-cock in his thoughts, for his imagination is a beaten-track open to every sort of vehicle, and also in his dispositions, which are liable to change every moment according to the impressions or the influences he receives, and in his actions, which result from his thoughts and dispositions. Which are the means and the line of conduct requisite to train these young religious in correcting their defects and in assisting them properly in their many wants? 1. In the first place, give them a good example. This is the shortest way of training young religious in virtue, because they believe more what they see than what they hear, and because good example clearly shows that virtue is easy; more-over, the young naturally imitate their elders; and their weakness is so great, that they find extreme difficulty in doing good, unless they see it done by their superiors and elders. A superior usually has as many copies of his actions and imitators of his conduct, as he has subjects to direct and govern. He should always act so that he may be able to say to them what St. Paul said to the early Christians: "Be ye imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Cor. 4.16). Caesar never said to his soldiers: "Do this," but: "Let us do this," and he was always at their head, and shared their fatigue and hardships. Thus should a superior act. A master forms his disciples like himself. A pious, regular, humble, silent, modest and zealous superior will have the consolation of seeing his virtues reproduced in his subjects. 2. Fill them with the spirit of piety. "He who knows how to pray well," says St. Augustine, "knows how to live well." Yes, he who knows how to pray well, knows how to be a good religious, to train the young to perform their tasks and to practise every virtue. To train religious in piety is to make them fit for all their duties, to make them good religious, for to be truly pious and to be a good religious are one and the same thing. To inspire the young religious with solid piety, cause them to read ascetical works calculated to fill them with love for their holy state. Require them to give an account of their meditations, help them to occupy themselves profitably therein and to recite devoutly their vocal prayers. Suggest to 28

them to make novenas to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to the Blessed Virgin in order to obtain the gift of piety; but insist especially on their punctually and fervently performing the prescribed spiritual exercises. 3. Encourage them. The usual temptation of the devil to ruin young religious is to discourage them, to exaggerate the difficulties of virtue, and the number and quality of their defects, in order to induce them to abandon their vocation. Therefore raise up and strengthen, without ceasing, their courage, if you wish them to avoid this snare of the devil. A man needs encouragement all his life, but especially when he is young, for being then inexperienced, he is frightened by the slightest difficulty and then liable to give up his good resolutions. The young, being simple, naive and credulous, easily believe what they hear, and follow, without resistance, the impulse imparted to them. Wherefore, if they are well directed, advised and encouraged, they follow the path of virtue and walk firmly therein. If, on the contrary, they are left to themselves, or are ill-treated, allowed to believe that virtue is exceedingly difficult, that they are unfit or incompetent for their task, for their state, they get discouraged and ready to give up everything. It is a great misfortune for a young religious to be under a severe, harsh, imprudent and uncharitable superior. A new-born child needs kindness, indulgence, care, attention and the heart of a mother. Well, the heart of a mother is still more necessary for training a young religious. " My children," says St. Paul, "in Christ Jesus I have begotten you" (1 Cor. 4.15). Why does he say "my children"? Because a superior should have the affection of a father, of a mother, to win the young religious to God, to train them in virtue, but should not be like a master to them. 4. Avoid scolding them. It may often be necessary for the superior to admonish young religious, to correct them when they do not perform their tasks as they ought, to teach them how to perform them by doing them himself in their presence; but he should not scold them or speak harshly to them, for nothing more easily disgusts them. Moreover, a scolding superior forfeits the esteem of his subjects, renders his teachings and admonitions useless, provokes murmuring and brings a bad spirit into the community. Another not less important point is not to admonish them of too many defects at one time, lest they get disheartened. 5. Proportion their tasks to their strength, intelligence and capacity. To exact from a young religious more than he can do is an injustice, and causes him to get irritated, and to grow despondent. Suppose a teacher lacking experience, character, competency, proper training, has very little discipline in his class, and his pupils make but little progress; another 29

religious does his work in the kitchen very poorly for like reasons. Be satisfied with their good will, and do not pain or discourage them by showing your discontent, by scolding them, by requiring them to do more than they are able to do. What a fine talent and a happy quality the superior possesses, who knows exactly what each of his subjects is fit for, and is pleased with what each can do! 6. Carefully follow them in the particulars of their conduct. By this means he will find out their defects, their good qualities, their progress, their spiritual and corporal wants, and will be enabled to correct in them what is amiss, and to maintain and perfect what is right in them, and also to accustom the young religious to obedience and to keep them from yielding to their self-will, which is a very great defect. 7. Respect them. But what should be respected in them? Their innocence. Be, therefore, very reserved in speech, and never speak of the world or of matters that make evil known to them, or awaken its thought in their mind. Certain young religious acknowledged that certain matters mentioned to them did them great injury by awakening violent temptations in their minds and leading them to commit sin. What a terrible responsibility for one who is not reserved in his speech, in his actions! Respect their virtue, especially their esteem of the Rule, their respect, confidence and sincerity towards their superiors. Respect their authority; never find fault with them in the presence of their pupils, or be wanting in due regard to them. Respect their rights, by listening to their remarks, excuses, especially if well grounded. Respect their person, by showing them due regard, commanding them kindly, treating them as brethren, as members of the same body (family), as your other self. Respect their youth, their weakness. Whatever is weak deserves our consideration, our respect. Therefore due consideration must always be shown to the character, will, virtue, reason and vocation of the young religious.

The Misfortune of Losing One's Vocation. (C)

"Some make no difference between failing to follow one's vocation," says Ven. Father Champagnat, "and losing one's vocation. There is, however, a very great difference between them. To fail in following one's vocation, to lose it, to profane it, to be unfaithful to it, are all very different things." To fail in following one's vocation, is either to ignore God's design over oneself, or not to know it, or to know it only in a confused or incomplete manner. This is the ease with persons in the world having good 30

pious dispositions that fit them for the religious life, but remain in the world, because they do not see religious, or know anything about them, and have no opportunity, or no means to become religious. Good conduct and a pious life will supply, in their regard, the vocation they could not embrace for want of sufficient light, knowledge or opportunity. To lose one's vocation is, after knowing it, to enter a religious community and leave before making one's profession, because one has lost it through one or more of the following causes: the abuse of grace and contempt for little things; an inordinate passion for study, or for something else; unfaithfulness to the Rule; neglect of the spiritual exercises; violent temptations followed by repeated grievous faults; and finally, discouragement, the most common cause. Any one of these causes is sufficient, if it is not removed, if it becomes a habit of venial sins as it usually happens, to cause the loss of vocation. Its loss draws along with it the most serious consequences: 1. First, an unhappy life. When a man is not where God wishes him to be, he is like a dislocated limb, which suffers and causes pain to the whole body. 2. A series of consecutive faults. "Everything," says Massillon, "becomes a temptation, a danger for him who quits the holy state to which God has called him, in order to live in the world; the most innocent pleasures are liable to defile his heart; the most indifferent objects may prove fatal to his innocence; he will feel repugnance for even the easiest duties; he is liable to spoil or corrupt everything by unlawfulness; he will meet everywhere with snares and be caught therein." "Three fatal things," says Tronson, "follow the loss of vocation: the privation of many graces, a frightful series of sins, and an almost assured reprobation." 3. Failure in every undertaking. How can a man succeed in a position to which God does not call him? He who resists God cannot count on His protection. "Unless God build the house, in vain they labor that build it" (Ps. 126.1). He may try everything, in order to succeed, but failure will follow him everywhere. St. Catharine of Sweden, daughter of St. Bridget of the same country, was violently tempted to abandon her vocation. Her mother having fervently prayed for her, Catharine on the following night had a vision in which she beheld the earth all on fire and herself all surrounded by fire. In her distress she saw the Blessed Virgin, and at once cried out to her: "Help me, O holy Mother of God!" "How then," answer the Blessed Virgin, "do you desire, in spite of your vocation, to return into the world in the midst of all those dangers, and you deliberately wish to cast yourself into the flames of hell, and yet you call 31

on me to help you! I do not help those who wilfully cast themselves into such danger." Catharine promised her not to listen to the temptation, but to be faithful to her vocation; Mary then immediately extinguished the fire that threatened so great a destruction. The religious who entrusts his vocation to the Mother of God, will never lose it. To profane one's vocation is to abandon it after one's profession. The profanation of one's vocation and of one's vows to God, often carries along with it the total ruin of salvation; it is a shipwreck in mid-ocean, which cuts off all ordinary hope of ever reaching the harbor. It is a universal bankruptcy, the total ruin of the economy of salvation, of one's spiritual fortune. No one, in his senses, ever goes so far until he has profaned his vows and the sacraments, wilfully forgotten his duties, or committed some enormous fault. There is none so wicked as apostate religious. Of them St. Augustine says: "I have never seen men more perverse and more deeply corrupt than the religious who have become wicked." According to Bellarmine, they are figured by the figs seen by Isaias, which were so rotten, that their very sight provoked disgust and vomiting. Of them our divine Saviour says: "Every man that putteth his hand to the plow and looketh back, is not fit for the kingdom of heaven" (Luke 9. 62). It is of them that St. Thomas speaks when he asserts that inconstancy in one's vocation is one of the greatest marks of reprobation. It is also of them that St. Paul speaks when he declares that "it is impossible (that is, exceedingly difficult) for those who have once been enlightened and have tasted the gift of God, and have fallen, to be renewed by penance, because they, as far as in them lies, crucify the Son of God and cover Him with opprobrium; for when a well-cultivated field produces only briars and thorns, it is forsaken and nigh to a curse and fit only to be burnt" (see Hebr. 6). We can now understand this saying of St. Ignatius: "The temptation against his vocation is, for a professed religious, the most dangerous of all." What is it to be unfaithful to one's vocation 1. Not to acquire the degree of virtue, of perfection, to which one is called; not to be faithful enough to grace; to fear doing oneself a holy violence; to live in sloth, to lead a tepid life. 2. Not to do all the good one has the grace to do and could and should do. Every religious who neglects his perfection and instruction, is more or less unfaithful to his vocation. Which are the fatal consequences of unfaithfulness to one's vocation? A multitude of small and even of great faults; an uneasy, unhappy life; discontent with one's religious brethren, with oneself, and 32

even with God; privation of the hundred-fold of consolations and happiness promised by Jesus Christ; the danger of losing one's vocation and being forsaken by God; a great dread of death, and bitter regrets and terrible anxiety at that formidable moment; finally, a long and rigorous purgatory.

The Hundredfold to All, or to Each According to His Works. (C)

"He that shall leave father, mother and all that he possesses, for My sake," says our divine Saviour, "shall have the hundred-fold in this life and eternal life in the next." As there is a hundred-fold of blessings, of peace and joy and of all kinds of spiritual goods for the good and fervent religious, there is also a hundred-fold of bitterness, anguish, sorrow and tribulations of all kinds for the tepid religious, and still more, for the bad religious, as we can see from the following parable or history. The religious of a certain convent in the Middle Ages lived in such great fervor, that the Queen of Virgins often deigned to appear to them in order to encourage them. They were accustomed to assemble daily in the chapel at three o'clock in the afternoon, in order to sing the Magnificat before the Blessed Virgin's altar. It was the moment chosen by Mary to appear to them and bless them. Then the religious would return to their cells to eat the bread an angel had brought there for each one by order of the Mother of God. It had a delicious taste and possessed the special virtue of imparting strength and peace to the soul, and a holy ardor in God's service. But as even the most relaxed communities always contain some holy religious who preserve themselves from all evil contagion, and seem to be placed there, in order to condemn their relaxed brethren, so also there is no community, however regular and perfect, which has not some diseased and infected members who abuse grace and become perverted in the midst of saints, as if to attest this terrible truth that man can lose his soul anywhere, and that it is not the place that sanctifies him, but his works. The following is what happened one day in the community I am speaking of. A young religious had, after the Blessed Virgin's visit, returned to his cell in order to eat the bread she had sent him. To his great surprise, he found it all mouldy, dried up, black and very coarse. Two mouthfuls of it sufficed to nauseate him. He sorrowfully brought the bread to his superior and said bitterly: "This is what the Blessed Virgin sends me; what horrible food! How shall I be able after this to bear the hardships 33

of the religious life! O God, how hard is such a life!" The superior said to him, weeping: "My son, your heart is dried up and has turned away from God; you have yielded to weariness and turned your eyes towards the world and its vanities; you have become negligent and tepid; why should you wonder if God treats you according to your works!" Scarcely had the venerable superior said this, than another monk with a dark countenance and a fierce look, came and showed him the bread he had found in his cell, saying: "This bread is detestable, covered with dirt, full of worms and has a foul odor. The little I ate of it has turned into poison and I feel the worms, like serpents, devouring my stomach and bowels. O God, how greatly do I suffer! My pains are like the torments of the reprobates." "My son," replied the superior, "your heart is wicked, criminal and depraved; it has abused the gifts of God, profaned holy things. God treats you as you deserve and renders to you according to your works." At this moment the other religious came cheerful and bright with happiness. Standing in a circle around their superior, they said: "Father, we come to inform you of the favor shown us by the Queen of heaven. You know how she cares for us with a tender solicitude and daily sends us the bread necessary for our subsistence. That bread is always excellent, but today it is so delicious, that it has filled our soul with such sweetness and inundated it with a happiness so great, that only heavenly bliss can surpass it. Oh, how true is the saying of Jesus Christ: The hundred-fold in this life and life everlasting in the next." "Yes, dear brethren," replied the superior calmly and authoritatively, "the word of Jesus Christ is infallible; the hundred-fold of happiness and all kinds of goods for good religious; but the hundred-fold of anguish, bitterness and tribulations to every bad religious. O God, Thou art just and equitable, and givest to each one according to his works. I have a clear proof of it on this day." What, then, is the religious life? According to what we have related, this question has more than one answer. 1. For the pious and solidly virtuous the religious life is a real heaven through charity and union of hearts. This union procures peace of soul, calmness of mind, destroys all worry and sadness and imparts perpetual joy. To the solidly virtuous religious are applicable the words of the psalmist: "Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." Where there is union and charity, there is Jesus Christ, God, the Blessed Trinity and, consequently, heaven and perfect happiness. The religious life is a heaven through peace of soul and the joy of a good conscience. "A good conscience," says the Holy Ghost, "is a 34

continual feast." "What more pleasant viand," says St. Ambrose, "than the testimony of a good conscience and the delights reserved for the pure soul!" "Such a soul," says St. John Chrysostom, "enjoys unspeakable happiness." Compared to this happiness all that is pleasant and consoling on earth is only bitterness. The religious life is a heaven, because it is exempt from the troubles, the worry and the miseries of this life, and on account of the removal of the dangers of offending God, and the consolations, holy joy, the unction of grace and all the other goods God lavishes on those who have left all things to serve Him and to give themselves entirely to Him. Ineffable are the sweets God reserves for those who love Him. Wherefore the Holy Ghost invites us: "Taste ye and see, how sweet the Lord is," and how happy are those who serve Him! The sweetness, consolations and joys of God's servants are incomprehensible to all who have not the happiness to share in them. St. Francis of Assisi, who had left all for Jesus, was so filled with consolations and joy when in the greatest destitution, that he already believed himself in heaven and exclaimed: "The happiness I feel is so great, that I rejoice over all sufferings." Joy superabounded in the heart of St. Francis Borgia and kept him from sleeping at night, so that he was obliged, for the sake of his health, to beseech God to moderate it. St. Philip Neri's love for Jesus had no bounds; he would have preferred to die rather than commit the least venial sin or transgress the slightest rule. But his love and fidelity were well rewarded, for our divine Saviour inundated him with so many consolations, that when he had retired to rest, he would exclaim: "Enough, O Jesus, keep back thy sweetness and let me sleep." St. Ephrem would faint under the weight of the consolations he experienced, so that he would humbly implore our divine Saviour to diminish them, saying: "Withdraw from me, O Jesus, for my weak body is unable to bear the greatness of Thy pleasures and the happiness with which Thou inebriatest me." St. Teresa acknowledged that a drop of heavenly consolations afforded greater contentment than all worldly amusements and pleasures. St. Augustine felt unable to express the happiness he enjoyed in God's service: "O Jesus," he exclaimed, "Thou sometimes impartest to me extraordinary sentiments, and enablest me to taste, I know what sweetness, which so penetrates me, that, were it to increase and fully inundate me, I know not what would become of me." Worldlings who judge only by their senses, will hardly believe this, and I am not astonished thereat, for it must have been experienced, in order to be understood. Give me a religious who 35

really loves Jesus, and he will easily understand me. But if I speak to a religious who is cold, indevout, tepid, unfaithful to grace, he will understand nothing about this, for he has not tasted it. The promises of God are infallible; but Jesus has promised the hundred-fold of goods, happiness and felicity to those who forsake worldly pleasures, in order to cleave to Him alone. All His true servants will attest that He gives even more than He promised. For the pious and solidly virtuous religious life is a real martyrdom. He is a martyr on account of the chastity and poverty he practises all his life. "To subject the flesh to the spirit," says St. Bernard, "is a kind of martyrdom; although it frightens our sight less than the martyrdom of the fire and sword, it is, nevertheless, more difficult because of its duration." "To keep one's purity intact," says St. Jerome, "is to be a martyr." "Voluntary poverty is a true martyrdom," says St. Bernard. The religious is a martyr by the sacrifice of his will and liberty, by the constant violence he is obliged to use against himself, in order to observe his Rule, by his zeal for the glory of God and his devotedness to the works of his Institute. "The shedding of one's blood for the faith," says St. Jerome, "is not the only martyrdom, for obedience to God and to one's superiors also deserves that name." "A great and sublime martyrdom," says St. Lawrence Justinian, "is to spend and wear out one's life for Jesus Christ." The religious who forsakes his family to devote himself to teach children, to serve and win them to Jesus Christ (or performs works of mercy, either corporal or spiritual), who consecrates all his labors, exhausts his strength, health and life in training children in virtue, in preserving them from eternal death, is a real martyr. "I die daily for your glory," said St. Paul to the early Christians (1 Cor. 15. 31), that is, I wear out my strength and sacrifice myself to win you to Jesus Christ. Thus acts also the true religious. Yes, the three vows punctually and constantly observed are a continual martyrdom and have all its merit. But, you will say, if the religious life is a pain, a hardship, a continual sacrifice and, in a word, a martyrdom, how can it be also a paradise of delights? It is a paradise of delights, because this immolation is wilful, and, as an author says elegantly, "when suffering is a pleasure, pleasure is not a suffering." Love is stronger than pain, stronger than death even, and transforms sacrifice and torments into delights. Witness St. Paul who "superabounded with joy amid tribulations"; St. Francis Xavier, who, when in the greatest destitution, was inebriated with delights; St. Lawrence on his gridiron, and St. Vincent in his dungeon, singing and 36

unable to restrain his joy. Witness also the aforesaid holy religious who tasted ineffable happiness amid privations, fasts, austerities and penance most formidable to human nature. The bread sent them by the Blessed Virgin procured them more delights, consolations and happiness than worldlings experience in a long life of pleasure. We may say of the good religious, as of Jesus Christ, that he is "comprehensor et victor," that is, he enjoys and suffers; the joy of his soul is so great, that he does not feel, so to speak, his pains and sufferings, or rather, crosses, hardships and sufferings far from drying up or decreasing his joys and consolations, serve only to increase them. 2. "The religious life is a very hard life," say the tepid religious, who have only one foot in religion, and never earnestly performed their duty or punctually observed their Rule. Those sensual, worldly-minded, carnal religious, who were perhaps unhappy and even destitute at home with their family, and now consider themselves unhappy, because they have not the elegance, comforts and enjoyments of the wealthy; those religious who know not the value of their soul and do not appreciate what Jesus Christ did to save it; those who never understood what God is, the excellence of the religious life, the happiness and consolation of virtue, because they never were fervent; those who entered religion, not in order to suffer, to immolate themselves to God, but to lead an easy and comfortable life, to be better off than they were or expected to be in the world; those souls, so tepid, so slothful, so faithless to grace, with habits of venial sins, experience in religion only sadness, weariness and bitterness like the aforesaid young monk, whose food consisted only in mouldy bread. 3. The religious life is a penitentiary for every religious who transgresses his sacred engagements with God, who profanes his vows. It is a penitentiary and a hell for the sacrilegious religious living in mortal sin, whose conscience torments and tortures him. It is a penitentiary for the religious who has lost the spirit and love of his holy state, who remains in the convent only because he does not know what would otherwise become of him; such a one has only his body in religion and is like a convict; he is a prisoner, a slave; like a convict, he drags the chain and ball all his life; these are the observances of his Order, the spiritual exercises which greatly displease him, and which he performs only by compulsion, only because he cannot do otherwise. Finally, the religious life is a hell for every vicious and irregular religious, because such a one, by his evil conduct, his perversity, is necessarily in opposition to his superior and at war with his brethren; 37

because he has to do the contrary of his wishes, and never enjoys any consolation. For him everything is hardship and punishment, because he is given up to the tyranny and exactions of all his passions without being able to distract himself; because all he sees, does and hears torments him and fills him with remorse; because his conscience, like that of the aforesaid monk with a sinister countenance, is the haunt of serpents, that is, of passions, sins, and devils that constantly sting, devour and tyrranize over him; like that wicked monk, he exclaims: "O God, how I suffer! My torments are like those of the reprobates!" Wherefore it is true that the religious life is either most happy or most unhappy. It is what each religious makes it for himself. It is a life of happiness for the religious who is solidly virtuous; a life of anguish and affliction for the tepid religious; a life of torment and misery for the wicked, criminal and sacrilegious religious. Like the manna, it has all kinds of tastes; it is delicious for the pure and mortified; hard and distasteful for the tepid and ill-advised who know not the gift of God; full of gall and bitterness for the carnal. In a word, the religious life is what each one makes it for himself; neither more nor less!

What Sin Is (C)

Like all the servants of God, Ven. Father Champagnat had an intense horror of sin. The most unpleasant events, afflictions, human contradictions, temporal losses, nothing could alter his peace of mind and his cheerful and uniform character. Sin alone could sensibly affect him and cause him pain and sorrow. To see God offended and souls going to perdition, he would say, are for me two inseparable things, which make my heart bleed. In his conferences to the Brothers he always proclaimed sin as the insult to God, the evil of man, described the terrible punishments God inflicts on it, the horror we should have of it, and the means we should make use of to avoid it. What is sin? This question has been asked for six thousand years by the wise and learned and by the greatest saints, and been studied and meditated upon by them during all their life; but not one of them, nor even all taken together, has ever perfectly answered it. Neither men nor angels can adequately understand or tell what sin is. God alone knows all its enormity and malice, and He alone can repair the evil it does wherever it penetrates. Sin is the evil of God; it is opposed to all His perfections, which it wounds, dishonors and outrages. God is truth; sin is error and lying; God 38

is infinite goodness; sin is wickedness and malice itself; God is essential purity and holiness; sin is defilement, abomination and opprobrium; God is infinite justice; sin is disorder and injustice; God is unity; sin is division; God is the necessary Being; sin is nothingness. Wherefore sin is the very opposite of God, directly opposed to all His divine perfections. God is the supreme Good, sin is the supreme evil. Sin is the evil of God, because it spoils all His works and brings disorder everywhere; it opposes all His designs, ruins His glory, and turns all creatures away from their end, which consists in glorifying God. Sin is the evil of God, for it displeases God, caused and daily renews the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, His divine Son. The sinner, says St. Paul (Hebr. 6.6), crucifies Jesus Christ in his heart. Sin is the evil of man, for it robs him of all goods and brings him all evils. Sin is to the soul what death is to the body. 1. In the first place, death deprives the body of life, the first and greatest of natural goods. In like manner, sin takes the life of the soul, that is, sanctifying grace, charity, the friendship of God, for God Himself is the spiritual life, the true life of the soul. "Every soul that committeth sin, shall die" (Ez. 18. 4). "Sin, when it is consummated, begetteth death" (James 1.14). The body dies when the soul leaves it; the soul dies when God leaves it, and God leaves it when it commits mortal sin. 2. Death deprives the body of its beauty. However beautiful it may have been, it is only a hideous and horrible corpse. The soul in the state of grace is admirable for its beauty, far brighter than the sun; there is nothing on earth that is comparable to the glory enveloping it. St. Catharine of Siena, having beheld a soul in the state of grace, was so charmed and ravished, that, had not faith assured her that there is but one God, she would have taken that soul for a deity. "My Jesus," she exclaimed, "I am no longer astonished that Thou didst suffer so cruel a death on the cross for so beautiful a creature." But as soon as the soul falls into a mortal sin, she loses all her beauty and becomes an object of horror. "The gold was obscured" (Lament. 1.6). The soul, previously whiter than snow, becomes blacker than coal. The soul once like the angels, brighter than the sun, has become as horrid as a demon. With the loss of divine grace all her beauty has vanished; she has become more ugly, more horrible, more repulsive and degraded than if she had been changed into some unclean animal. Those who would behold her in that state, would die of fright. Oh, how horrible and hideous is a soul that has lost divine grace! But this is not all. 3. Death strips man of all his goods. The millionaire, the owner of immense property, of palatial residences, who, at the same time, is 39

renowned for his vast influence, abilities and learning, when he dies, carries none of these advantages with him, but leaves all of them, for naked he came into this world and naked he must leave it. "No monarch," says St. Ignatius, "has been able to take along into the next world a single golden thread of all the insignia of the greatness and wealth he leaves after him." In like manner, when a man dies in the state of mortal sin, good-by to all his spiritual goods; with charity or the life of grace, he loses his virtues, his merits, his good works. "If the just man sinneth, all his good works shall be forgotten" (Ez. 3. 20). Imagine a man who distributed all his goods to the poor, fasted for fifty years on bread and water, practised during his long life all the virtues and all kinds of good works, if he commits a mortal sin, he loses all his merits, virtues, good works, prayers, holy Communions; all these are forgotten and dead; none of these shall be accounted his, if he dies thus! Oh, how great an evil is mortal sin! 4. Death deprives a man of all his bodily senses; his sight, hearing, smell, taste and feeling, for a corpse cannot see, hear, smell, taste, feel, speak or move. This is a figure of the effect produced by mortal sin in the sinner's soul, for it is deprived of the power of doing anything spiritually meritorious. In vain he is told that he is in a bad state, that he is losing and damning himself; he does not see or understand this and hastens, like one bereft of his senses, like a blind man, from abyss to abyss. Mortal sin spoils all the faculties of the soul; it causes the loss of the memory, darkens the understanding, disturbs the reason, depraves and hardens the heart, ruins the conscience, weakens and deranges the will, brutalizes, in some manner, the soul itself; hence Jesus called the Jews: "Serpents," "race of vipers." Sin, moreover, makes man a devil: "The devil is your father," said Jesus Christ; one of you is a devil. Oh, what a frightful thing is mortal sin! Mortal sin is the cause of all the temporal evils afflicting mankind. It causes the loss of goods, honors and of all that gives a charm to life itself. "You have filled the earth with your crimes; wherefore it is dry and arid and produces no fruit" (Jer. 3. 10). What was the cause of Saul's losing his crown? Disobedience. What caused Nabuchodonosor to come down from his throne? Pride. Sin ruins and destroys families. "Thou hast sinned," said Nathan to David, "and scourges shall not leave thy house" (2 Kings 12). Sin destroyed the families of Heli, Acham and many others. Whilst Phocas was fortifying his palace, a voice was heard in the night saying: "Emperor, in vain dost thou prepare thy defense and buildest walls to protect thyself; the evil is within; it is thy sin that causes thy ruin." On the following day he and all his family perished. 40

Sin shortens life. "The day shall come," said God to Heli, "when to punish the sins of thy sons, I will weaken thy strength and that of thy posterity, and there shall be no old men in thy family, for all shall die young" (1 Kings 2. 3). "The years of the wicked shall be shortened; the men of blood shall not reach the half of their ages" (Ps. 54.24). "The life of sinners shall be cut like the weaver's thread, when he cannot unravel it; he breaks it and casts it away." On the day of judgment we shall see that many died before their time on account of their sins. If you wish to know how great an evil sin is, call to mind the terrible punishment inflicted on Adam for an act of disobedience. He had no sooner tasted of the forbidden fruit than God's wrath fell upon him with all imaginable evils. 1. He was stripped of his original innocence and justice, and of all the natural gifts accompanying them. 2. He lost the grace and friendship of God. 3. He became subject to ignorance, weakness, concupiscence and pain. 4. He was expelled from the earthly paradise, condemned to eat his bread in the sweat of his brow for more than nine hundred years. 5. Everything in and out of him was in revolt against him, his body against his soul, his passions against his mind and reason; all the elements, the seasons, animals, and even other men warred against him. 6. He was condemned to die, to rot in the grave. And all this is only a part of his punishment. 7. In consequence of his sin, all men are born subject to every kind of misery and suffering; to hunger, thirst, fatigue, sickness, death and corruption in the grave. 8. All are born children of wrath, enemies of God, slaves of the devil, unworthy and unfit to possess the kingdom of heaven. 9. All come into the world ignorant, burdened with concupiscence, or inclination to evil, and numberless other miseries. 10. And what is most deplorable is the loss of numberless unbaptized children dying daily among pagans, unbelievers, heretics and fallen-away Catholics, for they shall never see God, because they are stained with original sin. 11. Combine all the evils in the world, such as famines, wars, epidemics, cyclones, tidal waves, floods, infirmities, diseases, sufferings and all the calamities that afflict mankind, and you may assert, without danger of being mistaken, that the sin of Adam was the fatal source of all these evils. We can thence conclude what sin is, and how terrible and wicked it is. The sin of Adam alone has drawn, draws and will draw until the end of the world all these evils on his posterity. But if God punishes Adam's sin in his children, although it is not personal to them, how will He punish the sins we wilfully commit? If He punishes in this life in innocent children, and even in the just and the saints, Adam's disobedience, how will He punish so many impurities, blasphemies, 41

scandals, murders, injustices, slanders, perjuries which great sinners commit daily and accumulate without remorse! O God, how terrible is Thy justice! and how great is the malice of sin! Sin is an infamous action which disgraces man; hence St. Paul says: "We renounce the hidden things of dishonesty" (2 Cor. 4.2). What is shameful seeks darkness. Seneca, although a pagan, considered sin as infamous and disgraceful, for he said: "Even if I knew that men would not know it, and that God would forgive it, I would never do an evil thing; for it is shameful." Sin alone disgraces man and causes him to blush. When we say to some one: "You are poor, ignorant, sick, lame, covered with mud, ill-clothed," is he disgraced on account of it? No. But if the same man has been caught stealing, telling a lie, etc., and is told: "You are a thief, a liar, a rake," he at once blushes. This is a sure proof that sin is an infamy and disgraces a man. Sin is also an act of folly. What do you say of Esau selling his birthright for a dish of lentils? What would you say of a man who, for the pleasure of tasting honey, would expose himself to be imprisoned for life, or to burn in a furnace for a whole year? Or of him who, for a child's toy, or an hour of pleasure, would sell his liberty, give up his fortune, or be willing to live as a slave in great hardship all his life? You would say that such doings are foolish. And does not the man, who, for a momentary pleasure or sin, for a shameful transitory sensual gratification, sacrifices his soul, his God and the possession of heavenly bliss, and condemns himself to the frightful, inconceivable and everlasting torments of hell, commit an act of folly a thousand times more incredible? How truly does the Holy Ghost apply to sinners the term of insane, of fools! Every sinner is foolish, for sin is the supreme folly. He is foolish, for he knows not how to distinguish what is so greatly advantageous to himself from that which brings upon him endless misery; he prefers the creature to the Creator, mud to gold, mortal poison to divine grace, hell to heaven, a shameful pleasure to eternal glory. He is foolish, for he takes delight in evil, loves his disease, shuns its remedy, despises admonitions, believes himself wiser than everybody. O stupidity! The sinner has lost his senses, is foolish, because he wilfully kills himself. Yes, sinner, although others may look upon you as full of wisdom, you show signs of insanity, whenever you commit sin. If you were told that a certain acquaintance of yours had cast himself down from a high building, broken all his bones and killed himself instantaneously, you would say that he must have been insane, that something must have deranged his mind. Yes, he was insane. But when you sin, are you not more insane than he? You were in the state 42

of grace, you were a child of God, and you wilfully sacrificed and lost all, killed your own soul, in order to sin, to become the slave of Satan! Can there be a greater folly than yours It is therefore with reason that the Holy Ghost calls sinners insane for preferring evil to good, death to life! Mortal sin is a fever that makes the soul delirious and quickly kills it. The fever begins with chills, with a general ill feeling, and ends in a burning heat. Mortal sin is prepared by tepidity, carelessness, sloth, and is consummated by the ardors of the passions of pride, lust, gluttony, that is, small vices, small defects, open the gate to great passions; small faults prepare the way for great falls, for mortal sins; neglect of little duties, of the observances of our state, disposes our soul to omit our important duties as Christians and religious. Fever depraves the taste, takes away the appetite and desire of food. Mortal sin kills piety, deprives the soul of strength to rise to God; renders prayer disgusting to her; to a soul in mortal sin nothing is more disagreeable than prayer; she shuns the presence of God; like Adam and Cain, she flees before the sight of the Lord, that is, prayer, the sacraments, mortifications, the practice of virtue, pious reading are insupportable to her. Fever robs man of strength and beauty. Mortal sin crushes all the faculties of the soul, ruins the conscience, weakens the will. In yielding to sin the soul places herself on the brink of the abyss and can no longer restrain herself. Her passions have gained the upper hand over her, her temptations have become more violent; she is crushed under the weight of her sins as by a mountain; the slightest temptation now suffices to make her fall again, and she rolls from abyss to abyss, after losing grace, that is, her strength. She is despoiled of all security, of the virtues, gifts, of all that made her beautiful in the sight of God. Her sin makes her deformed and hideous; and this deformity and hideousness are sometimes reproduced in the body; for often the sinner's eyes become dull, his look uncertain, his forehead all wrinkled, his face gloomy, his complexion, hitherto beautiful and rosy, is now pale or of a leaden color, his cheeks livid, hollow and wan, his step heavy and embarrassed. Mortal sin has altered everything; that is, all that was beautiful in the body, and marked it with the stigmata of the passions. Fever deprives of the use of reason and brings on delirium. As we have seen, no one is more insane than the sinner. How many have actually become crazy after committing sin! Ask that young ex-religious why he abandoned his vocation. If he is sincere, he will answer: "I could no longer stand it; I suffered horribly since I consented to that miserable sin; I am no 43

longer master of my imagination, of my head; my mind, my reason are disturbed; I must return to the world to get calmed; and, moreover, I no longer know what I am doing, I have lost my head." Fever causes great suffering. And who will describe the suffering of him who is in mortal sin? Who will tell of his remorse, anguish and his many troubles in this world? But especially, who will give us an idea of the torments of the reprobates in hell? Oh, what cruel sufferings does sin cause the sinner! Fever occasions an ardent burning thirst which nothing can quench. Mortal sin enkindles in the soul the fire of all the passions. The sinner is burnt by the fire of pride; just look at his red, fiery face when his self-love has been hurt! Look at his heart dried up, like tinder, by the fever of impurity which consumes him! Behold all his feelings extinguished by the fever of ambition, the love of worldly goods. The sinner is burnt by the fever of every passion. How sad is his state! One access of fever is followed by another. The sinner proceeds from one fall into another, from one sin into a greater one; he commits as many sins as he takes steps, and goes so far as to drink iniquity like water (Job 15.16). Fever is known by the disturbance of the pulse. The state of sin is disclosed by remorse, uneasiness, preoccupation and fears. Look at the man who has just committed a wicked act. His imagination is exalted, his mind and reason are disturbed; his heart is agitated, his conscience is upset, all the faculties of his soul are in disorder. Oh, how easily can a soul be known that is in mortal sin! But what a horrible thing is mortal sin! What a frightful thing is a man in mortal sin! His soul is abominable, and his body is even deformed or hideous! After death mortal sin is an irreparable evil; it completely extinguishes the life of grace in the soul that commits it, and renders her death and condemnation eternal. He who has once renounced God and dies in that state, renounces Him forever! What a frightful duration of an action that seems so short! If after one thou-sand, one million of years you would ask a repro-bate what still keeps him in hell, he would reply: "My sin." "But you are here already so long! Is not your sin consumed? Iron, steel, marble, the hardest diamond would already long ago have been melted, calcined, destroyed, annihilated!" "No; my sin is not destroyed or blotted out. It is still as entire, as horrible, as diabolical as when I committed it." Hell cannot destroy sin. The penances, tears and merits of the saints are powerless, of themselves, to efface a single mortal sin. He who is in that sad state has nothing to expect from angels and men; they could pray for him, but not remove his sin. God alone, the merits of Jesus Christ 44

alone, can withdraw the sinner from the abyss into which he has fallen, blot out his sins, and reconcile him with heaven. O my God, how great an evil is sin! Why do we so little understand it? God supremely hates sin. His hatred of it is implacable, infinite, necessary; He hates it as much as He loves Himself, for He is the Supreme Good, and sin is the supreme evil. He so greatly hates it, that He arms all the elements, raises up all creatures to combat and punish it. He employed fire from heaven against Sodom, the deluge in the days of Noe, thunderbolts against Julian the Apostate, the sea against Pharao, the ground against Core and his accomplices, bears against the children mocking Elias, lions against the Babylonians, worms against Herod, grasshoppers against the Egyptians, pestilence against David, flames against those who sacrificed to idols. All the scourges that inundate the earth are sent to punish and combat sin. It was to combat sin that God sent His divine Son from heaven upon the earth and delivered Him to death, and that Jesus Christ instituted the sacraments, the priesthood, and gives us grace; it was to combat and punish sin that God created hell and condemns to it all the sinners who die in their sins. The fear and hatred of sin were common to all the saints. They all said with the wise man: "I would rather lose all my goods and suffer all evils than commit sin." Behold the martyrs; what have they not suffered? Their goods were confiscated, they were cast into prison, cruelly beaten, laid on the rack, and tortured in every way. Ask them why they endured all these torments; and they will say to you: "In order to avoid sin, which we hated and detested above all." The early Christians would repeat: "Rather death than tell a lie! We accept every torment, however painful, rather than wound our conscience by even a slight sin!" Oh, had we a little of that supernatural light, which enlightened the saints and convinced them that sin is the greatest of evils, and, in fact, as the only real evil in the world, instead of murmuring in our sufferings and trials, or of getting discouraged in temptations, we would say like them: "There is only one thing necessary for the Christian, and that is not to commit sin."

45

Sin, an Evil For Him Who Commits It, for His Family and For His Community. (C)
The first sentiment which Ven. Father Champagnat sought to inculcate on his religious was the fear and horror of sin. He allowed no occasion to escape of insisting on this point, because he understood that the avoiding of sin is the foundation of all holiness. One of the elder Brothers of the community once acknowledged to him that he had told a lie, adding that it had not done harm to any one. Father Champagnat said to him vehemently: "What are you saying? Every sin, however small, always injures him who commits it; no one can offend God without also wounding his own soul and injuring himself. The fault you acknowledge is a real evil for you, and it is not correct to say that it did not do harm to any one." "I understand, Father," said the Brother; "but I merely wished to say that the lie I told was not a pernicious lie, and that it did not wrong my neighbor." "I also understood what you meant; but I thus speak to you to make you realize that a fault is always pernicious to him who commits it, and that if the fear of doing harm to your neighbor restrains you from committing a fault, you should, nevertheless, avoid it more especially because it harms you, for you should love yourself more than your neighbor. Moreover, you should know that, as our virtues and good works, through the communion of saints, are profitable to all men, we may say also that our sins are injurious to all men; at least they are so to our brethren, to our relatives, to those who love and have a community of goods with us." On another occasion Father Champagnat said to the same Brother: "It is certain that the good works and virtues of a good religious are a benefit and a treasure, not only for himself, but also for his fellowreligious and all who live with him. A holy religious is a treasure for his family, for his community, nay, even for a whole country. Wherever he goes he carries the divine blessing; God grants success to all he does, to all that obedience imposes on him. It is often on his account that God blesses all who are and labor with him. Have you not read that the holy patriarch Jacob, who was a saint, brought the divine blessing and prosperity in Laban's house? That Joseph, also a saint, brought the same to Putiphar's house and to all Egypt?" A holy religious is a means of salvation and sanctification for his family. His prayers and good works fall back, like a rain of grace and blessings on his parents, their family and all his relatives. The father of St. Aloysius understood this well, for, when on his death-bed, he said 46

weeping: "It is to Aloysius that I owe my conversion. His prayers have obtained for me contrition for my sins and a full and firm confidence in the mercy of God." A good religious, whilst working zealously at his perfection, works thereby also at the salvation of his parents, and can do nothing better to procure it than to be very faithful to divine grace and to correspond to God's designs over him. In this manner he unconsciously benefits his relatives. Moreover, his letters, his every word to them, his very remembrance inspire them with good thoughts and resolutions and induce them to lead a good and holy life. A holy religious is a source of grace for all who live with him. Often a holy religious suffices to sanctify a whole community and even a whole region. By her heroic virtues and fervent prayers St. Teresa reformed the Carmelite Order and obtained the conversion of several thousand sinners. Our divine Saviour one day said to St. Margaret of Cortona: "Because thou endeavorest to be all Mine, I will grant the grace of conversion to all for whom thou shalt pray, and even to all who will hear thee spoken of." We may say of all the saints what St. John Chrysostom says of the prophet Elias: "Elias is the mediator between God and the people; he snatches, as it were, sinners out of the hands of divine justice; he calls the people that go astray, and brings them back to the heavenly country, by making peace between the Creator and the creature." A holy religious is a protector and defender who wards off from his community, his family, his country the scourges of divine wrath. "Who does not know," says St. Ambrose, "that the saints constitute a solid and precious rampart for their country? Their faith guards us, their justice preserves us from punishment and extermination. If Sodom had ten saints, it would have escaped destruction. Because of Noe, the just, God did not totally destroy the world. Because of St. Paul God saved from shipwreck all who had been with him in the ship, numbering two hundred and twenty persons." A holy religious draws the divine blessing on his fellow-religious. He is a pledge of prosperity for the convent in which he dwells and for the Institute of which he is a member. As fire warms all surrounding bodies, so does the piety, the fervor of a holy religious communicate itself insensibly to all the brethren living with him. But what is very sad is that it is not less certain that the sins and evil conduct of even one religious are misfortunes for his brethren, for all who live or come in contact with him. His carelessness and evil example weaken the virtue of the others. His sins draw upon them, upon the community and even the whole Institute the displeasure of God. Holy 47

Scripture gives us proofs of this. Nathan, the prophet, said to David: "Thou hast sinned. Know then that the scourge of God shall fall on all that belongs to thee." (See 2 Kings 12.) Seventy thousand of his people were carried off by pestilence as a result of David's vanity. Achan's sin was imputed to all Israel, for God said to Josue: "Israel hath sinned; he shall flee from his enemies. Anathema shall remain in your midst until he who hath sinned shall be destroyed." (See Josua 7) The disobedience of Jonas drew God's wrath over the whole vessel he was in, and the storm would have caused all in it to perish, had Jonas remained in it and had not been cast into the sea. We are sometimes astonished at the sudden disappearance of prosperity from some institution, and we ask: "What has brought on this sudden change? Why have its former friends turned into its persecutors?" Usually all kinds of reasons are guessed, except the right one, that anathema is in that institution because one of the religious has broken his vows, committed mortal sin, perhaps sacrilege, or a religious there is very unfaithful to grace and is living in tepidity, in the habit of venial sin. That alone is the cause of all the misfortunes of that community. As long as the cause remains, anathema also shall remain and God's blessing will be wanting and all prosperity together with it. A religious who falls into mortal sin is a real scourge for his brethren and his convent; he has every reason to believe that he is the cause of all of the troubles and misfortunes afflicting the community and compromising its prosperity. God looks with complacency on the convents inhabited by holy religious and lavishes blessings upon them. But He turns away from those wherein dwell religious who, forgetful of the holiness of their state, allow the devil to enter their heart, and fall into grievous sins. A religious in the state of mortal sin! Good God! What a misfortune for him and for his brethren! St. Ignatius Loyola felt all the danger there is in being in the company of such a one, when he said: "I would not dare to spend a night and sleep in a house, in which I knew there was an individual in the state of mortal sin, for I would be afraid that the roof would fall on us and crush us!" O my God, keep us from mortal sin, our great enemy and scourge; and if any of the brethren, through weakness, was ever to fall into one, grant him the grace at once to rise and reform his conduct!

48

The Great Question (C)

1. "Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, or shall stand in the holy place? The clean of heart, for they shall see God" (Mat. 5. 8). "Just as the light of the sun," says St. Augustine, "can be seen only with clear eyes, so also can God be seen only by pure souls; hence St. John says that nothing defiled can enter heaven, and adds: 'Cast out the unclean'" (Apoc. 20. 15). What, then, must we do to secure our salvation? We must be pure and wage a constant war against impurity, the seal of Satan. "He who desires to be saved," says Origen, "must, before all, be pure. To pretend to secure salvation without practising the angelic virtue and whilst indulging in lust, is a gross error, an illusion, a folly." "Be not deceived," says Clement of Alexandria; "there are no real Christians, except those who are chaste." "Chastity," says Tertullian, "is the foundation of all holiness; when it is attacked, everything crumbles and only ruins remain." "The salt of the Christian," says Ven. Bede, "is purity; he who has lost this salt is devoured by vices, as unsalted meat by worms." "Purity," says St. Ephrem, "is the life of the mind, the root of the virtues." "However humble, mortified and devout a man may be," says St. Thomas of Villanova, "if he is not pure, he is nothing." Purity is the virtue that produces saints, the virtue that is absolutely necessary for salvation. The profound conviction of this truth induced St. Jerome to say: "The wise man, that is, he who earnestly desires to secure his salvation, before all observes purity, because he understands that, when it is lost, everything else crumbles and falls into ruin." Impurity is extremely displeasing to God and destroys everything in man. "God," says St. Augustine, "has so great a horror of impurity, that He prefers the barking of dogs, the bellowing of oxen, etc., to the prayers and the singing of the impure." "It is a more grievous sin to profane our body and soul by a sin of lust, than to profane a church or a sacred vessel," says St. Peter Damian. Impurity, according to St. Thomas, removes us infinitely from God, and must, therefore, be a very grievous sin. "Impurity makes man a devil," says St. Gregory. "God," says St. Peter, "has reserved to Himself to punish sinners, and especially the impure." "Woe, woe, woe," says St. Bernard, "to him who yields to that shameful vice!" "Man," says St. Leo, "is unhappily subject to many spiritual infirmities; but of all the diseases of the soul impurity is the most dangerous; it is a contagious fever, a fire spreading conflagration everywhere, a leprosy devouring everything in its way, a scab that disfigures and renders hideous whatever 49

it touches." "After uprooting all virtues," says St. Bonaventure, "it brings along and nourishes every disorder; it is a nursery of every vice." "In him who is subject to that detestable passion there remains nothing good," says Cesarius; "merits, virtues, good qualities, both physical and moral, everything is depraved, debased and ruined." "Impurity is a cancer, an almost incurable disease," says Clement of Alexandria; "it is a poison that inoculates itself into all parts of the soul, in order to corrupt it." "If we are once caught in this strongest net of Satan," says St. Jerome, "we can never, unless with the utmost difficulty, extricate ourselves from it; this detestable vice is a miry swamp; when we attempt to pull one foot out of it, the other sinks in more deeply." "The impure man," says St. John Chrysostom, "no longer belongs to himself; he is like one possessed who has become the sport of Satan." "The vice of impurity," says St. Cyprian, "is the degeneracy of the human race; it destroys all the faculties of the soul, robs even the genius of judgment; extinguishes the understanding; causes loss of memory; weakens and crushes the will; depraves the conscience; renders the heart beastly, that is, bereft of feeling." It ruins the health, weakens the sight, ruins the beauty of the features and makes man idiotic. Wherefore St. Eucherius says that the impure do not differ from brutes, and St. John Chrysostom declares that could we but behold the degradation of an impure soul, we would prefer the grave to such a state. At the thought of so great a debasement St. Cesarius says that for such a soul there cannot be on earth a day of genuine feast or joy, but only tears, regrets, anguish and bitterness are its lot and share. All the saints had a supreme horror of impurity. The very thought of this vice induced St. Benedict to roll himself over thornbushes, St. Francis to cast himself into a frozen pond and St. Jerome to strike his breast with a stone. 2. Excellence and advantages of purity. The holy Doctors say that virgins are the heroes and heroines of mankind, and that purity is the perfection of man's life and the initiation into the heavenly. O purity, it is not given to man to say what thou art, nor worthily to publish thy merit and glory! To know thy beauty thou must be seen in heaven by the light of God. (1) Purity makes us like angels. "He who has conquered the flesh," says St. John Climacus, "has conquered nature, is above human nature, and near the angelic." Hence St. Ambrose asserts that a pure man is an angel, and St. Bernard declares that he has the power and merit of an angel, and St. Gregory maintains that a virgin and an angel are identical. (2) Purity, moreover, makes us like God, and places us among the first ranks in His kingdom, for Holy Scripture tells us that purity brings 50

faculties of the soul. "Purity," says St. Adhelmus, "is a sun to the mind, and makes man an angel." St. Thomas teaches that the angels, on account of their purity, approach nearer to God, and participate abundantly in His understanding and in all His perfections. St. John, being a virginal soul, was raised as an eagle to God, and drew from the Eternal Wisdom the most sublime science and ineffable secrets. St. Thomas Aquinas was also a virginal soul, and because he possessed the purity of an angel, and had been girded by an angel, he was associated to the knowledge of the angels and is called by the Church the Angelic Doctor. The grandest works and the most wonderful productions of the mind are ascribed to men who were pure. To pure souls belongs the diadem of understanding and reason. A very simple monk one day said to St. Pachomius: "Father, please relate to us some of your visions; people say you have some very wonderful visions." "It is not permitted to a sinner like me," replied the saint, "to desire visions; but, dear Brother, do you know which is the most wonderful of all visions? The sight of a pure and humble man. Perfect purity enables one to see God and holy things more perfectly than the profoundest science and all visions." On the contrary, the first effect of impurity is to weaken the understanding. "Impurity," says St. Thomas, "blinds the mind and causes the weakening or even the loss of the reason." The soul under the yoke of this infamous passion is, in some manner, brutalized. "He who is devoured by the fire of impurity," says St. Gregory, "can no longer see the Sun of justice." The passions precipitate us into a deep abyss, into a place of darkness, into the shade of tombs. Purity is the fire of the heart and makes it good, sensible and grateful. "I love purity above all virtues," exclaimed Br. Giles one day. Being asked whether charity is not more precious, he replied : "Can there be a charity without purity?" Purity nourishes love; a carnal heart cannot truly love, for the sacred fire is not enkindled in mud. This truth is so evident as to be plain to the wicked. "I maintain," says Jean Jacques Rousseau, "without fear of being contradicted by experience, that the young man who has remained pure until his twentieth year, is, at that age, the most generous, amiable and loving of men. On the contrary, vicious young men have only puny souls, and harsh and depraved hearts. I have always experienced that they are inhuman and cruel, devoid of pity and mercy, and would willingly sacrifice their very parents and the whole world in order to enjoy some slight pleasure. What caused David to lose his kindness and meekness, the homage of which he had offered to God, as one of the greatest gifts he had received from His goodness? Adultery. 51

After this sin the meekest of men became the most cruel. He had twice spared Saul, his greatest enemy, and now he causes the death of Urias, his servant, at the very moment when this devoted officer gave proofs of the most inviolable fidelity." "Need we be astonished," exclaims St. Bernard, "if the carnal man is cruel and unable to love, for he has no longer the heart of a man, but only that of a beast." "Purity," says St. Cyprian, "is the nerve and strength of the will." "The Lord will make thee strong, because thou hast loved purity" (Judith 15.11). The virgin martyr St. Agatha, at the age of fifteen years, said to the executioner: "Scourge, tear, cut, break my body, but never shall you make me yield." Aphrodisia, giving an account of Agatha's virtue to the pagan judge, said: "It would be far easier to soften granite, or make iron as soft as lead, than to compel Agatha to yield, or to rob her of her love for Jesus Christ." Godfrey of Bouillon in battle, with a blow of his sword could cut a man in twain. Being asked the secret of the strength of his arm, he replied: "This hand has never been defiled by the touch of a woman; it is purity that imparts strength to my will and to my arm." (8) Finally, "purity is a great mark of predestination," says St. Cyprian. This is easy to understand, for if heaven belongs to those who shun sin, purity is the ruin of the vices; if heaven is given to merit, chastity indefinitely multiplies merits; if heaven is the home of the friends of God, pure souls are the favorites of Jesus Christ, for He Himself declares them blessed: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God." In fine, purity is the seal with which Jesus marks the elect, whilst impurity is the seal which Satan brands on the reprobates. 3. Who is pure? This is an important, but easy question. "He is pure," says St. Augustine, "who watches over his five senses, and carefully abstains from all that is unlawful in the use of his sight, hearing, speech, taste, smell and feeling." To keep ourselves pure it behooves us to watch: (1) Over our eyes, and keep them very modest, for, says St. Jerome, "it is through the eyes that the poisonous darts enter and pierce the heart." For, says Jeremias (9. 21), "death is come up through the windows." "My soul hath become the prey of my eyes." A single look is capable of fascinating us and of being the beginning of our ruin and the cause of our fall. Hence Hugh of St. Victor calls the eyes fatal shoals on which richly laden vessels have suffered ship-wreck; also cruel and barbarous rocks on which numberless souls have been dashed to pieces. "The eyes," says St. Gregory, "are the masters and doctors in all things; hence do not let them see carnal objects, if you do not wish them to make 52

you carnal." The thought and desire follow the look so closely, that it is not lawful to see what should not be desired. St. Francis de Sales therefore says: "Accustom yourself to see persons of the other sex only in a general way, avoiding carefully a constant, fixed and discerning gaze." St. Aloysius never gazed on the empress, whose page he was, so that after living for months in her palace, he did not know her. He even abstained from fixing his gaze on his own mother. St. Hugh of Grenoble, for the same reason, did not know his own mother by sight. St. Peter of Alcantara kept his eyes so modestly cast down, that he did not know even the monks of his own convent, but distinguished them from one another by the sound of their voices. A holy religious, who had received the gift of a great purity, being asked why he was so reserved in looking at women, replied: "He who shuns the occasions, is guarded by God Himself; but he who places himself in danger, by giving too much freedom to his eyes, is abandoned by God and falls into grievous faults." Let us not count upon the virtue of him, who does not keep his eyes under control. "He whose eyes are impure," says St. Cesarius, "cannot have a chaste soul, for purity of the eyes begets purity of the heart." (2) Over our tongue. A man's tongue is the exponent of his morals. "Such as a man's speech paints him," says St. Isidore, "such also is his heart." The language of the pure man is pure. The devil lays snares for us from all sides, but especially by means of the tongue. "No other organ of the body," says St. John Chrysostom, "affords him more help to kill souls." No other member works in greater harmony with the devil for ministering death and sin. It is this agreement that prepares the falls, the loss and ship-wreck of purity and the death of the soul. According to St. Augustine the tongue of the impure is a furnace of impurity. St. Paul admonishes us (1 Cor.15.33) to watch over our words, for evil conversations corrupt good morals, and warns us not even to mention the impure vice among ourselves. An unbecoming word uttered in his presence would cause St. Stanislaus to faint, so greatly did he dread whatever might in the least wound the angelic virtue. St. Charles Borromeo put out of his house the servant who related to him in too free a manner a crime that had been committed in the city. St. Francis de Sales did not wish that purity should be spoken of, saying: "There are two virtues we should practise without naming them, humility and chastity." Being asked why purity should not be praised, he answered: "Lest we should leave in our mind a secret and almost imperceptible imagination of the contrary vice, and thus afford an opening for temptation." 53

St. John Chrysostom said that with regard to this matter we should be brief in confession and carefully avoid repetitions and details unauthorized by just reasons. "How often, alas!" he said, "under some frivolous pretext, poor nature, weaned from everything else, seeks through sight or speech to be in some way indemnified!" We should not consider him as chaste, who is not very reserved in speech, but let us shun him, for, says St. Gregory, "such a one is Satan's partner in ruining souls; his tongue is more ferocious than wild beasts and more venomous than serpents." "The mouth," says our divine Saviour, "speaketh out of the abundance of the heart." Hence obscene language indicates a corrupt heart. How many deceive themselves on this point, and use words that enkindle impure fire in souls! Worldlings consider such things as a joke, a pastime. But it is a serious transgression of the divine law, scandalizes and ruins souls and spreads the fearful contagion of vice! (3) Over our hands. An atom hurts the eye, a breath tarnishes a flower, a slight shock or stroke breaks a crystal vase. What is needed to wound the soul, to tarnish the lily of purity, to break the vessel, in which St. Paul says we carry our treasure, and on which he has written in large letters the word "Fragile", A mere trifle. Hence it behooves us to keep from external manifestations of friendship, not only from those that cause the angels to weep and the devils to laugh, but even from those that appear most innocent. "Familiarity and hand games," says St. Jerome, "are the signs of an agonizing purity, of a dying virtue." "Shun the slightest touch, not only of those who are shameless, but even of the best," wrote a holy General of the Dominicans. Earth is good, rain is good, and, when mixed, they produce mud. The mere touch of pitch soils the hand. So long as the spark is in us, the fire of concupiscence pervades our members. Often a coal under a light layer of ashes seems extinguished, but burns the unwary who touch it; also a coal that is isolated, becomes extinguished, but is at once relit when placed near another. Such is the great art of the devil to shake together the coals that are almost extinguished and bring them together and blow on them to relight them. St. Ursinus, having been raised to the priesthood, lived in perfect continence with his hitherto wife, as if she were his sister. When he was dying, she approached near his face to see whether he was still breathing. Perceiving this, he rallied his strength and said to her: "Woman, keep away from me, for the fire is not extinguished; put the straw out of its reach." "Fresh water," says St. Francis de Sales, "loses its freshness, if touched or stirred by an animal. A fruit often handled loses its flavor and beauty, withers and begins to rot, and then no one wants it." The religious 54

who allows himself certain freedoms, familiarities, even only through levity and without evil intention, loses the flower of his purity. Our bodies are like glasses breaking each other when brought together; or like fruits which, although sound, spoil and get rotten by knocking against one another. St. Nizier, bishop of Lyons, would never touch the faces or hands of children. No unnecessary touch of another is wholly free from danger. A very pious woman living with St. Mary d'Oignies, one day thoughtlessly took hold of her hand; immediately a voice from heaven was heard saying to her: "Touch me not." The saint at once admonished her, saying that she had experienced an inordinate feeling from her touch. St. Gerard, Abbot, had been miraculously cured of paralysis. His brother's wife, a very pious person, came to congratulate him; she was so overjoyed, that she took hold of the cured arm and kissed it; at that very moment it was again paralyzed; God wished thereby to show that such unnecessary touches should be carefully refrained from. (4) Over our taste. An inordinate taste is a dangerous shoal for purity. Sts. Jerome and Augustine maintain that gluttony is the mother of impurity, and that these two vices always go together hand in hand. St. Gregory says that impurity is drawn by a team of wild, unmanageable horses, gluttony and sloth, that a sensual man will never be pure, and that gluttony, sloth, the devil and impurity are like one another, and are inseparable companions. According to St. John Chrysostom, the glutton is the devil's greatest friend, for gluttony is the source of the other vices, and especially of impurity. He likens an overloaded stomach to an overloaded vessel, that is swamped in a storm, that is, in a temptation. St. Catharine of Ricci would often repeat to the novices of her convent that he who is not mortified in eating, cannot possibly preserve his innocence, for this was the cause of Adam's fall. "Never," says St. Jerome, "will I look upon him as chaste, who is not sober and mortified in eating and drinking. If I am capable of giving advice, if any one will believe my experience, he should look upon wine (and liquor), immoderately taken, as a poison, as oil poured on fire. Wherever there is excess in drinking, the vice of impurity rules and governs as a master." St. Leo observes, that all the saints, our masters and models, inaugurated the combat against the temptations of the flesh, by temperance in food, drink and sleep. "As flax is bleached only by repeated washings and beatings," says Ives of Chartres, "so the body becomes chaste only by dint of privations and austerities." "My son," said St. Philip to one of his penitents who was wont to eat and drink between meals, "if you do not correct this defect, you will never advance one step in the way of 55

perfection, and you will remain exposed to the danger of losing your purity." St. Laurence Justinian would not even drink water between meals in the greatest heat of summer. To those who thought he was too strict in this point, he would reply: "I do this to keep pure and avoid purgatory." Sobriety, mortification, is one of the first means of preserving purity, for, says St. Thomas, "when the devil is repulsed and conquered in temptations to gluttony and sensuality, he does not tempt to impurity, for he knows that he who does not yield in slight skirmishes, is far from allowing himself to be conquered in greater combats." (5) Over our mind, lest any evil thought enter it. Our actions depend on our affections and our affections depend on our thoughts; it is, therefore, highly important to remove all perverse, frivolous and even idle thoughts, and to keep in our mind only holy and useful thoughts. "All good and bad deeds," says St. Augustine, "originate in our thoughts; a man is innocent or sinful by his thought." Hence the Holy Ghost tells us that a good thought will save us, and an evil thought will damn us, because it will cause us to commit an evil deed. Wherefore, as St. Isidore says, the devil is wont to suggest evil thoughts to us. "Impure thoughts," says St. John Chrysostom, "are the darts the devil throws to pierce us." Passion is a fire, and evil thoughts are straw; and how easily, observes St. Gregory, can this straw take fire and cause a furious conflagration! We should not fail to combat an evil thought under the plea that it is only a trifle; a spark of fire seems to be only a trifle and is hardly perceptible, but if it falls on powder or something very inflammable, it is able to cause great and irreparable damage. It behooves us to reject or despise the evil thought as soon as we are aware of it. "Whilst your foe is weak, kill him," says St. Jerome; "do not let him grow larger and stronger." "Crush the serpent's head as soon as you see it," says St. Augustine. Which is the serpent's head? The very first suggestion or representation of evil; if you crush the head, the whole body can do no harm. A good means of stifling evil thought is to fill our mind with good ones. Let us, therefore, often recall death, judgment, hell and eternity, or the Passion of Jesus Christ. He who neglects to watch over his mind and suffers it to be filled with vain, idle, dangerous thoughts, will never be pure, and will expose himself to lamentable falls. (6) Over our heart. Love is the life of the heart; there is no heart wholly devoid of love. By what love do you live? Examine what you love. "If your heart loves God," says St. Augustine, "it becomes godlike; if it loves the earth, it becomes earthly; if it loves the flesh, a creature, it becomes carnal and is only mud. The heart is the seat and the source of 56

purity; hence the Holy Ghost admonishes us to guard our heart most carefully, for from it proceeds either life or death." "Nothing is more flighty than our heart," says St. Gregory; "it incessantly escapes us to go in search of evil affections." Of all changeable things our heart is the most changeable, the most slippery. Hence St. Bernardine declares that the devil finds in a man's body no other organ more favorable than the heart for his artifices and illusions. Wherefore St. Augustine gives us the following admonition: "A soldier of Christ should, before all, most carefully guard his heart, if he does not wish it to be burnt up by lust. Beware, beware of natural and sensual affections, for they are the gate leading to carnal and criminal affections." Flee, flee, therefore, particular friendships, one of the devil's most dangerous snares; "they are the single hair," says St. Francis de Sales, "with which the devil begins to bind souls; then he uses a thread; after this a string, then a rope and at last an iron chain." The too human affection you experience for a certain person of the other sex (or for a pupil), and which you neglect to combat, will grow by means of sweet words, looks, familiarities, presents, etc.; then the passion will break out on a sudden, and you shall find yourself bound with an iron chain, by a chain of death! Oh, in how great danger is our purity, when our heart is absorbed by too human an affection, against which we have not manfully struggled! "O you that love chastity and wish to preserve it," exclaims St. John Climacus, "forearm yourselves against this snare of the devil!" Say not that you do not feel any lustful inclination, and have no silly imagination nor inordinate sympathy. "No, no," says St. John Chrysostom; "you cannot persuade me that you both are as cold as marble, and that heaven favors an at least useless friendship by silencing in you concupiscence and nature itself." (7) Over all that can become for you an occasion of temptation and cause your fall. Do not forget these two maxims of Holy Scripture: that he who wishes to keep his soul pure, must flee the occasions of sin; and "he that loveth danger shall perish in it" (Eccli. 3, 27). "To seek the occasion of sin," says St. Bernard, "is a sign of a sin already committed (in desire), and the cause of again committing it." "Hold it as certain," says St. Cyprian, "that he who exposes himself to the proximate occasion of sin, seduces his soul, and falls into a deep blindness." Only he that watches over himself, flees, fears and mistrusts himself, does not perish. "How great," said St. Jerome, when about to die, "is the number of those who lose their purity through their own presumption!" Such was his last instruction to his disciples. 57

To cast oneself headlong into the midst of flames with the hope of not getting burnt, is a folly, for, says Cornelius a Lapide, "this would require a miracle; but God does not grant one, and we do not deserve one, but do thereby all we can to offend God and to perish miserably and scandalously." "The unsought temptations we have to combat," says St. Basil, "are an indispensable warfare; but then we can rely on God's help to gain the victory; but if we wilfully bring on ourselves a desperate combat by exposing ourselves to the near danger of sin, we are guilty of the greatest folly." "It is diabolical to cast ourselves unnecessarily into the midst of a great danger of sin," says St. John Chrysostom. Woe to the presumptuously blind, who will not see or fear danger, and amuse themselves with serpents which will bite them sooner or later. He who unnecessarily converses on matters forbidden by the sixth commandment, is playing with serpents. To read an obscene book, or a book personally dangerous, is to play with serpents. Also to study through mere curiosity questions of which it would be well for us to remain ignorant, or to speak long and alone without necessity with a person of the other sex, or to become familiar with one for whom we feel a natural and sensual affection, or to use unreserved and disedifying language. Woe to him who does any of the aforesaid things, for he will, sooner or later, be bitten by the impure vice and perish. Flee idleness, for it is the forerunner of impurity. "The devil," says St. Athanasius, "is full of joy when he sees a religious idle." And why? Because he knows, by experience, that idleness leads infallibly to impurity. "What is the imagination of an idle religious?" asks St. Bernard; "it is a highway for all the impure devils. What is his heart? It is a sewer wherein the most abominable temptations spring up and wallow." "It is," says St. Bonaventure, "an unprotected city, the target of all the darts of hell; it is the bed and soft pillow on which Satan rests with great delight." According to St. Jerome, he who is busy has only one devil to tempt him; but the soul of the idle religious is ravaged and devastated by a whole legion of them." For a religious, who wishes to be careful and to possess perfect purity, piety is not sufficient, and love of work will scarcely suffice; he needs, as it were, a passion for work. "Remember," says St. John Chrysostom, "that Adam, being idle, was cast out of the earthly paradise, and that St. Paul, occupied in making tents, in the midst of his apostolic journeys, was raised to the third heaven." "Let mental prayer follow your work, and work follow your mental prayer," wrote St. Jerome to Nepotian. Be fond of reading good books, of prayer and work, and you 58

will not be fond of the carnal vice, and all the fires of concupiscence will, as by a miracle, be extinguished in you. Flee useless conversations with persons of the other sex, as you would thorns, fire or a contagious disease, for thence there always proceeds either a fire that burns or a smoke that blackens. The torch is on one side and the tow (powder) on the other, and between them is the devil who brings them together and blows on them. Herein is found the application of Solomon's proverb: "In the multitude of words sin shall not be wanting" (Prov. 10,19). He who hangs by a string from the top of a tower runs less risk for this life, than the religious runs for his chastity by holding unnecessary and prolonged conversations with a person of the other sex. "We ought," said St. Alphonsus to his religious, "to use great precaution and be brief with them." "Can a man hide fire in his bosom, and his garments not burn? Or can he walk on hot coals, and his feet not be burnt?" (Prov. 6.27, 28.) "Who is it," asks Cardinal Hugo, "that hides fire in his bosom? He who is fond of speaking with persons of the other sex. Who is it that walks on glowing coals? He who takes pleasure in gazing on them." Immense is the number of those who are lost by playing with fire. St. Thomas was reserved even in conversing with his own mother. "What," some said to him, "is she not your mother? Why do you shun her?" He replied: "That is just why I am on my guard." St. Augustine would not have his own sister to live with him. The holy and learned Cardinal Bellarmine once severely reproved the Brother who accompanied him, for having left him alone with a very noble and pious lady. The threefold safeguard of the religious should everywhere be his habit, his companion, his modesty. Woe to him who leaves off any one of these guardians. According to St. Ephrem, it is impossible to avoid evil thoughts, the revolts and ardors of concupiscence, if we do not shun dangerous occasions. "He," says St. Augustine, "who does not foresee and flee the danger he should foresee and flee, tempts God and will be forsaken by Him." In dangers of purity, the timidity that causes flight, becomes intrepidity, for he runs to victory by retreating, and increases his strength a hundred-fold by acknowledging his weakness and crying for help. In other combats we challenge the foe by crying out "forward!" In that of purity, we rout him by crying out for help and running away as fast as we can. "He who flees persecution by refusing to suffer for God's sake," says St. Augustine, "loses the crown of martyrdom; but he who flees dangerous amusements and company and all lust, because of the danger, wins the crown of chastity." Watchfulness over ourselves and the flight of 59

dangerous occasions constitute the only safe harbor for purity; he who deserts this harbor is sure of being shipwrecked. 4. Does it suffice for us to watch over our senses, in order to be pure? No, for our divine Saviour adds: "Pray." Purity is a gift of God. But every excellent gift cometh from above, from the Father of light, by means of prayer. "As I knew," says Solomon, "that I could not be continent, unless God gave it, I went to the Lord and besought Him with all my heart" (Wisd. 8, 21). "The virtue of purity," says Cassian, "is so exalted and precious, that man cannot rise to it, unless divine grace extricates him from the slime of his poor nature. Therefore no one is pure, unless he perseveres in praying for purity." Frequent confession is the most powerful reins to keep us from yielding to temptation and to enable us to rise after a fall. He who has recourse to this divine remedy, will always overcome the devil and the most violent passions. The two most formidable enemies of purity are presumption and despondency. He who affronts the danger, who exposes himself to temptation, or who does not watch over and restrain his senses, will never be pure, but will infallibly perish. He tempts God and deceives himself, who pretends to remain pure and yet places himself in the midst of danger; such an act proves that his flower of purity is already withered and lost. On the other hand, despondency is a snare as fatal and perhaps more common than presumption. We cannot acquire great purity without temptations and combats, and sometimes even without experiencing moments of weakness. And the worst thing in such cases is to yield to sadness and discouragement. He who rises at once by going to confession and renews the combat with confidence, will always end by obtaining a complete victory. The vice of impurity is a plant that grows only in the shade, in the dark, in secret. He who exposes it to the rays of the sun by confession and direction, causes it to wither and die. Holy Communion. The blood of Jesus Christ is a balm that calms concupiscence and extinguishes the fire of the passions. "The love of Jesus," says St. Antony, "is the most powerful weapon to combat hell." Satan fears watchings, prayers, fasts, but dreads above all Mass and holy Communion; the mere sign of the cross, the invocation of the holy names of Jesus and Mary disarms him, puts him to flight. "If you are less tempted," said St. Bernard to his monks, "if you remain pure, you owe it to holy Communion." The devotion to Mary. We all know that one of the greatest benefits of the devotion to the Blessed Virgin is the gift of holy purity. The first grace the Mother of God asks for her servants and her children, is 60

preservation from sin. Experience proves that the souls most devoted to Mary excel in purity. The mere invocation of the name of Mary in temptation suffices to put Satan to flight. Let us perform daily special devotions in honor of the Queen of angels, and she will surely obtain for us the gift of angelic purity.

Why The Devil Tempts Us (C)

A very virtuous young Brother, of a lively imagination and of a naturally very irritable character, was accustomed to go frequently to Ven. Father Champagnat to manifest to him his interior trials, and especially his very violent temptations against holy purity. Father Champagnat, knowing his timorous conscience and excessive sensibility, encouraged him and counseled him calmness and confidence as an effective remedy. The Brother, who dreaded sin more than death, and was unable to distinguish feeling from consent, the mere thought of evil, of sin, from the love of it, was only half-satisfied with the indicated remedy, and could not understand how we can resist a temptation by simply despising it.. He one day said to Father Champagnat: "My struggles are so great, that I cannot stand them. any longer. If they continue, I do not know what will become of me. Please, give me a powerful and energetic remedy to get rid of the foe that pursues me day and night with infernal rage; do not fear to crush my body; I prefer the health of my soul to that of my body, for I must, before all, secure my salvation and, consequently, keep out of sin." Father Champagnat, having good reason to believe that the instruction. that this excellent. Brother needed to recover his tranquillity, would be very profitable to others also, replied: "In a few days I will give a conference on temptations and the manner of combating them; I will then mention the powerful and energetic remedy you ask for; in the meantime trust in God and do not worry." The Father kept his promise as follows: After his conversion St. Martin took the resolution to serve God perfectly; he, therefore, withdrew to a monastery. He was on his way to that asylum of virtue, when the devil, astonished at his strength of soul and fervor, exerted himself to his utmost to thwart his design. He assumed the appearance of a traveler, and approaching Martin, haughtily asked him where he was going. The saint, recognizing him at once for what he really was, replied: "I am going where God calls me." The devil, irritated at this answer, could no longer conceal himself, but said: "Wherever you are going, whatever you may do, know that you will always find me in your 61

way to persecute you, to ensnare and ruin you." The devil kept his word, persecuted him all his life, and showed himself to him in his dying moments. Astonished at Satan's constancy and fury, St. Martin said to him: "Cruel beast, what art thou doing here? What art thou waiting for? Thou shalt find nothing of thy own in me, and, in spite of thy rage and malice, I shall be admitted to Abraham's bosom." The war Satan waged against St. Martin, he waged against all the saints and still wages against all good religious. He who gives himself to God, must expect to find the devil always in his way and to undergo most terrible temptations and to struggle all his life against that relentless foe. This truth is taught in almost every page of Holy Scripture: "Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation" (Eccli. 2. 1). "Because thou wast pleasing to God, it was necessary that temptation should try thee" (Job, 12.13). "Whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth; and He scourgeth every son He receiveth" (Hebr. 12.6). But what is the cause or reason of these temptations? There are two principal reasons for temptations: God's goodness towards the elect and Satan's fury against them. God, in His goodness, permits us to be tempted for our good, to purify and humble us, to make us watchful, prudent and mortified, to cause us to pray, to exercise and fortify our virtue, to increase our merit on earth and our glory in heaven. Such are God's intentions in subjecting us to temptation. But how different are the devil's intentions in worrying us with temptations. Satan, being the enemy of God and unable to do Him any harm, takes revenge on men, the images of God. Wherefore he wages against us a relentless war on ac-count of God's merciful designs over us the graces He imparts to us, the heavenly goods He prepares for us, and especially because He has destined us to occupy in eternity the thrones the rebellious angels lost by their pride. Being jealous of our lot, he goes about us without ceasing, says St. Peter, like a roaring lion, seeking to devour us. Let us mark that St. Peter does not say that the devil seeks to bite, but to devour us. In fact, he intends our complete destruction, as we may judge from the detestable intentions he harbors when tempting us and warring constantly against us. 1. In the first place, he strives to cause us to offend God that he may rob us of the life of grace, which is for us the principle and pledge of the life of glory, defile our soul, make us his slaves and precipitate us into hell. Every one knows that this is the devil's object; no one doubts his intention to bring about our ruin and to make us the companions of his 62

misfortune and punishment. But how many pious persons and religious ignore his other perverse intentions in persecuting us without ceasing with his temptations. We should know them, that we may be prepared to escape falling into his snares. 2. When the devil cannot cause us to offend God, he proposes, by his temptations to worry, to tire us out, to make virtue difficult for us and Christ's yoke heavy and insupportable, and to make us lose time. "When the devil," says St. Francis de Sales, "sees a soul escaping him, and that he cannot cause that soul to lose her blissful eternity, he is satisfied with harassing and occupying her with temptations, and thus making her lose her time." 3. In this manner he tries to hinder our progress in perfection, to spoil our good works and our virtues, to diminish our merits and, consequently, the glory destined for us in heaven. 4. The devil intends, moreover, to prevent us from praying, to cause us to neglect our spiritual exercises. The first condition to pray well is calmness and peace of soul. But when we are disturbed in mind and in doubt whether we have offended God, we have no relish for prayer, and our spiritual exercises become more and more difficult and disagreeable. On the other hand, often we have only to set about praying in order to become the target for all the temptations of hell. And why does the devil make such great exertions, why does he make such a fuss? Because he knows that prayer is the source of all graces, and he does all in his power to dry it up. 5. The devil tempts us, in order to keep us from holy Communion. Frequent Communion is the great means by which divine love is enkindled in us, for it enables us to make rapid and solid progress in virtue and to secure our salvation. Because the devil knows this, he so violently tempts pious souls before, and even at holy Communion. If he can only disturb them, make them doubt whether they have yielded to the temptation, or induce them to miss a holy Communion, he triumphs and rejoices as if he had gained a great victory. And, in fact, to deprive a soul of holy Communion, to keep her from being more closely united thereby to Jesus Christ, and to rob her of the graces it would impart to her, is an immense loss for her and a great victory for hell. And nevertheless not a few religious allow themselves to be caught in that coarse snare. The devil, aware of their inexperience and weakness, assails them violently and persistently and tires them, until he succeeds in disturbing their reason and filling their minds with doubts; and then, to complete his work, he induces them to yield to deep sadness and despondency. When in this 63

state, they do not venture to cast even a glance into their interior, they are insupportable to themselves, their confidence in God vanishes, their piety and devotion grow cold, they spend weeks in worry and tepidity, perform their spiritual exercises merely to get done with them, omit holy Communion, and, consequently, fall into many venial faults and remain always imperfect. 6. The devil tempts us, in order to spoil our character. This is one of his usual wicked tricks. To spoil a man's character is to make virtue very difficult to him. To spoil the character of a religious is to make the community life almost impossible to him, to make him the scourge of his brethren. To spoil the character of a teaching religious is to paralyze all his work, all his efforts. What can he effect whose character is spoiled and has become disagreeable and insupportable? Nothing in the line of works of zeal. The devil knows this, and he, therefore, pursues us with temptations in order to make us gloomy, peevish and discouraged. He who is in this state, becomes exceedingly irritable, discontented with everything around him, easily angered, a real scold, a burden to himself, insupportable to others, and clashing with everybody. 7. The devil tempts us, in order to pervert and spoil our conscience, by filling it with perplexity and scruples. Scruples pervert the judgment, keep away from the sacraments, disturb the reason and rob of the peace of mind. How many unfortunate persons, led astray by the devil, began with scruples and ended in insanity! How many still more unfortunate, began with scruples, and ended in impiety and debauchery! And how does a person become scrupulous? Through the suggestions of the devil, through an excessive dread of temptations. To lead a soul astray and make her scrupulous, the devil shows sin to her every-where, in everything, and induces her to look upon scrupulosity as a virtue, as a proof of a tender conscience. This is a most pernicious error, for scrupulosity is a great defect, the great enemy of divine love. The learned Gerson does not hesitate to assert that a scrupulous conscience is more hurtful than an easygoing or lax conscience. And the meek Fenelon fears not to say: "Woe to the narrow and contracted soul that fears everything, for by dint of fearing sin and temptation, she has no time to love and act generously." Let us flee from that formidable poison of piety, and say with St. Joseph Cupertino: "Get behind me, sadness and scrupulosity, for I do not want you in my house!" 8. The devil tempts us to rob us of our health and strength and to render us entirely useless. Nothing, in fact, is more apt to ruin our health than mental troubles, melancholy and the anxieties of a conscience that 64

has lost its peace, that is always worrying, always afraid of committing sin and of being eternally lost. Such are Satan's projects. And with what instrument does he especially effect so much harm? He makes use of our imagination, filling it with fears, illusions and chimeras. To avoid his snares, we should combat temptations as follows: I. First, we should use preventive remedies, that is, flee idleness, all unnecessary intercourse with the world and all dangerous occasions; and also pride, gluttony, familiarity with children, curiosity and whatever is calculated to awaken the passions, lead to sin or occasion temptations. II. Bear in mind that "every perfect gift is from above" (James 1, 17), and that of ourselves we cannot possess the gift of purity. Therefore, we must pray earnestly, constantly, persistently for it, and let this be our principal intention in all our prayers. III. We should every morning consecrate ourselves to the Blessed Virgin, impose on ourselves certain practices to deserve her protection, and implore her to obtain for us the grace never to commit a mortal sin. Do not fail to beseech our divine Saviour for the same favor daily at holy Mass and Communion. IV. If we faithfully and constantly take these precautions, we should not fear temptation, but be always courageous and cheerful. St. Antony used to say that resoluteness and cheerfulness are excellent means of overcoming temptation, for cheerfulness grieves the devil and deprives him of the hope of ensnaring us. The Septuagint version of Holy Scripture designates the devil as Myrmiooleon, that is, lion and ant. Why a lion? Because to those who fear him he is a furious lion, a real tyrant, and he looks upon them as mere ants. But to courageous souls he is a mere ant, and they are to him as real lions. He was only an ant to St. Teresa, for she openly said that she feared him no more than if he were a mere fly. And St. Pachomius would say to him: "I make fun of thee and no more fear thy presence than I do the shaking of a leaf agitated by the wind." V. We should expect temptations and consider them as unavoidable and even necessary for us. Remember the anecdote of St. Martin; expect and be resigned always to meet the devil in your way. Be not surprised at his assaults, which are your glory and your merit, for he persecutes you, because you are virtuous. The prophet Habacuc says that "the saints, the just are delicious morsels for Satan." Pirates do not attack empty ships, which contain no booty for them, but only those that are well laden with valuable goods. Highwaymen do not attack paupers, but only the wealthy. In like manner, the devil does not attack sinners, who are spiritually like empty vessels and paupers; they are no catch for him. But 65

he attacks good religious, well laden with virtues and merits, and he glories in overcoming them, and finds pleasure in defiling and pillaging them and making them unhappy. VI. Resist temptations by despising them. The great masters of the spiritual life agree in saying that contempt is the shortest and most effective means of resisting the devil and keeping from sin, and more effective than even the words and acts of the contrary virtues. This means has the immense advantage, first, of not engaging in actual combat with the devil, and in not getting tired or defiled by struggling with him; and secondly, of discouraging the devil and putting a speedy end to his temptations and assaults. Think of a man Walking away quietly without noticing a barking cur coming after him; the cur soon gets tired and leaves him alone. But if the man gets afraid and runs after the dog with a stick, or throws stones at him, he only irritates the cur, prolongs the combat, and risks being bitten. This is a figure of what happens in temptations. If we despise the devil, he leaves us, or attacks us only weakly or seldom; if we fear him too much and get excited, uneasy, etc., we engrave, as it were, the evil representations in our mind, prolong the temptation, disturb our reason, injure our health, and run the risk of offending God. St. Francis de Sales has the same views on this point, for he says: "I was lately near a bee-hive, and some of the bees settled on my face, and I wished to drive them away with my hand. `Don't,' said the peasant; `don't be afraid; if you do not touch them, they will not hurt you; but if you try to drive them off with your hand, they will sting you.' I believed him and was not stung. Believe me and fear not temptations; do not notice them, and they will not hurt you." There is a fear which impels us rather to approach a precipice than to keep away from it. Whence comes it that a man runs easily on a narrow board placed on the ground, but would not dare to walk on it if it were placed in the air or would serve as a crossing? Because in the latter case, his fear would drive the blood from his heart, and his legs would become unsteady, and his head giddy, and the mere apprehension of danger would make him fall. This is a figure of what happens to us in temptations, when we have too great a dread of them, and allow our imagination to get excited, our mind is disturbed, the temptation increases in violence, our courage fails, and we consent to the sin. When a swindler wishes to rob a simple-minded and unsuspecting man, he usually brings him to a saloon, causes him to drink heavily; then induces him to gamble or persuades him to enter into some fraudulent scheme or business transaction. Thus does the devil act with us; thus does he set his trap for us; he manages to worry us, to disturb our mind, our reason; and once 66

master of our head, he reaches our heart without further hindrance and secures the consent of our will. The principal thing in temptation is to keep our mind clear, sound and calm, to avoid being disturbed, frightened and discouraged, and to remain cheerful and combat the temptation with contempt. At a conference of some of the ancient Fathers of the Desert, the eldest asked one of them: "How do you combat temptations?" The reply was: "I consider the hideousness of sin, and this puts the temptation to flight." "And what is your method?" he asked another. "I implore the Blessed Virgin's protection until the temptation is over." "And I," said a third, "I merely despise the devil, make no account of his suggestions, and continue to keep myself in the presence of God." "Your line of conduct in temptation," said the eldest, "is the best for two reasons; first, because you keep your mind entirely free and do not fatigue any of your faculties; and secondly, because you can make use of it in every temptation." We cannot, in fact, always meditate, pray or struggle, but we can always despise an enemy and treat him with disdain. This means is, therefore, the best, the most secure, the least fatiguing and the easiest. Moreover, the longer the temptation persists, the clearer it is that we have not consented to it. It is a good sign," says St. Francis de Sales, "if the devil makes such a fuss around our will, for it proves that he has not gained admittance into it. No one lays siege to a fortress which is already in his possession; so long as the attack lasts, we may be sure that we have resisted and not yielded our consent." Wherefore those who fear sin, pray daily to be preserved therefrom, watch over themselves and avoid dangerous occasions, they have reason to believe that the thoughts, temptations and revolts of the flesh, which annoy them, are not wilful; and consequently they should not be disturbed by them, but should despise them and humble themselves before God. They should examine themselves but little on these matters, and only briefly confess whatever neglect they feel guilty of therein. Long examinations of conscience to find out whether we have yielded to such temptations are very dangerous, for, in the first place, they irritate the imagination, recall the temptations vividly, keep up the fire of concupiscence. To touch a sore too often makes it worse, instead of healing it. Secondly, such examinations, in the course of time, diminish the horror of mortal sin, and cause the loss of the soul's holy modesty; for if we should not even mention the impure vice, we have still greater reason not to reflect upon it. He who keeps his mind frequently occupied 67

with such matters, who is always discussing whether he consented to them, will, in the end, have no dread of the vice, lose all tenderness of conscience and expose himself to the greatest dangers. Flee from this snare, for it is one of the most dangerous of all; fear not temptations, but combat them with your contempt.

Necessity of Meditation and Mental Prayer (C)

"Meditation, prayer, actual grace, sanctifying grace, perseverance in charity and in our vocation, and eternal salvation are six things linked together and depending on one another," said Ven. Father Champagnat. "In the ordinary ways of Providence without prayer, or mental prayer, there are no efficacious actual graces; without abundant and efficacious actual graces, we cannot resist temptations, preserve sanctifying grace and our vocation, for mortal sin, whilst inflicting death on the soul, injures our vocation and ruins from its very foundation the affair of our salvation." To prevent so terrible a misfortune, the practice of making mental prayer is indispensable. I. Mental prayer is necessary to enlighten our mind. We can be saved only by serving God; we can serve Him only by loving Him; we cannot love Him with our whole heart except by highly esteeming Him; we cannot have an exalted idea of Him, unless we sufficiently know His perfections. And how can we acquire such a knowledge of Him, unless by making a daily meditation? If God is so ill served, or rather, if we serve Him so carelessly, it is because we do not know Him. "Father," said Jesus Christ, "the world hath not known Thee" (John 17.25), and, therefore, hath not loved Thee. According to the prophet Osee the source of all disorders, of all sins is that truth and the knowledge of God have left the earth. To be saved it is not enough to know God, we I must also know ourselves. St. Augustine was so convinced of this, that he prayed daily: "Domine, noverim me, noverim te." "O Lord, grant that I may know myself, that I may know Thee." May I know myself, my own wretchedness, that I may despise and hate myself; may I know Thee and Thy infinite perfections, that I may esteem and love Thee above all! In fact, that we may work effectively at our perfection, we should know, first, the fund of corruption that is within us, so that we may humble and mistrust ourselves; secondly, the violent inclination to evil that is in us, in order that we may repress it, and our helplessness in doing good, in order that we may never trust in ourselves, but place all our confidence in God; 68

thirdly, our predominant passion, so that we may combat it, and all our defects, that we may correct them; fourthly our sins, in order to bewail and efface them with our tears; this self-knowledge cannot be acquired without daily reflection and meditation; and, finally, that we may obtain salvation, it behooves us to know the duties of our state; this knowledge, however, can be acquired only by assiduously studying and meditating on the law of God, so that we may also be able to perform them properly. Wherefore God Himself gives us this admonition: "And these words shall be in thy heart; thou shalt meditate upon them sitting in thy house, and walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising. And thou shalt bind them as a sign upon thy head, and they shall be and shall move between thy eyes, and thou shalt write them down in the entry and on the doors of thy house" (Deut. 6.6-9). It is not enough to be instructed in the law of God, we must also love and keep it; but for this it behooves us to know its beauty, equity and advantages, the rewards attached to its observance, and the punishments inflicted on its transgressors. It was for this reason that God, after giving His law to the Israelites, enumerated, on the one hand, all the blessings and rewards reserved for those who would keep it, and, on the other, all the evils and punishments that should befall its transgressors. If we were allowed to ask the reprobate Christians in hell the cause of their damnation, they would all attribute it to the forgetfulness of God, of His holy law, of the rewards promised to its observance and the punishments threatened for its non-observance. Without meditation there is no supernatural light; that is, no true knowledge of God, of ourselves, of our duties, of our destiny and, consequently, no security of salvation. "He who keeps his eyes closed," says St. Augustine, "cannot see the road that leads him to his country, and cannot, therefore, reach his country." The first thing the Philistines did after capturing Samson, was to put out his eyes. The devil does the same to the soul he has overcome; he deprives her of her sight and hinders her from making mental prayer. The Holy Ghost, who wills the salvation of souls, invites them without ceasing: "Come ye to God," meditate on His law, "and be ye enlightened" (Ps. 33.6). What the sun does visibly in the world, meditation does it invisibly in souls. The sun warms, enlightens, cheers up and vivifies; mental prayer pours torrents of light into the mind, inflames and strengthens the will, spreads joy and happiness in the heart, vivifies and nourishes the soul with the graces it obtains for it. Remove the sun and on earth there would be only darkness, ice, gloom and death. Deprive a 69

religious of meditation, and his mind will be filled with darkness and ignorance, his will will become weak and listless, his heart will be filled with harshness, bitterness and anguish, and his soul will die of inanition, according to St. John Chrysostom. St. Thomas Aquinas was so well convinced of these truths, that he asserted that a man deserves not to be called a religious, unless he faithfully performs mental prayer, for, as we cannot obtain an effect without its cause, so also we cannot have light without reflecting and meditating, or, in short, virtue and salvation cannot be had without mental prayer. II. Meditation is necessary to strengthen our heart, to make it good, impressionable and docile to the inspirations of grace. Of itself our heart is harsh, restive, insensible, cold and to evil inclined, and, therefore, liable to be lost, for "a hard heart shall fear evil at the end" (Eccli. 3.27). But what is a hard heart? St. Bernard tells us: "A hard heart is not bruised or torn by compunction and sorrow for sin; it is not softened by piety or warmed by divine love; it is not grateful, nor thoughtful of divine benefits; it is not moved by entreaties; it is impervious to threats and insensible to punishments; it does not blush for its crimes; it is oblivious of the past, careless of the present, unmindful of the future; in fine, it lacks all zeal for salvation and dreads not the damnation awaiting it, if it persists in its sad state." What remedy is there for so great an evil? The only and the infallible remedy is meditation and prayer. Obduracy of heart is curable by daily mental prayer. Meditation is for the heart what fire is for iron. Iron, when cold, is extremely hard and cannot be wrought, but fire softens it and renders it malleable, or docile to the blacksmith's will. In like manner, mental prayer heats and softens the heart and induces it ardently to embrace the practice of virtue. The holy king who assiduously meditated on the law of God, exclaims: "My heart is filled with fire" (Ps. 38.4); and then he adds: "I ran." Where didst thou run? "I ran in the way of the commandments of my God," that is, in the practice of all the virtues. And since when? "Since God hath dilated my heart in prayer" (Ps. 118.32). Later on, in a moment of forgetfulness and weakness, he complains that his heart had become dry: "I have become as dried grass, because I forgot to eat my bread" (Ps. 101.5). What bread? The bread of meditation and prayer, answer the holy Fathers. However good a soul may be, remarks. St. John Chrysostom, it needs, in order to become very fertile, to be often softened with rain. In like manner, our heart must often be watered with prayer, if we wish it to bear fruits of virtue and holiness. To observe the divine precepts and the 70

evangelical counsels, according to Bl. Bartholomew of the Martyrs, we need a soft and tender heart, that is, a heart easy to receive the impressions of divine grace and to put them into practice. But tenderness and docility of heart is the fruit of mental prayer. Solomon understood this well, when he besought God to give him a docile heart (3 Kings 3.9). St. Paul teaches. us the same, when he declares that, in order to enable us to practise virtue, God gave us the sentiments and heart of a child, and that the Holy Ghost enables us to cry out without ceasing, "Abba, Father" (Gal. 4. 6). III. Meditation is necessary to enable us to avoid sin and preserve the life of grace. Prayer is as necessary to preserve the life of grace as food is necessary to preserve the health and natural life of our body. He who would refuse all food, would infallibly die; in like manner, he who gives up meditation and prayer, which are the food of the soul, will lose the life of grace by falling into mortal sin, which is the death of the soul. The saints and the masters of the spiritual life are unanimous on this point. St. John Chrysostom does not hesitate to say and repeat: "I look upon the religious who gives up mental prayer as not merely sick, but actually dead." For just as we judge a body to be dead when it no longer breathes, so also we conclude that a soul that does not pray, is dead. St. Bonaventure maintains that the religious who gives up mental prayer, is not only miserable and useless, but that, in the sight of God, he actually carries a dead soul in a live body. St. Alphonsus declares that the religious who does not meditate on the eternal truths and gives up mental prayer, is only the corpse of a religious. According to St. Teresa, the religious who abandons mental prayer, needs not the devil to bring him to hell, but goes there and precipitates himself into it, of his own free will. The holy Abbot de Rance, reformer of La Trappe, says that the religious who neglects meditation, neglects his salvation and is on the road to destruction, for he is like a soldier, who throws away his arms during the battle; or to a shipwrecked man who, instead of seizing the rope thrown out to him, allows the current to carry him away; or to a sick man who refuses the only remedy that can cure him; or to one famished, who refuses the food offered him. As these unhappy persons are sure of being lost, so also is he sure of being lost, who gives up prayer. It is morally impossible, remarks Cardinal Bellarmine, for him who does not meditate, to avoid mortal sin. It would require a miracle, according to Gerson, to enable a man, who does not meditate, to live as a true Christian. The abbot Diocles considered meditation as so necessary for religious, that he maintained that the religious who gives up mental prayer, becomes a brute or a devil, or rather both a brute and a devil; a 71

brute by his ignorance, and a devil by his malice, wickedness and obduracy. Mental prayer is the weapon God gives us to combat the devil, to resist his temptations and to avoid sin. Without meditation and prayer, says St. Alphonsus, we could never have the strength to resist temptations and overcome our passions. Prayer is the gate through which God hands us the graces of light and strength; if it remains closed through our fault, what shall become of us? We should infallibly fall. Behold the martyrs! Whence did they draw the energy and strength to resist tyrants and bear cruel torments? From prayer. St. Theodoret, when fearfully tormented on heated potsherds, feeling the intense pains increasing and reaching his very bowels, and being unable to bear them any longer, loudly called upon God to come to his help, and at once obtained the grace of so great a strength, that he continued to bear them cheerfully until his death. But some other Christians amid their torments denied the faith, because they failed to have recourse to prayer. "I have been greatly pained to see," says St. Cyprian, "strong and generous men, when about to receive the crown of martyrdom after protracted tortures, deny their faith, because they had turned away their eyes from Him who gives strength to the weak; that is, because they failed to pray." The necessity of prayer to resist the devil appears still more evident from the historical fact, that, in the different persecutions, men, strong men, sometimes weakened, became frightened and gave up their faith, but there is no record of any young virgin having trembled and apostatized. This is an evident and striking proof that grace alone sustained the martyrs. But what is not less certain is that they obtained this grace only by persevering prayer. In Japan an old man condemned to be sawed gradually with a reed, was strong enough to bear that torture for hours; but before dying he ceased to recommend himself to God, denied the faith and died immediately after, being thus a terrible example confirming the truth that in the combat of torments and temptations, prayer alone imparts strength and victory. "Experience," says St. Alphonsus, "shows that mental prayer and sin cannot abide together; those who assiduously make mental prayer do not fall into grievous sin; and if such a misfortune were to befall them through surprise, accident or frailty, they would rise promptly." "We may hold it as certain," says St. Teresa, "that he who perseveres in the practice of mental prayer, will never yield to sin and will not be lost, however violent and numerous the temptations that assail him." Mental prayer is the channel which brings to us the waters of grace, the assistance and strength which enable us to avoid sin. It is to cut off or obstruct this 72

channel that the devil so greatly exerts himself to prevent us from praying, for he knows that those who never miss their meditations and spiritual exercises are lost for him. Being convinced of this truth, St. Teresa says that "the most dangerous and fatal of temptations is that which impels us to neglect meditation and prayer." "The most successful artifice of the devil to ruin souls," says St. Laurence Justinian, "consists in inducing them to give up prayer, for the abandonment of this exercise assures the triumph of his temptations." IV. Meditation is necessary to correct our defects. "On mental prayer," says Rodriguez, "depends the conduct of our life; it is well or ill regulated, according as we make our meditations well or ill." Hence St. Alphonsus says: "If you perceive a religious who is tepid, unmortified, full of vanity, disobedient, slothful in the regular observance, irascible, quarrelsome, you may say, without danger of being mistaken, that he does not make mental prayer." "Meditation," says St. Bernard, "teaches us to know ourselves and shows us our defects; and prayer gives us the grace to overcome and correct them. Meditation indicates to us the virtues that are wanting to us, and prayer obtains them for us. Meditation points out to us the road to heaven, and prayer enables us to walk in it securely and diligently. Meditation shows us the dangers that surround us, the enemies we have to combat, and prayer helps us to shun the dangers, and imparts to us strength to combat and conquer our enemies. Meditation enlightens and purifies the soul, regulates our inclinations, directs our actions, corrects our defects, sweetens our manners, and regulates our whole conduct. He who gives up mental prayer, will never know or be able to correct his defects, nor be able to perceive the snares of Satan and the dangers to which his salvation is exposed, or even think of avoiding them, and will, therefore, become their victim. Finally, without mental prayer we cease to be rational, allow ourselves to be deceived by the devil, to be governed by our passions, preyed upon by our defects. Without mental prayer there is only ignorance in our mind, weakness in our heart, faithlessness in our will, and our life becomes a series of faults and sins." According to Theodoret, mental prayer is a universal remedy for the cure of all the ills of the soul, and an infallible means of removing the rust of our defects. Physicians treat each disease with a special remedy, and sometimes even with many, because none of them alone is endowed with full efficacy; but mental prayer is a universal and infallible remedy to correct defects of all kinds, to repel all the assaults of the devil, because it brings to the soul an infinite Good, God, from whom it derives its power; hence it is called all-powerful. Mental prayer is to the soul what the hand 73

is to the body. The hand serves as an instrument for the whole body and also for itself. It works for the food and clothing, for all the wants of the body and for its own wants. If the hand is sore, the hand cares for it; if it is soiled, the hand washes it; if cold, the hand rubs it to make it warm; in a word, the hands can attend to every want. The same may be said of mental prayer in matters spiritual. "Father," said a young religious to an ancient Father of the Desert, "what must I do to keep from yielding to the evil thoughts that beset me?" "Pray." "And to repress my uncontrollable tongue?" "Pray." "And in order not to yield to the evil one inducing me to leave my cell and enjoy myself in idle conversation, etc., with my brethren?" "Pray." "And to root out my pride, my want of mortification, my self-will, all of which rule over me?" "Pray." "Why do you give me only one means to do so many different things?" "For two reasons: first, because it is a universal and everefficacious means to obtain everything; and secondly, because it includes and replaces all the others." V. Meditation is necessary to practise virtue in an excellent manner and to lead the life of a good and fervent religious. "The soul," says St. Augustine, "received from God the power of self-improvement with His assistance, and, by means of pious labor, to acquire all the virtues and all the gifts capable of raising her to the highest perfection." This faculty is the grace and power of prayer. "Every perfect gift," says St. James (1. 17), "is from above, coming from the Father of lights." What does this mean? According to St. John Chrysostom, these words mean that mental prayer is the cause and the mother of the virtues, and that none of the requisites of holiness will find an entrance into the soul that fails to commune with God in mental prayer. According to Pope Innocent III, they mean that we in vain endeavor to gain the victory over our evil habits and to raise the edifice of virtue and perfection, if we do not draw divine grace by fervent and constant prayer. St. Bonaventure says that by these words is meant that the Holy Ghost wished to teach us that without prayer and mortification we can obtain no grace from heaven, nor acquire solid and perfect virtue. Cardinal Cajetan declares that, as we cannot obtain an effect without a cause, or an end without using the requisite means, so, in like manner, we cannot practice virtue without making mental prayer, and that, therefore, he who does not make it, deserves not the name of religious, because he does not practise the virtues pertaining to his state. On the other hand, a man of prayer is like a tree planted along-side of a stream, which produces fruit in due season (Ps. 1.3); all his actions prosper before God. Mark the words "in due season," that is, whenever the 74

occasion presents itself, the pious religious will be patient, obedient, humble, regular, modest, charitable, full of zeal, mortified. According to St. John Chrysostom, prayer is to the soul what an abundant fountain is in the midst of a garden; without it everything withers and dies; with it everything prospers, is fresh and delicious, every plant produces good fruits. In like manner, prayer keeps up in perpetual beauty and freshness the holy plants of obedience, humility, love of God and all the other virtues. The gift of prayer is a proof of solid virtue. "If you see," says St. Gregory, "a soul favored with the gift of great piety, know that it is an indubitable sign that God calls that soul to a high perfection and to do great things for His glory." St. John Chrysostom is of the same opinion, for he says: "When I meet a religious who is fond of meditation and faithfully performs all his spiritual exercises, I conclude at once that grace abounds in his heart; for, if we become wise by frequent intercourse with the wise, as the Holy Ghost declares, how great a wisdom does not he acquire who communes familiarly with God, and how perfect are not his virtues!" God finds no delight in a poor, unadorned and ill-regulated dwelling. As soon as He enters a soul in meditation and prayer, He establishes in her due order and fills her with His gifts. He first imparts to her a great tenderness or delicacy of conscience, so that she cannot bear the slightest faults; then He renders her heart generous and full of noble sentiments which cause her to disdain the goods, honors and pleasures of the world, so that she looks upon as trifles all that the world produces, however beautiful and precious it may appear. Moreover, He strengthens her will and fills it with a magnanimous courage that renders her superior to labor, tribulations, hardships, sufferings and death itself, and induces her to practise even the most heroic virtues. Finally, God enables that soul to discover, by means of mental prayer, numberless ways and means to render her life pure and holy and to enable her to perform, with fruit, good works of all kinds. VI. Meditation is necessary to persevere in our vocation and to fulfil its object. No one preserves an object which he despises or does not care for. To preserve our vocation we must appreciate it and highly esteem it. Wherefore it behooves us often to meditate on its excellence and advantages, on the graces it obtains for us, the dangers from which it preserves us, the sweet and virtuous life it procures us, and the troublesand miseries from which it frees us. A religious cannot lose his vocation all at once. It is only step by step that he arrives at unfaithfulness to his vows, at apostasy. He begins by praying carelessly, then he continues by shortening 75

his spiritual exercises, and ends by gradually giving them up. The beginnings of this fatal eclipse, by which God wholly conceals Himself from us, are like those of the eclipses of the sun, being at first almost imperceptible, they end by leaving the soul in complete darkness. To preserve ourselves from so terrible a misfortune, we should meditate on the eternal truths and never lose sight of the all-important affair of our salvation. "You ask me," says Bourdalone, "if meditation is very necessary. I, in turn, ask you: Is it very necessary to love God, to avoid sin, to correct your defects, to practise charity, to persevere in your holy state and in doing good; in a word, is it necessary to secure your salvation, to save your soul, to avoid hell and gain heaven? If you answer that all this is necessary, I answer you that meditation is still more necessary, for it is by means of mental prayer that you will be able to do all that!" "We must consider," says St. Vincent de Paul, "as the effects of meditation, perseverance in our vocation, success in our employments, victory in our temptations, return to God after our falls and perseverance in doing good." The virtue of a religious is secure, however great the dangers to which he is exposed, if he is assiduous in making mental prayer, in examining his conscience and frequenting the sacraments. On the contrary, if he neglects these exercises, these indispensable means, were he now even a saint, he will not long remain one; if he is already imperfect, he will soon begin to show contempt for his most essential obligations. All those who grow weary of their state, who lose their vocation, all who, by a disedifying conduct, deserve to be considered as useless members, have been lost, because they began to neglect their spiritual exercises. "All the religious," says Bellecius, who fall into some grievous sin, who desert their holy state, and scandalize the Church and the faithful, have done so because they had given up mental prayer, or performed it carelessly and only to save appearances. " Moreover, according to St. Bonaventure, "a relaxation in the practice of mental prayer suffices to bring about in a convent or even in a whole Institute relaxation from its primitive fervor and even its entire ruin." When you see a religious full of weariness and discontent concerning his state, esteeming it but little, you may, without danger of mistake, say that he does not meditate. "On the contrary," says Father Judde, S.J., "you cannot show me a religious who is punctual in making meditation and his other spiritual exercises, and who is not contented in his state, who does not love his vocation, who does not possess its virtues, and fulfil its end and obligations." "Oh, how many religious," says St. 76

Alphonsus, "commit sin and wallow in their evil habits, are lost and cast into hell, because they fail to meditate and pray!" O religious, pray, pray, cease not praying and meditating on the eternal truths. If you do so, your perseverance and salvation are secure. But if you leave off meditation and prayer, your loss is certain. "Let us be well convinced," says Massillon, "that to pray is man's condition, his first duty, his greatest need, his only resource, his only consolation, in a word, it is the whole of man."

The Five Kinds of Devotion or Piety (C)

The spirit of piety is the most excellent of gifts; it is the treasure of the religious, the infallible means of acquiring solid virtue and of perfectly corresponding with God's designs over us. "Of all the things that are esteemed in life," says St. Gregory of Nyssa, "there is none that should be preferred to the spirit of prayer, because prayer is the universal and efficacious means of performing all that God has regulated for the eternal predestination of His elect." "Know well," says St. Francis of Paul, "that human language cannot adequately express the great benefits which the gift of piety imparts to the soul. Prayer possesses infinite excellence, power and merit; it is the origin and source of all gifts, graces and virtues. Hence we should recommend to all the brethren to devote themselves to it constantly, and daily to implore our Lord for the gift of piety." Von. Father Champagnat was wont to call piety the capital point, for, he said, "he who has the gift of a solid piety, possesses all virtues." If God grants us the grace of prayer, He thereby grants us all the virtues, for we can say of prayer, what Solomon said of wisdom: "All goods came to me together with her" (Wisd. 7, 11). In fact, we cannot possibly often commune with God, without acquiring His spirit, without becoming like Him by imitating His virtues; hence I have always observed that he who possessed the spirit of piety, was also obedient, mortified, zealous and wholly occupied with his perfection. Pious religious are precious men, the pillars of their Institute, and whatever may otherwise be their talents, strength and health, they are everywhere useful, because they everywhere bring a good spirit, and God blesses all that is entrusted to them. On the contrary, a religious lacking piety does nothing useful either for himself or for others. He is powerless to do good, because he lacks the proper means of doing it, which consists in piety and union with God. A long experience has taught me that a religious without piety is a mere nothing; he is nowhere in his place; he is a hindrance to everybody. Wherefore St. 77

Benedict would often say: "Never expect anything good from a religious who is not pious, however great his talents may otherwise be." But what is required to be solidly pious? To (possess the gift of piety, to be solidly pious, is to love prayer, to take delight in the exercise of prayer, to combat powerfully and perseveringly the obstacles to prayer, such as distractions, to experience a continual need of praying, to devote oneself as much as possible to prayer, to find all one's happiness and consolation in communing with God. That we may be able to determine how we stand concerning piety, how far we possess this precious gift, or how weak we are concerning this capital point, let us examine the five different kinds of devotion or piety. 1. The first kind of piety is that of the mind. It consists in knowing the mysteries of faith, in a high esteem for prayer, for the service of God, for virtue and for all that concerns salvation. "An object," says St. Thomas, "can cause pleasure in two ways: first, by itself, when it actually makes an impression on the senses, when it is seen or tasted; in this case it produces devotion of the heart, that is, good sentiments, fervor and the like; secondly, by the image or representation we form of it, when our mind is occupied with the advantageous idea we have conceived of it, and by the esteem we experience for it upon discovering its excellence and good qualities. But this esteem is produced by the devotion or piety of the mind. This devotion is acquired and increased by reading ascetical works, and especially by thoroughly meditating on the mysteries of our divine Saviour, on the dogmas and truths of our holy religion. This devotion is very necessary and very profitable, for it produces, nourishes, develops and promotes the increase of all the others. It is to the devotion and piety of the heart, what the germ is to the fruit, and what fuel is to the fire, 2. The second kind of piety or devotion is that of the heart. It consists in a relish for prayer, in sentiments of confidence in God, of gratitude for His benefits, of love for our Saviour, of praises of His divine perfections, of contrition for our sins, in a word, of sensible fervor and devotion. This devotion is a signal grace and benefit, provided we are not too greatly attached to it and undergo its privation with resignation, and carefully avoid making it sentimental. The devotion of the heart sanctifies, ennobles and imparts value to all the others. It is sweet, full of consolation, renders virtue easy, enables us unceasingly to make fresh progress therein, for nothing is difficult to him that loves, since love is stronger than death, and the greatest sacrifices cost nothing to him who loves. The devotion of the heart is the devotion of great souls, of good, generous and fervent 78

hearts, the devotion of heaven. Love, praise and gratitude fill the saints, occupy them and make them happy. 3. The third kind of piety or devotion is that of the conscience. It consists in the horror, dread and flight of venial sin, of all that displeases God. It is the surest and the least liable to illusions. In fact, when we are faithful to God, when we carefully avoid all that can displease Him, we may be sure that we are on the right road and are making progress in perfection, although our heart may be cold or lacking in good sentiments, even if our mind is disturbed or unable, for some reason or other, to think on God and to understand the excellence of divine things. 4. The fourth devotion or piety is that of the elbow. It consists in acting well, in being a man of labor and good works, in being wholly devoted to our employment, in sacrificing ourselves to perform it properly, and in making ourselves useful to our neighbor. This devotion was common to all the saints, for they were all men of action, all were faithful in performing the duties of their state, all were devoted to the common good, all were full of charity towards their neighbor and rendered him all the services in their power; all were full of zeal and sacrificed themselves for the glory of God and the sanctification of their fellow-men. 5. The fifth kind of piety and devotion is that of the tongue. It consists in reciting many vocal prayers. This devotion, although the least of all, is, nevertheless, useful and imparts to the soul great benefits, if we recite our prayers in a modest position, pronounce the words distinctly and attentively, and vivify them by good intentions. When this devotion is the result and fruit of the others, as is the case with fervent souls and good religious, its worth and excellence are great indeed. These multiplied prayers or acts are the burning sentiments of the soul, which, escaping like fiery darts as ejaculatory prayers, turn the actions of the day into a continual prayer. This kind of devotion is very easy, and, if properly practised, it becomes a source of actual graces. It keeps up and nourishes the good sentiments of the soul, sanctifies all our actions and serves as the best preparation for mental prayer, holy Communion and all spiritual exercises. Each one of us may now be able to find out whether he is really pious, by examining in what degree he possesses the aforesaid devotions. Is he really pious who lacks all esteem for prayer, virtue, salvation and the service of God? No; he has not the foundation of solid piety. Is he really pious whose heart is hard, icy cold and dry, and does not nourish himself with sentiments of confidence, gratitude, love, etc.? No; he lacks the elements of solid piety. True piety resides in the heart; and when the heart 79

is a stranger to prayer, there is no true piety. Is he truly pious who takes but little care of his conscience, who has but little or no fear of venial sin, who commits it easily and without remorse? No; his piety is vain, although he were wont to recite many vocal prayers. Is he truly pious who carelessly discharges the duties of his office, and who does not consider care and devotedness in his employment as one of the first duties of his state? No, for his piety is an illusion. On the contrary, he who is very careful to preserve his conscience pure, who fears and shuns even the least sin, possesses a good degree of piety. He who faithfully discharges the duties of his state, who is wholly devoted to his employment and sacrifices himself to perform it well, possesses a good degree of piety. He who is seriously minded and does not make light of the affairs of his salvation, vocation and eternity, has a good degree of piety, even if he finds much difficulty in prayer, and feels but little relish for it. Finally, to understand the excellence of the gift of piety and the need we have of acquiring it, let us recall three points of our Rule (that is, the Rule of the Little Brothers of Mary). 1. The Brothers shall consider their spiritual exercises as the most appropriate and efficacious means to avoid sin, to correct their defects, to acquire virtue and the perfection of their state, and to do all things well, according to this saying of St. Paul: "Piety is useful for all things" (1 Tim. 4.8). 2. The Brothers should desire nothing more than the spirit of prayer and the gift of mental prayer, for, says St. Augustine, "he knoweth well to live, who knoweth well to pray." On this point depends the conduct of their whole life, which will be well or ill regulated, according as they perform their spiritual exercises well or ill. 3. The Brothers shall often implore God for the spirit of mental prayer and use every means to acquire and preserve it. Were they to become relaxed in this essential article, they should ask permission to spend some days in retreat so as to renew themselves in the practice of prayer and in the spirit of piety, for they cannot otherwise be good religious. In a conference on prayer Ven. Father Champagnat spoke as follows: "To become solidly pious, we must do two things: First, we must remove the obstacles to solid piety. They are dissipation of mind, vain or bad thoughts, inordinate affections in the heart and faults on the conscience. Watch, therefore, over your mind, and never abandon it to vain or dangerous thoughts, or chimerical projects. Watch over your heart, and never let an inordinate affection for a creature enter it; never suffer the 80

love of vice to penetrate into it or anything that might captivate, attach or enslave it. Watch over your conscience; allow no sin in it, nor anything calculated to weaken its purity. Remember this saying of St. Augustine: `Purity is the eye of the soul; without that eye we can see nothing in things divine; and the first condition to pray well is a conscience free from sin, or a deep sorrow for having offended God.' The three furnaces of piety are, then, the mind, the heart and the conscience. When all three are in good order, that is, when the mind is void of all worldly thoughts or trifles, the heart free from all inordinate affections, and the conscience free from all sin, prayer is easy, and the soul relishes God and finds no difficulty in uniting herself to Him. The second thing it behooves us to do is to pray much, for it is by carefully doing a thing often that we learn how to do it properly; to read books calculated to inspire piety, to study our divine Saviour in a special manner and to meditate assiduously on His life, sufferings and virtues."

Brother Hippolyte and His Lamp (C)

Brother Hippolyte was twenty-six years old, when he felt a desire to give himself to God, in order to secure his salvation. But the world and divine grace were struggling against each other for his possession. The religious life had charms for him, but the world had some also. He came, in a state of hesitation, to Ven. Father Champagnat and, in order to run no risk, he asked to be received on trial for some days. But Father Champagnat would not hear of this and said that he must comply with the usual conditions, if he wished to enter the Institute. After some discussion Hippolyte yielded to grace and assured him that he would strive earnestly to become a good religious, and was admitted. He ever after distinguished himself by an entire devotion to his employment, that of tailor in the Motherhouse, and an unalterable patience and meekness. He lived fortyone years in the community and edified all especially by these four qualities: 1. His constancy in his vocation and his love for his state. From the day of his entrance into the Institute he never regretted having left the world, nor ever entertained a desire to return to it. He never allowed himself to be tempted by the false liberty and vain goods of the world. "I am in the service of God," he would say, "I feel happy in it and I will remain in it as long as I live." He was greatly pleased with St. Polycarp's reply to the judge who endeavored to prevail upon him to renounce Jesus Christ. "I have served Jesus Christ already for eighty years, and He has 81

only done good to me; why should I renounce Him? May God preserve me from such ingratitude." In his simplicity Br. Hippolyte would say: "This answer seems to me to be just and reasonable; I am satisfied with God; I find pleasure and happiness in His service; why, then, should I leave Him? I belong to God, I will continue to belong to Him all my life and for all eternity." Since he was the tailor of the Mother-house of the Institute, he was often in contact with those who left or were sent away, for he had to furnish them with secular clothes. "This," he would say, "is the only thing in my employment that pains me; it grieves me to see those inexperienced young men returning to the world. Alas! you know not what you are leaving, nor what will befall you. Beware lest the best days of your life be already gone, and lest you shall have reason to regret the happy days you have devoted here to the service of God. I know the world; it looks very bright from afar, but how frightful it is when you are in it! It promises much, but gives but little consolation, satisfaction and happiness." 2. His meekness. All admitted that Br. Hippolyte could never get angry, for he had never been seen in a passion or yielding to irritability and vivacity, so common to persons who have much to do. Though often disturbed in his work, often beset by a number of Brothers at the same time, each one asking for something different, Br. Hippolyte was always calm and unmoved, speaking kindly to every one. "I will be ready for you, please wait a moment. Have patience, I will attend to all of you." He never spoke or acted rudely or harshly to any one. If he had not what was asked, or was not allowed to give it, he would kindly excuse himself, and would show by his manner how it pained him not to be able to gratify their wishes. 3. His benevolence and habitual disposition to oblige every one. He had made himself the servant of all his brethren. He no longer belonged to himself; from morning till night he was occupied for others, and was ready at every hour of the day and of the night, to oblige all who needed his services. Like St. Francis de Sales, he found happiness in serving his neighbor and in devoting himself to the welfare of his brethren and of the whole community. His affable, kind and polite manners, his meek character imparted a particular charm to the good he performed and to the services he rendered. Like all the elect, he had a good, tender and sensible heart, naturally inclined to mercy and indulgence for others. He could refuse no one what was in his power to give or to do, and lavished himself to be useful to his brethren. After the example of his divine Master, he spent his life in doing good to every one. 82

4. His love of work and his devotedness to his employment, which was one of the most important and most confining. No one can tell with what persevering zeal he fulfilled it for over forty years in that large community. From his very entrance into it the tailor-shop was entrusted to him. In it he remained without ever asking or desiring anything else, until the day his health gave way. He would spend whole days and whole weeks in mending old clothes, so that nothing should be spoilt, wasted or lost. Br. Hippolyte died, so to speak, at his work, devoted and faithful to the end. Death overtook him with his needle in his hands. This excellent Brother, moreover, was truly pious, and no amount of work or trouble ever induced him to neglect his spiritual exercises. His piety, like his character, was unaffected, simple, peaceful, quiet, but constant and persevering. Devoted to his brethren, attached to his Institute, submissive to his superiors, full of a childlike spirit towards God, he spent his life in serving others and never interfered with any one. Ven. Father Champagnat, who was very fond of economy, nevertheless, sometimes reprimanded him, because he was accustomed to carry a little lamp at night in going about the building. Hesometimes publicly reproached him for not putting it out in time, or for using it without necessity. Br. Hippolyte humbly and silently received these reprimands, and yet did not correct his ways, because he believed he could go faster with his lamp and lose less time, but especially because it kept him from running against the walls or the furniture in the dark. Whilst blaming the Brother on account of economy, Father Champagnat would say that he liked to see him with his lamp in his hand, because he appeared to him as the wise man who is always enlightened by the spirit of reflection and directed by prudence. Like Br. Hippolyte, the virtuous man, the good religious, the wise superior is never without his lamp. The spirit of reflection enlightens all he does, prudence directs and leads all his projects, all his actions. "There is a quality," he once said, "a virtue, the necessity of which you do not understand enough; that is the spirit of reflection, the virtue of prudence. Prudence is the fruit of the spirit of reflection, and is so necessary that St. Thomas calls it the eye or pilot of the soul. This means that this virtue is as necessary to our moral conduct as our eyes are necessary to our body for its physical welfare:" It is so necessary that the great patriarch St. Antony does not hesitate to call it the first of the moral virtues. When he was one day holding a conference with several Fathers of the Desert, the question was discussed: 83

"Which virtue is the best calculated to secure religious from the snares of the devil and to lead them safely to perfection" One replied that it was fasting and mortification; another said it was watchfulness; a third, detachment from earthly goods; a fourth, charity towards our neighbor. After all had given their respective views, St. Antony decided that it is prudence, for, said he, "although all the virtues you have mentioned are necessary to those who wish to serve God, the experience we have of the fall of some does not warrant us to find in them the principal and infallible means of attaining perfection." We have often seen religious very punctual in fasting, in watchfulness; and others practising extreme poverty, or devoted to all the exercises of fraternal charity, and who, nevertheless, fell into the snares of the devil and fell lamentably for want of prudence and discretion in the good they had begun. Prudence is so necessary that St. Bernard declares that without it, virtue becomes vice. How can this be? A few examples will make this clear. Take away prudence from a young religious who wishes to belong unreservedly to God and make daily progress in virtue, and you will soon see him overload himself with pious practices, so that the day will be too short to perform them satisfactorily, and his mind will be disturbed and overwrought by his long meditations. He will soon carry his spirit of penance so far, that he will refuse his body the necessary food and rest and will lose his health and become unable to practise the penances the Church imposes on the ordinary faithful. He will, moreover, strive after an imaginary perfection, or after one that is not adapted to the spirit of his state, and he will thus surrender himself to his own notions and seek to acquire in a few months a holiness which requires many years to attain, or which is the fruit only of a long life. Deprive that superior of prudence, who loves regularity and piety, and wishes them to flourish in his community, and see what he does and what he obtains. He requires exaggerated exactness and punctuality which cannot possibly be obtained. He reproves for failings which he should appear to be ignorant of. He imposes penances for matters to which he should merely call attention. He refuses to the weak, to the young, to the aged, to the sick and infirm the alleviations which their wants require, and which charity makes it a duty for him to grant. He requires of each one, without consideration, a perfection and a virtue which can be found only in a few chosen souls. The beautiful virtue of regularity becomes, under such a superior, a tyranny which deprives him of the love, respect and esteem of his subjects and causes them to lose their childlike spirit and love of the Rule, and to find extremely burdensome the Saviour's sweet 84

and light yoke, deprives them of the consolations of the religious state and of the hundred-fold promised by Jesus Christ. Regularity in such a superior, instead of promoting the observance of the Rule, throws the community into disorder and makes of it a kind of penitentiary. His exaggerated and imprudent regularity makes him a harsh and severe master, feared and shunned, instead of a good, kind and cherished father! Deprive that zealous and devoted religious of prudence, and you will see what these virtues become in him and to what great blunders they expose him. Under the pretext of doing good to souls, to children, to the sick, etc., he neglects his spiritual exercises and all care of his own perfection. He is so absorbed in doing good to others, that he risks his own salvation, forgetful of this all-important saying of our Saviour: "What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?" He undertakes works in which his weak virtue is endangered and will probably suffer shipwreck; or things which God does not wish, nor his Rule require, for which he is fitted neither by nature nor by grace. If he is a teacher, he watches over his pupils so anxiously as to make hypocrites of them, or he shows excessive confidence in them and lets them impart their evil habits to one another. What follows from this? As for him, his piety diminishes, his soul grows weak, falls into tepidity, into sin! As to his pupils, their education is a failure, they find dangers where they should have found security; suffer the loss of their virtues and good qualities where they should have developed and learned to preserve them. As to the community, he transgresses its rules, brings disorder into it, scandalizes his brethren, compromises their success, because they cannot continue or carry out what he has done or undertaken. Prudence is so necessary that the Holy Ghost calls it the science of the saints; that is, of the best and wisest of men who should serve as models to the rest; of men possessing an exalted mind, a grand, good and generous heart, of a strong will, of an upright, enlightened and wellformed conscience; of perfect men, for such are the saints. Prudence is the great means, the great secret of avoiding the snares of the devil and the allurements of sin. The prudent man mistrusts himself and never rashly exposes himself to danger. Following the counsel of the Holy Ghost, he deviates neither to the right nor to the left, for vice is to be found in both extremes, and virtue is in the mean or safe middle way. Wherefore he walks securely amid the snares of Satan, just as he walks securely in the dark who is guided by a lighted lamp. St. Thomas, being asked how we can spend our life without grievous faults, replied: "If we act prudently in all we do, so as to be able to give a good reason for doing it, we shall 85

surely avoid sin. On the contrary, he who lacks prudence, always walks in the dark, unable to see danger or the devil's snares, and falls into them without knowing it. When concupiscence calls him, he hastens to obey the call; when passion allures him, he follows it; wherefore he precipitates himself into the abyss of every kind of sin." Prudence is the great means, the great secret of preserving the virtues, of promoting their growth, of making constantly fresh progress therein. Hence the Fathers call prudence the mother and guardian of the virtues. He who is prudent and considerate, weighs his words, speaks little and always pertinently, does not break silence or transgress modesty and discretion. He is not stubborn in his views, easily yields, shuns quarrels and dissensions, and thus preserves charity, peace, patience and meekness. He does nothing without previous examination, and feeling convinced that what he is about to do is lawful, befitting and advantageous, he thus preserves justice and moderation. By mistrusting himself he protects his humility. Since he does not rely on his own light, he often seeks counsel; and as he willingly follows the directions of his superior, he practises the virtue of obedience. Take away prudence and even the most virtuous works are not properly performed, but always lack certain necessary conditions and are in several ways defective and, therefore, not pleasing to God. Prudence is especially necessary to a superior. "Who will govern others? The prudent man," says the Holy Ghost. If you ask me: "Who will cook?" I will answer: "The religious who is strong, who knows how to cook and is devoted to duty." "Who will teach?" "He who possesses the requisite knowledge and sufficient zeal and devotedness." "Who will fill the other offices in the community?" "They may be entrusted to docile and pious religious who are fitted for them." But when there is a question of governing and directing a community, piety, knowledge and virtue are not sufficient; he only can be a good superior who, besides these qualities, has an upright sense and a considerate mind. Entrust this office to one who is prudent and says to God, as David did: "Lord, make my lamp shine well, so that I may not deviate from the road either to the right or to the left, and so that my lamp may give light to them." Prudence is the superior's compass. As the pilot cannot steer the vessel without a compass, and would, without it, go astray and never reach the intended harbor, nor prevent his vessel from being shattered on reefs or run aground, so, in like manner, a superior cannot guide his community without good judgment. If he lacks prudence, he will be not merely useless, but hurtful to his subjects. Hence he ought to pray often with 86

David: "Lord, cause my lamp to shine brightly; give me an upright judgment, a considerate mind, and grant me prudence." This virtue will teach him how to win the confidence and heart of his brethren by kindness, charity, condescension and care in providing for their wants; to obtain their docility by his pertinent, wise and just directions; to inspire love for and submission to his authority by his efforts to render it sweet and paternal. Prudence will teach him that there is a great diversity of characters, and that to govern a community of religious, or teach a class in school, he must study each one's humor and character, so as to give him a direction appropriate to the bent of his mind. It behooves him, to encourage the timid, to restrain by fear and a certain severity the giddy and light-minded. Some need to be spurred onward, and others to be restrained or kept back. Some can be led by words, and others only by example. Praise is profitable to one, but puffs up another. Some should be publicly and others only privately reproved. Some must he spoken to kindly, and others with severity. There are some whose every act, however insignificant, needs watching, whilst it is often necessary to seem not to notice their doings. In fine, if the superior holds well his lamp in his hand, he will discover that among those entrusted to his charge no two are alike or to be treated alike, and he will be able to administer to each one appropriate lessons and remedies. Moreover, prudence will teach him how to get along with outsiders, so as to avoid coming too much in contact with the world, and to prevent the spirit of the world from penetrating into his community. Finally, prudence, the eye of the soul, which enables us to see things as they really are, to see them from afar, will disclose to him all the dangers that threaten him, all the snares laid for his weakness, and will indicate to him the means of escaping them, enable him to foresee the hindrances to his good designs, show him how to overcome or encompass them, impart to him success in his undertakings and secure for him both human approbation and the divine blessing.

On Perfection (E)
All the duties of the religious are contained in the duty of tending to perfection; this should be his great ideal, the great task of his life. But to enable us to direct our efforts and to attain success in this holy undertaking, it behooves us, first, to have a clear understanding of what perfection consists in and how we should prepare ourselves to acquire it. 87

In practice many religious are mistaken concerning the nature of perfection. St. Dorotheus relates of his disciple St. Dositheus, who was the infirmarian of the monastery, that he performed the duties of his office very well. He took great care of the sick religious, kept their rooms and beds and everything they used so neat and clean, that one day when the Abbot was visiting the infirmary, Dositheus said to him: "Father, a thought of vainglory suggests to me that I perform my duty here perfectly, and that you must be very well satisfied with me." But the superior's answer greatly moderated his disciple's presumption. "I acknowledge," said St. Dorotheus, "that you are a very good and painstaking infirmarian, but I have not yet perceived that you have become a good religious." By this answer St. Dorotheus merely intended to ground his disciple in humility. But to how many religious could the same thing be said in all truth! For, said the Blessed Cure d'Ars to Cardinal Deschamps, "a religious is one who belongs wholly to God; he is wholly God's," for he lives only for God, and for God alone. A true religious, therefore, is a person that lives only for perfection, but for perfection well understood. What, then, is perfection? To understand it, let us distinguish between common, or Christian perfection, and religious perfection, and, more-over, show how both, to be real, must be personal. 1. The common or Christian perfection is the perfection to which all men are called, for our Saviour says to all men: "Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5. 48). "This is the will of God," says St. Paul, "your sanctification" (1 Thess. 4.3). God commands all to be perfect and holy: "Be ye holy, because I am holy" (Levit. 11.44). In what does that supernatural perfection consist?, Natural perfection contains three elements: the human nature itself, its powers ruled and directed by the will, and the acts proceeding there-from. In like manner, supernatural perfection consists of three elements: first, sanctifying grace, which uplifts human nature and renders it "a partaker of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1.4). Secondly, the supernatural virtues which flow from sanctifying grace; these virtues perfect the faculties of the soul, and they are all dependent on charity, which directs them to God, their final end. And thirdly, the acts which are performed by the soul which is uplifted by sanctifying grace and enriched with the supernatural virtues. Man's supernatural perfection includes sanctifying grace, or the state of grace with the virtues flowing therefrom and the acts which proceed from those virtues. The essential part of perfection belongs to sanctifying grace, for it is the principle and the end of the virtues and their acts. It is their 88

principle, for they flow from it; it is their end, for their only object is to increase sanctifying grace without ceasing. This perfection may be properly called "the love of God, or charity," because sanctifying grace manifests its activity only by means of the virtues, which are all subordinate to charity. "All perfection," says St. Alphonsus, "consists in divine love, which is the only virtue that unites us to God." Wherefore St. Paul says: "Above all have charity, which is the bond of perfection" (Col. 3. 14). "Love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. 13.10). "As for me," says St. Francis de Sales, "I know of no other perfection than to love God with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves. Every perfection that lacks this one, is a counterfeit perfection. As the soul is the life of the body, so also is charity the life and perfection of the soul, and the whole secret of attaining this love is to love. Just as we learn how to study by studying, to speak by speaking, to work by working, in like manner, we learn how to love God and our neighbor by loving them; all who follow another method, are in error." 2. The religious perfection consists in the state of grace or charity, which religious seek to preserve and increase by means of the perpetual vows of religion. It is by their very vows that religious are introduced into the state of perfection. In other words, the religious is bound by his very state to practise the works pertaining to perfection, viz.: obedience, chastity and poverty. For it is only the perpetual obligation of doing what pertains to perfection, that constitutes the state of perfection; and such an obligation is assumed only by the perpetual vows of religion. Wherefore the religious obligates himself, not only to observe during his whole life all the commandments of God, but also to follow the evangelical counsels. It was to this perfection that Jesus Christ exhorted the young man, to whom He said: "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all that thou past and give to the poor, and come, follow Me" (Luke 18.22). Let us bear in mind that there is no essential difference between the common or Christian perfection and the religious perfection. Both consist in charity; but they differ in degree; the one is like the sketch of a picture, and the other is like the picture completed. "Christian perfection and religious perfection," says Gautrelet, "are two pictures representing the same subject, but one of them represents it more perfectly than the other. Christians and religious should all retrace in their actions and conduct the actions and conduct of Jesus Christ; all should reproduce in their life the picture of His virtues; but religious seek to approach nearer to this divine Model than the simple faithful, and to cause His image to shine within them with greater splendor and perfection." 89

Hence St. Alphonsus says: "The religious should desire only love, should seek only to increase always more in love; he should continually languish with and sigh for love, in the oratory, in his cell, in the garden, in every place. The ardor of his love should be so great as to spread its flames not only in but also outside the convent." 3. Personal perfection requires of us the state of grace, or purity of heart, joined to a prompt, generous and constant will to do and suffer all that pleases God, in order to perfect charity in us. Personal perfection does not essentially differ from Christian and religious perfection, because there is but one means of being united with God, which is sanctifying grace, called also charity or divine love. But the love of God may be considered not only in that which is obligatory to all Christian perfection, but also in that which is freely imposed by the evangelical counsels, religious perfection; and lastly, in the subjective dispositions of generosity, fervor and constancy, which it demands of each soul that is desirous of attaining a high degree of holiness, or personal perfection. "This kind of perfection," says Suarez, "consists in the habit of charity which has been easy and prompt to perform acts of virtue, thus generously combating all that hinders spiritual progress and avoiding even the smallest deliberate faults." "Your end," says St. Augustine, "is Christ; and the measure of your efforts to approach Him, is also the measure of your progress." Wherefore St. Paul says to us: "In carefulness (be) not slothful; in spirit (be) fervent, serving the Lord" (Rom. 12.11), "until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. 4.19). As we see, personal perfection is not distinguishable from fervor, or true devotion. If we wish to know our own perfection, we have only to examine with what fervor, zeal and constancy we perform all our actions from our rising in the morning to our retiring at night. We must devote ourselves to the religious and to our personal perfection, if we wish to act as true religious, as "one belonging wholly to God." St. Bernard, from his entrance into religion, exerted himself to follow the counsel he later on gave to others: "If you commence at all, commence perfectly, and commence again every day with renewed fervor." He required that fervor of spirit from every one that wished to become a religious, so much so, that he frequently said to his novices: "If you wish to live in this house, leave outside the body you have brought from the world, for here the souls alone are admitted, for the flesh profiteth nothing." The great patriarch of Assisi one day received from our divine Saviour a rule of conduct which contains the whole secret of holiness. The Incarnate Word said to St. Francis, who was then in an ecstasy: "Son of 90

Bernardone, think holily, speak holily, act holily, and be assured that thou shalt then be truly My servant and friend." It is to this degree of perfection that the religious should daily tend; in other words, a religious should daily strive to be holy in his thoughts, words and deeds. "Why have we entered religion," asks St. Alphonsus, "unless to sanctify ourselves?" God wishes us to serve Him with all the fervor of our soul and according to all the requirements of the evangelical counsels. It was for this object that He withdrew us from the corrupt and corrupting world. St. Gerard was wont to say: "I am willing to suffer everything, in order to become a saint. My supreme resolution is to give myself wholly to God. Hence I will always keep before me these three words: Be deaf, blind and dumb." "Watch ye," says St. Paul, "stand fast in the faith, do manfully and be strengthened. Let all you do be done in charity" (1 Cor. 16.13, 14).

The Desire of Perfection (E)

I. Necessity of This desire
Every religious is strictly bound to desire his own perfection. If St. Augustine already requires from every Christian that his life should be a continual desire of holiness, will he require less from every religious? By no means, for, says St. Thomas, the religious can become fit to attain his end only by such desires. It was to sanctify us, that Jesus spoke one day to our heart: "Follow thou Me." His object in instituting the religious life, was to form perfect Christians; consequently that was also His object when He called you to the convent. Had He not wished your sanctification, He would have left you entangled in the meshes of the world. St. John of the Cross, hearing one day one of his brethren say he had become a religious, in order to save his soul, replied : "No, my son; it is not correct for you to say, `in order to save my soul'; you should rather say: `in order to become a saint.' " It is, in short, what Jesus Christ Himself said: "If thou wishest to be perfect, follow Me." Like Jesus Christ, their Model, all the founders of religious orders had the same object in view, for they, like St. Alphonsus, put in their Rule, that "all the members of their Institute should earnestly and with all their might strive to acquire holiness." But if the object of your vocation is your perfection, how can you attain it unless you earnestly desire it? How will you succeed in it, if you do not exert yourself to advance towards it? The desire is precisely the exertion or motion of the will towards an object not yet possessed. A will 91

without such a desire is a will that is inactive, slothful, apathetic and indolent, which will never advance one step in the road of holiness. If the desire is a motion towards a good not yet possessed, it is evident that the more noble, difficult and distant is that good, the more that motion must increase in intensity, that is, the more our desire for it should increase in vigor and constancy. But the work of your perfection is no child's play, but a sublime, difficult work that is of daily obligation. There is question of nothing less than to unite yourself more and more closely to the infinite Good, which is God. Do not, therefore, wonder if the paths of holiness are rough and full of difficulty. To be able to walk therein, even the most resolute need all their energy helped by special graces, for we are really united to God only by copying, by our actions, the life and examples of Christ, the Man-God (Matt. 5.58). Such is the first duty of every one who wishes to attain holiness; moreover, it behooves him to revive in his conduct the saints who preceded him in the religious life. He must, in fine, resolve to detach himself completely from creatures, to carry on a relentless war against his passions, andto deny or give up what is dearest to him, that is, his selfwill. How can any one attain this object, unless his desires for it are truly ardent and unremitting? For, let us not forget it, the work of our perfection is not the work of a few days, but of our whole life. We may never lay aside this most important obligation of tending to perfection, and however long our life, we can never congratulate ourselves in having actually attained it. As St. Thomas maintains, it behooves us daily to make earnest efforts to attain it, paying no attention to our past progress, says St. Paul, in order to direct all our thoughts and exertions only to the perfection which we have still to acquire (Phil. 3.13). Hence Scaramelli concludes: "None but a will full of ardent desires will ever undertake so difficult a task, for it alone will ever resolutely strive to conquer the perfection which requires such great and earnest efforts." There is another reason why the lack of desire is an insurmountable obstacle to sanctification. Our perfection is a supernatural work, the most sublime a creature can undertake. To succeed in it we need graces, very special graces from God. But to whom will God give such graces? St. Ambrose tells us: "When a person has a very ardent desire of perfection, God is so greatly pleased with him, that He lavishes on him His graces and favors." St. Bernard declares that we acquire as much perfection as we desire. St. Teresa says: "God usually lavishes His signal favors only on those who ardently yearn for His love, and He never leaves a good desire unrewarded, even in this life." This is the teaching of our 92

divine Saviour Himself, for He says: "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall have their fill" (Mat. 5. 6). Hence it is only to the souls that hunger and thirst after perfection, and to them alone, that God grants His special graces. The reason of this is, that every desire is a prayer, and prayer is only the expression of a desire. But God needs no formula to understand us, it suffices for Him to behold the motion or longing of our heart, which is entirely in our desire according to the psalmist: "God hath heard (and granted) the preparation of their heart" (Ps. 9.17). Why did the prophet Daniel receive such extraordinary graces from God? "It was not," says St. Laurence Justinian, "on account of his frequent fasts, but because he was `a man of desires' " (Dan. 9. 28). Wherefore, he who intensely desires perfection, prays for it with his whole heart, and sooner or later obtains it; but he whose desire for it is weak, will never attain it, for his indifference dishonors God. How does it happen that there are religious who work with so little fervor at their perfection? St. Francis de Sales thus answers this question: "He who ardently desires love, will soon love ardently; he who greatly desires love, earnestly seeks it; he who earnestly seeks it, will surely find it, and he who finds it, finds the source of life, out of which he will draw the salvation of the Lord." It is, then, the love we lack that begets the desire of it in us, and the desire which enables us to find it. The desire of perfection is the first foundation of perfection. In the work of our sanctification there are two parts: that of divine grace, and that of our cooperation. But the absence of the desire of perfection dries up this twofold source. It prevents our will from making a start to attain that end, and compels, as it were, God to re-fuse us the graces necessary to attain it, for without the desire we do not pray, and without prayer, no special grace will be given us. "Remember," wrote St. Jerome to Heliodore, the monk who had been a soldier, "that you have promised God to be perfect. When you left the earthly army, you vowed in the monastery a perpetual chastity, for you were animated with the desire of the heavenly country. What else did you then do, than to obligate yourself, before God, to lead a perfect life? Know well that a perfect servant of Jesus Christ has nothing else at heart than to serve Jesus Christ. If he harbors in his heart any other affection, he is not a perfect servant of Jesus Christ. And if he is not perfect according to his promise to become so, he is, in the sight of God, a prevaricator and as if already dead."

93

II. Qualities of the Desire For Perfection

Our desire of perfection should be sincere or true, generous, insatiable. 1. Our desire of perfection should, in the first place, be sincere. "It behooves him who really wishes to find God, to seek Him sincerely." He who intends to obtain a magnificent reward, must endeavor to deserve it by an activity, a zeal and a watchfulness without reproach. He who wishes to acquire extraordinary knowledge, must labor and study with extraordinary application. We need not have a sensible feeling of the desire for perfection, because such a desire does not pertain to feeling, but is an act of the will, willing holiness, willing it at any and every cost, saying with St. Peter: "Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou shalt lead me," were it even to death, and the death of the cross. The sincere desire of sanctification rejects all feeble desires whatever. Some persons cannot say energetically: "I will," but they always repeat: "I would like." This "I would like" conceals only too often a guilty cowardice. We should say: "I will" perfection, I will it truly, without deception, without hypocrisy. For he who sincerely wishes holiness, wishes it wholly, as God requires it, and according to his state. Wherefore he wishes, before all, to be a man devoted to duty; his duty goes before everything else, and he wishes to do it frankly, entirely, without hesitating or drawing back. We should bear in mind that we became religious freely, for God, for God only, and not to please men, nor even ourselves. For before our profession we knew that the religious life is, before all, a life of sacrifice, the imitation of a God walking to Calvary under the weight of His cross and crowned with thorns. Let us reflect on this, and we shall desire holiness in all the sincerity of our mind, and we shall adopt as our own these words of Father Lacordaire: "When we become religious, it is that we may be religious up to our neck." Let us, then, take the sincere resolution to sanctify ourselves; but let our resolution be so firm that it may last all our life. Look at St. Gerard. When he left home, he left this note on a table: "I am going away in order to become a saint." St. Peter Celestine, when only a little boy, one day heard his mother saying to her children: "Oh, how happy I would be, if one of you were to become a saint!" Little Celestine exclaimed with a firm voice: "O mother, I will be a saint." His life proved that he kept his word. "I will become a saint," said Br. Joachim Gaudiello, one of the first Redemptorist Brothers, "and out of contempt for the world, I will follow Jesus Christ vilified and despised." And his 94

companion, Francis Tartaglione, said: "I am ready to suffer everything, in order to save my soul." And when these holy souls had taken such resolutions, they never gave them up. 2. Our desire of perfection should be generous. This quality denotes the fortitude with which we should prosecute the work of our sanctification. In fact, a magnanimous heart does not recoil from any obstacle whatever, for nothing can astonish, discourage, dishearten or stop it in its progress. The generous soul tends to God, her only aim, without deviating either to the right or to the left; she walks ahead with great courage and a strong will, mistrusting herself, but armed with heroic confidence in God, drawn from St. Paul's saying, that of himself he could do nothing, but could do everything with the strength God would impart to him, because all things are possible to him who places his trust in the Lord. In order to render our courage truly magnanimous, God requires of us only our simple good will with an unwavering faith in His divine word. St. Teresa tells us this in the following words: "All that God requires of us is a good resolution, and He will do the rest Himself; for He generously assists all souls, even the most guilty, who are firmly determined to devote themselves wholly to His love. I have never seen a generous soul, who starts with courage and humility, stop short on the way; nor have I ever seen a cowardly soul, were she even humble, making in many years as much progress as a generous soul does in a short time." This was the reason why she would often say to her nuns: "Act as resolute men, and not as silly women." St. Alphonsus sums up as follows the teaching of all the saints on this subject: "He who has but a weak desire to make progress in divine love, instead of tending in all earnestness to perfection, will always grow colder and colder, and will thus run the risk of falling at last into some precipice. It is even very important for us to raise our desires to great things, such as to love God more than all the saints, to suffer for His sake more than all the martyrs, to have the occasion to bear, in a spirit of forgiveness, all kinds of insults, to embrace all kinds of fatigue and labor to save even one soul, and other similar things." But how often will the devil and our own natural cowardice represent to us perfection as unattainable, as far beyond our strength! To become a saint is, indeed, not an easy task, nor the work of a few hours. Perfection, like every great and serious enterprise, presents real difficulties. Only the slothful and the presumptuous shrink from it, because the slothful dread labor and the presumptuous rely too much on 95

their own selves and too little on the help of God. For him who trusts in God and generously undertakes to sanctify himself, half of the difficulties vanish. "Daughter," said our Saviour one day to St. Bridget, "the treasure of my graces appears to be surrounded with thorns, but everything becomes sweet to him who overcomes the first stings." "Resolutions, before being made," says St. Catharine of Siena, "look like thorns in the way of virtue, because there is in them a combat between conscience and sensuality; but as soon as our self-hatred and contempt give us the courage to say, `I will follow Jesus Christ crucified,' these thorns become harmless and extremely sweet." Let us, then, have courage, and let us not suffer our desires of perfection to vanish before real or imaginary difficulties. Let us say with St. Augustine: "What So and So can do, why should not I also do, if I place my trust in God '" To a person who longed to be able to love God ardently St. Leonard of Port Maurice wrote: "Love God with a boundless love, unreservedly and immeasurably; but not with an effeminate love, which consists of tears and tender feelings; but with a manly, pure and deep love proceeding from the vivid light of faith, which discloses the beauty, goodness and holiness of God, who deserves that we should love Him with numberless hearts." In moments of trial, when our will wavers, let us recall to mind that we are religious, the voluntary victims of a crucified God, and let us turn our eyes to the crucifix, for, says St. Teresa, "it suffices to cast our eyes on Jesus crucified, in order to consider nothing too difficult for us." Let us have courage, and always courage! "Many," says St. Bernard, "do not sanctify themselves for want of courage." Ven. Father Passerat, C. SS. R., says: "What we need are deeds, deeds, for God would be willing to perform a miracle for a soul who would generously undertake the work of her perfection." 3. Our desire of perfection should be insatiable, that is, it behooves us each day to begin again the work of our sanctification, as if we had hitherto done nothing at all. St. Francis de Sales counsels us "to begin by a strong and earnest resolution to give ourselves wholly to God, protesting that we wish henceforth to belong unreservedly to Him, and then frequently to renew this resolution." Let us never consider the good we have already accomplished, but only the work we have still to perform; let us never lose sight of our past sins and of the necessity of doing penance for them; let us consider our daily faults, and the desire of discontinuing our efforts to attain perfection will never seek to enter our will, and we shall experience what St. Laurence Justinian describes: "After you have resolutely started on the road of perfection, you will experience a continual desire of further progress; and the greater your progress, the 96

more ardent that desire grows; for each day bringing us new light, we always believe that we do not possess any virtue and do not do any good; and if the good we do is evident, we nevertheless find it so full of imperfection, and therefore make but little account of it. Hence we labor without ceasing to acquire perfection and never relax in our efforts." This insatiable desire of holiness was the whole secret of the 'perfection of St. Aloysius and the reason of his incomprehensible reward in heaven, for St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi testified that she saw him in heaven adorned with so great a glory that she thought that it was surpassed by not many saints. She then learnt that he had reached that high degree of glory by his ardent desire to love God as much as He deserves to be loved, and, as this was impossible, since God deserves infinite love, he had suffered on earth a martyrdom of love. If your heart does not possess an insatiable desire of perfection, ask it of God at prayer, lest your love of Him should gradually diminish, for, says St. Bernard, "we cease being good from the moment we do not desire to improve." And in time of trial, we ought to draw courage from this thought of St. Alphonsus: "He who, after entering the way of perfection, does not give it up, may rest assured that he will reach it in the course of time." "We should not limit our desires," says St. Teresa; "we should, on the contrary, hope that, by trusting in God, we shall be able by our constant efforts, sustained by divine grace, to reach gradually the goal attained by the saints." St. Antony, the Abbot, would often say to his disciples: "Our first and universal motto should be: never to grow disheartened in what we have undertaken for God's sake, but, like a man engaged in business, daily increase in fervor." Such was the practice of all the saints. Let us quote an example. "In St. Jane Frances de Chantal progress in perfection and the practice of all the virtues were so continual and rapid, that whoever had not seen her for some months, were astonished thereat when they again met her. I must remark, said Mother de Chaugy, that after her return from a journey, we beheld in her an unusual increase in perfection, although we were always aware that this faithful spouse of Jesus made unceasing progress from virtue to virtue, and that this truly heavenly flower constantly grew in perfection. The very weakness of old age set forth more prominently her holy strength of mind, heart and love, so that, without any consideration for herself, she shrank from no undertaking in which she beheld the will of God. The more she advanced in age, the more meek she became, so that, in her latter years, she appeared to be endowed with a meekness so extraordinary, so accomplished and so ravishing, as to have overcome the 97

natural strength of her character and the active ardor of her zeal." These words of one of her very judicious spiritual daughters show us that St. Frances de Chantal was insatiable of holiness and faithfully practised the teaching of St. Francis de Sales, who was wont to say: "We should ask nothing more earnestly of God than the pure and holy love of our Saviour. Oh, how ardently we should desire this love, and how much we should love this desire! Our very reason tells us that we should desire to love that which can never be enough loved, and that we should love to desire that which can never be sufficiently desired. We should, then, strive always to increase in us the desire of loving God still more, for on this desire will depend our progress in perfection." St. Bernard used often to repeat: "I love God, because I love Him, and I love Him, that I may love Him still more. He does not really love God enough, who does not desire to love Him still more." But let us take care not to lose courage. However great the perfection we may have attained, we shall never be wholly free from defects, and the devil will profit thereby to induce us to get discouraged. If we are thus tempted, let us follow the counsel of St. Francis de Sales: "Have patience with every one, but especially with yourself. I mean that you should not be disturbed by your imperfections and always have the courage to rise again after a fall. There is no better means to attain the summit of the spiritual life than always to resume our march towards perfection." He who really wishes to sanctify himself, should follow the counsel of St. Antony: "As you are living in community, each of your companions possesses a certain special virtue, which distinguishes him more or less from the others. Wherefore, you ought to imitate the modesty of one, the humility of another, the silence of a third, the meekness and patience of a fourth. Imitate in each the virtue he practises best." In this manner we shall necessarily perfect ourselves daily; we shall ascend the mountain of sanctity by short stages without ever growing weary. Perhaps one of our easy-going companions may criticise us. Let this, then, be our motto: "Do what is right, and let others say what they wish." St. Teresa, on entering the novitiate, gave herself generously to God. "What will that little novice become?" asked some. Some admired her, others criticised her; she heeded them not, but keeping her object always in her mind, she ceased not tending towards it. "I seek God," she said; "I am going to God; who will prevent me?" Let us say the same: "I am going to God with all the sincerity of my heart, not to please men, but solely to please God, whom I love." Let us, for God's sake, desire to be so taken up with Him, 98

that He may ever be present in our memory by the remembrance of His benefits, in our mind by reflections on His perfections and His love, in our heart by our holy affections and aspirations. There are three kinds of persons that God hates, says St. Augustine: "Those who turn back, those who go astray, and those who are motionless. Heaven requires that we constantly advance; he who does not, goes back. "Our soul," says St. Gregory, "is like a vessel going up a stream; it must not stop or remain stationary; if it does not go up the stream, it will be carried down stream by the current!" Let us resolve, with St. Alphonsus, to love God as the saints loved Him!

The Horror of Every Wilful Fault (E)

This is the second foundation of perfection. To make a fine garden we must first root out the weeds, and then place therein plants bearing good fruits. "I call love of God," says St. Augustine, "the motion of the soul seeking to enjoy God for His sake; and the first sign of such a motion consists in the horror of that which is directly opposed thereto, that is, in the horror of sin." The principal resolution of a soul that sincerely desires perfection, should be to suffer all and even to die rather than commit a deliberate sin, however small it may be. Sin is, in fact, the great adversary of perfection. But I am not speaking only of mortal sin, because the first condition for tending to perfection is the state of grace. Nor do I speak of the imperfection or faults of mere human frailty that escape us as long as we live. No one is exempt from such faults. St. James says that all men, even the saints, have committed faults (James 3.2). "If we say that we have no sin," says St. John, "we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1. 8). In consequence of original sin, which perverted our nature, we have within us so great an inclination to evil, that, without an extraordinary grace which was granted only to the Mother of God, we cannot possibly avoid, during our whole life, all indeliberate venial faults, that is, such as are committed without the full consent of the will. The Lord permits such stains even in His most faithful servants, in order to keep them humble, and to teach them that, if they fall into those light faults, in spite of their good resolutions and promises, they would fall into grievous sins, were they not restrained therefrom by the divine power. If we happen to commit such faults of mere frailty, let us humble ourselves and multiply our prayers, that God may protect us and not permit us to commit more grievous faults. 99

But as to venial sins which are deliberate and fully wilful, we can, with God's help, avoid all of them, as do those fervent souls, who always are firmly resolved to suffer death rather than commit a deliberate venial sin. It is of these faults that the true religious should have a horror, and such a horror, that he may be able to say with St. Alphonsus Rodriguez: "Lord, may I suffer all the pains of hell rather than commit a single venial sin!" "Hate evil, you who love the Lord" (Ps. 96.20). It is not enough to be willing habitually to avoid venial sin; we must go still further; our willingness must proceed from a real hatred of sin: "Hate evil." In order to excite in our soul this hatred of every wilful fault, let us be deeply penetrated with these truths: First, next to mortal sin, venial sin is the greatest of evils; secondly, habitual venial sin seriously endangers our soul's salvation; and thirdly, it renders all progress in perfection impossible. 1. Next to mortal sin venial sin is the greatest of evils. "Who would dare to maintain," asks St. Anselm, "that such a sin is not a great evil, because it is light? How can we call light an evil that dishonors God?" In the first place, venial sin offends God; it is, therefore, a contempt of His supreme majesty, an act of ingratitude towards His infinite goodness, a shameful revolt against His omnipotence, a resistance to His all-holy will, a diminution of His glory. In the second place, although he who commits a venial sin does not wholly turn away from his final end, yet he thereby begins taking a circuitous path that may, finally, lead him entirely astray. Although such a venial fault does not entirely break off friendship with God, yet it is a cooling of such friendship and may lead to a complete rupture. Such a soul is not entirely unfaithful to God, who still calls her His spouse, but shows Him a coldness and indifference that hurts and wounds, and, in a word, displeases Him. Thirdly, it follows, therefore, that venial sin is a greater evil than all physical evils combined; that the saints would rather suffer a thousand deaths than commit a single deliberate venial sin; that we may not, in conscience, tell a wilful lie, however small, to render the greatest glory to God, and that all creatures should consider it a real happiness to sacrifice their being, in order to prevent the commission of the smallest venial sin. Such is the teaching of theologians. It would, moreover, be enough, in order to form an idea of God's horror of venial sin, to cast a look at purgatory. Who are in purgatory? Just, predestined souls, who are so dear to God, that He is, as it were, impa tient to associate them in His happiness; and yet these holy souls are banished from heaven, sometimes for a long period of years, and condemned to the rigors of a fire which, according to St. Thomas, is the same as that of hell 100

itself. Why such a rigorous expiation? Because there are some remains of sin in those souls, and because God has an infinite aversion for every sin. Oh, how great would be our aversion for venial sin, if we knew how much it costs God thus to punish the children He so greatly loves, and if we especially could understand how great an increase of sufferings the Son of God had to take upon Himself during His Passion, in order to expiate the venial sins of men! Therefore, next to mortal sin, venial sin, which so many look upon as a mere trifle, is the greatest of evils. But what shall we say if venial sin becomes habitual in the soul of the religious? 2. Habitual venial sin seriously endangers the salvation of the religious. This truth needs no proof, for a sad experience clearly demonstrates it. The distance between mortal sin and habitual venial sin is, alas! but too soon crossed, for says St. Gregory, "the soul never remains where it falls, but rolls further down." Many a deadly illness does not proceed from some great disease, but is brought on by a multitude of light causes. In like manner, grievous falls are frequently brought on by venial sins. Those continual little detractions, remarks Father Alvarez de Paz, those slight aversions, those little acts of unlawful curiosity, those small acts of impatience, of excess in food and drink, do not directly kill the soul, but weaken it, so that when a grievous temptation presents itself, the soul no longer possesses the power of resistance, and falls, for the following reasons: In the first place, venial sin keeps God at a distance from the soul. He who acts niggardly towards God deserves that God should treat him in like manner. Such a one wishes, like St. Peter, to follow Jesus, but only from afar, that is, only as long as His precepts and counsels are not burdensome to him. He is, indeed, determined not to separate himself from God by mortal sin, but he does not wish to abstain from committing venial sin. But what will be the result? "He that soweth but little," says St. Alphonsus, "shall reap also but little." The Lord will give him merely the helps He gives to all men, but He will consider him unworthy to receive the special assistance, without which, says the Council of Trent, men cannot keep from falling into some grievous fault. God treats us as we treat Him: "Unfaithful soul, thou despisest Me, I will, in my turn, despise thee; thou disdainest My favors, I will not give My special help to thee, and I will let thee fall; thou art very sparing of thy fidelity towards Me, I will also be sparing of my benefits in thy regard." Moreover, why should not God keep away from such a soul, since her venial sins, according to St. Augustine, are like a spiritual leprosy, which destroys her beauty? That 101

God is distant towards such a soul, remarks St. Alphonsus, is even a punishment usually due to sin, for among its temporal punishments the withdrawal of divine help is often found. Wherefore, the saints never ceased bewailing their sins, Although they were light and already forgiven, for they feared that God might still punish them by depriving them of the graces they needed for their sanctification. If a friend offends us, and we forgive him, he does not usually regain our former intimate friendship, unless he gives us evident signs of compensating us for the offense by greater attachment and affection towards us. The same happens when a soul offends God. If she is not heartily sorry for it and does not seek in some manner to indemnify Him by acts of greater fervor, God justly withdraws His special protection from her, and ceases to impart Himself to her with His wonted familiarity; and the more that soul multiplies her offenses, the more distant does God become in her regard, so that, receiving less divine help, that unfortunate soul will be liable to fall into grievous faults and be lost. In the second place, the repetition of venial sin greatly weakens the soul. Nothing strengthens the soul more than constancy in overcoming herself in the little difficulties of each moment; but also nothing weakens more the will-power than carelessness in combating small faults. Such a soul grows indolent, slothful, excessively soft, and lacks energy and firmness of character. He who is weak in light temptations, becomes still more so in those that are grievous. "Every sin, however light it may be," says Father Chaignon, "is a food, a concession granted to some evil propensity; whatever is given to our inordinate inclinations, is taken away from the love of God. Concupiscence and divine love are like two furnaces, of which one gains in heat what the other loses. These multiplied acts of unfaithfulness multiply our attachments, that is, our chains; and the result is a state of languor, a lack of power for doing good." "Beware," says St. Augustine, "of being unconcerned about your faults, under the pretext that they are small; fear them rather, because they are numerous, for their number may one day bring about your ruin." Finally, by repeated venial sins the soul imperceptibly loses the fear of falling into greater sins. He who does not greatly dread sin is not far from falling into it. Hence St. John Chrysostom does not hesitate to say that we should, in some manner, have greater fear of habitual venial sins than even of mortal sins; for the latter naturally inspire us with horror, whilst the light faults, which we consider as of no consequence, render the soul so neglectful, that, being accustomed to make no account of what is light, she will soon make no account of what is more grievous. We, 102

therefore, see where these repeated sins will lead us, if we are not firmly and constantly resolved to correct them. But even supposing that such faults would not of themselves lead us into mortal sin and expose our soul to eternal perdition, it still remains true that they will cause the failure of the object of our vocation, which consists in an earnest striving after perfect charity. 3. Habitual venial sin actually renders all progress in perfection impossible. A religious must not be content with merely saving his soul, for God has called him to the convent, because He willed that he should be saved only as a saint. St. Gregory maintains that he who is called to be saved as a saint and does not sanctify himself, will not be saved. Our Lord one day said to St. Angela of Foligno: "Those whom I enlighten that they may walk in the way of perfection, and who degrade their soul by following the ordinary way, shall be forsaken by Me." "One day," said the same saint, "as I was engaged in prayer in my cell, I heard a voice saying to me: `All those whom God deigns to instruct, are enlightened to discern His way. But whilst He is instructing and enlightening them, some close their eyes and their ears, lest they should hear and see, instead of listening to the voice speaking interiorly to them. They follow an entirely different teaching, and in spite of the protestations of their conscience, they insist on walking in the ordinary road and refuse to follow the road of perfection. Such souls will have the curse of the Almighty as their lot.' " God, by calling us to perfection, has certainly favored us with many special benefits. If we look back at our past life, may we not say that we are a living miracle of the divine goodness? Most certainly. And now, in return for so much goodness, we wish to be habitually negligent, to live in the midst of our faults, without thinking seriously of amending our conduct. Do we believe that, by a just judgment, God will not deprive us of the assistance we need to fulfil the duties of our state? If so, we in the meantime give up all intention of sanctifying ourselves, preparatory perhaps to giving up our vocation and our very salvation. Let us meditate on and deeply engrave in our inmost heart this terrible saying of St. Ambrose: "God is wont to abandon those negligent souls, who openly trangress their obligations, which they know well but make no account of." God favored us with special graces, in order to bring us into the convent; and now that we are dwelling in this earthly paradise, it behooves Him to continue these favors, for we need for our sanctification special and abundant graces. But, how will God grant such choice graces to him who, after entering the convent in order to serve Him, dishonors instead of 103

glorifying Him? "By a life full of negligence and imperfections," says St. Alphonsus, "the religious means to say that God does not deserve to be served with better care, that in the service of God is not found the happiness, which some pretend, and that the Divine Majesty is not so greatly deserving of our love, as to necessitate us to prefer His will to all our personal satisfactions. If we do not say this with our lips, our works clearly proclaim it. God, indeed, knows that, as St. Francis de Sales expresses it, wretchedness is wretched. He is not astonished at finding faults in us, for He finds some even in the greatest saints. But what turns away His benevolence from us is that He does not find in souls consecrated to Him the good will to correct their venial faults, and sees that they prefer to live in peace with their defects rather than to enjoy the true peace which He brought on earth to souls of good will. We learn from the parable of the talents that he who corresponds with the graces and talents God gave him, and preserves their fruit, shall obtain an increase of grace and glory; but as to him who failed to make a good use of his talent by his neglect, God will take it away from him, and he shall be deprived of the graces that had been prepared for him (Mat. 25. 29). Since he no longer receives from God any more choice graces, everything in the religious life becomes insipid to him; he no longer enjoys consolation in his spiritual exercises, for in them he experiences aridity as a punishment. For him holy Communion, that heavenly manna, has now neither taste nor flavor; he shortens his visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and they leave his soul cold and as if frozen. How miserable the life of such a religious, of one who ought to belong wholly to God, who, by his vocation, should take long steps in the way of holiness, but who, alas! runs great risk of following the broad road that leads to hell! Let us not forget the saying of St. Francis of Assisi, which experience has so often confirmed: "When the devil wishes to win a person who is afraid to lose divine grace, he does not first endeavor to chain him like a slave, by inducing him to commit a mortal sin, for it would horrify him; but he begins by binding him with a hair; he will find it easy after this to tie him with a thread, then with a string, later on with a rope, and finally with an iron chain, for such is mortal sin, and thus he makes a slave of him." Let us, therefore, have a horror of every wilful venial sin. "Fear," was Ven. Father Passerat wont to say to the Redemptoristine nuns; "fear your little aversions and affections, your slowness in rising in the morning, in obeying the first stroke of the bell; fear the excessive care of your health, those slight acts of impatience, that sensitiveness of yours, those transgressions of silence both exterior and interior, those unfavorable 104

judgments of your neighbor, however evident his faults may appear to you. Fear! Just as you flee from mortal sin, so also flee, flee from every light fault, especially the one which is the fruit of your predominating defect, the Benjamin of your heart." St. Alphonsus, speaking of the resolutions we ought to take, teaches that the very first one should be "to suffer all and even to die rather than commit even the smallest deliberate sin." Father Lallemand says that, in order to make progress in perfection, we should repent of our venial sins and fear them as much and as a sincerely converted person dreads mortal sin. "From all sin deliver us, O Lord!"

In What Our Whol Perfection Consists (E)

Our whole perfection consists in performing each action well. All the means of perfection given by ascetic writers are reducible to these two: First, to do what God wills, and secondly, to do it as He wills. 1. To do what God wills. What is more holy on earth than to accomplish the will, and even the wishes of God, As for us, we need not go far to find out the divine will, for it is all in our holy Rule and in the directions of our superiors; our whole day is regulated thereby. We can scarcely take a step without encountering our holy Rule. It requires us to perform the same acts every day. Our rules, being based on the principles of perfection, are all holy and render our life perfect. And, as the Council of Trent teaches, to each virtuous action there corresponds a degree, of sanctifying grace, and to each degree of this grace there corresponds a degree of heavenly glory. Therefore, we may say of a whole life consecrated to the performance of the will of God in a perfect manner, that there is no holiness comparable to that acquired by a soul by means of all the ordinary actions of the day performed in accordance with the adorable will of God. It would be a great error, therefore, for us to imagine that we may undertake extraordinary actions for God whilst neglecting to perform those He actually requires of us. If we really desire perfection, let us begin by performing our ordinary duties, all the little daily acts with extraordinary care. Let us, at every moment, do very faithfully and generously what God demands of us. A certain Capuchin Brother, in order to perform his private devotions, used to absent himself from community work. When he was about to die, Jesus Christ appeared to him as Judge, and ordered that the fruit of all his vocal prayers and other devotions should be distributed among those who had worked for the community, 105

and that he should have the least part of it for himself. He also learnt that God, in His mercy, granted him a prolongation of his life. Having recovered his health, he took care to assist punctually at all the exercises of the community and to conform his life to his holy Rule. Let us, therefore, punctually perform all that the Rule and our superiors prescribe, and we shall do what God requires of us. 2. But let us also do it as God requires. God requires of us certain dispositions in the performance of our duties: first, in executing them, secondly, in the intention that dictates or accompanies them, and thirdly, in the fervor with which we should be animated. First, in their execution. In all that we do for God we should be prompt, attentive and exact, three conditions absolutely necessary to serve God properly. We should promptly, without delay, accomplish all that our duty requires. "You should perform all the exercises of your religious life, however humble they may be," says St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, "with great care and affection, respect and humility, considering yourself fortunate to be able to do them, since they are the works God demands of you, and He is greatly pleased by your performing them." We should perform them with attention, avoiding routine, and concentrating all our efforts on what we are actually doing, as if we had nothing else to do, without worrying about the future and the past. "What prevents us from doing our actions well," says Father d'Avila, "is that we are then accustomed to think of other things besides what we are doing. Let us attend exclusively to what we are actually doing, and when we have finished it, let us no longer think of it, but let us turn our whole attention to what we have to do next." We should perform our actions with exactness, that is, perform them all at the time, in the place and in the manner Jesus Christ demands of us, either through our holy Rule, or through our superiors. We should devote to each action the whole time prescribed for it, for in religion everything should be done for God, and not for such and such a superior. Let us, before all and always, be men of duty. God requires of us dispositions in our intention. The good intention is the first and principal condition required to render our works good. The intention is the end, the object we propose to ourselves in our actions. Purity of intention consists in performing all our actions to please God. It is the intention, therefore, which renders an action good or bad. "If thy eye is simple, thy whole body shall be lightsome," says our divine Saviour; "if thy eye is darksome, thy whole body shall be darksome" (Mat. 6. 21). By the eye the holy Fathers understand the intention, and by the body the 106

action itself. Wherefore, Jesus Christ declares that, if our intention is simple, that is, seeks only to please God, our action will be good and resplendent with purity; but if our intention is double, or contains something wanting in uprightness, our action is evil or bad. An upright intention is the soul of our actions, that is, imparts life to them and makes them good, and so good, that St. Teresa says: "No price can pay the least thing we do for God." And St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi maintains that he who performs all his actions with a pure intention, will go directly to heaven without passing through purgatory. The most perfect intention is to do all to please God and fulfil His holy will. There are other good intentions, such as, to propose to ourselves to acquire a certain virtue, to combat a certain passion, to expiate our sins, to give good example, and the like. If we examine our intentions, we shall know for whom are our actions. God demands of us that we should perform our actions with fervor. "Fervor," says St. Basil, "is a great and permanent desire to please God in all things." Our fervor is measured by its greatness and its stability. It is like an ardent flame of charity, and enables us to perform each action in a manner worthy of God, and renders even the least acts of the religious life noble and great. "Little actions," says St. Francis de Sales, "become great, if they are well performed, so that God draws more glory from a small action done with the desire of pleasing Him, than from a great one performed with less fervor. Therefore it behooves us to perform with special care the easier works, which we have to do at almost every hour, if we wish to make progress in divine love." How easy, then, it is for us to become perfect if we wish, since our ordinary duties and exercises are sufficient to sanctify us. The Lord does not require us to rise to sublime contemplation, nor to perform frightful austerities; He wishes only that we do well what we are required to do. To keep up our fervor; the saints indicate several means, the chief of which is: "Always act as if your present action were to be the last of your life." "Let the thought of eternity," said St. Antony to his disciples, "be never obliterated from your mind. Consider every morning that you may not live till the end of the day; and every night, that you may not live till next morning. Perform each action, as if it were to be your last." The saints practised this counsel, and were all able to repeat at the end of their career these words of St. Amandus: "I dread not my last hour; a man's life should be a constant preparation for the journey into eternity."

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"Whilst we are on earth," St. Gerard was wont to say, "let us strive to sanctify ourselves by doing the will of others, and not our own, since their will is for us the will of God."

Silence (E)
Religious silence consists in refraining from speaking during the times and in the places prescribed by the Rule, unless duty, charity or necessity obliges us to speak. Solomon says that "there is a time to speak and a time to keep silence" (Eccles. 3.7). For a religious who wishes to sanctify himself the time to be silent is all the time in which there is no necessity for speaking, and the time to speak is only when required by necessity or charity. St. John Chrysostom teaches that "we should speak only when it is more useful to speak than to keep silence." "Speak much with God," said St. Ephrem to religious, "and but little with men." "A true servant of Jesus Christ," says St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, "bears much, works much, and speaks but little." 1. Silence is the guardian of innocence, or of purity of heart. One of the principal effects of recollection is a constant watchfulness over oneself, in order not to offend God in anything. Silence admirably favors this purity of heart. In fact, on the one hand it preserves from many sins, by keeping away disputes, detraction, resentment and curiosity. "O silence," exclaims St. John Chrysostom, "thou regulatest the motions of our eyes and our tongues, thou art the death of slander, the foe of imprudence!" On the other hand, silence enables us to acquire many virtues. "O silence," says the same saint, "thou art the mother of respect, thou restrainest our passions; thou art the companion of all the virtues, the fertile field of Jesus Christ, bearing abundantly all kinds of fruits! O silence, when joined to the fear of God, thou art a wall and a rampart to all who combat for the kingdom of heaven!" "Let us," says St. Alphonsus, "practise humility by modestly listening and keeping silence, when others are speaking. When we are inclined to relate something, or to say something pleasant, let us practise mortification and abstain from doing so. Let us practise meekness by not making any reply or excuse, when we are reproved or insulted." In the multitude of words there shall not want sin; but he that refraineth his lips is most wise" (Prov. 10.19). When we speak much, we usually commit many faults; and what is deplorable is that a talkative religious is not aware of such faults, because he does not practise recollection. If we wish to see our faults, we should recollect ourselves for 108

some moments, and examine ourselves, and we shall discover that we have committed many when we spoke too much. How many religious can truly say with St. Arsenius! "I have often repented of having spoken, but never of having been silent." "In order to avoid faults in speaking," says St. Francis de Sales, "we ought to have our lips buttoned up, so as to give us time, whilst unbuttoning them, to reflect on what we are going to say." A certain religious one day saw St. John of the Cross at prayer in a place full of large rocks, and manifested his astonishment thereat. "Be not astonished at this," said the saint, "for when I converse with rocks, I have less matter for confession than when I converse with men." "Avoid loquacity," says St. Dorotheus, "for it banishes holy thoughts and recollection in God from the mind." We ought not to be astonished at the punishments the saints were wont to impose on themselves for breaking silence. 2. Silence is the support of the religious life. "It has pleased God," writes St. John of the Cross, "to make known to me that he who is fond of conversing with his neighbor, pays but little attention to God; he who pays much attention to God is interiorly drawn to keep silence and to flee intercourse with the world. The surest means of succeeding in conversing with God is to converse as little as possible with men." The religious life is essentially a life of recollection, of union with God, in which all the members should seek only a holy peace of heart, by living in God and for God; and for him who understands this salutary truth, it is a heaven on earth. Not so, however, is the convent whence silence is banished, as a sad experience proves. Father Perez, being yet a secular entered one day a convent of Discalced Carmelites, and was so edified by the silence observed therein, that he left the world to enter that convent. The celebrated Jesuit Father Natali said that to reform a relaxed religious community, it suffices to enforce therein the rule of silence, for then each member will live in recollection and strive to sanctify himself; order would thus reign everywhere in it as well as the calm and harmony of hearts, and an odor of sanctity would soon pervade it and inspire devotion, and indicate that the spirit of God reigns therein, so that of it we could say: "The Lord is truly here; this is the house of God and the gate of heaven!" "If any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, his religion is vain" (James 1.26). St. Jerome and other ascetical writers make use of this text to recommend silence to religious. "Do you wish to know," asks St. Ignatius, "if fervor reigns in a community? Examine how silence is observed therein." "Experience proves," says St. Alphonsus, "that in the convents where silence reigns, 109

the rules are well kept, whilst in those where silence is not observed, there is but little fervor." It is impossible for a religious to sanctify himself who does not keep the prescribed silence; he will also be the cause of the loss of fervor in his companions by his bad example. Let us beware of being influenced by human respect to break the prescribed silence. If others break silence, it does not ,justify our breaking it. Father John Chrysostom, a great miracle-worker of the seventeenth century, relates that a very holy religious, when in his agony, had seen in a vision how severe is the divine justice towards religious who break their rules, especially that of silence. When the vision was over, he exclaimed, before breathing his last: "O my dear brethren, if you knew what it is to lead a careless life in the convent! I have just seen the terrible account to be rendered for idle words. Oh, what a wretched thing is a religious who is tepid, especially when by his bad example he has helped to destroy perfection! How frightful will his judgment be!" Let us think on this, and severely examine ourselves! 3. Silence is a school of perfection. When the Abbot Pambo wished to become a religious, he went to a certain solitary, who gave him, as his first lesson the first verse of the thirty-eighth psalm: "I said: I will take heed to my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue." He took these words as his rule of conduct, saying: "That is enough, when I shall have learned this lesson, I will come for another." After six months the solitary met him, and asked him why he had not returned for further instruction. "Because," he replied, "I have not yet fully learned the first." How many religious have not yet finished learning this first lesson of perfection! They have entered what St. Francis de Sales calls a school of perfection,. and have so far not yet learned anything therein. For a pupil cannot learn well in school if he does not know how to remain silent and listen to his teacher. The religious, being in a school of perfection, should, then, keep silence and listen to God speaking to him in his heart. Silence, says St. Alphonsus, is a powerful help to make us men of prayer, and to prepare us to commune continually with God. It is hard to find a spiritual person who talks much. All men of prayer love silence, which is rightly called the guardian of innocence, a defense against temptations, the source of mental prayer, for devotion is preserved by means of silence, and when we are silent, good thoughts enter our mind. On the contrary, says Ven. Mary of the Incarnation, "he who speaks much does not possess the gift of prayer, nor even that of devotion, for we cannot possibly have our lips and our heart open, at one and the same time, to both God and men." "Silence and calm," says St. Bernard, "compel, in some manner, our soul to think on God and, the goods of 110

eternity." Wherefore the saints sought on mountains, in caverns and deserts this happy silence; they fled from the turmoil of the world, for in it we do not find God. It is in silence that we listen to and hear the voice of God speaking to our heart, for it is there that He speaks familiarly to those who wish to hear Him. By His inspirations and exhortations He teaches the soul self-denial, the spirit of sacrifice, the spirit of prayer. He abases Himself to man so far as to rest in his heart, in order to teach him the true way to holiness. But, says St. Ambrose, "our Saviour does not rest His head on the bosom of a loquacious Christian; He dwells with complacency only in the heart of him who is earnest and reserved, who watches over his tongue, who is sober in his words and avoids intemperate language." "Silence," says St. John Climacus, "is an imperceptible progress on the road of virtue, a secret elevation to God, because our mind is better disposed by silence than by speech to be attentive to itself, to rise to God, to be ready to receive His light, His inspirations, His graces. Silence causes the gift of prayer to bud forth in us, which sets us free from all attachment, watches over our thoughts, preserves in us divine love and the fruits of compunction; it recalls to us the thought of death and the eternal truths and brings us nearer to God." Sister Simpliciana, who was full of childlike simplicity and naivete, one day asked St. Francis de Sales: "Monsignor, were you a religious in our community, how would you act in order to become perfect?" Smiling the saint replied: "Methinks that, with the grace of God, I would be so careful to practise all the little customs and practices introduced into the community, as to win the heart of God. I would punctually keep silence; I would sometimes speak even in time of silence, whenever charity would require it, but not otherwise. I would be careful not to speak very loud; I would quietly open and close the doors, because Mother Superior wishes it, and we should all endeavor to do well all she requires. I would walk very softly, avoiding all noise. And I would endeavor, as much as I could, to keep myself always in the presence of God, and to do everything for His sake." "The religious who is curious," says St. Joseph Calasanctius, "shows that he is forgetful of his own soul." Whilst he is perfect who does not sin in speech (James 3.2), "he who talks a great deal," says St. Gregory, "will never make much progress in virtue." Blessed Mary Magdalen Martilingo often said to her nuns: "Silence is a precious but unknown prayer. If people knew this, words would come from their lips with as much difficulty as money comes out of a miser's purse." 111

"I will speak only in three cases," said St. Gerard, "when the glory of God is interested therein, when the neighbor's good requires it, or when my own needs demand it. During the whole of the prescribed silence I will be interiorly occupied with the passion and death of Jesus and the sorrows of the Blessed Virgin." Lord impart to me the love of silence, for "he that keepeth his mouth, keepeth his soul" (Prov. 13.3).

Solitude of the Soul (E)

St. Alphonsus says that "it consists in banishing from our heart every affection that is not for God and in seeking in all we do to please Him alone." That a soul may belong wholly to God, two things are necessary: first, to be detached from every created object, and secondly, to consecrate all her love to God. 1. It behooves us, then, to be detached from every created object, from every earthly affection. So long as something earthly remains in our heart, divine love cannot wholly enter and possess it. God wishes to reign in our heart through love, and to reign alone in it; He will not suffer a rival to deprive Him of a part of our affection, for, by a just title, He claims it wholly for Himself. If we, therefore, do not find God in our spiritual exercises, we should begin by following St. Teresa's counsel: "Detach your heart from all things," she says, "and seek God, and you shall find Him." Yes, and you will find Him wherever you may be. St. Clement Mary Hofbauer, when walking through the crowded thoroughfares of Vienna, was plunged into an uninterrupted recollection reciting his rosary. To enjoy solitude of the soul or heart, we need not seek deserts and caverns, we can find it everywhere, whatever may be our state and our occupations. When we are in the employment God has designated for us, and are doing what God requires of us, and are keeping our heart free from every earthly attachment, nothing can prevent us from finding God. No, nothing; neither the noise and the sights in the streets, nor the work or business we are attending to; for no occupation having, as its object, the accomplishment of the divine will, can impede the solitude of the heart and union with God. Let us, then, keep our heart detached from every creature and especially from our own self. 2. We must, moreover, consecrate to God all our love. This is the necessary result of our detachment from creatures. Love is natural to man, and the object of his love depends on his choice. He will either love the creature or give his heart to God. Therefore, if he wholly detaches himself 112

from creatures, he will attach himself to his Creator. "My love is God," was St. Francis of Assisi wont to say, "and God is my love," for the saint had given himself wholly to God. Our soul should, therefore, be like an enclosed garden, closed to every earthly affection, so that it may belong entirely to God. As everything we have and are, are from Him, He has a strict right to all our love. That we may attain this holy love alone, we must keep up in our minds holy thoughts and the duties of our state for His sake. Let us then, close our heart to whatever may turn us away from this holy occupation; let us live in God, for God and with God; for otherwise our imagination will suggest to our mind all kinds of light and frivolous thoughts, and open our heart to every kind of earthly desires and natural attachments, and our soul will soon be, as St. Francis de Sales says, "only an open orchard the fruits of which are rather for those who pass by than for the owner himself." The principal fruit of this interior solitude is a heavenly peace of the soul: "I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me, for He will speak peace unto His saints and unto them that are converted to the heart" (Ps. 84. 9). "The Lord will comfort Sion, and will comfort all the ruins thereof; and He will make her desert as a place of pleasure and her wilderness as the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of praise" (Is. 51.3). In this blessed state the soul is not puffed up by success, nor discouraged by failure, but remains in an imperturbable calm united to God, like St. Vincent of whom people said: "Monsieur Vincent is always Monsieur Vincent." St. Pachomius one day ordered a man who wished to become a religious to go to the cemetery and praise the dead. When the young man returned, he sent him back, saying: "Go now, and find fault with them." When the monk returned, he asked him: "What did the dead say?" "Nothing," replied the astonished young man. "Follow the example of the dead," said Pachomius, "and be indifferent to praise and to faultfinding, for life everlasting depends not on the judgment of men, but on that of God." The soul that is detached from creatures and united to God, wishes for God only, relies wholly on His Providence and finds in this all her happiness. "O thou, who art consecrated to Jesus Christ," says St. Bernard, "cease to worry about thyself and the world, for thou no longer belongest to thyself or to the world, but to God, since thou hast consecrated thyself to Him; forget, then, everything else and have no other care than to keep thyself entirely for Him alone."

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The Exercise of the Presence of God (E)

"The exercise of the presence of God," says St. Francis de Sales, "is one of the surest means of making progress in the spiritual life."

I. Its Definition and Explanaion

The exercise of the presence of God is a simple, oft-repeated and loving remembrance of God present to us. It is a simple remembrance, because this exercise requires only a glance of faith on God present to us, an "I believe" from a full conviction. This exercise can be made without an image or representation, without the aid of the senses, without reasoning or mental effort, so that far from interfering in the least with our occupations, it should, on the contrary, render them sweet and pleasant to us, in the same way that the presence of a good friend need not interfere with what we are doing, and we can act just as if we were alone. On the contrary, in such a case we do our work more agreeably and successfully, if he assists us with his advice, encourages us by his presence and even lends us a helping hand when we need it. "You are not required," says St. Alphonsus, "to apply your mind continually so as to cause you to forget your work, your business or your recreations; all that is asked of you is that, without neglecting your occupations, you should act towards God as you do in such occasions towards those who love you and whom you love." This remembrance should be only a brief thought, a look, a casting of our mind and heart to God. Let us imitate the royal prophet David. Mindful of the Lord's goodness and mercy, he calls Him to his assistance, casts himself into His arms, complains of His delay to help him: "Lord, come to my assistance; make haste to help me; heal my soul, for I have sinned; Lord, my lot is in Thy hands. Lord, why hast Thou withdrawn from me, I will sing to the Lord for He hath loaded me with benefits." An oft repeated remembrance. We must often repeat this remembrance, for otherwise it would not be an exercise; moreover, it is only by dint of repetition that a habit is formed, which makes everything easy. We cannot acquire all at once the habit of walking in the presence of God; on the contrary, we should begin slowly, persevere in it and perfect ourselves in it until our death. A loving remembrance. The remembrance of the presence of God should act upon our will, and should, therefore, be loving or affectionate, otherwise it could not unite our whole self to God. A person might lead a 114

bad life and not love God at all, and yet often think of His divine presence; but this would not enable him to practise the holy exercise of the presence of God. This exercise proceeds from a secret desire to please God, and aims to cause the soul to love God always more and more. The remembrance of God as present to us. God is everywhere present in three ways: by His being He fills heaven and earth; by His omnipotence He governs all things; by His omniscience He knows all things, judges all things, and searches the reins and hearts. Since God is everywhere we ought everywhere to be mindful of His presence, of His being and of our dependence upon Him. Since He sees and knows all things, we ought, as far as we are able, never lose sight of Him and always act as having Him as the witness not only of our actions, but even of our most secret intentions.

II. The Difference Ways of Exercising Ourselves in the Presence of God

This exercise consists partly in the operation of the mind, and partly in the operation of the will. By the former we consider God as present; by the latter we unite ourselves to Him by making acts of humility, adoration, love, etc. The saints enumerate four principal ways of considering God as present to us. 1. The first consists in fixing our attention, by a simple look of faith, on God everywhere present by His divine nature. This presence is most real, for the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, God in three persons is everywhere, and is wholly present everywhere. "Great is the Lord, and of His greatness there is no end" (Ps. 144.3). "Shall a man be hid in secret places, and I not see him, saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth?" (Jer. 23. 24). 2. The second manner of exercising ourselves in the presence of God is to endeavor to find God in the creatures around us. "That you may be able to keep constantly recollected and united to God in this life," says St. Alphonsus, "you should exercise yourself in profiting by the things you see or hear, in order to raise your mind to the Lord or to cast a glance at eternity." When St. Teresa saw beautiful hills or plains, she would say that they reproached her with her ingratitude towards God; and the Abbe de Rance said that the beautiful things he beheld reminded him of his obligation to love God. Whenever St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi held in her hand a fine fruit or a beautiful flower, she would feel her heart as if 115

pierced with a dart of divine love, and would say to herself: "My God has from all eternity thought of creating this fruit, this flower to give me a mark of His love for me." "Heaven and earth," exclaimed St. Augustine, "and all that they contain, admonish me to love God. Let us love the Creator in the creature, so that the latter may not captivate our heart, and that we may not lose Him who made us." 3. The third manner of exercising ourselves in the presence of God is to consider and relish God in ourselves. This is the most perfect means. God is everywhere, but especially in the heart of the just man. "If any one loveth Me, We shall come and dwell in him; he that dwelleth in charity, dwelleth in God and God dwelleth in him." St. Paul tells us that we are the temples of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in us. The Lord has three tabernacles: the tabernacle of heaven in which the Eternal Father manifests all His grandeur; the tabernacle of our altars, in which God the Son gives us the Sacrament of His love; and the tabernacle of our heart, in which the Holy Ghost lavishes His graces and "prays for us with unspeakable groanings" (Rom. 8. 26). This is the hidden abode of God into which no creature can enter without expelling the Creator Himself. 4. The fourth means of exercising ourselves in the presence of God is to represent to ourselves Jesus as being at our side, accompanying us and seeing us wherever we may be. We may thus represent Him to ourselves in the various mysteries of His life; for instance: as a little child in the crib at Bethlehem; as an exile in Egypt; as a workman at Nazareth; as a criminal scourged, crowned with thorns, condemned to death. St. Teresa highly praised this manner of considering the presence of God. It is not, however, the best manner, nor is it always profitable, first, because it is not actually in accordance with truth, for Jesus Christ is not really present to us as God and man, except after Holy Communion and whenever we are before the Blessed Sacrament, and secondly, because this manner is liable to occasion illusions, or at least to fatigue our mind on account of the efforts made by our imagination. We should, therefore, be reserved in using this method, and be satisfied with representing our divine Saviour to our mind rather in a confused manner, without going into particulars concerning His exterior appearance. Application of the will to the exercise of the presence of God. It is morally impossible for us to keep ourselves continually in the presence of God; but the constant aim of our efforts should be to make continual progress in this holy exercise. But in this we should avoid all uneasiness and excessive exertion. There are three means of facilitating the application of our will to this exercise. 116

1. The first consists in frequently raising our heart to God either by making short and fervent ejaculatory prayers, or by pious thoughts. Let us often, but quietly, turn our thoughts towards God, let us often speak to Him with great simplicity and intimate affection, and do so as often as we can. Let us tell Him, as to our most intimate friend, all that concerns our own self and our interests, and do it all briefly and heartily. According to St. Bonaventure, we should raise our heart, to God by certain burning desires, by lively sighs of our soul, invoking God; or pious motions of our will springing, or flying as with spiritual wings, to heaven to be united closely to our Creator. These ardent desires and affections should come to us as naturally and as imperceptibly as exhaling breath from our lungs. 2. The second means consists in often renewing, amid occupations more or less distracting, the intention of doing all to please God. Wherefore, in the beginning of our principal actions, let us say: "All for Thee, O Lord, all for Thee!" During such actions let us carefully renew this intention. In this way we shall remain mindful of the presence of God without mental efforts, for the very desire of speaking to Him is a loving remembrance of His presence. It is also useful to determine certain times or by certain signs the recalling of the divine presence, as when the clock strikes, or when we see a crucifix or some pious picture, and the like. Father St. Jure relates that a pious solitary was wont to raise his eyes to heaven and stop for a moment, whenever he was about to begin an action. Being asked the reason of this, he replied: "I am taking aim." In this he imitated the marksman who takes aim at the object or mark before shooting. The solitary's aim was God, whom he sought to please. 3. The third means of keeping ourselves in the presence of God is to withdraw for a few moments from our ordinary occupations, either to our cell, or to the chapel, or to our own interior, by interrupting what we are doing. This may be done by making a spiritual Communion, a short and fervent visit to the Blessed Sacrament, or a loving visit to Jesus hanging on the cross. Let us, then, heed the admonition of St. Augustine saying: "Flee then, O man, for a short time from thy vain occupations; escape for a moment from the importunate wanderings of thy mind; lay aside thy cares and take time to think on God; rest in Him; enter into thy heart and expel all therefrom except thy Creator and whatever may help thee to find Him; then, having closed the door, say to Him with thy whole soul: 'Lord, I seek Thee and will seek Thee always. My amiable Master, instruct my poor heart, indicate to it Thy sojourn, the means of reaching it and finding Thee.' 117

III. The Effects of the Presence of God

According to all ascetic writers the holy exercise of the presence of God is the great means of attaining perfection. "Walk before Me (in My presence)," said God to Abraham, "and be perfect (thou shalt be perfect)" (Gen. 16. 1). Holy Scripture represents the great saints of old, Henoch, Noe, Moses, David, Elias and Eliseus as remaining in the presence of God, communing with Him as if they saw Him and invoking Him, in whose presence they were, to confirm the truth of their sayings. The saints of the New Testament followed the same road. St. Dositheus asked his superior, St. Dorotheus, what he should do in order to become a saint."Consider God as being always near you, and as seeing you," was the latter's reply. His holy disciple followed this precious counsel so well, that in all his occupations and in his serious spells of sickness, he never lost sight of God. Thus from a young soldier addicted to vice, he succeeded, in five years only, in reaching so high a degree of perfection, that he was, after his death, admitted into heaven among the holiest anchorites. To become perfect three things are requisite: to avoid sin, practise virtue, unite oneself with God. All three are produced by the exercise of the presence of God. 1. In the first place, it preserves the soul from sin. In fact, to overcome our passions, to resist the temptations of the world and hell and, consequently, to keep out of sin, there is no more efficacious means than the remembrance of the presence of God. When St. Thomas Aquinas was near death, a religious asked him by what means could any one remain always faithful to grace. "He who always walks in the presence of God," he replied , "will always be prepared to give Him an account of his actions, and will never lose divine love by yielding to sin." These were his last words. The sinner sins, because he loses sight of the presence of God. If we seriously reflected that God sees us and knows all our thoughts and actions, and will judge and condemn the sinner, no passion, no temptation could conquer us. The saints overcame their passions and conquered temptations, because they walked in the presence of God. The chaste Susanna, when tempted by the two elders who sought to make her yield by threats, said to them: "It is preferable for me to fall into your hands without doing it, than to sin in the sight of the Lord" (Dan. 13. 23). "If you always keep yourself in the presence of God," says St. John Chrysostom, "you will do nothing, say nothing and think nothing that might offend Him." 118

2. Secondly, the exercise of the presence of God is a great stimulant to virtue. "I have kept Thy commandments," said David, "and Thy testimonies, because all my ways are in Thy sight" (Ps. 118.168). The presence of your superior serves you as a restraint, as an encouragement. How holy would our life be, if we spent it in the presence of God, which not only restrains us from committing sin, but strengthens and encourages us to do good. Mental prayer will then be made with deep recollection, charity will be patient and generous, humility will be profound, obedience prompt and exact; chastity will at once reject every unchaste representation, the heart will be truly devout and always ready to perform immediately the divine will. With our look directed towards God we will labor for Him only, suffer for Him alone, and an upright and pure intention will sanctify our whole life, and we will not seek man's approval, for God alone will be sufficient for us. 3. The third effect is a most intimate union of the soul with her Creator. The presence of the beloved object increases our union with it. Our love for God will increase if we remain in His presence, for the more we converse with Him, the more He will manifest to us His beauty and loveliness. This exercise will enable us, far better than all books, however full of learning and unction, to know God, for we shall taste therefrom the science of the heart, which learns to love Him with insatiable love, and experience what the Imitation describes: "When a man is truly interior, God is pleased often to visit him, to converse sweetly with him, to console him in his trials and sufferings; He gives him His peace, and treats him with incomprehensible familiarity." Let us often cast a look of faith on God present within and around us, for this is a most excellent means of increasing in His love. The oftener we cast our look upon Him, the more also He looks at us; and His looks are like so many sparks that bring the fire of His love into our heart. Hence, says St. Bonaventure: "God will impress Himself in our soul as the seal impresses itself on wax. Everything in us will then become, as it were divine; our thoughts, our affections, our whole life will become a living copy of the divine Model, who said: `I have given you the example, that you may do as I have done' " (John 13. 15). This holy union of love will impart to us true and solid consolations, profound peace of heart in all that happens to us, whether it be success or failure. "He that truly loves God," says St. Teresa, "thinks always on Him." "In order to be always recollected," says St. Alphonsus, "and united to God in this life, let us, whenever we see or hear anything, raise our heart to God, or cast a look at eternity." 119

On Rising (E)
I have remarked," was St. Vincent de Paul wont to say, "that the majority of the religious who lost their vocation, were relaxed in two things: the first, that they were not punctual in rising in the morning, and the second, that they allowed their hair to grow long and devoted too much care to it and to other similar vanities." This great saint considered rising punctually in the morning as one of the most important acts of the community life. How should we acquit ourselves of this duty? First, promptly, and secondly, in a religious manner. 1. Promptly. We should rise at once in the morning at the very first stroke of the bell, imitating in this St. Vincent de Paul, whom the second stroke of the bell found in a different position from that in which he had been at the first. The spirit of faith, in fact, tells us that the signal for rising is the voice of God calling us to His service. If a prompt obedience always pleases the Lord, He is more especially delighted with it at the first moment of the day, and rewards it with more special graces than our other acts. St. Gertrude seemed to hear her beloved Jesus saying to her at her awakening in the morning: "Awake! how long wilt thou yield to sleep? The King of heaven is thy Spouse, He loves thee ardently, He washed thee in His blood, He set thee free by His death, because He loved thee. Wilt thou hesitate to correspond with His love by as great a love as thou canst? Could He have purchased thy love at a greater price? He hath loved thee more than His body, since for thy sake He did not spare it. Love calls for love." If these thoughts were to animate us on our awakening, we would certainly rise promptly to give glory to God, to offer our heart to Him who calls us that we may love Him. Nature easily finds excuses among certain religious to induce them not to rise at the first stroke of the bell, and even to remain in bed in the morning. It says: "You are weak; you do not feel well; you feel dizzy,or feverish; you have not slept well; you feel very tired, worn out." These cries of nature are refuted by what we read in the Life of St. Lutgarde: "Although she was young and of a delicate and tender frame of body, Lutgarde would never have recourse to exceptions, for she looked upon them as unworthy of a fervent religious. Nevertheless, one night, when she awoke at the signal for matins, she found herself covered with so abundant a perspiration, that she thought it best not to rise. Sloth had nothing to do with this decision, for she wished merely to take care of herself, that she might the better serve God. Suddenly she heard a voice saying: `Why 120

remainest thou in bed? What dost thou mean by doing so? Arise, arise; it behooves thee to do penance for sinners.' Lutgarde, full of fear and confusion, obeyed at once; she arose and hastened to the church. But there she stopped, a cry expired on her lips, she fell on her knees and remained in that position. What had she seen, and why was she in an ecstasy? At the entrance into the church Jesus nailed to the cross was awaiting her. By His look He seemed to invite her to draw nearer. She advanced and precipitated herself to kiss the Saviour's bleeding feet. But Jesus, detaching His right hand from the cross, drew to Himself the beloved child of His heart, pressed her to His breast and placed Lutgarde's lips on the wound in His side." The first part of this anecdote affords us food for reflection and thoroughly refutes the too easy and natural objections against punctual rising in a community. The reason that the signal for rising is the voice of God should suffice to cause every fervent religious to rise at once. Nevertheless experience gives us another reason. The devil desires for himself the first actions of the day; he wishes to deprive God of them, and if he succeeds in this, he will have a good chance to offer new temptations. In one of his circulars to his religious St. Vincent de Paul writes as follows: "The first good work is the most honorable. And since all honor is due to God, it is reasonable for us to offer this one. If we refuse it to Him, we give the first part to the devil and prefer him to God. Wherefore that lion prowls around our bed in the morning to secure our first act, so that, if he can have nothing from us the remainder of the day, he can at least boast of having had our first act." St. John Climacus often speaks on this point. "When the signal for rising is given in a religious community," he says, "the spirits of darkness gather around the bed of each one, and try to persuade him that he needs not to hurry, but may remain in bed a little while longer, and that it suffices for him to be just in time for the prayer in common." He says, moreover, that among the evil spirits there is one called Forerunner, whose office is to watch us all night, so that at the very moment we begin to get awake and are not yet wholly conscious, he may seize the avenues of our heart by means of impure phantoms and may thus take a kind of possession of us for the remainder of the day, imagining that our whole day should belong to him who first took possession of our imagination and heart. Let us follow the counsel of St. Teresa, that at the first stroke of the bell for rising, we should not amuse ourselves in turning around in bed, but should jump out at once, as if our bed were on fire. This was the rule 121

followed by Mother Teresa of St. Augustine (nee Marie Louise of France), a holy Carmelite. She had remarked that, whenever she was ailing, the Sister Awakener took every precaution not to awaken her with the other Sisters. She, therefore, directed another Sister to awaken her if she failed to appear in time for the prayers in common. "Either I am well," she said, "and it is my duty to rise with the community; or I am ailing, and then it is a necessity for me to rise with the others, for then my sleep is so agitated, that it fatigues me more than rising with the community." 2. Secondly, we should rise with religious propriety. "When the signal for rising in the morning is given," says St. Alphonsus, "let us act like infants who seek nourishment as soon as they awake, and raise our heart to God by an act of love, by offering Him all our actions of that day, and imploring His help. Let us imitate St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, who, at the first stroke of the bell in the morning, got out of bed as promptly as if he had heard God Himself calling him, and then knelt down, profoundly adoring the Blessed Trinity to thank God for having preserved him during the night, and reciting the Te Deum, dwelling especially on these words: 'Deign, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.' " Let us, on awaking say with the Blessed Cure d'Ars: "I intend this day, O my God, to labor for Thee. I will willingly submit to all that Thou wilt send me, as coming from Thee; I offer myself in sacrifice to Thee; but, O my God, deign to assist me, for without Thee I can do nothing." Let us not waste our time whilst dressing, but employ it in reciting some prayers, in repeating pious aspirations, or in preparing for our meditation. Then, as soon as we are dressed, let us kneel down before our crucifix, and recite the ordinary morning acts, namely, of thanksgiving, love, the offering of our actions and sufferings of that day; and let us especially fervently beseech Jesus and Mary to grant us the necessary help to serve God well on that day. Let us conclude this short exercise with three Hail Marys in honor of the Immaculate Conception, adding to each: "By thy holy virginity and thy Immaculate Conception, O most pure Virgin Mary, purify my body and my soul." St. John Berchmans, on hearing the signal for rising, imagined he heard the voice of God bidding him to rise; he would rise at once, making the sign of the cross, and saying from his heart: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? My heart is ready, my God, my heart is ready." He would then kneel down and affectionately kiss the image of the crucifix. Whilst dressing he would recite, or sing very softly, some of the verses of the psalm: "O God, O my God, to Thee do I watch at break of day" (Ps. 62), 122

or other similar prayers, and then prepare the subject of his morning meditation. "The souls who long for consolations," says Ven. Father Passerat, "long for them when they awake; but the souls that truly love God, awake with the desire of serving God."

The Examination of Conscience (E)

The examination of conscience is one of the most important and, unfortunately, one of the most neglected exercises of the interior life. No one can deny its advantages, its absolute necessity for making real progress in perfection. It is an excellent preservative against relapsing into the same faults; it is a wonderful means of repairing our daily faults through sincere repentance and a firm purpose of amendment. It is also a powerful safeguard against tepidity by preventing our faults from taking deep root in our heart. "Virtue," says St. Bernard, "cannot grow in company with vice. The latter must disappear to enable it to flourish. Remove all that is superfluous and vicious, and all that is wholesome and virtuous will grow up. All that which we withdraw from the food of our passions will become advantageous and useful to our soul. We should, therefore, actively occupy ourselves, by a careful examination, to cut off the pernicious germs of our sins and defects, if we wish the flowers of all the virtues to thrive in the garden of our soul." Age does not dispense us from the examination of conscience. "Is there any one on earth," asks St. Bernard, "who has succeeded in correcting all his defects and has nothing more to correct in his conduct? Believe me, our evil habits, which seem to have been rooted out, crop out again like weeds; what seems to have been entirely extinguished, bursts out again into fierce flames, and what appears to have entirely withered, again sprouts fresh buds, fresh branches. It amounts to very little if we cut and prune only once or twice; we must cut and prune often, nay, even without ceasing, because, if we do not close our eyes wilfully, we shall always find enough to cut and prune in our garden." Cornelius a Lapide, commenting on these words of St. Paul: "If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged" (1 Cor.11.31), says: "The meaning of this passage is this: If we examine our conscience, and, by a true contrition and a sincere confession, blot out the sins we discover therein, we shall never be punished at the tribunal of God." 123

I. The Particular Examen

This examination of conscience is made on some particular defect, to which we are most addicted. It is usually short, because we therein cast only a glance on our predominant passion, by making an act of contrition. Thus does St. Alphonsus teach on this point. The most important point concerning the examination of conscience, is the selection of the subject. According to ascetical writers, the subject or matter of examination should be our predominant defect, considered either in its acts or in some virtue to which it is opposed. To succeed in our combat against it, we should first examine its external acts, by which we might scandalize or offend our neighbor; for instance, we are inclined to break the rules of silence, we are easily irritated, impulsive, indiscreet in speech, naturally very curious, and the like. We should begin by correcting the external faults, and the correction of the rest will follow. To render our examination easy and even attractive, we may examine ourselves on some virtue, which costs us the most to practise, for what usually makes its practice difficult is our predominant defect. We should examine how many acts of the virtue, which we intend to acquire, we perform, whether we have not failed to practise it, or even resisted the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. We should not always examine ourselves on the same virtue, on the same defect. St. Alphonsus recommends us to strive each month to practise a special virtue, and to make it the subject of our particular examen, and even of our meditation. By this means we shall have variety in combating our predominant defect, which wars against every virtue.

II. The General Examination of Conscience

This exercise requires a longer time than the particular examen, for it includes all the faults we have committed during the day in thought, word and deed. "At the end of the day," says St. Basil, "after finishing all your spiritual exercises, and before retiring to rest, you should examine your conscience very carefully, in order to re-call the faults you committed during the day." "The examination of conscience, which every good Christian makes every night before retiring to rest," says Father d'Avila, "in order to find out how he has spent the day, if he made or failed to make any spiritual progress, is of very great assistance, not only to overcome evil inclinations, or to get rid of bad habits, but also to acquire the virtues and to perform well the daily actions. We should, however, 124

observe that the essential point does not consist so much in discovering our daily faults, as in being sorry for them and in being firmly resolved to avoid them more carefully in future." The simpler our method of examination, the better. He who is truly fervent and whom some serious fault has escaped during the day, will not need a long examination to discover it; he will be filled with remorse for it during the remainder of the day, and will not put off until the night to be sincerely sorry for it. To discover our usual faults, we need ask ourselves only these four questions: 1. How did I perform my spiritual exercises? 2. How did I acquit myself of my employment, of the duties of my state? 3. How did I behave during recreation? 4. How did I take my meals? At the conclusion of our examination let us make an act of contrition and resolve firmly to do better the next day. If our conduct during the day was fairly good, let us thank God for it, from whom comes all the good that is in us. "Let us not dissimulate our sins," says St. Bernard, "nor flatter ourselves, for we know that we are pleasing to God in proportion to our severity in judging ourselves." An exemplary religious appeared after his death to another religious; he was clothed in mourning and his countenance betokened great sadness. Being asked the cause of it, he replied: "No one will believe, no one will believe." "And what is it that no one will believe?" asked the other religious. "What no one will believe is the rigor of the judgments of God and the severity of His chastisements." The deceased religious disappeared, leaving the other full of consternation! Lord, grant that I may know Thee, and that I may know myself; that I may know Thee, in order to love Thee; that I may know myself, in order to detest myself. (St. Augustine.)

Our Meals (E)

"Would to God," says St. Alphonsus, "that some religious would not lose, by their want of restraint in the refectory, what they have gained by their spiritual exercises!" Which are the virtues we should practise during our meals? 1. The first is obedience, by going to the refectory as soon as the signal is given, so that we may be present at the prayers and blessing 125

before the meal. God Himself commands us to take a moderate care of our health, to repair our strength. The saints who, like the Blessed Cure d 'Ars, tried to live without eating, or like St. Rose of Lima, abstained from food on the days of holy Communion, are to be admired, but not imitated. "It behooves us," says St. Basil, "to take care of our body, not for its own sake, but in order that it may be able to contribute to our perfection." If it is our duty to obey the bell calling us to our meals, we should also beware of a mania for exceptions, and also of a false appetite inducing us to eat or drink out of meals. Let us, then, shun all unnecessary exceptions. 2. Secondly, we should take our meals with an upright intention, by proposing to eat, not to gratify our taste, but solely to fulfil the will of God. Before beginning to eat, let us ask the Lord for the grace not to exceed the bounds of necessity. Let us say the prayers prescribed in a recollected manner, after the example, of Jesus Christ, the apostles and the early Christians. "Jesus Christ," says St. John Chrysostom, "raised His eyes to heaven before multiplying the loaves to feed the multitude gathered around Him, in order to teach us never to sit down to our meals without praying to Him, from whose bounty we receive our food." According to St. Cyril, the apostles never took their meals without asking our Lord to bless them, as He had so often blessed them whilst He was among them on earth. The early Christians were so accustomed to do likewise, that Philo, the Jew, when describing their mode of life, says that before eating they were very modest in their demeanor, raised their hands and eyes heavenward, beseeching God to bless their food. Tertullian relates that they were wont to make the sign of the cross over all their food and to eat only what they had previously blessed. Appoint a fixed moment to renew your good intention during meals, and, whilst eating, nourish your mind with some good thought. "Whilst you are eating," says St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, "keep your mind attached to heaven, think on the food partaken of by the elect, and long to attain the same happiness. From the savor of earthly viands, raise your heart to desire to taste the infinite sweetness of Him who made them." The saints, by means of pious thoughts, watched over their appetite, lest it should degenerate into gluttony; they took their food as a medicine necessary for their body. "It is Thou, O Lord, who hast taught me," says St. Augustine, "to use food as a medicine for my body." St. Bernard would go to the refectory, as if he were ascending Calvary with Jesus Christ. During his meals St. Alphonsus Rodriguez considered the sufferings of the souls in 126

purgatory, and was filled with the desire of freeing them there-from. Then he shed an abundance of tears, which would often have caused him to forget to eat, had not the rector sent him the order to interrupt his pious reflections and take his food. At the end of our meals we should endeavor to recollect ourselves for a moment, in order to thank God for having so bountifully provided for all our wants, and then recite the customary prayers prescribed at the end of the meal. 3. Thirdly, we should practise mortification at our meals. St. Bonaventure indicates how we should practise this virtue: "In the quantity, the quality of the food, and in the manner of eating it." As to the quality of our food. We should not seek delicate viands, but wish only for simple dishes and eat what is set before us, as St. Francis de Sales constantly recommended; he thence concluded that this is a greater mortification than to pick out the poorest pieces. We should also, in general, avoid whatever does not conform to the custom observed in the community, for such things may tempt us to vainglory. It is a want of mortification to complain about the food or its preparation. As to the quantity. St. Bonaventure bids us not to eat more or oftener than is necessary for us, so that our food should be a relief and not a burden to our body. Spiritual persons should stop eating before they are satiated. We ought, in fasting and in ordinary mortifications, conform to the rule and customs of our Institute; as to our private mortifications, we should perform only those permitted by our superiors, for, according to St. Bernard, the mortifications we perform without their permission, are presumptuous acts deserving rather punishment than reward. As to the manner. We should eat in a manner becoming a religious; that is, without avidity, without hurry, but according to the rules of common politeness and religious modesty. 4. During our meals we should observe modesty of the eyes, without looking around or watching our companions. Charity suggests that we be attentive to the wants of those near us. We should keep our eyes cast down during our meals, unless when conversation is permitted. 5. We should also keep silence in the refectory, and pay attention to the reading. How admirable it is, whilst we are nourishing our body, to nourish our soul with the edifying matter that is read! By this means we can also avoid the faults into which our sense of taste might lead us. St. Alphonsus recommends the following mortifications: abstinence from first fruits; also from fruits, wholly or partially, on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; also from a part of some article of 127

food served us of which we are very fond. The same saint says: "Happy the community in which the members do not eat or drink out of meals!"

The Recreation (E)

"It is also the will of God," says St. Alphonsus, "that those who love Him, should at certain times recreate themselves, for a bowstring should not be always stretched. David calls upon the just to rejoice and exult in the Lord (Ps. 31.11)." "It behooves us," says St. Francis de Sales, "to relax our mind and recreate our body; to go out for a walk, to converse pleasantly." Although recreation is necessary, it should be moderate. If it is too long, it will not be free from faults. Hence when the time appointed for recreation has elapsed, we should at once cease speaking and keep silence. Let us not imitate those who insist on finishing what they wish to say, and thus lose time. "Were I to lose a moment of time," said St. Frances de Chantal, "I would consider that I am robbing God. Is time my own, so that I may do what I please with it? God has measured it out to me, and He will demand of me an account of every moment." Two virtues should especially accompany us in recreation: modesty and charity. 1. MODESTY. Modesty should regulate our whole exterior and our words during recreation. "Modesty is the propriety of our exterior deportment," says St. Francis de Sales; "to this virtue are opposed two vices, levity and affectation." As to the attitude of our body, we should shun extremes, neither holding our head too high, nor bowing it too low; the one is an ostentation of piety, and the other is a sign of haughtiness and arrogance. When seated, sit straight, do not lean back in a half-reclining position, nor move your body about on your seat. Do not cross your legs or stretch them out too far. Do not place your elbows on the table, or hold your head between your hands. It is unbecoming to keep your hands in your pockets, whether you are standing or walking. It is still more necessary to measure our words. "The ancient saying that we should speak little," says St. Francis de Sales, "does not mean that our words should be few, but that we should not speak many idle words, for we should, in our speech, consider the quality rather than the quantity. Me-thinks we ought to avoid both extremes, for he who does not contribute his share to the pleasant conversation through self-conceit or excessive caution, shows to his companions that he does not confide in them or that he disdains them; and he who is always talking or joking, 128

giving others hardly a chance to say a word or two, shows that he is lightminded." We should not praise ourselves, nor engage in backbiting. "Evil tongues," says St. Alphonsus, "should either be banished from convents or kept constantly imprisoned. We should avoid all jokes and remarks that are liable to wound charity; let us not tease those who take teasing too seriously, for not all religious are like St. Francis Regis. This saint, seeing that in recreation his fellow-religious found pleasure in teasing him and making fun of him, would very pleasantly keep up the conversation, that he might afford them amusement at his own expense." Let us not interrupt those who are speaking, nor correct their statements so as to have the satisfaction of relating or explaining the subject of conversation. We should speak in a moderate tone, and avoid loud talking and shouting. It is unbecoming for religious to speak in recreation about worldly and profane matters, such as marriages, shows, public games, dress, eating and drinking, politics. Let us always be pleasant in recreation, and avoid bringing up mournful and disagreeable subjects, for according to St. Francis de Sales, it is better to converse about indifferent things than to say nothing at all. We should speak about matters that may profit our soul, our state of life. St. John Berchmans spoke in recreation only on spiritual matters. "I do not understand," he would say, "how religious can find it difficult to speak only on spiritual subjects. The reason, methinks, is that they do not sufficiently devote themselves to spiritual matters and they, therefore, do not know much about them, or because they do not look upon them as of great importance. The case is similar with regard to the sciences. The greater our progress in a science, the more we like to speak about it." "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," said our divine Saviour. Farmers, mechanics, politicians, professional and business men, generally speak and like to converse about their business, their work; their heart is full of it. Why is it that a number of the clergy and religious prefer speaking about worldly things, and scarcely ever about spiritual matters? 2. CHARITY. We should be guided by the great principle that the recreation is not given for us exclusively, but for the whole community. Therefore charity should preside over it, and the increase of charity should be its fruit, its merit. In the first place, it behooves us to avoid whatever may wound charity. Let us not do to others what we would not have them to do to us. Let us avoid all strife, all contradictions; if we are obliged to contradict some one, let us do so politely and kindly, so as not to give pain to any one. Let us avoid also all disputes and altercations, for all this embitters 129

the heart. "An ounce of charity," says Cardinal Bellarmine, "is worth more than a hundred cart-loads of good reasons." Let us follow the example of St. Ephrem, whenever opinions differ; he always yielded for the sake of peace. If you love charity, endeavor to be affable and meek towards every one in your manner of speaking and acting, but especially towards those who may have offended you in the past, or who are not well disposed towards you, or towards whom you feel an aversion. For charity's sake let us be pleasant in recreation. "I do not say that you should always speak on serious subjects in recreation," says St. Alphonsus; "you may laugh and enjoy yourself, but keep up your recollection by raising your heart to God by an act of love, or a short prayer." "Even while laughing and enjoying himself," says Lacordaire, "a true Christian exercises his faith, and he is with Jesus Christ as with a part of himself which never leaves him." We read in the Life of St. Teresa, that the feasts of the Church were kept also as family feasts in her convents. They were celebrated not only in the most solemn manner in their chapels, but also by most joyful recreations in the convents, by singing, poetical recitations, etc. On one of the greatest feasts of the year St. Teresa asked one of the nuns to sing a hymn in recreation; but the Sister excused herself, saying: "Oh, mother! To sing on such a great feast! Would it not be better for us to go and make mental prayer'?" "Go, go, my daughter," replied Teresa, "go and contemplate in your cell, and let your Sisters enjoy themselves and rejoice with Jesus on His great feast." And she added a penance to the reprimand. Anecdotes, riddles, conundrums, etc., are not out of place in recreation, unless they were unbecoming, uncharitable, sarcastic or full of mockery. Religious should carefully abstain from buffoonery as wholly incompatible with a true religious spirit. The rule of St. Basil directs that the religious guilty of buffoonery should be excluded from the community for eight days. We should also avoid conversing on matters that are in any way hurtful to mutual edification. Finally, charity requires that we should not seek to be always with the members of the community, who please us the most, but that we should entertain ourselves in recreation with every one indifferently, and speak even oftener with those for whom we feel less attraction or sympathy. Thus was St. Teresa accustomed to act. Would to God, we were able to say with St. John Berchmans: "As for me, the after-dinner recreation gives me strength for the remainder of the day, and the evening recreation is an admirable preparation for the next day's meditation and holy Communion." St. Gerard made the following resolution concerning recreation: "I will never speak of myself, 130

either good or evil. I will never allude to my neighbor's defects, even in a joke; but I will always excuse my fellow-religious." "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth and a door round about my lips. Incline not my heart to evil words; to make excuses in sins" (Ps. 140. 3, 4).

Spiritual Reading (E)

"Spiritual reading is very necessary for us," says St. Bernard, "for it teaches us our duties, instructs us in that which we should dread, makes known to us the virtues we must practise, in order to attain perfection. Therefore the prophet said: `Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths' (Ps. 118. 105). Spiritual reading fits us for the practical life and for the contemplative life. Reading and mental prayer are the weapons with which we can conquer our enemies and the principal means for acquiring life everlasting. They enable us to overcome our evil habits; they foster the virtues in our soul and withdraw us from worldly vanities." "You will not find any one devoting himself to the service of God," says St. Athanasius, "unless he is accustomed to make spiritual reading." Why is it, then, that so many religious derive but little profit from their daily spiritual reading? The cause is not to be sought in the food, but in the manner in which it is taken. Some consider spiritual reading as a pastime, others make it drowsily; many make it in a hurry without reflecting on what they read; others again read a spiritual book as they would read a novel, through curiosity, skipping the parts that do not please them. There are some who read spiritual books as a matter of study, to acquire learning; and others who look for a fine, polished or poetical style, or for queer or sensational facts and anecdotes. There are even religious who, accustomed to light literature and fiction, cannot make up their mind to read a serious book. They read only what amuses their imagination, and eschew whatever tends to enlighten their mind and inflame their hearts with divine love. Hence we need not be astonished at the little fruit produced by spiritual reading among some religious. For them spiritual reading is not, as it ought to be, a provider of matter for mental prayer, and they, therefore, find the latter so difficult and so barren of fruit. St. Jerome's remarkable saying is, therefore, applicable to those only who make their spiritual reading well: "When thou prayest, thou speakest to God; and when thou readest, God Himself speaketh to thee." How should we make our spiritual reading, so that it may be profitable to our soul? 131

1. In the first place we should read truly spiritual books, which are adapted to our capacity and to the duties of our state. If the choice of our reading is left to us, we should use the books that are most profitable to us and lead us more powerfully to unite ourselves with God. Our own perfection should be the end, the sole object of our reading. St. Alphonsus counsels us, in general, not to read the books that are difficult to grasp, but to choose those that are simple and clear, and to read therein whatever is useful for our perfection. We ought often and preferably to read the Lives of saints, and especially the Lives of the saints who were religious. These Lives will be very profitable to us. In the words that treat of the virtues, we see what we should do; but in the Lives of the saints we behold what men and women, human and weak like ourselves, have done. Their example, even if it has no other good effect on us, obliges us, at least, to humble ourselves profoundly; the reading of their great deeds of virtue will make us ashamed of doing so little for God. Their examples of zeal and fervor will naturally induce us to walk in their footsteps. This was the effect they produced on St. Augustine. "My God," he would say, "when I considered the examples of Thy servants, I felt urged to lay aside my tepidity, and to be inflamed with love for Thee." If the choice of books for your spiritual reading depends on your superior, accept in a spirit of faith the book he gives you as being the one most useful for you, whether you naturally like it or not. The object of spiritual reading is our spiritual profit, and not the gratification of our natural taste. 2. Secondly, we should read our spiritual book attentively and reflect on what we read. St. Dominic drew from his spiritual reading, whilst he was a novice among the Canons Regular, a great purity of heart, a profound humility, a sincere contempt of himself, a singular veneration for his fellow-religious, a special aptitude for contemplation, and great progress in the way of perfection through the practice of all the virtues. "When you read," says St. Ephrem, "you should not merely turn the leaves of the. book, but should read twice or thrice, and even oftener certain important passages, so as to understand them well and impress them deeply in your mind." "Just as heavy rains," says Rodriguez, "do not penetrate the ground or render it fertile, for only light continued rains do this, so, in like manner, we should read slowly, attentively and tranquilly, if we are to draw any real profit from our reading." It is a mistake not to wish to read a spiritual book a second time. The saints acted quite differently. St. Dominic read during his whole novitiate only one book. St. Thomas Aquinas was wont daily to read some pages of the "Conferences 132

of Cassian." Being asked why he devoted to this reading a time he could have better employed, he replied: "From this reading I gather devotion; my mind needs it to rise higher, and my heart in order to be inflamed with divine love." St. Francis de Sales always carried about with him the "Spiritual Combat," and was accustomed to call it his book. 3. Thirdly, we should read with the sole object of being edified. "We should not read merely in order to read, to increase our knowledge, to speak well, but in order to become better, to learn how to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ, and to be faithful to Him." "When you begin your spiritual reading," says St. Bernard, "remember that you should read, not so much to learn as to relish divine things." He who reads, in order to learn, studies, but does not make a spiritual reading. He who reads through mere curiosity, and devours rather than reads books, does even worse, for he loses his precious time. Before beginning our reading, let us devoutly invoke the Holy Ghost and place ourselves under the Blessed Virgin's protection. If some passage makes an impression on you, you should stop a while, raise your heart to God and make a good resolution appropriate to the matter read, or recite a fervent prayer, as St. Bernard counsels us: "Let prayer interrupt your reading." If you act thus, it may often happen that one or more lines of your reading will profit you more than many pages. "The daily spiritual reading," says Lacordaire, "nourishes our mind, disgusts us with vanities, and is like an interior vivifying sap to our soul."

Retiring to Rest (E)

Going to bed at night is the last action of the day, and it is very important that we should perform it well. We spend nearly one-third of our life in sleeping. Experience proves clearly that this time of rest is not without influence on the following day, and may even offer real dangers to our soul. We should, therefore, carefully perform it, so that we may do it in a manner becoming a religious. When entering our room before retiring, let us take holy water and devoutly make the sign of the cross, in order to place our sleep under the protection of our Lord, and to arm ourselves against hell. Then, after the example of St. Teresa, let us sprinkle our bed with holy water, in order to purify and, as it were, sanctify it. The moment for retiring having come, let us not delay, but obey the sound of the bell very punctually. Hence after saying our prayers and specially placing ourselves under the safeguard of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, as in the morning, let us 133

prepare to lie down, in the meanwhile occupying our mind with some holy thought, for instance, as St. Ignatius directs, let us think on the next morning's meditation, on the Passion and death of our Saviour, on holy Communion, etc. But it may happen that, owing to fatigue from the day's work, our mind is unable to make serious reflexions, and we are very drowsy; we should then endeavor to recite some short vocal prayers. We should be perfectly modest in undressing, as ascetic writers specially insist on this before lying down, since a want of modesty may expose us to great dangers. Moreover, as we are members of Christ's mystical body, our self-respect requires us to be extremely modest in undressing. "Respect yourself, and even when alone," says St. Jerome, "dread your own looks." We ought previously to have put out the light. Having laid down in bed, we should modestly cover ourselves, and strive to take and keep a decent position, being mindful of the presence of God and of your guardian angel. Let us then make the sign of the cross and an act of perfect contrition, and continue quietly to invoke the holy names of Jesus and Mary, and recite ejaculatory prayers, until sleep interrupts and ends them. Thus we shall spend the night, as it were, in the holy presence of God, for St. Francis writes as follows in a letter: "As for me, I believe that we keep ourselves in the presence of God, even during our sleep; for we fall asleep in His sight and according to His will, and, though we are asleep and our eyes are closed, we continue, as before, to be in His presence." If we sometimes suffer from insomnia, let us beware of allowing our imagination to wander about without restraint; but let us endeavor to occupy our mind with holy thoughts and pious representations, and let us not fail to invoke the holy names of Jesus and Mary and to recommend ourselves to the all-powerful protection of the Immaculate Virgin. St. John Berchmans was wont to watch over all his motions during the day and the position of his body during the night. Once in bed, he no longer changed his position, either in summer or in winter. He always awoke in the morning in the same position, with his arms crossed over his breast. He, however, never suffered from insomnia. He acknowledged to his companions that he had never heard the clock strike nine, for he was then always asleep, having laid down two or three minutes be-fore. To keep away the evil spirit, he besought his good angel and his holy protectors to watch over him during his sleep; he would assign to each a special place near his bed. In the midst of this august circle he placed his crucifix, so that the presence of this venerated image might sanctify his rest, and induce him to rise more promptly, in order the sooner to kiss the 134

Saviour's feet. As his last thought before falling asleep was a holy one, so also was his first thought on awaking. He began and ended the day by profoundly adoring the Blessed Trinity, and offering his homage to the Queen of angels, whom he considered as the powerful protectress of his chastity. "When we nourish our mind with holy thoughts and maxims," says St. Alphonsus, "we are not much troubled by earthly objects, and we have more strength to resist our evil inclinations."

The Chapter of Faults (E)

1. The Chapter of faults is a meeting of the whole community, in which each member publicly accuses himself of his exterior faults against the Rule, the order of the house and the known will of the superiors. This accusation does not include interior faults, but only the faults against the external regular observance, whether such faults are deliberate and wilful, or proceed from culpable neglect, want of attention or mere inadvertence. These latter faults are merely material and are free from guilt. A good religious accuses himself of every fault opposed to the regular observance, whether it be wilful or involuntary. "It is preferable," says St. Augustine, "to accuse ourselves also of the faults we have committed through ignorance or neglect." There is, perhaps, no exercise of the religious life better calculated than the chapter of faults to maintain regularity in the community. It is, therefore, prescribed in almost every religious Institute. The Holy See not only approves it, but has even, in certain cases, ordered its insertion in the Rules submitted for approval. Benedict XIII commanded that the chapter of faults should be held in all religious Orders. 2. Its benefits. The chapter of faults maintains in the community zeal for the regular observance. "No community," says St. Bonaventure, "enjoys the privilege of impeccability. Faults are committed even in the most fervent and holy communities; but in these the faults are reproved and corrected, whilst in relaxed communities the superiors are indifferent to them and fail to punish them. The correction of faults takes place especially in the chapter of faults, both by the accusation of the subjects and by the admonitions of the superior and the penances he imposes on the faults. How strong spiritually and how bright in virtue is the community in which the chapter of faults takes place every week, for it is thereby purged of all the evil that tends to injure it spiritually! 135

This powerful influence of the chapter can be clearly seen by comparing two different communities together; the one in which the chapter is held regularly, and the other in which it seldom takes place. The latter is like a field all covered with weeds, and the former resembles a well-cultivated field which produces abundant crops. It behooves us amid the perplexities and faults of this life and the spiritual diseases of our soul, always to have within our reach a salutary remedy. We need to be warned in time of the snares laid for our ruin, that we may be able to avoid them. Moreover, it behooves us to repair the faults which result from our weakness. These are precisely the fruits of the chapter of faults. 3. Religious are most efficaciously admonished of their faults in the chapter. Although we may read our Rule frequently and attentively, we fail to take special notice of some of its prescriptions and of some of our failings against them. But in the chapter of faults the remarks and admonitions of the superior and the accusations of our companions remind us of some duty we have neglected, of some point of the Rule we have transgressed, and hitherto failed to notice. These admonitions and accusations impress our memory and imagination more powerfully than the mere reading of the Rule, and remind us of duties transgressed, so that, if we are truly disposed to sanctify ourselves, we will exert ourselves to derive profit therefrom for our future conduct. 4. The chapter is a preservative against relapse. Although the superior may address his admonition to only one member of the community, all present should consider it as intended also for themselves. This is the first disposition we should bring to the chapter. In the next place, we should be filled with sincere humility and accuse ourselves in all simplicity of our faults. This will enable us to combat the spirit of pride, which permeates all our transgressions; and then God, seeing our humility, will bestow abundant graces on us, that we may be enabled to acquit ourselves properly of even the slightest requirements of our Rule. We need not, then, wonder that the devil bears such intense hatred to the chapter of faults held in accordance with the spirit of the Rule. He one day declared to St. Dominic that he lost in the chapter-room all that he gained in the other parts of the convent. St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi saw him one day going through her convent, and even entering the cells of the nuns; but he dared not enter the chapter-room, for he dreaded the humiliations the Sisters practised therein. "My dear daughters," said St. Vincent de Paul to the Sisters of Charity, "the chapter properly held is, in my opinion, one of your best and most useful exercises, for you therein combat the evil spirit at close 136

quarters, and are thereby enabled to wash away all the faults you have committed during the week." Father Lacordaire calls the chapter "an immense grace, which we should prize as the apple of our eye." The admonitions of the superior, the sincere accusations of the subjects, their acts of virtue and the graces God grants to humble religious, are allpowerful means of preventing relapse and maintaining true fervor in the Institute. 5. The chapter is an excellent means of atoning for our faults. In and through the chapter only the exterior disorder of the faults against the Rule is forgiven. But when our accusation is accompanied with interior sorrow and a firm purpose of amendment, it is well calculated to obtain from God the forgiveness of the interior guilt we have contracted by our transgressions of the Rule. Wherefore the chapter was anciently called the "purgatory of the convent," because the stains the soul contracted through neglect are therein purified by the flames of the superior's correction. This is a lenient purgatory, indeed, far preferable to the purgatory of the next life, for, says St. Benedict, "if he who has committed a fault does not atone for it by the public humiliation of the chapter, he shall later on be subjected to far greater punishment for its expiation." Let us, therefore, most sincerely and humbly accuse ourselves of our faults in chapter. "Happy is he," says St. Francis of Assisi, "who submits to reproof, humbly confesses and cheerfully atones for his fault!"

Ejaculatory Prayers (E)

Ejaculatory prayers are short and fervent elevations of the soul to God, or aspirations of the heart expressing the various affections and sentiments of the soul, such as admiration, desire, love, sorrow, gratitude, petitions, self-offering, etc. They are also called pious aspirations, because these short prayers are like breathings of the soul towards God. They induce the soul to long ardently for her Beloved, to pant after Him, to beg for His love by means of prayers, entreaties, urgent supplications, and the like. The usual cause of these outbursts of the heart is an ardent and loving desire to belong to God, which produces in the soul sighs full of holy confidence and of complete self-surrender. It is then useless, and even hurtful, to torture our mind in order to produce these prayers, for they are the natural outcome of the heart. They are formed by the heart which is calm and loving and yearning after still greater love. The more calm they are, the more perfect will they be, because passion will, then, have no share in them and they will arise from an ardent and burning love, which 137

is wholly spiritual and interior. The interior acts of the virtues, says Father St. Jure, are so much the more pure and perfect, as they are more spiritual and raised above the senses. These holy aspirations of the soul are usually called ejaculatory prayers, because they suddenly dart forth from the soul, and also because they are like darts which are aimed by our heart at the heart of God to wound Him with love for us. The best and most fruitful ejaculatory prayers are those that are formed instinctively by the heart. Advantages of ejaculatory prayers. They are, in the first place, a very easy way of praying. It often happens that other longer prayers are beyond our power, either because we are ill, or time is wanting to us, or for some other reason; but nothing can prevent these short and lively springs of the soul towards God. "Observe," says St. Francis de Sales, "that this exercise is neither difficult nor incompatible with your occupations, for it needs but a slight attention, and far from diminishing the application of our mind to our task, it renders it only the more effective." To succeed in it, we need only to love God earnestly and to desire to love Him daily still more. "It is certain," says Denis the Carthusian, "that he who earnestly begins to love Jesus Christ, will feel able not only to raise his heart to Him, but also to do it with ease and pleasure, so that, whether he goes to his meals, or to his work, or to any other occupation, he will continually think on Him; and also whilst he is conversing with others, he will not fail to converse interiorly with Him; for as fire ascends upward, and as the heat of the sun produces vapors and exhalations from the earth, in like manner, love ravishes in God all the thoughts and affections of the soul that loves Him." In the next place, these short prayers keep up in us the spirit of prayer. It is absolutely impossible to recite vocal prayers or to engage in mental prayer continually. And yet St. Paul bids us "pray without intermission" (1 Thess. 5. 16). But St. Augustine says: "If we continually yearn for life everlasting, we pray always." This is the reason why we should, at certain internals, by lively springs of our heart, revive this desire, that it may not be cooled down, and keep it up all aglow, lest its flame, not being nourished with fresh fuel, may become wholly extinguished. The ancient monks of Egypt were wont to say prayers frequently, but their prayers were short, and shot, as it were, out of their heart like arrows, so that by means of these repeated acts, they might keep up the interior attention requisite for prayer. In the third place, ejaculatory prayers are a very efficacious form of prayer. "The use of these aspirations," says Louis of Blois, "is well 138

calculated to extirpate vice, and to revive the ardor of virtue." The first movement of a soul that truly gives up sin, is the fear of the severe judgment of God and a certain dread of sin itself. She desires to get rid of her captivity, in order to cling to the service of God. As that desire increases, the chains of her passions are broken asunder, and she becomes daily more and more disgusted with her former guilty pleasures. But by means of ejaculatory prayers, the soul detaches herself from the world and its false goods, springs towards God, towards God whom she desires to love and please on earth, and, in a holy transport, she exclaims: "How long yet, O Lord, shall I drag this miserable existence without heart, without life, without real love for Thee!" And being detached from the chains of her vices and attached to God, the converted soul finds in these motions of the heart ample compensation for her former false pleasures, and a divine strength against the assaults of her passions and diabolical suggestions. She finds therein, says Father St. Jure, an invincible armor which the shafts of hell cannot penetrate, and not only can she defend herself, but she can even despise all the temptations of hell. Finally, these holy aspirations reinvigorate all the virtues, for they embrace all the acts of the different virtues. Moreover, we know that the virtues are nourished and acquire growth and strength from their own acts, and thus lead the soul to an intimate union with her Creator. Ascetic writers teach that these affectionate aspirations and inflamed desires are the most effective and the shortest means of acquiring divine love and union with God. "The constant practice of these ejaculatory prayers and fervent aspirations of the soul to God, joined to the true mortification of the body and the mind," says Louis of Blois, "are a very secure, short and easy path to attain perfection and union with God, for they quickly remove all the obstacles to the union of the soul with God." They, moreover, inflame the soul with desires always more and more ardent to belong to God. "They alone know the vehemence of these desires who have already experienced them," says St. Laurence Justinian; "they alone know how often they suffer, are tormented, burnt and consumed by the ardor of their desires." These holy desires maintain the soul in deep recollection, ready to obey all the inspirations of grace, to sacrifice herself at every moment for her only Beloved; in fine, as St. Francis de Sales beautifully expresses it, "they keep her, as it were, all perfumed with the divine perfections." The practice of ejaculatory prayers. All authors exhort us to make frequent use of ejaculatory prayers. It was practised by the saints; day and night, amid their occupations, they were wont to raise their heart to God. 139

St. Ignatius, even when overburdened with business, was accustomed to raise his heart to God every time he heard the clock strike. St. Alphonsus would interrupt his work every quarter of an hour to recite a short prayer to Jesus and Mary. St. Felix a Cantalicio was surnamed "Deo Gratias," because he almost continually recited this prayer of thanksgiving to God. Blessed Felix of Nicosia frequently repeated: "For the love of God." St. Vincent de Paul, when in the company of the great, would, when the clock struck, interrupt the conversation and raise his heart to God by some fervent aspiration. St. Thomas Aquinas was wont at table, on leaving or entering his room, or when performing any action whatever, to raise his heart to God by an ejaculatory prayer. The ancient monks would very often during the day repeat this prayer of the psalmist, which the priest so often recites daily in the Divine Office: "O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me" (Ps. 69.2). "He who desires to make progress in divine love," says Denis the Carthusian, "should very frequently raise his heart to the Lord in terms of affection. If he perseveres in this, he will soon have the happiness to cast out of his heart all earthly attachments, and the love of God will flourish therein. However often you may be distracted, try each time to recollect yourself again, being mindful that all arts are learnt by practice, and that pleasure succeeds earnest labor, for every one finds happiness in doing good." "He who frequently makes ejaculatory prayers," says St. John Chrysostom, "closes the door to the devil and prevents him from disturbing him by evil thoughts."

Three Reasons For Making the Way of the Cross (E)

"The Way of the Cross," says St. Leonard of Port Maurice, "is a pious representation of the dolorous route followed by our divine Saviour from the tribunal of Pilate to the sepulchre in which He was buried. To make the Way of the Cross is to contemplate or lovingly to meditate on all the ignominies and sufferings Jesus had to undergo, for our sake, in carrying His cross from the pretorium of Pilate to the summit of Calvary." I. The exercise of the Way of the Cross inflames our heart with love for Jesus Christ. According to St. Augustine, "there is nothing more useful, nothing better calculated to promote our eternal salvation, than daily to consider the sufferings Jesus Christ underwent for our sake." "My God," exclaims St. Alphonsus, "how can a soul, that has faith, consider the pains and ignominies Jesus Christ endured for us, without being inflamed with love for Him, without taking the firm resolution to sanctify herself, so as not to prove ungrateful towards so loving a God!" When we meditate 140

on the Passion of our divine Saviour we seem to hear from each Station a mysterious voice saying to us: "Behold how much I have loved thee!" Our Saviour, in fact, suffered so greatly in order to induce us to think on His sufferings; and we cannot think on them without being inflamed with love for Him, without being, like St. Paul, "pressed by the charity of Christ." Why are there but few that love Jesus? Because few only consider the sufferings He endured for us. 'Those who often meditate on them cannot help loving Jesus. The charity of Christ urges them to love Him in return, and they cannot possibly resist His solicitations, nor refuse their love to so lovable a. God, a God who suffered so much to win the love of men. Therefore St. Paul protested that he knew no other science than the science of Jesus, of Jesus crucified, that is, the science of the love He testified for us on the cross. And, in truth, from what books can we better draw the science of the saints, which consists in knowing how to love God, than from Jesus crucified? Blessed Bernard Corleone; a Capuchin lay-brother, could not read; his fellow-religious offered to teach him to read; he went to consult his book, that is, his crucifix. Jesus answered him from the cross: "What dost thou want with reading, with books? I am thy book, in which thou canst always read the love I bore thee." What a wonderful subject of meditation for our whole life and for all eternity! A God, who died for the love of us! What a grand and admirable subject! The Way of the Cross was the almost continual exercise of St. Benedict Joseph Labre, and was the means of raising him to an eminent sanctity. St. Alphonsus did not cease, until he was eighty-eight years old, making daily the Way of the Cross in the corridor of the convent, although he could not walk or stand without the help of his servant; and when his infirmities had so greatly increased that he could no longer do this, he made this holy exercise in his room, using for the purpose a crucifix to which were attached the indulgences of the Way of the Cross. II. The exercise of the Way of the Cross will impart to us the courage to overcome all the difficulties and trials of this life. "Think diligently upon Him who endured such opposition from sinners," says St. Paul, "that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds" (Hebr. 12. 3). It was for this reason that St. Augustine, lovingly considering Jesus covered with wounds and nailed to the cross, addressed this affectionate prayer to Him: "O most loving Saviour, deign to engrave in my heart all Thy wounds, so that I may always read therein Thy sufferings and Thy love; and having thus always before me the bitter pains Thou, O my God, hast suffered for me, I will suffer patiently all the trials that await me; and at the sight of the love Thou didst testify for me on the cross, I will love, and 141

be able to love nothing but Thee." "Is there a tribulation," asks St. Bernard, "which will not appear sweet to you, if you reflect on all the bitterness of the Saviour's Passion?" St. Elzear, being asked how it was possible for him to bear so calmly all the insults heaped upon him, replied: "When I am insulted, I think on the outrages my Saviour endured on the cross, and this thought soon restores my peace of mind." Let us never allow ourselves to be discouraged at the thought of the crosses and trials we are undergoing, or that await us. If we have recourse to the Passion of Jesus Christ, we shall obtain the strength and courage we need to undergo even the greatest of trials with perfect equanimity. On Mount Varalla the Franciscans had built a number of chapels in which the different scenes of the Passion were so strikingly represented, that a celebrated pilgrimage was inaugurated there from every part of Italy. St. Charles Borromeo, who had a great devotion to the Passion, knowing that his death was not far off, resolved to prepare for it by meditating there on the Lord's sufferings and death. In the silence of the night the saint, carrying a lantern, ascended with much difficulty the mountain, going from chapel to chapel and meditating therein for hours on the Redeemer's love and sufferings. III. The exercise of the Way of the Cross will make us charitable towards the souls in purgatory. In the first place, he who makes the Way of the Cross, gains all the indulgences granted to those who personally visit the holy places in Jerusalem. Secondly, all these indulgences are applicable to the souls in purgatory. Let us remember the saying of our divine Saviour: "With the same measure you mete to others, it shall be meted to you also." Let us use the measure of charity and walk along the dolorous way, taking up drop by drop the Saviour's blood and pouring it out, by means of the indulgences, as a refreshing dew, on the souls in purgatory. And when we are dead, this same measure of charity will be applied to us also. A deceased nun one day appeared to the Ven. Mary de 1'Antigua, and said to her: "Why do you not make the Way of the Cross for me and for the other souls in purgatory?" The venerable servant of God was amazed, and knew not why the deceased Sister thus spoke to her. But Jesus Himself appeared to her, saying: "The Way of the Cross is a powerful help for the souls in purgatory; this is the reason why that soul came to ask you for that help in the name of all the others." Our divine Saviour said one day to the Ven. Mary Agnes, a Dominican nun of Langeac: "I am love itself; I showed it in the excessive 142

sufferings of My Passion. Oh, blessed are they who meditate thereon; their number, however, is small. Those who do so need not fear the last words that I will address to sinners at the general judgment." Would it not, then, be well for us to say with St. Leonard of Port Maurice: "Henceforth my favorite devotion shall be the Way of the Cross."

Temptations (E)
What is temptation? I. Temptation is an incentive to sin, an attack against a virtue. "It is impossible," says St. John Chrysostom, "to enumerate all the different kinds of temptations." Those who endeavor to make progress in the spiritual life undergo very many temptations, especially those against chastity. "Son, when thou comest to the service of God, prepare thy soul for temptation" (Eccli. 2. 1). Temptation, being an incentive to sin, to offend God, comes only from what is hostile or opposed to God, that is, from the three-fold concupiscence. The flesh is a source of temptations; having been wounded by original sin, it seeks only its own gratification, without regard to God. The world is a second source of temptations, because it is all given up to sin. The devil, however, is the great tempter. He is the great enemy of God; he hates God and does all he can to wrest souls from Him. "I am," he said to St. Catharine of Siena, "he that hath no love." He knows only how to hate and to inspire hatred. "Nevertheless," says St. Teresa, "we must not paint the devil too black, and attribute all temptations to him only." "The devil, the world and the flesh, by their temptations and suggestions, first propose sin to us; then we are pleased or displeased thereat; and thirdly, we consent or we refuse. These are the three steps to sin," says St. Francis de Sales; "temptation, delectation or pleasure, and consent. These three steps are clearly marked only in the more grievous sins." "Even if a temptation," says the same saint, were to last as long as we live, it would not render us displeasing to God, provided we take no pleasure in it, provided we do not consent to it, because, in such a case, we do not act, but rather suffer, and as we take no pleasure in it, there can be no guilt in us on account of it. St. Paul suffered a very long time from temptations of the flesh, and far from displeasing God thereby, he glorified God by his resistance. St. John Chrysostom asserts that no mortal, whose life was pleasing to God, has been exempt from very violent temptations; and experience confirms his assertion. "The devil," 143

says St. Jerome, "exerts himself in a special manner to rob God of the most fervent souls." Combating temptations is the necessary trial of our virtue. It makes us aware of the value of our resolutions, of our promises, of our good will. "Just as even the most excellent meat becomes corrupt, if it is not salted, so, in like manner, the soul becomes relaxed, or is corrupted, if it is not, in some manner, impregnated with the salt of temptations," says Origen. Let us not forget that temptation is not a sin, for sin is the consent to a temptation. "Temptation," says Mgr. de Segur, "merely proposes sin to you. The devil says to you: `Do this,' this is temptation; if you do it, you sin; if you do not do it, you do not sin." One day St. Margaret of Cortona invoked Jesus in the midst of a temptation. Jesus appeared to her, saying: "Fear not, Margaret; trust in My all-powerful goodness. Remember that the temptation is not a sin, and that I allowed Myself to be tempted, in order to give thee the example of patience and to deserve grace for thee. Be of good cheer, for the temptation shall never be above thy strength; I will remain near thee to teach thee how to combat, and if thou implorest My grace, it will never be wanting to thee; and with its help thou shalt be victorious." II. How to act during temptation. According to St. Thomas we may not desire temptation, for it naturally leads to sin. The following is the teaching of St. Francis de Sales concerning light temptations: "When the tempter sees that our heart is well grounded in grace, that we flee sin as we would a serpent, and that his very shadow, that is temptation, frightens us, he merely worries us, since he is aware that he can effect nothing more against us. Wherefore he assails us with a multitude of light temptations, just as if throwing dust into our eyes, in order to disturb us and cause the way of virtue to be less pleasant to us. The best we can do with them, is to despise them and pay no attention to them." But if a temptation is serious and even tenacious, it behooves us, first, to bear it, as one well prepared for the struggle, patiently and even cheerfully, and secondly, to combat it manfully. 1. In the first place, we should be prepared for temptation. We shall certainly be tempted. The strength or power of the temptation depends on circumstances, that is, on its attractiveness, on our constitution, our character, our antecedents, etc. But, as St. Paul declares, God is faithful and will not permit us to be tempted above our strength. When we have a rest from temptations, we should not imagine that they will not trouble us any more, for they will come again as long as we live, and our past victories over them will not secure us against their future as144

saults. When assailed by temptation, let us never lose patience. "In thy humiliation keep patience," says the Holy Ghost (Eccli. 2.4). "Never be disturbed by temptation," says St. Francis de Sales; "let the foe knock, shout and get up a row outside the gate of our consent, we can be sure that he cannot get into our soul unless through the gate of our consent. Let us fasten this gate well and not bother about anything else, and then we shall have nothing to fear." But let us raise our heart to God, who permits these temptations for our welfare, for an object worthy of His love, power and goodness. Love is repaid only by love, and God who permits these temptations, wishes to know whether we really and faithfully love Him with all our heart. But what are we able to do in temptation? Nothing and everything. Nothing of our own selves, but everything with the grace of God. God wishes us to discover our helplessness in a practical manner and to compel us to take refuge under His all-powerful protection. Thus does temptation show us our utter misery and the need we have of God in order to conquer our foes. "St. Peter," remarks St. Augustine, "was presumptuous before the temptation, but in the temptation he found out his misery." "How useful it is for us to know the extent of our wretchedness!" exclaims St. Teresa; "were this knowledge wanting to us, we should everywhere meet with danger. A single act of humiliation and self-knowledge, however much it may cost us to acquire, is a greater divine favor than many days spent in mental prayer." God, being Goodness itself, intends only to procure us occasions of increasing our merits for heaven. But this requires something else than merely kneeling down before the tabernacle; it requires combating and gaining the victory. "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which God hath promised to them that love Him" (James 1.12). "Each victory," says St. Bernard, "is a fresh crown." It behooves us also to combat cheerfully. Some religious, when tempted, become gloomy and discouraged; this is only adding a fresh and far more dangerous temptation to the other, for discouragement is next door to a fall. Let us, on the contrary, says St. James (1.2), "count it all joy, when you shall fall into diverse temptations." "Gladly," says St. Paul, "will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me." We should not feel happy at being tempted, but we should feel glad in our heart with the hope of conquering the temptation with the divine assistance, and of giving glory to God by our victory. Let us daily prepare ourselves to combat temptation. "The Lord," says St. John Chrysostom, 145

"permits us to be attacked; the Lord combats for us, the Lord conquers (by His grace), and the victory is ascribed to us. Our cause is the cause of God, of Jesus Christ; why should we fear, why should we tremble, as if we had to conquer unassisted? Let us take up arms, go to war and fight bravely, so as to be helped by Him who knows not defeat." 2. In the second place, we should manfully combat temptations. John Blasio, a young man very devoted to St. Thomas, one day beheld the devil, under the form of a very black Ethiopian, enter the saint's room and come near him. St. Thomas at once made the sign of the cross, went towards him with his clenched fist, exclaiming: "How darest thou come again to tempt me!" At that very moment the devil vanished. The temptation was an extraordinary one, and the saint made use of an extraordinary means to overcome it. The weapons we should use to fight against temptations vary according to the different kinds of temptations, and should be learned from our spiritual director. There are four general means for combating all temptations. The first means is never to hesitate when the temptation assails us. "At first the devil's suggestion to sin," says St. Gregory, "is weak and easy to crush; but if we are negligent and allow it to grow and to enter our heart unhindered, its power increases so greatly as to become, in some manner, irresistible." We should, therefore, promptly combat the temptation from its very beginning. We can easily pull a young tree out of the ground, but our strength is insufficient to uproot a larger one. "We should never argue with the devil," says St. Francis de Sales, "but at once repel him with energy." The second means is to watch, as our divine Saviour enjoined on St. Peter. He who is not on his guard will allow his eyes to be as hooks to draw him into hell, his imagination to become the firebrand of his passions, and his heart to become a focus of corruption, and he will be subject to temptations and defeats. "In time of war," says St. John Chrysostom, "the soldier watches out for the enemy; the fisherman casts his net in the night; the vine-dresser deprives himself of rest in order to protect his master's vineyard; and the shepherd watches at night to defend his sheep against prowling wild beasts. And you pretend to keep your soul safe without watching over yourself!" It behooves us, then, to watch over our senses, our passions, our imagination, the attractions of our heart and our relations with others, both in and out of the convent, for the danger may come from every direction. 146

Thirdly, it behooves us to pray, for prayer is the most powerful weapon against temptation. The Gospel relates that Jesus was sailing on Lake Genesareth with His disciples. A fearful storm arose and the boat, beaten about by the wind and covered with the waves, was on the point of being swamped. In the meanwhile Jesus was soundly asleep. The terrified disciples awoke Him, saying: "Lord, save us; we are perishing." Jesus reproved them, saying: "Why are you afraid, ye men of little faith; am I not with you?" He then commanded the wind and the lake to be still, and at once a perfect calm ensued. The holy Fathers say that the boat in the storm is a figure of the soul tossed about by the winds and waves of temptation, ever on the point of perishing, and often falling a victim to shipwreck. Whence does it come that so many souls are swamped in these storms and become victims of hell? St. Augustine replies: "Because Christ is sound asleep in you, and you fail to awaken Him by imploring His help. He who then prays will be heard, and Christ will at once still the storm of temptation and save him from spiritual death." Therefore, let us in all our temptations have recourse to God with unwavering confidence, for He is "the protector of all who hope in Him" (Ps. 17.31); He has promised "to free us from the hands of our enemies" (Ps. 16. 7). And does not our divine Saviour bid us pray that we may overcome temptation? (Mat. 26. 41). "If you ask me," says St. Alphonsus, "which are the means of conquering temptations, I will answer you: 'The first means is prayer; the second is prayer; the third is prayer.' . . . And if you ask me a thousand times, I will always give you the same answer." But our prayer should be humble, proceeding from a heart convinced of its own misery, helplessness and natural weakness. "The prayer of him that humbleth himself, shall pierce the clouds, . . . and he will not depart till the Most High behold" (Eccli. 35.21). Wherefore, when we are tempted we should have recourse to God, saying: "O God, come to my assistance; Lord, hasten to help me." In fine, we should especially persevere in prayer. "The Lord," says St. Alphonsus, "often grants the victory, not to our first prayer, but to the second, third or fourth. Wherefore, if we wish to be saved, let us not cease praying and recommending ourselves to our Lord Jesus Christ, especially in our temptations. Let us also have recourse to Mary, the dispensatrix of divine graces." The fourth means for overcoming temptation is openness of heart. "The great remedy for all temptations, whether great or light," says St. Francis de Sales, "is to manifest to our spiritual director or guide, our whole heart, the suggestions we have, as well as our aversions and 147

affections. For when the devil wishes to seduce some one, he endeavors to make him keep silence on all these matters. God, on the contrary, wishes us to disclose all the inspirations, etc., He gives us, to our spiritual guides." The order established by God is that no one is or can be his own spiritual guide, but that every one should follow in what concerns his salvation or perfection, his spiritual guides or lawful superiors. "A temptation manifested to our spiritual guide," says St. Philip Neri, "is already half overcome."

The Predominant Passion or Defect

I. We should endeavor to discover our predominant defect, which is the evil fruit of the inordinate passion which domineers over us, over all our other passions and is the principal cause of all the habitual faults, of which we have to accuse ourselves in confession. All passions, we may say, are in us; some are almost extinct; others are more or less developed; and usually there is one more lively and powerful than the others, which rules in all our actions, which sets the others in motion and draws them along. Our predominant defect, and the predominant feature of our character, are the fruits of our predominant passion. We shall find out our predominant passion by its fruits; by examining into which faults we fall the most frequently. Three special influences concur in forming our predominant defect: first, our temperament, or corporeal constitution; secondly, the habits we have contracted by repeated acts and have become like a second nature to us; and thirdly, heredity. From all the aforesaid it is evident that it behooves us to know our predominant defect, and that the real combat for perfection must begin with combating that defect. II. It behooves is to combat our predominant defect. The first reason is that, if we yield to that defect, we may as well renounce all solid perfection, and we know not into what abyss it will lead us. The majority of our daily faults and temptations arises from our predominating passion. The devil knows us better than we know ourselves, and it is not surprising if he habitually tempts us by our weak side, that is, our predominant defect, which, if unrepressed, will thwart all we do to attain perfection. For instance, he induces some to keep up a friendship which, although not sinful, makes their heart soft; he nourishes the anger of others by inspiring them with interior discontent; he excites and keeps up the pride of others, by inspiring self-conceit, self-complacency; he increases the obstinacy of others, by awakening in them the criticism of superiors, finding fault with 148

their orders. He even, in order to secure his object, turns into an angel of light and tempts some under the specious pretext of zeal for their greater perfection. St. Gregory says that the devil's craftiness consists in inflaming more and more our predominant passion and thus leading us into great excesses. He knows well that our passions blind us and prevent us from seeing the danger we are in; and the result is many a lamentable fall resulting from our predominant defect. This defect is also the cause that so many confessions have but little efficacy. We fall every week always into the same faults. Seldom are our resolutions fulfilled. For five, ten, twenty and more years we have the same faults to confess. There is danger that we become so familiar with them, as to commit them without remorse and confess them without contrition. Where are our serious efforts to make progress in perfection? May we not be obliged to acknowledge that, instead of becoming daily more closely united to God, we go daily further away from Him? "He who succeeds in conquering his predominant passion," says St. Alphonsus, "has overcome all obstacles; but he who suffers himself to be overcome by it, will be lost. Whilst we abstain from committing faults of minor importance, we allow ourselves to be ruled by our predominant passion; if we do not crush it, we shall never obtain the victory necessary for our sanctification." The king of Syria, in a battle, ordered his officers to direct all their efforts to kill the king of Israel, without caring much for any one else. King Achab was killed, and the Syrians gained the victory. We must do the same, for if we do not kill in us the king of faults, that is, our predominant defect, we shall never attain perfection. We should, therefore, when we perceive a passion beginning to rule in us, crush it at once, before it acquires strength. "A neglected sore," says St. Ephrem, "soon becomes an incurable ulcer." In fine, our happiness depends on the mortification of our predominant defect. When we admonish worldlings that they should correct certain defects, they usually object: "How can I do so? That is my character, my nature; I cannot help it, or do otherwise." They are not aware that what they call their nature, their character, is precisely their predominating defect. It is our distinctive mark. Now suppose that, in a religious community, each member gives loose reins to his character, to his predominant defect; the melancholic yields to his gloomy sadness; the bilious to his irritability, impatience, to his pride and ambition; the phlegmatic to his sloth and listlessness; the sanguinic to his inconstant 149

tastes, to his love of pleasure, to his imagination, to his dissipation. What would become of such a community? A kind of earthly hell, from which happiness, peace, charity, fraternal concord, recollection and holy cheerfulness would be banished. This shows the evident necessity of each one combating, without truce or rest, the defects of his character. It is only at this price that the convent will be the house of God, in which reign peace and happiness, a real paradise on earth. For, says St. Alphonsus, "an uninterrupted peace is enjoyed in heaven, because the blessed find in God every good; and in the religious state, in which we should seek God only, we should find in Him that peace which surpasses all the pleasures and delights the world can procure." "The great secret of perfection," says St. Francis Xavier, "consists in self-conquest." Let us, then, generously wage an incessant war against our predominant defect; this is a holy war, because our perfection depends thereon, and our happiness will be the result. Let us think on it early every morning, and resume our weapons and our courage. If we are wounded in the struggle, let us not be cast down, but rather evince greater bravery and generosity at once to resume the combat. It will be long and often very obstinate; there will be many falls, and many renewals of the struggle; but victory will be the price of our perseverance. After conquering our predominant defect, we shall have to wage war against some other defect, which will replace it. We shall always be obliged to mistrust ourselves, walk with fear and trembling in the way of perfection, imploring assistance from heaven. Our foes may be defeated and repulsed, but not killed. They may at times leave us in peace, but in order to assail us more powerfully. But we must not despond, but trust in the divine assistance and fight manfully with the weapons indicated by our spiritual guide, to whom we should, in all sincerity of heart, disclose our temptations, struggles and falls. There is need also of constant and thorough examination of our conscience. Our defects, once well known, will enable us to discover their origin, that is, the passion from which they chiefly proceed; and our confessions will not only serve to obtain the forgiveness of our sins, but will obtain for us the secure direction of our spiritual guide If our examination shows us that we highly esteem ourselves, that we desire to shine, that we often praise ourselves or speak authoritatively, that we are greatly disturbed whenever we undergo a humiliation, or a want of attention, we shall know that pride domineers in us. But if we are disconsolate because of a slight illness, if we find much difficulty in bearing whatever inconveniences us, and can bear only the food that is to 150

our taste, we may be sure that we are ruled by self-love. If we fret, grumble or complain whenever anything crosses or provokes us, it is a sign that anger predominates in us. If, however, any light cause or pretext suffices to dispense ourselves or seek dispensation from our spiritual exercises or from any disagreeable duty, it is a clear proof that sloth reigns supreme over us. "We should act towards our predominant passion," says Ven. Father Passerat, "as he who is plotting the death of his mortal enemy; he is constantly on the watch for an opportunity to put him out of the way. In like manner, let us watch every occasion to conquer our predominant defect." The saints also had their defects, and had also to struggle as much as we, and often even much more, against their predominant passions. They even fell into certain faults, but they every time rose courageously and finally succeeded in completely extirpating them, not fearing to use for this purpose even heroic means, from which we would shrink. "The traitor that we should dread the most," says St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, "is our self-love, which, like Judas, betrays us with a kiss. He who conquers it, conquers everything."

Tepidity (E)
I. What is tepidity? Father Desurmont distinguishes three kinds of tepidity: tepidity of sentiment, or feeling; tepidity of frailty; tepidity of the will. 1. Tepidity of sentiment, or feeling; when the soul, in its superior part is well disposed, but is not so in its inferior part; that is spiritual dryness, or aridity. In our combats this state is more beneficial than hurtful. We should not confound this dryness with tepidity. Holy and fervent souls grieve over this dryness; but tepid and cowardly souls do not grieve in their languor; the former are in a violent state without any fault of their own; the latter are in a state of which they are fond and also guilty. (Bourdaloue.) 2. Tepidity of frailty. In our present natural state even spiritual persons are subject to it. On account of the frailty of their human nature, it is impossible for them not to fall from time to time into some light fault, without, however, fully consenting to it; this weakness is the result of original sin, and no one can be exempt therefrom without a most special grace, which was granted solely to the Mother of God. The Lord permits these stains in the saints, in order to keep them humble. Hence it does not seldom happen that they experience coldness, weariness, and disgust in 151

their spiritual exercises, and in this state of aridity they more easily fall into several faults, which mostly are not deliberate. He who is in this state of aridity should not give up his usual devotions, nor lose courage, nor fancy that he is in the state of real tepidity; but he should continue his usual spiritual exercises, detest his faults, frequently renew his resolution of belonging wholly to God, with a firm confidence in His mercy; and God will console Him. But he should beware of yielding to a certain spiritual sloth which, although it is not tepidity, will soon lead to it. "Men," says Father Surin, "are slothful especially in overcoming their ill-humor, in undertaking to perform certain spiritual exercises, and in following the inspirations of grace." 3. Tepidity of the will. He who is in this state has the will to be saved and therefore avoids every sin that is evidently mortal, but will not seriously inconvenience himself to preserve the love of God, and, therefore, easily falls into venial sin. This is real tepidity. "He is tepid," says St. Alphonsus, "who often commits fully wilful and deliberate venial sins," such as deliberate lies, deliberate acts of impatience, etc. These faults can be avoided with the help of God by those who are virtuous and resolved rather to suffer death than commit a deliberate venial sin. II. The causes of tepidity of the will are manifold. 1. One of the chief causes is the facility, in omitting the ordinary spiritual exercises. The slightest reason or occasion serves as a pretext for omitting them, at least for interrupting, shortening or putting them off to another time, or rather for not performing them at all. 2. Another cause is the carelessness with which they are performed, for instance, languidly, lazily, without recollection, without interior spirit, and giving a free scope to the imagination. 3. Thirdly, the essential, though remote, cause is contempt for little things. This is the beginning of spiritual degeneration. He becomes tepid who loses sight of the fact that perfection consists, before all, in performing well the little actions which make up the daily duties of the religious, and that there is great merit in doing little things well, and that great things are maintained by little ones. To these ordinary causes we may add the force of habit, which is apt to deteriorate in the mechanical performance of duty, useless inter-course with the world, the want of reflection on the malice of venial sins, especially in religious, the lack of courage to avoid them, and, before all, the neglect of finding out and combating one's predominant defect. III. The danger of tepidity. "Tepidity," says St. Alphonsus, "is like consumption, which he who is its victim, hardly recognizes, and which inevitably leads to death. He who has fallen into tepidity does not think of 152

correcting his faults; and these, multiplying from day to day, render him so insensible to remorse, that a day comes when he finds that he is lost without ever having surmised it." "God does not yet reject the tepid soul, but He begins to reject her by withdrawing from her; and thus tepidity is a beginning of reprobation," says Leguay. "He that despiseth small things shall fall by little and little" (Eccli. 19.1). "He who commits a venial sin," says St. Thomas, "seems to despise little things; he is, therefore, disposed gradually to yield to mortal sin." "God," says St. Ambrose, "is wont to forsake the souls He has called to perfection, if they grow careless." "Many great sinners," says St. Bernard, "return to God by a sincere conversion; but it rarely happens that he who is tepid has the courage to reform his life." "We have often seen in our deserts pagans and worldlings become really fervent and spiritual men," says the Abbot Daniel, "but we have never seen those who lived in tepidity, become perfect." "Daughters," said St. Teresa, "let us renew our fervor and dread tepidity as much as hell itself, for it always ends by leading one to that place of torments. I know it by experience." IV. The remedies of tepidity. Tepidity is not beyond all remedy, for although its cure is extremely difficult, it is not impossible with the divine assistance. St. Alphonsus indicates the following remedies as efficacious. 1. Against faults of mere frailty. As soon as we notice them, we should humbly detest them without getting discouraged, for God easily forgives him who abhors them. 2. Against venial sins that are deliberate, but not habitual. Let us be careful at once to repair our fault by a sincere act of contrition and a firm purpose of amendment. If we again fall into the same fault, we should renew our contrition and good resolution and place all our trust in God; if we do this every time we relapse into the fault, God will, in the end, free us therefrom. And if He defers doing so, it is because He seeks to cure us of our pride by showing us our frailty. 3. Against habitual deliberate venial sins. If we easily commit venial sin without detesting it, without trying to amend, we are living in the state of real tepidity; and we must, at any cost, get rid of it. For this we must have, first, a true and sincere desire to burst our chains asunder. It is not enough for us to say: "I would like to amend, to avoid these faults, to be fervent;" all such assertions are only desires of the slothful, who, in reality, do not want what they pretend to desire. We need an energetic "I will." That will require time; but with the grace of God, I will succeed, 153

because I will it in earnest. If such a resolute will is wanting to us, let us beseech God to grant it to us. In the next place, let us endeavor to know our predominant defect and to set ourselves at once to work to overcome it. "The Lord," says St. Teresa, "requires of us only an earnest resolution, that He may do all the rest Himself." Such a resolution on our part should be the fruit of our mental prayer well made. And, in fact, what profit do we derive from the mental prayer in which we are satisfied with habitually producing certain pious affections and general prayers, without ever earnestly resolving to get rid of the defects which we know are hindrances to our perfection In the third place, it behooves us resolutely to remove the little and the great occasions of our falls, such as: certain attachments, certain relations (intercourse); these are hooks of hell, sparks which set the heart on fire. For this purpose, let us make our particular examen well, and, if we are guilty, let us impose a penance on ourselves. In the next place, let us especially perform acts of the virtues opposed to the evil inclinations that torment us the most and cause us to fall the most frequently. If we are inclined to pride, let us humble ourselves and cheerfully bear the humiliations that fall to our lot. If our heart urges us to love and to seek to be loved, let us make acts of the pure love of God, protesting that we will love Him only, and that we will be satisfied to be loved by Him only. Finally, let us never rely on our own strength, but solely on the divine assistance. This is the most important means, the means that will one day impart to us a sure victory. Wherefore, let us pray, pray, pray always, and humble ourselves in prayer. Let us beware of making but little account of little faults because they are little; let us rather fear them, because they are numerous, and their number may perhaps effect one day what their weight does not do now, that is, be the cause of our ruin.

The Spirit of Compunction (E)

I. Compunction is the state in which our will, moved by divine grace and the consideration of sin, is habitually inclined to bewail our own sins and the sins of others. "It behooves us after confession," says the Blessed Cure d'Ars, "to plant a thorn in our heart and nevermore to lose sight of the sins we have committed. This thorn is the spirit of compunction, or the habitual sorrow of having offended God and of seeing Him offended by so many sinners, and of seeing Jesus Christ so little 154

loved." "Give thyself up to compunction, O my soul!" exclaims St. Ephrem, "on account of so many graces thou hast received from God and lost by thy sins, and also because God has so long waited for thee; yes, yield to compunction and do penance, that thou be not one day cast out into the exterior darkness." "It is a great thing," Ven. Father Passerat was wont to say, "to have a Catholic heart, a heart that is grieved at seeing God offended," that is, a heart which grieves over and bewails all the sins committed by men. II. Its advantages. 1. The spirit of compunction is an excellent means of purifying ourselves daily more and more. To fall and to rise again; daily to fall and daily to rise again, such is the life of the truly fervent religious. The spirit of compunction will furnish the courage to persevere in this constant rising up of our soul, for it perfects in us the sorrow of having offended God, the horror of every wilful fault, and the firm resolution to die rather than sin again. Father Louis of Granada even says that it is sometimes more efficacious than baptism, for baptism blots out only past sins, whilst compunction preserves from future sins, by imparting the desire and the strength to avoid them. It is, therefore, not astonishing to see holy penitents spend all their life in bewailing their sins. "The prophet David," says St. Ambrose, "falls one night into sin, and spends all the nights of his life in bewailing his sin." St. Margaret of Cortona, who had been a great sinner, became a great penitent by always bewailing her disorderly life. She would say to our divine Saviour: "My Lord Jesus, were my body as large as the universe and were it turned into tears of blood by the extent of my contrition and repentance, it would not suffice to blot out the least of my sins. Oh, grant that I may weep and grieve, not as much as justice would require, for that is not possible, but as much as is in my power, that I may make reparation for having so heinously outraged Thy glory." Although we may not have been so great a sinner as this saint and a number of other holy penitents, yet when examining our conscience, do we find it as pure as that of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez? When this saint was one day engaged in mental prayer Our Lord appeared to him, accompanied by St. Francis and other saints; and, as the holy Brother was shedding an abundance of tears, St. Francis asked him: "Why weepest thou?" Alphonsus replied: "How can I keep back my tears, knowing the grievousness of my sins and that a single venial sin committed against God deserves to be bewailed during one's whole life?" 2. The spirit of compunction is one of the best means of pleasing God. True compunction, in fact, is love in tears, and these very holy tears 155

constantly nourish love in our soul. "Among the sorrow and regrets of a lively repentance God often places in our inmost heart," says St. Francis de Sales, "the sacred fire of His love; then this love is changed into tears, and these are trans-formed into a greater fire of love. Perfect penance in proportion as it withdraws us from sin, joins us again to God in the form of love." "The love which best befits us in this life," says St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, "is the love of compunction, whilst that of the next life, is the love of complacency." 3. The spirit of compunction preserves in us the true zeal for our perfection. Man is naturally inconstant and, therefore, needs to be constantly supported in order not to deviate from the right path. The spirit of compunction produces three principal fruits which sustain and firmly establish the soul in the practice of virtue, viz.; true and solid devotion, or generous devotedness to all that is pleasing to God; aversion against the world and its false pleasures, and the true consolations of the heart. "He who gives himself up to true compunction, will find devotion. To him who possesses true compunction the world is burdensome and bitter. If we lack divine consolations, or seldom taste them, it is our fault, because we do not seek compunction of heart." III. How to acquire true compunction. For every interior soul three considerations become the source of a continual compunction: the deformity of sin, the frequent remembrance of the place she will occupy in hell, if she does not do penance, and meditation on the Passion of our Lord. 1. The deformity of sin. "When I represent to myself what the shadow of sin is," says St. Catharine of Genoa, "I believe I should die, did not God preserve me. If I had anything to desire, I would desire to express what I know and feel about so strange a thing. If it were given to me to show it, there is no torment I would joyfully endure, in order to acquaint men with so important a matter. When God so graciously enlightened me concerning it, I do not know how I did not die then, for it appeared to me so horrible, and I am no longer astonished that hell is so terrible, since it is the punishment of sin. If the very shadow of a venial sin is so frightful, what shall I say about mortal sin! Had the sight of the shadow of mortal sin not been momentary, but had lasted somewhat longer, I believe it would have caused me to die." Unfortunately, many persons who enter the way of perfection, cease too soon and too easily to meditate on the malice of sin, and aspire to union with God whilst their heart is still secretly attached to venial sin, as is proved by their reiterated relapses into the same deliberate faults. They look upon them as trifles, because their mind 156

is not sufficiently penetrated with the grievousness of sin as offending God. Were they often and seriously to consider the gravity of the slightest wilful sin, they would detest sin with all the hatred the saints bear to every sin. "Dost thou not know, My daughter," asked our Lord of St. Catharine of Siena, "that all the sufferings a soul bears or can bear in this life, are unable to expiate even the smallest venial sin? An infinite satisfaction is necessary to atone for every offense against God who is infinite." Let us seriously and frequently reflect on these words, and we shall not dare to. offend God or to remain a single hour in the state of deliberate venial sin, without being seized with true compunction and repeatedly imploring pardon of God, who is so good as yet to suffer us in this world. 2. The second means of acquiring the spirit of compunction is to consider very often our place in hell. Had we ever committed but one mortal sin, it will be forever true that we are an escaped prisoner from hell. Let us often think on it and follow St. Gregory's counsel: " When God strikes us, let us reflect over our past sins in silence and sorrow, and this sight will increase in us compunction of heart." And even were we sure of having escaped hell for our past sins, are we sure that we shall escape it altogether? "Blessed," says the Holy Ghost, "is the man to whom it is given to have the fear of God" (Eccli. 25.15). St. Alphonsus declares that we are during all our life in danger of being lost, and that a single habitual venial sin, such as the breaking of silence, may gradually lead us to perdition. How terrible the thought that our present somewhat careless manner of life may finally lead to our damnation! Let us seriously meditate on this in the presence of Jesus in the Tabernacle, and we will surely bewail our sins, and our heart will say to Him: "No more sins, O Lord, no more sins! O Jesus, impart to me a holy horror of even the slightest faults." St. Isidore, a priest, was one day shed-ding an abundance of tears; being asked why he wept so much, he replied: "I weep over my sins, for had we offended God even only once, we should never have tears enough to expiate so great a misfortune." 3. Meditating on the Passion of our Lord is the third means of acquiring compunction. "The remembrance of our Lord's Passion," says Blessed Felix of Nicosia, "obtains for us contrition, the pardon of our sins and the grace of a good death." "To excite ourselves to compunction," says St. Jure, "we have only to conceive well and to be firmly persuaded that we are the cause of the sufferings of Jesus Christ; that our sins caused Him to be arrested and bound, scourged and crowned with thorns, to be nailed to the cross and to die thereon the most painful and infamous of deaths. We should consider His infinite dignity, the number and rigor of His 157

torments, for such thoughts will awaken deep sorrow in our heart for our sins." And the sorrow will reanimate our confidence in our divine Saviour's merits, and confidence will enkindle in our heart the sacred fire of love; and love, in its turn, will arouse in us bitter regrets for having offended God who has loaded us with benefits. Let us often contemplate Jesus Christ on the cross and count, if we can, all His wounds and say to ourselves: "These wounds are the effects of my sins; am I ready to sin again? Have I not already sinned enough? When will I cease offending God? Has the love of Jesus Christ for me been in vain? Is my love for Jesus really earnest?" Then let us recite this prayer of St. Augustine: "Deign, my dearest Saviour, to engrave deeply in my heart all Thy wounds, that I may always read therein Thy pains and Thy love. And having thus always before me the great sufferings and sorrows, which Thou, O my God, hast undergone for me, I will patiently bear all the crosses and trials that will befall me, and at the sight of the love Thou hast manifested for me, I will love Thee alone, and love no one but Thee." We ought daily to meditate at least a short while on the Passion of our divine Saviour, in order that we may habitually remember His passion. We should then let our heart speak and bewail our past sins. Father Balthasar Alvarez was wont to tell his penitents that they should never imagine they had made progress in virtue and perfection, if they had not succeeded in always having Jesus crucified present in their heart. Let us endeavor every day to make the Way of the Cross. When performing this holy exercise, let us give our heart up to compunction, for this is the only means of doing it well and drawing there-from great benefit for our soul. Mgr. de la Motte, a holy bishop of the eighteenth century, prepared to excite contrition for his sins in his heart by making three stations; the first in hell, the second in heaven, and the third on Calvary. "How powerful," exclaims St. Peter Chrysologus, "are the tears of the sinner! They sprinkle heaven, purify the earth, extinguish the fire of hell, and blot out the divine condemnation of repentant sinners." Prayer of St. Teresa. O my soul, what is it that consoles thee in the midst of the stormy sea of this world? I weep over myself, and my wailing redoubles when I recall the time when I wept not. Methinks, O Lord, that my soul rests when thinking of the joy that will be hers, if, in Thy mercy, Thou grantest her the happiness of possessing Thee one day. But I would wish that she would first serve Thee, because by serving her Thou didst acquire for her the happiness she expects. Lord, what shall I do? Tell me, O Lord, what shall I do for Thee? Oh, how late have my desires for Thee 158

been enkindled, and how quickly Thou hastened to call me, to chain me with Thy love!

The Spirit of Penance (E)

"The virtue of penance," says St. Alphonsus, "tends to destroy sin, inasmuch as it is an offense of God, by means of contrition and satisfaction." The spirit of penance is an inclination of the soul to make use of everything and every occurrence in life as a means of atoning for sin, in order to please God. In this work of reparation of sin and paying the debts contracted thereby are included all the good acts and all the virtues practised. Penance is necessary for us, first, because we are sinners, and secondly, because we are religious. I. We are sinners. And who is not a sinner? We have been converted, it is true, but it is the Lord Himself who has brought us back by His grace from the stray path we were following. May we be able to say with the prophet Jeremias (31.19): "After Thou didst convert me, I did penance; I am confounded and ashamed, because I have borne the reproach of my youth." "If the wicked doeth penance for all his sins, and keepeth all My commandments, he shall live and shall not die; I will not remember all the iniquities he hath done. Be converted and do penance for all your iniquities, and they shall not cause your ruin" (Ezech. 18. 21, 30). Jesus commands all men to do penance: "Do penance, for the kingdom of God is near" (Mat. 4.17); "Unless you do penance, you shall all likewise perish" (Luke 9, 23). "God now declareth unto men, that all should everywhere do penance" (Acts 17. 30). The Council of Trent asserts that the life of Christians should be a continual penance. St. Bernard calls a true and serious penance "the abridgment of the eternal torments." 1. Penance is necessary for us all, first, because we can never be perfectly certain of having fulfilled all the conditions necessary for the remission of our sins. "I know well," says St. Alphonsus, "that, by my sins, I have deserved hell, but I do not know whether they have been forgiven." Hence God, in the Apocalypse, orders St. John to write to the bishop of Ephesus: "Be mindful from whence thou art fallen and do penance" (Apoc. 2.5). "God," says St. Gregory, "leaves no fault unpunished; and it is necessary either that the penitent sinner should atone for his sins of his own accord, or that God should punish him for them." 2. Penance is necessary for us to be entirely reconciled with God, that is, in order to pay the temporal penalty due to our faults, and, at the same time, to remedy efficaciously the evil consequences of even our 159

forgiven sins. Our penance should be entire and perfect. The Lord, while forgiving the guilt of sin to the repentant sinner, requires him, nevertheless, to satisfy completely for the punishments he incurred, for, says St. Cyprian, "the Lord disdains an incomplete satisfaction." There should be an exact compensation between the sin and the penance to be performed for it. We have not sinned by halves, and we should not then do penance by halves. The love of our body has been the cause of all our misfortunes; hence our hatred, our mortification of it and the war we wage against it should be the cause of our happiness. And who can assure us that our past life has not caused God to be henceforth less liberal towards us with His gifts? "The saints," says St. Alphonsus, "ceased not to bewail their sins, although they were light and already forgiven, for they feared lest God should punish them by depriving them of the graces they needed in order to be saved." Although God had assured David that his sins were forgiven, he nevertheless did severe penance for them during the remainder of his life. "If David needed all the penances he performed in order to expiate his sins," asks St. John Chrysostom, "how can we be saved, who daily commit so many sins and scarcely perform any penance?" 3. The danger of relapsing into our former sins is another reason why we should do penance. "What I have already been," said St. Augustine, "I can again become." Who can guarantee our perseverance even for one hour? A moment of forgetfulness, of weakness may cause us to fall very deeply. The grace of God alone can secure our perseverance. We should, therefore, endeavor, by our penance, to draw down His love upon us, that He may forget our past misdeeds and shield us with His mercy. Hence Tertullian says: "We must either do penance, or burn." We shudder, when we read of the frightful austerities performed by holy penitents, such as St. Margaret of Cortona. But not only holy penitents, but even souls that had never lost their baptismal innocence, performed similar austerities, in order to atone for the few venial faults of their life, and to obtain the grace of perseverance. St. Gerard, being one day asked why he performed such frightful penances, replied: "I perform them, because I deserve them; I perform them for my God and my Creator." II. We must do penance, because we are religious. "We may say that man's special vocation on earth," says Father Desurmont, "is not love alone, whose true country is heaven, but penitent love, whose sojourn is this earth." Hence to do penance in order to please God, such is the Christian's most beautiful function, and to do penance also for others is the most noble function of the religious. Penance may even be considered as 160

filling the principal role among the acts of our holy religion. We should, then, consider it as highly important for us. 1. As religious, we should be victims, like Jesus Christ. When we became religious we gave ourselves in a special manner to our divine Saviour. According to St. Paul, "they that are Christ's, have crucified their flesh with its own vices and concupiscences" (Gal. 5. 24). We, therefore, belong entirely to Him, both in body and soul. He should, then, be the life of our life, the great book in which we daily read our obligations, and the way we must follow. "The Son of God," Jesus revealed to St. Angela of Foligno, "assumed our human nature to enlighten us by His doctrine, by His life and death. It behooves us to consider His life, His constant conduct whilst He was living on earth, for His life is the model of all who wish to be saved. His life was only a bitter and continual penance from His incarnation to His death. It was His constant companion during all His life. By the most wise disposition of His heavenly Father the life of Jesus was composed of a perfect, continual and sovereign poverty, of a perfect, continual and sovereign abjection, and a perfect, continual and sovereign pain. If we ask Him why He lived in this manner, He will answer that it was to induce us to do the same, and to choose, love and bear these three conditions until our death. By this way the Son of man entered into His glory, and there is no other way by which His servants can reach heavenly glory. In fact, it was befitting that the members should follow the same route as their Head had done." Our true rule of life, the way we have to follow, is the example of Jesus Christ. It was always the rule of conduct of the saints. "Were it necessary for the love of God and the sake of His beautiful kingdom to suffer the most excruciating pains for thousands of years," says St. Angela Foligno, we should accept them with all devotion and the most lively gratitude and the greatest joy. How much more becoming and just is it for us to be ready to endure every cross and suffering for heaven, since God has so greatly limited our years of suffering on earth! What is our short life compared with endless happiness? After what Jesus has done and said, we can rest assured of reaching God's eternal kingdom by bearing well the trials of this life. Come ye, then, O children of God, and embrace poverty, humiliation and suffering! Exert yourselves with all your might to transform yourselves into that Man of sorrows who is also God. Can you refuse Him who has loved you so much as to undergo the most shameful and painful death of the cross, in order to induce you to bear your crosses with patience? We cannot, indeed, refuse this, we who have consecrated ourselves to imitate a crucified God, we, whose life, says St. Augustine, 161

should be "a true sacrifice." "A religious," says St. Thomas, "is one who wholly devotes himself to the service of God, and offers himself to Him as an holocaust." "A religious," says St. Francis de Sales, "is one who is bound to God by a continual mortification of himself, who lives only for God. And why has God made you religious, unless that you should be victims of holocaust, in order that you may be daily consumed by His holy love?" "Jesus," says the Imitation, "has many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few only who care to carry His cross. Many desire His consolations, but only a few desire His tribulations. All wish to rejoice with Jesus Christ, but only a few are willing to suffer for Him. Many love Jesus so long as adversity keeps away from them." Let us be true religious, that is, victims like Jesus Christ, men of penance, sacrifice, self-denial and mortification. 2. We should be victims also in the same manner as Jesus Christ, doing penance with the same object as He had. It is not enough for us to atone for our own sins, it behooves us also to procure the glory of God by doing penance for all sinners. Jesus came on earth to procure the glory of His Father; for this purpose He wrought the salvation of mankind by His sufferings. "I seek not My glory," He said, "but the glory of Him that sent Me." By His Passion He rendered to His Father all the honor of which sin had robbed Him; and He willed that His sufferings should, at the same time, serve as the price of our redemption. The object of our life should be also the glory of God and the salvation of souls, and this by means of the unreserved sacrifice of ourselves on the day of our profession. We should, then, do penance for our own sins, and penance for poor sinners, for we have constituted ourselves victims for this object. Therefore we should, as St. Paul admonishes us, "always bear about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4. 10). Were we to turn our life into a real penance, we should perform our purgatory on earth, and thousands of souls would be saved by our means, and our life would become a living copy of Jesus crucified. The first disposition God requires of him who sincerely desires to do penance, is a constant will to do all and to suffer all for His sake. If we wish to be truly penitent religious, we should always and everywhere be men of duty, and be attached to our every obligation, be it great or small. We must, then, never seek our ease and comfort, or what is pleasant to our self-love; let us observe our rules strictly, never seeking pretexts for being dispensed from them. The divine will, therefore, will become as the food of our soul and the power of our will. We shall then be animated with a 162

holy indifference and ever ready to go where we are sent and to perform all the tasks imposed upon us by obedience. We should, moreover, perform our work in a spirit of penance; and then we shall find nothing too fatiguing, too laborious, too humiliating. When we shall have to undergo hardships and privations, we shall say with St. Gerard: "It behooves us thus to suffer, if we wish to please Jesus Christ who has suffered so much for us. Willingly would I give up my life a thousand times, in order that God may not be offended." Or else let us say: "Suffer now, my body, for here below is not the place for enjoyment, but thou shalt find it in heaven." Let us accept sufferings and sickness in a spirit of penitence, that we may resemble Jesus scourged and crucified. Let us bear them patiently and cheerfully and thank God for them. "O salutary penance," exclaims St. John Chrysostom, "what a great boon thou art! Through thee we obtain mercy; thou teachest us all the virtues; thou restorest liberty to the guilty; thou repairest their strength; thou raisest them up from their falls, and re-animatest their courage."

Mortification (E)
I. MORTIFICATION is a virtue which induces us to perform works of penance, so that, dying, as it were, to our life of sin, we may begin a new life. 1. Its necessity. "If any one will come after Me," says our divine Saviour, "let him deny himself and daily take up his cross and follow Me" (Luke 9.23). St. Paul bids us "always to bear in our body the mortification of Jesus" (2 Cor. 4.10). "Mortify your members which are upon the earth, . . . stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new, who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of Him who created him" (Col. 3. 5, 9, 10). "The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, for these are contrary to one another. . . . They that are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences" (Gal. 5. 17, 24). 2. Mortification is necessary for us on account of the perversity of our nature. Before Adam's sin everything in man was in perfect order. His will ruled the faculties of his soul and the senses of his body, and was entirely submissive to God. By his sin Adam revolted against his Creator, and at once there arose in man a revolt of all the powers of his soul and his body against his will. We have all inherited this revolt in ourselves, and the struggle in us between concupiscence or the desire of worldly goods and sensual pleasures, and our will drawn by grace towards the eternal 163

goods will last as long as our life on earth. It is by mortification that we restore the order God had established in man before the fall. The will, subjected by grace, should obey God in all things, and should compel all our inferior powers, our passions and our senses, also to obey Him; hence as holy Job says, "man's life is a warfare upon earth." 3. We should mortify ourselves on account of our own sins. Although we may have made a good confession of all our sins and obtained their forgiveness, we know not how many are the temporal punishments we still owe on account of them to the divine justice. We must atone for them either in this life or in the next. We are free to choose between the two: mortification on earth, or the fire of purgatory! And even if we had not sinned, we should mortify ourselves to show our love for Jesus and our desire to resemble Him. How many pure and innocent souls performed frightful austerities, to show their love for Jesus and their desire to resemble Him who led a life of penance, mortification and suffering and died on the cross! "You who are religious, if you desire to be united to Jesus crucified," says St. John Damascene, "should present yourself to Jesus as crucified, or willing to be crucified." "We ought to love to suffer for Jesus Christ," says the Imitation, when we behold so many persons suffering a great deal for the world." "A day passed without mortification," says St. Joseph Calasanctius, "is a day lost." "Our progress in virtue," says the Imitation, "is proportionate to the violence we do to ourselves." "God," says Lactantius, "calls us to life everlasting by the road of mortification, and the devil calls us to eternal death by means of self-indulgence." Since our holy state obliges us to tend to perfection, we are always obliged to mortify ourselves; and even if we were already holy, we should not consider ourselves dispensed from practising mortification, for we should then be bound to sanctify ourselves still more (Apoc. 22.11). "The best, most useful and least dangerous mortifications," says St. Alphonsus, "are the negative mortification, by which we abstain from things lawful, and for which we need no permissions, such as: not to yield to the curiosity of seeing or hearing something; to speak but little; to be satisfied with less palatable or poorly seasoned food; to seek the less costly articles for our own use; to rejoice if even necessary things are wanting to us; not to complain of the inclemency of the weather, of sufferings, of sickness, of contempt, of persecution." To perfect ourselves in mortification, we should profit by the daily occasions of mortification wemeet with, whether from our superiors or fellow-religious, or from other sources. We should actively mortify 164

ourselves in all that prevents us from keeping our rules well. It is our want of mortification that usually causes us to transgress them and to be so unwilling to inconvenience ourselves in order to be faithful to them. "Constancy in some slight mortification during our whole life," says Father Bronchain, "is of greater value than transient extraordinary mortifications." II. EXTERIOR MORTIFICATION. Exterior mortification includes the mortification of the body in general, and that of each of its five senses. 1. Mortification of the body. St. Alphonsus lays down four principles concerning this subject. In the first place, there is no middle way, either the soul will rule the body, or the body will rule the soul. He who wishes to please God and save his soul, should consider as pleasant what the flesh refuses, and as unpleasant what the flesh desires. Secondly, we must not believe him who belittles the mortification of the flesh, were he even to confirm what he teaches by miracles. Thirdly, from the moment that we are resolved to enjoy every lawful pleasure and gratification, we are in danger of soon giving way to those that are unlawful. Fourthly, if on account of real infirmity we cannot mortify our body by positive penances, we should at least embrace calmly and contentedly what makes our infirmity painful as well as all the inconveniences caused by the inclemency of the weather. Advantages of the mortification of the body. It detaches from sensual pleasures, which often wound or even kill the soul; it enables us to satisfy the divine justice for the temporal punishments due to our sins; it raises our mind to God; it deserves for us true peace and happiness on earth, and great glory in heaven. Let us faithfully practise the exterior mortifications prescribed by the laws of the Church and by our Rule, such as fasting, abstinence, discipline, etc., and all the mortifications the community life brings us, and those that come to us from the circumstances in which we are placed. 2. Mortification of the sight. "All the passions," says Scaramelli, "depend entirely on the imagination, and most of the images it forms are the effect of what our eyes have seen." Hence the want of mortifying our eyes is the cause of a multitude of temptations against holy purity and of deplorable falls. "From the look comes the thought," says St. Augustine, "from the thought comes the desire, and from the desire the consent." "We desire not what we have not seen," says St. Francis de Sales, "and after the desire comes the consent. We should restrain our eyes, lest they become hooks of hell that drag the soul forcibly, as it were, into sin, almost against 165

her will. The saints carried modesty of the eyes almost to extremes, in order to escape temptations and preserve themselves pure, for they knew and dreaded their own weakness." "A wilful dangerous look," says St. Alphonsus, "is a spark of hell that brings desolation and death into the soul." "The devil," says St. Jerome, "needs only our beginnings; if we open the door just a little, he will know how to open it entirely." "What hurts the soul is not so much the look as the gaze," says St. Francis de Sales. Some one remarked one day to this saint, that a lady, who was a relation of his, was the most beautiful woman in the whole region. "I have heard this before," said St. Francis. "But you ought to know it, for you see her very often." "That is true," he replied; "I have often seen her, but I have never looked at her." "How can you see a person without looking at her?" "We can see persons in a general way, so as to be able to distinguish a man from a woman, but we need not gaze at persons in order to see them." St. Benedict for having imprudently gazed at a woman, felt so grievously tempted, that he rolled himself about on a place covered with thorns in order to free himself from the temptation. St. Clara would never gaze or even wilfully look at a man's face. Modesty of the eyes is necessary to secure the recollection necessary for mental prayer. The want of it will be a source of numberless distractions during all our spiritual exercises. It is also necessary, not only for our own benefit, but also to edify our neighbor. Words exhort, but example draws, and when bad, it draws much more to evil, than the good draws to virtue. "Let your modesty be known to all men; the Lord is near" (Phil. 4.5). "Gaze not upon another's beauty, for many have perished thereby, and lust is hereby enkindled as a fire" (Eccli. 9. 8, 9). "The devil," says St. Alphonsus, "urges us first to look, then to desire and to consent." O Lord, "turn away my eyes, that they may not behold vanity" (Ps. 118. 37). 3. Mortification of the taste. The sense of taste inclines us directly to gluttony and also keeps it up. Both the sense of taste and gluttony impel us to seek the best in food and drink, to eat and drink what our Rule or our superiors forbid, and to eat and drink at forbidden times. Our taste, moreover, is easily seduced by our imagination under specious pretexts of health, hard work, fatigue, weakness, and the example of others. On the other hand, sobriety or temperance, also called abstinence, the virtue opposed to gluttony, makes us moderate in all that our bodily wants require, in eating and drinking. "This virtue," says St. Gregory, "does not anticipate the hour of meals, as Jonathas did in eating of the honey-comb; it does not yearn for nourishment that pleases the taste, as did the Israelites 166

in the desert when they regretted the meats of Egypt; it does not ask for well-prepared food, as did the sons of Hell; it does not eat to excess, as did the Sodomites; it does not allow itself to be carried away by the delicacy of the taste nor by the impetuosity of the appetite, as Esau did, when he sold his birthright for a dish of lentils." The same saint says that the vice of gluttony wages war on us in five ways: 1, by forestalling the hours appointed for meals; 2, by seeking delicate viands to gratify our sensuality; 3, by requiring the ordinary food to be exquisitely seasoned; 4, by excess in the quantity of the food; and 5, by eating greedily; this is the worst of these defects, because it manifests an inclination for pleasure. St. Thomas says that gluttony has five unfortunate daughters: foolish joy, buffoonery, impurity, idle talk, and weakening of the mind. The masters of the spiritual life declare that he who wishes to become holy, must begin by first mortifying his taste, his appetite. As it was a sin of gluttony that introduced death and all physical evils into the world, the reform must begin with combating this vice in all earnestness. "You must first combat gluttony,'" says St. Vin-cent Ferrer, "for if you do not overcome it, all your labor to acquire the other virtues will be in vain." "A constant moderate sobriety in eating and drinking," says St. Francis de Sales, "is better than excessive abstinences and fasts mingled with seasons of indulgence." Louis of Granada says that he who is inclined or tempted to impurity must mortify his appetite; if he gives his body all the food and drink it desires, he might just as well endeavor to extinguish a fire by pouring oil upon it. Lust is fed by gluttony; it is frequently the outcome of gluttony. The saints all combated this vice, and were models of abstemiousness. Let us not eat and drink out of meals without necessity, and only with due permission from our superior. "Jesus Christ," says Louis of Granada, "treated His virginal body with great rigor, suffering hunger, not only to atone for our excesses, but also to give us a salutary example. He, whose very sight is the immortal nourishment of the angels, 'and who feeds the birds of the air, suffered hunger for our sake; should not we be willing to endure hunger and thirst a few moments for our own merit?" As to drinking, we should restrict ourselves to the kind and the quantity becoming a mortified religious, especially in the presence of seculars. Be always satisfied with what is given to the community, and never ask for anything else, unless it be required by your poor health. Let us beware of yielding to our imagination, as some religious, of whom St. Bernard wrote: "It may be said that one needs only to be a religious, in order to have stomachache!" As to strong drinks we should never use them except 167

when really necessary. Let us never complain of the food and drink given us; this would be a proof of gluttony; if, however, necessary circumstances induce us to complain, let us do so only to our superiors. "There is no food so insipid," says St. Bernard, "which does not acquire a good taste, if we only season it with the gall and vinegar offered to Christ." "We ought," says St. Francis de Sales, "show great reverence for Christ's saying to His disciples: `Eat what is set before you' (Luke, 10.8). I consider it a greater virtue to eat what is set before us, whether it is to our taste or not, than always to pick out the worst pieces." A very meritorious mortification consists in eating a little less of what we like very much, and a little more of what we do not like so much. "Let us always bear in mind," says St. Francis de Sales, "that it behooves us to eat in order to live, and not to live in order to eat!" 4. Mortification of the hearing. "It behooves us to mortify ourselves," says St. Alphonsus, "by closing our ears to improper language and detraction; we should not even listen to mere worldly matters, for, if they do no other harm, they fill our mind with numerous thoughts and imaginations that will distract us during prayer and other spiritual exercises." "The mortification of our hearing," says Hamon, "requires in general that we listen to no conversation which our conscience reproves, that we should not hunt for news, and should be on our guard concerning what we may hear." We should, then, not listen to praise or to idle conversations. 5. Mortification of the sense of smell. The pleasures of this sense are less dangerous to our soul than those of our other senses. We should, however, apply to this sense the general rule concerning the mortification of the senses: "Every sensible pleasure, with which we flatter our body through a sensual motive, cannot be free from sin" (Scaramelli). Hence the saints did not fail to mortify their sense of smell. It is not becoming for religious to use perfumes. 6. Mortification of the sense of touch, or feeling. Louis of Granada remarks that "the coarsest our senses are the feeling and the taste, and that the vilest and most abject of our pleasures are those of these two senses. The sense of feeling is the most dangerous of our senses, for it arouses our passions in so violent a manner, as to carry away our will almost unconsciously. It is so much the more dangerous, for it attacks with the weapon of pleasure, which is the most powerful of weapons, because it is the sweetest, and the most delightful. This sense resides in every part of our body, and we have to combat it as long as we live, for our body will lose its feeling only at the moment of death. Hence St. Alphonsus gives us 168

this warning: "Be most careful to avoid the slightest faults of this sense, for its every fault exposes the soul to forfeit eternal life." Prudence does not permit further explanation of this matter. The religious is bound to make use of all possible modesty and reserve with regard to himself as well as to others, in order to preservethe jewel of purity intact. He should, moreover, repress the sense of feeling by positive penances. (See above II. 1.) III. INTERIOR MORTIFICATION. It includes the mortification of the internal senses, of the passions, and of the soul's spiritual faculties. 1. Mortification of the imagination. "This power of the soul suffers the most from the disorder caused in man by original sin, and is the least docile to reason," says Louis of Granada. It behooves to wage a relentless war against this flighty faculty, for if we do not, we shall, in the first place, never be recollected religious. By means of recollection our soul keeps united with God. But if we give loose reins to our imagination, we shall necessarily be enslaved by our senses and passions, for it is the imagination, as the devil knows, which arouses our passions, for it feeds on all the impressions of our senses, and is ever on the watch to find matter upon which to work. Curious and insatiable, it wishes to meddle with everything. Like a wild beast, it is fond of wandering around precipices, and will brook no restraint. Often it will not let us say an Our Father in peace. Hence it is very dangerous to give free scope to our imagination. If we do not keep a strict watch over it, we shall expose ourselves to all kinds of temptations and deplorable falls. It reproduces images of all that we have seen, heard or read in the past, and often in an embellished and realistic manner, so as to require the most strenuous efforts on our part to banish them and the temptations they cause us. Moreover, if we do not earnestly mortify it, it will disturb us interiorly by exciting in us discouragement, discontent, suspicions, worry, etc. It behooves us, then, to be constantly on our guard so as to banish all evil and dangerous thoughts and images and remembrance of past events and sins which may arouse our passions, and to practise strict modesty of the eyes. 2. Mortification of the memory. In case we have strayed from the path of virtue in our past life, we should not bring back, in a distinct manner, our sins to our recollection, in order to bewail them and humble ourselves before God and beg forgiveness and do penance for them, for this easily brings on violent temptations and even relapse into the same sins. On the other hand, we should often recall God's benefits and the graces with which He followed us; let us often reflect on His infinite 169

mercy towards us, in spite of our ingratitude, and never lose sight of His goodness in withdrawing us from the world and bringing us to the religious state. Let us fill our memory with reflexions on the life, passion and death of Jesus Christ, with His divine virtues of meekness, patience, forgiveness of injuries, and with the examples of the saints. 3. Mortification of the passions. Every motion of our sensible appetite is called a passion. If it is properly directed or controlled by reason, the passion is good; but if it is opposed to right reason, it is bad, and, therefore, must be combated and conquered by mortification. In themselves the passions are neither good nor bad. As means of perfection they are even gifts of God, for they induce us to defend ourselves against what may injure us, and support and strengthen us in the practice of every virtue. The greatest saints usually had the strongest passions. "Happy is he," says Father Lacordaire, "who has passions, provided he knows how to direct them." They should be directed by reason and the principles of faith. When we say that our passions must be mortified, we do not mean that they should be destroyed or extirpated, so that we may no longer feel them. "So long as a man lives on earth," says St. Francis de Sales, "he will always have his passions to contend with, he will always feel in the inferior part of his soul the flutterings of anger, the heavings of his heart, certain affections, inclinations, repugnances, aversions, disgusts, and other things contrary to his will." Even the first motion of passion does not always depend on our will, for it often anticipates all reflexion and action of the will. But our chief duty in this consists in directing, moderating or stimulating our passions by our reason enlightened by faith and assisted by grace. In this consists the mortification of our passions, which is absolutely necessary for us for three reasons. In the first place, our passions, in consequence of original sin, seek to feast on sensible goods, flee from all that inconveniences them, and obey the will only with great difficulty, and the will is but too much inclined to allow itself to be carried away by the passions and the senses. Sin consists in allowing the passions to do as they like and to seek material goods contrary to the light of reason and of faith and the inspirations of grace. Of themselves the passions know nothing about moderation, and therefore go either too far in enjoyments, or draw back from imaginary difficulties; thus they give rise to all the vices, if they are not properly managed and directed. Our passions need to be managed as indocile children are trained. 170

In the second place, passion acts under the influence of the imagination, which depicts objects as it pleases, favorably or unfavorably. Nothing is more unreasonable than our imagination; it makes us sensual, fantastic, whimsical, inconstant and passionate. He who leaves his passions at the mercy of his imagination, leads an unhappy life. Thirdly, if we give loose reins to our passions, they will blind our mind, disturb our judgment and deprive us of all discernment and moderation. The consequence will be that we shall become the slave of our passions and they will lead us daily more deeply into sin, defile our body and cause the loss of our soul. "When a passion has mastered the soul," says St. Gregory of Nyssa, "it becomes a tyrant and precipitates the soul into spiritual darkness." We should combat our passions by beginning to regulate them and granting them only what reason guided by faith can grant them, and refusing them whatever they ask for without serious motives. To succeed in this, we should find out and combat our predominant passion. (See Article on the Predominant Defect.) In the next place, we should resist our passions at once, that is, as soon as we perceive them stirring within us, for it is much easier not to use them at all, than to restrain them within proper limits; this is especially true of anger. If we allow a passion to master our imagination but for a moment, we cannot tell into what excesses it may lead us. Another means is to change the object of our passion. "When we direct our passion to a good object, it becomes a virtue," says St. Francis de Sales. For instance, let us direct all our love to God alone, all our fear to hell, all our hatred to sin. Moreover, in our struggle with our passions, let us never get discouraged, but let us be ready daily to renew it. St. Alphonsus says that in this struggle the most we can expect to gain with the best will is that they will assail us less frequently and less violently. 4. Mortification of the intellect, that faculty which places us near the angels. We should direct or mortify it according to the light of grace. How can this be done? In the first place, by willingly yielding to the views of others. We have not all the same views, the same judgments; each one has his own. Let us not cling stubbornly to our own views or opinions, but, so long as there is no question or danger of sin, let us always yield to the views of others, in order to preserve the perfection of charity. Attachment to our own views leads to stubbornness, disputes, bitterness, quarrels, hatred, etc. "Far better an ounce of charity," says Bellarmine, "than a hundred 171

cartloads of reason." "He who sincerely wishes for peace," says St. Joseph Calasanctius, "does not contradict any one." In the next place, in order to preserve the perfection of obedience. Perfect obedience is blind, and never judges the superior nor his commands, and therefore requires that we give up our own views and adopt, without reasoning, those of our superior. Thirdly, in order that we may become serious and recollected religious. Our mind is never inactive; it must think; it feeds on its thoughts. The principal thing is, then, that we should eschew all idle and hurtful thoughts and be occupied only with those that are useful and holy. We should, then, seek food for our mind, not in the impressions of our imagination or of our senses, but in the inspirations of grace and faith. Thus our life will be one of recollection and seriousness. Here are a few means for directing well, or mortifying, our intellect. In the first place, we should endeavor to adorn our intellect with all the knowledge necessary and useful for faithfully performing all the duties of our state, of our office. Some, by a misplaced curiosity, seek knowledge and neglect to obtain a thorough acquaintance with all the duties of their state and of their charge. And yet this is our primary duty, and we shall have to give to God a rigorous account of this duty. Hence we should, first, read and meditate on our holy Rule, so that we may know well all our obligations, and be able to correct all that is amiss in our conduct. In the next place, we should judge of things, not as the world judges or our self-love judges, but as God judges them. By doing so, we shall be able to avoid many of our ordinary faults. For instance, our superior's order seems too difficult, or even impossible. But what does God think of it? "Everything is possible to him who trusts in Me." One of our companions is unbearable, and we consider ourselves justified in complaining of him, in belittling him; that is our view. But what does God think of it?" Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfil the law of Christ." If we place this question, "What does God think of it?" before our every action we shall become spiritual men, men of faith, whose only rule is the will of God. But the best of all means for regulating our thoughts and our judgments is to strive earnestly to acquire the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. "The souls that are really taken up with the love of Jesus Christ," says St. Macarius, "consider all things as useless which are not referred to His love. It is to Jesus that they direct all their desires, all their projects, all 172

their thoughts. In this love they live, dwell, move and labor." Let us seek daily to know Him better, to direct all our meditations to the acquisition of this knowledge, and to increase daily more and more in this solid love, by making frequent aspirations of love, by fervent spiritual communions, by exercising ourselves in the presence of God and frequent vocal prayers. 5. Mortification of the will. The will is the queen of the faculties of the soul, for it is her function, or office, to govern them all. Its principal act is love, and its object is good. The mortification of the will consists in watching over it, so that it may incline and choose the real good befitting it. But as the will is a spiritual faculty, only a spiritual good can be the peculiar good of the will; and as the will is the image of God, God alone can satisfy the will perfectly. The will of God is the proper rule of the will; and the will is, therefore, bound to love only the will of God, and not its own satisfaction, nor anything opposed to the will of God. Ascetical writers make a distinction between self-love and selfwill. The right kind of self-love, is the love of ourselves that induces to acquire life everlasting, for which God created us. But the self-love, which is evil, impels us to seek and enjoy earthly goods, to the detriment of our soul and to the displeasure of God. This is the self-love which it behooves us to mortify. Self-will is the inclination we have to follow our own determinations as the rule of our conduct, instead of the will of God. Self-will is always bad, for it is opposed to the will of God, which we must obey and follow, for He is our Creator and Lord and we belong to Him. Self-love, if it seeks our salvation or the means conducive to it, is good; but not otherwise. 6. Mortification of self-love. Its necessity. Self-love is here taken as the affection, the inclination we have for our material or temporal welfare, without any regard for or even contrary to the spiritual interests of our soul. This self-love, since the fall of our first parents, has existed in every human being, the Blessed Virgin alone excepted. It endeavors to enter into every action, even the most holy; it is so cunning and conceals itself so slyly, that it is often extremely difficult to discover it. It is often mistaken for zeal, for fervor and even for humility. "The traitor we should dread the most," says St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, "is our self-love, which, like Judas, betrays us with a kiss. He who conquers it, conquers everything." It is, as it were, the source of all our sins. How often we imagine we are acting from supernatural motives, to please God, to save souls! and we are really acting to please ourselves, to gratify our ambition, and the like. Jesus Christ, by His example, teaches us to mortify our self173

love. "I seek not My glory, but the glory of My Father." He requires us to deny ourselves, to renounce ourselves and all that we have. The only means of mortifying our self-love is by loving God, and loving Him alone, by striving to please Him alone. If our self-love feels hurt and grumbles on account of some failure, of some humiliation, of some criticism or fault-finding directed against us, we shall feel contented, if we really love God and strive to please Him. When we feel some satisfaction at our success, or from some words of praise, the love of God will enable us to overcome all self-love, by referring all to God. It will also enable us to overcome all despondency arising from physical or moral sufferings, for such despondency is an effect of self-love. It will teach us to say in the midst of our humiliations: "It is good for me, O Lord, that Thou hast humbled me." Let us often renew the good intention of doing all, bearing all, suffering all for God's sake, and always strenuously combating pride and vanity, which are the spoiled fruits of self-love. 7. Mortification of self-will. St. Alphonsus calls it detachment. In the first place, detachment from self-will is necessary for the true religious. The vow of obedience renders the religious life a life of dependence, for the religious depends in all things upon his Rule and his superiors. He may not do what or as he likes: his time, his work, his spiritual exercises, even his sleep are all regulated. And the religious who aspires after perfection as he should, must depend on his Rule and superiors in such a manner, that it may be said of him, that he no longer has a will of his own, and his will is wholly in the hands, in the power of his superiors. We should, then, as good religious, follow the directions of St. Basil, who says: "The religious should not, for even a moment, have the free disposal of himself, nor do anything whatever of his free-will." We make the vow of obedience expressly to mortify our free-will, to offer it to God as a holocaust. We, therefore, no longer belong to ourselves, but solely to God, and this, forever. The religious who would live in the convent as he likes and do as he likes, would rob God and his Institute of what belongs to them. He who follows his own will is not a true religious; all his leaving the world, his goods, his family; all his devotions, penances and austerities, all his zeal and labors for souls, are of no benefit to him, if he does not submit his will wholly to the exigencies of his Rule and the orders and disposal of his superiors! "Nothing is more hurtful to religious, who have consecrated their will to Jesus Christ," says St. Alphonsus, "than to act according to their own will and follow their own inclinations." A truly fervent religious wishes to belong wholly to God, to depend only on God's will; he 174

endeavors to conform and unite his will wholly to the will of God, in whatever way it may be manifested to him. He finds the definition of his state in the prophet Isaias (62.4): "Thou shalt be no more called the Forsaken; but thou shalt be called My pleasure." Such a religious earnestly strives to get rid of his self-will. "It is this detachment," says Ven. Louis da Ponte, "which enables us to accomplish all that God commands or inspires us, to accept all the crosses divine Providence sends us." The stronger our self-will, the more it will prove a hindrance to our perfection. Sin is the act of our self-will. God is the source of all good, and man's self-will is the source of all sins. Sin consists in man's self-will willing what God forbids, or refusing to do what God wills. "What is it that God hates and punishes," asks St. Bernard, "unless man's self-will? Were there no self-will, there would be no hell, because there would be no sin to punish. And on whom will that terrible place of punishment avenge the offense done to God, unless on the slaves of their self-will?" Detachment from our self-will is necessary to enable us to enjoy true peace both during life and at the hour of our death. In the first place, peace with our superiors. He who is master of his will finds obedience very easy; he is always calm and cheerful. Whence arise our discontent, our criticisms and complaints concerning our superiors? And the embarrassment we feel in their presence, our coldness towards them? Let us examine our actions, our intentions, our inmost thoughts. Is it not on account of our stubbornness in acting according to our views, our conceit? But, you say, "the superior is mistaken, is prejudiced, does not understand me or my intentions!" Poor religious! Does your superior lack experience, common sense, or has he no regard for the Rule, for the welfare of those entrusted to his charge? Does he not hold the place of God towards you? Who has appointed you to be his judge? Such a conduct will not contribute to your happiness. In a convent only the dead live in peace, for "Blessed are the dead," that is, those who have died to their self-will! They, and they only will persevere and be transferred from their cells to their heavenly mansions! The others will have no peace, no contentment in the convent, and will run the risk of losing their vocation! In the second place, peace with our brethren. He who has subdued his self-will, will be condescending, charitable, ever obliging towards his brethren, and will receive the same measure or treatment as he has given to others. But he who has not subdued his self-will is selfish, independent, harsh, fault-finding, discontented, disobliging, and will not enjoy peace with his brethren, nor even with himself, for true peace is the fruit of a 175

quiet conscience. And he only has such a conscience, who can truly say: "I always do the will of God, for when I obey, I am sure of doing what God demands of me." "I believe," says St. Alphonsus, "many religious lead an unhappy life, solely because they are attached to their self-will." Such religious live in a constant constraint, because, not being able to do what they like, or as they like, they are always dissatisfied. Nothing succeeds with them, because God is not with them, and their failure casts them down. But they who have the courage to conquer their self-will, enjoy the holy liberty of the children of God. Since they seek only God's will in all things, their wishes are all satisfied. Detachment from our own will procure us great peace at the hour of death. "Happy the religious," says St. Alphonsus, "who is able to say in his last moments: `I have never done my own will.' " "The only means of securing a happy death," says St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, "is to allow ourselves to be guided with simplicity by our superiors." "Lord," said St. Gerard, "Thou knowest that all that I have said and done, I have said and done for Thy honor and glory. I die contented, because I hope I have never sought anything but Thy will." And again: "I wish to die to please Thee, I wish to die in order to do Thy holy will." Let us in all things follow our great Model, our Lord Jesus Christ. He came down on earth, as He says, "not to do My will, but the will of Himwho sent Me." What did He do on earth? "I always do that which pleaseth My Father." Why have we entered the convent? To deny ourselves and obey. What are we doing in the convent? Let our conscience answer this question in all sincerity. Whenever we find giving up our own will difficult, let us say with the psalmist: "Lord, teach me to do Thy will, because Thou art my God" (Ps. 142.10). We should practise detachment in three things: from ourselves, from all created things, such as our country, our family, our friends and the world, and lastly from all employments, offices, and places of residence. "He who has given himself unreservedly to God," says Ven. Antony Torres, "loves nothing, wishes for nothing, asks nothing, wills nothing."

Charity (C)
"This is My commandment, that you love one another" (John 15. 12). Why does Jesus Christ call it His commandment? First, because Jesus Christ is charity, and came down from heaven expressly to bring to 176

men peace and charity, and prefers this commandment to all the others. Secondly, because He taught it to us, not merely by His words, but much more by His example. His whole life was but an uninterrupted act of charity towards men. Thirdly, because this commandment includes all the others. They are all reducible to the commandment of charity, for "love, and do what you wish." Fourthly, because the religion of Jesus Christ is a religion of love, and in love His whole religion consists. By charity men are the children of God, are all brethren, form but one flock, but one Church, one family, one body. Suppress the commandment of charity, and the whole grand work of the Church of Christ falls in ruins. Fifthly, because charity is the mark of the disciples of Jesus Christ, "By this all men shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13. 35). Sixthly, because charity is the mark of the predestined. By charity we can distinguish the children of God from the children of the devil. And lastly, because this commandment will last for all eternity, and all the others will cease. But what does it mean to love our neighbor? 1. To love our neighbor is to wish well and do good to him. "My Iittle children, let us love not in word, but in deed" (1 John 3. 18). True love is not barren; it must be active, in order to exist. "When I choose a friend," says Seneca, "what do you think is my intention thereby? To have a man with whom I may divide my goods, whom I may serve, defend, follow in exile, and for whose sake I may sacrifice myself and die." To love our neighbor includes our readiness to do all this for him, to do for him what Jesus Christ has done for us: "In this we have known the charity of God, because He hath laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brethren" (1 John 3:10). "I most gladly will spend and be spent myself for your souls" (2 Cor. 12: 15). 2. To love our neighbor is to live in concord and union with our brethren, for we are all one body in Christ. What is more admirable than the union between the members of the same body? What do they not do for one another? They love one another with a genuine love; they never injure one another, mutually help, serve and defend one another. "To be united in place, but not in heart, is a torment; to be united in heart, though not in place, is a happiness; to be united both in heart and in place, is a real paradise," says Hugh of St. Victor. "It is charity," says St. Jerome, "that makes religious and gathers them together under one rule. Without charity religious houses would be a hell, and their inmates would be real demons; but with charity the convents are a heaven on earth, and their inmates are 177

real brethren, or rather angels, and can truly say: "Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to live together in unity" (Ps. 132. 1). "Were Christians," says St. John Chrysostom, "to perform thousands of miracles, if they do not love one another, nor agree together, but live in dissensions and quarrels, they are the laughing-stock of even the pagans." "The devil," says St. Bernard, "does not fear the religious who fast and watch a great deal, who practise great austerities, because he has succeeded in causing the downfall of many; but as to those who live in peace, united to God and their brethren, he fears and dreads them, he despairs of overcoming them and considers them as lost to himself." Why do wooden ships spring a leak and sink? Because the boards are not well joined together. In like manner, the principal cause of the loss and ruin of a community, is that the members are not joined and united together by charity. Let those, then, who are united by their rules, be united together by their spirit also; let them bear with one another, defend and help one another to carry the yoke of Jesus Christ, for "a brother helped by his brother is like a strong city" (Prov. 18.19); but if they bite and tear one another, they are both ruined. 3. To love our neighbor is to bear with his defects in all patience. "We bear with our neighbor," says St. Gregory, "as much as we love him. If you love your brethren very much, you will always bear and not notice their defects; if you do not love them, you will have no patience with them, and their defects will impress you as the sun's rays do weak or diseased eyes." "Bear one another's burdens" (Gal. 6.2); bear with one another's ill-temper, infirmities, passions and faults, "and you will accomplish thereby the law of Christ" (Ibid). Which is this law? The law of charity which includes all precepts. Who are those that mutually bear with one another? Those who have charity. "When stags cross a stream or a body of water," says St. Augustine, "they place and rest their heads on the croup of the one in front of them, until the leader is tired, when he retires to the rear to rest in his turn; in this manner they help one another in their weakness and, mutually supporting one another, cross safely, because charity is their vessel." In like manner we should reciprocally help, relieve and support one another. We are all one and the same body in Jesus Christ, members of one another. See what the members do for one another, how they support one another, how readily and tenderly they assist one another. If a man has a sore in his foot, a vile part of his body, however ugly and offensive the sore, the other members do not hold the foot in horror; on the contrary, the eyes look at it sympathizingly, the hands wash and dress it, the tongue 178

asks remedies for it, and for its cure invokes even the saints and God Himself. All the other members do all in their power to contribute to its cure "O members of Jesus Christ," exclaims St. Augustine, "love one another, bear with one another and with one another's infirmities, and be not disheartened at one another's shortcomings, and by thus practising charity, you will reach the kingdom of heaven." 4. To love our neighbor is to excuse and conceal his faults and defects. When we throw the cloak of charity over the defects of our brethren, God covers up ours; but when we disclose or expose them, God discloses and publishes ours, says a holy abbot. We read of St. Ignatius Loyola that he always spoke well of every one, so that each one felt convinced of being esteemed and cherished by him, and therefore loved and respected him. The holy Abbot Connetable was called the cloak of his brethren, because he carefully concealed their defects and always endeavored to excuse their faults. St. Teresa acted in like manner, and her nuns declared that she would everywhere take their part. "He who tears up the good name of an absent friend," says Horace, "by making his faults or defects known, who reveals secrets entrusted to him is a bad citizen." We may add that he is also a bad religious and a false brother. Holy Scripture compares the tongue of the backbiter to a sword, to a whip, to the tongue of a serpent, to a viper, to fire, to a lion, to a leopard, to death and to hell, in order to show how dangerous it is, how great its ravages and how greatly it is to be feared. "Show me," says St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, "a man who conceals the defects and faults of his brethren, and never defiles his tongue with uncharitable words, and I will, without fear of mistake, proclaim him a saint." Man's physical death begins with his tongue and proceeds further and further until it reaches his heart. Man's moral death begins also with his tongue, with his speech, and gradually reaches the will and the heart. "He that will love life and see good days," says St. Peter, "let him refrain his tongue and his lips, that they speak no guile" (1 Pet. 3.10). Wherefore, if you perceive that your brother has committed a fault, do not take the liberty to accuse and condemn him, but rather excuse him. If you cannot excuse the deed, excuse his intention; say it was an imprudence, a surprise. If the proofs are so evident as to preclude concealment or excuse, attribute it to violent temptation. St. Bernard declares that we should always seek some reason to excuse, diminish and conceal the faults of our brethren. 5. To love our neighbor is to admonish him of his defects and help him to correct them. God commanded man to watch over his neighbor and to care for him. Hence Cain has always been condemned for his answer: 179

"Am I my brother's guardian?" God has, in fact, placed in our heart a feeling that induces us to watch over one another. "Brethren," says St. Paul, "if a man be overtaken in any fault, instruct him in the spirit of meekness" (Gal. 6. 1). "Fraternal correction, having for its object the amendment of our brethren, constitutes a precept," says St. Thomas; "for if he transgresses the law of charity who lets a wounded man die, although he could have saved him by dressing the wound, he fails still more grievously against charity, who neglects fraternal correction, when he beholds his brother's soul covered with the mortal wounds of sin." The Holy Ghost tells us not to fear holding out a helping hand to save our brother. Do not the members of our body help one another to be clean? Let us likewise help our brethren to be cleansed of all the stains and defilements caused in their soul by their faults and shortcomings. To love our neighbor is carefully to avoid contention, disputes and quarrels, and all sarcastic and biting remarks. St. Paul warns us not to indulge in wordy disputes, which do harm even to the listeners. A servant of God should not engage in contention, but should yield easily in indifferent matters. "The glory of man," says the Holy Ghost, "is to avoid quarrels." By this means we prevent bitter feeling, contempt, the cooling of affections, which are the usual result of discussion and the cause of many sins. "Refrain from strife," says the Holy Ghost, "and thou shalt diminish thy sins" (Eccli. 28.10). "Nothing is more unworthy of a religious," says St. Bernard, "than to dispute about trifles, like a woman." "It is an honor for a man," says the Holy Ghost, "to keep from quarreling" (Prov. 20.3). Such a one performs an act of charity every time he avoids, causing ill-feeling and bitterness usually arising from disputes, and, at the same time, he performs also an act of humility by overcoming his natural desire to get the better of others in discussion, and an act of prudence and good judgment by maintaining peace and union with all. The great St. Ephrem, in his spiritual testament, glories in never having quarreled with any one, but in having always yielded to others. for peace' sake. St. Moses, the Ethiopian, when arguing one day with St. Macarius, spoke harshly and abusively to him. But God at once punished him by permitting a devil to possess him, but a devil so filthy as to compel him to utter all sorts of unbecoming things. This punishment lasted until St. Macarius, by praying for his deliverance, obtained from God the forgiveness of his fault. Such a punishment of such a saint, shows us how opposed to charity are such faults, and how greatly God detests them. 7. To love our neighbor is to treat him kindly and to avoid whatever may displease him. Charity forbids not only what may greatly 180

injure our neighbor, but even whatever may slightly offend him, such as, words wanting in due respect, excessive teasing, playing tricks on him, etc. A true friend abstains carefully from all that may in the least give pain to his friend; tries to keep every evil from him, and to procure him every good. Wherefore, if we perceive that our actions or words displease, hurt or grieve our neighbor ever so little, "we should," says St. Dorothy, "at once cease and not continue our actions or our words; this I tell you now and a thousand times over, for it is better that everything should perish, than that we should fail against charity or hurt our neighbor's feelings. Charity condemns sour, harsh words, contemptuous expressions, and places in our mouth only sweet, kind, affable and respectful words denoting our esteem for our neighbor." "Judge your neighbor by your own self," says the Holy Ghost to us. Let us, then, ask ourselves how we would like to be spoken to drily, harshly, commanded haughtily; if we would feel hurt by such language, we should not address it to our neighbor, who is human like ourselves. One of the means of causing charity to flourish the most is meekness in speech and conduct towards others. "A kind word," says the Holy Ghost, "multiplieth friends and appeaseth enemies." Wherefore, let us endeavor to acquire and preserve in our words and actions the spirit of meekness, which, as the Holy Ghost teaches, renders us amiable to men, for, says St. Bernard, "as it is impossible to please God without faith, so also it is impossible to please men without meekness and affability." 8. To love our neighbor is to oblige him whenever we can, as St. Paul recommends: "Serve one another with charity." A good religious is, therefore, obliging, willing to oblige, ever ready to share the tasks of others, to relieve the overburdened, to content every one, that he may be able to say with Jesus Christ: "I am among you as he that serveth." "Nothing contributes more to keep up charity," says St. Ambrose, "than to forestall one another, esteeming our neighbor more than our own selves; the subjects being ever willing to fulfil the will of their superiors, and the latter being eager to serve their subjects as a tender mother is eager to serve her own child." "The love religious owe one another," says Ven. Father Champagnat, "should be active and consistent in obliging one another on every occasion, in helping one another, in taking another's place in the performance of tasks, whenever it may be necessary or useful, and in being ever ready to render service to one another." "My brethren," says St. Bernard, "it behooves you to be animated with the spirit of charity, that is, 181

to support, help and serve one another, so that it may be said of you what was said of the prophet Jeremias: `This one truly loveth his brethren.' " 9. To love our neighbor is to console him in affliction, to sympathize in his misfortunes and to condole with him in his sufferings. The just, according to the saying of the Holy Ghost, are naturally compassionate and exercise mercy on every occasion; hence they may say with holy Job: "I wept for him that was afflicted, and my soul had compassion on the poor" (Job 30.25). St. Paul admonishes us to weep with those who weep, to sympathize with them in all their troubles. It is so true that he who has charity is sensible to the miseries of others, that in Hebrew the word for good, just and holy, means also mercy, tenderness and compassion. "True justice," says St. Gregory, "is always accompanied with compassion, and false justice, with harshness and disdain." "The heart of the saints," says St. Macarius, "is full of feeling and easily moved, and that of the demon is inflexible, and his bowels are as hard as a rock." "Oh, how beautiful," says St. Alphonsus, "it is to console the afflicted, to wait on the sick, to encourage and sustain the pusillanimous, to cheer up the sad and the melancholy!" The more we devote ourselves to these works of mercy, and the more we sympathize with our neighbor's afflictions, the more will God love us! 10. To love our neighbor is to procure him spiritual goods and give him a good example in all things, for the object of charity is to procure for our neighbor especially the goods of grace, eternal salvation, and, as we are living in community, to help one another to become saints. Hence the Rule induces us to pray for one another, to help one another with good counsels, to admonish one another of our defects, but especially to give one another a good example. In a large crowd pushing and crowding one another one person does not fall without causing others to fall; in like manner, in the moral order, especially in a community, an individual does not fall into an evil habit without causing others to fall likewise into the same; a gangrened member soon injures the others; the head suffers from the bad state of the stomach; one part of the body, however strong, is altered or weakened by its relations with a diseased part. A religious is bound, before all, to give a good example and avoid whatever may scandalize his brethren. "My son," said our Saviour one day to a holy religious, "help me to save souls." "How, Lord, can I help Thee in so holy and exalted a ministry?" "By thy prayers and good examples. Be faithful to thy Rule, a model of obedience, piety, charity, zeal, devotedness and good spirit to thy brethren, and thou wilt save them." 182

11. Finally, to love our neighbor is to honor and respect all our brethren: "Give honor to all," says St. Peter. Esteem and respect all your brethren, because they form a part of your family; they have the same vocation as you; they are, like you, children of God, brethren, members and servants of Jesus Christ and joint heirs of the eternal glory, which you will one day share with them. Honor and respect all your brethren, who are all pious, conscientious, solidly virtuous. "Forestall one another with testimonies of honor and politeness," insists St. Peter, for such deference, when sincere, foments love as oil nourishes the flame of the lamp. Without these testimonies there is no fraternal charity. Every one is naturally pleased in being honored and respected, because of his secret consciousness of his worth, which makes him very sensitive to contempt and to whatever may affect his honor. Hence we love him who respects us and feel obliged to respect him also. Wherefore, he who honors and respects his brethren, will also be honored and respected by them. Let us, therefore, honor and respect our brethren, for they are the images of Jesus Christ. It was this thought that induced St. Apollo to say to his religious that they should adore the brethren who visited them, for, said he, "you do not adore them, for your veneration is directed not to them, but to God who dwells in them; therefore, when you see your fellow-religious, you see your Lord and your God in them."

Fraternal Correction or Admonition (C)

Ven. Father Champagnat, being deeply impressed with this saying of the Holy Ghost, "the Lord hath given charge to every one concerning his neighbor" (Eccli. 17.12), wished that his Brothers should guard and protect one another, and therefore made the following rule: "Never send out a Brother alone, but always with a companion; there shall be a glass partition between the class rooms; in their convents they should have a common study-room, refectory and dormitory, perform together all their spiritual exercises and studies; they should never be separated from one another, either by day or by night, at work and recreation, in going out to take a walk, or to church." This was intended as a rampart, as a protection against every kind of danger. The Rule, moreover, imposes on the Brothers the duty of fraternal correction, and of informing the Superior of the abuses introduced into the houses of the Institute, of the faults committed against the Rule and everything in the conduct of the Brothers that might give scandal or compromise the reputation of the community or any of its individual members. 183

Fraternal correction has two parts; the first consists in giving good advice, charitable admonition to him who fails to correct his defects, or who easily breaks a rule; the second part consists in informing the Superior, if the admonition produces no effect. These points are found in the Rule of almost every religious Institute. Ven. Father Champagnat called fraternal correction the safeguard of the virtue of the Brothers and the guardian of the Institute, declaring that it was owing to this charitable practice that many had escaped great dangers, and preserved their virtue and their vocation, and that many abuses had been prevented from taking root, for it enabled the Superior to correct them in time and to prevent them from spreading and being perpetuated. Fraternal admonition is a proof of friendship. "To reprove and correct," says St. Clement, "is a mark of benevolence, and not of hatred." "He who reproves me, or causes me to be reproved," says St. John Chrysostom, "gives me a greater proof of friendship than he who praises or flatters me." "St. Francis de Sales," says one of his friends, "was wont often to reprove me for my defects, and then he would say to me: `I wish you to be very thankful to me for this, for it is the best testimony of friendship which I can give you, and I will acknowledge that you love me, if you do me a like favor. I cannot bear to see in you the slightest imperfection, because I love you very much; what appears to me as mere flies in others, seems to me like elephants in you, on account of my great affection for you?' " He who, out of fear of causing pain to his fellow-religious, neglects to admonish him, or to make his fault known to the Superior, does not really love him; and we may even say that he hates him, since he allows him to perish, although he could save him. "If your Brother," says St. Augustine, "has a burning fever, you make use of all imaginable remedies to cure him; if violent remedies are necessary, he may cry out, resist and struggle, you pay no attention to his resistance, but make use of every means to oblige him to submit to all that is necessary for his cure, and in all this you act reasonably and charitably. But whence comes it that you act differently when your Brother's soul is sick? Why do you dissimulate his faults? Why do you conceal them from those whose duty it is to correct them? Why do you fear displeasing him by admonishing him, or having him admonished? Do you not know that love has a holy, severity which remedies the evil in him, whether he be willing or unwilling? Do then for your Brother's soul, what you would do for his body, otherwise you are really cruel, fail against charity and may be guilty 184

of the loss of the soul, whose faults and defects you dissimulate." "To conceal a Brother's fault from the Superior," says St. Basil, "is simply to hasten the death of one who is sick, to push into the precipice one who is running towards it." A sin concealed is like an abscess which goes on increasing until it reaches the heart and causes death. It would be a great favor to lance it, and, on the contrary, a cruelty not to lance it. In like manner, it is not the act of a friend to conceal a Brother's fault from the Superior, since it would contribute to his loss and his spiritual death. Let us bear in mind that he who is governed by some passion, walks in darkness, for a thick veil covers his eyes. Some dispense themselves from fraternal correction, saying: "I have enough to do with myself; I do not undertake to be the guardian of others and I never interfere with what concerns them." But you work for your own self in procuring your Brother's cure, for he is a part of the same Institute as you, and it conduces to the welfare of all the members of a body to assist one another. Is not the opposite conduct contrary to nature? Listen to St. Augustine: "If a thorn has entered the foot, all the members hasten to its help; the back bends, the eyes look for the thorn; if some one says: `There it is, the ears listen, and the hands endeavor to pull it out." You are the members of Christ's body, of the body of your Institute, and your brethren are also its members. Hence it happens that, when one of them falls into some fault that may cause his ruin, instead of helping him to amend, as one member helps the other, you, under the plea that you have enough to do in caring for yourself, look at him coldly, neglect to help him, dissimulate his failings, indirectly excuse and approve them by your silence; such a conduct shows that you love neither your Brother nor yourself. Some excuse themselves under the plea that they are not the guardians of others. He who speaks thus resembles Cain, the first reprobate. Have not God and your Rule given you charge of your brethren? If you neglect this charge, you shall have to answer for their souls, and become responsible for the faults you have not tried to prevent . "He who neglects fraternal admonition," says Ven. Father Champagnat, "shares in his Brother's faults. If there were no receivers of stolen goods, there would be but few thieves; wherefore the former are as guilty as the latter. In like manner, if in a community there were no receivers, that is, religious who, being without fraternal charity, cover up with a perfidious cloak of indulgence the faults of their brethren, instead of making them known to the Superior, there would never be any serious transgression of the Rule, and no abuse could be introduced into the Institute. 185

One of the Brothers, who had failed in this duty, feeling remorse for this, made his fault known to Father Champagnat. "You have done wrong," said the Father, "and repent of it, God be praised! Beseech our Lord to forgive you and the Brother, whose fault you concealed. If we wish to avoid regrets, let us always walk straight-forward in our path; let human respect, or false indulgence, never cause us to lose sight of the glory of God and of the true interests of our brethren. Never forget that he who fails to inform the Superior in such cases, is wanting in charity, becomes guilty of the fault of him who strays from duty, and whom the Superior's admonition would probably have caused to amend. It now behooves you to repair the past by a greater fidelity to the Rule concerning fraternal charity." Another says: "I never meddle with that Brother's concerns." "This," says St. John Chrysostom, "is a mistake and an untruth, for you meddle with it in a wrong way, when you help him to keep his fault concealed. What! you will not meddle with that Brother's business, and you would see him going astray without having the charity to cause him to be admonished, and yet you would consider yourself guiltless! The law of Moses commanded help to be given to the horse of an enemy, when it had fallen down; and your Brother's soul should be less precious to you than a beast of burden! I call upon Jesus Christ to witness that, by such conduct, you become guilty of the ruin of that Brother, and that God will demand of you an account of his soul." Fraternal correction is, therefore, a duty of conscience for every religious, for a religious is bound to admonish charitably him who breaks a rule; to make known his failings, to the Superior, if his private admonitions have produced no effect. "If your brother will not hear you," says our divine Saviour, "tell it to the Church," that is, to the Superior. The omission of this duty may, in some cases, be even a mortal sin on account of the importance of the matter and of the injury it may cause the individual himself or even the whole community! We should, then, beware, through pusillanimity or the fear of displeasing him, of exposing him to compromise himself or the whole community. It is very wicked to conceal such faults from the Superior, for we owe it to our Institute, our Mother, to have at heart its interests and those of its members. If there are some who, under some plea or other, are afraid to make use of fraternal correction, there are others who do not like to receive it and most strangely dread the disclosures made to the Superior. Such a disposition is a sure proof of a weak virtue and a lack of the desire to 186

correct one's faults. A certain theologian compares these religious to the devil, because, like him, they are incorrigible; and what distinguishes such a sinner from the devil is that the former is yet capable of correction during his life, and the latter is eternally incapable of it. "Woe," says the Holy Ghost, "to him who goes alone, for if he happens to fall into a pit, he will remain therein, having no one to help him out." What does going alone mean? To hide one's defects and faults from the Superior. A good religious has nothing closed or locked up, not even his own heart, which is always open to him whose office is to guide him. He goes alone who dreads and shuns correction, who is displeased when his faults are made known to his Superior. "Misery and ignominy," says the Holy Ghost, "to him who shuns reproof, for he shall be overwhelmed with evils and as covered with vices as an uncultivated field with weeds. He who hates reproof is a fool." Such a one cannot be pruned nor properly formed, and will become daily more imperfect, and wherever he is placed, he will either be of little or no account, or a scandal and stumbling-block for others. If, when walking in an unknown path, you were told to stop, to retrace your steps, lest you should fall over a precipice or be exposed to be devoured by wild beasts or robbed by highway robbers, you would feel grateful for the admonition and thank from your heart your admonitor for his charity. Why, then, should you be displeased and irritated, when you are admonished to avoid doing certain things or to shun certain dangers, and say you know better, you know your own business, and are able to take care of yourself, and know how far you can go! You deceive yourself in saying this and forget the admonition of the Holy Ghost: "Rely not on thy own wisdom, for it is more frail than thou thinkest." You deceive yourself, when you imagine you understand your position better than he who charitably admonishes you, for, besides no one being judge in his own case, "it often happens," says Abbot Joseph, "that the more learned and intelligent man is mistaken in what concerns him, whilst he who is less gifted, has a clearer insight into the matter. Therefore, let no one fancy he can get along without others, or that he needs no one to admonish him." God's greatest punishment in this life is to keep silent, to cease admonishing, correcting and chastising the guilty. Woe to the religious, whose Superior finds himself compelled to imitate God in this, for it is a proof that he despairs correcting that Brother's spiritual disease. The good religious thinks differently, for he considers fraternal correction as one of the greatest benefits of the religious life. "Do you know," asks St. Francis de Sales, "what is a convent? It is the academy of 187

exact correction, where every one must learn to allow himself to be handled, planed, polished and bent, and be made perfectly smooth and shining, that he may thus unite himself perfectly to God. It is also an hospital for the spiritually sick who desire to be cured, and, therefore, willingly submit to be bled, cut, burnt and operated upon, and to take bitter drugs; therefore religious were formerly called `those who are getting cured.' " The good religious fully understands this truth and loves his convent as an academy of correction. "To wish for correction," says St. Francis de Sales, "is an evident sign of wisdom and a sure mark of progress in virtue. In fact, as it is a sign of a good stomach to digest coarse food easily, it is likewise a sign of the spiritual health and internal vigor of the soul to love to be admonished and reproved for our defects. When, therefore, we cheerfully accept admonitions, it is a strong proof that we are averse to all that is sinful, and that our faults proceed rather from inadvertence and human frailty than from malice and deliberation, and that we earnestly wish to amend. He who willingly accepts correction shows that he sincerely desires to acquire virtue. A sick person yearning after health, courageously takes the prescribed remedies, however bitter and disgusting they may be. The religious who truly strives after perfection, which consists in the soul's perfect health and holiness, finds nothing difficult to reach this end, and considers the wounds made by a good Superior, who, like a skilful surgeon, cuts only to cure, far preferable to the praises of a flatterer. St. Augustine, the most learned man of his age, wrote to St. Jerome that he was willing to receive his admonitions and even those of the least of men. "I beseech thee," he wrote, "to be so kind as to admonish me fearlessly, whenever thou perceivest that I need it." We read in the "Life of St. Ambrose" that he thanked all who admonished him of his failings, and received their admonitions as singular favors. St. Ignatius Loyola was so convinced of the necessity of fraternal correction, that he made it a rule that the General and the other Superiors of the Society should have each an admonitor specially charged with the duty of watching over their conduct and giving them charitable admonitions, whenever they should be necessary. A good Superior considers as testimonies of good will the admonitions and remarks of a holy freedom addressed to him by his subjects. This wise conduct protects him against many faults and mistakes, because he is guarded and admonished by as many individuals as he has subjects. Ribadineira, though only a youth fifteen years old, informed St. Ignatius, who was then an old man, that his preaching was made fun of on account of some mistakes in language, and that some of his ways excited 188

the laughter of those who saw him. St. Ignatius, greatly pleased at this information, said to him: "You are right, Peter; I give you the charge of watching me in future and carefully noting down all my mistakes, and I promise I will try to avoid them." He who sincerely desires to amend and aspires to perfection, would wish to be watched by every one, so that he may be kept in the right path and may more securely attain the end he proposes to himself. "Oh, that I had the advantage," said St. Bernard, "of having a hundred superiors watching over me and solicitous for my welfare, for the more I know that are guarding me in Jesus Christ, the more secure I feel. It is a strange folly to be angry because some one watches our conduct; as for me, thank God, I feel more the teeth of the wolf than the shepherd's crook." All good religious agree with St. Bernard, love correction and cherish all who have the charity to admonish them, or to have them reproved by the Superior.

Detraction (C)
"I beseech you," said Ven. Father Champagnat to his community, "with all the affection of my soul and by all the affection you bear me, so to act, that holy charity may be always maintained among you. Love one another as Jesus has loved you; let there be among you but one heart and one soul, so that what was said of the early Christians may be said of you also: `Behold how they love one another.' This is the most ardent wish of my heart." This fraternal love should be efficacious, and should have these four objects: First, to oblige one another on every occasion; secondly, charitably to admonish one another of their respective failings and of faults against the Rule; thirdly, charitable forbearance towards one another; fourthly, to excuse one another's faults and carefully conceal them not only from outsiders, but also from other members of the community. Hence the Rule in some Institutes specially forbids relating elsewhere disedifying occurrences in the convent, communicating to one another little antipathies, aversions or difficulties concerning another member. "It is not less necessary," says Ven. Father Champagnat, "to preserve the reputation of a fellow-religious among the rest of the community than among outsiders. A religious has even greater right to the esteem of the former than to that of the latter. A religious who is disliked or unpopular only among the public, can console himself by the satisfaction of possessing the esteem and confidence of his brethren; but if he is disgraced in the eyes of those he lives with, the community life 189

becomes for him a real torment, which he cannot bear without extraordinary virtue." 1. Therefore detraction is one of the greatest dangers of the religious life. One of the greatest benefits of the religious state is that it removes from us almost all the exterior dangers of offending God. Man is, however, so weak, that he nowhere finds a supreme and infallible preservative against sin, against even mortal sin. Hence the angels fell in heaven, man in the earthly paradise and Judas in the company of Jesus and the apostles. "Let us say even more and acknowledge the whole truth," declares Bourdaloue; "there are even certain mortal sins to which religious may even be more exposed than seculars, as the abuse of grace, sacrilege and faults against charity. In religion we are safer against covetousness and ambition, but more subject to murmurs, disputes, detraction, etc. But it matters little by what sin a person is damned, if he is unfortunate enough to lose his soul." "Detraction," says St. John Chrysostom, "is the sin, that is most easily committed; it is committed with the least remorse, and will be most severely punished. To commit other sins we need external, foreign means, but for detraction the will alone suffices and needs only the tongue, and this is why it is so easy to fall into it." "There are very few, even among religious," says St. Jerome, "who do not yield to detraction. Men have so strong a propensity to speak of one another, and to criticise the doings of others, that even those, who are free from other failings, yield to this one, and thus fall into the devil's last and most dangerous snare. Let not religious believe themselves secure, saying: `We do not commit grievous sins in the monastery, for we do not kill or commit adultery.' But I assure you that you commit a heinous sin, when you backbite your brethren, for you kill them with your tongue; it is, indeed, a great fault not to keep silent about the faults of your brethren in your community." "Have nothing to do with detractors," says the Holy Ghost (Prov. 24. 21). Why? Because this vice exposes many to perdition. "We are, alas! blind to our own defects," says St. John Chrysostom, "and all eyes for the failings of others and we speak of them out of mere pleasure. We thus precipitate ourselves into hell, not by the broad highway, but by by-paths unattractive in themselves. We faithfully keep the most difficult commandments, but forfeit our salvation by committing sins that can be easily avoided." "Great misfortunes," says Father St. Jure, "sometimes happen in religious houses; they who have spoken ill of their fellowreligious, made their failings known, published their faults, stigmatized their conduct, afterwards falsify their conscience, that is, make no account 190

of these faults, do not confess them or only lightly without scruple, contrition or reparation. This is a clumsy self-deception, a fostering of secret sins, and exposes their salvation to great danger." Father Aquaviva, the fifth General S. J., proposed the following question, in secret consultation to all the Jesuits: "In what manner and in which way are the members of the Society most exposed to fail grievously against charity" The immense majority replied that it was "through the sin of detraction." This was also his own private conviction, and therefore, in his "Treatise on the Means of Healing the Diseases of the Soul," he recommends that "those who have been guilty of detraction, should not retire to rest at night without previously going to confession. "According to the views of prudent and learned men," says Cornelius a Lapide, "many are eternally lost on account of the sins of detraction and slander." Detraction is so much the more dangerous, as people reflect less upon it and consider it a mere trifle. 2. According to St. Thomas detraction is, in itself, a grievous sin. If its guilt is diminished by the levity of the matter, and by the want of advertence and full consent of the will, it is, nevertheless, one of the greatest venial sins, because it fails against both charity and justice. "In my opinion," says St. John Chrysostom, "the wickedness of the backbiter is greater than that of the thief, because the law of Christ which takes so great an interest in the love of our neighbor, cares more for souls than for the purse, and because detraction robs the neighbor of the most precious of natural goods, his good name." Some backbiters excuse themselves under the plea that they only tell the truth and are not influenced by malice. "In vain do you feel convinced of the truth of what you say," observes St. John Chrysostom, "and that you do not yield to malice in this, you wound charity and are, therefore, guilty of sin. You shall be judged, not by what others do, but by what you say. What aggravates your fault, is that you cannot allege a good reason for your detraction." Other faults, though condemned by reason itself, may be excused or explained by some provoking causes. The voluptuary alleges his strong passions; the thief, his needs; the murderer, his anger; the drunkard, his thirst, his hard work. But the detractor has no plea to bring forward, no pecuniary interest, no alluring passion; in fact, no excuse! And, nevertheless, with a few words, he makes a deeper wound in his neighbor than if he bit him with his teeth; he does irreparable injury by destroying his neighbor's good name; he is more guilty than a murderer, and deserves greater punishment. "The detractor's tongue," says St. 191

Bernard, "is a three-edged sword or spear, for it pierces three persons with one blow, the backbiter himself, the listener and him whom he backbites; he is a venomous viper, which poisons three persons with one bite." "We are so much the more obliged to avoid all detraction," says Father Champagnat, "as it is very easy to become guilty of grievous sin in speaking of our neighbor's defects and faults, first, because of a slight fault we often make a grievous one, or at least it grows always greater when spread from mouth to mouth (as shown by the example of "Three Black Crows"); secondly, because a defect or a fault, even if light in itself, which we manifest, may impart to our hearers a bad opinion of a fellowreligious, indispose against him the members of the community, rob him of their esteem, and become a cause of disagreement, disunion, troubles and disorders for a long time. Thirdly, because the detraction may excite in the heart of the victim hatred, aversion and resentment against the detractor, which years will not be able to blot out. Fourthly, because these faults are not scrupled, are taken for trifles, often not even mentioned in confession, expose to the danger of sacrilege, for often such faults, considered as light, are really grievous. Hence, under whatever aspect we consider them, these faults against charity are very dangerous and should be most carefully avoided." In fine, the detractor is extremely displeasing to God, for he is accursed, as the Holy Ghost tells us (Eccli. 28.15). "God hateth him who soweth discord among the brethren" (Prov. 6.19). Who sows discord and disunion? Is it not the detractor? Jesus repels the backbiter from His altar, saying: "Go first and be reconciled with thy brother," repair thy fault against him, "before making thy offering." The gravity of the detraction is measured, first, by the gravity or importance of the detractor and his intention, or the passion that moves him. Secondly, by the evil said. It is clear that it is a greater sin to manifest a grievous fault than a light one. Thirdly, by the number of listeners, for it is evident that a detraction made in presence of ten persons is more injurious than if it were made before one or two. Fourthly, by the effects or consequences of the detraction. And fifthly, by the quality or station of the victim. "Theologians," says Rodriguez, "teach that the narration of venial sin of our neighbor, if a secular, is only a light sin, because it does no great injury to his good name; but it may happen that the manifestation of a venial sin of a religious or of a priest, is a mortal sin, because certain venial sins disgrace a religious, a priest more than several mortal sins would disgrace a secular; for instance, to say that the former tell lies, are not pious, are light-minded, imprudent, etc., does them more harm in the minds of the 192

listeners, than to say of a layman that he did not keep the fast, or missed Mass." Therefore, the sin of detraction derives much of its malice from the quality of its victim. This is a powerful motive to restrain us from ever backbiting our superiors, or the clergy. 3. Detraction is the cause of very many evils. "Tell me," says St. John Chrysostom, "of a single evil that may not result therefrom. It begets quarrels, mistrust, dissensions, hatred, enmities, the ruin of families and the upheaval of cities." The detractor "hath troubled many that were at peace. The tongue of a third person hath disquieted many, and scattered them from nation to nation. It hath destroyed the strong cities of the rich, and hath overthrown the houses of great men, and undone strong nations" (Eccl. 28.15-18). The backbiter is terrible in his house, a mischief-maker among those living with him, sowing cockle everywhere. "He is," says St. Bernard, "a fox that destroys and ravages everything." "What do you think of detraction," asked a religious of the Abbot St. Agatho? "Detraction," he replied, "is a burning and violent wind, overthrowing and consuming everything in its way, knocking down the fruits of the tree of charity, and carrying every where disorder and destruction." "The backbiter," says St. Bernard, "is plague-stricken, a leper, communicating his diseases to others, and causing them to lose their souls." "He is a public scourge," says St. Ambrose, "carrying desolation everywhere, as a river, overflowing its banks, ravages a whole region." "The religious," says Father St. Jure, S. J., "who are guilty of detraction, are like the sewers of a city gathering all its filth. All the imperfections and faults of a community are collected together in the mind of the religious addicted to detraction, and then they spread the stench thereof all over the convent; their mouth is an open grave filled with putrefying corpses ex-haling a deadly infection." Do you know to which race that religious belongs who speaks ill of his superiors, of his brethren'? To the race of Cham, Noe's third son, who, instead of covering his father's nudity, made fun of it. He was cursed for it in his son; detractors also are cursed by God. The religious guilty of detraction is a great enemy of union and concord; there is nothing more dangerous in a community than such a one. A religious community cannot stand in which the inordinate license of speaking ill of others, is tolerated. This is why the holy founders of religious Institutes were so severe concerning detraction. "Religious houses," says St. Francis of Assisi, "will perish, if this wicked vice is suffered to enter; wherefore the Guardians should use every precaution to prevent the spread of this terrible pest among us, and should severely punish those who have spoken ill of any of their brethren. He who has robbed his Brother of his good name, shall be 193

stripped of his habit, and shall not be permitted to pray with the brethren until he has repaired his fault." Whenever St. Pachomius heard some one speaking ill of others, he would flee from him as from a plague-stricken person. St. Bernard directed that such a one should be severely punished, and even expelled if he did not amend. St. Basil separated backbiters from the community, as persons afflicted with some contagious disease, and punished severely those who had listened to them. St. Jerome, in his Rule, directs backbiters to be shunned as if they were venomous serpents. "The religious who have a bad tongue," says St. Alphonsus, "ought to be expelled from the convent or shut up all their life in a dungeon, for they disturb silence, devotion, concord; the union and peace of their fellowreligious. If they are left free, they will soon ruin the community." St. Augustine had an inscription placed in the refectory warning against detraction. One day some clergymen dining with him, fell into this fault. The saint in vain endeavored to change the subject; he at last told them plainly that he would leave the refectory, if they continued to indulge in detraction. The detractor prepares a miserable life for himself; all dread him; no one likes him; he has no true friends, because he is devoid of charity. Hence St. Peter, solicitous for the peace and happiness of all the faithful, wrote: "He that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips, that they speak no guile" (1 Pet. 3.10). "But," says St. John Chrysostom, "it is not enough not to be guilty of detraction, it behooves us also to refrain from listening to it, for the one is as sinful as the other." "The backbiter," says St. Bernard, "has the devil on his tongue, but the listener has him in his ears." What should we do when detraction is going on in our presence? In the first place, we should shun a detractor as much as we can, and when he begins backbiting some one in our presence, we should try to find some plausible pretext for going away. Secondly, if we possess any authority over him, we should reprove him; if he is our equal, we ought to remind him that he is doing wrong. Thirdly, if we cannot go away, let us seem to be asleep or inattentive; or if we put on a sad look, he may cease taking pleasure in saying what he perceives is disagreeable to us. It is not necessary to say here that it is not detraction to inform the Superior, as the Rule prescribes, of the faults or defects of our brethren, that he may correct them, but an act of charity tending to their amendment.

194

Silence and Discretion of Speech (C)

The tongue is the interpreter of the heart. "As the heart," says Cornelius a Lapide, "so the tongue." If we wish to know what a man is, we have only to listen to what he says, for "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," says our divine Saviour (Mat. 12.34). "Young man," said Socrates, "speak, that I may know you, your speech will be the mirror of your soul." If a vessel full of filth is uncovered, it will spread noxious odors. In like manner, an evil heart allows its corruption to escape through the mouth, poisoning and defiling all that come in contact with it. On the contrary, a vessel containing a delicious perfume spreads a sweet odor. Such also is the action of the tongue of one who is pure of heart and innocent in soul. The odor exhaled from a vessel denotes its contents. In like manner, the tongue makes known the soul with its good or evil qualities. He who is fond of conversing about trifles, shows that he is lightminded, frivolous and imprudent; if he delights in unbecoming words, in words of double-meaning, it is a proof that lust is boiling in his inmost heart, whence it overflows; if he finds pleasure in backbiting his neighbor, it is an indication that his heart is devoid of charity, justice and conscience; if he indulges in boasting, in domineering over others,. it shows that pride is his predominant passion. In short, a man's speech indicates the kind of heart and soul he possesses. As the Spaniard speaks Spanish, the German, German, the Englishman, English, in like manner, he whose soul is heavenly, speaks of things heavenly, and he whose soul is earthly, speaks of things earthly. "The mouth of the wicked overfloweth with evils" (Prov. 15.28), says the Holy Ghost. Silence is prescribed in the Rule of every Religious Institute, in order to maintain therein recollection, piety, regularity, peace, charity and love of work. 1. Silence is necessary to avoid sin. "He that useth many words shall hurt his own soul" (Eccli. 20.8). The talkative religious will not avoid sin, for "sin aboundeth in a multitude of words" (Prov. 10. 19). "I am persuaded," says St. Ambrose, "that loquacity and the transgression of silence are, for religious, the shipwreck of innocence and a cause of daily falls and faults, because it is very difficult to speak without offending God." Holy Job doubted very much whether a great talker could be justified, for such a one cannot keep his soul sinless, for, asks the Holy Ghost, "who is there that hath not offended with his tongue?" (Eccli. 19. 17). 195

"The tongue," says St. Bernard, "although only a small member, nevertheless, is capable of doing great injury. It licks by flattering, bites by backbiting, and kills by lying. Oh, how true it is that we cannot speak much without committing sin! When, because of some necessity, I had permission to speak with some one, I would speak not only necessary but also unnecessary things, and uttered vain, useless and funny things, and in a multitude of words that defile the tongue through detraction I have wickedly lessened the good opinion people had of the virtuous; I never related things as I saw them; I affirmed one thing instead of another, or I altered, exaggerated, or polished it. In a word, my tongue has done me greater harm than any other member of my body." St. James calls the tongue "a world of iniquity," and says that no other organ of our body helps the devil so much as our tongue to cause us to commit sin. Why did Satan, when he struck Job in his whole body, spare his tongue? Because, knowing that the tongue is the source of numberless sins, he expected to induce Job to use it in order to offend God. According to the Old Law the vase that was uncovered, was reputed unclean. This is a figure which teaches us that the soul, whose mouth is not closed by silence, is soiled by the impurities of sin. A religious keeps himself free from sin by means of silence, and commits many sins when he indulges in useless conversation. "For thirty years," said St. Sisoes to his disciples, "I have besought the Lord with tears to preserve me by His grace from sin, from every evil deed, but notwithstanding my tears and prayers, I have not yet succeeded in wholly regulating my tongue, and I daily sin in speech." "The greatest number of sins," says St. Alphonsus, "proceeds from speaking or from hearing others speak." Alas! how many religious will be reprobated on the day of judgment for not having observed silence! Anacharsis, being asked what is the most wicked and dangerous thing in man, replied: "His tongue." Hence the Fathers of the desert asserted that he who knows not how to govern his tongue, will never overcome his carnal passions. 2. Silence is necessary to live piously. "Three things are necessary for a religious," says the holy Abbot St. Agatho: "The keeping of silence, love of prayer and the surrender of his will." But without the first he will never acquire the other two. The spouse of the Canticle says that "she had closed her door and conversed with her Beloved." This means that she had kept profound silence, separated herself from creatures and renounced all human consolations, in order to deserve to converse with God. "The talkative religious," says St. Ambrose, "easily loses the unction of piety, and the sentiments of virtue flow out through his mouth as water from a 196

vase full of holes. As the heat escapes from an open oven, so also good thoughts evaporate from our mind through much speaking." "Experience," says St. Gregory, "shows that those who are addicted to mental prayer, become deaf and dumb concerning earthly things, and cannot bear to speak about them or listen to them, because they wish to converse only about that which they love." Moses, by conversing with God, almost lost the use of his speech. As soon as Jeremias had begun conversing with the Lord, he exclaimed that he was only a child, and could not speak with men. "It is not less true," says St. Alphonsus, "that they who converse much with creatures, converse but little with God, because they do not know how to do so." Without silence there is no recollection, no fervor, no spirit of compunction; without silence prayer becomes impossible or is full of distractions. Moreover, he who is loquacious, commits at least many venial faults; but wilful venial sin is one of the greatest hindrances to divine communication; it defiles the soul; it resembles a kind of spiritual leprosy, disfiguring and deforming the soul in the sight of God, who then turns away from her and leaves her subject to distractions and her own weakness. Venial sin grieves the Holy Ghost, obstructs His operations in the soul, nullifies her good dispositions. The soul then becomes a prey to disgust and dryness, and prayer becomes as a torment to her. Wherefore, it is a sure truth that, to live piously, we must observe silence and live in recollection. 3. Silence is necessary to live virtuously. Silence nourishes, increases and perfects all virtues. The ancient anchorites considered the breaking of the rule of silence as a dangerous fault, and punished it severely. St. Arsenius, having asked God what he should do to be saved, heard a voice saying to him: "Flee from men and keep silence." After spending many years in solitude, he again asked what he should do to acquire great virtue and attain perfection. He again heard the same voice saying: "Flee from men and keep profound silence." "He that offendeth not in word," says St. James, "is a perfect man." "On the contrary," says St. Bernard explaining this text, "he who knows not how to restrain his tongue, is not only not perfect, but is devoid of virtue." According to St. Ode, the life and actions of a religious, however good they may appear, deserve no esteem and should be accounted as nothing, if he does not govern his tongue. According to St. Peter Damian, the religious maintains himself in virtue and purity of heart by means of silence and recollection, and he loses both when he speaks without necessity. Dussaut, therefore, does not hesitate to assert that to break silence and be a bad religious are about one and the same 197

thing; this is also the teaching of St. Isidore, for he says that loquacity, the habit of joking and dissipation of mind are sure signs of a vain and inordinate conscience, of levity, and of a soul weak and devoid of virtue. St. Thomas, having been asked by what sign can a truly virtuous man be known, replied: "By the spirit of prudence and reflection, If you see a religious taking delight in idle talk, in raillery, in worldly trifles, beware of esteeming him as a spiritual man, were he even to perform miracles, because his virtue lacks a solid foundation." I have been informed," wrote St. Jerome to a friend, "that you have left the world and become a religious. You have thus built a strong and solid wall to protect yourself against the enemies of your salvation; but I know you well enough to be sure that you have left a gate in that wall through which the devil can enter. I mean your defect of speaking too much. That gate is your mouth. If you wish to be secure against your enemies and persevere in your vocation, close that gate and govern your tongue, otherwise you will do nothing good and will run the risk of committing many faults." "Not a word was heard during the reconstruction of the temple of Jerusalem," says St. Peter Damian; "this means that the edifice of the virtues and perfection is raised by means of silence." "Silence guards the heart," says St. Francis de Sales, "and makes the soul more clear-sighted and intelligent. It is the germ of holy thoughts, of generous and heroic deeds, and inflames the heart with divine love." 4. Silence is necessary to give edification and preserve the regular discipline. One of the principal intentions of religious in placing themselves under one and the same Rule is to assist, edify and induce one another to practise virtue. But a religious dissipated in mind, who does not observe silence, instead of edifying and assisting his brethren to practise virtue, disturbs and deranges them, and becomes to them a stumbling block and an occasion of falls and sins. "You ask me," says St. Bernard, "what I think of the religious who by his evil example causes them to become relaxed, or disturbs them by his irregularities, worries them by his loquacity, murmurs and frequent transgressions of silence. I say that he grieves the Spirit of God dwelling in them, persecutes the virtuous and wars against Jesus Christ." "The religious who is dissipated in mind, gives joy to the devil," says St Joseph Calasanctius. "He even does more than this," says St. Alphonsus, "for he also performs the office of the devil, since he prevents others from keeping silence and from remaining in the presence of God. Talkative religious are the familiar devils of convents, and do immense injury which I they will know only after their death." St. Ignatius Loyola 198

looked upon the habit of breaking silence as a fault sufficiently great to dismiss a subject, because of the scandal he gives and the injury he causes to his fellow-religious. St. Bernard says that it were better for such a one never to have become a religious, and that he should be sent back to the world for, "if he perished in the world, he would not be condemned to so terrible a punishment as he would receive, if he perished in religion; for he who fails to edify can expect nothing else than a terrible condemnation, for, as St. Paul says, were his body given up to be burnt, he could not avoid being lost." "This is perfectly true," says the learned Mabillon, "for a religious community cannot subsist without practising silence; wherefore all founders of religious Institutes have placed the rule of silence in the first rank as a rampart against danger." St. Dominic called silence the foundation of his Order. "It is forbidden to break silence," he says, "and the religious must consider it a fault to speak without necessity. Silence is called one of the chief pillars of religious houses; if it gives way, everything in it crumbles to pieces. Silence is the capital point of religious discipline; without it there can be no order in the community." St. Ignatius looked upon the faithful observance of silence in a convent as an indubitable proof that all the virtues flourished therein. "If you wish to know," he would say, "whether piety and the solid virtues reign in a religious community, you have only to examine whether silence is observed therein. All the virtues dwell in a convent in which there is recollection." Fleury in his Church History, confirms this, saying that in the convents where silence is most rigorously kept, the best discipline and the most perfect virtue are found. Dom Calmet, who had thoroughly studied this point, asserts that nothing contributed more to the loss of the good spirit and the destruction of religious communities than the neglect of the prescribed silence. When a relaxation in this point has once taken place, only calamities are to be expected. Being profoundly convinced of this truth, St. Laurence Justinian says: "The religious who neglects the rule of silence, cannot avoid wounding his conscience and falling into sin, for, by his bad example, he weakens the regular discipline and opens the gate to relaxation." St. Francis de Sales, with all his meekness, does not hesitate to say: "To refuse to keep silence is to wish to disturb and overthrow order and the very Institute, or Congregation, to despise the Holy Ghost, who has prescribed it to religious houses." From all the above we must conclude that, in whatever way we consider it, the Rule of Silence is one of the most important for religious. 199

How to Establish and Maintain Unity in a Community (C)

"A man," said Ven. Father Champagnat one day, "may be solidly virtuous, and yet by nature, possess a disagreeable character." The defective character of one religious is capable of disturbing the union of a whole community and causing much suffering. A religious may be regular, pious, zealous for his sanctification, truly love God and his neighbor, without possessing the perfection of charity, that is, those little virtues which are the fruits, the decorum and the crown of charity. And yet, without the daily and habitual practice of these little virtues, there is no perfect union in a community. Their neglect, or their absence, is the great and, I may say, the sole cause of dissensions, divisions and discord among men. These little virtues are the following: 1. Indulgence towards our neighbor. This virtue excuses and diminishes the faults of others, and very easily forgives them, although we cannot expect such forgiveness for our own. St. Bernard is an example of an indulgent spirit. He was wont to say: "My dear brethren, whatever you may do to me, I have resolved always to love you, even if you did not love me. I will, therefore. cling to you even in spite of you. If you insult me, I will be patient; I will bow my head to insults and overcome your illtreatment with benefits; I will forestall those who refuse my care; I will do good to the ungrateful; I will honor those who despise me, for we are members of one another." 2. Charitable dissimulation, which seems not to perceive the neighbor's defects, wrongs, feelings, ill-advised expressions, and bears all without word or complaint. Dissimulate, "bear with the defects of your brethren," says St. Paul. Why does he not say: Reprove, correct, punish, but support, "bear with"? Because, in general, we have not the mission to correct, as the Superiors have; hence our duty extends only to bear with them. Also because, even when we have reproved and corrected some one, we must still bear with him, for there are defects that can be corrected only by dint of patience and forbearance. There are even virtuous souls that do not amend in spite of all efforts. To such God leaves their defects, in order to exercise their virtue and that of their brethren. 3. Compassion which appropriates to itself the sufferings of others, in order to sweeten them. The compassionate weep with those who weep, sympathize with the troubles of others and do all they can to relieve them. In like manner, a holy cheerfulness appropriates to itself the joys of the happy, in order to increase them and to procure for their brethren all the 200

consolations and happiness of virtue and the community life. St. Paul offers us an admirable example of charity putting on all forms in order to be useful to the neighbor. He was all to all, wept with the weeping, rejoiced with the joyful, was weak with the weak, was all on fire when scandal had been given to any one, and took all forms to serve men and gain them for Jesus Christ. In like manner, St. Cyprian said to his people: "Brethren, I sympathize with you in all your sorrows, and I take part in all your joys; I have been infirm with the infirm. My love for you enables me to feel all your pains as well as to share all your joy." 4. Suppleness of mind. He who possesses this quality, does never, without serious reasons, impose his views on others, but unresistingly adopts what is judicious in the views of a fellow-religious, and without envy applauds his sentiments, his discoveries, in order to preserve union and fraternal charity. The Holy Ghost admonishes us to avoid disputes. But we sometimes hear some one say: "I am right, and I cannot bear the absurd views, or reasons, of N. N." But I say, listen to the learned Cardinal Bellarmine: "An ounce of charity is worth more than a hundred pounds of reasons." You may give or explain your views to keep up the conversation; but after doing so, allow others to combat them without your trying to defend them, for it is far better, in doubtful or indifferent matters, to yield and conform to the views of others. St. Eligius says that in such matters he who yields gains the victory, for he is superior to the others in virtue. St. Ephrem, for peace' sake, always yielded in discussions. St. Joseph Calasanctius was wont to say: "He who desires peace, should not contradict others." 5. Charitable solicitude, which forestalls the wants of others to spare them the pain of feeling them and the humiliation of asking for help. A good heart can refuse nothing, is always on the alert to please and oblige others. St. Hugh, bishop of Grenoble, was accustomed at certain times to withdraw to La Grande Chartreuse to live as a simple religious under St. Bruno. As the Carthusians live two in each cell, Brother William, on one occasion, was assigned to him as companion. But Br. William complained greatly to St. Bruno of the holy bishop for performing, in spite of him, all the meanest and most laborious tasks, and acting more as a servant than as a companion, for making himself the Brother's servant. Wherefore he besought St. Bruno to divide the tasks equally between them. But the holy bishop begged St. Bruno to allow him to satisfy his devotion and act as the Brother's servant. 6. Affability, which listens to the importunate without showing weariness, and is ever ready to give help to all who ask it, and to instruct 201

the ignorant in all patience. St. Vincent de Paul is a rare example of this virtue. He would interrupt conversation with persons of distinction, in order to repeat four or five times the same thing to questioners of a dull mind, and to repeat it the fifth time as calmly and tranquilly as the first time. Without a shadow of impatience he would listen to poor people talking long and at random, and when overburdened with work, allow himself to be interrupted even thirty times in one day by scrupulous persons who would come to him to repeat the same thing to him over and over again, and he would patiently listen to them, and sometimes would even write down for them what he had said and explain it to them in full, if they failed to understand his meaning; he was ever ready to interrupt the recitation of the Divine Office and his sleep, in order to assist his neighbor. 7. Civility, or politeness, which induces us to forestall every one with marks of respect, regard and deference, and everywhere to yield the precedence to honor others. St. Paul admonishes us to prevent one another with marks of honor. Such marks foster mutual love, as oil feeds the lamp and the flame that gives light. Without them there is no fraternal union and charity. Every one naturally takes pleasure in being honored, for every one has a secret feeling, or conviction, of his excellence, which makes him very sensitive to contempt, to all that concerns his honor; wherefore, whenever he sees himself treated with respect, he feels obliged to treat others in the same manner. "Love," says St. John Chrysostom, "and you shall be loved; praise others, and you shall be praised; respect others, and they shall respect you; yield willingly to others, and they also shall treat you with deference. Do not ill-treat any one; be not wanting in due regard to others. Beware of despising even one of your brethren, or of behaving harshly towards him on account of his defects. Do you turn your hand, your foot into ridicule when they are covered with sores or wounds, or if they are ill-formed, or soiled? Do you not then, on the contrary, take greater care of them and treat them more carefully than if they were sound?" 8. Condescension, which easily yields to the desires of others, bends to please or humor inferiors, easily listens, and seems to be satisfied with the reasons alleged, although they may not be convincing. "To be condescending," says St. Francis de Sales, "is to adapt oneself to every one, as far as the divine law and right reason permit. It is to be, like a piece of soft wax, susceptible of all forms, provided they are good; it is not to seek one's own interests, but those of the neighbor and the glory of God." Condescension is the daughter of charity; but it should not be confounded 202

with a certain weakness of character which prevents those in authority from reproving and duly punishing the faults of their subjects, for, in such a case, it would be, not an act of virtue, but a participation in their faults. Condescension with the humors of others and forbearance were the favorite virtues of St. Francis de Sales; and he counseled them to all who were under his direction. He would often say that it is easier and quicker to accommodate ourselves to the wishes of others, than to endeavor to make others yield to our humor or our notions. Although no one was more meek and complacent than he, nevertheless, he was, at the same time, very ingenious and courageous in correcting and reproving. 9. Devotedness to the common welfare, which tends to prefer the interests of the community and even of individuals to our own, and which sacrifices itself for the good of the brethren and the prosperity of the community. 10. Patience, which is silent and bears, bears, bears always, and is never weary of doing good even to the ungrateful. St. Eucherius, the abbot, was so patient, that he would even thank those who made him suffer. The hot-tempered man is like one in a high fever; the patient man is like a physician who moderates the fever, and restores happiness and peace to those who had lost them through anger. Avoid becoming impatient at and worrying over the defects of others. "If you saw a man casting himself into a pit," says St. Bonaventure, "would it be wise for you to cast yourself into another?" Bear, then, in all patience your neighbor's imperfections, defects and importunities; this is the true means of having peace and preserving union with all in the community. 11. Equanimity, or evenness of character, which makes us always the same, prevents us from yielding to immoderate joy, to irritability, wearisomeness, melancholy, ill-humor, but keeps us always cheerful, in good humor, affable and contented with everything. These little virtues are social virtues, that is, extremely useful to those who live in community. Without them the little world we live in cannot be well governed, and will always be in continual trouble and agitation. Without them there is no domestic peace, which is the first relief amid the trials of this vale of tears. Oh, unhappy convent, in which no regard is paid to the little virtues! Superiors and subjects, young and old, live in discord. Without the love and practice of these virtues, even three religious cannot live well together under the same roof. Without charity and the practice of these little virtues a convent is more like a penitentiary, a hell on earth! If you wish it to be a heaven by the union of hearts, love 203

and faithfully practise these virtues, for they make up the happiness of a religious community. The first motive for practising them is the weakness of our neighbor. Yes, all men are weak, and, therefore, there are so many little defects in every community. One member is suspicious and analyzes all that is said and done; another is sensitive, and is everywhere pursued by the idea that others are opposed to him, mistrust him, seek to injure him, etc. A third is despondent; the least thing casts him down, makes him gloomy, melancholy, burdensome to himself and others. A fourth, like powder, ignites and explodes at the least word, etc. In fine, each one has his weak point, is subject to many little defects and failings, which should be borne constantly, for they constantly furnish the occasion of practising the little virtues. It is just and reasonable to spare what is weak, and necessary to bear all the weakness of our neighbor. A second motive for practising the little virtues consists in the levity, or lightness of the defects which we have to bear. The majority of religious are exempt, on account of their virtue and education, from coarse habits or defects. What we have to bear in our brethren are only imperfections, little fits of character, and weaknesses which do not prevent them from being chosen souls, from possessing fine qualities, solid virtue, or from being very conscientious. Oh, how easy it is for a man of virtue and common sense to put up with such imperfections and weaknesses in such souls! The third motive is not only the lack of grievousness in the fault of our fellow-religious, but even the absence of moral fault or sin. In fact, we have to bear in them things indifferent in themselves, free from all guilt. For instance, certain features, a certain physiognomy, an unpleasant voice, disagreeable manners, a physical or a moral infirmity that repels us; also diversity of characters. One is naturally serious, another, joyful; one is timid, another, bold; one is too slow and keeps us waiting; another is quick, impulsive, impetuous and, would make us go as fast as steam, electricity. Reason itself requires us to live in peace amid this discord of natural qualities and to accommodate ourselves to each one by yielding, by patience and condescension. To allow ourselves to be disturbed by this diversity of characters is just as unreasonable as to get angry because another is fond of a certain kind of food which is not to our taste. The fourth motive is that we all need forbearance on the part of others. No one is so wise or accomplished as to be able to dispense with the indulgence of others. Today I must bear patiently with so and so, and tomorrow so and so, or some one else, will have to bear patiently with me. 204

How unjust it is to require others to exercise forbearance towards, us, and to respond thereto rudely or haughtily! Can we say that we have no defects, that others can find nothing displeasing in us? Here is the answer given to a religious, who was vain enough to imagine this: "Brother, although you consider yourself perfect, and I hold you to be a good religious, I assure you that I have much to suffer from you. You want only fresh bread, because you have no teeth, and I cannot bear it, for it causes me indigestion, and I would like to eat hard bread; you order the soup to be served hot and scalding, and I like it cold; you forbid salad to be served on account of your weak chest, and for me it is the greatest sacrifice not to have some; you will have only cooked fruit served at table, and I like it only raw, or even half-green; you cannot stand a draught and order all the windows closed, and I, if I would do as I feel like, would keep all the doors and windows open. During recreation you want to sit down all the time, and I would like to walk about. There are many other things you do through taste or necessity, which greatly fatigue and displease me. You are much mistaken, if you think that no one has anything to bear from you, for I can assure you that, notwithstanding your great virtue, which I revere, you are for me a continual occasion of sacrifices and forbearance; but I do not complain, because I have my own defects, and I need that you should kindly bear with them." The fifth motive consists in the bonds that unite us with the persons towards whom it is our duty to exercise forbearance. Abraham said to Lot: "There should be no strife between us, for we are brethren." Oh, the beautiful and touching reason! Those with whom we have to bear are our brethren in Jesus Christ. We are all children of one father (mother), of our founder, of our Mother, the Blessed Virgin. Let us listen to the words of Ven. Father Champagnat to his Brothers: "Could our beloved Mother Mary see with indifference that we harbor in our heart some grudge or aversion against one of our brethren, whom she perhaps loves more than us? Oh, I conjure you, do not thus pain and afflict her maternal heart!" Those we have to bear with are the friends of Jesus Christ, have the same vocation as we, form but one family with us, have the same object as we; they are our assistants in the same employment, and are our coworkers in the same ministry. Oh, how many reasons have we not, therefore, for loving them, obliging them, and bearing with them in all patience! The sixth reason is the excellence of these virtues. I regret having called them little virtues. But St. Francis de Sales calls them so. They are little only because they concern only little things, such as a word, a 205

gesture, a look, an act of politeness, etc. But if we examine their principle and their end, or object, they are very great. For a good religious their practice is a continual exercise of charity towards the neighbor; but charity is the greatest and most excellent of virtues. It is the exercise of these little virtues which makes men solidly virtuous, and this is a very appropriate motive to cause us to love them and to facilitate their practice.

Peace and Union in Religious Communities (C)

It would be a miracle if peace and union were never altered or disturbed in a religious community, for human. nature is the same everywhere, in religion and in the world. And where a number of persons live together there will occur, at least now and then, faults that will threaten peace and union among themselves. Ven. Father Champagnat gives the following reasons for this. 1. In the first place, the diversity of characters. "Man," says St. Gregory, "is the most diversified being on earth." You will never find two alike in physiognomy and form; and this difference of features in their figures and forms, is found equally in their characters. Men have very different inclinations and tastes; one is amiable, another is rude; this one has a character full of simplicity and candor that charms; another has one that is hidden, dissimulating and uncommunicative, which renders him unbearable. This one loves union and concord, is always contented, tranquil, at peace with himself and others; another is fond of strife and discord, forever discontented, uneasy, ill-humored, and everywhere finds something to blame, and, as the Holy Ghost says, his hand is raised against every one, and he is unable to agree with others. Jacob was meek and peaceable; he had a happy character, suited to preserve peace. Esau had a harsh, unaccommodating and quarrelsome character; his father prognosticated that he would live in quarrels and carry on war as long as he lived. Defective characters are not rare in communities; some are sarcastic and mocking, mimics of the words, gestures and actions of others, in order to make them ridiculous. Others are proud, disdainful, contemptuous, esteeming and approving their own deeds only, unable to bear to hear their fellow-religious praised, and always finding means to lower or humble them. Others blame without due restraint, judge precipitately even what they do not understand, speak boldly without discerning the age, quality and merit of persons. Others have rude and uncouth manners, treat one another without respect, without politeness. 206

All these have disagreeable characters which foment discord and tend to ruin charity and perfect union. 2. In the second place, the lack of zeal for one's perfection. In religious houses are found men full of talents and good qualities, who, however, are not solidly virtuous nor fit for anything great, but are incompetent for their employment or office and cause numberless troubles in the community. And why? Because they are unfaithful to grace; they dread doing violence to themselves; they will not adopt the means necessary to reform their character, to correct certain little defects, some eccentricity that spoils them, or renders them disagreeable. Hence their talents and good qualities become useless to them, or serve only to lead them astray, and to excite trouble in the community. If the smallest part of the mechanism of a watch is broken, the watch stops. In like manner, a single uncorrected defect, the neglect of striving to subdue a passion, an erroneous view not laid aside, and many other similar things, suffice to paralyse all the good qualities of a man, to render all his labors unfruitful, and make him an occasion of trouble, a source of discord, because he is everywhere deficient, has defects burdensome to others; he is not what he ought to be and could be. Wherefore it is certain that a tepid religious is a cause of troubles, divisions, of the ruin of charity and of the perfect union of hearts. 3. The harshness of the human heart and its inclination to severity. Man is naturally prone to evil, to believe evil of others rather than good, to exaggerate in his mind the faults of his neighbor and even to increase their number; he can see their faults clearly and take no notice of their virtues. Hence St. Thomas asserts that meekness and charity towards others are virtues rarer than chastity. Who can say of himself that he has never failed against charity? St. John, filled with a spirit opposed to that of Jesus Christ, wished to call down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans of a certain place. St. Peter placed himself above the other apostles in courage: "Even if all forsook Thee, I will not." St. Paul separates himself from Mark and Barnaby on account of some disagreement. St. John Chrysostom and St. Epiphanius said harsh things to each other. St. Bernard at first was so severe towards his subjects as to discourage them. O perfect charity, how rare art thou! The wickedness of man's heart, his want of charity, such is the chief cause of divisions and dissensions in religious houses! 4. Human weakness, or personal defects. A religious community is like a tree in blossom. A part of the blossoms fall off, whilst another clings to the branches, remains there and bears fruit. But what a difference 207

between the fruits of the same tree! Some are beautiful and sound; a small number are magnificent in size and color; others are small, thin and spotted; and others are worm-eaten, wither and fall off. What does this mean? The blossoms that are carried away by the wind are the novices who do not persevere. The lean and puny fruits are the religious who are tepid and unfaithful to grace, and slowly drag themselves along in the practice of virtue. The fine fruits represent the many religious who are fervent, regular and truly virtuous. The very finest, largest, spotless and exempt from defects are the chosen souls of heroic virtue, fulfilling their vocation perfectly; they are the real treasures of the community. And nevertheless, all these religious, being human, are a source of suffering to others. Even the greatest saints afford matter for patience to those who live with them, for the most perfect is he who has the fewest defects. A rosebush, although bearing more and sweeter-scented roses and spreading greater per-fume than any other, is not without thorns. In communities the wiser and more virtuous, who spread an odor of greater sanctity, do and say certain things and act in certain ways, which do not suit or please every body, do not agree with the characters and views of all, and for many are sharp, stinging and painful thorns. The worm-eaten fruits that wither and rot, represent sinful and apostate religious. In all Institutes there are found individuals who try the patience of the good and fervent. In Adam's family there was a fratricide, Cain, in Abraham's, a wild and vicious Ismael who tried to corrupt Isaac; in Isaac's an Esau reprobated by God; in that of David, an incestuous and parricidal Absalom, in the apostolic college, a Judas. The Church, according to St. Jerome, is represented by Noe's ark, which contained the wolf and the sheep, the lion and the lamb, the crow and the dove, in a word, animals of all kinds, both clean and unclean. Religious communities are like the threshing-floor mentioned in the Gospel, on which the wheat is mingled with the chaff; also like the net containing good and bad fish; like the feast at which were seated some who had no wedding garment; like the ten virgins, some of whom were wise and the others foolish; as a fine mansion containing utensils of gold and silver, of wood, clay and iron; also like the field sown with good seed and cockle. Wherefore St. Augustine declares that as long as the Church remains on earth, as the wheat suffers and groans among the chaff, as the good grain grows along-side of the cockle, as the vessels of mercy are among the vessels of wrath, we shall never lack adversaries to make us suffer and disturb our peace. A single bad religious is sufficient to mar 208

fraternal union and exercise the patience of all the members of a community. 5. Difference of views and appreciation of things. It often happens that the good innocently combat one another and cause pain to one another, either through natural antipathy or different ways of judging, or especially on account of the small capacity or narrowness of the human mind, which looks at things only under certain aspects and thus makes mistakes of judgment without any moral guilt, although others considering the same thing under another aspect, would judge the matter to be sinful. People often misunderstand one another; and the truth is that each one is right, whilst, for want of a proper explanation, each one seems to be wrong. Baronius thus relates the dispute between Sts. Epiphanius and Chrysostom, as a suitable instance of this matter: E. I will never tolerate the Origenists.C. I will never confound the innocent with the guilty.E. Origenism is so black and infamous a crime, that it behooves Christians to stifle those vipers of the Church.C. A good judge never condemns the accused without a hearing.E. You are too particular in this case.C. You are too hot about it and have not the patience to find out the truth. E. Patience? It is rather want of sense on your part and dissimulation.C. No; but it is precipitation and violence on your part.E. Are you afraid to condemn heretics?C. But are you not afraid of condemning the wrong party and envelop in your condemnation the innocent with the guilty? E. I see that you are an Origenist.C. And I fear that you side with those who oppose the truth.E. I am now going, and I tell you from God that you shall not die in Constantinople, and that you shall die in exile.C. And from God I declare to you that you shall not reach your diocese but shall die on sea on your way to it. Both were saints and true prophets, both were right, and yet seemed to be somewhat in the wrong. Divine Providence permits such things in His saints, that they mistrust and humble themselves, acknowledge their weakness and ignorance, and avoid obstinacy in their opinions. Wherefore we need not be astonished if disputes and dissensions sometimes arise in the most edifying communities. 6. The frailty of union. That men of such diversity of character, subject to so many defects, and obliged to live constantly together, should never do or say anything that is apt to disturb peace and union among themselves, would be a real miracle. Their spirits being so dissimilar, their views being often so opposed to one another, it naturally follows that their thoughts, affections and tastes should greatly differ. The one esteems what the other considers as blameworthy; what one condemns, another admits 209

as tenable; what pleases some, is repugnant to others. All those who know how to write, form the same letters, but no two form them exactly alike. The same applies to opinions, judgments and affections. Need we, then, be astonished, if sometimes little clouds should rise up and disturb the peace? A man of common sense and virtue is not astonished at such miseries any more than at the changes in the weather, or at the diversity of objects in a landscape. Moreover, although such little disturbances are unavoidable, it is easy to render them less frequent and thereby preserve peace and union among ourselves as much as possible. In order to succeed in this, let us follow the counsels of the Holy Ghost. 1. In the first place, let us imitate St. Paul saying: "I seek to please all in all things." He who wishes to live in peace in the community should, like him, adapt himself to the different characters of his fellow-religious, be full of condescension, bend easily, according to circumstances, not only in some things, but in all. In music different tones produce a sweet harmony. In like manner, in a community, although the characters differ, they ought, by means of condescension, and the spirit of charity, to produce an. agreeable harmony. "I seek to please all in all things," of course, in which there is nothing sinful, and only in things good and indifferent; for where there is question of offending God, we must say, like St. Paul, "if I pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ." 2. "You being wise, bear with the imprudent" (1 Cor. 11.19), with the weak of mind and the imperfect. It is only he who has a powerful reason that can bear with what is contrary to reason. It is an evident sign of a great capacity of mind, of a higher intelligence, of a sure and deep judgment, to be able to understand man's nature and be convinced that he is only a compound of weaknesses, defects, miseries and imperfections of all kinds, and to know how to bear it all. Therefore those who possess a good judgment and a clear mind, are always and everywhere the most tolerant, the most indulgent, the least sensitive, the most peaceful, the least exacting and the most easily contented. On the contrary, narrow minds, joined to poor judgment, have always their small brains worried about the defects of others, and are like Abraham's ram entangled in the bush. 3. "As the elect of God, put on the bowels of mercy" (Col. 3.12). The bowels of mercy, the spirit of compassion for the miseries of others are the most excellent dispositions for practising the duties of charity. Put on the bowels of mercy, that spirit of charity and compassion for the neighbor, and show it by external acts; in other words, be affable, polite and obliging; show him a kind countenance, capable of drawing and winning him to you; show yourself ready to please him on every occasion; 210

show yourself cheerful and full of a holy joy, so as to be able to console the afflicted and inspire confidence to the disheartened; affable, calm, benevolent in your looks, in order to dispel sensitiveness, prejudice, illhumor, anger, antipathy, etc. Put on the bowels of mercy also interiorly, that is, truly love your neighbor, be moved by his ills and pains, and relieve them; esteem him; never think ill of him; excuse, hide, dissimulate his defects; never allow aversion, dislike, hatred, selfishness, jealousy and the like to enter your heart, which should bring forth only sentiments of compassion, indulgence and pity for his miseries. St. Paul calls the saints, "vessels of mercy" (Rom. 9. 23); and why? Because it is peculiar to all of them to spread mercy all around them, for their heart is a compound of kindness, charity, meekness, indulgence and brotherly love. 4. "Be not overjust" (Eccles. 7.17). Minds are like clothes, which should not be too tight for comfort. If we are so just as not to pardon anything to human weakness, and refuse to yield a little, we are unfit to live among men. He who is all severity for the shortcomings of his brethren and knows not how to forgive a fault that escapes them, or a defect of character, is, says St. Jerome, overjust. Oh, how many things do we not see and refrain from taking notice of them, and how many must we not silently bear! How many must we not touch lightly! When there is question of punishing him who has committed a fault, let us not be overjust and transgress the limits of a mild justice, which is compassionate towards the weak. Let us bear what we cannot correct. Certain bodily ailments are incurable, and certain bodily defects cannot be remedied. How can a cripple, a one-eyed man be cured? No matter what we may do, they will always remain the same. The same may be said of mental defects, which are, in some manner, incurable, and should, therefore, be borne with all possible meekness and tranquillity. Be not overjust even in requiring good things, the task or duty each one is to perform; be satisfied with what each one can perform according to his talents and strength. Be satisfied with a good will. To require more than one can perform is to make him despond. Be not overjust, saying: "I will never allow any one to neglect his duty towards me; he must have regard for my age, rank, etc. He who epilogues too much about his rights, becomes easily overjust, that is, sensitive, overexacting. A good religious considers himself the last in the community, honors all, makes himself the servant of all, and expects nothing from others. They may forget him, or use him as a servant, he does not notice it, because he believes he has in all this only what he deserves. 211

5. Be always united, having the same sentiments, as far as possible. Why as far as possible? Because among the good, as among the saints, some minds do not agree among themselves, because they consider things under different aspects, and each one has his own light, and in indifferent things each one may follow his own views. Sts. Augustine and Jerome had different opinions on certain undecided questions, and wrote to each other very strong letters in defence of their respective views, without, however, wounding charity. The just may disagree about certain things, because they have different views, but they always agree in the will to find out what is right and good, and in tending to God, otherwise they would not be just. "It may happen," wrote St. Augustine to St. Jerome, "that you hold an opinion contrary to truth, but it behooves you to avoid doing anything contrary to charity in defending your opinion." And even when we are certain of being in the right, we must maintain truth with charity. 6. "Honor all men" (1 Pet. 2.17), and you shall preserve union which is so frail in itself. Esteem and respect all your brethren, because they are the servants of Jesus Christ, the temples of the Holy Ghost, the children of God, very noble and excellent creatures, chosen souls consecrated to the divine service and worship, predestined to a great perfection, to a great glory in heaven; they are souls, for the most part, adorned with virtues, whom God loves as the apple of His eye, and loads with numerous blessings. Honor and respect all your brethren, because they are members of your family, have the same vocation, share your table, your labors, your merits, are members of the same Institute, and because if you despise one of them, you despise and offend all the others. Honor and respect the elder brethren, because they are superior to you in age and virtue, in practical knowledge, in reason, experience and dignity, and because it is a duty for every one to respect everywhere grey hair and honor old age. Honor and respect the younger brethren, because they are innocent and candid; they are the wealth and hope of the Institute and expect from you a good example; you are charged with educating them; from you they must receive the right tone, good manners, the spirit of the religious family and of charity, which is a spirit of politeness and mutual respect. Honor and respect your equals, being mindful that rough manners, a low familiarity, the forgetfulness of propriety and of due regard, beget contempt, kill friendship, produce quarrels, and bring forth discord. Honor and respect all your brethren, especially, the sick, the imperfect, the less talented, those who have the most defects physically and spiritually, being mindful that what is weak and suffering deserves consideration and encouragement, and that he who is sick and infirm in body and soul, is 212

your member, a part of yourself. Do you despise your foot when it hurts you? Do you ridicule your hand when it is sore or soiled? Do you not, on the contrary, take greater care of them, and treat them more kindly and tenderly than the members that are sound? Honor and respect all your brethren, in order to preserve charity, because all have a claim on you to exercise charity towards them. All rational creatures, men and angels, and even God Himself, are so sensitive on this point, that Jesus Christ, who bore with a divine patience the insults of the Jews, complained of this, saying: "You have not honored Me," that is, given Me due honor. Honor and respect all your brethren, in order to keep up charity. In fact, the testimonies of honor and the marks of deference, that are sincere, foster mutual love and domestic peace, as oil keeps up the light of the lamp; hence without these, there is no family spirit, no mutual charity. Honor and respect all your brethren, because you wish them to honor and respect you, for as you do unto others, so shall it be done unto you. Be not a debtor to any one," says St. Peter, "but give to every one his due." In what does this debt consist? It includes honor, respect, forestalling one another, kind deeds, testimonies of esteem and affection, help in need, and especially edification and good example. We must pay this debt daily, if we do not wish to die insolvent, and if we wish to be paid in return. Honor and respect all your brethren, so as to imitate God, who governs us, says the Holy Ghost (Wisd. 12.18), and leads the just by straight paths, imparting to them, with the science of the saints, a great esteem for their fellow-men (Wisd. 10.10, 11). Honor and respect all your brethren, in order to imitate Jesus Christ, and be filled with His spirit. He compares Himself to the vine in blossom, spreading all around the good odor of humility and charity. His relations with men were accompanied with respect, as a perfume embalming all hearts. "When I utter the name of Jesus," says St. Bernard, "I represent to myself a meek, modest, beneficent, obliging man, extremely remarkable for His readiness to oblige and His politeness." Let us, in fine, meditate on this saying of Jesus and make it the rule of our conduct: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God" (Mat. 5.). "Those who in communities unite again together minds that were divided and restore peace," says St. John Chrysostom, "perform the office of Jesus Christ, who came upon earth to reconcile men with God and men among themselves, and to banish all dissensions. Because they labor for so excellent and divine an object, they deserve to be called the children of God. They are the pillars, the treasure 213

of their communities. On the contrary, those who bring into them troubles and dissensions, are their scourge and pest, and. should be punished and separated from the rest of the community."

The Proof or Practice of Fraternal Charity (C)

We should never lose sight of the truth that God wishes to save men by contradictions, sufferings and the cross. Wherefore the beloved disciple says: "Jesus Christ came by water and blood" (1 John 5.6). Water signifies human nature, and blood, the sufferings which are to immolate it, and therefore God has left in us the con-sequences of original sin, to serve as trials and exercises of our virtue. Faith teaches that all things work together unto good to the elect of God; our weaknesses, our miseries, our passions, evil inclinations and defects should serve us as steps to rise to God. "The vices do not ascend to heaven," says St. Augustine, "but raise us to Him, if we combat and tread upon them." The very malice of Satan, in God's designs, should contribute to exercise and perfect our virtue and bring us to heaven. When Duke Robert of Normandy arrived in Palestine to visit the holy places, he met four Saracens who were bent on killing and robbing him. Far from allowing them to do so, he looked at them so sternly as to fascinate them, frighten them by his prowess, and compelled them to carry him in a palanquin to Jerusalem. On the way he met one of his friends, who asked him what news he wished him to bring to his country. He replied: "Tell every one that you saw the Duke of Normandy carried to heaven by four devils." This is an appropriate image of the strong soul conquering and throwing down her passions, and overcoming her trials. She turns her greatest enemy, the devil, into the builder of her fortune and the pedestal of her glory. There are four kinds of trials. 1. First, those that come directly from the devil, that is, his temptations enticing us to sin; 2, those that come from our fellow-men, or are the outcome of our relations with them; 3, those connected with our employment, and 4, those from our own selves, such as the shortcomings of our character and of our faculties, and our bodily ailments. Here we shall speak only of the second kind, those coming from our neighbor's defects, which it behooves us to bear with charity and patience, and the different characters to which we must adapt our own; the bodily infirmities of our brethren (and pupils), for which we should not show disgust, but which we ought to relieve as far as lies in our power; their bad examples which we should not follow or approve; their 214

ingratitude which should never prevent us from continuing to do them good or to oblige them; the differences of views in matters that are free or doubtful; the spirit of contradiction, the lack of due regard towards us; the persecutions or slanders of the wicked, of our opponents. God permits such trials: 1. First, to correct our own defects. Contradictions are to the good what a file is to the gold-smith and silversmith, what the chisel is to the sculptor to perfect and polish his statue, what the pruning-knife is to the gardener to prune and clean his plants. St. John of the Cross understood this well. "Consider," he said to his religious, "your brethren as so many sculptors holding the hammer and chisel of their own defects, in order to correct yours, and yourselves as a block of marble placed before them, in God's de-signs, to become a statue of Jesus Crucified, endowed with all His virtues." Our neighbor's defects serve to correct ours, like pebbles rolling together in a stream, and medals rubbing against one another in a bag, serve to polish one another. Plutarch was wont to say: "A man will never become truly virtuous and will never correct his defects, if he has not a sincere friend or a bitter enemy." A sincere friend admonishes us of our defects; but such a friend is rarely found, and his friendship for us may permit him to see only our virtues and render him indulgent for our defects; whilst an enemy, or a fellow-religious devoid of regularity and addicted to contradiction, perceiving our defects in their minutest details, will reproach us with them and unceasingly cast them up to us, and thus compel us to correct them. Such a manifestation, though very unpleasant, is truly useful. "Therefore," says St. Alphonsus, "those religious ever ready to criticise others, Although full of defects themselves, are really useful in communities, for they exercise their companions in patience, oblige them to watch over themselves and thus enable them to avoid many faults and correct their defects." 2. God permits the aforesaid trials to exercise our virtues, to develop and perfect them. It is a very common mistake, even among pious persons, to consider a person as possessing a virtue, if he does not commit sins opposed to it. There is a very great difference between a certain virtue, which is a habit of performing acts of that virtue, and the fact of not committing acts of its opposite vice. For instance, a person cannot be said to possess the virtue of purity because he does not commit impure acts; because he may never yet have been tempted to do so. Virtue, being a habit, is formed and acquired only by oft-repeated acts. A man may never get angry, because he does not meet with any provocation to anger; in this case he cannot be called a meek man, for he has given no proof of 215

possessing the virtue of meekness; his meekness is all negative, and not positive. He alone possesses the virtue, the real positive virtue of meekness, who whenever provoked to anger, remains calm and undisturbed and keeps his feelings, his temper in check, under perfect control. To avoid the occasion of a sin, of a vice is a step toward the opposite virtue, but not the virtue itself. It is no great wonder, if we are meek when there occurs nothing to provoke or irritate us. It would be strange, indeed, if when there is nothing to worry or excite us, we should be sour, peevish, and disagreeable towards those who are all kindness, love and condescension towards us! Bees sting only those who irritate them, but do no harm to those who do not. The cat's paw is soft to those who caress it, but causes those who ill-treat it to feel its sharp claws. Some persons seem to be meekness personified when everything pleases them; but if you dare to touch those calm mountains, you will find them to be raging volcanoes! The touchstone, which discerns true from false or apparent meekness (or negative from positive meekness), is the patient bearing of injuries and contradictions. It is not difficult to be kind to those who are kind to us, but to do good to those who persecute us, to speak with moderation, kindness and affability to those who revile, outrage and slander us, is a sure proof that we possess in a high degree the virtue of charity, meekness and kindness. Let us never forget that a virtue is acquired by earnest efforts and repeated acts on our part, and that the strongest virtue is that which grows, like the lily, among the thorns of difficulties, trials and temptations. "It is no great matter," says St. Francis de Sales, "if a religious is meek and commits but few faults, where there is nothing to irritate or provoke him to impatience. If some one says to me of a religious: `That is a holy religious,' I ask at once: Has he any office in his community? If the answer is in the negative, I do not make much account of his holiness, for there is a great difference between his virtue and that of another religious which is well tried either interiorly by temptations, or exteriorly by the contradictions which he has to endure, because solid virtue is never acquired in time of peace, that is, when there are no contrary temptations to combat and overcome. Unfortunately many souls, who are weak and but little acquainted with the ways of God, do not understand this truth. They imagine that virtue consists in a peace and tranquillity exempt from trials and combats. This is very dangerous for them and liable to prove fatal to them." For it induces them to consider and treat as a hindrance to their perfection what is a necessary means to acquire it, and they, therefore, fail in charity by being scandalized by their 216

neighbor's defects. "The life of the saints," says St. Augustine, "cannot be without contradictions and combats, for their spiritual progress is brought about by the trials which beset them." The elect advance in virtue through temptation. What the devil intends for their ruin, God turns into glory for them. St. Leo asserts that virtue withers away when it has no adversary, and that great virtues cannot exist without great trials. "Charity towards our neighbor, "says St. Jerome, "increases in power and merit in proportion to the number of its acts." "Therefore," says St. Fulgentius, "if for want of occasions, we do not practise it, we lose it." "You should believe," says St. Augustine, "that it is with good reason that there are imperfect souls and wicked men in the world. Every imperfect, or wicked man lives either to be converted or to try the good." Through men full of faults, through the wicked God, forms and instructs His saints and prepares, them for glory. The persecutions of the wicked, the defects of the imperfect are the file that takes off the rust from the saints, the chisel that polishes them, the pruning-knife that cuts off all that is defective in them. "Through the wicked," says Origen, "God develops and brightens the virtues of His elect." If the malice of the former were destroyed, the virtues of the latter would be neither so heroic nor so resplendent, nor so meritorious. Take away the malice, envy and perversity of the brothers of Joseph, and you deprive the holy patriarch of all the acts and merits of the virtues which their wickedness added to his crown. "The world," says St. Basil, "is a battle-field, virtue combats on one side and crime on the other; on one side, pride and insolence, on the other, humility and modesty; on one side, anger, passion, insults and illtreatment; on the other, patience and meekness; on one side, tyranny, license, injustice; on the other, indulgence, forbearance, charity, taking revenge by forgiveness, by doing good, and returning good for evil." By these means the vices, defects and persecution of the wicked impart strong and persevering virtue to the good. "Wherefore," says St. Augustine, "God permits and tolerates the vices and defects of the wicked, in order to furnish the good with occasions to practise patience, mortification, constancy and to exercise every virtue." "No one," says Ven. Bede, "no one can become an Abel, if the malice of a Cain does not try his patience and virtue. Those who lack depth of understanding, judgment, and virtue, are astonished and sometimes even scandalized to find in religious communities so much misery, so many weak and imperfect souls. They imagine that convents contained only saints and souls exempt from all human weaknesses. This dangerous illusion induces them to judge 217

severely the conduct of their brethren, to magnify their defects, to find in them defects which they have not, to regard as faults what is only a defectiveness in character, and makes them blind to their virtues. To cure this illusion, such religious should remember: 1. That according to St. Francis de Sales, convents are hospitals for the cure of spiritual diseases, and that, consequently, we find therein souls full of weaknesses and defects. 2. That those who possess solid virtue, count and carefully consider the virtues and good qualities of their brethren, and hardly notice their defects. The wicked, and imperfect and weak souls count only the defects of their neighbor and take no notice of his virtues, wherefore their judgments of others are very unjust. 3. That, in the designs of Providence, our defects enter into the work of our perfection. Whence it follows that God, in His merciful thoughts, often leaves to very holy persons certain defects as an exercise for their virtue and a means of progress in perfection. 4. That the neighbor's defects serve to exercise in virtue all the members of the community and furnish them with a powerful means of sanctification. "Our spiritual life and death," says St. Pachomius, "depends, in some manner, on our neighbor," How can this be? If we win him over to God by our good example, if we patiently bear with his defects, if we practise charity towards him, we make great progress in virtue and save our own souls. If we do the contrary, we sin against Jesus Christ and endanger our salvation. "From our relations with our neighbor," says St. Francis de Sales, "proceeds half of the work of our sanctification, for, by bearing with one another, reciprocally forgiving one another, we exercise ourselves in all the virtues and become perfect in them." If our neighbor had no defects, no failings, what would we have to bear, Take his faults away from him, and tell me where would we find occasions for practising the most beautiful virtues? If your brethren were perfect, if we lived with angels, where would be the virtues of patience, meekness, mortification, charity and all the beautiful virtues depending therefrom? We would find no opportunity to practise them. St. Bernard was so thoroughly convinced of this truth, that he does not hesitate to say to superiors: "If your community possesses none but holy religious, you must purchase one that has a disagreeable character, that is harsh, peevish, quarrelsome, burdensome, so as to afford both yourself and your brethren occasion of being exercised in meekness, patience, charity and all the social virtues." Our virtue is weak as long as it has not been tried by our neighbor's shortcomings. Unpleasant relations with others are the crucible 218

in which charity, patience and meekness are tried, and by which we can discover in what degree we possess them. But we need not purchase with gold a defective and irregular subject, for we are thorns to one another. As there is no rose without thorns, so there is no religious without defects. The most holy is not he who has none at all, nor sometimes he who has the least, but he who most closely watches himself and combats them the best. We all have defects and we reciprocally furnish one another many occasions of practising virtue. "The most united and fervent communities," says Ven. Father Libermann, "have never been able to keep wholly away from the painful contact of men; if two angels were to live together as two human beings, twenty-four hours would not pass without some cloud coming in between them." "However great the care in choosing subjects," judiciously remarks St. Frances de Chantal, "God, in order to try the others, always permits that there should be some ill-disposed members in every community." Far from complaining of such a disposition of divine Providence, we should thank God for it, because it affords us the opportunity of practising the most beautiful virtues. "Our neighbor," says Ven. Father Champagnat, "helps us in three ways to go to God: 1, in the first place, he induces us to go to God through the good odor of his virtues and good example; 2, by his defects which it behooves us to bear, conceal and excuse; this obliges us often to practise patience, meekness, charity and many other virtues: and 3, by the occasions he affords us of exercising zeal in his regard, by admonishing and reproving him and helping him to amend." It is, therefore, easy to understand how mistaken are the superiors who consider it a misfortune to have subjects who, because of their shortcomings, need to be corrected and trained, and, therefore, ask to have them changed. By acting thus they deprive themselves of many occasions of practising virtue, of a powerful means of sanctification, and fail in charity towards those whose change they solicit. It usually profits no one to change easily the subjects who have defects, whose conduct or character is defective. A good superior does not easily ask for such changes. It is contrary to charity to turn over to another superior a subject we complain of; moreover, we seldom can find men without defects which we cannot bear. In such changes one religious is often replaced by another who is not an improvement. Therefore, it is more simple, more reasonable and more charitable to endeavor to train and improve one's subjects. When a coachman frequently asks to change his team, he is at last suspected of not knowing his business. 219

Father Balthasar Alvarez, who admirably understood all the merit there is in bearing with and training subjects, besought his Provincials to send to his community all their untractable and disagreeable subjects, that he might win them by his prudence and meekness, and thus procure for himself occasions of practising virtue. Other superiors do usually just the contrary; but, alas! those spiritually diseased subjects, being moved from house to house, and ever changing physicians and treatment, become more and more spiritually emaciated, and may end by losing their vocation. St. Vincent de Paul wrote as follows to a superior who had complained of one of his subjects and had requested that he should be sent elsewhere: "Bear meekly with this dear fellow-religious; you have perhaps not the defects you lay to his charge, but you have others which he is obliged to bear. If you did not have him, you would not have anything to suffer; your charity would have no occasion, to be exercised or developed, and your life would have no resemblance to that of Jesus Christ, who chose rude and uncouth disciples subject to many defects. Do you know why our Savior acted thus? That He might be the model of superiors and teach them that, in bearing the defects of their subjects, they acquire great merits, perfect themselves in virtue, please God and win souls to Him." 3. Finally, the trials that come from our relations with our neighbor help us to correct our defects and afford us the necessary occasions of becoming trained in solid virtue, increase our merits and prepare for us great glory in heaven. St. Bonaventure says therefore: "It is very useful for the good on earth to be mingled with those who are imperfect and full of defects, because the latter furnish with frequent opportunities of gaining great merit and great reward those who endeavor to correct them and train them in virtue, who watch so as not to imitate or wound them, who are often tried in a wholesome way by the persecutions they undergo from them, and who humble themselves and acknowledge that they owe it to God only that they themselves do not fall into similar faults." It is evident that if the good religious had not the opportunities of performing all these acts of virtue, they would have fewer merits, their virtue would be less solid, less conspicuous, less perfect and their reward less great." St. Jerome so highly esteemed forbearance with the neighbor's defects, as to prefer it to the merit of the contemplative life. A very virtuous person, belonging to a noble Roman family, had written to request him to admit her into the convent he had founded at Bethlehem, alleging that her mother, although very pious, was a great obstacle to her perfection for, by her disagreeable character, she exposed her to commit many faults. St. Jerome replied: "If your mother is such as you describe 220

her, remain with her, for by your forbearance and patience towards her, you shall be better trained in meekness, charity, obedience, mortification, self-denial, and will gather more merit than in the novitiate." Such occasions of practising virtue and becoming pleasing to God are more highly esteemed than a treasure by the souls who earnestly strive to make progress in virtue. Penetrated with this truth St. Dorothy considered forbearance with our neighbor and the virtues connected therewith as a mark of predestination. "Man," he says, "knows not whether he is deserving of love or of hatred, for this is God's secret. Nevertheless, we can almost be sure of being deserving of love, if we really love our brethren, that is, if we help them in their wants, bear their defects with patience and assist them to correct them, for he who thus loves his neighbor, loves God; and he who truly loves God is in the state of grace and is deserving of love, and wears the seal of the elect on his brow." Let us, then, briefly repeat what we have said above, for we can never be too deeply persuaded of this truth: Our defects, in the designs of God, enter into the work of our sanctification; our neighbor's defects are a benefit for us, for they afford us occasions of practising virtue. We should, then, thank God for having left these defects in them, and earnestly make a good use of these means of perfection by being full of charity and indulgence towards our neighbor and bearing with him in all patience.

The Life of a Religious Community (C)

At the close of the Visitation of one of the houses of his Institute Ven. Father Champagnat said to the Br. Director: "I am not satisfied with your house." "What have you found wrong in it'" "Your house lacks the religious life, the family life,happiness cannot be found in it; the virtue of your subjects cannot maintain itself." Later on, he sent a Brother to instil the family spirit into that community. Speaking to them on this subject, he said: "To be happy and sanctify oneself in a community, the family life must reign in it. The family life is to be found in these two points: paternal sentiments in the superior, and a childlike spirit among the subjects. I. God Himself gave us the first lesson of the family life in these words: "Let Us make man after our image and likeness." The eternal Father did not say, "I make," or "make," but "let Us make," let Us unite to create man; let each of Us contribute His share to this work, and cooperate with the Others in perfect union. This actually took place. The Father brought authority and power, the Son, understanding, and the Holy Ghost, 221

love. The creation of man, therefore, is the fruit of union, a family work. We may say the same of the Redemption. The Father so loved mankind as to give His Son to save them; the Son, imitating His Father, so loved men as to give His own life to redeem them; and the Holy Ghost cooperated in this mystery, for the mystery of the Incarnation took place by His operation, and He descended on the apostles to complete the work of the Redemption, to sanctify men, and to apply to them the merits of the Passion of Jesus Christ. We are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, because the three Divine Persons united to raise and rehabilitate us, to save and elevate us to the supernatural order and the divine adoption. This union is the image of that which should reign in all religious houses. To carry out the special object of an Institute, one member of the community is not sufficient; all the members must concur therein. There is one to direct; another devotes his talents, a third, his love; others their strength, their labor, their docility, their devotedness. From this union and concourse there results a strong authority, an influence, an irresistible impulse for doing good, a unity and combination of efforts and action, well calculated to produce success in attaining an object, and, at the same time, to maintain discipline, and bring forth prosperity, peace and happiness to the members and make such a house an earthly paradise. Jesus Christ gave us the second lesson of the family life. He lived, prayed and labored with His apostles, treated them as His children, brethren, friends and as a second self. Moreover, He became their Master, servant, teacher, instructing and serving them in all patience. "I am in your midst as one that serveth." Such, indeed, is the family life, the sentiments of a good father who loves his children, devotes himself to their interests and lives only for them. Thus act also all good superiors. St. Paul, a perfect imitator of Jesus Christ, led this family life with his disciples and the early Christians. He was wont to consider himself as a loving mother among her children, saying: "My little children, I am wholly devoted to you; out of love I raise you, instruct you and beget you to Jesus Christ. In this ministry of spiritual paternity I seek not my own interests, but the salvation of your souls; I make myself all to all, in order to benefit you; I put on every form to please you; and I seek to please you, in order to win you to Jesus Christ." What an admirable model of the family life and of the sentiments that ought to animate every superior! Filled with the same spirit St. Peter gives this lesson of the family life to all pastors of souls and superiors: "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking care of it, not by constraint, but willingly, according to 222

God; not for filthy lucre's sake, but voluntarily; neither as lording it over the clergy, but being made a pattern of the flock from the heart" (1 Peter. 5. 2, 3). All holy superiors exert themselves to imitate these examples. St. Vincent de Paul lived with his subjects as the best of fathers with his children. He bestowed so much attention on each one, that there was not one who had any reason to doubt of the saint's most tender love for him personally. Ever polite, benevolent and ready to provide for their wants, ever disposed to listen to them; he never spoke ill of the absent, never corrected or reproved any one without having previously given him a friendly admonition and listened to what he had to say in his defense. St. Macarius was ingenious in trying to please his brethren. Whilst exerting himself to cause them to advance in virtue, his great preoccupation was to make them happy and contented, and to enable them to find the yoke of Christ sweet and light, and to taste, by a fervent life, the hundred-fold of the consolations promised by the Saviour to all who are faithful in His service. St. Bernard's great maxim was that the superior should not command as a master, but should govern as a father. In his exhortations to his religious he was fond of comparing himself to a mother; he would call them his eyes, his heart; he commanded and exacted nothing, without first giving the example himself. By such a conduct he won the hearts of all, and they loved him as a father, and obeyed him with a holy joy. St. Honoratus was a rare model of the paternal sentiments that should animate every superior, and of the family life which promotes the happiness of the whole community. The joys and the sorrows of each of his subjects were all his; he made his own their gains and their losses, their progress and their virtue, and even their very faults. He rejoiced with the joyful, wept with the sad and the afflicted. He was diligent, active, indefatigable in helping, consoling and encouraging; he would admonish one in secret, another in public; one with severity, another with great kindness; if he gave commands, and, in some cases, urged on his subjects, it was always with due regard, cordiality, affability and politely. He was ever watchful lest a certain one should be over-burdened with work, and another be subjected to temptations for want of occupation; he knew so well how to foresee what would prove advantageous or hurtful to each one, according to his character, that he seemed to bear each one in his heart. In fine, all his thoughts and cares tended to make all his subjects happy, and to cultivate each one's soul as his own. From all this it is easy to understand that a superior, in order to establish and maintain the family spirit in his community, should act as a 223

father towards his brethren and love them all in Jesus Christ with a tender charity. He should give them a good example, be always the first at the community exercises, be fond of their company, live and work like them, recreate himself with them, and be not distinguished from them except by a greater fidelity to the Rule. A good father lives only for his children, and the perfect superior only for his subjects. He is ingenious in winning their esteem, in pleasing them, in making their life happy, piety sweet and virtue amiable to them. He is solicitous for their success in their employment, endeavors to facilitate their tasks, to train the juniors and enable them to acquire all the knowledge and ability necessary in their state, and he provides for their wants. He watches carefully that nothing may occur to wound mutual respect, fraternal charity, politeness, in a word, that nothing may disturb the cordiality, concord and union of the family life. II. A childlike spirit is the second part of the family life; it pertains to the subjects. It consists in the love of a child for his loving father; in a religious respect and profound veneration for his authority and for all that proceeds from him; in an entire confidence which enables him to consider and accept all his dispositions as the most suitable and becoming; in a perfect docility to his orders and directions, and in an entire devotedness to all that he wills and to all that may please him. These sentiments are testified by kind attentions, becoming regard and constant compliance; by meek, polite, reverential language and all the respect due to a superior; by an unremitting and obsequious attention to please him, to relieve him, and render him every possible service; by union and conformity of views and sentiments, performing everything, not only according to his orders, but even according to his wishes, if they are known. The principle that produces, vivifies, preserves and develops these sentiments, is the faith which teaches us that the superior holds God's place, represents Jesus Christ and that, therefore, it is God that speaks and commands through him, and that it is Jesus Christ whom we then obey or disobey, according to His saying: "He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me." Wherefore, the family life requires, first, the superior to be wholly devoted to his subjects, to live for them only, to devote his time and talents in training, instructing and directing them; to watch with solicitude over their temporal and spiritual welfare; and to consider it his duty to win their confidence, to be pleasing to them and make them contented and happy. In the second place, the family life requires that the subjects be wholly devoted to their superior and most carefully avoid whatever is 224

reasonably displeasing to him or what may grieve or pain him; that they should endeavor to lighten the burden of his office and sweeten its crosses, and make his life happy, as far as may be in their power. The family life is the community of good and evil things. Not only should the temporal goods be in common, but also those of the mind, that is, each one's talents should tend to benefit all; also the corporal goods, as health and strength, and the goods of the soul, the virtues: all these should be made to benefit the whole community. It behooves each one to give good example to all the other members and to pray for all. The family spirit goes still further, for it renders the goods granted to the individual members the property of all. A religious should be content, joyful and happy on account of the gifts, virtues, talents and every good he beholds in his brethren, and bless and thank God for them, and share the honor, glory and satisfaction resulting therefrom, just as a mother rejoices and glories in the honors, etc., bestowed on her son and in the good accomplished by him. In like manner, the troubles, sufferings, afflictions and adversities of the community and of each of its members should also be considered as affecting each one personally; and each one should strive to relieve or console those who suffer, to assist those who are in need, to help the overburdened, to bear his full share in all the evils affecting the community or any of its members. There are four things which disturb and ruin the family life. 1. First the sick or irregular members. Each member of the body has its own place in it. The member that would go out of its place or refuse to fulfil its respective function, would disturb the harmony of the whole and fatigue or overload the other members. The feet are made to carry the body and the eyes to guide it; were the eyes to undertake to carry the body and the feet to guide it, there would be only trouble and confusion. In like manner, a religious who does not stay in his place, usurps that of the superior, and undertakes to order around and command the others, is an irregular religious who grievously transgresses his duty, scandalizes his brethren and disturbs the family life. The superior who does not respect the rights and position of his subjects, who hinders their correspondence with the higher superiors, who does not let the officials perform the duties of their office, who appropriates everything to himself, who wishes to do Everything himself, is a sick and irregular head, and instead of beneficially influencing his subjects, only ill-treats and worries them, and paralyzes their labors. Every paralyzed or infirm member is burdensome to the others and causes them to suffer. Every religious who neglects his employment or performs it carelessly, or follows therein his own whims 225

and notions, and pays no attention to what obedience requires, disturbs and ruins the family life, causes his brethren to suffer, over-burdens them, injures the common good and the prosperity of the community. 2. The selfish member. The law of nature requires that all the members of the human body should labor for the common good. Therefore the eyes see for the benefit of the whole body, the stomach digests for all the members, the heart distributes the blood and causes it to circulate and bring life through the arteries and veins all over the body; the hands work for and serve all the parts of the body. The member that would disobey its law and care only for itself, would bring disorder into the whole body; and that is just what the selfish religious does, for he sees only himself, thinks only of his own private interests and works only for himself. In all things he seeks only his comfort, all that can gratify his tastes, his wants and even his passions. Devoid of charity and of those feelings of compassion, indulgence and kindness, that form the character of beautiful souls, the selfish religious is hard-hearted and has bowels of iron; he. has no feeling for the pains of his brethren, does not notice their wants, does nothing to relieve them, and does not even give them a thought. Selfishness is the enemy of the spirit of charity and the death of the family life. The good religious imitates the members of the body; he labors for the common good and always prefers the interests of the community to his personal gratification; being wholly devoted to his brethren, he thinks only of how he may be useful to them, how he may forestall and satisfy their wants, and he sacrifices himself to procure their pleasure and happiness. Always forgetful of self, he always prefers his brethren, his neighbor to himself, takes upon himself the hardest tasks, whatever is least comfortable for his body, and leaves to others the best and the easiest. Br. Paschal was a model in this. One day one of his pupils brought him a bottle of cordial and a package of chocolates. As Br. Paschal was trying to induce the boy to give those articles to the Br. Director, or to the Brother in charge of the temporals of the house, one of his fellow-religious said to him: "Keep those things for yourself and use them when you need them." "What a strange advice you give me!" replied Br. Paschal with some warmth; "I should accept a personal gift! and break my vow! Never, never! And do you look upon me as selfish? You are mistaken; when I have something good, I want my brethren to share it with me, and I intend also to have a good share in all that is to be had in this house, for I believe that equality and fraternal charity constitute the happiness of the community life." And he was right. Later on, when he was Director of the house at Digoin, a relative, knowing his weak health, gave him some 226

delicacies, under the condition that they should be for himself only. He replied: "A gift under such a condition is not a gift, but an insult. Make all the conditions you wish, I will, nevertheless have the pleasure of regaling my brethren with what you give me, and this pleasure will be so sweet, that it will benefit me a hundred times more than if I enjoyed it all alone." Br. John Peter Martinol, Director of the community at Boulieu, visited the motherhouse at Lavalla in 1824. To return to Boulieu he had to leave Lavalla at a very early hour before the community had risen. Ven. Father Champagnat said to him: "As the cook is not yet up, here is a cake that was given to me last Sunday; take it along and eat it on the way home as your breakfast." "No, Father," he replied; "I will bring it home to the Brothers and we shall all eat it together with great pleasure, for all that comes from you or the motherhouse, is sweet and pleasant to us, and does us so much good. I am glad to be able to give the Brothers this pleasure; and I know that we shall all feel very happy and shall speak at dinner about you and the Lavalla Brothers." Charmed by such sentiments, Father Champagnat exclaimed: "My dear Brother, you make me weep for joy by saying this; for such are the real sentiments of the family spirit which ought to animate all our brethren. Let us carefully preserve these sentiments. and this spirit and we shall enjoy in its fulness the happiness of the religious life." 3. The member who is discontented, or who has a bad spirit. What is a bad spirit? It is blindness of the soul, an unfavorable prejudice begotten by pride, which causes us to see things otherwise than they are, and therefore leads us to judge them falsely. It is a fund of peevishness which imparts a cunning and inconstant character, an inclination to censure, to murmur, to judge rashly and to speak ill of others. It is a secret aversion to authority and to all that proceeds from it, an opposition to depend thereon, a readiness to blame superiors and to censure all they say, do and command, and to withdraw from their direction. It is a license to say all that we wish, a secret satisfaction to lower and injure the superior, to domineer over others, to induce them to criticise, murmur and to be insubordinate. Nothing is more opposed and contrary to the family life than a bad spirit, for, says St. Bernard, "it is a poison that corrupts all the social virtues which constitute the family spirit; it is a poison that comes from hell, of which the devil is the father and the model, for he gave the example of it from the beginning, by carrying on war and bringing cockle into heaven. The religious who is subject to this deplorable defect, does in his community, what Lucifer did in heaven, and the serpent in the earthly 227

paradise; that is, he brings into it disturbance, confusion, unhappiness by ruining its family spirit." This detestable vice kills all religious virtues. The religious life is a life of obedience; he who has a bad spirit is given up to his own will and cannot bear to be dependent on any one. The religious life is an humble and modest life; the bad spirit, being a child of pride, of self-will, of the devil, loves only vanity, human glory and praise and seeks to be everywhere conspicuous and to domineer over all. The religious life is a life of charity, peace, union and mutual forbearance; the bad spirit is essentially selfish, divides men from one another, breaks up union and spreads dissension and discord among all. The religious life in the subjects is a filial love for and an affectionate devotedness to the superior. The bad spirit is the I personified set up in the place of authority; it is the I criticising and blaming all that proceeds from lawful authority. If the superior is zealous for the regular observance, the bad spirit stigmatizes him as a tyrant; if he dissimulates and tries to bring the culprit back to duty by kind treatment, the bad spirit charges him with cowardice, with allowing disorders to prevail and ruin the religious discipline. If the superior is economical, he is called a miser, a man devoid of charity; if he is generous, he is accused of squandering. The accursed I adores himself and finds nothing good except what he himself conceives and does. The religious life is a life of the family, of fraternal charity. The bad spirit comprises all the defects contrary to the social virtues. He is excessively punctilious, sensitive, touchy and delicate; he takes offense at everything; a word, a gesture, a look, an indifferent act devoid of evil intent scandalizes him, wounds and irritates him and makes him taciturn and ill-humored for days. Is there anything more liable to kill the family life than he who combines such defects in himself? Such a religious is a torment, a heavy cross for his superiors, a bush of sharp thorns for his brethren, the scourge of his community and the executioner of its family life. "What can be expected of a religious who has a bad spirit" asks St. John Climacus; "nothing good, a miserable end, for he is a rotten member, threatening to inoculate the other members with his gangrene; he is a member that should be amputated and thrown back into the world, if we wish to prevent him from communicating his poison to the whole body, for with him the family life is impossible. 4. The Brother servant, the member who remains as a stranger in the community. "To be happy in the community," Father Champagnat would often say, "a man must not enter it as a servant, or a stranger, but as a son, a child of the house. God Himself tells us that man shall leave father 228

and mother, in order to cleave to his wife. In like manner, the religious who wishes to be happy in his state, to enjoy in it the consolations of the religious and the family life, must leave his parents and relatives and all that he possesses in the world, in order to attach himself to his superiors, to his brethren and to the Institute, which is henceforth to be his family. He who does not wholly give himself to his community, who does not strive to be animated with the sentiments of a dutiful child of his Institute, is not a religious, but only a stranger in the family bringing into it only vitiated and disturbing elements. Such a one has not a childlike spirit; he considers the superior as a master, as an importunate superintendent. He has no real affection for his brethren, whom he considers only as strangers or only acquaintances; to whom he shows but little attention and kindness, without seeking to oblige them. Wholly occupied with his own self, his own interests, he cares little whether his fellow-religious suffer or are overburdened. He performs his tasks only to get done with them, for he is indifferent to the interests of the community, caring not whether it prospers or meets with reverses. There is scarcely any one more miserable than the religious devoid of the family spirit, that is, than he who is not devoted to his Institute, who centers his affections in his family and worldly friends, and lives in his own community as a stranger, as having his goods and his treasures elsewhere. What is still more deplorable is that he brings unhappiness to all around him, disturbs their happiness, weakens the family spirit among them, compromises the works of his vocation, is an obstruction to all who live with him, and a cause of ruin for the Institute. A venerable pastor, when bidding good-bye to the Brothers going to the Mother-house for their annual retreat, said to their Director: "Come back soon, and bring four Brothers along." "There is no danger of our number being diminished, for there will be five of us, when we return." The pastor made no reply; but when the Brothers returned, he explained his meaning. Seeing the five Brothers before him, he said: "Last year there were only three Brothers, for two of them did not count, because they had not the right spirit, they did not lead a family life. When I went to your house, I seldom found them with the others; I never saw them do their share of work in the house or in the garden. They had their own method of teaching. From their ways it was easy to see that they were only schoolmasters and not Brothers, and that their heart was not in the education and the training of the children. Though numbered among the community, they were not members of it; they were worth less than nothing for doing good, for they paralyzed the efforts and zeal of their 229

brethren. I expect better things from the new corners. I am wholly devoted to your Institute; but I must say that I like only the true Brothers, for experience shows me that only these edify my parish and benefit the children." The good pastor was right and had well judged the two Brothers, who were devoid of virtue and of the religious spirit, and had a disagreeable character which unfitted them for the religious life. A certain Brother complained to his confessor, a holy religious, that his profession had been postponed, and asked his advice thereon. "As far as your conscience is concerned," he replied, "I see nothing that should keep you from making your vows; but your dispositions, as known to me as your confessor, do not warrant my saying to you that you can, in all security, take such an engagement upon yourself. There is one point that should be known in reference to this: and that is whether you possess the spirit and the qualities of your state. Do you love your Institute? Do you love your brethren? Have you a childlike spirit, the family spirit? Is your character suited to the community life? Your superior alone can properly decide whether you sufficiently possess all these requisites, because he alone has watched over you and knows your exterior conduct. The religious life is not a benefit for him who lacks these qualities. Such a one suffers in religion and gains but little merit; and, what is more deplorable, he causes every one else to suffer, because he breaks up the family spirit." This was a beautiful answer, which candidates for profession should seriously consider, as also those who are to vote concerning their admission. The general rules of religious Institutes forbid the admission of seculars to the common recreation of the religious; why? Because every one who does not form a part of the body, every stranger disturbs and weakens the family spirit. The religious are not at their ease in the presence of seculars; they keep a reserve unbefitting the unrestrained and easy ways of a family. Seculars in a religious community are like a wooden leg in a human body. Were that leg even magnificently carved and gilt, that is, were that secular an excellent Catholic, or even a clergyman, he is always like a wooden leg which cannot perfectly harmonize with the rest, which deforms the body, embarrasses its motions, disturbs the common liberty and life. The family life excludes and does not tolerate the wooden leg. This is a point of great importance. Moreover, every religious who attracts his relatives to the place in which he resides, and keeps them as long as he can, shows that the religious family life is weak in him, and that his heart and affections are not for his religious family, and that his community cannot fully rely on him. Every stranger, 230

whoever he may be, disturbs the family happiness, and superiors and subjects should keep all seculars out of the community. Finally, the happiness of the community life depends on all the members. Each one is bound to contribute his share, and each one enjoys this happiness in proportion to his efforts and sacrifices in procuring it for the others. If you impart contentment in your house, you shall enjoy it. Nothing is more just, for the others will give you what you give them, and will treat you as you treat them. "Do unto others, what you wish them to do unto you." The same measure you give to others, shall be given to you. You shall reap what you have sown. If you sow peace, contentment and happiness among your brethren, they also will give you peace, contentment and happiness. If you cast trouble among them, you shall reap trouble also; if you sow the wind, you shall reap the whirlwind, a fierce storm. The law of retaliation requires that you be treated as you treat others.

Virtues of the Family Life (C)

Which are the advantages of the community life? Replying to this question, St. Basil, among other things, says that such a life is preferable to the solitary or contemplative life, because it enables us more perfectly to practise charity, the first and greatest of all virtues. In fact, the true family life is charity in practice, charity exercised habitually with all its qualities. St. Paul admirably understood this truth and thus taught it to the early Christians: "Charity is patient, is kind; charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious, seeketh not her own; is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1 Cor. 13. 4-7). These words of the apostle show us that charity comprises all the social virtues, all the rules of the family life, all the sentiments that should animate superiors and subjects and, consequently, all that can secure the happiness of both, as we shall now see. 1. Charity is patient. He who possesses this virtue suffers without complaint all kinds of wrongs, contempt, sarcasm, insults, want of dueregard and all ill-treatment from his brethren. With St. Ambrose he says: "When someone loads me with reproaches and insults, tries to provoke me to anger, and to dispute, I keep silent, and I am not ashamed to become dumb, for he who thus acts towards me does wrong, and I do not wish to resemble him. The patient teacher never punishes a pupil, 231

when he is in bad humor, or excited, and thus he avoids using bitter, harsh and offensive language that would wound charity and even ordinary politeness. He accepts without complaints the trouble connected with his employment, bears the contradictions of the world, the ignorance, coarseness, ingratitude and all the other defects of the children, and suffers patiently in union with Jesus Christ all that is painful and difficult in this ministry of charity. He is never disheartened, notwithstanding his little success in teaching, never grows weary in often repeating the same things, in giving the same counsels, the same corrections, although the result may hardly be apparent, bearing in mind that it behooves him to cultivate, pull out, plant, water, preserve, but that "God giveth the increase." He never returns evil for evil, but, as St. Paul enjoins, he blesses those who curse him, prays for those who persecute him, presents his left cheek to him who struck him on the right and numbers among his friends those who censure and slander him. Thus acted St. Stephen, the abbot, who thanked those that had caused him much suffering and included in his memento those who outraged and persecuted him. St. Francis de Sales, threatened, insulted and called a hypocrite by a brutal man, after bearing a long time with him with admirable patience, replied: "Know well that were you to put out one of my eyes, I will still look kindly at you with the other, as if you were my very best friend." The saints, being desirous of becoming pleasing to God, sought occasions of practising charity by patiently bearing with the shortcomings of their neighbor. St. Philip Neri was ill-treated by the religious among whom he was living; instead of showing displeasure or complaining about them to their superior, he treated them with respect and did them all the favors in his power. And as some of his friends insisted that he should leave that place, he replied : "I will not do so, for I do not wish to shun the crosses which God sends me." Nevertheless when he perceived that he could not win those bad religious by his charity and humility, and that all his kindness rendered them still more intractable, he had recourse to Jesus Christ. Raising his eyes to a crucifix, he exclaimed: "O my Jesus, why dost Thou not listen to me? I have already so long and so earnestly besought Thee for charity and patience; why hast Thou not heard me?" "I will give thee these beautiful virtues," replied Jesus; "but I wish thee to acquire them by this means." The place where he found the opportunity of practising patience and charity, became most delightful to him, for he remained there thirty years, and left it only by order of the Pope. A Br. Director once said to the Superior General: "I regret the young Brother you have taken from me, not because he performed his 232

charge well, for he did it very poorly, but because he was very useful to me by exercising me in patience and meekness." Beautiful words and a sublime sentiment, which indicated a chosen soul who possessed the science of the saints, and was faithful to grace and profited by the occasions of making progress in virtue! 2. Charity is meek. According to St. Thomas the virtue of meekness indicates a noble soul; he who is meek, in fact, is superior to all that may be said or done to him. When he is outraged by words or deeds, he remains calm and does not lose his peace. According to St. Francis de Sales, nothing edifies the neighbor so much as kindness and meekness. Affability and meekness, according to St. Vincent de Paul, admirably conduce to keep up peace, concord and union of hearts. "The older I grow," said St. Frances de Chantal, "the more I see that meekness is the virtue that rules men and renders their mutual relations easy and pleasant." Meekness, like sugar, is the sweetener of conversation and the food of concord. All men love this virtue. Hence we are not astonished to read in the Life of St. Francis Xavier that many visited him merely to witness his admirable meekness and his kind and gentle character. The religious who wishes to make progress in this virtue and lead a truly family life, should act as follows: Following the counsel of St. Francis de Sales, he considers his neighbor as being in the breast (heart) of Jesus, and is ever mindful of the Saviour's words: "Whatsoever you do to the least of My brethren, you do it unto Me." If he is thoroughly penetrated with this principle of faith, how can he keep from loving his neighbor? How can he refrain from treating him with meekness and kindness? Being convinced that disputes, quarrels, harsh language, intolerance of the opinions of others, are the scourges of conversation, he follows this ancient pagan saying: "In conversation be respectful and deferential towards your superiors, meek and kind towards your equals, and benevolent towards your inferiors." He endeavors especially to practise meekness in his words, actions and in all his relations with his neighbor. He is pleased with and puts into practice this saying of St. Francis de Sales: "The tongue must keep still as long as the mind is irritated or excited." When speaking with one who is provoked or in illhumor, he recalls this saying of the Holy Ghost: "A mild answer breaketh wrath." He then either remains silent, or replies only with the greatest meekness. When St. John the Abbot was insulted by one of his religious, he gave him no answer. "Why do you not impose silence on that wicked Brother? " some one asked him. "When a house is on fire," he replied , "it is not the proper time to put more wood into it. Meekness and silence are 233

more apt to calm the Brother than correction." The meek religious follows these maxims of St. Francis de Sales: "We can catch more flies with a teaspoonful of honey than with a hundred barrels of vinegar.A sauce is never spoiled with too much sugar, but often with too much salt or vinegar." A good religious, in his relations with his brethren (or pupils), always employs meekness, insinuation, persuasion, and carefully avoids constraint, rigidity, and whatever may hurt their feelings. 3. "Charity is benevolent." "Charity," says St. John, "is manifested by works." Every other proof is equivocal. Some say: "I love my neighbor, and to prove it, I show him a cheerful countenance, and I am all politeness towards him." "That is all very well," remarks St. Bernard; "but that is only the very lowest degree of charity." "I do more," says another, "for my brethren are so dear to me, that I consider it my duty to oblige them whenever there is occasion for so doing." "The second degree, though better, is not sufficient." A third says: "I love my brethren so much that I devote all I have to relieve their wants." "This," says St. Bernard, "is a very high and excellent degree of charity, but it is not the most perfect." The fourth degree consists in being able to say with St. Paul: "Be ye my imitators, as I am of Christ;" that is, as Jesus Christ gave us His labors, strength, blood, merits and life and wholly sacrificed Himself for men's welfare and salvation, so also am I ready to devote my labors, strength, health and life for my brethren. The only true charity is benevolent and beneficent, for it gives all and reserves nothing. 4. "Charity envieth not." The religious who is truly charitable, considers the welfare of his brethren as his own, and knows not mine and thine. With Ven. Father Champagnat he says: "Speak not to me of yours and mine, for all I have is yours, and what is yours is mine also, because our interests are identical." Wherefore, he rejoices at their success, thanks God for what they do, and is sorry for their failures, as if they were his own. He sees, not only without regret, but even with pleasure that they surpass him in talents, that they are more highly esteemed and honored than he, are preferred to him, and rejoices at seeing them raised to higher offices, whilst he remains in the lowest and most burdensome employments. With Jonathas he says: "Thou shalt command, and I shall be after thee and obey thee." Charity in heaven is so great, that each elect rejoices as much in the glory of the others as in his own. In like manner, the good religious feels happy and rich because of the gifts, talents and advantages of his brethren, and enjoys them as if' they were his own. A holy religious, beholding himself the object of another's envy, resolved to care for him and make himself the servant, and would make his bed, clean 234

his shoes, dust his clothes, sweep his room and render him every kind of service. By this humble and charitable conduct he cured him of his envy, gained his confidence and affection and became his best friend. 5. "Charity is not ambitious." A true religious does not desire the first places, nor office or honor. If he is appointed to office, he considers himself doubly obliged to practise humility, according to this saying of the Holy Ghost: "The more thou art elevated, the more thou shouldst make thyself little." His whole ambition is to remain hidden and to live in submission to others. He finds no difficulty, but pleasure and joy in laying down an honorable office or employment. He willingly devotes himself to manual labor, and has a particular attraction for the lowest and meanest tasks. He seeks not to domineer over his brethren, but to be the servant of all. If obedience requires him to be over them, he causes them to feel his authority only by his good example and benefits; he rules over them only as a loving mother rules over her children, or as a Sister of Charity or of Mercy rules over her patients, that is, through charity, devotedness and solicitude. Pope Sixtus V, who had been a monk in the convent of the Holy Apostles in Rome, informed the members of that community, that he intended to grant to each of them a special favor, and that all should first reflect well on what favor they desired. The monks were overjoyed and went in a body to see the Pope. He had a secretary at his side to write down the request of each monk. Each one came in his turn to the Holy Father to make his request known. The majority of the requests do not deserve to be mentioned, for they were far from edifying; we give only three of them for they relate to our present subject and may serve us as a good lesson. One Brother asked for a "Brief" forbidding all his brethren, under pain of excommunication, ever to dispute with him, or ever to say anything unpleasant to him. He was right, says the historian, in asking for this safeguard, for he was of an insolent, proud and disagreeable character, who frequently afforded his brethren the opportunity of practising patience. Their kindly ways could not move him or make him reasonable, for, in order to keep him in his place and avoid his ill-treatment, they felt obliged to retaliate. Hence when he made his request, some one said in a whisper: "The `Brief' he needs is a dungeon, or an executioner." Another Brother requested that his family, one of the noblest in Naples, should be allied by marriage to the Perretti family, that of the Pope. "I will grant you this," replied the Pope; "but as there should be some proportion between your family and mine, lay aside your religious 235

habit, and become a swineherd as I was in my youth. Only on this condition may we become related to each other." The monk, who was a doctor of Theology and Provincial in his Order, blushed and almost died of shame at the lesson the Pope gave him to cure him of his ambition, but he took care not to accept the condition. Finally, a very pious lay-brother, who had been cook of the convent for thirty years, came forward and said to the Pope: "Most Holy Father, I feel exceedingly happy to see you Head of the Church, after having seen you a simple religious. Personally, I need nothing and desire only your blessing. But since Your Holiness has wished that I should be included among the brethren who should ask you for something, I most humbly beg you to have a fountain made in our convent, for we suffer great inconvenience on account of the scarcity of water, as you yourself suffered therefrom when we had the honor to have you among us." This request was the only one which the Pope granted, as the magnificent fountain may still be seen which he ordered to be made in the yard of the convent, as a reward for the good Brother's family spirit. But the requests of the other religious drew tears from the Pope's eyes. "I had expected," he said, "that none of you would think of his personal interest and that all had the common welfare at heart. Should not the obedience you vowed have induced you to renounce all that personally concerned you? Can true religious honorably and with a good conscience desire what could not be advantageous to the whole Order? Your avidity has closed my hands. I believe it would be a crime for me to be so weak as to encourage it by my benefits." 6. "Charity is not puffed up." Only he who is humble, possesses true charity. "To practise charity," said Father Champagnat, "to live in peace with our brethren, to bear their defects, to yield to them for the sake of concord, and not to be humble, is impossible. Nothing is more befitting to combat pride than the practice of fraternal charity and obedience. Show me a community in which the members are guided by obedience, in which they mutually oblige, respect and 'bear with one another, love one another, and there will never be any discord, but the union will be perfect. But that community whose subjects are vain, sensitive and proud, will resemble a hell, because pride begets insubordination, disputes and all that sows disturbance and discord among men." Pride brought disorder, revolt and division in heaven among the angels, in the earthly paradise among men, and continues to do the same wherever it penetrates. He who has at heart to live in peace with his brethren, does not dissimulate in speech; he speaks as he thinks, is not 236

vain in his words, is never heard boasting or speaking of himself. Far from parading his talents, his good qualities, he conceals them and does good noiselessly. He is so discreet and modest in his conduct, that, in some manner, his left hand knows not the good he does with his right. Neat, but simple in his attire, nothing in him smacks of vanity or superficiality. 7. "Charity rejoiceth not in evils but in good." He who loves his brethren, is grieved when he seesthem oppressed, despised and persecuted, and feels their ills as if they were his own. Often he is more pained at their sufferings than at his own. He blesses God and rejoices over their good for-tune for three reasons: First, because the glory of God, which he loves and seeks above all, is found therein; secondly, on account of the advantages they derive therefrom; and thirdly, because he considers the welfare of his brethren as really his own and actually shares it with them. When a man is in business partnership with others, he is not grieved at their business abilities and success; on the contrary, he finds therein a cause of joy, because the whole company profits thereby, and he shares in the profits. 8. "Charity thinketh no evil." "The two most common and widespread vices," says Cornelius a Lapide, "are an excess of severity and an excess of indulgence; severity towards others and indulgence towards oneself." "Men," says St. Augustine, "are curious about the doings of others and quick at condemning them; but they are slow in amending their own faults." "Why," asks our Saviour, "dost thou see the mote in thy brother's eye, and dost not see the beam in thine own? Or how canst thou tell thy brother: let me take the mote out of thy eye, and yet leavest the beam in thine own? Hypocrite, first take the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see to take the mote out of thy brother's." These words set forth the two great spiritual diseases we are speaking of; judging our neighbor severely, and forgiving ourselves everything evil. We strut about displaying our own virtue, criminally indulgent to our own vices, and indiscreetly exposing and censuring the doings of our neighbor; in a word, devoting all our zeal to harass our neighbor for slight failings that displease us, and allowing our faults to increase unhindered and falling into extreme laxity concerning our own conduct. A religious who has real charity acts quite differently for he closes his eyes on the defects of his brethren, and notices only their virtues. He never interprets unfavorably his neighbor's actions, but always as favorably as he can. He who has a good stomach turns even heavy food into healthy juices; he who has a bad stomach turns even healthy foods into bile and injurious humors. In like manner, the upright and charitable 237

soul puts a favorable interpretation on everything; but he who is devoid of charity poisons all things and puts an evil interpretation on very good actions. The charitable man does not condemn his brother even when he sees him committing a fault. In such a case, if he cannot excuse the deed, he excuses the intention, or alleges ignorance, surprise, etc. Or like the holy religious mentioned by St. Bernard, who, beholding one of his brethren committing a sin, exclaimed sighing, "Alas! what he does today, I would do tomorrow, if God does not help me!" Another holy religious, whenever he entered a cell that was unclean and in disorder, would say to himself: "Oh, how happy is this good Brother to make so little account of the exterior, and to have his mind so occupied with heavenly things as not to think of the earthly!" When he entered a cell that was clean and well kept, he would exclaim: "Oh, how careful is Br. N. concerning the purity of his soul!" Thus he judged favorably of every one, and never said: "That is dirty! This is too nice, too worldly!" as men devoid of charity would say. 9. "Charity beareth all, suffereth all." Yes, the charitable religious is not squeamish or sensitive, and easily bears with want of respect, politeness or due regard, when such shortcomings are the result of a lack of education, without malice or evil intent. He bears in all patience with the defects of his brethren, and by his good example, charitable admonitions and prayers helps to correct them. He puts up with the imperfections, weaknesses and want of progress of the imperfect, leads them kindly on to perfection, guards against being too exacting of them and against loading them with burdens they are unable to carry, lest they grow despondent. He tolerates or only very leniently corrects the defects of character in his pupils, or their faults of levity, and sometimes awaits only a favorable time to correct more serious faults. A certain Superior was once asked: "Why do you tolerate Br. N's. defects, and why do you defer reproving him?" "I wait for four things: first, that the weather may be beautiful, clear and pleasant, for experience tells me that gloomy weather has an evil influence on certain characters and unfits them for accepting a correction; secondly, that the Brother should be cheerful, contented and ready to receive the correction he deserves; thirdly, that God should have disposed his heart and begun already to teach him a lesson, so that I may have only to second divine grace; and fourthly, that I myself may be prepared and have received the grace to perform well that difficult act." Admirable and instructive reply! 10. Finally, "charity believeth all things." A charitable religious believes especially these six points: 1, all the good he hears of his neigh238

bor, of his brethren; 2, that he is the least virtuous of all, that, before God, all are better and more perfect than he; he therefore, always willingly takes the last place and becomes the servant of all; 3, that the evil said of others is usually false, or grossly exaggerated; hence he never listens to slander, detraction, to which he keeps his ears always closed; 4, he willingly believes and accepts the excuses of his brethren (and pupils), and, far from taking pleasure in finding them guilty, he is satisfied to see that they are innocent or, at least, less guilty than was at first supposed; 5, he firmly believes in these words of St. Peter: "Charity covereth a multitude of sins." Accordingly, when he perceives a virtue in his brethren, he does not mind their slight shortcomings, for in his estimation, that virtue covers them all; 6, he believes that charity is the first, the most excellent and necessary of the virtues, and that, consequently, no effort should be spared to preserve it and promote its growth. And, as this can be done only by repeated acts, he constantly performs acts of charity. And, recalling these words of St. Paul, so full of meaning: "Be ye indebted to no one," he daily pays his debts to his neighbor. Which are these debts? First, practical love, honor and respect; second, bearing with his defects, whatever they may be; third, charitable admonition, if the occasion offers; fourth, help, assistance, favors, whenever required; fifth, constant prayer for his neighbor's wants; and sixth, edification and good example everywhere. Thus does a good religious practise charity, and this charity makes him happy and procures him all the charms of the family life.

In Union There Is Strengh (C)

"A brother that is helped by his brother is like a strong city, and (their) judgments are like the bars of cities" (Prov. 18.19). Ven. Father Champagnat had long meditated on this; wherefore, he so earnestly recommended to his Brothers union and fraternal charity. "I desire," he wrote to them in a circular letter, "that union and charity, mentioned by the beloved disciple, should always reign among you; that those, whose duty is to obey, should do so with humility, and that those who command, should do so with gentle charity, for by these means the joy and peace of the Holy Ghost will always be with you." On another occasion he wrote: "You are convinced that I love all of you in Jesus Christ. Therefore I ardently desire and will that you be united together and love one another as children of the same Father, God, and of the same Mother, the Church, and, in short, as children of Mary." Another time he summoned the Brothers to the annual retreat in these words: "How pleasant it is for me to 239

think that, in a few days, I shall have the pleasure, when embracing you, to say with the psalmist: 'Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.' Very sweet is the consolation to see you all assembled together, having but one heart and one soul, forming but one and the same family, all seeking only the glory of God, the interests of His holy religion, and all combating under the same standard, that of His holy Mother." Imitating our divine Saviour, the Ven. Father's last admonition, when he was about to die, was on brotherly union. "My dear Brothers," he said, `it is with all the affection of my heart, and by all your attachment to me, that I beseech you so to conduct yourselves that holy charity may always be maintained among you. Love one another as Jesus Christ has loved you; let there be among you but one heart and one soul. The most ardent wish of my heart, at this last moment of my life, is that it may always be truly said of the Little Brothers of Mary as of the first Christians: `See how they love one another! See how perfectly they are united among themselves!' " Being convinced that in union there is strength, that union secures the obedience of the subjects, the prosperity and the good government of the Institute, Father Champagnat did not fail to recommend several times to Br. Francis, his successor, and to his assistants, always to agree together and remain constantly united. "You will have," he said, "much trouble; but have confidence, if you are united, God will be with you, for you are doing His work." Brother Francis and his two assistants, through affection for Ven. Father Champagnat, as well as through virtue and conscientious duty, were most faithful to his counsel, for their union was entire, constant and unalterable. It proved their power and their glory; it imparted to them complete authority over the Brothers, and was the chief cause of the good they accomplished for the Institute. Their union, with its success and benefits, should serve as a model to all who are called to govern a religious Institute. Brothers Francis, Louis Mary and John Baptist were all three of about the same age and had been unanimously elected by the ninety-two professed Brothers during Father Champagnat's life, to govern the Institute, the first as Superior General and the other two as his assistants. After this election, over which he presided with Father Colin, Father Champagnat seemed greatly pleased. "I am pleased with your choice," he said to the Brothers; "these were the ones I wished for. God be praised for their election." The three Brothers were among the eldest in the Institute; they had lived with the Ven. Founder, had helped him to govern the Institute, and had been especially trained by him. His examples and 240

lessons had not been lost upon them, for they were intimately penetrated with his principles, and had wholly mastered his spirit, for it became the soul, the guide of their administration and of all the works performed in its course. The administration of the Institute was entrusted to them at a most critical time, in the most difficult circumstances, that is, after the Founder's death, when the Congregation most needed wise and enlightened superiors to direct it, when the past traditions were to be gathered together, and when there was required a revision of the Rule and of the method of teaching, of applying the principles of the Founder, and the completion of his work. The task was evidently a difficult one, and if they fulfilled it perfectly, it was owing especially to their perfect union. And what is truly remarkable and extraordinary, these three Brothers, so different from one another in character, governed the Institute together for more than twenty years without ever manifesting the slightest difference of views, without any one ever being able to surmise that their thoughts ever differed. Whenever a member or an outsider had recourse to any of the three, they met with the same language, the same views, the same appreciation of matters, the same way of treating affairs, the same spirit, and, in short, the same direction. Never did one grant what another had refused; never did one blame or seem to disapprove what another had said or done. Whoever heard them or saw them act, could not help believing that they had but one soul, and that they were all three animated with the very same spirit. This perfect union, which constitutes their glory, was so well known, that practically each of them enjoyed full authority, and what any of the three had promised or done, was considered as finally settled and beyond all appeal. One of the ablest and most intelligent of the Brothers, filled with astonishment and admiration at the sight of so perfect and constant a union amid so many occasions, if not of divisions, at least of divergence of views and conduct, exclaimed: "It would be more difficult to divide these three men than to plant a rose-bush in mid-ocean." This saying, although picturesque, is quite appropriate to indicate how intimate their union was, what the Brothers thought about it, and how powerful an influence it exercised over them to maintain them in the spirit of submission and obedience. A venerable priest who had had, on several occasions, to transact some business with them, said one day to a Brother Director: "Your three who are, as it were, only one, are the most striking confirmation I have ever come across of these words of the Holy Ghost: `A three-fold cord is not easily broken' " (Eccles. 4. 12). And what rendered this union still more admirable and praiseworthy was the fact that 241

it remained unaltered notwithstanding a number of circumstances best calculated to break or at least weaken it. Br. Francis, being almost always sick and unable to act directly, was obliged to leave the burden of the administration to his assistants, who divided the work between them, such as the temporal affairs, the direction of the Brothers, etc, They regulated everything, provided for everything with so perfect a spirit of unity and self-abnegation, that the authority of Br. Francis, far from being decreased, went on always increasing, so that the Brothers could scarcely perceive that he acted only through his assistants. To show how well they were impressed by such an example, the members of the Chapter of 1860 expressed the wish that a painting should be made representing the three Brothers in a group, united in the same spirit, that it might recall to all the Brothers a fact so well adapted to serve them as a lesson and a model. Happy and blessed are those convents where such a model is imitated and becomes the rule of the religious. Peace, consolation, holy cheerfulness, happiness and the hundred-fold of the good promised by Jesus Christ will be the lot of the members. The prosperity of the works of the Institute, the edification and confidence of the people are the accessories of the communities in which union and charity reign. Union is absolutely necessary in a religious Institute to prove useful and do good. It was by union that God made all things. When about to create man, he said to Himself: "Let us make man after our own image and likeness." For this, the greatest of His created works on earth, there is the deliberation, agreement and consent of the three divine Persons. The same union appears in man's Redemption. The Father sends His Son as a gift to men; the Son sacrifices Himself according to the will of His Father, and it was through the operation of the Holy Ghost that the Incarnation took place. It is in the name of the three divine Persons that we are baptized, regenerated and made the children of God. It was by means of union that Jesus Christ founded His Church. "Among the apostles," says St. Jerome, "Peter alone is chosen as the head, so as to avoid all division." Our divine Saviour had this union so much at heart, that He earnestly besought it of His heavenly Father: "Holy Father, keep them in Thy name whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as We also are" (John 17.11). Why had He this union so much at heart? Because union is life, dualism, or separation, is death; because union is virtue, and dualism is sin and disorder; because union is strength, prosperity and progress, and dualism is weakness, decadence and nothingness. Unity imparts to heaven its admirable beauty and order. Unity imparts virtue and holiness to the soul, and to the body strength and health. Unity fortifies families, cities 242

and countries. Discord, or division, breaks and destroys, brings on war and destruction. "Every kingdom divided against it-self shall be destroyed," says our divine Saviour, and every house divided against itself shall crumble. Even hell itself subsists through union, for if Satan were divided against himself, his kingdom could not stand. Union effects strength and progress. Even the pagan Sallust says: "Small things increase by concord, and the greatest are ruined and annihilated by discord." King Agesilaus, being asked why the city of Sparta had no fortifications, replied by showing all the citizens well united together, and saying: "These are the city's ramparts." "When ten are united together, one is as much as ten, for one is in the ten, and the ten are in the one," says St. John Chrysostom; "wherefore each one has twenty hands, twenty eyes, etc., breathes and acts with ten souls, for each one has as much care of the others as of himself; hence each one is capable of effecting very much, because the other nine are at his disposal." Unity produces happiness. Where there is concord, there also is Jesus Christ, the Blessed Trinity and, consequently, happiness, eternal bliss. The unity of heaven forms the felicity of the saints. "In heaven," says St. Augustine, "there is no envy, no opposite desires, for unity of love reigns there," and, says St. Gregory, "this unity of love so binds the saints together, that each elect who has not received a certain enjoyment as his reward, rejoices that the others have received it, and is as happy as if he himself possessed it." The grace of unity is the pledge of every good. "I shall give them one soul and one way, and in this manner strength, prosperity, peace and every good shall be with them" (Jer. 32.39). Take away unity and only ruins remain; separate the branch from its trunk, and it bears no fruit; separate the streamlet from its source, and it dries up. A building is devoid of strength and cannot stand, except through its unity; take away its mortar, its cement and it will crumble. In like manner, concord is the bond that unites together the members of a community. Take away concord, and its members, like wild beasts, will tear one another in pieces, and there will be no more charity, justice, indulgence, or happiness. All this will depart with unity, and the house will become an image of hell. O holy unity, how necessary art thou, and how great benefits dost thou contain! Come to dwell among us, to reign always over us, for we all wish to live under thy dominion. O holy unity, so nobly taught us by the examples of our first brethren, we are ready to make every sacrifice to preserve thee; be always with us, that we may all have but one heart and 243

one soul, and that it may always be said of us: "See how they love one another! See how they are united among themselves!"

What It Is to Educate a Child (C)

Ven. Father Champagnat, when he founded his Institute, proposed not only to give primary instruction to children, not only to instruct them in the knowledge of our holy religion, but also to educate them. "If there were question only of teaching the children human science," he said, "there would be no need of Brothers, for the school-masters could do it. If we pretend to impart only religious instruction, we could content ourselves with being mere catechists, and gathering the children together an hour each day. But we wish to do better; we wish to train the children, that is, to give them an education. For this it behooves us to be teachers, to live among them and to have them along with us. What, then, does it mean to educate a child? Is it to take care of him, to look after him, to attend to his wants and supply him with food and clothing? By no means. Is it to teach him to read and write, to furnish him the knowledge he will need later on to attend to his temporal affairs? No. Education is a far more exalted work. Is it to teach him a trade to enable him to exercise a profession? No, no! Education is not an apprenticeship. Is it to teach him politeness and civility, to train him in the usages of society, in the ways of the world'? No. All this is good and necessary for the child, but does not make up real education, it is only its bark, the least part of it. To procure to a child all these goods and advantages, is to rear his body, but not to train his soul; it is to teach him to live for time, but not for eternity; it is to train him for the world, but not for God, who is his sole end, and not for heaven, his destiny, his country. God created man in innocence and justice. If Adam had not sinned, man's nature would not have been corrupted, and his offspring would not have needed any education, but would, at their birth, have been endowed with all the perfection of their nature, or at least, would have reached it by themselves in proportion to the development of their faculties. But in consequence of the original degradation, man is born with the germ of all vices, as well as of all virtues. He is a lily, but surrounded by thorns; a vine that needs pruning; a diamond, but a diamond in the rough that needs cutting and polishing; a field in which the house-holder has sown good seed, but in which the enemy also has sown cockle. The end of education is to pull out these thorns, to prune the vine, to cut and polish this 244

diamond, to cultivate this field and eradicate the cockle. Therefore to educate a child means: 1. To make religion known to him, that is, to teach him the end of man, the necessity of salvation, death, judgment, heaven, hell, eternity, the malice of sin, the commandments, of God and of the Church, the life, mysteries, virtues, and sufferings of Jesus Christ, what He did for the salvation of mankind, the sacraments He instituted, the abundant Redemption He acquired for us, what we must do to apply it to ourselves and to be worthy children of God, and finally to merit the eternal glory destined for us, which Jesus Christ ascended into heaven to prepare for us. 2. To repress the child's evil inclinations, correct his vices and defects, such as pride, indocility, duplicity, selfishness, gluttony, rudeness, ingratitude, license, sloth, etc. It is necessary to stifle these vices at their very birth; the worm must be killed before it becomes a serpent. A slight ill should be cured before it turns into a deadly disease. The very first moment we discover a defect in a child, a kind reprimand, a severe look, a light penance suffices to remedy the evil and kill the evil germ. But, if we let it grow, it will soon become a habit which all our later efforts will fail to correct. "The incipient defects and vices which we look upon as mere trifles, and therefore neglect to repress, are," says Tertullian, "germs of sins indicating a life of crime." Thorns, when they begin to grow, do not sting; serpents at their birth, have no venom; but in the course of time the points of the thorns harden and are as sharp as needles, and serpents grow venomous with age. The same is the case with a child's vices and defects. If allowed to grow and develop, they become tyrannical passions, criminal habits which resist everything and are incorrigible. 3. To train the heart of the child and develop all his good dispositions, to cast into his heart the seed of all virtues, and endeavor to make him docile, humble, compassionate, charitable, grateful, meek, patient, generous, constant; to impart to him the means of practising these virtues; to promote their growth and lead them to perfection. The heart of the child is a virgin soil, receiving seed for the first time. If that heart is well prepared and cultivated, and if the seed is good, it will produce abundant and durable fruits. The skilled gardener bends, engrafts and subjects the tree to treatment while it is young and tender. The potter forms his vase before the clay gets hard. In like manner, we must train the child in virtue, when he is young, pliant and innocent, for then good principles are easily impressed in his mind and heart. At first, he will do right, only because he is commanded to do it; but soon, as his reason becomes developed, he will do it out of love and choice, so that he will by 245

and bye practise virtue without much difficulty, but even with pleasure. "Constant experience," says Pope St. Pius V, "proves that children trained in virtue in their infancy, almost always lead a Christian, pure and exemplary life, and sometimes even reach a high degree of sanctity; but those, whose training in virtue has been neglected, usually lead a life devoid of virtue, full of vices and disorders which prove their ruin." 4. To form the child's conscience. To do this we must, first, impart to him solid religious instruction, and impress on him the conviction that it behooves him to conduct himself, not according to the opinions of the world, but by the principles of the law of God, by motives of faith and the dictates of his conscience; secondly, inspire him with intense hatred and horror of sin, and most deeply inculcate on him the maxim that sin is the greatest of all evils and virtue the only real good; thirdly, teach him that sin and virtue proceed from the heart producing acts of virtue or consenting to evil, and that, consequently, he must watch over his heart, over his thoughts, desires and affections, and that it does not suffice to keep the law of God exteriorly and live honorably before the world, but that he should love the law of God, observe it everywhere and never act contrary to the dictates of his conscience; fourthly, in-spire him with a sincere love of truth, with an extreme aversion for lying, and often recommend him to be sincere in confession. 5. To train the child in piety, to make him understand the need, the necessity and advantages of prayer; to accustom him from his infancy to pray with respect, modesty, attention and recollection; to rear him in the practice of Christian piety, and enable him, to find in prayer and pious exercises his happiness, consolation and strength. We should never cease insisting that piety is the all-important point in education. If we succeed in causing it to penetrate into the child's heart, it will cause all the virtues to spring up therein, and, like a conflagration, it will visibly consume and destroy all vices and defects. Make the child pious, make him pray, make him approach the sacraments, inspire him with a tender love for Jesus, with a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and you will make him good, pure, docile, honest, courageous, active, meek, humble and constant. Make him truly pious and his character will become open, frank, amiable, obliging; make him pious, and in proportion as his love of God increases, his defects will be blotted out, will melt away and disappear, as snow melts and disappears when exposed to the warm rays of a burning sun. Cast a strong dose of piety into the heart of a child and it will cause all the virtues to spring forth, and all his defects and evil habits to die in him. 246

6. To cause the child to love virtue and our holy religion. The child will love his holy religion and cling to it through conviction and conscientiously, if he understands well these four truths: 1, religion is the greatest grace God has given to men; 2, every commandment of God is a real benefit and a source of happiness for man, even in a temporal aspect; 3, religion combats in us only our enemies, that is, the devil, sin, the vices and evil passions that degrade us and become the sources of all our misfortunes; 4, virtue alone makes us happy even in this life; duty and happiness are synonymous and inseparable. Faith teaches us that joy, consolation and felicity are the lot of the virtuous, and that remorse, anguish, tribulation everywhere follow evil-doers, the wicked. 7. To train the child's will and teach him to obey. The great plague of our age is the spirit of independence; every one wishes to have his own way, and believes himself better fitted to command than to obey. The child refuses to submit to his parents; citizens seek to evade the laws and to make legislation subservient to their individual interests; numbers of Catholics practically despise the laws of God and of His Church. Insubordination is found in all classes of society. We therefore render great service to the Church, to society, to the family, and especially to the child, if we bend his will and cause him to obey. To train the child in obedience, we should, first, never command or forbid him anything that is not just and reasonable; never prescribe anything to him that shocks his reason or smacks of injustice, tyranny or caprice; for such orders serve only to disturb his mind and to inspire him with a deep contempt for his teacher and a strong repugnance to the things commanded. Secondly, do not command or forbid many things at one time, for such multiplicity confuses him, fills his heart with discouragement, and causes him to forget a part of the things enjoined or prohibited. All unnecessary constraint sows discouragement and a bad spirit. Thirdly, never command him anything too difficult or impossible, for such commands irritate children and make them stubborn and rebellious, instead of docile. Fourthly, exact the full and entire execution of the task imposed. To give certain orders, to designate the lessons to be learnt, and not require the children to comply fully therewith, renders them disobedient, spoils their will, and accustoms them to make but little account of commands and prohibitions. Fifthly, establish a strong discipline in school and require the pupils fully to submit to it. Such a discipline is one of the best means of imparting to the will strength, energy, the habit of obedience and of the holy violence necessary to be faithful to grace, to struggle against passion 247

and to practise virtue. Such a discipline exercises the will without ceasing through the sacrifices it imposes at every moment, obliges the children to overcome the habit of mental dissipation, to keep silent and recollected, to pay attention to their lessons, to watch over their deportment, to repress their impatience, to become punctual, to study their lessons, to perform their tasks, to be respectful towards their teachers, polite and obliging towards their companions, and to bend and accommodate their character to many things that are naturally disagreeable to them. But this multiplicity of acts of obedience, this series of little victories which the pupils gain over themselves and their defects, are the most appropriate means of training their will, of making it strong and supple, and of imparting to it constancy. 8. To form the child's judgment. Of all the faculties judgment is the one that needs the most to be protected, formed and developed. In fact, of what is a man capable who is devoid of good judgment, of practical common sense, who has no tact and is unable to get along in life? Of nothing! He is unfit for either spiritual or temporal matters; he is incapable of either Christian or social virtues. One cannot be virtuous, unless he is a man, that is, possessed of common sense, or judgment. Judgment cannot be imparted to him who does not possess it, for it is a natural gift. But judgment is progressive; like the other faculties of the soul, it can constantly increase, be strengthened and developed. Hence it is of the utmost importance to cultivate this faculty in a child and to enable him to continue to improve and perfect his reason. Therefore in the first place, it is necessary to accustom children to reflect before speaking, before judging, for false notions origin-ate in incomplete apprehension and examination of things, and precipitation in judging them exposes us to this intellectual disease, for we can only superficially know what we too hurriedly look at. Secondly, we should often repeat to the child this maxim of St. Augustine: "Reflection is the principle of all that is good." Accustom him to regulate his conduct and judgment by the great principles of Christian morality, which is the true light of the mind, the torch of reason and the source of wisdom. Thirdly, we should, in our instructions, train him to seize on the important point, the chief object of a question, of a lesson, of an historical narrative, and not allow him to get lost in insignificant details. Fourthly, we should often cause him to direct his attention to the details of his conduct, that he may discover in what he failed against common sense and tact, how he put aside the principal for the accessory, the brilliant for the solid, or principles for changeable or erroneous views. 248

Fifthly, we should apply him to studies, to some task requiring reflection, and exercise him in combining his ideas, in joining and comparing them together, in drawing consequences from principles, and in accounting for things. Sixthly, we should repeat to him without ceasing that reason, wisdom and virtue are three inseparable things which are found only in the mean, and never in the extremes, and that, therefore reason and good judgment exclude all exaggeration, all chimerical perfection, all excess. Seventhly, we should endeavor to keep the child innocent and virtuous, for passion blinds and falsifies the judgment. 9. To form and polish his character. A good character is a benefit from heaven, a treasure and a source of happiness for the family. A bad or disagreeable character is a misfortune for its possessor and for all who live with him, for it is a cause of discord, a scourge in the family. But, God be praised, character can be modified, corrected and ameliorated. The most defective, the very worst character can be reformed by a good education. To fulfil this difficult task, the teacher should, first, study the child's character, tastes, inclinations, defects and aptitude, for he cannot otherwise know what ought to be reformed, and how to cultivate, develop and perfect the good qualities. Secondly, he should leave the child an honest and respectful liberty, for if he keeps the child under too great a restraint, he shall never know or be able to correct his defects. Thirdly, he should wage an incessant war on the child's selfishness, harshness, pride, insolence, impoliteness, sensitiveness and other vices which spoil the character, promote disorder, ruin peace and fraternal charity. Fourthly, he should strive to make the child polite, obliging, complacent, affable, respectful and grateful, and teach him how to conduct himself towards every one, especially towards his parents and superiors. 10. To watch constantly over the child, to make every effort to preserve him from evil habits, to keep him from bad company, from bad example and from all evil contact, and to protect him against whatever may endanger his innocence, compromise his virtue, and fill his mind with false or evil principles. 11. To inspire him with love of work and accustom him to habits of punctuality, order and cleanliness, and to convince him that prosperity, success and easy circumstances in life originate in industry, economy, modesty and temperance. 12. To impart to him the knowledge requisite for his position and condition, to inspire him with love and contentment in his condition, however humble it may be, and teach him the means to improve it, to make it happy and honorable, and to sanctify himself in it. 249

13. To watch over the child's health and preserve it from all dangers, to keep his members sound and enable them to acquire the strength and vigor, of which they are susceptible, in a word, to remove him from all accidents, from all that might prove injurious to the perfect integrity of his senses and of his members. 14. Finally, to educate a child is to afford him all the means requisite to acquire the whole perfection of his being. And as man has the privilege of being always able to make progress and perfect himself, and to become "perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect," the teacher should take care that his pupil should not leave his care without realizing that he must still continue his education, that is, continue to instruct himself, to reform himself by self-watchfulness, by combating his passions, correcting his defects and striving to become always better and more virtuous. Such is the end, the object of education, such is the august ministry entrusted to the teacher of Christian youth. Such a work is most holy and sublime, for it is a continuation of the divine work, in that it is most noble and exalted, the sanctification of souls. It is a most holy work, for in it there is question of forming saints for heaven; it is most difficult, for it requires great devotedness and the spirit of self-sacrifice; it cost Jesus Christ His blood, His very life, and the teacher cannot be a joint-worker with Jesus Christ and His helper in saving souls, unless by sacrificing and immolating himself. It is, therefore, evident that we do not educate a child by merely teaching him reading, writing, grammar, mathematics, geography, history, physics and the diverse sciences, or even by hearing them recite the catechism. The teacher who limits his work to the above, does not really educate his pupils, for he omits the chief requirements of education, which consist in training the children in virtue, in correcting their defects, in inspiring them with the love of their holy religion, in accustoming them to practise it faithfully, in a word, in making them pious and truly practical Catholics. The father of Socrates, who was a sculptor, showed him a block of marble, saying: "A man is enclosed in that block, and I will make him come out with blows of this hammer." When you are given a child who is still ignorant, uncouth, uneducated, living only with his senses, you can say with greater reason than the father of Socrates: "In that child there is a man, a good father of family, a good citizen, a Christian, a disciple of Jesus Christ, a saint, an elect of heaven and I am going to make all this out of him by instructing him in his duties and his destiny, by reforming and 250

training him and making him become what he can and should be." The child reaches slowly the exercise of his understanding, and this only through communication with others enjoying its benefits; he needs the assistance of other human beings to acquire the integral use of his faculties. But he needs it especially to be trained in virtue, to be prepared to receive the principles of faith, of the graces and virtues necessary to attain his supernatural end. Man is the great means God uses to raise man, to save man. This glorious mission is always difficult, often painful and bleeding, for we can save souls only by self-devotedness and self-sacrifice in their behalf. God considers such a ministry to be so glorious, that He gives the glory of it to His divine Son. "The Word was made flesh," in order to be man's teacher, model and Saviour. What a glory for a religious to be associated with the Son of God in so sublime a mission!

Necessity of Education (C)

"What, think you, shall this child be?" (Luke 1. 66). This was the question asked by the relatives of Zachary and Elizabeth concerning St. John Baptist, and the same question is naturally asked concerning every child at its birth. The Holy Ghost has answered it by telling us that man follows his first way and will not deviate from it in his old age. The child will be what education makes him, that is, a good Christian and a virtuous citizen, if he is well brought up; a vicious man, an enemy of God and religion, a disturber of public peace, if left to himself, if not properly educated. Education, according to an Arab proverb, is the diadem of the child; in other words, from the education he receives depends his whole future and success, all that he will be in the world, all that he will do in it, be it good or evil. And as human society is constantly recruited from the children who have left school, as the ocean is kept full by the rivers pouring their waters into it, we may truly say that the diadem of society is in education, and that education is the mould in which society takes its form, that is, its spirit, its principles. Wherefore an ancient writer had reason to say: "Education is everything, is the man; society, religion, all proceeds from it, good and evil, just as the river comes from its source, and as the oak is from the acorn." Even the pagans acknowledge this truth. "Good education," says Plato, "is the basis of society, of the nation; the education of youth is absolutely necessary for the proper formation of man's whole life, and is the most important affair with which the state should occupy itself; the first duty of the ruler is to provide the means for the honest and religious education of the children from their infancy." 251

This is the reason why, at all times and in all places, the good, on one side, and the wicked, on the other, struggle so obstinately and desperately for the empire of education. Under the apparently simple question as to who shall teach the children reading, writing, etc., there is concealed, in the last analysis, the question of sovereignty, of triumph between good and evil, for the child will naturally belong to one of these two parties, that is, to the party which first took possession of his heart. If the majority of the children are brought up in a Christian manner, the reign of good and virtue is assured; if, however, they are not so educated, or badly educated, the reign of evil will prevail, and society will rush headlong to its ruin. Education is for the child what cultivation is for the soil. However good the soil may be, if it is not cultivated, it produces only weeds, briars and thorns. In like manner, however good a child's disposition may be, however rich his talents and capacity, if he lacks a good education, if his soul is not properly cultivated, he will be devoid of virtues, his life will count as nought for good, or will produce only wild and bitter fruits and dead works. Wherefore, as cultivation is absolutely necessary to rid a field of its weeds and fit its soil to produce good plants, in like manner education is indispensable to correct the child's growing defects, to direct his inclinations and to prepare his soul to produce fruits of virtue. What is the life of a man who is uneducated, who has not been trained in piety and virtue? It is like a year which has no spring, in which the summer has nothing to ripen and the autumn nothing to harvest, and the whole course of such a life will be a dreary winter in which everything is frozen, in which light itself lacks brilliancy and all nature is barren. Whence comes the flood of the passions that now threaten the very existence of society? Whence the precocious perversity of the young who are becoming the scourges of society? From the lack of a good education, from an education devoid of religious principles. "Why," asks St. Bernard, "do we see so many persons so full of vice and so devoid of virtue? Because they lacked a good education in their youth, were ill-brought up, were not corrected of their faults and not trained in the practice of virtue." What can we expect of a child who is left to himself, or illeducated, unless a disorderly life? The older he grows, the deeper he will sink into vice and will go so far as to despise everything. At first he sins only through weakness; then he will be passionate in his evil course, and will be proud of his very excesses. "He will form detestable habits," says St. Ambrose, "which will gradually become insurmountable." If you then urge him to reform and change his life, he will answer: "I am now too old 252

to change; I have been brought up so, and I cannot act otherwise." Every uncorrected evil deed strengthens the passion; passion corrupts the judgment, the judgment then perverts the will, the depraved will takes pleasure and glories in evil, and the evil habit thus formed becomes, as it were, a necessity, a second nature. To make us realize the irresistible power and the extent of the misfortune of such habits, the Holy Ghost uses these energetic and terrifying words: "The bones of the wicked shall be filled with the vices of his youth, and they shall sleep with him in the dust" (Job 20. 11), so tenaciously are they inoculated in his very nature, so deeply are they inherent in his being. "I have been badly brought up," Peter the Great of Russia often said; "far from repressing the excesses of my ferocious nature, my teachers flattered them. I feel it, am now ashamed of it, and yet so great is the power of habit, that I am unable to control my angry and barbarous dispositions. Although I have reformed the manners of my people, I am not able to reform my own." Education is for the child what the pipe is for water. "As water," says St. Jerome, "follows without difficulty the course of the pipe through which it is led, so also the child easily follows the course he has been made to take." "A young man according to his way," says the Holy Ghost, "even when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22.6). The experience of all ages confirms this, and there is not a man but feels that, if age has cooled his imagination, formed his judgment, and added to his knowledge, it has left him his first tastes, his first propensities, his first morals. Men are therefore, about the same with regard to virtue and vice as they were in their youth, Christians or unbelievers, sober or intemperate, chaste or dissolute, in short, such as education made them. As to morals or conduct, we can usually judge what a man will be from what he is actually in his youth, and vice versa. There were in all nineteen kings of the Ten Tribes of Israel; every one of them had been wicked in his youth, and not a single one amended his life before his death. The Tribe of Juda had also nineteen kings from Solomon to the Babylonian Captivity; of these only five were good, the others were all wicked. The good kings had been good in their youth and remained good all their life. The majority of the wicked kings had been wicked in their youth and did not amend, so true it is that man does not depart in his old age from the way he followed in his youth. The child's manhood depends wholly on his education; if his education has been neglected or has been bad, he will be addicted to vices and will follow in his youth the road leading to perdition, and his steps, formed in the steep declivity of sin and vice, will precipitate him into all 253

its excesses and infallibly bring him to endless punishment. On the other hand, a good education is never fruitless even in those who through bad example or passion are led astray from the good principles taught them. The holy truths, deeply engraved in their souls, are never entirely effaced. In vain the violent winds of the passions shake the tree and knock down its fruits and even break some of the branches, the stript trunk will always remain firm over its roots and receive therefrom the nourishing sap, which will, in due season, supply it with new branches and enable it again to bear abundant fruits. The conversions we constantly witness, the return to good morals, to the practice of virtue, are certainly benefits of a Christian education and fruits of the faith and piety sown early in the hearts of children. Dionysius, the Tyrant, had in his power the young son of Dion, his enemy. Dionysius imagined a singular revenge against Dion, which was so much the more cruel, as it seemed the more mild. Instead of imprisoning. or putting the boy to death, he undertook to corrupt all the good qualities of the boy's soul, by leaving him entirely to himself and without education, for he gave orders that the boy should always have his own way. The boy, as he grew up unrestrained, yielded to his passions, gave himself up to every vice. And when Dionysius saw him totally depraved, he sent him to his father. The latter procured him the most virtuous and the wisest teachers he could find, they used every means, every exertion to reform the young man, but all in vain, for, rather than mend his ways, he threw himself down from the roof of a house and broke his neck.

A Well-Taught Catechism (C)

Ven. Father Champagnat, in his instructions to his Brothers, was wont often to repeat: "A well-taught Catechism lesson is worth more than all the most painful penances." A young Brother asked him for an explanation of this, and received this answer: "A Catechism lesson, welltaught is, first, a Catechism lesson well-prepared by study; secondly, it is watered with prayer; thirdly, kept up by good example, and fourthly, welladapted to the capacity of the children by a good method and an industrious zeal." 1. Well prepared by study. It is a certain truth that the fruits of the Catechism lesson will be proportionate to the preparation. He who sows but little, shall reap but little; he who sows nothing, shall reap nothing. The catechist who is full of respect for the word of God and of zeal for the sanctification of his pupils, and therefore properly studies our holy 254

religion and prepares his explanations of its truths and duties, will always produce some fruit, and his instructions will never be without effect. He who, on the contrary, does not make a proper preparation, renders it useless to his pupils; the sloth that prevented him from studying and foreseeing what he should say, will be the cause why the children will not listen to him and will not be impressed by what he says. How can he expect that his pupils will listen attentively to what he made no effort to prepare! He has, then, no right to complain of the children's inattention, nor of the want of fruit, which he made no effort to produce. It is very rash to teach Catechism without preparation; it is a want of respect for God and for the sacred truths He has revealed; it is to expose ourselves to speak incorrectly about them, and to expose the children to conceive disgust and aversion for the instructions, and even for religion itself. We cannot instruct others in what we do not know well ourselves, nor can our instructions actually instruct, unless we have well studied and digested them. This is true especially in all that pertains to religion. Therefore, a catechist should be so well versed in our holy religion as to be able to impart his knowledge with fruit to even the dullest minds; but this he cannot do, unless he has studied to make his instructions clear, simple, practical and interesting. And this is absolutely necessary in Catholic schools, otherwise there would be only a nominal difference between Catholic schools and merely secular schools, and the most important part of the children's education would be wanting, that is, the religious training. What a disgrace would it be for Catholic schools and religious teachers, if the profane sciences were taught therein more carefully than religion! To teach Catechism properly and with durable fruit, the catechist should have a thorough knowledge of Sacred or Bible History and be acquainted, to a certain extent, with Church History and the Lives of the principal saints. Before proceeding to give an instruction in Catechism, the catechist should, first, either know by heart or read several times very attentively, the lesson he is to explain; secondly, note the most important points to which he wishes to draw the attention of the children; thirdly, foresee the secondary or special questions he ought to ask on these points, and so connect them together as to develop the truth or the matter clearly and bring it within the grasp of even the dullest minds; fourthly, prepare the historical illustrations, anecdotes, and appropriate comparisons explanatory and confirmatory of his explanations; and fifthly, prepare likewise the practical conclusions he intends to give at the end of his instruction. 255

2. A Catechism lesson well taught is always watered with prayer. "Your instructions, your counsels and even your corrections," said Father Champagnat, "are seeds which you sow in the children's minds and hearts; but to make them grow and bear fruit, you must water them with prayer. The soil produces nothing without moisture; and without prayer we can do nothing either for ourselves or for others. The more defects certain children have, the more difficult they are to guide and the less they profit by your instructions and your care, and the more also it behooves you to pray for them. Prayer alone can win such children over to God." Prayer is necessary to enable us to move the heart. Study imparts the knowledge of religion, but prayer imparts the warmth and unction to penetrate and soften the heart. "A word of a pious catechist who is inflamed with divine love," says St. Alphonsus, "produces more fruit than a hundred instructions of a tepid theologian." To strike hearts and win them to God," says St. Vincent de Paul, "burning words are needed, which resemble darts of the fire of divine love." But it is only prolonged prayer and meditation that enkindle the hearts of evangelical laborers; it is at the foot of the crucifix or near Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament that a catechist will draw the unction which moves, the heavenly fire which enlightens, enkindles and converts hearts." "The best means of persuading," says St. John Baptist de la Salle, "is to draw them from God, their fountain." Wherefore, a day spent in the regular observance, in recollection, punctuality, in all the spiritual exercises, is the best preparation for teaching Catechism. A religious, who lacks the spirit of piety, will never perform anything great; he may become popular, but he will produce no fruit. We are sometimes astonished at the classes of talented, able and zealous teachers, in which the spirit of piety languishes, and at other classes, whose teachers are not noted for ability, or talent, in which the pupils are very edifying by their piety. The reason of this difference in the pupils is to be found in the lack of piety in the first named teachers. "In vain do the teachers exert themselves," says St. Augustine, "if the Holy Ghost does not teach interiorly, all their efforts are vain." How many teachers there are, who, after a whole year of admonitions, exhortations, do not produce in their pupils an earnest desire to be better! Why this lack of result? Because the hearts of the teachers are not moved, because they fail to draw from their prayers sentiments that move souls, and because the Holy Ghost does not verify the words they utter. Piety imparts the experience of spiritual things; this science is experimental and practical. He who speaks of spiritual things only 256

according to books, speaks but coldly and very imperfectly. St. Thomas says we can judge a thing in two ways, either because we know it ourselves by our own experience, or only speculatively or by our reading. The former is, beyond all doubt, the better and the more secure. For instance, a chaste man knows far better than an unchaste moralist the excellence and pleasures of chastity. In like manner, we can appreciate the pains and burning sensations of fever when we have it, than from the explanations of physicians. He who sticks his finger into the fire, knows more of the pain caused by burning, than from all the descriptions ever given about them. "He who tastes honey," says St. Alphonsus, "knows it better than all the philosophers who have reflected over it and explained its properties. But the science of the saints is not acquired from books, but in mental prayer, in which Jesus Christ Himself is the teacher, and the book is the Saviour's Cross and Wounds." "Approach ye the Lord (by prayer), and be ye enlightened" (Ps. 33. 6). God will then impart to you the knowledge of spiritual things, teach you to discern the spirits, the best means of combating vice, of correcting the defects of your pupils and inspiring them with love for their religion. "We can sometimes," says St. Alphonsus, "learn more in one hour of mental prayer, than in ten years of study in books." Blessed Albert the Great was wont to say: "In divine science we make more progress by prayer than by study, for, says the wise man, "I desired an upright judgment and God gave it to me; I invoked the Lord, and He filled me with the spirit of wisdom and understanding.' " "The understanding of a holy man sometimes discovers the truth better than seven sentinels watching from a high place to see what is going on," says the Holy Ghost. "Taste ye and see how sweet the Lord is" (Ps. 33. 9). It is not said: "Study," or "seek in books," but "taste"; that is, experience it, practise your holy religion, love and serve God faithfully, and you shall know, by your own experience, how lovely He is, how beautiful is virtue, and how happy are they who live virtuously. The more we love God, the better we know Him, and the better we are able to make others know and love Him. 3. Supported by good example. Good example is the first lesson the teacher should give his pupils. "So let your light shine before men," says our divine Saviour, "that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven" (Mat. 5. 16) by imitating them. Why does Jesus Christ, who tells us elsewhere to conceal our good works, to pray in secret, so to give alms that our left hand may not know what our right hand is doing, command us to cause our light to shine before men, that is, to perform our good work so that they may see them? "To teach us," says St. 257

Augustine, "that they who are called to lead others, should not only be, but also appear good and holy, for as they need a good conscience to save their soul, they need a good reputation in order to be able to save the souls of others." St. Paul exhorts his favorite disciple, Timothy, to "be the model of the faithful in all things." The first duty of the religious who teaches, is to teach the children by his good example. His actions should be like an uninterrupted Catechism class, teaching his pupils to live like good Christians. His life should be a living Gospel, in which each child may read how he ought to act, in order to imitate Jesus Christ and become a perfect Christian. In a word, the teaching religious ought to be a model of virtue and be able to say to his pupils like St. Paul: "Be ye my imitators, as I am of Christ." Good example is the shortest way to lead pupils to virtue, first, because men, and especially children believe rather what they see than what they hear; hence one good example is more persuasive than one hundred instructions; secondly, because example proves that what is taught can be done, and this more deeply impresses the children and induces them to do good; and thirdly, because children naturally imitate what they see. "Children," says St. Basil, "are like parrots and monkeys. The former repeat what they hear, and the latter do what they see. Children are likewise imitative." Hence nature has made children curious, and their eyes eagerly seek every where instructions and examples. Without the teacher being aware of it, they study his character, his good and bad qualities, and consider themselves justified in doing as he does. He has, then, as many scrutinizers and imitators, as he has pupils. Therefore, it is not enough for the religious teacher to hear the pupils recite the Catechism lesson and to explain it to them, he must support his teaching by the example of every virtue; his good example will avail more than all else. "If you wish your pupils to do good," says St. John Baptist de la Salle, "do it yourself; you will thus inspire them with the love and desire of virtue by your wise and well-ordered conduct more than by anything you can say to them," 4. Adapted to the capacity of the pupils by a good method and diligent zeal. Instructions to children should possess three qualities: method, brevity, clearness. Nothing so pleases children and helps their memory as a good method. An instruction, replete with good matter and with striking and luminous traits, if not methodical, is like a collection of beautiful objects lined together in utter confusion. An instruction that is methodical is like a beautifully laid out park in which we may roam about a whole day without getting tired. After seeing the former, we have only a 258

confused idea of its beauties; but after seeing the latter, we remember it so well as never to forget it. Brevity consists, first, in explaining the lesson no longer than the time prescribed; secondly, in speaking but little, and in making the children speak much; thirdly, the accessory questions should be very short, clear and precise; fourthly, never deviate from the subject, avoid all indiscreet, deep, subtle questions. Clearness is a result of the simplicity of thought and exactness of expression. To be clear, the thoughts should be within the capacity of the children, and presented or exposed in such a manner, that the children, if they pay attention, cannot fail to understand and grasp their meaning. Clearness of expression consists in expressing the thoughts in clear terms and simple style; in avoiding figurative, far-fetched and technical expressions and everything that is calculated to confusethe matter of the instruction or the minds of the children. Ven. Father Champagnat never failed to admonish the Brothers who failed in these points.

The Holy Respect Due to the Child (C)

I. What is the Child, whom it behooves us to respect? 1. He is the most noble and perfect of the visible creatures. He is "a great thing" (Prov. 26.6)." "He is the greatest miracle of God," says St. Augustine. The child is the master-piece of God's hands; he is so noble and excellent, that God charges His angel to guard, serve and care for him. He is "the glory of God" (1. Cor. 11.7). "The light of the Lord's countenance is signed upon him" (Ps. 4.7). He is "God's representative on earth, all visible creatures are subject to him and destined for his use and service, he is the king of the universe, crowned with glory and honor" (Ps. 8. 5-9). "To him God," says Bossnet, "gave original justice and uprightness, immortality and the empire of the world." For him God created and preserves the world and causes all creatures to act. It is for his use, health and contentment that the heavens are bright and roll majestically over his head; that the sun shines, the stars give their light, the winds blow, the clouds are formed, rain falls, rivers flow, the earth produces all kinds of plants,animals live and reproduce themselves, and all nature labors and is in motion: 2. The child is the image and likeness of God. Like God, he is activity; he has life, he reasons, he loves; like the Father, he has being; like the Son, he has understanding; like the Holy Ghost, he has love. Like the three Divine Persons, he possesses in his being, reason and love, a similar 259

life and happiness; he cannot be deprived of any of these without losing all. Being created in the image of God, he has a mind possessing almost an infinite capacity for knowledge; he can know a whole world and imagine an indefinite number of other worlds; he knows material things and spiritual things; he can know creatures and their Creator; he can speak of everything and reason about the most hidden and abstract things. His memory is like a dictionary of innumerable ideas, "as an immense hall in which are found heaven, the earth, the ocean and all that I have known," says St. Augustine. His will can love goods of all kinds, even the infinite Good. His will is so noble and so grand as to be satiated with no good less than God Himself! His free-will is so free, absolute and powerful, that all creatures combined, the angels included, cannot compel it to will what it does not wish. God alone has full dominion over it, and yet He respects its liberty. In fine, the child, however weak and helpless he appears, is, nevertheless, a truly sublime creature, and bears in his nature, in the elevation, power and harmony of his faculties, in his whole being, the seal and the very likeness of God. 3. The child is the son of God (Rom. 8. 46), the son of the Most High (Ps. 81). Yes, however small, weak, infirm, he is not only called, but he is truly the son of God, were he clothed even in rags (John 3.12). Yes, God is his Father, his Model, and wishes him to be, like Himself, great, holy and perfect. 4. The child is the conquest of the Saviour, the price of His precious blood, a member of the body of Jesus Christ and His brother; the temple of the Holy Ghost, the object of God's complacency. The child is the image of the Child Jesus, the souvenir of His Childhood, weakness, humility and docility, the lovely creature He thus calls to Himself: "Suffer little children to come to Me;" he is His delight; "My delight is to be with the children of men;" he is the friend and favorite of the Saviour, who loves, caresses and blesses the children and takes great interest in their education, for He has a special love for them. 5. The child is the hope of heaven, the friend and brother of the angels and saints; the heir of the heavenly kingdom and of the eternal reward. This humble child is born to become king in time and in eternity. If he worthily wears his earthly crown, the heavenly crown shall be his also. 6. The child, is what is most beautiful and lovely on earth, "the flower and ornament of mankind," says St. Macarius; that first age of life so sweet to look at, so lovely to cultivate, so easy to train in the practice of the most holy duties. The child is a pure and simple heart to which religion 260

presents itself with confidence, who has no selfish interests to defend against her, and allows himself to be attracted by her tender maternal voice. The child is an innocent soul, whose passions have not yet disturbed his peaceful rest, whose uprightness has not been altered by the lies, deceits and illusions of the world. The child is a happy being that seems to emit the odor of a heavenly origin, and possesses a peculiar nobility and dignity not usually found in men; he is simplicity, candor, innocence, the joy of the present and the hope of the future. 7. The child is your brother, your fellow-man, the love of your love, another self. He has the same heavenly Father as you, the same end and destiny, the same hope, is called to the same bliss. He is your traveling companion in time, in exile, and will be your joint heir and partner in the heavenly country. 8. The child is the field God has given you to cultivate, a tender shoot, a weak plant; but he will be one day a large tree loaded with the fruit of the virtues, and projecting far out in every direction. He is a weak, tiny stream, an incipient fountain, destined to become a majestic river, if you, like the skilful workman of Holy Writ, endeavor to direct its docile waters, and prevent its being contaminated by foreign impure and bitter waters. He is the object of your labors, fatigue and of the exercise of your virtues. He will be your consolation at death, your defense at the divine tribunal, your crown and your glory in heaven. 9. The child is the blessing of God, the hope of the earth, of which he is already the wealth and treasure, and will be later on its strength and glory. He is the hope of his country and of all mankind renewing and rejuvenating themselves in him. He is especially the hope of his family, whose joy he is already and will be later on their honor and glory. The child, in a word, is all mankind; a man, neither more nor less; he has a right to all manner of respect, and owes respect to all. Such is the child whom we are bound to respect. II. What we should respect in the child. We must respect especially his innocence. But what kind of respect do we owe his innocence? "The respect we show to the saints and their relics," says Massillon; "nothing on earth is so great, so worthy of our homage as innocence." Let us respect in children their beautiful innocence, that precious treasure of the first grace of baptism, which they still possess and we all have lost. We publicly honor the saints who had lost it but recovered it by penance; why should we not respect, in like manner, children in whom dwells the gift of justice and holiness? Let us, then, look upon them as with a kind of religious veneration, as pure 261

temples wherein resides the majesty and glory of God, and which Satan's breath has not defiled. They are precious deposits entrusted to our care, over which it behooves us to watch carefully, esteeming them as much as the relics of martyrs in our altars, honored and revered by the faithful. Were we thus to consider them by the light of faith, we would not imagine that we demean ourselves, when we bestow on them the care required by their age and wants, and we would never be wanting in respect for them. "O you, who are entrusted with the education of youth!" says St. John Chrysostom, "do you know how much consideration and respect you owe the child? Consult your faith, and it will tell you. On his forehead you see the seal of his divine adoption; it behooves you to prevent sin from breaking it. His head and breast bear the impression of a child of God, and you shall have to answer for it, if it is effaced. His heart is a true sanctuary of the Holy Ghost, and you are its guardian. If you carefully study his soul, you will discover in it the germ and the principle of all the virtues and it pertains to you to cause them to sprout and grow. Around this child, says our Saviour, are angels appointed to defend and protect him, and with them you share that holy duty. Judge then, how worthy this child is of your respect and how deserving he is of your care." But what are the obligations imposed upon us by the child's innocence? 1. Great restraint in our words, actions and deportment, so that we may not say, do, or show anything liable to scandalize him or impart to him an idea of evil. 2. Strict watchfulness to remove from him whatever may expose him to lose his precious treasure. 3. Great reserve and circumspection in our relations with him, and great modesty in our conduct towards him. 4. Profound veneration and high esteem that will induce us always to treat him kindly, politely and respectfully. 5. Unremitting watchfulness over ourselves, so that we may always give him the example of the virtues and of a uniform good conduct which he may imitate. A certain holy priest engaged in teaching children, being asked how he managed to be always able to control himself, to keep patient, reserved and calm on all occasions, however trying, replied. "Because I never lose sight of the old saying: `We owe great respect to the child.' Before undertaking to teach children I would often say to myself: `God sees me.' This proved an excellent preservative from sin; and since I began to teach, I add: `These children see me;' and the fear of scandalizing them 262

keeps me from all sin." But some one remarked: "The children are not always with you." "True," he answered; "but the care I take in watching over myself in their presence has grown into a habit; moreover, we can, in some manner, say of them what we say of God: `They see me in the darkness, and hear me when I believe myself alone.' " God has entrusted to us the child, that precious treasure, and will demand of us a strict account of our charge. What a terrible account would it be, if we were not only to neglect our duty, but were even, how horrible the thought! to scandalize the child, to lead the child into sin! "If to overthrow a building consecrated to God," says St. John Chrysostom, "is an impious sacrilege, it is a still more heinous crime to defile an innocent soul, which is the temple of the Holy Ghost, because a soul is infinitely more precious than a material building, since Jesus Christ died for the soul and not for the building. To scandalize a child, to cause him to lose his innocence is a greater crime than to plunge a dagger into his heart! The latter deprives him only of the life which he shall one day lose; but the former robs him of the life of grace, which, by its nature, is immortal. The murdered child would be admitted to endless glory and bliss in heaven, but the scandal-giver delivers the child he scandalizes, both in body and in soul, into the eternal flames of hell! You shrink from the murder of the body; how much more should you dread spiritual murder, the murder of the soul, which is so much the greater crime as the soul is' more noble and excellent than the body." "Woe to him," says our divine Saviour, "who scandalizeth one of these little ones!" "He says `little ones,' not great ones, nor the grown up," says St. John Chrysostom, "to teach us that the souls of children are dearer to Him on account of their innocence; it is a greater crime to scandalize a little child than to scandalize a grown person, because of the child's inexperience and of the fatal results of bad example in his tender soul." "It were better," says our divine Saviour, "that a mill-stone were hung about the neck of the scandal-giver and that he be thus cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize a little one." "It would have been better," says St. Bernard, "that such a one should not have become a religious, than that he should thus disgrace his Institute; such a one should at once be sent back to the world." "The punishment with which Jesus Christ threatens the scandal-giver," says St. John Chrysostom, "is without hope of pardon; he who casts himself into the sea, may yet be able to swim ashore; but how can he be saved who is at the bottom of the sea with a mill-stone around his neck?" 263

"God," says St. Paul, "will destroy him who profaneth the temple of God." But what temple is more holy and pleasing to God than the heart of an innocent child? "If, according to the law of God," says St. John Chrysostom, "he who sins must die, what will become of him who causes innocent children to sin, whom it is his duty to edify, to watch over and to train in virtue?" A Roman lady who had in obedience to her husband, who wished to prevent his daughter from entering a convent, dressed her in a worldly fashion, was most severely punished, for during the following night an angel appeared to her, uttering terrible threats: "How did you dare to prefer the orders of your husband to those of your Saviour! How did you dare to lay your hand on a child consecrated to God! That hand shall instantly wither, so that the severity of the punishment may teach you the gravity of your fault; and if you are again guilty of such a fault, you shall see your husband and your children die, and you shall yourself be cast into hell in five months from this day." The angel's prediction was fulfilled, and her sudden death indicated that she had too long waited to do penance. "In this manner," says St. Jerome, who relates this fact, "God punishes those who profane His temple." What a horrible doom awaits him who scandalizes and leads one of his pupils astray! A certain man had killed a child; his conscience left him no rest either by day or by night. Wherever he went, he thought he heard the child's voice saying: "Why hast thou killed me? " This so tormented him, that he gave himself up to the law and confessed his crime. And shall not he who has led a child astray hear: "Why hast thou robbed me of my innocence and delivered my soul to the devil? Why hast thou precipitated me into hell? Woe, eternal woe to him who caused my eternal ruin!"

Discipline (C)
One Thursday during a walk the Little Brothers of Mary were discussing the best means of inspiring their pupils with a love and relish for study. One Brother boasted of his success in this by means of little rewards, a picture, good notes, and the like. Another did the same by means of emulation among his pupils. A third maintained that it all depended on the teacher's ability and devotedness to his work. A fourth said that his success was owing to beautiful writing and fine drawing. Ven. Father Champagnat had listened to all in silence. After hearing the views and arguments of all, he said: "All these means are good, but insufficient; even if they were all combined together, they will be unsuccessful, unless 264

they are upheld and strengthened by a strong and paternal discipline. Some of you do not sufficiently esteem discipline, for you do not understand its dignity and importance; some even fancy that it keeps children from attending our schools; but it is just the contrary, for daily experience shows that a school in which perfect order reigns, is liked by the pupils and. their parents, because order pleases everybody, and disorder is hateful to every one. The children are contented and find comfort in a welldisciplined school; whilst in an ill-disciplined school they suffer and have no relish for study. The lack of discipline in a school, like the predominant passion in men, is the source of all evils, the direct or indirect cause of all the faults committed. The lack of discipline compromises, or rather nullifies, all the other means of winning the children to God and attaching them to the school. Without it, I am convinced, there is no instruction or education possible. Wherefore, even the pagan Plato did not hesitate to assert that all the power and success of education are to be found in a wellordered discipline. Let us examine its happy effects. Discipline is the glory of an educational Institute and attracts pupils to it. As men are easily influenced by exterior things, they judge a school by its discipline. A strong discipline strikes and pleases every one, wins the esteem of the public, often makes the reputation of a school and draws pupils to it. It also secures for them progress and a solid instruction, by preserving the good morals of the children, maintaining order and silence in the school-room, by stirring up emulation and allowing no pupil to shirk the common duties, and causing all to employ the time well. A disciplined and well regulated class is always a studious class and a nursery of good students. Discipline preserves and nourishes the piety of the children, for it watches over the performance of their religious duties, requires them to be respectful and modest at prayer, to recite the prayers distinctly and devoutly, suppresses or prevents all conversations, words or deeds tending to weaken respect for religion and fidelity in the practices of piety. It preserves the morals of the children, and, consequently, also their health, through constant watchfulness, by never leaving them alone, by keeping them away from bad company and from sloth, and keeping them always occupied. Discipline imparts a good spirit to the children by inspiring them with a holy respect for themselves, combats their defects and passions, imparts to them a docile spirit, confidence, mutual love and all the virtues of the family life. It keeps the children from committing faults and, therefore, from being punished. The firmer the discipline, the fewer the 265

faults and the punishments. Teachers, who have a weak character or are too slothful to maintain order by watchfulness, by assiduity and punctuality in the observance of the rules, are those who punish the pupils the most. Discipline also trains the child's will and imparts to it the requisite energy to resist evil and combat his vicious propensities; it prepares him for the practice of virtue and for obeying the impressions of divine grace. Why is it that, in our age, the majority of men are inconstant, sensual, unable to practise self-denial and to bear anything disagreeable? Because they were reared without discipline, without being taught to obey, to govern themselves, to combat and overcome their evil inclinations. To subject a child to a strong, but paternal discipline, to accustom him to obey, to be patient, is to do him the greatest of benefits. Discipline preserves the teacher's health. Where discipline reigns, the pupils are attentive, and the teacher needs not repeat the same things several times, or speak very loud; he is thus able to spare his chest. Where a good discipline reigns, the order, the quiet, peace and the good spirit resulting therefrom, secure perfect tranquillity to the teacher, and thus spare him the lively emotions and moral troubles that wear out his strength and health. In a word, in such a class there is a hundred times less trouble and a hundred times more satisfaction and consolation than in one where discipline is wanting. But how to obtain the strong and paternal discipline, which produces such good effects? The paternal and religious discipline, which alone properly trains the child's will and all his faculties, is the fruit of moral authority. There are two kinds of authority, the legal and the moral. The legal authority is conferred by one's office. It suffices to maintain discipline among the soldiers in a camp, among sailors in a vessel, among convicts in a penitentiary, but is powerless for training Christians. That authority has three attributes; command, punishment and reward. But in a school where there is no question of ruling children by compulsion, but of training them in virtue and subjecting them to duty through religious influence and the restraint of conscience, the legal authority is only a very secondary mode of enforcing discipline, and, if it is used without reason or prudence, if it is too severe, it irritates the children, imparts an evil spirit to them, and throws the class into disorder. The moral authority, which really rears the child, is the influence which the teacher exercises over his pupils by his virtue, capacity, good conduct and wise government. This authority produces respect, esteem, confidence, love, gratitude, submission, the fear of displeasing and the 266

desire of pleasing and satisfying the teacher. This authority is acquired by virtue and an exemplary conduct, and by ability and by devotion to the children's instruction. Cyrus having asked his grandfather, Artaxerxes, how he would best be able to govern his people and win their esteem and affection, received this reply: "Show yourself the most virtuous and the most able, and your people will submit to you without difficulty." Moral authority is acquired, moreover, by reason, judgment and practical good sense. Virtue, reason and capacity bear the scepter of the world and rule everywhere, for no one refuses to submit to them. It is acquired also by gravity, modesty and reserve in the teacher's relations with his pupils; by respecting both himself and the children; by carefully concealing his defects, faults, shortcomings and incapacity; by the moderate use of rewards and punishments; by avoiding excessive severity, by a conduct so wise and prudent, that the children never have a reason to blame the teacher, or find fault with him. Moral authority alone is capable of educating and making children good Christians and good citizens. The moral authority is not sufficiently powerful, if it does not win for the teacher the respect, docility and affection of the children. It is necessarily weak when they are not convinced that the teacher is virtuous, capable, sensible, and has a father's heart for them. The authority is too weak, when it is not respected in those appointed to replace the teacher, or when it is not maintained in his absence.

Supervision (C)
1. The religious teacher is the guardian angel of his pupils. Innocence is the first of all goods and the most excellent of all gifts. A child preserved in his baptismal innocence is, in the sight of God, a treasure more precious than all the kingdoms in the world. But this beautiful innocence is surrounded by enemies that have sworn its ruin, and the child does not know the value of that precious virtue, which he carries in a fragile vase; nor is he aware of the dangers or of the snares laid for him on every side, in order to make him fall and rob him of his treasure. And since the child is not able of himself to preserve that priceless good, God has entrusted its protection to the Catholic teacher and appointed him its guardian and defender. "I have established thee watch-man over Israel" (Ezech. 3.19), over the children thou art appointed to educate. St. John Chrysostom, explaining this passage, says: "Just as a sentinel is placed on an elevated position to observe the enemy's movements from afar, and to prevent his army from being taken by surprise, so also, in like manner, 267

they who are appointed to teach children, are established especially to watch the manoeuvres of the enemy of salvation and to remove from them the snares and dangers prepared by the devil to cause them to fall into his nets." "The teacher," says Rollin, "is the children's guardian angel, and he is responsible for them every moment that they are under his care." St. John Baptist de la Salle said to his Brothers: "It may, in some manner, be said of each one of you that he is a bishop, that is, an overseer or superintendent of the flock God has entrusted to him; he is, therefore obliged in conscience, to watch over every one of his pupils." A religious teacher should consider himself as a general in command of a place attacked by the enemy, who tabs not a moment of rest in order to prevent its capture; or as a pilot who constantly consults the compass and his charts, that he may be able to avoid the shoals and reefs on his route; or as a shepherd who dreads neither labor nor fatigue, when there is question of defending his flock from a pack of wolves, and uses every precaution to keep his sheep from straying into dangerous pastures. The religious teacher can learn a lesson also from the devil, who is ever on the watch to discover means and occasions of robbing the children of their innocence. The devil never loses sight of these tender children; he follows them everywhere, seeking a chance to surprise them. Should a religious show less zeal for their salvation than the devil does to effect their ruin? How can he be at ease, when t1roaring lion is constantly going about to devour the souls his neglect would give up to him! 2. God will demand of the teaching religious an account of the children entrusted to him. Watchfulness is one of the principal points in the education of children. It is one of the strictest duties of the teacher, and of which the neglect is liable to have the worst results; and he who would neglect it, would deserve the severest punishments. "If the lack of watchfulness," says Rollin, "affords an occasion to the enemy of souls, who is ever on the alert in order to rob the children of the precious treasure of their innocence, what can the religious teacher answer Jesus Christ, when He demands of him an account of the souls of his pupils, and reproaches him with being less watchful to defend them, than Satan is to ruin them?" "Your pupils," says St. John Chrysostom, "are a deposit confided to you, of which you shall have to render an account to God. Therefore, watch carefully over their conduct, that you may know where they go, the company they keep, and if you fail in this duty, expect no favor from God." 3. Watchfulness is one of the principal duties of the teacher. 268

The spirit of watchfulness, attention and punctuality should make up the character of the teacher. "Among the virtues of a good teacher," says Rollin, "watchfulness and attention hold the first rank; he cannot carry these too far, provided it be without constraint or affectation." He should watch not only in the class-room; his eye and attention should follow them everywhere, indoors, outdoors, in school, at recreation, in the street, in the church. A good teacher's, watchfulness never sleeps, and, in order to prevent the enemy of souls from robbing them of the priceless treasure of their innocence, it follows them always and everywhere. It was whilst the servants were asleep that the enemy sowed cockle in the field in order to choke the good seed; Delila betrayed Samson, when he was asleep, into the hands of the Philistines; when the shepherd is asleep the wolves rejoice; in like manner, Satan going about seeking to devour the virtue and innocence of the children, is ready to pounce upon the children when their guardian is asleep, neglecting to watch over their safety. The child is credulous, trusting, impressible, complacent and easily seduced, and, therefore, needs to be always followed and directed. The children should be watched during recreation, lest they become the victims of dangerous and sinful friendships. The teacher's watchfulness should extend to all the pupils, to all their senses and actions, so as to remove the thought of evil by making evil impossible. "Thou shalt take care," said our divine Saviour to St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, "as far as thou canst and according to the grace I give thee, to have as many eyes as there are souls entrusted to thee." This admonition is applicable to teaching religious. 4. The morals of the children cannot be preserved without such active watchfulness. "Youth," says St. John Chrysostom, "is passionate; wherefore we cannot too greatly protect them against their impetuosity, nor too greatly multiply our precautions, supports and supervision. If you wish to preserve them in their innocence, be not sparing of admonitions, reproofs, nor of any proper means your authority affords you. However good their qualities, however favorable their dispositions, watch constantly over them; never allow them to be masters of their actions; watch even over their thoughts, for you shall not otherwise keep them pure. "Give him not liberty in his youth, and wink not at his devices" (Eccli. 30.11). The most exquisite wine, in fact, turns into vinegar, if not properly cared for; the most excellent fruit tree degenerates, if not properly cleaned, pruned, cultivated. The finest flock deteriorates, if the shepherd is not constantly watchful. Without your assiduous watchfulness and care, you cannot expect to preserve innocence in the heart of a child, that virtue which is so 269

precious, so delicate, so important not only for his eternal, but even for his temporal happiness, so necessary for his progress in piety, in study, for his very health and life. Without your assiduous watchfulness the child will acquire the science of evil without your being aware of it; that science which, like a pestilential vapor from hell, burns and devours the flower of purity when it begins to bud forth; that science, which corrupts and degrades the best natures; that science which causes the child to contract deplorable habits, which he may not be able to extirpate; that science which in the earliest youth leads later on to all the excesses of debauchery, to infirm old age and a shameful death. And what is sufficient to ruin the child's beautiful innocence. and draw down so many misfortunes upon him? A single moment of the neglect of watchfulness! Only one spark is needed to set on fire the child's heart; which is full of combustibles! An unguarded look led David into adultery and murder. A single conversation, an inconsiderate step, a short reading out of curiosity, a suspicious friendship, a short absence of the teacher from the classroom or from the recreation, during which the children are left without supervision, each of these is often the first and chief cause of the ruin of innocent children! 5. How should this watchfulness be exercised? The principal object of watchfulness is to remove or keep away from the child everything that might prove injurious to his education, to prevent his faults by removing their occasions, to prevent the fire of his passions from being kindled by cutting off their nourishment, to close his mind against evil thoughts by keeping out of his way whatever may give rise to them. The chief objects of watchfulness are the following. 1. Connections or friendships. "Evil connections," says Cardinal de la Luzerne, "are the most natural principle and the most common cause of corruption." Too intimate a friendship, a friendship between two children, especially if one is older than the other, and neither of them is very virtuous and regular; their affection to get always together, to remain always together, especially in out-of-the-way places, out of the sight of the teacher; the way they converse together, their mutual smiles, gestures and winks, and a certain want of modesty, are all indications that there may be something wrong between them. In such a case, without manifesting our thoughts or suspicions, we must admonish them not to be so familiar with each other and to be more modest. The manner in which they receive this admonition and act after receiving it, will help us to discover what they have in their hearts. Whatever this may be, our watchfulness over them must not be relaxed. To prevent such connections or friendship, we should 270

often cause our pupils to change places in the school-room and elsewhere, under various pretexts, or plausible reasons. 2. Deportment or attitude. A child's deportment indicates what he is. A child often surprised in an unbecoming posture, especially if he blushes, if he at once sets himself to work at his task, should be reproved and closely watched. The children should be trained in proper deportment, in good and polite manners, and be instructed in and accustomed to the rules of modesty. They should stand straight in class; when seated keep their hands on their desks and their feet close together, they should always be decently clothed in recreation and on their walks, keep their hands out of their pockets. Everything unbecoming in behavior, every sign of passion should be repressed and even punished. 3. The bad pupils. Contagious diseases are easily communicated by contact. One bad pupil, like a corrupt leaven, can spoil a whole class, a whole school. How many innocent children have been corrupted by bad companions! An incorrigible pupil must by all means be expelled from school! 4. Conversations, tastes, inclinations. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," says our divine Saviour. Every unbecoming, or double-meaning word should be rigorously punished. Hence special attention should be given to the children's conversations. The children who are inclined to effeminacy, to frivolous or dangerous reading, to intemperance, to excessive anger, must be closely watched, also the foppish, those having too great care of their hair; there is reason to suspect their morals, or to fear that they are about to suffer shipwreck. The children not noted for love of prayer, who keep apart from the others, and are not fond of play and have a sly, cunning look, whisper often to others, and keep out of the teacher's sight or hearing, are usually corrupt, and need close watching. 5. Whatever may endanger their morals. Precaution alone can preserve the flower of innocence; whatever is injurious to it, should be put out of the way. Flight is the best means of avoiding impurity. Therefore, we should keep from the minds of children whatever may beget an impure thought, or make an impression on the passions. So watch as to know what your pupils do, say, love and wish for. Examine from time to time their desks and all that belongs to them, and all the secret nooks and corners; punish those who have anything unbecoming in their possession; and if they relapse into the same fault, expel them. Do not let them go out walking where they may see or hear what may prove dangerous to their morals. 271

6. Watch over yourself. Be very reserved in your words and modest in your actions, gestures and demeanor. Be edifying in all you do, give the example of every virtue. Be punctual in entering the school, in being always pleasant during the recreation of the pupils and unremitting in watching over them, so as to prevent altogether the entrance of vice among them. How many children have gone to destruction through the neglect of this most important duty, which is incumbent on every religious teacher!Watch quietly, without worry, excitement or affectation; be not unduly suspicious, but be simple and easy, so that the children may not be aware that they are watched, but may think the teacher is with them to keep them company, and be of assistance to them. Watch so, that the children may not become hypocrites, and being under the impression that they are not trusted, have recourse to slyness and deceit, and thus become hypocrites.

What a Teacher Should Be (C)

Every man occupies a place in society and has a task to perform, a service to render to society. All this is honorable, because it is all useful and concurs in the general good. There are, however, certain social functions more worthy, more exalted than others. Some benefit the body, others benefit the soul; and as much as the soul is more noble than the body, so much is the service or ministry of souls superior to that which has only the body for its object. Thence it follows that the priest and the teacher who are occupied with the souls of men, fill the most exalted offices or ministries among men. Education is so noble a work, that the Fathers of the Church and other weighty authors call it a magistracy, a paternity, and apostolate. "This magistracy," says St. John Chrysostom, "is so far above civil magistracy, as heaven is above the earth; and even this is saying too little. The civil magistracy offers no teaching in true wisdom; it does not tell us what the soul is, what the world is, or what shall become of us after the present life, whither we shall go after leaving this world, or how we can practise virtue. The magistracy of the teacher, on the contrary, teaches all these great things; hence it is called a school of religion, a chair for the instruction of souls, a tribunal where the soul judges herself, a gymnasium in which are trained all who enter the race for heaven." Magistrates judge the accused and condemn those guilty of public crimes, but they do not enlighten, do not follow up to the inmost conscience the first thought, the first temptation of vice. This is the 272

teacher's task. The magistrate punishes evil; the teacher does better by preventing it, by stifling it in its birth, in its very germ. The magistrate punishes without usually reforming the culprit, the worthy teacher usually reforms without punishing him, for after the evil has been committed, he seeks not the culprit's death, but the destruction of his guilt. If society owes a debt of gratitude to the magistrate who frees it from criminals, how grateful should it not be to the teacher for training good and virtuous citizens who will one day be its honor and glory! Therefore Mgr. Dupanloup concludes that "the teacher is also a magistrate, and his magistracy and his work hold the first rank in society." The teacher is also a father. He is a second father, whose vocation, though not above that of the first or natural father, inspires him with a devotedness perhaps more generous because it is more free and disinterested; and often his aptitude and ability are greater and more perfect than those of the natural father. The teacher essentially participates in what is most noble in the Divine Paternity, and is fitted to receive a participation of its power; hence he may be called, as Holy Writ calls God "the father of souls." This great name suits him well. Even the pagans admitted this. "Let the young know," says one of their philosophers, "that their teachers are the fathers, not of their bodies, but of their souls." Alexander the Great acknowledged that he owed not less to Aristotle, his teacher, than to King Philip, his father, for if he owed his life to the latter, he owed the honorableness of his life to his teacher. In the idea of the Church education is an apostolate, a kind of priesthood. "I fear not to assert," says Mgr. Dupanloup, "that the most holy and zealous priest often exerts an influence less diffused and less profound than the teacher does on the souls and destiny of his pupils. The presence of the priest among the children is more rare, and his conversations with them take place only at longer or shorter intervals, and he cannot follow them in all their actions. But it is quite different with the teacher; he holds in his hands, so to say, the whole existence of the children every day, every hour, and together with this their present and their future. His intercourse with them is more frequent, more intimate, more natural; his influence with them is, then, is always living, always present, and therefore constant and universal. The confessor repairs the evil and does immense and admirable benefit to their souls, but he contributes but little in directly developing their faculties, and but seldom in forming their character, and in correcting their defects in their minutest details. The teacher determines the employment of the time of the children, actively works in developing their faculties, in helping them to acquire knowledge 273

and correcting their notions and sentiments. He is always with them, watches over them, directs their actions. They think chiefly of him, hear him only, work for him only, depend wholly on him in all that is closely connected with their mind and heart, that is, blame or praise, shame or honor, the pleasure, of learning, working and succeeding. The teacher's influence over the children is, therefore, immense both by training their faculties, and by contributing to form their characters and morals by means of discipline in the daily exercises. The teacher, by his watchfulness, finds out their defects, points them out to them, and usually knows them better than the children themselves and even their confessor, who remits their sins, counsels them certain acts of virtue and encourages them. The teacher goes further; he knows thoroughly the good qualities and the faults of his pupils, endeavors on the spot to extirpate the latter and develop the former. The confessor endowed with the highest of authorities, forms the conscience of the children; the teacher does likewise, although with a less exalted, butmore influential, authority. The confessor heals the wounds of the soul, draws graces from heaven upon them, and imparts supernatural life to them. The teacher prepares his pupils' strong and lively faculties for the spiritual supernatural life, inspires them with love for the beautiful and the true, forms in them a clear, pure and upright mind for the truths of faith, an energetic will, a generous, grateful and filial heart, a strong and firm character for the combats and practice of virtue. Therefore, education is not a speculative work, a mere trade, but a real apostolate seeking souls to win them to God. In speculation, or theory, the teacher is only a schoolmaster working at his trade, or profession. In the apostolate the teacher is a father, a pastor fulfilling a sacred ministry, a man of God devoting and forgetting himself to save souls. In theory teaching is a means of gain, of earning a living; in the apostolate the pupils are children, whom we love and rear for God, and for whom we sacrifice our cares, our health and even our life. The apostolate is paternal care, paternal devotedness, apostolic zeal. In the schools directed by the apostolate, education is the family, a family that is all Christian. Therein God is present, therein rules the paternal authority of God in the highest degree, therein is the care and solicitude of souls; the first object therein is to train and win souls for God. It is, therefore, evident that the ministry of the Catholic (religious) teacher is most noble, exalted and difficult. In fact, it is not easy to impart a good and virtuous education, but, says Cardinal de la Luzerne, "it requires the long and assiduous cares of a great wisdom." It is not enough 274

merely to cast seeds of virtue into the soul; they must be carefully, constantly and intelligently cultivated, until the fruits have been gathered. It is not enough to teach religious principles, but they must be so deeply impressed, as to be ineffaceable. It is not enough to make religion known, but the pupils must be filled with its love. It is not enough to fortify weak nature, but it is requisite to reform nature inclined to evil. What a combination of qualities, apparently incompatible with one another, are required for so great a work! An authority which allows the freedom necessary to develop the character, and yet refuses the freedom that might spoil it! A meekness excluding weakness, a severity without harshness, a complacency and a kindness without familiarity; an ardent desire of success tempered by a patience that is proof against all discouragement and opposition; a watchfulness which nothing escapes, and a wisdom appearing not to know, not to notice; a reserve not hurtful to frankness; a firmness devoid of obstinancy; a sagacity in discovering inclinations without allowing itself to be perceived; a prudence indicating what it behooves to be excused and what should be punished, and enabling the teacher to seize the favorable moment for so doing; a skill that never degenerates into cunning, and insinuates itself into the mind without startling it; a pleasant way which renders the instructions pleasing without depriving them of solidity; an indulgence that wins the affection, joined to an exactitude and a justice that inspires fear; a condescension adapting itself to inclinations without favoring them; a skill in causing one inclination to be combated or overcome by another, in fortifying those that are good and in weakening those that are evil; a foresight in warding off dangerous occasions; a presence of mind that is never disconcerted by captious questions; I have almost said: A good teacher should be a perfect man." Although it is not given to all teachers to possess all these good qualities, all should, nevertheless, endeavor to acquire solid virtue, fervent piety, real, sincere love for children, perfect devotedness, a constant, firm and watchful zeal to preserve them in their innocence and to correct their defects. A solid virtue. Of all the lessons a teacher can and should give his pupils, the first, the principal, the most meritorious for himself, the most efficacious for them, is his good example. Instruction penetrates more easily and is more deeply engraved through the eyes than through the ears. Discourses may convince, but example draws; its power, so much the stronger as it is the sweeter, combines and presents under one aspect instruction, exhortation, encouragement. The child is naturally an imitator of what he sees, for God made him so, that he might instruct himself by 275

the language of facts. Students of calligraphy and drawing instruct themselves by copying the works of others. "In all things," says St. Paul, "show thyself an example of good works, in doctrine, in integrity, in gravity, the sound word that cannot be blamed, that he, who is on the contrary part, may be afraid, having no evil to say of us" (Tit. 2. 7, 8). Moreover, education is the transmission of moral life, for it is a real paternity. It is an essential law of life that it is transmissible only under certain conditions of identity or resemblance. In the physical world beings are reproduced, each in its own species; by imparting life they impart their own conformation, wants and aptitudes. And, save exceptions, the moral life is transmitted under the same conditions of similarity. But, as no one gives what he has not, the parents and the teachers can transmit only what they have. Therefore the teachers should possess the moral life, or virtue, in its fulness, without any mixture of infirmities or defilement; otherwise they could impart it only altered or incomplete. As there are hereditary diseases, deficiencies or excesses, so also there result from education moral vigor, or certain depraved germs thereof. Wherefore moral life and virtue are transmitted in their existing conditions, powerful or weak, according as the education is weak or firm in virtue. Hence, as the father, so the son as the teacher, so the pupil. This is the law; exceptions do not destroy or weaken it. The Creator Himself wished, in some manner, to formulate this law of paternity when He said: "Let us make man after our own image and likeness." Then He breathed into man a living soul. The great paternity of education is exercised in like manner. The educator has to draw from his very soul correct ideas, good, noble and virtuous sentiments, all of which are the constituents of the moral life. If these exist only in his words and are not manifested in his habits, in his conduct, his teaching will amount only to vain sounds, will be a mere dead letter, and not the living principle begetting life or the virtue producing virtue. If instead of the moral life, his heart contains only the elements of death, vice, sin, indifference, covetousness worldliness, the child cannot but undergo its evil influence, and, unless specially preserved by grace, his soul will be more or less stamped with his teacher's evil image, or influence. The moral life insinuates itself like a breath, is breathed like air; it escapes from the souls breathing it by secret emanations as perfume escapes from a flower. It is, in short, a word, a look, a smile, an attitude; it is especially the multiple collection of relations, habits and language that serves as the issues of life and ways of communicating itself to souls. In the moral order death proceeds in the same manner as life; it is not always the result of some 276

fatal blow that can be seen and indicated; it glides into the souls in-visibly and penetrates them, because it also escapes therefrom by fatal exhalations through the same channels that enable life to enter. Hence we say: "The contagions of vice," as we say also: "The good odor of virtue." In order to teach, or rather to inspire virtue, we must be virtuous, otherwise we are professional quacks and deceivers; and this is the lowest of degradations. Wherefore Mgr. Borderie, Bishop of Versailles, said once to a young priest: "He who is entrusted with the education of youth, will become a saint, if he is not a hypocrite or a deceiver, for then he will surely practise what he teaches and inculcates on his pupils. You exhort them to be very pure and irreproachable, to love truth, to practise obedience, to be pious; if you are not a hypocrite or a deceiver, you yourself will practise all these virtues and sanctify yourself thereby. To give lessons of wisdom to your pupils, and to contradict by your evil example the principles you lay down for them, would be a shame and a crime; would be caressing with one hand and striking with the other. Your words and your actions should agree with one another. All your words of wisdom will not avail with the children, if your conduct differs from them, and will serve only to your own condemnation." A fervent piety. Let us always bear in mind that God occupies the first place in education. 1. In the first place, because He is man's first teacher. He, before all, devotes Himself to man's education; He is essentially a teacher: "Men shall all be taught of God" (Is. 54. 13). He is our first teacher with regard to thought, conscience and speech; their origin is from God; no other can be reasonably assigned. God does not visibly educate. The external work of education is entrusted to, man. Paul plants, Apollo waters; men do what they can; but they can effect nothing of themselves; the only one who really counts in man's education is "He that giveth the increase," develops, fortifies, enlightens, exalts, that is God! "God," as Fenelon says, "works invisibly, like a miner in the interior of the earth; and, although we do not see God or attribute anything to Him, He, however, does all. He acts in our inmost soul without ceasing, just as He does in cultivated fields, to enable them to produce fruits; were He to omit His action, all human labor would not avail." Wherefore the teacher is only God's co-operator in the work of education. But to be a fit co-operator, he must evidently be closely united to Him and participate abundantly in His spirit; but it is only through piety and frequent communings with God that this can be effected. Moreover, the first means of success in education is grace, that is, the gift of teaching. 277

But "every perfect gift cometh from above, from the Father of lights." Without divine assistance the most assiduous and difficult labors are without result; but with it the least efforts are crowned with success. Fervent piety alone can obtain the divine assistance, this grace, this gift of teaching, without which nothing can be effected. If the teacher is not pious, he is unfit to teach and will never succeed. He may teach the usual branches of profane learning and cause the children to memorize the catechism, but he will never inspire them to be virtuous or train their souls. 2. Secondly, because the children should be cared for God. "To rear them only for a natural life," says Cardinal de la Luzerne, "irrational animals suffice. To rear them for a mere social life, pagans are able to do it; but to rear them for God, for the Church, for heaven, this can be done only by the priest, the Christian parent and the deeply pious teacher. Education is an interior work; it is the education of souls; hence the educator is bound to occupy himself with the souls of his pupils, in order to raise them to God; with their minds to enlighten them, to impart to them solid religious principles and the knowledge of Jesus Christ; with their hearts to ennoble them, to train them in virtue; with their wills, to impart to them strength, energy, to make them docile, pliant and constant; with their consciences to enlighten and form them and inspire them with horror of sin; with all their moral faculties, to develop and fit them to rise to the supernatural order, that is, to the practice of the solid Christian virtues. When a pupil is entrusted to you, imagine our divine Saviour saying to you what Pharao's daughter said concerning the babe Moses she had rescued from the waters of the Nile: "Take this child and care for him for me and I will reward thee" (Exod. 2.9); he is what I have most precious on earth; I entrust him to thee, that thou mayst preserve him from evil and teach him to do good. That child is the price of My blood; teach him what his soul hast cost Me, and what I have done to save him; bring him up for heaven, for he was made to reign there with Me." It is evident that such a work cannot be carried out by mere human means, divine grace and virtue alone can do so, and they can be obtained only through prayer. 3. Thirdly, because the child is in absolute need of God's help to co-operate in his own education. Piety is what the child needs, in the first place, for his education. He needs it to sustain his weakness and to struggle against evil, evil inclinations, the temptations of the devil, human respect, the pernicious examples of his companions. If piety is wanting to him, he will be exceedingly weak on these occasions. On the other hand, the virtues cannot be acquired without efforts; defects are not corrected 278

without resolute combats against his own perverse inclinations. He can be helped and encouraged, but, in the end, it pertains to him to extirpate the evil, to cultivate the good, to reform his faults and failings, to develop his good qualities. But all this is impossible to him, if he has no piety. Piety renders his duties sweet and light, fortifies and animates in him and furnishes him with the requisite sap, vigor and beauty for his virtues. What a child performs merely through fear, strict duty and reason is always wearisome, hard, difficult, and sometimes overwhelming, whilst all is agreeable, sweet and easy for the child whose actions proceed from piety and the love of God. The child who is devoid of piety, although he may be diligent and regular, is hard to bring up, to instruct; he easily grows tired, discouraged, disgusted; he mistrusts his teachers; he cannot bear reverse or disappointment; he is sensitive, inconstant, unable to choose anything great or to settle down. The pious child, indeed, is not without defects; but he knows and regrets them and endeavors to correct them; if he falls, he rises, without getting vexed or concealing his faults. Piety imparts to him a wonderful strength and firmness. Sometimes children between twelve and fifteen years of age possess an astonishing maturity of character, reason and mental vigor; they are sedulous, foreseeing, moderate, upright, firm against themselves; they are the best companions and students, simple, amiable, devoid of haughtiness and harshness. Piety makes them all to all, uplifts their mind, enlarges their heart, develops all their faculties, so that St. Bernardine's saying is applicable to them: "Piety daily develops in their features the beauty of their soul in ineffaceable grace." 4. Fourthly, because it is only with God's assistance, that the teacher befittingly acquits himself of his ministry. How can he inspire piety to his pupils, if he has none himself? How can he make known to them the excellence, necessity and benefits of prayer, if he is ignorant thereof and devoid of piety? He may teach prayer mechanically, or like a lesson in arithmetic, but it will be without fruit for his pupils. It sometimes happens that a pupil, after attending a Catholic school for six or more years, possesses but little Christian faith and piety, and this even without his teacher being aware of it. How can this happen? Because his acts were not inspired by his conscience, but were performed through imitation or force of habit; he did merely as he saw others do; and when he ceased assisting at the pious exercises of the school, he also ceased to perform them. The voice of his conscience does not supply the sign of the bell, nor his personal will the direction of his teacher. He gives up prayer, assisting at holy Mass, receiving the sacraments, and soon yielding to the current of 279

evil example around him, he falls into sin, and unresistingly follows the impulse and cravings of his passions. Such are the results of the education given by a teacher who is wanting in piety and virtue, for he does not and cannot impart what he does not possess. He did not earnestly exert himself to engrave deeply good principles in his pupil's mind, or to form his conscience properly, nor to make him understand the necessity and excellence of prayer; hence we need not be astonished that the fruits of his pupil's education are wanting. One of the most important means of inspiring piety is the proper performance of the spiritual exercises. The children should learn to recite and answer the prayers respectfully, pronouncing each word, each syllable distinctly, in a simple, natural and recollected tone of voice. Nothing is more unbecoming than prayers recited hurriedly, irreverently, drily, without unison, in an attitude denoting that those who say them, do it because they must, but do not like it, and that their heart is not in them. A religious teacher who does not give to the exercises of piety all their importance, who neglects the precautions necessary to cause his pupils to pray in a reverential and becoming manner, who does not give good example at prayer, who is not grave and modest in his deportment, or who is occupied with other matters during these holy exercises, is grievously guilty, for he ruins the sentiments of piety in the hearts of his pupils, and endangers the whole work of their education. It behooves the teacher to love prayer and possess a solid piety, so that he may teach his pupils to pray, to pray well, to pray daily. The teacher who does not love prayer, who knows not how to inspire the love of prayer to his pupils, is wholly unfit for his noble mission,

A Great Love for His Office and for His Pupils

To succeed in the noble ministry of teacher, we must love our office, and love our pupils. We must devote our whole being, our mind, our heart, our whole energy, our whole life to its duties. We must, as it were, divide or weaken ourselves. All the affections and solicitude of the teacher should be for his pupils. If he considers teaching as a mere trade, a make-shift, if he does not love his work and his pupils, if he does not wholly devote himself to their education, he does no real good. Education is neither discipline nor instruction (teaching); it does not consist in giving a civil or religious course, but in the daily and continual relations of the pupils with their teacher, in his personal directions, in his personal observance of details, encouragement, reproofs and various lessons 280

suggested by these uninterrupted relations. But in order to cultivate one by one these young souls with the assiduity their wants and their weakness require, the teacher must love his pupils. He who loves them does more for them, and does it with greater ease and success; and why? Because the words and actions that are inspired by real affection are endowed with a special penetrating and irresistible power. The teacher who really loves his pupils can effectually admonish and counsel, for his love animates his words and imparts to them more grace and strength and they penetrate more deeply. His admonitions are accepted as testimonies of friendship and followed with docility. He can also, when necessary, more beneficially reprove and punish, for in doing so he is never charged with prejudice or undue severity. Hence the pupil is more grieved for having displeased his teacher who loves him, than for the punishment received. Therefore, love your pupils. Combat without ceasing the indifference, weariness and disgust you so easily feel on account of their faults. Without closing your eyes to their shortcomings, since you must correct them, nor to their faults, which it behooves you to punish, think also on all their amiable qualities which are worthy of your interest; consider the innocence depicted on their countenance, on their serene brow, the naivety of their avowals, the sincerity of their repentance, though but little durable, the frankness of their resolutions though so soon broken, the generosity of their efforts, though seldom lasting. Give them credit for all the good they do and for all the evil they do not do; in fine, whatever they do, continue to love them as long as they are with you, since this is the only way to labor with fruit at their reformation. Love them all equally; have no pets; dislike none; or rather act so, that each one may consider himself a favorite of yours on account of your testimonies of affection for each one individually. Who has entrusted these children to you? God and their families. God is all love for men, and whoever governs in His name must imitate His Providence and share His love. The parents of the children; but do you not know that the heart of a father, of a mother is an inexhaustible furnace of love? Hence in the name of God and of their parents love these children, and then, and then only will you be worthy and capable of educating them.

Devotedness
What is devotedness? The fruit of love. To devote oneself is to give oneself unreservedly, to forget oneself, to consider oneself as nothing, to sacrifice oneself entirely and, as St. Paul says, "after giving all, 281

to give yourself." "Be a father; but this is not enough; be a mother," says Fenelon, "this says all." St. Paul said before: "We are not pedagogues; we are fathers. I have been among you as a father, speaking tenderly to you, as to my children." "There is not a moment," says Rollin, "when the teacher is not responsible for the souls of the children entrusted to him." If his absence or want of attention gives occasion to. the enemy to rob them of the precious treasure of their innocence, what answer will he give to Jesus Christ demanding of him an account of their souls? Wherefore it behooves him never to lose sight of them. But is not this constant watchfulness the same as devotedness? In fact, only a fatherly devotedness is capable of performing such a task. The teacher whose heart lacks the inspiration of such a devotedness, will unavoidably fail to accomplish his mission. For instance, what will induce a teacher to take care of the weak as well as of the strong, to bestow on the former greater pains especially because of their weakness, and so to act that, without keeping back the talented, he does not leave behind the naturally dull, who give so little natural satisfaction to his self-love? Only a paternal devotedness, for only a loving parent never leaves his offspring behind, but adapts himself to their weakness, waits for them whenever necessary, and does not sacrifice some for others, but says with Jacob: "I cannot proceed so fast, for I have little children with me." Devotedness alone can patiently bear the weaknesses, the natural and repulsive defects, the ingratitude of the children. Devotedness alone will, in the end, cause itself to be loved, for it alone attracts and raises the children to itself, because it alone lowers itself to them; and finally, it alone transforms them, because it alone identifies itself with these young souls, as a father and a mother do. In a word, it alone is capable of performing well the work of education. Devotedness is the most clear-sighted and penetrating teacher; its ability cannot be surpassed. But we devote ourselves only because we love; love is, therefore, the principle of all devotedness. When the Son of God undertook to teach mankind, He devoted Himself to the task of raising us back to the height of our first destiny. Love was the supreme inspirer of His infinite devotedness, and therefore St. Paul tells us, that the charity of God appeared and manifested itself in all its splendor. When Jesus appointed St. Peter to continue His work, He thrice asked him for a testimony of his love and devotedness, that we might be able to understand that, in order to discharge the beautiful and laborious ministry of education, we must, before all, love God and souls. To undertake to bring up children without loving them, to discharge this ministry with negligence and disgust is a 282

great misfortune, a fearful responsibility. "If," says Plato, "a shoemaker is or becomes through his fault a poor workman, or claims to be a shoemaker without being one, the state will not suffer much damage, for only a few Athenians will be poorly shod; but if the teachers of youth perform their duties poorly, the consequences are entirely different, for their bad or poor work turns out ignorant and vicious generations who will endanger the prosperity and even the very existence of the state." Love and devotedness require both salt and life to prove useful to the children. In what does the salt consist? It is the wise firmness that preserves from moral weakness and fatal indulgence. Firmness is the moral strength, the strength of mind and character with which a teacher exercises the rights of authority. It is strength of mind, firmness in counsel and thought without indecision. Reflection is, indeed, necessary; but after due reflection we should, without wavering, know and do what we intend. It is the power of the will, that is, of something settled and determined upon, of something moderate, but immutable in its moderation. Such is the firmness that inspires respect, submission and confidence. Moral force acts on the children and educates them. Material force is compulsion; but it fails to correct vice and evil propensities; it is good enough for a penitentiary, but not for a school. Firmness is necessary to secure progress and to cause both teachers and pupils to perform their tasks; also to maintain silence, order and recollection, without which there is no serious work, no constant application; to keep the rule, the whole rule, but nothing else than the rule and the defined regulations for each duty; never to permit or tolerate the least evil, the least fault. We may and sometimes ought to forgive, or seem not to notice; but we may never approve or tolerate what is contrary to order, for never should the principles of virtue and justice be compelled to yield. But, as Bossuet observes, there is a false firmness, which is nothing else than harshness, stiffness, stubbornness, the power of commanding pushed to extremes. Never to have patience, always to insist on being obeyed at any cost, never to know how to wait or temporize, to force or break everything at once is usually to injure and endanger one's authority; it is a proof of weak-for he who acts in this wise is not master of himself, cannot control his feelings, and is, therefore, weak indeed. We have no real power, if we are not, first of all, masters of ourselves; our firmness can bear no fruit, if we are not, before all, firm against our own passions. Hence it behooves us, in the work of education, never to act from impulse, from feeling, violence or irritation, but always according to 283

reason, conscience, with reflection and, in certain cases, after seeking counsel. Such is true firmness, and such is in the teacher the source and foundation of his authority. He who possesses firmness over himself deserves to exercise it over others. He is not strong who is not master of his own heart, for he is weak from the start. In a word, the firmness which is not directed and regulated by sound reason and upright judgment, is not a virtue, but a passion, or a sally of feeling or ill-humor. The firmness which is not based on kindness, is counterfeit; the firmness which does not originate from devotedness is not worthy of the name, and, especially in the work of education, has deplorable effects. CONSTANT ZEAL to enlighten, correct and train the child in all patience. "Three things are requisite," says Plutarch, "to enable the soil to produce an abundant harvest: good cultivation, good laborers, good seed." The soil is the child, the teacher is the laborer or cultivator, and the seed are the good principles, to be imparted to the child. Hence it behooves the teacher to impress strongly on the minds of the pupils the sacred truths of religion, and to engrave deeply the divine commandments in their hearts. The teacher's lessons or instructions will soon be forgotten and lost, if they are not often repeated; to be lasting, they must be frequently given. I say frequently, but not that they should last a long time. The attention of children is too flighty to remain fixed for a long time on one point. Do not weary them with your lessons; they are plants which thrive better on the morning dew than on heavy and protracted rains far apart. The most tender age is the most favorable for easily engraving in the memory the lessons and principles of faith; it is the time when the Christian virtues strike the understanding most vividly, and the unction of piety most powerfully moves the heart. The image of God is easily impressed on soft wax; but to engrave it on stone there is need of the hammer and the chisel. When there are as yet no prejudices to dispel, no passions to repress, no habits to reform, it is much easier to work on the soul and train it in the holy duties of the Christian. Look at the skilful gardener; he takes a young tree, which is still straight, and attaches it to a support to keep it from getting crooked. The potter works his clay when it is still soft. In like manner, it is whilst the child is still young that he must be trained in good principles. If he is left to wallow in ignorance and vice, it will afterwards be too late, as the Holy Ghost tells us, to subject him to the law of God and to train him in virtue. Just as plants, flowers and fruit are contained in small seeds, so also do the germs of virtues and vices exist already in little children. All 284

the merits of education consist in cultivating the former and extirpating the latter. The good educator does not restrict his labors to eliminating the disorders which disturb discipline, or the individual faults which wound the conscience of his pupils; but he endeavors, moreover, to correct their defects. Defects, every one knows, are the roots of faults; they are shoots which always grow again, so long as the root has not been entirely removed. "A young man," says Plato, "acquires perfection by struggling against his interior propensities, and against his defects by repressing them." Without these combats there is not even an incipient virtue. Education is a kind of cultivation. A good cultivation comprises two things. The first consists in cutting off useless branches and the bad fruits of the plant. This is an image of the repression and retrenchment of the disorders and faults; this is good and useful, but is not sufficient. The second part consists in depriving the plant of wild sap and grafting on the wild plant a shoot from a good plant. This grafting is a symbol of the virtues to be inspired to the child and sown, as it were, in his heart. The Catholic educator, however, should bear in mind that defects are hardly corrigible except in the young, for St. Paul tells us that "we reap only what we have sown." When at last, wisdom comes, man, whilst deploring them, still commits faults which are the unhappy consequences of early ones. "When men," says Fenelon, "wish to give up their evil ways, the evil ways still follow them a long time, for there remain to them their evil habits, a weakened nature, and they no longer have any suppleness, and are almost without natural resources against their defects." Like trees, whose rude and knotty trunk has grown hard for many years, and can no longer be straightened, men, at a certain age, can no longer bend themselves straight against certain habits, which have grown old with them and have penetrated them to the very marrow of their bones. Often they know them but too I late; they then bewail them, but in vain. Youth is the only time when a man has full power to correct himself. A truth, which we should acknowledge and never lose sight of, is that our defects are the sources of all our misfortunes, sorrows, weaknesses, going astray, deceptions and of the great troubles in our life. These are very powerful motives to induce a zealous teacher to labor untiringly to correct and extirpate the defects of his pupils. In men of all states and conditions, all superiorities and all inferiorities, all happiness and all unhappiness of life are decided by their good qualities or their defects. If So and So had known that he had a certain defect, or had not fostered it, if his teacher had helped him to correct it, he would have been an honor and a source of happiness to his family, which he now disgraces! 285

Suppose that in a certain family there reigns the very common defect of the spirit of contradiction; if it regards trifles, it banishes domestic peace and happiness; if it concerns matters of importance, it will lead to scandalous dissensions. If a business man has the defect of sloth, or that of a lack of order, and his business is extensive, he will become bankrupt sooner or later. If education does not correct that proud and vain child, he will always be a torment to his family by his haughty pretensions, his whims, his tyranny. If education does not reform that indocile child, who already has such free and independent ways, who despises the authority of his parents and teacher, when grown up he will revolt against the laws of society, preach and practise disorder and anarchy. Another child has an evident propensity to lust; if you do not watch him closely, but let him tranquilly abandon himself to his inordinate inclinations, he will, in a short time, ruin both his body and his soul, and, by his bad example, cause the ruin of others. God and human society will, one day, demand of the teacher an account of his efforts to correct such vices and to train his pupils in virtue. Another point deserving our attention is that little defects diminish and unmake great characters, great men. We should never flatter or neglect a single defect, however weak or light it may appear, for every such defect grows and increases in secret until it becomes prominent, and even predominant. Since man's original fault there is in each one no evil germ, however small or unperceived, which, if not combated, does not tend to take full possession of him, to domineer over him and to corrupt everything in him. On the other hand, there is not a good thing in us which will not grow weak, unless it is supported and strengthened. Hence we should never neglect cultivating a good quality, for a virtue, a grace, however great, will perish, if neglected. In nature all that grows happily, all that rises gracefully in the age of vigor, had to suffer, in its infancy, subjection and restraint. A young tree needs to be propped, cut, pruned, etc., in order to have a pleasing form, in order to bear fine fruit; hence all this propping, cutting and pruning proves beneficial to its welfare. But there is need of much discernment for repressing and correcting defects, lest severity should degenerate into harshness, and kindness into weakness. Either excess is apt to ruin the work of education. Corrections that are either too severe or too lenient, produce no good effect. Iron is rendered malleable by blows, but ill-directed blows break it. He who knows not how to grade reproofs and punishments, accustoms the children to the former and hardens them againstthe latter. He embitters their minds, and whilst endeavoring to correct them of one defect, he only 286

imparts a greater one to them. Prudence proportions admonitions and punishments to the character of the child; it breaks the hardness of some by severe punishments, and fears to crush others by dealing vigorously with them. It does not treat those who are naturally inclined to good, as it does those who are naturally inclined to vice, and varies the kind and rigor of the punishment according to the defects and faults. Inexperienced teachers who are always punishing and multiplying and aggravating punishments without sufficient motives, imagine they can by such severity render the pupils more docile; perhaps. they may, but it will be to the detriment of their character and spirit; by making them more supple, they deprive them of all spring; excessive rigor brutalizes them, and whilst compelling their obedience, the teachers, lose their confidence; by forcing them into submission they make hypocrites of them! The pupils are thereby led to mistrust their teachers and to. hide rather than avoid their faults. Look at an intelligent artist: he uses only the means that are necessary and avoids using the more powerful which would be apt to spoil or ruin his work. Punishment is the extreme means of education, which is to be used only after all the other means prove ineffective, and the more seldom it is used, the more effective it will be. In fine, the more religious the education, the less need there is of severity. If the pupil's conscience is well trained, and piety possesses his heart, he will, of himself, yield obedience and perform all his duties, and will also watch over and correct his inordinate inclinations and defects. Piety, the fear of God, the holy practices of religion alone will impose on the child's eyes, tongue and senses, that wholesome restraint, that curb of conscience, which are the best warrants of innocence and virtue

The Imitation of Jesus Christ (E)

I. To imitate Jesus Christ is our true life. "The disciple shall be perfect, if he is like his Master" (Luke 6. 40). "I have given you an example, that as I have done, so do you also" (John 13. 15). All the saints acquired perfection by imitating Jesus Christ, our divine Model, and every one of them is able to say to us with St. Paul: "Be ye my imitators, as I am of Christ" (1. Cor. 4. 16). There is no other way to acquire perfection, for Jesus is "the way" (John 14.6). Every Christian is bound to imitate Jesus Christ. The religious, having been called by a special grace to follow Jesus Christ more closely, has a greater obligation to conform his life more perfectly to that of his divine Model. "Every man," says St. Gregory of Nyssa, "is the painter of his own life; the colors are the virtues, and the 287

brush is his will; and the original he must copy is Jesus Christ." "Moreover," says Father Gautrelet, "Christian perfection and religious perfection are two paintings of the same subject, but it is represented in the latter in a more excellent manner than in the former." "The true Christian, the saint, is the living and rational dwelling of Jesus Christ," says St. Athanasius, "built of good works and holy doctrines." "The saint," says Mgr. de Segur, "bears Jesus Christ within himself, not only in his soul, but even in his body. Everything in him reflects Jesus, his thoughts, his sentiments, his acts, and even his physiognomy, which reproduces, as far as possible, the Saviour's dignity, gracefulness and loveliness." St. Vincent de Paul, after visiting St. Francis de Sales, said of him: "The bishop of Geneva is a living image of Christ." And what was not the life of St. Vincent himself, unless a perfect expression of the life of the divine Saviour? In his thoughts, words and actions, he took his inspiration from Jesus Christ, repeated His language and closely followed his divine Model. And our Lord Himself, wishing to make St. Teresa a faithful image of Himself, said to her: "Thou shalt constantly strive to have an upright intention in all things, to be detached from all things, and to keep thy gaze fixed on Me, in order to render thy actions conformable to Mine." Let us also be true imitators of Jesus Christ, and follow Him, not from afar, but as closely as possible, for he that wishes to "abide in Him, ought himself also to walk, even as He walked" (I John 2.6). II. How we should imitate Jesus Christ. St. Paul tells us: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2.5); and: "As therefore you have received Jesus Christ the Lord, walk ye in Him" (Col. 2. 6). 1. In the first place, we should have the same mind as that of Jesus, that is, be inspired by His sentiments, His teaching. The religious who earnestly desires the perfection his taste requires of him, must be deeply imbued with the sayings and examples of the Divine Wisdom. If he knows them only superficially, his imitation of Jesus will be only superficial. It behooves us, therefore, often to read and meditate on the life and passion of Jesus Christ, that we may be thoroughly penetrated with His doctrine and virtues. "I especially recommend to you mental prayer on our Lord's life and passion," says St. Francis de Sales. If we often contemplate Him in our meditations, our whole soul will be filled with Him and we shall learn how to form our actions according to the pattern of His. He is the light of the world; it is, therefore, in Him, by Him and for Him that we shall be enlightened. And, just as little children, by dint of hearing their mothers speak, learn also to speak their language, we also by remaining 288

near Jesus in meditation, and observing His words, His actions and His affections, will learn, with the help of His grace, to speak, act and will like Him." "Unhappy is he," says St. Augustine, "who knows all profane sciences, but does not know Thee, O Lord! but happy is he who knows Thee, although he may be ignorant of everything else. He alone is truly happy who knows Thee, and honors Thee as God." In the science of Jesus Christ our mind and our heart will be truly satisfied. "What seekest thou," asks St. Bernard, "which thou dost not find in Jesus Christ? If thou art sick, He is thy Physician; if thou art banished, He is thy Guide; if thou art forsaken, He is thy King to protect thee; if thou art as-sailed, He is thy Defender; if thou art thirsty, He is thy refreshment; if thou art cold, He is thy Garment; if thou art sad, He will be thy Joy; if thou art in darkness, He will be thy Light; if thou art an orphan, He will be thy Father." Our divine Saviour became man not only to save us, but also to be known and imitated by us. "The Son of God came upon earth," says Louis of Granada, "in order to show us how He lived among men, what words He said, what works He performed, how He behaved in adversity and prosperity, in society, in solitude, in friendship, in hatred, in greatness and in obscurity, and how perfectly He practised charity, humility, patience, obedience, meekness, poverty, prayer, mortification, zeal for souls, severity towards Himself, kindness and indulgence towards the neighbor, and all the other virtues." The study of the Man-God is the only true science which fills up the vacuum of our mind and quenches its thirst for knowledge. Is there anything more consoling than to know all that Jesus has done for our poor soul, how He thought of it, when we forgot Him; how He redeemed it at the price of unspeakable torments, when we were selling it to hell for a vile pleasure; how He waited for us, called us, sought us, when we were fleeing from Him in the midst of the dangers of the world. There is nothing more consoling to our heart than the thought of the divine goodness of Jesus towards us. Let us exclaim with St. Augustine: "O soul, espoused to Jesus Christ, love Him who has loved thee so much, think on Him who thinks so much on thee; seek Him who is seeking thee; Love God, thy divine Spouse; watch with thy God, who watches over thee; labor with Him, for He labors only for thee; be pure with Him who is infinite purity, be holy with the Holy of holies." In the second place, we should live as He lived, and walk in His footsteps. "Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should walk in His steps. He did no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile, when He suffered, He threatened not" (I 289

Pet. 2.21). He who wishes to abide in Jesus Christ, "ought himself also to walk, even as He walked" (1 John 2.6). "To walk like Jesus Christ," says Louis of Granada, "is to despise all that He despised, not to fear the trials He underwent, to believe all that He taught, to hope for all that He promised, to return good for evil, blessings for curses, to pray for his enemies, to have compassion on the wicked, to bear with contradictions, with the proud; in a word', to die to the flesh and live for God alone." Let us adopt the thoughts of Jesus. He habitually thought on God, His Father, on heaven and eternity; the object of His thoughts was noble and useful, the glory of Him who had sent Him and the salvation of men, His brethren. They were all holy and governed by charity, justice, wisdom, goodness and mercy. Such also should be the objects that occupy our intellect, that noble faculty which we so often devote to trifles, to worldly things, to what flatters our self-love. We should place our heart where Jesus placed His. He loved only His heavenly Father and the souls of men. If we allow any other love to penetrate into our heart, we shall never be perfect imitators of Jesus Christ; for he who walks in His steps, can live only for the glory of God, his personal holiness and the salvation of his neighbor. But the love of Jesus was a love of sacrifice, as we know. Hence a true religious immolates all, absolutely all to Jesus Christ, shrinks from no difficulty, and shows his love by his sacrifices. We should adopt the desires of Jesus Christ, which all consisted in fulfilling the will of His Father, that will which was the nourishment of his soul. We should, therefore, desire only to live for God and to have His will as our reliance in all we do and suffer. We know His will, for it is entirely contained in our rules and in the directions of our superiors. Let us always say: "Behold me, O God, I am come to fulfil Thy will." If in all we do during our whole life we desire only to do the will of God, it may be said of us when we shall have left this world: "He was subject and obedient until death, following in all things the examples of Jesus Christ." Let us, in fine, perform all our external actions as Jesus Christ would have performed them. St. Vincent de Paul before performing an action, before speaking or answering, would ask himself: "How would Jesus act in my place? What would He say in this circumstance?" Let us follow this saint's example. "Therefore," says St. Bonaventure, "look upon Jesus as your Model, when you are walking, standing still, sitting down, eating, speaking, keeping silence, alone or with others." In this manner we shall become true and holy religious. "What should he do who has the honor of being called a Christian?" asks St. Gregory of Nyssa; "he should 290

carefully watch over all his thoughts, over all his words, over all his actions, and examine whether each of them leads to Christ, or away from Him. If he acts, thinks or speaks under the influence of some passion, he may be sure that this does not come from Christ, but from Satan who delights in defiling the soul in the mire of the passions, and to tarnish the brightness of a precious stone. But if he, in all things, preserves the serenity of his soul, it is Christ, the Author and Prince of Peace, who acts in him." This imitation of Christ is far above our natural powers, and can be acquired by us only when our earnest and constant efforts are assisted by divine grace, obtained by fervent and persevering prayers.

The Love of God (E)

I. Why we should love God. "I am come to cast fire upon the earth," says our divine Saviour, "and what will I, but that it be kindled?" (Luke 12. 49). God asks nothing else of us than that we should love Him. "My son, give Me thy heart" (Prov. 23.26). "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord require of thee, but that thou love the Lord thy God and serve Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul?" (Deut. 10.12). "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart, and thou shalt meditate upon them sitting in thy house, and walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising. And thou shalt bind them as a sign on thy hand, and they shall be and shall move between thy eyes; and thou shalt write them in the entry and on the doors of thy house" (Deut. 6.5-9). "He that loveth not abideth in death" (1 John 3.14). God is most lovely in Himself. He possesses in Himself infinite beauty, infinite goodness, infinite holiness, infinite power, infinite perfection, in a word, all that is lovely and capable of ravishing our heart. Compared to God the most beautiful, sublime and admirable creature, even all creatures combined are as nothing. He is so lovely that it is enough for the saints to see and love Him, in order to experience so great a joy as to make them perfectly happy and contented for all eternity. We love Him not, or but little, because we know Him not or but little. The saints loved Him ardently, because they knew Him far better than we. God loves us. "Observe," says St. Alphonsus, "that God deserves our love, because He loved us first. Let us consider the beauties and wonders of heaven and earth, they all exhort us to love God who created them in order to win our heart. Let us cast our eyes on the cross. God hath 291

so loved us as to give up, for our sake, His only-begotten Son to death. The cross, the wounds of Jesus, according to St. Bernard, loudly proclaim His excessive love for us." Let us listen to St. Teresa addressing Jesus crucified: "If I love Thee, O Lord, Thou knowest that it is not on account of heaven which Thou promisest me; if I fear to offend Thee, it is not on account of hell with which Thou threatenest me; it is Thou Thyself alone, O Lord, that drawest me to Thee; it is because I see Thee, my Lord Jesus, nailed to the cross, because I see Thy body covered with wounds and in the agony of death. And Thy love has taken such possession of my heart, that even were there no heaven, I would still love Thee, and even if there were no hell, I would still fear Thee. Thou needest not give me anything to induce me to love Thee, for even if I did not hope for what I hope, I would, nevertheless love Thee as much as I now love Thee." Our very heart tells us to love God. What does our heart wish for? For happiness. But, says St. Augustine, "our heart is happy only when it rests in God." St. Alphonsus, commenting these words of St. Paul, "all things work together unto good for those who love God" (Rom. 8.28), says: "They who love God, are always contented, because it is a pleasure for them to fulfil the will of God even in adverse circumstances. They find a subject of joy in their trials, because they know that, by accepting them, they perform what is pleasing to their beloved Lord. Nothing, therefore, is capable of disturbing their happiness." What does the heart of the religious seek? Perfection, that is, the most intimate union with the Creator. But by charity our soul becomes the living tabernacle of the Blessed Trinity. " If any one love Me, . . ." says our divine Saviour, "and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him," (John 14. 23). "He that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him" (1 John 4.16). "Love God," says St. Augustine, "and do what you will." Whatever is inspired by divine love is good. Divine love, when inspiring our acts of self-denial, of obedience, of patience and of the other virtues, raises them to a high degree of perfection. II. How we should love God. He Himself indicates how much we must love Him, that is, with our whole heart. God deserves to be loved with an infinite, a boundless love. But this is beyond the power of creatures, however perfect or holy they may be. Since we cannot love God with an infinite love, we are bound to love Him as much as we can; that is, not only as much as our natural capacity enables us, but also as perfectly as the divine grace in us empowers us. Our desire of perfection, our hatred of sin; our daily actions, the warfare we wage against our passions and 292

against temptations are not only means that lead us to perfect love, but are obligations imposed on us by the requirements of divine love. "To relish divine consolation," says St. Frances de Chantal, "is not solid divine love; but to humble ourselves, to suffer and to undergo trials, to die to ourselves, and to desire to be known by God only, that is true love. If glory and happiness could be separated from God, I would not take a step to acquire them, for I wish to seek God alone." We should also love God solely. Our God is a jealous God; He wishes to possess our whole heart, and will not endure a rival in it. "Divine love, in order to be pure," says St. Francis de Sales, "must consume in us all that is not God." "May God," says St. Joseph Calasanctius, "possess my whole heart." Our heart should contain no affection which is not for God. This is the detachment He requires from His true disciples; we must be detached even from our own selves. "Every division of our heart excites the wrath of God," says St. Augustine; "for He will soon yield to Satan the share the religious intended to give God in his heart, and withdraws from that ungrateful heart." Finally, we should love God generously. Love is repaid by love, and generosity by generosity. This is the reason why he who understands well how much God loves him, wishes to love God in his turn; and when he beholds his God nailed to the cross through the excess of His love, he finds that he does not love God generously enough, and therefore he loves Him with a pure and disinterested love, and loves Him because He is his God. "My God," exclaimed St. Joseph Cupertino, "I love Thee so much that, even if Thou hadst predestined me to the torments of hell, I would wish to render Thee as much homage and adoration as the greatest saints of heaven have ever offered Thee; and after serving Thee perfectly well, I would be satisfied wherever Thou wouldst send me. If I serve God, it is not out of fear of hell. I serve Him for His own sake, for Him only do I seek, Him only do I desire, Him only do I want." He who really loves God is willing to labor for God all his life amid all hardships and obstacles. "When the love of God has taken possession of a soul," says St. John Chrysostom, "it produces therein an insatiable desire to labor for Him, so that, however great and numerous her works, however long the time she devotes to His service, she counts it all as nothing, and is grieved at doing so little for Him, and would esteem it a real happiness if she could consume herself wholly and die for Him. Hence, whatever she does, she always looks upon herself as useless, for, learning from her love how much God deserves, she sees, by this heavenly 293

light, all that is defective in her works, she acknowledges that all her labors are but little for so great a Master. Love is not only generous in laboring for God, but delights in suffering for Him whom she loves solely. "We should all burn with this holy fire, says St. Teresa, "and she who has it not, should not consider herself as a true Carmelite. Our souls should thirst, not for rest, but for sufferings, so that we may imitate our divine Spouse in something." The saints even constituted themselves as voluntary victims of divine love. "I am more happy in chastising my body," says St. Margaret of Cortona, "than if I possessed a kingdom, for I have resolved never to make a treaty of peace with my body." Venerable Ann of Jesus, at the age of sixteen years, made the hitherto unheard-of vow always to act in opposition to her natural inclinations and never to allow herself the slightest gratification in anything. And in her old age she was able to assert that she had never satisfied herself in anything, not even in drinking water. The Lives of the Saints abound in examples of austerities, which make us shudder, which they performed, inspired by their ardent love of God. One day our divine Saviour asked St. Mechtildis: "Dost thou love Me?" The saint replied: "Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee." Then Jesus asked her: "Dost thou love Me so as to undergo labors, sufferings and humiliations?" And she answered: "Thou knowest, indeed, that there is no torment capable of separating me from Thee." And Jesus added: "But if these torments were frightful, wouldst thou suffer them promptly and cheerfully?" "Most cheerfully," replied the saint. Let us examine our conscience, that we may find out whether we can repeat the words of this saint to our Lord, and whether we are ready, in order to prove our love for our divine Redeemer, to make every sacrifice and practise perfect and perpetual self-denial. III. Finally, let us examine whether we possess the signs of a true love. The true basis of solid divine love is a great devotion to our Saviour's Passion. "Do you wish," asks St. Bonaventure, "to increase constantly in virtue and grace, meditate unceasingly on the Passion of Jesus Christ. The exercise the best adapted to sanctify a soul is the frequent consideration of the Saviour's sufferings." It is at the foot of the cross that it does us good to examine our conscience and study our heart. Let us, therefore, ask ourselves: 1. Have I a sincere desire to increase daily in divine love? Let us imitate St. Philip Neri. This great saint never succeeded in convincing himself that he loved God, and notwithstanding that terrible trial, he daily exerted himself to love his Creator and Saviour perfectly. "My God," he would say, "I have never yet loved Thee, and I long to love Thee." 2. Is my love active and 294

patient? That is, according to St. Alphonsus, do I act always for God, by at least seeking, through an upright intention, to do what pleases Him best? Do I willingly bear for His sake, all adversities, such as poverty, tribulations, sickness, contradictions, failure, etc.? 3. Does my heart entertain a secret attachment to some creature, to some office, employment, place, etc.? "Just as death detaches us from worldly goods," says Alphonsus, "in like manner, the love of God, when it reigns in a heart, strips it of all affection for perishable objects." Detachment is necessary for perfect love. Let us seriously examine ourselves on these points, if we sincerely desire to make progress in divine love. Let us resolve to acquire and to make progress in divine love. "The first means for doing so," says Ven. Father Passerat, "is prayer; the second, third, fourth, tenth, hundredth is prayer." "I request each one," writes St. Alphonsus to his religious, "to ask Jesus Christ, without ceasing, for His holy love. Without it, your best resolutions will have but few salutary results. To obtain this holy love, have a tender devotion to our divine Saviour's Passion. It seems to me impossible for him who often meditates on the Passion, not to succeed in loving Jesus Christ." "The essence of true love," says St. Gerard, "consists in belonging wholly to God, in conforming ourselves always to His will and in striving never to commit a wilful fault, for such faults are highly displeasing to God."

Zeal of Souls (E)

"The best way to practise charity," says St Alphonsus, "is to be zealous for our neighbor's spiritual welfare. As much as the soul is more, noble than the body, so much also is the charity we practise towards the soul of our neighbor more pleasing to God than that which we exercise towards his body." When St. Teresa loved some one, it was his soul that she loved; and her love for a soul consisted in ardently wishing that soul to be beautiful, great and holy. God was the beginning and the end of her affections, as He should be of every sincere affection. He who is animated with zeal hates, shuns, prevents, detests, rejects, combats and, if possible,. overthrows all that is opposed to God, that is, to His will, to His glory and to the sanctification of His holy name, and is ready to undergo every hardship, every persecution and even death itself to promote the glory of God and save souls. We should not imagine that zeal for the salvation of souls is a virtue that belongs only to priests, for it belongs to all Christians and especially to religious. St. Teresa wished that each of her religious should be an apostle, and it was a subject 295

of great joy for her amid the difficult labors of her many foundations to think that each new convent would be a center of prayers and austerities for the salvation of souls. I. Whence does zeal for the salvation of souls proceed? From a three-fold love, the love of God, the love of our neighbor, and the love of our own interests. 1. Zeal for souls is a direct effect of our love for God. To love God is to procure to God an increase of His external glory, for this is the only good we can do Him. Hence the saints ardently longed to know, love and glorify their Creator and Saviour. But the soul that is truly enamored of God, is not content with loving God herself, for, the greater her progress in divine love, the more she longs that other souls should love God with her and also in her stead. She wishes to procure friends for God, and she seeks by every means in her power to enkindle the fire of charity in the heart of her neighbor. "If you wish to go to God," says St. Gregory, "endeavor not to appear alone before Him." "If you love God," says St. Augustine, "draw all hearts to His love." If we love the Lord, we will endeavor not to be the only ones that love Him, but will seek to inspire with the love that burns within us, all those persons over whom we possess some influence, says St. Alphonsus. When Jesus Christ bestowed on St. Teresa the inestimable honor of choosing her as His spouse, He said to her: "Henceforth thou shalt, like a true spouse, be full of zeal for My honor." By our holy profession our soul became the spouse of Jesus Christ; if we do not have the interests of His glory at heart, whose duty will it be? Wherefore, if as true religious, we belong wholly to the God of our heart, what St. Bonaventure wrote of St. Francis of Assisi should be equally applicable to us: "He would never have considered himself a true friend of Jesus Christ, if he had not been inflamed with love for the salvation of the souls redeemed by our well-beloved Saviour." Hence this great saint was wont to say that there is no work more pleasing to God than to procure the salvation of our brethren. "I am convinced," says St. Teresa, "that our Lord prizes a soul we have won for Him by our efforts and prayers, with the assistance of His mercy, more highly than all the other services we can render Him." "He is greatest in the love of God," says St. Gregory, "who draws to Him the greatest number of souls." One day our divine Saviour appeared to Venerable Ann of St. Bartholomew; He seemed to be much grieved. Placing His hand on her left shoulder, He said: "See how, notwithstanding My exceedingly great love, so many souls are lost! Help Me to save them!" To us religious our divine Saviour addresses the same appeal. It was for our perfection and for 296

the salvation of our brethren, that He bid us to follow Him by entering the religious state. "God," said St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, "has not separated us from the world merely for our own profit, but also that we might appease His wrath against sinners. We religious shall have to render an account to God of so many souls that are daily eternally lost, for had we faithfully recommended them to God, and implored their pardon from Him, we perhaps would have disarmed His justice and prevented their loss." 2. Secondly, zeal for the salvation of souls is the outcome of the love we owe our neighbor. "This," says St. Jure, "is the greatest and most important effect of charity towards our neighbor, because it concerns his eternity, and in eternity his preservation from the sovereign misery and his possession of the sovereign happiness." To love is to procure the welfare of the beloved; hence it is evident that the most striking testimony of love we can give a person is to free him from the pains and torments of hell and procure him the riches, honors and enjoyments of heaven. And at the cost of how great labors and hardships should we not be willing to procure this heavenly happiness to our neighbor, since one soul is worth all the life and passion of our divine Saviour? Wherefore, if we truly love our neighbor, we should be willing, according to our state of life, to co-operate in his salvation anti sanctification, however much it may cost us. 3. Our own interest requires us to be very zealous for our neighbor's salvation. Our first and only true interest is our own salvation, our own perfection. And who can tell how great merits zeal for the salvation of souls procures us? "If to save the life of our neighbor's body has so great merit before God," asks St. Gregory, "how great a reward does not he deserve who saves from eternal death the soul of his neighbor and enables it to live forever? He who saves souls expiates his own sins, acquires many merits and draws down upon himself numberless favors from Jesus Christ. We can offer to God no greater sacrifice than zeal for souls." "My brethren," says St. James (5. 19, 20), "if any of you err from the truth, and one convert him; he should know that he who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins." "When we procure the salvation of our fellow-men," says Cornelius a Lapide, "we do as much for our own salvation as for theirs." II. How to exercise zeal for the salvation of souls. By imitating Jesus Christ, our Model. To save us Jesus made use of four means: prayer, labor, good example and suffering. 297

1. By prayer. Jesus Christ devoted Himself to prayer all His life, as if He had been powerless to save the world without prayer. He complains that His servants do not sufficiently recommend sinners to Him. One day He said to St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi: "See, daughter, how so many Christians are in the power of the devil if My elect did not free them by their prayers, they would become his prey." But this duty of charity God requires principally from priests and religious. The same saint was wont fifty times daily to make an offering of the Redeemer's precious blood for the salvation of sinners, and to recommend them to God in all her spiritual exercises. To St. Catharine of Siena our Lord said: "I conjure thee to pray to Me for sinners; it is in their behalf that I request thy tears and thy labors, that they may be partakers of My mercy." Let us pray much for sinners as well as for the perseverance of the just and the perfection of holy souls. When St. Clement Hofbauer's words and exhortations failed to overcome the obduracy of sinners, he had recourse to prayer. For sinners he prayed much and often; for them he performed penance and offered himself to God as a victim in their behalf, and urged others to do the same. He would not desist from importuning the Lord until he obtained the conversion of those he was praying for. One day, believing himself alone in the church, he went before the tabernacle and with an abundance of tears he began to pray aloud with great fervor: "O Jesus my beloved Lord, give me that soul. Deign to hear me, I beseech Thee, otherwise I shall be obliged to have recourse to Thy Blessed Mother, who, I am sure, will not reject my prayers." Thus praying and weeping he continued a long time. 2. We should convert souls by our labor also. The whole life of Jesus was spent in labor. At Nazareth He worked with St. Joseph; during His public ministry He labored as a missionary. The religious who has to perform manual labor, should devote himself generously, in a spirit of faith and love, for the salvation of souls, to all that obedience requires of him. In this you have the example of many saints, such as St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, St. Gerard, Blessed Felix of Nicosia. They who have to nurse the sick, to care for the inmates in reformatories and the like, should seek first the salvation of their souls. Their patron is St. Vincent de Paul. In frequent conferences he kept up their courage, saying: "Your calling is so much the more meritorious, as nature finds but little satisfaction therein. Your chief care, after the love of God and the desire to please His divine Majesty, should be to serve the poor sick with great kindness, gentleness and sympathy, and in listening to their complaints as a good mother listens to those of her sick children. Offer yourselves to God for the salvation of those you serve for His sake." 298

If God has called you to educate children, what a noble, divine mission! God one day showed to St. Ignatius a soul cleansed in the blood of Jesus Christ. This sight inflamed the saint more than ever with an intense zeal for the salvation of souls; he could calm the ardor of this zeal only by instituting his holy Society for the salvation of souls by teaching and preaching. Ven. Father Champagnat was a model of zeal for all who are called to teach children as may be seen from the conferences marked C. Blessed Julia Billiard, herself a foundress of a Congregation for educating girls, is also a model of zeal for all religious teachers. "It is by educating the young," she said, "that we are called to rear Christian mothers for Christian families, and thus save souls that would otherwise be lost. God has destined us to procure the salvation of many souls; and if we were to save only one soul, would not Jesus Christ have shed all his blood for even one soul? When I behold you all engaged in this work, you appear to me greater than all earthly potentates. And how great will be your joy on the day of judgment, when the souls of all these little ones will surround you and thank you for having shown them the way to heaven. And who are we that are called to this sublime vocation? Poor miserable creatures! Oh, how angels envy our happiness!" As to you who are called to the priesthood, it is from you that God demands souls, for you are charged with all that concerns the honor and service of God and the salvation of souls. To you is given the office of making known to the world God and His perfections, His justice and mercy, His commandments, and to cause men to show Him the respect, the obedience and the love due to Him; to see and bring back the stray sheep, were it even to cost you your life. You are not destined to acquire earthly treasures and honors, but only to labor to cause men to love God: you are "God's coadjutors" (I Cor. 3.9). To this object all your labors should be directed. And if God demands of all men a strict account of the employment of their time, how rigorous shall be the account of the priest who wasted so much of his time in mere trifles, whilst he allowed souls to perish or to go astray! This very thought makes us shudder. It may happen that later on God will demand of us religious, whatever be our position in the convent, other sacrifices, for instance, to go to distant countries, and even to labor among pagans and unbelievers. Never shall we have a better proof than this that God loves us. Happy we should be, if obedience would tell us: "Go in the name of the Lord to save the abandoned souls of your fellow-men, for the glory of God and the 299

honor of your Institute! Go and assist the souls that are perishing, to know, love and serve God and secure their salvation, were it even to cost you your life!" "How happy I am," said a good religious, "to show that I love Jesus Christ, and to sacrifice my life for the salvation of souls! I have never felt more sure of gaining heaven." 3. The third means of exercising zeal for souls is giving good example. "Words may convince, but it is example that persuades." "A holy religious," says St. Alphonsus, "can sanctify his whole community by his words and his good example, even with the intention of inducing his fellow-religious to imitate him. No one should have therein a scruple of vainglory. The actions which have nothing extraordinary, and which are appropriate to every religious tending to perfection according to his obligation, should be performed also with the intention of giving good example and to induce others to cling more closely to God, in accordance with the saying of Jesus Christ: `So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven' " (Mat. 5. 16). This is true zeal for the perfection of your fellow-religious. It behooves us also to draw seculars to the practice of virtue by our good example. St. Francis of Assisi one day said to his companion that he was going to preach. They went out into the town, walking with their eyes modestly cast down. When they returned to the convent, his companion asked him: "When are you going to preach?" He replied: "We have already preached by our modest deportment." God alone can see our heart; men can see only our exterior actions, and are either edified or scandalized by them. It is, then, our duty to edify them by our good example, otherwise we shall have to give a strict account to Jesus Christ. Our divine Saviour called St. John Baptist "a burning and shining light" (John 5. 35). Every religious should possess a heart all aglow with divine love and should shine before all men by his good example. According to St. Ambrose the very sight of a holy man is an admonition well calculated to draw worldlings to the practice of virtue. "The very appearance of St. Gregory of Nyssa," says St. Ephrem, excited devotion, so that no one could look at him without feeling moved to become better." If we also wish to win souls for Jesus Christ, let us so live that our very life may become a silent preaching to all. Modesty, reserve, recollection, edifying conversation will make of us missionaries everywhere and always. 4. In fine, we should, like Jesus Christ, save souls by sufferings. One day St. Lutgarde, filled with divine love, prayed for the grace of dying soon, so as to go to heaven more quickly. But our Saviour appeared to her and showed her the bleeding wounds of His hands, feet and side, 300

saying: "Look, beloved daughter, and listen how My wounds cry out to thee, in order that My blood be not shed in vain, and that My death may not be fruitless." Lutgarde, trembling with fear and love, asked Jesus what was the meaning of the cries of His wounds. "My wounds cry out to thee," said Jesus, "and ask thee to appease, by thy sufferings and tears, the wrath of God, My Father, that He may not punish sinners, but that they may be converted." And we also should listen to the mysterious voice of our Saviour's wounds asking us for souls. Let us offer Him for the salvation of our brethren all our trials, both interior and exterior, all the sufferings connected with the community life, all our illnesses and pains, all our mortifications, both interior and exterior, and all the crosses and trials that come to us. Let us imitate a holy soul, Mother Mary Teresa, foundress of the Soeurs Reparatrices, who said: "A thousand years of sufferings and crosses, if necessary, that I may leave after me some hearts to my Saviour!" St. Lutgarde one day beheld Jesus with His bleeding wounds interceding with His heavenly Father in behalf of sinners. Then, turning to Lutgarde, He said to her: "See how I offer Myself unreservedly to God, My Father, in behalf of My sinners! In like manner offer thyself entirely to Me to turn away from them the punishments with which they are threatened." Should not we also respond to this invitation, saying: "Lord, here I am ready to suffer all for the salvation of souls!" Like Thee, O, Lord, I offer myself as a sacrifice for my brethren." St. Catharine of Siena besought God to give full vent to His wrath upon her and to spare sinners. This request so pleased our Lord, that He said to her: "By beseeching Me to punish thee for the sins of others, thou prayest for love, light and the knowledge of truth, for love is in proportion to sorrow for sin and increases together with it." Blessed Felix of Nicosia imposed on himself numberless prayers, watchings, fasts and other mortifications to obtain for poor sinners the grace of repentance and eternal salvation. One day Father Macarius entered his cell and found him taking a most frightful discipline. "Enough," exclaimed the Father, "I forbid you to continue." Felix stopped at once; but turning at once to his superior, said weeping copiously: "Father, please let me continue, I will not strike so hard, if you wish, but please let me continue; it is for a poor sinner who is now giving himself up to sin. O God, if he were struck dead on the spot by the divine justice!" Father Macarius ordered Felix to tell him in confidence who the sinner was. When Felix had told him, he was allowed to continue. 301

Not long after the unfortunate sinner was killed by a rival. Felix then redoubled his austerities and prayers. Some time after the soul of that sinner appeared to Blessed Felix, saying: "I come to thank you; although I was mortally wounded, I was able to repent and God has been merciful to me: it is you who obtained for me the grace to repent. It is you also, who, by your prayers and penances, have shortened the time of my atonement in purgatory. Thanks to you I am happy for all eternity. May you be blessed!" Let us be full of courage! Let us have an ardent zeal for the salvation of souls, for on judgment day, the souls we have saved will be for us a crown of glory. St. Amandus appeared to St. Aldegonda surrounded by all the souls he had won to God. St. Paul calls the Philippians, whom he had converted, "his joy and his crown" (Phil. 4.1). Prayer of St. Teresa. "My God, have compassion on those who have none on themselves. Lazarus did not ask Thee to raise him to life. Thou wroughtest this miracle at the prayer of a sinful woman; behold now a greater sinner at Thy feet. Show forth Thy mercy; yes, I implore it for those who refuse to pray for it. Consider not our blindness; but deign rather to look upon the blood Thy divine Son shed for us."

Prudence (E)
Prudence is the first of the moral virtues, because it extends to all the virtuous actions of our life, in such a manner that a virtuous deed, which is not accompanied by prudence, ceases to be virtuous. According to St. Basil, "prudence is the knowledge of what it behooves us to do and not to do." "Prudence therefore," says St. Jure, "regulates our conduct, governs and directs our actions, and serves as the eye of all the other virtues in order to guide them in their operations. Every moral virtue walks between two vices opposed to it, the one through excess, and the other through deficiency. For instance, liberality is the mean between prodigality and avarice. A virtue, moreover, should be practised according to certain circumstances of time and place, of persons, of one's vocation, etc. It belongs to prudence to keep us from error and mistakes in this, for it judges and discerns what is good, useful and advantageous for us to do. St. Basil says that "a man devoid of prudence is like a vessel without a pilot." Finally, "it is the office of prudence," says St. Vincent de Paul, "to choose the means adapted for the end we have in view, which is none other than to go to God; and it indicates the most direct and secure ways to lead us to Him." 302

True supernatural prudence always takes the principles of faith as the rule of conduct, as a motive for acting. It enables us to judge all things as Jesus judges them, and to act in every circumstance in life as He would have acted in our place. Wherefore, prudence should regulate our words, our actions, our relations. 1. Prudence should regulate our words. Prudence in speech is called discretion, and imprudence therein is called indiscretion. Discretion is the practical, true and reflected knowledge of what should be said and of what should remain unsaid. The prudent man is always very discreet in his words, for he reflects before speaking, he examines with whom he is to speak, for he knows that the friends to whom he can open his heart, are rare. "Prudence," says St. Vincent de Paul, "enables us to speak wisely, appropriately and cautiously concerning things that are good in themselves and in their consequences, and to suppress or keep silence concerning those that are or may prove hurtful." "A fool uttereth all his mind," says the Holy Ghost (Prov. 29. 11). If we open our heart to one whom we should mistrust, we shall be in constant danger of his abusing our confidence to our detriment. We should be discreet in speaking with persons outside of our community, weigh our words well, and avoid being confidential with them. We may say innocently and with impunity many things to our brethren in religion, which would be very inopportune, if said to outsiders. "All things are lawful to me, but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify" (1 Cor. 10.22, 23). "The lips of the unwise will tell foolish things; but the words of the wise shall be weighed in a balance. The heart of the fools is in their mouths; and the mouth of wise men is in their heart" (Eccli. 21. 28, 29). "Make a balance for thy words, and a just bridle for thy mouth" (Eccli. 28.29). "Hast thou seen a man hasty to speak? Folly is to be looked for rather than his amendment" (Prov. 29.20). Discretion requires us not to disclose the internal affairs of the community, or the faults or eccentricities of our brethren to outsiders either in speech or in our correspondence; also to keep the secrets entrusted to us; not to complain of our superiors even among ourselves; also to avoid speaking unnecessarily on subjects disagreeable to those present, and many others besides. Indiscretion often causes ill-feeling, disturbs peace and concord in a community. Where discretion reigns, there also is peace and charity. 2. Prudence should regulate our actions. This cannot be done without combating all the vices opposed to it, precipitancy, want of reflexion, inconstancy and negligence. Precipitancy seeks to undertake, act 303

and finish quickly, and does not take time to reflect either before beginning or whilst performing something; and if the undertaking does not go on favorably, or requires patience, the first impulse over, precipitancy produces only inconstancy and negligence. Prudence has, therefore, to begin by putting precipitancy aside from all our occupations both spiritual, as study, spiritual exercises, and material, as manual labor. For its task is to moderate a too natural activity. "It is prudence," says Louis of Granada, "which teaches us to moderate ourselves in our occupations, not to overburden ourselves, with excessive mental application, not to lose sight of our interior by being too deeply absorbed by external things, and not to neglect the duties the love of God imposes on us, by applying ourselves too energetically to, the duties required by the love of our neighbor." Prudence, though moderating our excessive natural activity, nevertheless, induces us to practise generosity, one of the great factors of merit, and to self-sacrifice, qualities that pertain to great merit; it is, therefore, opposed to sloth and indifference. Prudence also causes us to perform all we do with reflexion and recollection; for we should never apply ourselves to a task in such a manner as to be incapable of thinking of something else. We should always carefully perform what we have to do, but calmly and without passion, so that we may be able to direct our thoughts to God from time to time. In this manner we shall act as true religious, and our work, whatever it may be, will never interfere with our holiness. Wherefore, let us, when beginning something and now and then in the course of our occupations, raise our heart to God by acts of love, offering, resignation, or by some prayer. True prudence orders all things to their end, which is God. The truly prudent religious seeks in all his employments to unite himself to God, to begin, continue and finish all he does under the eye of God, and this renders his life full of merits. The virtue of prudence will also teach us that nothing is well performed in the convent, unless it is done according to holy obedience. If we wish never to make a mistake and always. to succeed, and never to prove inconstant or negligent, we should obey our superiors in all things and depend on them for everything. Prudence, which is very rare and, therefore, difficult to acquire, should enlighten and walk in front of the other virtues with a lighted torch. But obedience is a very easy prudence; it gives the subject a great advantage over his. superior, for he can make no mistake in obeying, but the superior may easily blunder in commanding; he may easily be indiscreet and offend God in commanding; but the subject in obeying avoids these faults and pleases God. "Since the spirit of 304

discernment," says St. Bernard, "is very rare in this world, we should let our obedience supply in us the lack of that virtue. Let us do what is commanded us, neither more nor less, and in the manner prescribed; and thus we shall acquire the prudence we need, and supply the experience that is wanting to us," He who is young and still in his first fervor, and feels strongly inclined to perform corporal penances and austerities, should carefully allow himself to be guided by obedience, and not by his whims or indiscretion. "Prudence," says Louis of Granada, "teaches us to treat our body with discretion, avoiding excessive delicacy and excessive rigor, lest we make it effeminate or unfit to perform the work assigned to us." The superior of a religious community needs prudence more than any one else. Too great haste spoils the best works and undertakings. Great prudence is necessary in correcting one's subjects, for "anger never performs the work of God"; also in making admonitions even in general, for a religious seeks and should always find a father's, a mother's heart, in his superior. Reflection and prayer should preside over all his corrections and remarks, if they are to bear fruit; they should proceed from a heart filled with the meekness of Jesus Christ. The superior should know how to be patient, await and study the favorable moment, to begin, continue and conclude his admonition with meekness and kindness, in a word, to steep it in honey, or rather to place it in the heart of his divine Model. "The longer I live," wrote St. Teresa, "the more clearly I perceive that it behooves a superior to use love and kindness. I no longer govern with as much severity as formerly; I do not know whether this is to be ascribed to the fact that the religious do not give me any occasion for severity, or because experience has taught me that kindness is far more profitable." When this saint found it necessary to reprove a Sister, she began by convincing her of her wrong-doing and of her having deserved a penance, so. that she might receive the reproof with greater fruit. To acquire this necessary moderation, the superior should reflect much and be slow in all that he undertakes. He should consult God in prayer, also his appointed consultors, and, if necessary, some other member of the community who has much experience and prudence. "It is true," wrote St. Vincent de Paul to a superior who found fault with his slowness, "that I am slow in undertaking things and in performing them; and nevertheless, I have never seen any affair spoiled by my slowness; on the contrary, everything has been done in due time after the necessary reflexion and precautions, and after much prayer to God, who is much 305

pleased when we take a long time to consider maturely whatever concerns His service." 3. Lastly, prudence should regulate all our relations with the world. A want of prudence and circumspection with seculars is never without fault in a religious. Every religious should be a man of reflexion, circumspect, and ever on his guard against the malevolence of the world; no one should be. more watchful than he over his words and actions, for it is not enough for him to be a saint, he should also be looked upon as one, according to St. Paul's counsel to his disciple Titus (2. 7, 8): "In all things show thyself an example of good works, in doctrine, in integrity, in gravity; the sound word that cannot be blamed, that he, who is against us, may be afraid, having no evil to say of us." Many things that are lawful and proper for seculars, are not so for religious. And if the world dreams of scandal, and even looks for it, is it not, perhaps, because the levity of some religious gives them occasion for this? They laugh and joke with seculars as freely as they do with their fellow-religious, and this even without distinction of persons, age or sex. Their imprudence is apt to give scandal, and even to injure the good name of their community. We should, therefore, be always cautious and prudent with seculars, and especially when we have to visit them. Useless and unnecessary visits are fraught with more or less spiritual danger for the religious themselves, as experience proves. The good religious loves his convent, his cell, is addicted to work, study, recollection and prayer, and avoids all unnecessary visits, idle conversations, and is never so happy as when he can be at home and be faithful to the regular observance. When called to the parlor, he obeys the call and takes care not to lose his time there in idle gossip, worldly conversations, eager inquiry after news, or in discussing the shortcomings of his neighbor. Let us take to heart the admonition of St. Basil: "When you have to deal with seculars, be most careful to safeguard your own reputation and that of your community." If we wish to acquire true prudence, we must become men of prayer, for, as Cassian says, prudence is not a secondary virtue that may be acquired by human means; we must expect it from God's bounty. "Bless God," said Tobias to his son, "and desire of Him to direct thy ways" (Tob. 4.20). In the next place, we should subdue our passions, for nothing blinds, the mind more than an unsubdued passion. We should also mistrust ourselves, for we are not more virtuous or stronger than others. We should not neglect to seek counsel of the wise and prudent. "Seek counsel always of a wise man," said Tobias to his son (4.19). "With all thy possession 306

purchase prudence; take hold on her, and she shall exalt thee; thou shalt be glorified by her, when thou shalt embrace her" (Prov. 4. 7, 8). "The science of the saints is true prudence" (Prov. 9. 10).

Gratitude (E)
I. Gratitude induces us not only to acknowledge the benefits we have received, but also to give our benefactors something in return for their benefits, and even more than we have received from them. Such is the teaching of St. Thomas. St. Teresa is an admirable and imitable model of this beautiful virtue, which is allied to charity. When she considered the immense benefits she had received from the divine bounty, she felt urged by what she so expressively called "the torment of gratitude." In like manner she would never consider herself grateful enough towards those who did her even the slightest favor. She prayed daily for a poor man who had, in one of her journeys, drawn from a spring a jug of water for her. Some one gave her for her foundation at Seville an antependium for an altar, on which the sacrifice of Abraham was very poorly represented. One of the nuns found it in very bad taste, and said: "The angel looks as if he was taking the discipline." "Oh, daughter," replied the saint much grieved, "is that your gratitude for our benefactor's gift? Do not let me hear any more such unbecoming remarks." A certain person had rendered much valuable assistance in one of her foundations; but later on caused much grief and trouble to the community. The prioress sought means to get rid of all further relations with her. "For the love of our Lord, do not endeavor to get rid of her," wrote St. Teresa to the prioress, "since there is no sin in this matter; I cannot bear that we should be ungrateful towards those who have done us good." She had numberless ways in her poverty to testify her gratitude by some pious memento, and inspired her daughters with the same sentiments, sometimes playfully saying to them: "Be not ungrateful." She especially sought to show her gratitude by praying much for all who showed her kindness, and often obtained thereby the hundred-fold for them in this life. Every religious should so manifest a sincere and generous gratitude towards all benefactors, both spiritual and temporal, as to give no occasion to be suspected of ingratitude. Gratitude to his dear parents requires that he should every day pray fervently for their intentions and take a lively interest in their spiritual and temporal welfare; he should continue to pray for them after they have departed this life. Next to his 307

parents the greatest benefactor of every religious is the Institute to which he belongs. II. Gratitude towards our Order or Institute. Some religious seem not to have a clear idea of the obligation of gratitude they have contracted towards their Institute, 1. Our Institute is a real mother to us. Many a time religious use the expression: "Our Mother the Congregation," etc.; and this is true for our Institute is more our Mother according to grace, than she who gave us birth according to nature. The latter gave us life and for some years bestowed on us the temporal cares required by our body and the spiritual cares so necessary to our soul. Moreover, near her we have enjoyed some family happiness. Our spiritual Mother has procured us all this and done much more for us. She has brought us forth to a life of perfection, whose very name and nature were unknown to us. She has taught us to live in God and for God. During our spiritual infancy, that is our novitiate, she nourished us with all that the life in God possesses, most beautiful and perfect, in order to "form Christ in us" (Gal. 4. 19). She will continue this holy education during all our life until she shall place our soul among the Cherubim and Seraphim, for her only solicitude is to see us growing, like the Child Jesus, in wisdom and virtue. The only grief of her maternal heart is to see some of her children languishing in the paths of holiness, or even showing themselves ungrateful towards her by turning their back on her. The food with which she sustains our spiritual life is quite divine: the word of God, the Blessed Eucharist, the good examples of our fellowreligious, the wise counsels and prudent admonitions of experienced superiors, whose love for us is like that of St. Alphonsus for his brethren: "My brethren, be persuaded that, next to God, each one of you is the sole object of my affection. I am ready to give for each one of you my blood and my life." When we were invested with our holy habit, the superior said to us: "Put on the new man, who is created according to God." The new man is the supernatural man, the man of grace. Our whole life has become a tissue of divine graces: graces of the sacraments, of assiduous prayer, of a life of devotedness and obedience, of self-denial, of selfsurrender and dependence. "You are," says St. Alphonsus, "fortunate plants cultivated in a fertile soil upon which heavenly dew comes down in abundance." Our Institute will lavish all these cares on us, not for a few years only, but during all our life. We needed but a short time to find out that our Institute takes no less care of our body than of our soul. How many of us, had they remained in the world, would not be able to enjoy what their 308

Institute now provides them with most abundantly? Let us ask ourselves whether we have suffered want in it? Whether we have not always been well provided with all that we needed? Moreover, we are free from all temporal cares, we need not worry like people in the world, how we are going to earn our living, how we shall be able to provide for our family. This exemption from all worldly cares is one of the greatest boons of the religious life. Finally, you have enjoyed in the world at times the pure joys of the family life. But is not every convent a model of the true family life? Where in the world reigns the same cordial charity, the same mutual support, which flourishes in a fervent Institute? Nowhere else will you find the same pleasant and joyful recreations, those little family feasts which so strongly rivet our hearts to our fellow-religious and to our Institute, and which naturally call to our mind the saying of Ven. Father Passerat: "I love only what is sweet, natural, kind and cheerful, for it is thus that I represent to myself Jesus Christ and heaven." Hence we see every good religious who is filled with this family spirit, always cheerful, pleasant, sincere and affectionate, and contributing to the mutual happiness, of his companions. For him these words of the psalmist are realized: "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity" (Ps. 132. 1). 2. Our Institute is truly our good Mother. But her benefits demand of us gratitude and tokens of affection and attachment. We should testify our gratitude by showing ourselves her true children. To be her true children it behooves us, in the first place, to be strongly attached to our holy Rule. It is not the habit that makes a religious, but regularity. The true pillars of a religious Institute are not the very able and talented, for if they do not lead a life even more edifying than the others, they will do more harm than good. The true pillars are those who lead the most regular life, for, although they may be only simple lay-brothers, they keep up the Institute by drawing upon it an abundance of divine graces, and their life is a constant powerful preaching. They also maintain the reputation of the Institute in the world and draw into it solid vocations. "Persecutions," wrote St. Alphonsus to his religious, "can only benefit us; but what can really harm the Congregation is the wilful and habitual transgression of a small rule, because it keeps divine grace from our Institute." He is a worthy son of his Institute who is entirely devoted to it. We should be wholly devoted to ours and consecrate to it our labors, our time, our very life. It should be as dear to us as the apple of our eye. Its works should interest us, its trials grieve us, its devotions and practices should 309

also be ours. We should exert ourselves to be filled with its spirit, to live by its life. All that we do for our Institute, however much and great it may be, will never sufficiently repay what so good a Mother has done and will do for us; our gratitude will never equal her benefits in our regard. In a certain sense we ought to apply to our Institute the exhortation of St. Paulinus concerning the gratitude we owe to God. "Love Him, love Him always, love Him as long as you live. Say not that you are unable to acquit yourself of your debt of gratitude. You have the means to pay it, since you have your heart in your power; give it, therefore, wholly and unreservedly to Him." Finally, we shall be true children of our Institute, if we are faithful to it until death. Perseverance is a stumbling-block for some religious. To be deeply impressed with the necessity of perseverance, let us recall the chief maxims of the saints summarized as follows by St. Alphonsus: 1. The holy founders of religious Institutes will themselves expel from them certain leprous members, such as those who are unfaithful to their vow of chastity, or the proud, haughty and disobedient, for they destroy the good name of their Institute and injure obedience which is the basis of every religious Institute. 2. Those who lose their vocation shall have no more happiness. Pride and the desire to live as they please have caused many a religious to leave, who assuredly no longer enjoyed true peace. Peace comes from above, and consists in the rest and calmness of the soul in God; but God does not impart it to those who resist His light, nor to those who have wilfully lost their vocation. 3. Vocation is lost gradually. Unfaithfulness in little things, in things of minor importance, leads by degrees to the loss of the religious spirit, and with its loss to the loss of one's vocation. 4. It is very probable that the loss of vocation is frequently followed by the forfeiture of eternal salvation. And if any of those unfortunate persons is saved, he will, nevertheless, lose the bright crown which was to be the reward of his fidelity and perseverance. 5. Those religious who die in an Institute which is truly fervent and holy, shall be saved and saved as saints, for only those persevere in such an Institute who endeavor to lead a fervent life. Such religious may, like the pious Father Humarque, who had long been blind, say at their last moments: "Why should I fear death? Have I not given myself wholly to God, and have I not served Him as well as I could? Oh, what a grace for me to die as a son of St. Alphonsus, who promised that all the faithful 310

members of his Congregation would go to heaven and enjoy a high place in it!" "I beseech you," with St. Paul, "to walk in a manner worthy of the vocation in which you have been called" (Eph. 4.1). Do not lose the beautiful crown God has prepared for every religious who lives and dies in fervor. Let your constant fervor be ever the true token of gratitude you offer to your Institute. Wherefore, often thank our Lord and the Blessed Virgin for having drawn you out of the world into so noble a vocation, and ask them often daily for the grace of perseverance in fervor and in your holy vocation, and you will surely obtain it. O Mary, Mother of perseverance, pray for us!

Patience (E)
Patience enables us to bear with calmness, equanimity and generosity physical and moral sufferings from some supernatural motive. It moderates and regulates sadness, pain, dejection and grief. I. Patience is the mirror of our holiness. A good mirror gives a faithful image of the object before it. In like manner, our patience gives us a faithful and exact image of our holiness. In other words, we possess as much perfection as we have patience with ourselves and as we show patience towards others in the trials of life. "Patience," says St. James (1.4), "hath a perfect work." "He is perfect," says Ven. Bede, "whose patience cannot be overcome." "The virtues without patience," says Cornelius a Lapide, "resemble a wall built without cement or mortar, which will soon fall down, for patience is the cement that binds the virtues together." "Tribulation worketh patience, and patience trial of our holiness," says St. Paul (Rom. 5.4). "Patience is necessary for you, that, doing the will of God, you may receive the promise" (Hebr. 10.36). One day St. Angela of Foligno, in order that the devil might not deceive her, asked our divine Saviour for a sign by which she might recognize that it was He Himself who was speaking to her. "Thou shalt know," He said, "that I am in thee, when, not content with patiently suffering the evils that befall thee, thou shalt love them as real benefits. Of all the signs of the grace of God, this is the most indubitable." To judge of the real holiness of St. Gerard, St. Alphonsus needed no other proof than the holy Brother's patience in bearing a fearful calumny. II. Patience procures continued merits. "Many," says the, Imitation, "find the saying harsh, that we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus. But it will be much harder to hear these words on the last 311

day: 'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.' And, nevertheless, in the cross is the height of virtue, the perfection of holiness. What man is there that has not his troubles, and what day is there when we have nothing to suffer? Were we to dispose of and regulate all things according to our desires and our views, we shall always have something to suffer, whether we will it or no. What saint has been without cross and tribulation in this world? Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself was not one hour during His life without experiencing the sufferings of His Passion." This law of trial and suffering is an admirable effect of the divine mercy and goodness towards us; we are sinners and deeply indebted to the divine justice; we are poor and destitute, and are obliged to enrich ourselves; suffering pays, suffering merits. And God, in His Providence, takes care to send us every day some occasion to practise patience, so that we may both pay our debts and grow rich. St. Francis of Assisi, feeling oppressed by many pains and almost blind, offered to God this humble prayer: "O Lord, my God, cast Thy eyes upon me, and succor me; grant me the grace to bear all these infirmities patiently." A voice replied immediately: "Francis, what price should be set on that which enables one to obtain a priceless kingdom? Know that the sufferings thou offerest are more estimable than all the riches in the world, even were all the mountains changed into pure gold, and their rocks into precious stones, and all the water in the ocean into balsam." "Yes, Lord," exclaimed Francis, "it is thus that I prize the sufferings Thou sendest me, for I know Thou willest that they should be the punishment of my sins, so that Thou mayst show me mercy forever." "Rejoice then," added the voice, "for it is the road thou art in that leads to heaven." God, indeed, does not take pleasure in seeing us suffer. "No," says St. Alphonsus; "but the unhappy state of being sinners in which we are and our obligations towards Jesus Christ require that, for His sake, we should renounce earthly pleasures, and willingly embrace the cross He gives us to carry in this life, and should follow Him who, laden with a cross far heavier than ours, goes before us leading us to the conquest of a life of per feet happiness. No, God does not take pleasure in seeing us suffer; but, since He is the sovereign Justice, He cannot leave our faults unpunished; thence follows the necessity for us of atoning for them by our patience, and at the same time, of meriting thereby the eternal happiness to which He has destined us. How beautifully and sweetly has divine Providence thus provided for the rights of His justice and secured for us salvation and perfect happiness! "Let us remember well," says St. Teresa, "that we can acquire through the sufferings that God sends and those that 312

come from our neighbor, greater merit in one day, than we can gain in ten years through mortifications and other exercises of our own choice." We here give some reasons for this. 1. In the first place, by our patience we offer to God a complete sacrifice. The daily sufferings and trials, when borne with patience, burn by a slow fire all our self-love and immolate us to God. Such a sacrifice is pure and pleasing to God and unmixed with selfishness. St. John beheld in heaven an immense multitude before the throne of God, all clothed in white garments, for nothing defiled can enter heaven, and holding in their hands palms, the symbol of martyrdom. But are all the saints martyrs? Yes, for all the adults who are saved, even if they have not shed their blood for the faith, have been martyrs at least by their patience in resisting the assaults of the devil and the lusts of the flesh, in bearing contradiction, contempt, and the trials of their body and soul; all these are like so many executioners who daily immolate us, slowly, secretly but meritoriously, to the greater glory of God. 2. Patience, moreover, purifies our heart more and more and attaches it to God. "Be certain," says the Imitation, "that thou shalt spend thy life in dying; and the more thou diest to thyself, the more also thou beginnest to live for God." "Be persuaded," said our divine Saviour to St. Teresa, "that he who is most loved by My Father, receives from Him the heaviest crosses." In the designs of God, the cross is the great instrument by which He detaches His friends from themselves and all creatures. For there is need of the whole power of the cross, for our attachment to ourselves and to all that concerns us, can be broken only by painful rendings. This, is the reason why God ceases not to send trials to the souls with whom He wishes to unite Himself perfectly. The trials cause their soul to bleed, their will to groan; the victim is immolated and God alone reigns over those living ruins. "Listen," said our Lord to Bl. Henry Suso, "to the reason for which I try My servants in so many ways. I dwell and abide in a soul as in a paradise of delights, and I cannot permit her to take pleasure outside of Me, or that she should have any affection for creatures; and because I wish to possess her pure and chaste, I surround her with thorns and shut her up in adversity, lest she should escape Me. I sow in her path pains and anguish, so that she may find no rest in things created, but should place all her happiness in the depth of My divinity. Whatever crosses I send thee, elevate thee, and unite thee far more intimately and more firmly to My divinity, than all the crosses of thy own choice. I grant My graces to both the good and the wicked, but I reserve My crosses for the elect. Examine and compare wisely, and thou shalt understand that it 313

were better to burn a hundred years in a furnace, than to be deprived of the smallest cross I could and would give thee. Dost thou not acquire an infinite reward by generously bearing afflictions? The cross is so precious a divine gift, that wert thou to remain prostrate on the ground for years, thou wouldst not even then be worthy. to obtain it." We can now understand this saying of the Imitation: "Nothing is more pleasing to God, nothing is more salutary in this world than to suffer willingly for Christ's sake." "Contradictions," said the Bl. Cure d'Ars, "place us at the foot of the cross, and the cross places us at heaven's gate. To reach it, we need to be trod upon, to be vilified, despised and ground. All sufferings are sweet, when borne in union with our Lord. And, indeed, what does suffering matter? It lasts but a moment. If we could spend a week in heaven, we would grasp the meaning of a momentary suffering, and would not find a cross heavy enough, or a trial bitter enough. The cross is God's gift to His friends." We should, then, be grateful to God for the crosses He sends us. 3. Finally, patience renders us like Jesus Christ, whom Tertullian calls the Lord and Master of patience, because He was never without afflictions and sufferings. The more we resemble Him, the more holy and the more rich in merits we shall be. The cross was His most faithful companion in life. On it He was born and died, and by it He merited His glory in heaven. He found no better means of sanctifying us than suffering. Hence He says to us: "Take up your cross daily and follow Me." And how can we enter heaven without cross, since the life of Jesus Christ, our Head and Redeemer, was a continual cross and martyrdom? How can we glory in being disciples of Jesus crucified, if we repel, or show repugnance for the fruits of the cross, that is, sufferings, humiliations, poverty, pains, sickness and all that is opposed to our self-love? The saints earnestly desired to resemble Jesus Christ and to approach daily nearer their divine Model, and therefore they longed for sufferings and practised an admirable patience in their trials. "Do you wish to feel your crosses but little," said St. Clare of Montefalco to her nuns, "contemplate the cross of Jesus Christ." "Is there a trial," asks St. Bernard, "which will not taste sweet to you, if you reflect on all the bitterness of Christ's Passion?" "O Lord," exclaimed St. Catharine of Genoa, "it is thirty-six years ago since Thou didst enlighten me, and since then I have longed for nothing else than sufferings in both my body and my soul." "Lord," besought St. Francis Xavier, "take not this cross from me, unless it be to give me a heavier one." St. Gerard, after experiencing in his soul and body the whole Passion of the Saviour, would say: "Lord, I suffer, because I have nothing 314

to suffer." "Think diligently upon Him," says St. Paul, "that endured such opposition from sinners against Himself, that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds" (Hebr. 12. 3). Therefore patience sanctifies us, purifies us, renders us like Jesus Christ, and enriches us with merits for life everlasting. "Suffering," says Bl. Grignon de Montfort, "is a caress from the hand of Jesus, a proof of His affection, the true seal of His elect." III. Patience procures us peace with ourselves and with our neighbor. In the practical life there is perhaps no other virtue we need more than patience, because we every where find difficulties and trials. We must be patient with ourselves, with our excitable character, with our excited nerves. We must be patient with others, with their defects, with their blunders, their way of speaking and acting. We must be patient with our superiors, who have also their defects, their peculiarities, their own way of judging and acting. "Look heavenward, look down on your surroundings," says the Imitation, "look within yourself, you will find crosses everywhere. It behooves you to be everywhere patient, if you wish to enjoy interior peace and merit an eternal crown." Every one here below desires peace and would like to find it without suffering; but this is impossible in our present state, for crosses await us everywhere. And how shall we find peace in the midst of all these crosses'? By embracing with patience all our daily crosses. "In your patience," says Jesus, "you shall possess your souls" (Luke 21. 19). "May the Lord," prays St. Paul, "direct your hearts in the charity of God and the patience of Christ" (2 Thess. 3. 5); "The peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4.7). "Be patient towards all men" (1 Thess. 5. 14). One day after the Bl. Cure d'Ars had preached on heaven, some one asked him: "What must we do to deserve that glorious reward?" "We need divine grace and the cross," he replied. Let us daily endeavor to practise patience with ourselves, with our companions, with our superiors and with all the persons the duties of our state require us to meet. In all our trials, failures, sufferings, etc., let us recall the patience of our divine Model. "Let us," says St. Paul, "run by patience to the fight (perfection) proposed to us" (Hebr. 12.1); "and may the Lord direct our hearts in the charity of God and the patience of Christ" (2 Thess. 3. 5), "for the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8. 18). Let us always say with St. Alphonsus: "My beloved Saviour, so greatly despised for my sake, how sweet it is to suffer for Thy sake!"

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Humility (E)
There are two kinds of humility: humility of the mind, by which we know ourselves and our misery; and humility of heart by which we practise what the humility of mind teaches us; in other words, it is the courage of truth. Humility of the mind is not the virtue of humility, because it is only speculative, a knowledge of our true misery; but it is an indispensable condition of the humility of the heart, which is the virtue of humility. I. Humility of the mind requires, in the first place, a thorough knowledge of ourselves. "Man's whole science," says St. Augustine, "consists in knowing that, of himself, he is nothing, and that what he is, is from God and for God." This knowledge of ourselves is so necessary that every external act of humility that is not based thereon, is like the humility of the pharisees described by our Saviour: "You are like whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of all filthiness" (Mat. 23. 27). It behooves us, therefore, to acquire selfknowledge. "If we wish to know what we really are," says St. Bernard, "we should be ever mindful of the answers to these three questions: `What have we been? What are we? and What we shall one day be?' " What have we been? "Ashes and dust," replies the Holy Ghost (Eccli. 10.9). God made our soul from nothing and our body from the slime of the earth, and if He did not preserve us we should at once return to nothing. "Although God has given us great graces," says St. Teresa, "we are of ourselves, less than nothing." What are we then? We are escaped prisoners from hell. God created us out of nothing; had we remained in nothingness, we would never have been able wilfully to place ourselves in a worse condition. Our divine Saviour said of Judas: "It would have been better for him, had he not been born." Judas was a traitor, and have not we also been traitors by our sins? Traitors to God to whom we swore fidelity; traitors to our own soul, when we yielded to sinful pleasures and caused her spiritual death. We may, in all truth, call ourselves the most miserable of sinners, the most ungrateful of men towards God, our greatest Benefactor. Who knows whether one of our sins, on account of God's choice graces towards us, is not more heinous before God than a hundred or a thousand sins of worldlings. We have no reason to glory in our gifts, in our talents, etc., for "what have we that we have not received? And if we have received, why should we glory, as if we had not received it?" (1 Cor. 4.7). All that we 316

have, our sins excepted, we have received from God, and we are bound to acknowledge it and be grateful for it. And what shall we one day be? What does a grave tell us? Holy Job replies: "Worms, corruption, dried up bones and dust." Such shall our body be. And where shall our soul be, which is far more prone to hell by her evil inclinations than to heaven? What will become of that "heart perverse above all things"? (Jer. 17.9). The religious state may be compared to the earthly paradise; and yet our first parents lost their innocence in the earthly paradise. The religious may be compared also to the college of the apostles, but did not Judas, one of its members, fall into the most abominable of crimes? Wherefore St. Paul thus warns us: "Let him who thinketh himself to stand, take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10. 12). And the Holy One calls "blessed the man who is always fearful" (Prov. 28. 14). Humility of the mind, in the second place, requires that we should know God. Man cannot thoroughly know his being, his misery, his helplessness, unless he knows God. The saints in their meditations considered and sought a thorough knowledge of the divine perfections, and the sight of them overwhelmed them, as it were, in their own nothingness. "The truly humble soul," says a certain saint, "raises herself with all her might to God, whose holiness and incomprehensible love for men she perceives. Then reentering into herself, she sees the infinite distance between Him and herself, and by means of the divine light that enlightens her, she perceives clearly her own stains and defects as we can see the atoms of dust floating in the air, by means of the rays of the sun penetrating into a room." "The more holy souls consider the divine perfections," says St. Gregory, "the more they know that they themselves are as nothing." "All the saints," says St. Anselm, "who make progress in the knowledge of God, acknowledge their nothingness so much the more as they have increased in the knowledge of the divine perfections." "In order to know myself," said St. Francis of Assisi, "and to understand that I am not good for anything, and that I am nothing, I found no better means than to consider the infinite and incomprehensible abyss of the Deity." "Dost thou know, daughter," said our Saviour to St. Catharine of Siena, "what thou art and what I am? If thou learnest these two things, thou shalt be happy. Thou art she who is nothing, and I am He who is." Those who are unable to rise so high, can acquire the same knowledge by meditating on the infinite mercy of the Most High in the work of our redemption. Let them meditate on the humiliations of Jesus Christ, and "if that medicine," says St. Augustine, "does not cure their 317

pride, I know not what else can cure it." Jesus Christ Himself invites us to this meditation, when He says: "Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart" (Mat. 11. 28). They should often take the crucifix in their hands, for it is the principal book of the true religious, and is a summary of all the Saviour's humiliations. He hangs on the cross to teach us to love humiliations and to detest every motion of pride. "O humility," exclaims St. Bernard, "Christ's special virtue, how thou confoundest our pride and our vanity!" II. Humility of the heart. It is the true virtue of humility and the natural fruit of humility of the mind. It induces our will to abase ourselves sincerely and to practise self-contempt. Its first result is entire submission to God. "Be humble," says the Prince of the apostles, "under the mighty hand of God" (1 Pet. 5.6). In the second place, it induces us to submit to our neighbor on account of the contempt we have of ourselves as being the most wretched of men. All our exterior acts of humility must be sincere, otherwise they are a dangerous hypocrisy. "Humiliation," says St. Bernard, "is the road to humility, just as patience is the road to peace, and study, to science. " The true acts of humility should be consistent with each one's state and dignity. For instance, the humility of a bishop is not that of a simple priest, nor is that of a superior that of a subject. The extraordinary acts of humility found in the Lives of the Saints were dictated rather by the fervor of charity, which always aims at a more perfect resemblance to Jesus humbled and scoffed at, and are more to be admired than imitated. III. Degrees of humility. The first degree consists in having a low opinion of ourselves. We ought not, however, to let every one know that we have a low opinion of ourselves, for this would smack of pride. "We often say that we are nothing, miserable sinners," observes St. Francis de Sales; "but we would be very sorry, if people were to take us at our word and treat us as such. True humility does not make a show of itself, and scarcely ever utters humble words, for it desires not only to hide its other virtues, but even to conceal itself. Wherefore, let us not utter humble words, or if we do, let us do so sincerely; let us never keep our eyes east down without humbling our heart." The second degree of humility is to love to remain unknown and to be despised. "Humility of the heart, or of the will," says St. Alphonsus, "requires that we take complacency in being despised by others." Elsewhere the same saint says: "Humility of the heart consists in desiring to be despised by others, and to take pleasure in humiliations." 318

The third degree of humility consists in refer-ring everything to God and in not attributing anything to ourselves. Such was Mary's humility when she said to the angel: "Behold the hand-maid of the Lord," and pronounced these words of the Magnificat "My soul doth glorify the Lord, and my spirit rejoiced in God my Saviour, because He hath regarded the lowness of His handmaid." Among all the miracles of St. Gerard the greatest was his humility amid the honors every one lavished upon him. Although few Saints were favored with greater extraordinary gifts, he never gloried in them. He had a horror of praise and he would flee from the very shadow of esteem and go to conceal himself. He would have wished to lead an obscure life. One day having arrived at a place where no one knew him, and having no suspicion that any one would overhear him, he knelt down and said: "Lord, I thank Thee that no one here knows me." "I would like," said St. Joseph Calasanctius, "to be holy in order to be humble; and still more holy in order to be more humble, and to be perfectly holy in order to be perfectly humble." IV. Excellence of humility. In the first place, humility is the foundation of all the virtues. Even "faith," says St. Augustine, "does not enter into a proud mind, but into an humble heart." "Humility," says St. Gregory, "is the root of all the virtues. Every flower draws its beauty and freshness from its root; when culled it soon withers. In like manner, virtue detached from humility withers and vanishes. The root is in the ground and devoid of beauty; though trodden upon, it is the plant's principle of life. The humble man also delights in being hidden, trampled under foot, and the humility in his inmost heart imparts life to all the virtues. Furthermore, the plant, in order to be lasting and to produce many fruits, must sink its roots deep into the ground, and the deeper they are, the larger it will grow and the more abundant will be its fruits. If we wish our virtues to wax strong and fertile in good works, we must take care that humility should daily strike deeper roots in our soul. In the second place, humility is the guardian of the virtues. "He who amasses virtues without humility," says St. Gregory, "is like a man that carries, dust in an open vessel against a strong wind." Humility alone can destroy our self-love, that disease which ravages the virtues, those delicate plants in our soul. In the third place, humility disposes our soul for the reception of the abundant graces of God. "God resisteth the proud," says St. James, "and giveth grace to the humble." The reason is that vain-glory so fills the soul as to leave no room for divine grace. "God," says St. Francis de Sales, "requires our soul to be perfectly empty of vainglory, in order to cause His 319

grace to flow therein with the unction of the Holy Ghost." "When you humble yourself," says St. Augustine, "God descends to you in order to unite Himself to you; but when you give way to pride, He departs from you." "The prayer of him that humbleth himself," says the Holy Ghost, "penetrateth the clouds and withdraweth not until the Most High behold" (Eccli. 35. 21). "Pride," says St. Gregory, "is the evident mark of the reprobate, whilst humility is that of the predestined." If we understood the power of humility over God, we would not dread humbling ourselves or undergoing humiliations. V. The practice of humility. First, as to humility of the mind. Whatever good we possess or do belongs to God, comes from God. He who is humble is always mindful of this, attributes nothing, except evil, to himself, and considers himself as deserving only of contempt; he delights in being despised and treated as of no account; and this is what renders him dear to God. He who glorifies himself in anything whatever, robs God of His glory, for "to God alone be honor and glory." If we do much good, let us remember that the saints have done more than we. Let us never rely on our own strength, on our good resolutions; that would be pride. But let us place all our trust in God, who alone can impart success. The proud man, like St. Peter, relies on his own strength and falls miserably. But the humble man, mistrusting himself, acquires the power of God. If we happen to commit a fault, let us not get discouraged or angry with ourselves, for that would be pride; but let us at once humble ourselves, make an act of contrition, and learn therefrom that we are weak and place our trust more than ever in God alone. If we hear that some one has committed a great sin, a crime, let us not presume on ourselves or show any astonishment, but let us have compassion for him who has fallen, and dread lest the same misfortune may happen to us, and say with David: "Had the Lord not helped me, I should now be in hell" (Ps. 93.17). God granted to a holy person to behold her own soul; she found it so horrid and deformed, that she exclaimed: "Lord, for mercy's sake, take away from me the sight of that monster!" Let us never prefer ourselves to any one whatever, but let us, on the contrary, consider ourselves as the worst of all, as the outcast of the world. Secondly, as to humility of the heart. Let us always avoid saying anything in our praise, whether it be concerning our conduct, talents, good works, or our family. "Let another, and not thy own mouth praise thee," says the Holy Ghost (Prov. 27.2). Let us never say anything good or evil about ourselves; often he who speaks ill of himself, does so from a motive of pride. "We are only what we are in the sight of God." Therefore, let us 320

place no reliance on the praises of men. Let us beware of seeking honorable employments, for this would be a sign of pride. Let us love abject employments, and flee all that would distinguish us from our fellow-religious. Let us not envy those who possess more talent, ability or popularity than we. When we are reproved, let us not get disturbed, or vindicate ourselves, but let us interiorly humble ourselves and thank God for the correction. Let us faithfully and humbly practise the acts of humility our Rule or our customs prescribe and others also, provided we shun all singularity. Willingness to oblige and please our fellow-religious has its root in humility; its absence in us would be a mark that we are unfit for the community life. The proud religious cannot live or permit others to live in peace. Wherefore let us practise humility by our willingness to submit in all things to our superiors, and to respect, serve, help, oblige, cheer up and please our companions, and bear with joy all contradictions and all the faults of our brethren. "A good religious," says St. Joseph Calasanctius, "despises the world and takes pleasure in being despised by it." Let us, therefore, accept cheerfully all contempt, from whomsoever it may come, and say with David: "It is good for me, O Lord, to have been humbled by Thee." Let us always and everywhere manfully keep our proper place, and beseech Jesus humbled on the cross, humbled in His prison of the tabernacle, for the strength to be humble on all occasions. "I wish to you all," wrote St. Francis de Sales to the Visitandines, "the perfection of humility. I prefer seeing you endowed with more humility and less of the other virtues, than to see you with more of the other virtues and less humility."

Meekness (E)
According to St. Vincent de Paul meekness has three acts. The first act has a twofold office or function: to repress the motions of anger, the sallies of that fire that rises to one's face, disturbs the soul; and also to direct the will when it is necessary to correct or even rigorously to chastise, so that it may not act passionately or whimsically, but only through the conviction of not being able to act otherwise. It imitates in this Jesus Christ who vigorously drove the venders out of the temple. If our divine Saviour sometimes displayed power, He never showed anger, for He acted for the benefit of those He corrected, and the calm decision of His will preceded His correction. 321

The second act of meekness is to be very affable and cordial and to possess a serenity of countenance towards those who have any intercourse with us, so that they find a certain kind of consolation or pleasure in seeing us. It is a gracefulness by which we appear to offer our affectionate devotedness to those who accost us, which may be called the key to the heart of others, for by such an affability we can easily open even the best closed hearts. The third act of meekness consists in passing over in silence the displeasure or offense another has caused us, in excusing the culprit if the offense was public, in treating him with kindness and patience, in a word, in returning good for evil. I. Excellence of the virtue of meekness. Our divine Saviour's words and examples should convince every Christian and especially every religious of the importance of a virtue. Let us first listen to His teaching concerning the virtue of meekness. Two of the eight Beatitudes concern this virtue: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land," and "Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God" (Mat. 5. 4, 9). When renewing the commandments of His heavenly Father, He called that of the love of our neighbor His own commandment, and why? Because He came on earth to teach men a law full of meekness towards all men without distinction of persons, without excepting our enemies. "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you" (Ibid. 44). St. Paul says expressly: "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ" (Gal. 6.2). "Meekness," says St. Francis de Sales, "excels the other virtues, for it is the flower of charity." "To be perfect, charity should be united to patience and meekness," says St. Bernard. Let us consider the examples of Jesus Christ. One day, when preaching to the people, our divine Saviour made this touching invitation: "Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest to your souls, for My yoke is sweet and My burden light" (Mat. 11. 28-30). These admirable, though simple words sum up the whole life of our Lord: meekness and patience. "Meekness," says St. Aiphonsus, "attributed to the lamb, is the virtue that was especially dear to Jesus Christ who wished to be called the Lamb of God, both on account of the sacrifice of the cross on which He wished to be immolated in order to expiate our sins, and on account of the meekness He practised during His whole life, and particularly during His Passion. (Examples of His meekness: How He rebuked two of His apostles who 322

wished to call down fire from heaven to punish the inhospitable Samaritans; how He refused to condemn the adulterous woman, merely telling her to sin no more; how He converted the Samaritan woman; how He converted St. Peter; how He prayed for and excused His murderers. See Luke 9.55; John 8.10; John 4.7; Luke 22. 48; Luke 23.) Let us consider His merciful goodness towards us, and we shall not find it so very difficult to bear meekly all contradictions. In our Saviour's teaching concerning meekness and His examples of meekness we can find sufficient subjects for our imitation as long as we live. Another way of knowing the excellence of a virtue, is to consider its effects, that is, the fruits of salvation it produces in souls. No one can question the great usefulness and the absolute necessity of meekness in the direction and sanctification of souls. "Nothing edifies and wins the heart better than a charitable kindness," says St. Francis de Sales. This saint was always seen with a smile on his lips; his manner, his words, his whole appearance reflected meekness, so that it was not astonishing that he edified every one, and that St. Vincent de Paul took him as a model. By his imperturbable meekness the saint attracted the greatest sinners no less than the purest souls, and obtained all he wished from them. "The first time I saw him," said Vincent de Paul, "I recognized in his attitude, in the serenity of his countenance, in his manner of conversing and speaking, a very expressive image of the meekness of our Lord Jesus Christ, which won my heart." Since we have not the good fortune of witnessing the efficacy of the meekness of St. Francis over his contemporaries, let us, at least, listen to his admirable teaching. "The humble meekness," he says, "is the virtue of virtues which our Lord so greatly recommends; wherefore it behooves us to practise it always and everywhere. For it excels the other virtues, since it is the flower of charity, which, when it is perfect, according to St. Bernard, is not only patient, but also meek and kind. Let us never get angry, for, says St. James (1. 20) 'the anger of man worketh not the justice of God.' " There can be no doubt that meekness is absolutely necessary for all who live in community, if they wish to live in peace and do good to their brethren. "We stand so much the more in need of affability," says St. Vincent de Paul, "as our vocation obliges us often to converse together, and also with our neighbor, and this conversation is very difficult, both among ourselves, since we are; perhaps of different nationalities, and at least; of different and even opposite characters and ways. It is the virtue of affability that removes these difficulties, and which, being as the soul of a 323

good conversation, renders it not only useful, but also pleasant; it enables us to behave with propriety and mutual condescension, and perfect union and concord among us." The superior who wishes to do a true and lasting good to his community, must show meekness in all his actions. He is a father, but a father endowed with a mother's heart. He should command and prescribe duties rather by request than by command. St. Vincent de Paul declares that it is by meekness that the superior will best secure the obedience of his subjects. St. Frances de Chantal acknowledged having tried every way to govern, and to have found that meekness and forbearance is the most successful. The superior should show kindness even in his reproofs. "It is one thing," says St. Alphonsus, "to reprove strongly, but it is quite a different thing to reprove harshly. We must reprove strongly grievous faults, especially if the culprit has been already admonished; but we must carefully refrain from reproving with bitterness and passion, for we would then do more harm than good. This kind of zeal is reproved by St. James (3.14): `If you have bitter zeal,' he says, `glory not.' If, in rare circumstances, we find it necessary to admonish the delinquent with severity, in order to make him aware of the grievousness of his fault, we should always temper its bitterness by concluding our reproof in a kind manner." We should dress wounds, as did the good Samaritan, with wine and oil; but "as the oil floats always on top of other liquids," remarks St. Francis de Sales, "in like manner, kindness should predominate in all that we do." When the culprit is excited, we should put off the correction until his excitement is over, otherwise it would only irritate him the more. "When the house is on fire, it will never do to throw more combustibles into it," says a certain saint. St. Vincent de Paul related that, in governing his Institute, he had three times reproved with severity, believing he had good reasons for so doing; but that he had later on repented of having done so, for all three reproofs had been fruitless; but that all those he had made with kindness, had been followed by good results. St. Francis de Sales, when reproved for his extreme kindness in correcting delinquents, said that, although, he sometimes had made up his mind to be severe, he had not the courage, when the occasion presented itself, to do so, and "to, tell the truth," he said, "I feared I would, in a quarter of an hour, spill all the small amount of meekness I had exerted myself to gather for twenty-two years as a refreshing dew in the vessel of my heart." 324

Those who are called to labor for souls, or to educate the young, should practise this maxim of St. Vincent de Paul: "Affability, love and humility possess a wonderful power to win souls and to induce them to perform what is repugnant to nature." A great sinner, whom the saint had converted after others had labored in vain to do so, acknowledged that the saint's singular meekness and extreme charity had won his heart. II. How to practise meekness. 1. The first and the greatest of means and, as we may call it, the soul of all the other means to attain constant meekness is a true and intense desire to make progress in the love of Jesus Christ, for love is the most powerful inducement to imitate the beloved. If we earnestly love our divine Model, the effort, the ideal of our life will be to resemble and please Him, and we shall generously perform what He has done, for everything becomes easy to him who loves. "He who sincerely loves Jesus Christ," says St. Alphonsus, "reaches that happy state in which he conforms himself in all things to the divine will and receives with the same peace and equanimity prosperity and adversity, consolations and afflictions, injuries and benefits. And the fruit of this imitating love is the sweet peace of the heart enjoyed by St. Paul: "I superabound with joy in all my tribulations" (2 Cor. 7.4). "The meek," says David, "shall delight in the abundance of peace" (Ps. 36.11). 2. Another means is to anticipate anger. For this purpose we should strive to be always in good humor. Some persons, when they suffer from indigestion or biliousness, or meet with failure or with difficulties, or some one has said something that displeases them, or their superior has admonished them, are in bad humor. Woe then to any one that comes near them, for he will be sorry for it! Unfortunate are the subjects who have such a superior! And unfortunate the community that possesses two or three such members, who are ill-humored, peevish, irritable, etc., and especially devoid of solid virtue! "If you feel ill-humored," says St. Alphonsus, "hasten to overcome yourself by reading a good book, by singing a pious hymn, and profit by the recreation to distract your mind. He who sincerely loves Jesus Christ is never in bad humor, because he has no other will than that of God, and has all that he desires, and is, therefore, always tranquil and undisturbed, whatever may happen, and shows himself always kind and affable towards every one." This does not mean that he will never feel irritable, inclined to be excited or ill-humored. St. Clement Mary Hofbauer was of a quick and irritable disposition; although oft repressed, it was not destroyed, and assailed him at times; and he needed constant watchfulness over himself, in order to master it 325

completely. One day he said to some of his fellow-religious: "I constantly thank God for having left in me that fund of irritability and quick temper, for it serves to keep me humble and to preserve me from pride." If we thus endeavor to be always in good humor, we shall avoid two great defects: getting displeased with ourselves, and getting irritated against others as soon as they do something to displease us. The first of these defects is more frequent than we imagine, and is apt to deceive us under the appearance of zeal for our own perfection. Some easily get angry with themselves, or with some tool, etc., like Cassian who used to get mad with his pen for not writing well. Some get angry with themselves for having been angry, as St. Francis de Sales remarks. This is a mark of pride and self-love. Let us then repent, humble ourselves and have patience with ourselves. The second defect is not less prejudicial to our soul. If some one has displeased us, spoken ill of us or hurt our feelings, let us avoid speaking roughly or harshly to him. "When some one had spoken ill of me," says St. Teresa, "it seemed to me to increase my affection for him." What a pity to see certain religious who daily make mental prayers, hear Mass, receive holy Communion, etc., and who are yet so sensitive to what is said or done to them! Let us reply to every angry word, to every reproach with meekness, for "a sweet word multiplieth friends and appeaseth enemies" (Eccli. 6.5); "A mild answer breaketh wrath, but a harsh word stirreth up fury" (Prov. 15.1). Let us imitate St. Francis de Sales who had made an agreement with his tongue not to speak when his heart was disturbed. He, who has not the courage to begin, and always to begin again to struggle energetically against himself, will never acquire great meekness. St. Alphonsus, who had naturally a quick temper, had to struggle all his life to overcome it. The violence he had to do to himself could be seen by the redness of his face; he would say then: "Gloria Patri," or heave a sigh, or say something pleasant to turn away his attention from the insults irascible persons heaped upon him. By dint of struggling to overcome himself, he succeeded in becoming fond of outrages and contempt. 3. Another means is to combat the motions of anger as soon as they arise in us. We must at once resist every motion of anger as well as of impurity. "It seems to us sometimes necessary to use severe language towards the guilty," says St. Alphonsus, "but we should practise the counsel of David: `Be angry and sin not' " (Ps. 4.5). But this is rather difficult. St. Francis de Sales declares that he had never got angry without being afterwards sorry for it. "It is better for us," he says, "to get along 326

without ever being angry, than to make a moderate and wise use of anger. We should resist and suppress energetically the very first motions of anger. If anger already tries to urge your tongue, compel it to remain silent, and pray to God who appeases hearts. If in spite of your good will, you have already yielded to anger, strive quietly to grow calm, humble yourself interiorly, and endeavor to repair your fault by obliging the person you got angry with, or by speaking kindly to him. Meekness alone can moderate and overcome anger." "My son, do thy works in meekness, and thou shalt be beloved above the glory of men" (Eccli. 3.19). "To the meek the Lord will give grace" (Prov. 3. 34).

Conformity to the Will of God (E)

I. Holiness consists in performing generously all that God requires of us and in the manner God requires. He conforms his will to the will of God who is always disposed to do and suffer all that God wills that he should do and suffer. "All the divine counsels and precepts," says St. Alphonsus, are reduced to doing and suffering what God wills and as He wills. He calls this conformity liberty of spirit, because it enables us to embrace all that pleases Jesus Christ without taking into account the repugnance of self-love or human respect. He calls it also total indifference, because bitter and sweet are all the same to the friends of Jesus Christ; they will, not what pleases them, but only what pleases God. They are just as ready to do little things as to do great things; to do what is unpleasant as to do what is pleasant; provided they please God by what they do. He calls it also an identification. "If you wish entirely to please God," he says, "exert yourself not only to conform in all things to His, will, but to identify yourself with it, so that you will only what God wills and, remaining united to the Lord, you may be but one spirit with Him, as St. Paul says: 'He who is joined to the Lord, is but one spirit' " (1 Cor. 6.17). "If we desire to please wholly and perfectly the heart of God, we should strive," says St. Alphonsus, "not only to practise conformity of our will with that of God, but uniformity of our will with His. This uniformity of our will with the divine will means that we make out of the two wills but one, so that we will only what God wills, or rather that God's will alone remains and is ours also." This is the very summit of perfection, and should be the aim of all our works, of all our desires, of all our prayers, "for it is therein," says St. Teresa, "that real union with God consists." 327

According to St. Francis de Sales, conformity to the will of God has three degrees. The first consists in resignation, that is, when we have to exert ourselves to conform our will to God's, and harbor, at the same time, a secret desire that the contrary should happen. For instance, a sick man, seeing death approaching, is resigned to die, but he would rather get well and live. The second degree is holy indifference; it is higher and more perfect than resignation; the indifferent heart, when God's will is known, easily conforms to it and is not moved or turned away from it by any other consideration. The third degree consists in a simple awaiting or expectation, and is the most perfect, because it concerns the will of God as yet unknown to us and causes us to will beforehand whatever God may will in our regard. II. Excellence of Conformity to the Will of God. 1. In the first place, the very nature of this conformity shows its excellence. "Man's whole perfection," says St. John Chrysostom, "consists in conforming his will in all things to the divine will, because such a conformity is the most perfect and the most pure act of charity." "Our whole perfection consists," says St. Alphonsus, "in the love of our infinitely lovable God." But the whole perfection of divine love consists in the union of our will with that of God. Hence the more we are united to the will of God, the greater is the love we bear Him. It is true that mortifications, meditations, holy Communions and the works of spiritual and corporal mercy are pleasing to God, but when? When they are conformable to His will; otherwise He detests and punishes them. Our works cannot promote the glory of God if they are not pleasing to Him. The Lord does not require our sacrifices but rather that we obey Him, as the prophet Samuel said to Saul (1 Kings 15.22). He who follows his own will rather than that of God, is, in some manner, guilty of idolatry, for he adores his own will in preference to God's will. 2. In the second place, we can see how excellent a virtue is conformity to the will of God from the examples of Jesus Christ and the saints. Conformity to the will of His Father was the favorite virtue of Jesus Christ. If He is born in a stable, if He becomes an obedient child, if He works as a carpenter, if He performs miracles, if He suffers and dies, He has only one reason by which He explains these deep mysteries, "the will of His Father." "My food," He says, "is to do the will of Him who sent Me" (John 4.34). (See also John 5.40; 6.38;14.31). "Whosoever," says Jesus, "shall do the will of My Father who is in heaven, is My brother" (Mat. 12.50). 328

We have also the example of the heavenly spirits. "The pure and perfect love of the angels for God," says St. Alphonsus, "is found wholly in the union of their will with His. If the Seraphim believed that God willed them to spend all eternity in pulling out weeds in the gardens, they would most cheerfully do so. Hence our divine Saviour in His admirable prayer has taught us to pray for the grace to do the divine will on earth as the angels and saints do it in heaven." During their life the saints lived only to accomplish the adorable will of God, for they were persuaded that they would find perfection therein. "My sole obligation," says St. Gerard, "is to do the will of God." "God wills it," says Father Nouet, "was the great rule the saints followed in all their actions; God's will it was why they acted, suffered, lived and died." St. John of the Cross asked only for contempt and suffering, St. Thomas wished only for God Himself; St. Teresa exclaimed: "Either sufferings or death," and St. Veronica Juliani: "Neither suffering nor death." They all wished for what God willed of them. But if these wishes are taken literally, those of St. Thomas and St. Veronica Juliani are the most perfect, because they chose nothing in particular, and left all to the will of God. 3. The excellence of conformity to the will of God is apparent from its advantages. It brings to the soul an unalterable peace, so that the soul will already on earth experience a foretaste of the heavenly joys. "Oh, what a sweet peace," exclaims St. Alphonsus, "does not he enjoy who keeps his will wholly united to the divine will! Since he wishes only for what God desires, his desires are always fulfilled, for nothing happens in the world but what God wills." "Whatsoever shall befall the just man," says the Holy Ghost, "shall not make him sad" (Prov. 12.21). Alphonsus the Great, a very wise king of Aragon, being asked whom he considered as the happiest man on earth, replied: "He who surrenders himself to the will of God and cheerfully receives from His hand evils as well as good things." Those who love God are always contented, because their whole pleasure consists in accomplishing the will of God in all things without exception. They rejoice amid sufferings and crosses, however numerous or painful, because they know how much they please God by cheerfully accepting from His loving hand whatever He pleases to send them. "The unwise," says the Holy Ghost, "is as changeable as the moon." Today he is joyful and laughs, and tomorrow he will be sad an gloomy; today he is in good humor and kind, an tomorrow he will be in bad humor, irritable an furious as a tiger; because his humor depends on circumstances, on his variable feelings. But the just man, on the contrary, is like the sun, always serene, whatever may happen to him, for he find 329

contentment in conforming to God's holy will The angels sang at Bethlehem: "Peace on earth to men of good will." Who are the men of good will? Only those who are always united to the will of God, which is supremely good and perfect Another advantage of conformity to the will of God is that all our merit consists in the earnest practice of the, virtues. But, in order to be virtuous, our acts. must be conformable to the will of God. Hence our good works, such as penances, holy Communions, etc., are pleasing to God only inasmuch as they accord with His holy will, otherwise they would be reprehensible and deserving of punishment. "Oh, how meritorious," exclaims St. Alphonsus, "is an act of perfect resignation to the will of God! It suffices to make one a saint." "He who conforms in all things to the will of God," says St. Vincent de Paul, "and is entirely pleased with it, leads an angelic life on earth, and even lives by the life of Jesus Christ Himself." Behold St. Paul struck down on his way to Damascus; he merely indicates his willingness to perform the Lord's will, and Jesus Christ at once proclaims him a vessel of election (Acts 9.15), for in giving up his own will to God, he gave Everything to God, and he who gives everything to God is truly a saint. "They are mistaken," says St. Teresa, "who fancy that union with God consists in ecstasies, interior consolations and the like; it consists in subjecting our will to the will of God; and this subjection is perfect when our will is detached from all things and so closely united to that of God, as to have no other motion than the will of God." Blessed Stephanie of Soncino one day beheld in a vision some of her acquaintances among the Seraphim in heaven, because during life they had perfectly united their will with the will of God. He who amid trials conforms his will to that of God, proves that he really loves God, for there is nothing more holy than to bear with love the crosses God sends. If we accustom ourselves to practise this conformity, we shall not find it difficult to die with perfect resignation, and even with a perfect identification of our will with God's adorable will. "He who at death makes an act of perfect conformity to the will of God," says Ven. Louis of Blois, "will not only escape hell, but purgatory also, even if he had committed all the sins in the world." The reason of this is that by thus accepting death, he acquires a merit similar to that of the martyrs who willingly gave their life for Jesus Christ. Being asked in his last illness whether he conformed in all things to the will of God, St. Gerard replied: "I consider my bed as the will of God for me, and this His will has nailed me, as it were, to it. It seems to 330

me that the will of God and I are one and the same thing." He caused a card to be fastened to his door, on which was written: "Here the will of God is done, as God wills, and as long as He wills." "I die contented, because I hope I have always sought nothing but the will of God. My God, I wish to die to please Thee; I wish to die in order to do Thy most holy will." Who, but God, can tell us what place in heaven will he occupy who has lived in this perfect conformity? Such a life is a life of the most sublime love of God. In such a life are found happiness, the summit of perfection, a holy death. "We should incessantly aspire to such a life," says St. Alphonsus; "it should be the aim of all our works, of all our desires, of our meditations, of our prayers. To be able to tend efficaciously to such a life, we should implore the help of our holy patrons, of our guardian angel, and especially of Mary, the Mother of God, who was the most perfect of the saints only because she was always the most perfectly united to the will of God." The practice of this virtue is far from being easy, for it requires us to die entirely to ourselves, to our ease and comfort, to our views, our inclinations, health, reputation, relatives, in a word, to our own will and to all that is within us or has any relation to us. III. How to practise conformity to the will of God. In the first place, we should do the will of God for God. His holy will is contained in our Rule and in the orders of our superiors. "It is an illusion to imagine," says St. Alphonsus, "that we can do something better than that which obedience imposes upon us." We should even, when necessary, leave God for God, that is, omit a spiritual exercise without complaint or discontent, but cheerfully, in order to do some work duty requires, even were it to be a daily sacrifice for us to do so. In the second place, it behooves us to accept with a hearty cheerfulness all the trials God sends us. He sometimes tries us directly by sending us sickness, interior afflictions, the death of those who are dear to us; at other times He sends us trials through others, who are instruments of His holy will, such as defamation, contempt, injustice, the dispositions of our superiors, their manner of acting, of commanding. All these trials come to us from God, and we should accept them as His gifts and bless the hand that strikes us, for God, in His infinite wisdom, knows what is best for us, and wishes our greatest good. St. Vincent was wont amid the most bitter trials to exclaim: "God be praised! God be praised!" "To those who love God," says St. Alphonsus, "bitter and sweet are all alike, for they do not wish what pleases them, but only what pleases God." "To love God," says St. Clement, "is a good so great, that we are powerless to express it. 331

But there is nothing that can be compared to suffering for Jesus Christ; it is the height of hapiness." We should consider the will of God even in smallest things, for instance: in an unkind remark a defect in the character of a companion, a failure in our work, in our undertakings, a painful dent through our carelessness, the inclemency the seasons. We should also consider the will God in our own natural defects, such as, our poor health, our incapacity, our poor talents. "Oft kiss with a loving heart," says St. Francis, Sales, "the crosses the Lord Himself has laid upon you; do not examine whether they are ma of precious and odoriferous wood, or of a vile, abject and illodorous wood. Let us say: `Father not as I will, but as Thou willest.' " "Let us," says St. Alphonsus, "accustom our selves in our meditations to make an offering of ourselves to God, being ready to suffer for His sake, every pain of mind and body, every trial an misfortune it may please Him to send us, an to beseech Him always to give us the strength to do His holy will in all things." "O weak mortal,' exclaims St. Augustine, "what seekest thou out of God? Strive to find God, unite thyself to Him, embrace His holy will, and thou shalt be happy, both in this life and in the next." "Lord Jesus,' said St. Frances de Chantal, "without ifs, without buts, without exception, may Thy will be done in, all who are dear to me, in all things, in myself!"

Patience (G)
Crosses must come. However innocent and holy a man may be, he will not be exempt from them. Even our divine Saviour, from His very birth in the wretched stable of Bethlehem, under-went sufferings and crosses during His whole life. The Blessed Virgin and all the saints have had their full share of crosses, and trials. If the just have to suffer in this life, how can we poor sinners hope to escape suffering. It is, in fact, only through suffering that the sinner can be saved. "My brethren," says St. James (1.24), "count it all joy, when you shall fall into diverse temptations, knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience, and patience hath a perfect work; that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing." "Patience," says St. Paul, "is necessary for you, that, doing the will of God, you may receive the promise" (Hebr. 10.36). "If you expect to be free from trials," says St Augustine, "you are not yet a true Christian." "He who does not know how to suffer for Jesus Christ," says St. Joseph Calasanctius, "knows not how to gain Him." "Religious," says St. Francis Xavier, "cannot long remain faithful, if they are without trials." 332

This world is a place of purification, a place of merit, in which every one has to work and suffer in patience. "We can obtain no reward without merit," says St. Alphonsus, "and no merit without patience." Impatience only aggravates the cross without removing it. "He who suffer patiently," says St. Alphonsus, "suffers less, saves his soul; whilst he who suffers impatiently suffers more and loses his soul." The penitent thief on the cross affords an example of patience and salvation in suffering; the impenitent thief however, is an example of impatience and damnation in similar suffering. We should not endeavor to avoid the crosses God sends us, for either our efforts. will make them only the heavier or we shall get in their stead others more painful "Far from gaining anything by refusing a cross," says St. Alphonsus, "we only render it the heavier." Sin is an ulcer, an abscess in our soul. God is the surgeon and the cross is the lancet. "God,' says St. Augustine, "is a physician, and the crosses He sends us are the remedies necessary for our salvation, and not punishments for our condemnation." The cross is, then, rather a mark of God's affection for us, a proof of His mercy in our regard. "Whomsoever the Lord loveth," says St. Paul, "He chastiseth, and He scourgeth every son He receiveth" (Hebr. 12. 6). We may, therefore, conclude with St. John Chrysostom, that "a sinner who goes unpunished, is the most wretched of mankind." Crosses and trials are a sign that we are acceptable to God. "Because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should try thee" (Tob. 13.12). God sends us sufferings and crosses for our salvation, to purify our souls, to make them fit for the kingdom of the elect. "Take all that shall be brought upon thee," says the Holy Ghost, "and in thy sorrow endure, and in thy humiliation keep patience, for gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation" (Eccli. 2.4, 5). Many a one who has a hundred times deserved hell, complains bitterly of a little cross, of some light suffering. In our sufferings we ought to call to mind, with the good thief, that "we receive the due rewards of our deeds" (Luke 23. 41), and even far less than we deserve. We have merited hell, or at least an extremely long purgatory, and we ought to be glad to get off so cheaply. "If thou truly believest that thou deservest to dwell in hell," says Ven. Louis da Ponte, "thou wilt not complain of the evils thou hast to suffer." "How can he who has deserved hell complain," says St. Alphonsus, "when the Lord sends him a cross?" Moreover, how do we expect to gain heaven, if not, like Jesus Christ and the saints, by labor and suffering? "To gain heaven," says St. 333

Joseph Calasanctius, "all labor is insignificant." "The sufferings of this life," says St. Paul, "are not worthy of being compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us" (Rom. 8.18). A single moment in heaven deserves to be purchased with the most violent and protracted sufferings on earth. But how grateful we should be to God, since, as St. Paul says, "our present momentary and light tribulation worketh for us an eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4.17). Our crosses are seed sown for life everlasting. "No one," says St. Gregory, can "expect a crop, if he has not previously ploughed and cast seed into the ground; in like manner, no one can gather joy in heaven without having previously labored in this life and sown good works amid sorrow and suffering." The greater the sufferings we bear patiently in this life, the greater also shall be our glory in heaven. "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation," says St. James (1.2), "for when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life." St. Teresa, appearing after her death, to one of her sisters, said to her: "I would willingly endure alone all the sufferings in this world in order that I might be raised one degree higher in heaven and possess the smallest increase in the knowledge of God's greatness." "It is," she says in one of her works, "a happy thing to exchange the light privations of this life for eternal joy and abundance." But even if we were to obtain no reward whatever for our patience in sufferings and trials, we should cheerfully accept from God the few comparatively light crosses of this life after receiving from God so many priceless benefits. "If we have received good things from the hands of God," asks holy Job (2.10), "why should we not receive also evil?" "Since Jesus Christ," says St. Teresa, "has testified His love for us by works and by enduring excruciating torments, how can we expect by mere words to satisfy His love and to correspond to it?" Three degrees of patience. The first degree is to repress every manifestation of sadness or discontent and to abstain from all complaint about our sufferings. The second consists in repressing all interior feelings of sorrow, sadness or dissatisfaction concerning them and to preserve a calm interior and peace of mind. The third degree consists in rejoicing in sufferings and bearing them cheerfully, as St. Paul did: "I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulations" (2 Cor. 7.4); "I please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distress for Christ" (2 Cor. 12. 10). Divine consolations fill the hearts of such generous souls, so that they may well exclaim with the psalmist: "According to the multitude of sorrows in my heart, Thy comforts have given joy to my soul" (Ps. 93.19). 334

When to practise patience. We should practise patience at all times, says St. Alphonsus, but especially in sickness and sufferings, in adversity, in poverty and want, in contempt and persecution. And also in desolation of spirit, for we should then, like Jesus Christ, have recourse to prayer. "Being in an agony, He prayed the longer" (Luke 22. 43). At such times we should seek consolation only in God. "Come to Me," says our divine Saviour, "all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you" (Mat. 11. 28). We ought to practise patience in our temptations; they are necessary to us, for "what doth he know who hath not been tried?" (Eccli. 39.4). Temptation is an efficient teacher, because more perfectly than other means, it imparts self-knowledge. "Peter, who before his temptation and fall," says St. Augustine, "was presumptuous, acquired through temptation the knowledge and conviction of his own helplessness." Finally, we should be patient in all mishaps, and with ourselves also, whenever we have the misfortune of committing a fault. "If we wish to attain perfection," says St. Francis de Sales, "we ought to endure, but not love or caress, our want of perfection." Let us willingly and cheerfully accept from the hands of God all crosses and sufferings and bear them with patience. To enable us to do so, we should follow St. Paul's counsel: "Think diligently upon Him, who endured such opposition from sinners against Himself, that you be not wearied, fainting in your mind, for you have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin" (Hebr. 12. 3). If we wish to be saved, it behooves us to become conformable to our divine Redeemer. "Yet so, if we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him" (Rom. 8.17). "How can we expect to be exempt from suffering," says St. Augustine, "if even He that was sinless was not free from it?" "When we consider," says St. Francis de Sales, "the sufferings of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the apostles, we discover that those who loved Jesus Christ the most and were the dearest to Him, were also the most afflicted." But when we suffer with Christ, we should also be patient like Him: "When He was reviled, He did not revile; when He suffered, He threatened not" (1 Pet. 2. 23). Sufferings are necessary to detach us from the world, from this life, which, in spite of its trials, has so many attractions for us, and is so extravagantly loved by worldlings. "O unhappy men," says St. Augustine, "the world, notwithstanding its bitterness, is loved by you; what would it be, were it all sweetness!" Sufferings are highly advantageous to us, if we bear them patiently for God's sake. "To love God," says St. Clement Mary Hofbauer, "is so 335

great a good, that it cannot be expressed in words; but it is a still greater good to suffer for Him." The saints all bear witness to the fact that sufferings patiently borne for the love of God are a greater good than to reign in heaven. St. John Chrysostom declares that the opportunity of suffering for God is a greater gift than the power of performing miracles, because it renders God Himself our debtor. St. Alphonsus, writing to a religious who complained of her trials, says: "As to the trials you experience in the convent, I am more pleased than if you wrought miracles and enjoyed ecstasies. Sufferings attach us to Jesus Christ and help us to love God alone. Let us in our pains glance at so many martyrs who patiently and cheerfully endured fearful torments." In our pains and crosses we should pray for patience, that we may suffer a little for the love of Jesus Christ, who suffered so much for us poor sinners. It would be well if we then reflected earnestly on His passion. "Think frequently on Jesus Christ crucified," says St. Francis de Sales; "consider Him covered with wounds, filled with sadness, despoiled of everything, loaded with insults and curses. You will then acknowledge that your sufferings bear no comparison with His, and that you shall never be able to endure anything in the least approaching what He suffered for you." "Since our divine Saviour," says St. Teresa, "testified His love for us by works and by the most excruciating sufferings, how can we expect, by mere words, to repay His love and to correspond to it? He who thinks on the Redeemer's wounds and recalls the torments He endured, will not dare to complain of his own little trials, for there can be no comparison between our sufferings and Nis." "How is it possible for him who loves God," exclaims St. Alphonsus, "to look at the crucifix, and behold a God dying in an ocean of sorrows and insults, and not bear his own lightsufferings cheerfully, or even not to desire to suffer every pain for His sake!" If Jesus Christ Himself, as He said to the two disciples going to Emmaus (Luke 24. 26), could not enter glory without previous suffering, we should conclude with St. Paul, "that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14.21).

Anger (G)
"Be angry, and sin not" (Ps. 4.5). Anger is two-fold, lawful and unlawful. Lawful anger is inspired by zeal for the honor of God. Holy Scripture gives us a number of examples of this, for instance: Moses throwing down the stone tables of the Law, when he beheld the idolatry of the Israelites; Phineas killing the 336

Israelite and the Madianite woman, and then putting himself at the head of the faithful to slay the transgressors of the divine commands; Elias causing the four hundred and fifty priests of Baal to be put to death, and calling down fire from heaven to consume the soldiers who had come to arrest him; Mathathias springing on the altar and killing an Israelite who was about to offer sacrifice to an idol, lest the people should be led into idolatry by his example; St. Peter causing Ananias and Sapphira to drop down dead on account of their prevarication, and excommunicating Simon the magician for endeavoring to purchase with gold the gifts of the Holy Ghost; St. John Baptist calling the pharisees "a race of vipers"; and finally we have the example of our divine Saviour Himself, who, though He was meekness itself, did not fail sharply to reprove the pharisees on several occasions, and to drive the buyers and venders out of the temple! Such anger is lawful, for it is the effect of pure zeal for God's honor and glory. But the anger that is prompted by passion, or its effect, is unlawful and sinful. "Anger arising from zeal," says St. Gregory, "is virtuous, but the anger arising from passion is sinful." The causes of anger. 1. In the first place, anger is the outcome of our natural inclinations, or temperament. The choleric has, from nature, a propensity to anger; the melancholic, to sadness; the sanguinic, to lust; and the phlegmatic, to sloth. Unremitting efforts on our part, assisted by divine grace, can alone enable us to overcome our temperament. The fiercer the struggle, the greater also the merit. 2. Anger proceeds, in the second place, from habit. The passion of anger makes its appearance already in infancy, and if not at once checked, it soon takes deep root. The little cherished idol of fond parents is spoiled in infancy, bears the fruit of irascibility in youth, and takes deeper and deeper root with the progress of years, until it can no longer be rooted out. 3. Thirdly, anger frequently arises from inordinate self-love, from pride, from lust, from self-will, from unrestrained ambition. Under the influence of any of these passions, or vices, a man brooks no restraint, no opposition, no contradiction and becomes uncontrollably sensitive. Frequently excessive, inordinate love is turned into the most violent hatred. This is an evident proof that such love was not in accordance with Christian charity. Effects of anger. 1. "Anger," says St. Gregory, "makes the heart beat and the body tremble; it is apt either to tie up the tongue altogether, or to loosen it beyond measure. It reddens the face, gives a wild and fierce expression to the eyes, disfigures the countenance, and makes a person appear as if bereft of his senses and renders him sometimes even 337

unconscious of what he is saying or doing." Anger often causes fever from excitement, exhausts the vital energy, brings on diseases of the brain, heart failure and sudden death. 2. It destroys peace of mind by disturbing and darkening it, renders a person blind to his interests, both spiritual and temporal, and not unfrequently leads to insanity, and, in religious, to the loss of vocation. 3. Our anger is injurious to our neighbor also, for it causes us to irritate and provoke him by our harsh and offensive language, and even to wound deeply the feelings of our best and most devoted friends. Anger often results in bitter disputes and quarrels, in spite and hatred, in deadly enmities, in fights and even in the most shocking murders! 4. Anger is a sin more or less grievous according to its degree, intensity and evil effects. How often is it not the cause of fearful imprecations, curses, oaths, blasphemies, and numberless other sins! A person who keeps anger and hatred in his heart usually omits prayer altogether, the reception of the sacraments and all his religious duties for even many years! Religious who yield to anger in the presence of seculars, moreover, are guilty of scandal! Remedies of Anger. 1. We should constantly watch over ourselves, lest we be surprised by the emotions of anger and passion. Moreover, it behooves us to repress at once such emotions; otherwise they may soon acquire such strength as to be naturally beyond our control. 2. Since without the assistance of divine grace we are powerless to master our emotions, we must constantly have recourse to prayer, especially when feelings of anger arise within us, and even when we foresee that an occasion exciting us to anger is likely to arise. We should continue to pray for patience as long as we feel irritated. 3. We should make earnest efforts to subdue our irascibility. However great the provocation, how deeply soever our feelings may have been hurt, we should heed the counsel of St. Paul: "Let not the sun go down on your anger" (Eph. 4. 26). If we are naturally much inclined to get angry, we should make our particular examen on this point, and inflict some severe penance on ourselves every time we yield to anger. It would be also well if we could get a kind fellow-religious to admonish us, in some manner, whenever he perceives that we are inclined to get angry, in danger of losing our temper. If we cannot completely extirpate this passion, let us, at least, clip it short whenever it crops out a little. We ought, in the spiritual life to imitate the careful gardener, who daily examines his garden and pulls out all the weeds he finds. 338

4. To mitigate our anger, we should follow the example of St. Francis de Sales. "I have made a compact with my tongue," he says, "never to speak, and with myself never to act, so long as my heart is disturbed." We should defer speaking or replying (and, if we are superiors, reproving and correcting) until our passion has cooled down. "When some one speaks harshly to us," says St. Alphonsus, "we should invariably give him a gentle reply; but if we are angry, we must remain silent." 5. To acquire the mastery over our temper and feelings, we should tear out of our heart every affection that is not based on God, and consider ourselves as the worst and meanest of sinners, and as deserving only of contempt and ill-treatment on the part of all mankind. By this means we shall not so easily feel hurt by what others may say or do to us. 6. In fine, we ought to be guided by the light of faith and consider all the crosses, trials and humiliations that proceed from our fellow-men, as directly sent to us by our most loving God. "When thou meetest with a cross or a humiliation," says St. Alphonsus, "do not seek to know who is the cause of it," but cheerfully accept it as coming directly from the hands of God Himself, and as a means of acquiring great merit. Let us imitate our divine Redeemer by practising forbearance, patience and meekness towards all men, whatever may be their conduct in our regard. "When we consider," says St. Teresa, "the countless injuries offered to our Redeemer and the saints, we should blush with shame at being so sensitive and revengeful."

Meekness (G)
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land" (Mat. 5. 4). The virtue of meekness is indispensable to all, but more especially to those who live in communities and labor for souls. It greatly promotes fraternal charity, and true charity can never be without it. It either prevents anger from arising within us when we receive injuries or our feelings are hurt; or, if our anger is already aroused, it enables us to overcome and stifle it, and strengthens our heart to endure sufferings and ill-treatment calmly. He who is meek speaks in a kind and friendly manner to those who contradict, oppose, insult, attack and even strike him, and is always ready to return good for evil, to pray for and forgive his enemies from his heart, and even endeavors to forget the wrongs he has suffered from them. Meekness produces in him on all such occasions an interior calm which nothing can disturb or take away. "Meekness," says St. Thomas, "is the virtue which governs anger according to right reason. Anger disturbs our 339

reason, but meekness overcomes such disturbance and thus prevents all its evil consequences." Meekness is truly a divine virtue. Although God hates and detests sin, nothing can ever disturb Him or excite Him to anger, for He is not subject to passion. The passages in Scripture mentioning His anger and wrath against sin and sinners, must be understood as the effects of His infinite justice, and not as an indication that God is or can be the subject of any passion whatever, for He is infinitely perfect and immutable. Our divine Saviour practised meekness most perfectly, and prescribed it to all mankind before every other virtue, even before humility, for He said: "Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart" (Mat. 11.29). It renders those who possess it godlike. "Meekness, more than the other virtues," says St. John Chrysostom, "renders us like unto God," for those who are meek have a perfect mastery over their passions and are immovable, imperturbable. Meekness is a glorious virtue, for it can be practised only through supernatural motives, and presupposes perfect self-mastery and selfdenial. It is so great a virtue as to be even more rare than perfect chastity. "Great evenness of temper," says St. Francis de Sales, "constant gentleness and suavity of heart, although more rare than chastity, are yet most desirable." The meek are placid and immovable in storms, impassible amid blows, insults and wounds, and, like our divine Saviour and St. Stephen, they die praying for and invoking blessings upon their persecutors and murderers. Meekness requires a great fund of self-restraint, of self-control, of prudence and courage, of ardent love of God and humility, of mercy and forbearance towards our neighbor and sincere love for our enemies. It is the most beautiful ornament of the other virtues, for, according to St. Francis de Sales, it is the very cream, the best part of charity, the greatest of the virtues. Meekness adorns the superior, and is greatly be-coming in the subject. It behooves us to practise it in imitation of our divine Saviour, who expressly commands us to learn it from Him. And indeed we cannot be His true disciples, without endeavoring to resemble Him who was so meek, as to be compared by the prophet to a lamb led to the slaughter, that opens not its mouth. "When we consider the countless injuries offered our divine Redeemer and the saints," says St. Teresa, "we should blush with shame for being so sensitive and revengeful." The virtue of meekness produces most beneficial results in this life. It promotes peace of mind by not allowing anything to disturb us. By 340

restraining our sensitiveness, impulsiveness and anger, it wards off from us many troubles and misfortunes. "Sometimes," says St. Vincent de Paul, "a single kind word suffices to appease an infuriated person; whereas a single harsh word is capable of carrying desolation into a soul and of arousing a bitter feeling that may cause great injury." "Since it is impossible," says St. Francis de Sales, "to avoid during our earthly pilgrimage certain differences and disputes, we need a large fund of patience and meekness to oppose and suppress the sudden emotions of anger, in order to preserve peace of heart." The meek are favorites everywhere, for they can get along with every one. "As without faith it is impossible to please God," says St. Bernard, "so also without meekness it is impossible to please men." Meekness enables us to control our temper, and to gain thereby great ascendancy and influence over our fellow-men. Why was Moses able to lead the immense multitude of fiery and unruly Israelites through the wilderness for forty years? He was, says Holy Scripture, the meekest of men (Num. 12.3). Experience testifies that the want of meekness in those possessed of authority over others, or laboring for souls, renders their labors almost fruitless, whilst its possession enables them to exert an almost boundless influence over their subjects. "The natural character of men," says St. Francis de Sales, "is such that, when harshly treated, it becomes, like clay in the fire, still more hardened, whereas it is soon softened by meekness." This is beautifully illustrated in the fable of the wind and the sun. Each of them claimed to possess the greater power. To settle the dispute, they both agreed to test their power on a pedestrian, who wore a cloak, by trying to compel him to take it off. It was in March. The blustering wind was the first to try its power. But it was a cold, piercing wind, and the fiercer it blew, the more tightly did the man wrap his cloak around him. The wind, after having in vain exhausted all its strength, at last ceased, admitting it could do no more. The sun, until then concealed by a cloud, now came forth and by his gentle warmth soon rendered the cloak unnecessary, and the man took it off. In like manner, harshness, like a cold, piercing North wind, will cause men only to cling more stubbornly to their views, and to resent opposition, admonition, correction and whatever is disagreeable or interferes with their pleasure or comfort. But meekness, like the genial sun in March, removes all prejudices, and favorably disposes men's, hearts to the impressions of grace and virtue. Hence we need not be astonished at the success that accompanies the labors of the meek. 341

The meek will reap an abundant reward. Since each one's reward is in proportion to the acts of virtue which he performs, and the occasions in the community life of performing acts of meekness are daily numerous, the meek religious lay up an immense treasure of merit in heaven. Moreover, as a man's holiness is proportionate to his conformity with Jesus, his Model, and as our divine Saviour requires us, in a special manner and first of all, to imitate His meekness, it follows that the meek are assured of an exceedingly great reward in heaven.

Idle Curiosity (G)

Curiosity is a disposition to inquire after knowledge, to investigate, to discover hidden or unknown things. There is a laudable curiosity, which is the principle of science. It impels us to learn our duties and to find out the means of performing them well. But there is also a reprehensible curiosity, an idle curiosity, which induces us to inquire after what does, not concern us, to learn what is not useful, what may prove dangerous or hurtful to us. Idle or vain curiosity is a very general vice. It is so much the more deplorable, because but few only scruple it, although it is productive of great injury, especially in the spiritual life. It dissipates the mind, fills it with vain and useless thoughts and prevents application to serious matters. It occasions much uneasiness, divides the heart, agitates and worries the mind, leaves a void in our interior, deprives us of all attention to and relish for spiritual things, and of unction in our prayers and other spiritual exercises. It is a great obstacle to an interior life, to recollection of mind and mental prayer, and, consequently, to perfection and even to salvation. Moreover, it is apt to be contagious, and, therefore, disedifying, and not unfrequently even scandalous. Its causes. 1. Idleness is its first cause. He who is constantly busy with something useful, has not the time or opportunity to inquire after what does not concern him. 2. Talkativeness is another cause. Talkativeness, like the itch, leaves one no rest until it is satisfied; and the more one speaks, the more he wishes to speak. But of what can great talkers speak? To talk much, they must know many things; and to know many things, they must use the means of finding them out. Wherefore great talkers are usually very curious and inquisitive; they love the world and worldly conversation, or idle gossip, so as to have matter to gratify their loquacity. 342

3. Vanity is another source of curiosity, for it likes to parade its knowledge, in order to appear well-posted on all current topics, and decide all questions with the tone of one whose knowledge cannot be questioned. 4. Another fruitful source of curiosity is malignity, which induces us to take delight in all that is disadvantageous to our neighbor. We endeavor to discover the shortcomings of others, that we may be able to make them known and to inspire a bad opinion of them among our companions, acquaintances, etc. Consequently, we are always watching others closely, inquiring after them and their doings, keeping our eyes wide open to see their every fault, and our ears attentive to hear of their weaknesses. In all this we fail greatly against due discretion, modesty and charity. We pry into everything, search the papers, catechise the servants, etc. We flatter certain persons and insinuate ourselves into the friendship of others, with the intention of extorting from them, in an unguarded moment, their personal secrets, that we may afterwards divulge them. We become mean tale-bearers between parties, in order to stir up dissensions among them, and to gratify our vain and malignant curiosity. And how contented do we feel when we know and disclose disparaging matters about others, and are able to sow discord between superiors and subjects, between fellow-religious, and even between outsiders! We like to fish in troubled waters, for we are generally rewarded with a fine catch, and are well stocked with a long litany of subjects to ventilate our knowledge in future conversations! Its effects. Idle or vain curiosity was, in a great measure, the cause of Eve's fall, for she liked to see everything and to hear what the serpent had to say, and to find out if what the serpent said was true, and to know as much as God. In convents idle curiosity is destructive of the prescribed silence, of recollection, peace of mind, the regular observance, the spirit of prayer, of obedience, charity, mutual harmony and concord. Curious religious are a pest in a community and a scandal to outsiders. They hold nothing sacred, whether it concerns the reputation of an individual member or that of the whole community. They meddle with the business of their companions, and with the rights and duties of superiors. Although blind to their own manifold shortcomings, they know well the faults of every member of the community, and even of seculars and of the clergy, and they censure all without restraint. A teaching religious, a missionary, who is addicted to idle curiosity, knows more in three or four days about the parish, than the pastor who has had charge of it for ten or more years! And there is perhaps 343

no end to his criticism, to his fault-finding! Such religious usually draw upon their Institute the odium of the clergy and the people! Its remedies. 1. He who has this defect should make his particular examen on it, that he may be able, with the assistance of divine grace, to overcome it. 2. He should avoid all idle gossip, all purely worldly conversations, all criticism, fault-finding and detraction. 3. In the third place, he should always be profitably employed. 4. Fourthly, he should mind himself, his own faults, watch over his eyes, and keep his ears closed to all detraction. "Watch over thyself," says the Imitation, "stir thyself, admonish thyself, and whatever others may do, do not neglect thyself." 5. He should read and meditate on the third Chapter of the Epistle of St. James. 6. He should frequently renew the good intention and strive to acquire the habit of walking in the presence of God.

God's Gifts to Us, and Our Gifts to God (G)

Benefits generally possess great influence. The greater and the more numerous are the benefits we receive, the more obliged do we feel to the giver, the more disposed we are to please him and to avoid whatever may cause him pain or displeasure. I. God's benefits towards us are inestimable, and bestowed most liberally upon us; and yet we seldom reflect thereon or think of showing Him our gratitude. To Him we owe all that we are and all that we have, both in the natural order and in the order of grace. 1. In the first place, we owe Him the benefit of the creation. He called us into existence in preference to countless possible beings. He gave us our whole being: our soul with its faculties and their use; our body with its senses and their use. For many years He has kept us alive, in good health, whilst so many of our companions are already dead, or a prey to various diseases and afflictions. 2. God called us, without any merit of ours, to the true faith in preference to so many millions of heretics, heathens, etc. Without this most precious of gifts, all other gifts would avail us but little. 3. God gave us good and religious parents, who brought us up in the fear of God, in the knowledge and practice of our holy religion, whilst so many children, even of Catholics, are deprived of all religious training through their parents' carelessness and indifference. 4. God, in the past, preserved us from numberless spiritual and corporal dangers. How providentially did He not withdraw us from dangerous occasions, from the company or influence of wicked 344

companions, whereby our innocence, and perhaps our faith also, would have suffered shipwreck. Where are now so many of our schoolmates and companions? How many of them, less favored than we, have become the victims of human respect, the slaves of some evil passion, such as drunkenness or impurity, and have perhaps been thereby brought to an early grave, carried away by a sudden death, and are now in hell for all eternity! 5. The same sad fate would, most probably, have been ours also, had not God, in His infinite goodness and mercy, bestowed upon us the greatest of benefits, next to that of the true faith, that of a religious vocation! From our very infancy, we may say, and without any merit on our part, and notwithstanding all our shortcomings, God took us by the hand, as it were, filled us with disgust and aversion for the world, its goods and pleasures, and led us apart from it and its dangers, troubles and cares, into a land flowing with milk and honey, where everything is calculated to render life sweet, peaceful and happy, and where we are espoused to the King of glory. And God has left our former companions, many of whom were far more worthy than we, to battle with a wicked world' and to struggle constantly amid its dangers and hardships. 6. Who can count the many graces and favors God has unceasingly bestowed upon us since our entrance into religion, notwithstanding our neglect of correspondence therewith, our tepidity, our indifference, our ingratitude? How numerous and powerful are not the means of salvation and perfection at our disposal in the convent! How numerous and efficient the means to ward off and overcome danger, to sweeten our little crosses and trials and to acquire daily immense treasures of merit for eternity! Had we always faithfully corresponded with these benefits, we should now be saints! 7. God so loved us as to give us His only be-gotten Son, equal to Himself, whom He loves with an infinite and eternal love. In giving Him to us, He gave us what He had most precious! 8. And Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has given Himself unreservedly to us. "He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave," says St. Paul. He became man and entered this world as a helpless infant, not out of love of the angels, but out of love of us sinners. It was for our sake that He was born in a stable, laid in a manger, shivering with cold and shedding tears. It was for our sake that, for thirty years He led a life of obscurity, poverty, hardships and humble submission. It was for us that He fasted forty days and forty nights and prayed; that for three years He traveled from place to place, preaching the Gospel, enduring countless 345

contradictions, humiliations and persecutions, and that He died amid fearful torments the most disgraceful of deaths, His very name and memory a curse for our sake. We might suppose that, after doing all this, He could do no more for us, since "greater love than this no man hath than to lay down His life for his friends." But His love for us was not yet exhausted; He had a still greater gift in reserve for us, for He gave us the Blessed Eucharist, the mystery of faith and love, the pledge of life everlasting, in which He personally remains constantly with us and feeds us with His very flesh and blood. So great is this gift, that, although He is almighty and there are no bounds to His power, yet He cannot be-stow on us a greater gift than the Blessed Eucharist, for after giving us His own self, He has nothing greater to give us. It is this God, who is infinitely good in Himself and infinitely good towards us, who, without either claim or merit on our part, has chosen us for Himself, and has espoused our soul, so that we may truly say: "The Lord is my portion, my inheritance, my Spouse forever! My Beloved is all mine;" but can we truly say: "and I am all His"? This is, indeed, what He asks of us, saying: "My son, give Me thy heart" (Prov. 23.26). We have, it is true, consecrated ourselves to God by the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience at our profession. We should, therefore, belong to Him wholly and unreservedly. He loves us with infinite love. What return can we make to our divine Saviour for Himself, unless we give Him ourselves wholly and unreservedly? How unbecoming and 'ungrateful for us to divide our heart among miserable creatures, and to offer to God merely the crumbs, the dregs! Were we possessed of the universe and gave it all to Him, we could not even then sufficiently repay His bounty towards us. Since He, the God of infinite perfection, does not consider it too much to bestow Himself wholly upon us, how can we consider it too much to give ourselves wholly to Him'? II. How insignificant are the gifts we are able to give to God! 1. In fact, when we give ourselves unreservedly to God, our gift is insignificant indeed and hardly fit to be offered to the infinitely perfect God, for, in the first place, in offering to God our whole being, we offer Him but little indeed, for we are in ourselves so mean, vile and insignificant, so weak and helpless, and are able to do so little. 2. In offering to God all our works, we offer Him but little indeed, for even our best and the greatest works are in themselves so insignificant and so imperfect in His sight, that they may be reckoned as almost worthless, and whatever merit they possess is the result of the graces He confers on us. 346

3. God does so much for us; His daily benefits to us are of infinite value; whilst, on our side, we do so little for God, and this little we often perform so grudgingly, so carelessly; and we endeavor to diminish it whenever we can, and even to omit it altogether. 4. Let us compare, not the good we actually perform, but rather the good we pretend to do for God, with the evil we actually commit, with our manifold past sins, which have so greatly offended God, and we shall find that the latter far outweighs the former. 5. Let us, in like manner, compare the slight efforts we make in God's service, with the earnest labor and great exertions of worldlings to earn a living, to acquire learning, wealth or fame, to enjoy life and its pleasures, and we shall be astonished at the insignificance of our efforts. 6. Let us compare our labors, our sufferings and sacrifices in the service of God with those of the saints, and we shall have every reason to be filled with confusion, for in this there is an immense distance between us and the saints. 7. Let us compare all we do for God and for our sanctification with what we cheerfully do, or are ready to do, in order to promote some selfish design, or to please mere creatures! What a shame it is for a religious consecrated to Jesus Christ, that he should labor more earnestly and make greater sacrifices for a temporal object, for instance for his health, or to become popular, than he does or is willing to do for the glory of God and his own spiritual welfare! 8. Let us also compare our efforts and our sacrifices with the reward that is promised us, with the crown that is destined for us, and we shall be convinced that we are greatly wanting in gratitude towards God and in earnestness for our spiritual welfare! It is now evident that we can give but little to God, and that, far from doing all we can for Him, we scarcely perform an insignificant part of what He has the right to demand of us, and of what gratitude should prompt us to offer to Him in return for His priceless benefits. Let us henceforth strive to be generous and no longer withhold from our greatest Benefactor and Lover what it is in our power to offer Him. Let us, who can give so little, give to God all that we can. Let us show our gratitude to God for His inexhaustible bounty, and bestow on Him at least the little we are able to do together with the sincere desire of doing much more. Let us devote to Him all our time, all our thoughts and desires, all our talents, all our affections and all our love, all our words and deeds, and cheerfully accept and bear every cross, trial and suffering He sends us, and let us never murmur or complain about the sacrifices He may demand of us. 347

Negligence in Little Things and Loss of Time (G)

1. Negligence in little things in the practice of virtue is a great obstacle to perfection. In the service of God there is nothing really little or unimportant. An act, however insignificant it may be in itself, from the moment it becomes connected with the service of God through the Rule or the command of the superior, is ennobled and is endowed with far greater importance and merit than the most important of worldly affairs. There can be no lawful excuse for neglecting to perform the little acts of virtue duty imposes upon us. They are all easy and require but little effort or exertion on our part. If God were directly, or indirectly through obedience, to prescribe to us great and difficult things, we should perform them at any cost. How much more should we be willing to perform what is light and easy! 2. Negligence in little things concerning the avoidance of sin is also a great obstacle to perfection. The smallest sin or fault offends, God, and should, therefore, be more carefully shunned than even the greatest physical evil. We should not, even to gain the whole universe or to procure the salvation of all mankind, commit even the smallest venial sin. What ought to put an end to our sloth or indifference in this matter, is the fact that every deliberate venial sin, when it has become a habit, may easily lead us into tepidity, that most dangerous of spiritual diseases, and thence almost imperceptibly into mortal sin. "He that contemneth small things," says the Holy Ghost, "shall fall by little and little" (Eccli. 19. 1). "He that is unjust in that which is least," says our divine Saviour, "is unjust also in that which is greater" (Luke 16.11). 3. It behooves us to be faithful in the use of our time. We who are bound by our state to strive after perfection, should be very conscientious in making a good use of the short span of life which the Almighty has allotted to us. Therefore, says St. Paul, "whilst we have time, let us do good" (Gal. 6. 10). Nothing is more precious than time, for it is the price of eternity. He who employs his time well secures an eternity of happiness; but he who abuses, misuses his time, purchases for himself an eternity of misery and woe! Every one will receive from God in eternity according to the use he makes of his time. Let us bear in mind that time is given to us solely for our salvation. It is therefore our most important duty to devote every moment of our time to our eternal salvation. God has given us our time that we may use it all in His service and for His glory. He who makes a bad use of his time is like the workman who defrauds his employer by wasting his time and neglecting his work. 348

4. The loss of time is a great and irreparable evil, for the time lost can never be regained or recovered. Once gone, it is forever gone, no more to be recalled! Had we well employed all our time since our entrance into religion, how rich should we not already be! Time may be lost in different ways. Some religious discharge their obligations in a hurry, that they may have more time, and this time they often devote to some amusement, to worldly matters, or to mere trifles. He loses his time who does not properly perform his duties. Some religious are always very busy, for the purpose not so much of pleasing God or advancing in perfection, as of gratifying their natural activity, or their desire of doing more than others. He loses his time who performs his actions carelessly, or through human or selfish motives, because his time is not profitable for his progress in virtue. He employs his time well, who, in the first place, discharges his duties faithfully, punctually and to the best of his ability; in the second place, if, after properly discharging all his duties, he usefully employs all the remaining time and shuns sloth as the parent of tepidity and vice. In the third place, to employ our time well, it is not sufficient that our actions should be good or holy in themselves, they should be good and holy in all their circumstances, that is, they should be in accordance with the rule and obedience, be well performed, be free from all selfish and humanmotives and be animated with a good intention. We ought frequently to examine ourselves as to the use we make of our time. How much of our precious time have we not hitherto lost or misspent? Were we to die now, how empty-handed, how destitute of merits would we not be? And for what reasons? Let us resolve henceforth to do better and try to remedy the past. Although we cannot, strictly speaking, recall the time that is past, we can, nevertheless, in a certain way, make up for it, for time is, in some manner, redeemable, according to St. Paul's admonition: "Redeem time" (Eph. 5.16). The laborers who went to work only at the eleventh hour, received the same wages as those who had come earlier, because they displayed greater fervor and energy in their work. By imitating their example we shall soon be able to make up for a great part of the time we have already lost, and we may still become great saints. Let us sincerely thank God. for the time He has given us, and let us profit by the precious time that remains to us, for it is short, and delay is dangerous. "Walk whilst you have light," says our divine Saviour (John 12.35), for "the night cometh, when no man can work" (John 9.4). 349

Refuse Nothing to God (G)

1. We should refuse nothing to God, and be always ready to make any sacrifice whatever, in order to please Him. As religious we should belong unreservedly to Him and have in our heart no affection, no love except for Him and for His sake. If, besides God, we love creatures, that is, if we do not love them wholly for His sake, we do not love Him as we should with our whole heart. Our attachment to a creature may be insignificant in itself, but in its effects it is something very serious, for it is an obstacle to our progress in virtue and perfection, in union with God. The smallest thread suffices to prevent a bird from soaring on high. In like manner, the smallest attachment to a creature is an obstacle to union with God. Our vocation requires that we leave all things for God's sake, that He should be our treasure, our all, and that we should, therefore, be satisfied with Him alone. And is not God sufficient to fill up and absorb all the love of that little heart of ours? In possessing Him do we not possess all things? And if we truly possess Him, what more is there for us to desire? 2. Attachment to our own selves is a still greater obstacle to our perfection, for it is more dangerous and more difficult to remove. In the first place, our self-love renders us blind to our own faults, by either preventing us from noticing them, or by so greatly diminishing their number and malice, as to make them appear insignificant just as large objects appear diminutive and far away when seen through the wrong end of a spy-glass. In the second place, attachment to ourselves is the obstacle it behooves us above all to remove, because we cannot find God until we have left ourselves. Self-denial is indispensable to our progress in virtue. It is the first thing our divine Saviour requires from all who wish to be His disciples and lead a virtuous life. Thirdly, self-denial must be practised chiefly in reference to our predominant passion. Every one has a favorite or predominant passion, which is the source of the majority of his faults, defects and short-comings. Perfection cannot be attained until the predominant passion has been crushed or rooted out. This is a very difficult and protracted task, costing much and constant labor. It is also very disagreeable and painful to our poor nature. We should, however, beware of shirking this most necessary duty, or of seeking pretexts for neglecting or deferring it. As long as our favorite passion remains standing or retains possession of our heart, we shall meet with but little success in our efforts to correct our other defects. We should direct all our efforts in our meditations, holy Communions, examinations of conscience, etc., against it, and pray for light, grace and strength to extirpate it, and say to 350

God: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ? My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready." 3. God grants everything to those who refuse nothing to Him, and who, for His sake, generously make every sacrifice, for He never allows Himself to be surpassed in generosity, and always repays a thousandfold whatever we do for His sake. This easily accounts for the wonderful efficacy of the prayers of the saints. It should be our most earnest desire to please God in all things; but our desire should be effective, that is, we should act in conformity with it and make it the rule of our con-duct. He who sincerely loves God above all things, omits nothing that will prove pleasing to Him. We are accustomed to study the inclinations and aversions, the likes and dislikes of those we love, so as to find therein a guide in our conduct towards them. We leave nothing undone to gratify them, we look upon trifles as matters of importance, whenever there is question of affording pleasure to those we love. When there is question of pleasing his beloved, or of avoiding giving offense to his beloved, the lover finds nothing difficult, disagreeable or below his dignity. We should, therefore, shrink from no labor, no hardships, no sacrifice, when there is question of pleasing or of avoiding what displeases God, who deserves all our love, all our sacrifices! In the spiritual life, however, we possess incalculable advantages over worldlings. How great soever the pains they take, they are not always sure of pleasing the person they love or of avoiding what may be displeasing or give offense to the same. But when we do our best, however unsatisfactory to ourselves the result of our efforts, we are always sure of pleasing God, for He is satisfied with our good will, with our earnest efforts, since He sees our heart, our good will. We please Him whenever we do our best. We ought to dread nothing more than to displease God. If we sincerely love Him, we will carefully refrain from everything displeasing to Him, from everything, if I may so speak, that may pain Him. The saints preferred to undergo every suffering, to make every sacrifice, rather than displease God in the least. Were our love of God as sincere, as ardent as theirs, we would be animated with the same sentiments. 4. We should seek God in all our actions; and if we thus seek Him, we shall surely find Him. We ought never to lose sight of our misery, inconstancy and weakness, and, therefore, we should place no reliance on ourselves, for, of ourselves, we are so powerless, that we cannot have even a good thought without the grace of God. "Without Me," says our divine Saviour, "you can do nothing" (John 15.5). We should, then, wholly 351

mistrust ourselves and place all our trust in God alone. If, like St. Paul, we mistrust ourselves and rely on God alone, we shall, like him, be powerful in our weakness, for God effects great things only by means of weak instruments who mistrust themselves and confide wholly in Him. Our helplessness in the spiritual life, far from discouraging us, should urge us to trust in God only who is infinite goodness, our Good Shepherd, our most loving Father, our most generous Benefactor, who knows all our wants and who is never wanting to them who put all their trust in Him. It is a sure sign that we place all our trust in God, if we unreservedly surrender ourselves to His guidance, especially in the person of our superiors, who hold His place in our regard. Experience proves that those who do so from their whole heart, however weak they are of themselves, are able to effect greater things for His glory than the great and the able who do not wholly surrender themselves to His guidance. This surrender should extend to all things without exception, even when the reasons for doing so are not clear to us, or are opposed to our own inclinations or private views. 1. We ought in all things to submit to the divine will or guidance, because, under the circumstances, God always does what is best in itself, "disposing all things mightily and sweetly," (Wisd. 8. 1). We have a most beautiful illustration of this in the life of Joseph, who from slavery and imprisonment was promoted to be the prime-minister of the king of Egypt and to effect incalculable good. 2. God also does what is the best for each one of us. He takes us, as the prophet observes, by the hand and leads us Himself. The very crosses and trials He sends us are necessary for us and conduce to our real welfare. If our self-love is well regulated and genuine, we will cheerfully and gratefully accept and bear all sufferings and crosses, and this most willingly and in all confidence in God's guidance, for it will not lead us astray, but to everlasting happiness.

Mental Prayer (G)

Prayer is absolutely necessary for salvation, both as a precept and as a means. Our divine Saviour enjoins us to pray always and promises to grant us all we pray for. It is also the ordinary and universal means of obtaining divine grace. Divine grace is absolutely necessary for performing any supernatural good work whatever, for practising virtue, for overcoming temptation. Prayer is, moreover, easy, since it is always and 352

everywhere in the power of every man. Prayer is also most efficacious, for God neither does nor can refuse anything to sincere and persistent prayer. Prayer is even more necessary for religious than for seculars, because religious, being called to a higher perfection than seculars, require greater and more abundant graces. Religious should be men of prayer; their life should even be an uninterrupted prayer. We should, therefore, love prayer and devote to it all the time we can. We should especially practise mental prayer; in fact, we cannot do without it; it is for us a necessary means of acquiring perfection. Mental prayer enables us to become thoroughly penetrated with the truths and mysteries of religion, for it is in mental prayer that we reflect earnestly on them, consider them in their various bearings on ourselves and our conduct, and strive to conform our life to them. Mental prayer, by raising our thoughts to heavenly things, elevates us, as it were, above this material world. It is the channel through which God imparts great supernatural light, for in it we are in the school of God who becomes Himself our teacher. Mental prayer ignites the fire of fervor in our will, for it discloses the goodness of God towards us, our ingratitude towards God, inspires us with confidence in His goodness and in His assistance, and points out to us the means of correcting our defects, of making progress in perfection and deters us from doing anything that would endanger it. Mental prayer unites our mind with God, for we converse therein with God familiarly and confidentially. It unites our will with His, for not only does it enlighten us concerning our obligations, but it also imparts to us the strength never to deviate from them. Moreover, it fills us with divine love, for it clearly discloses God to us as the infinite Goodness and our final end. We religious who daily make mental prayer, ought to lead a holy life, and in fact, ought to be already very holy. But why are we yet so backward in the way of perfection? Why are we now perhaps as imperfect, as full of faults as we were at the beginning of our religious life? Is it not because we make our meditations carelessly? Do we not fail to exert ourselves to keep recollected during meditation, or neglect to make a practical application of it to ourselves and to conform our conduct to its teachings? Or are our resolutions inappropriate to our wants? Do we not perhaps make very good, resolutions, but afterwards fail to carry them out? The reason why some religious are so slothful and careless in everything connected with mental prayer, is because they do not properly 353

prepare for it. "Before prayer," says the Holy Ghost, "prepare thy soul, and be not as a man tempting God" (Eccli. 18. 23). There are two preparations for mental prayer, the remote and the proximate. We all know in what each of them consists. Usually the greatest stress is laid on the proximate preparation, just as if it were not only the more important, but also as if it alone was sufficient to insure a good meditation. But if we examine them closely, we shall find that the remote preparation is more important and also more indispensable than the proximate, for, if we do not habitually practise the remote, the proximate preparation will be difficult, unsatisfactory and unable to secure our attention and recollection during the whole meditation. He who is habitually dissipated in mind needs more than a brief proximate preparation to keep recollected during the whole time allotted to meditation. The remote preparation for mental prayer consists in the habit of recollection and of walking in the presence of God. This is one of the most important and useful exercises of the religious life. It makes us watchful over ourselves; it preserves us from forming attachments to creatures, and from the habit of venial sin. Moreover, it enables us to converse constantly, as it were, with God, and to pray without ceasing. This exercise consists, first, in frequently considering God as everywhere present, in placing our confidence in His goodness and in making the good intention of pleasing Him; and secondly, in the frequent consideration of ourselves, in watching over our thoughts and emotions, in restraining our impetuosity and stirring up our sloth. To acquire the spirit of recollection, we should endeavor to walk in the presence of God. This walking in the presence of God is founded on two principles of faith: that God is everywhere, and that He sees and knows all things. Every place is holy, for God is there, and we may apply to it the words of Jacob: "The Lord is indeed in this place, and I knew it not" (Gen. 28.16). St. Augustine represents God as an immense and boundless ocean in which we all live, by which we are all permeated, for St. Paul says: "In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts. 17. 28). God sees all things and nothing can be hidden from His eyes. How beautifully does the psalmist express this truth: "Lord, Thou hast proved me and known me; Thou hast known my sitting down and my rising up. Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off; my path and my line Thou hast searched out, and Thou hast foreseen all my ways. . . . Behold, O Lord, Thou hast known all things, the last and those of old. Thou hast formed me and laid Thy hand upon me. Thy knowledge is become 354

wonderful to me; it is high, and I cannot reach it. Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy face? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I descend into hell, Thou art there. If I take wings early in the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there will also Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand will hold me. And I said: Perhaps darkness will cover me, and night will be my light in my pleasures. But darkness shall not be dark to Thee, and night shall be light as day; the darkness thereof and the light thereof are alike to Thee" (Ps. 138. 1-12). Walking in the presence of God is a sovereign preservative against sin. How powerful in time of temptation, in the excitement and violence of our passions, is not the thought: "I am in the presence of my Judge!" We sin because we lose sight of God! Walking in the presence of God is a short cut to perfection. "Walk before Me," said God to Abraham, "and be thou perfect" (Gen. 17.1). Perfection consists in the punctual and fervent performance of our actions. But nothing conduces more to fervor than the thought of God's presence. How well a man works who is constantly under the eyes of his employer! How well a soldier fights who is constantly under the eye of the commander-in-chief! The thought of God's presence everywhere and that He sees and knows all things is a source of consolation and strength for those who are in the midst of hardships and trials. "Let the just rejoice before God and be delighted with gladness" (Ps. 67.4). , 1. In order to practise walking in the presence of God we should, before all, avoid dissipation of mind, worldly visits, conversations, amusements, useless reading, superfluous cares, too many occupations, and especially avoid being too greatly absorbed in our employment, and idle curiosity. 2. We should often pray for the grace of walking constantly in the divine presence, saying: "Direct, O Lord, my way in Thy sight" (Ps. 5. 9). 3. We should strictly observe silence according to our Rule. 4. We should have order and system in the employment of our time. 5. We should seek God in all things and make a good intention at the beginning of every action. 6. We should frequently during the day make fervent ejaculatory prayers, and often raise our heart to God, just as large fish frequently rise to the surface of the water, in order to get air and to keep up their life. God is our spiritual life; hence the necessity of often raising our heart to Him! 355

Now if we habitually walk in the presence of God, we shall acquire the habit of recollection and of constantly communing with God, and this is already mental prayer. And when we set about making meditation, we have only to continue and intensify our habit of recollection, and meditation, or mental prayer, will become, in some manner, easy and natural to us, as it was to the saints!

Our Falls and Their Causes (G)

Although the religious state is a great protection and preservative against sin, it does not, however, render us impeccable. The fall of some of the apostles should be a warning to us and should teach us that, so long as we are in this life, however great our progress in perfection may have been and however firm our resolutions may be, we can never enjoy perfect security, but must always mistrust ourselves and our weakness. I. Let us first take the example of Judas. Judas was an apostle specially chosen by our divine Saviour and destined to attain great sanctity and to convert a great portion of the world. For three years he had faithfully followed Jesus Christ amid numerous hardships and persecutions, and had received from Him countless marks of affection; he had, moreover, been endowed with great powers, and even with the gift of miracles. Nevertheless, he fell deeply and lost his soul. How did this happen? 1. The beginning of his fall originated in his attachment to worldly goods, in his fondness for money. He did not seek to restrain and overcome this evil inclination, but repeatedly yielded to it until he became an habitual sinner, a thief! 2. Having fallen thus far, he soon lost all reverence for his divine Master, for when St. Mary Magdalen poured the precious ointment on our Saviour, Judas found fault with her and loudly murmured, and thus indirectly criticised Jesus Himself. 3. When Jesus reproved him for his want of charity, he would not submit, but full of resentment and eager for gain, he went out to propose a bargain with our Lord's enemies for His betrayal. And when at the Last Supper Jesus washed his feet, he was not touched by this token of His excessive humility, and had the impudence when Jesus declared that one of the apostles was about to betray Him, to ask whether he was the traitor! Judas, moreover, showed not the least gratitude for or appreciation of the infinite love of Jesus in giving Himself to him in holy Communion. 356

Instead of thanking Him, he at once went out to consummate his treachery! 4. We know the result; how he, under the guise of friendship, accosted Jesus, kissed Him and betrayed Him into the power of His deadly enemies; and how, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse, brought back the price of his treason, publicly acknowledged his guilt and, out of despair, hanged himself! 5. Religious may fall like Judas by fostering little attachments, especially those that are opposed to poverty. Deliberate faults soon become frequent and habitual and, therefore, very dangerous. "A soul," says St. Gregory, "that habitually commits small faults, unconsciously becomes addicted to greater ones. It is often less dangerous to commit greater offenses than those that are only venial, because we are more keenly sensitive to the enormity of a grievous sin and more zealous in correcting it." 6. By habitually breaking a rule, by habitual disobedience, we soon lose all regard for our rules, for the orders of our superiors, and begin to murmur and complain when things do not please us, to criticise our superiors and lose all respect for them. 7. We next take one step further in the road to ruin, by not humbly submitting to reproofs, by bearing ill-will to our superiors for correcting us, and by allowing our resentment to carry us so far on such occasions as to become discontented and full of temptations against our vocation! How many religious have thus lost their vocation to secure their independence or some temporal advantage, and have later on perished miserably! To secure ourselves against so terrible a misfortune, let us strive to be faithful in little things, and to be filled with the greatest reverence for our rules and superiors, and to esteem our vocation above everything in this life. II. Let us next consider the fall of St. Thomas. He was also an apostle chosen by Jesus Christ Himself. He, nevertheless, fell into unbelief concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why? 1. First, on account of his singularity, for he remained away from the other apostles and kept by himself. He, therefore, did not share in the joy and happiness of the other apostles when Jesus appeared to them on the evening of the day of His resurrection and wished them a twofold peace. 2. He was also self-willed and obstinate and would not give up his views to the testimony of the apostles. 3. He was proud and considered himself more intelligent than the other apostles, for he wished to see and judge for himself. 357

4. And perhaps he was also jealous of them. 5. Are we not, like St. Thomas, singular, and avoid, whenever we can, being with the community? Are we not also stubborn, self-willed, obstinate, unyielding in our views, ever ready to dispute, and even apt to resist our superiors? Are we not proud and conceited concerning our talents and our abilities? Are we not jealous of our companions, of their good qualities, of their office, of their deeds, of their popularity Are not these the principal sources of our countless faults, of our distaste of the religious life or of certain of our companions? III. Finally, let us consider the fall of St. Peter. St. Peter was not only an apostle, but had been chosen by Jesus Christ to be the foundation of His Church, to be His Vicar on earth. He was the most fervent and zealous of the apostles, and bore our divine Saviour greater love than they. When Jesus spoke of His being forsaken by His apostles, St. Peter protested more loudly than the rest of his unswerving fidelity and readiness to die for Him; and when Jesus told him of his approaching denial, he would not believe it, and declared that he would remain steadfast, even if all the rest were to forsake Him. Such were his dispositions before the hour of trial, and he was really sincere; and when it did come, he, like the rest, forsook His divine Master. He soon, however, followed Him from afar and entered the court of Caiphas, whence among the servants and the curious, he assisted at the trial of Jesus. We know how at the question of a maidservant he denied our Lord, and afterwards confirmed his denial with an oath and the most frightful imprecations! How did he come to fall so deeply? 1. He fell because he was proud and presumptuous. After Peter had nobly confessed the divinity of Christ, our Saviour spoke of His approaching Passion; but Peter took Him aside, saying: "God forbid that this should happen to Thee." But Jesus said to him: "Get thee behind me, Satan," that is, "tempter." Peter was greatly averse to the least suffering and humiliation, and yearned after honors and dignities. Moreover, he considered himself stronger and more faithful than the other apostles; whilst admitting that they might forsake Jesus, he felt sure that such a disgrace could never befall him! 2. When, in the garden of olives, Jesus urged him to pray that he might keep out of temptation and sin, he failed to pray under the pretext that his mind was made up and could not be influenced or altered by any danger or adverse circumstance. 3. When the time of trial came, Peter showed his weakness by deserting his divine Master in a cowardly manner. Then seeing that he was 358

not pursued, he mustered up a little courage and followed Jesus, but from afar, lest he might otherwise be arrested also. He, therefore, kept away from what he considered a danger for him, but fell into a still greater danger by going into bad company! Had he courageously followed Jesus Christ, trusting in the divine assistance, what a noble example he would have given us! But, alas, owing to his pride and presumption and his neglect of prayer, he fell ignominiously! 4. We also may fall like, St. Peter, for, in the first place, are we not proud and conceited? Do we not hate and detest humiliations? Do we not despise others for committing certain faults and congratulate ourselves in being exempt from them? In the next place, are we not careless at prayer? Do we not pray as little and as seldom as we can? Do we omit the prayers prescribed and fail to pray in time of temptation? Do we not also, like St. Peter, shrink from closely following our divine Saviour, and follow Him only from afar, seeking our ease and comfort in His service, instead of courageously renouncing ourselves? Do we not also often expose ourselves to danger through our curiosity? Finally, have we not also miserably fallen? Have we not thereby endangered our vocation, our salvation? IV. Let us earnestly resolve to amend and to imitate St. Peter's conversion and penance. 1. In the first place, his conversion was prompt and complete. After his shameful fall, the fearful imprecations had scarcely fallen from his lips, when St. Peter heard the cock crow and beheld Jesus, just condemned to death, turning towards him and casting upon him a look of mercy and compassion. St. Peter was at once deeply moved and became conscious of his deep fall; he immediately left the bad company he was in, went out and wept most bitterly. Let us, like St. Peter, repent as soon as we discover our failings, quit the occasions of our faults and bewail them sincerely. 2. The penance of St. Peter was lasting, for he rose to fall no more. His fall made him humble and mistrustful of himself. He was no longer bold and presumptuous, as we can see from the humble manner in which he protested his love for Jesus, when Jesus entrusted His Church to his care and made him His Vicar on earth. Tradition tells us that St. Peter did penance for his fall during the remainder of his life, that he wept whenever he heard a cock crow, and that he wholly devoted himself to labor for the glory of God and the salvation of men. Let us imitate St. Peter in his penance, and strive to persevere by daily performing works of penance, serving God with the utmost fervor and enduring every suffering and hardship for His sake. 359

3. What was the reward of St. Peter's penance, His sin was entirely forgiven, and Jesus never even alluded to it. After His resurrection Jesus appeared to St. Peter before appearing to the other apostles. He was not only not deposed from the apostolate, but was raised to the dignity for which he had been destined, that of Head of the Church of Jesus Christ. If we imitate St. Peter's penance, we shall obtain not only the full forgiveness of our sins, but also a great increase in grace, and may become great saints and do great things for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Scandal (G)
"It must needs be," says our divine Saviour, "that scandals come" (Mat. 18. 7). By scandal is meant a word or an act tending to lead the weak into sin. St. Peter calls it: "A stone of stumbling, a rock of scandal" (1 Pet. 2. 8). 1. Every bad example, and sometimes the omission of a good example also, is a scandal. Scandals abound in the world, and are to be found even in religious communities. This, however, does not mean that shocking scandals occur therein, for there are scandals which are not shocking, for they are not the outcome of crime or of grievous sin; and such scandals will form the subject of our present consideration. The imperfect religious, the tepid religious, gives scandal whenever he gives a bad example, especially when it is habitual. Constant bad example in breaking silence, in murmuring and complaining against superiors and officials, in criticising them, in finding fault with their conduct, in neglecting the spiritual exercises, in violating charity, in the careless discharge of duty, in transgressing even the minutest rule, is dangerous and contagious, and apt, in the course of time, to lead the rest of the community into the same faults and to introduce relaxation of the religious spirit. The tepid religious, therefore, tempts his companions constantly to tepidity and thus "executes," says St. Bernard, "the devil's designs." How often does it not happen that those who valiantly combat their passions and the devil's temptations, allow themselves to be led away by the bad example of a companion, against whom they are not on their guard! "The devil," says St. Leo, "makes use of men to accomplish what he is unable to do himself." The imperfect and tepid religious is the devil's agent, for 1. In the first place, he teaches sin or relaxation by his bad example. St. Cyprian says that the easiest way to learn how to commit sin 360

is by seeing others committing it. How many religious never had any temptation against their superior, a companion, the food given to the community, certain houses of the Institute, or against their vocation, until some imperfect religious, by his insidious remarks or suggestions, filled them with such temptations, which have ever since rendered them discontented and miserable, and may, in the end, even prove fatal to them! 2. The tepid religious, by his bad example, authorizes the breaking of the Rule, especially if he is the superior, or an elder member of the community, or one who possesses influence by his talents and ability, for others, especially the juniors, will not scruple to follow his example. 3. He spreads tepidity and the spirit of relaxation. "Fervor," says Savonarola, "is not contagious," because it requires the spirit of self-denial and sacrifice to imitate it. But bad example or scandal is contagious, for it is like a leaven, an insidious cancer or leprosy, which secretly, but surely, spreads through the whole community, until it permeates every member in it. It is like a rotten apple which soon causes all the other apples in the barrel to rot also, and like a corrupt pupil who soon corrupts the whole school by his vices. 4. The tepid religious perpetuates relaxation and abuses. Some may try to resume a fervent life, but their afforts, counteracted by the evil example of others, will be futile, for they soon relapse and possess no power for good over their companions. Such is the history of the relaxation of certain religious orders in the past, which became a scandal in the Church and produced such men as Luther and consorts. II. "It must needs be that scandals come," says our divine Saviour; "but woe to him through whom scandals come" (Mat. 18.7), for "it were better for such a one, that a millstone be hung about his neck, and that he be cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones" (Ibid. 6). Such a one shall be most severely punished not only for his personal sins, but also for the sins his bad example led others to commit. One of our principal duties as Christians and religious is to give good example to our neighbor. "So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Mat. 5.16). No man is dispensed from this obligation; and no one has greater obligations in this matter than religious, who are called to a higher perfection than seculars. III. The tepid religious, or scandal-giver, overthrows the designs of God who has called all the members of his Institute to become saints and to labor for the salvation of souls. But by his constant and habitual bad example, he not only deprives the members of his, community of the 361

powerful help of mutual edification, of emulation in the practice of virtue, but also leads others into a life of tepidity, and, as far as lies in his power, introduces the spirit of relaxation and abuses that undermine the good spirit of the Institute and greatly impair, if they do not actually destroy, its usefulness. He is responsible not only for his personal sins, but also for the evil consequences of his bad example. What a dreadful responsibility! We should seriously examine our conscience as to whether or no we have filled any of our companions with temptations against their vocation, their superiors or some of their companions; whether we have caused them to grow discontented, careless or lax in the service of God, in the observance of the rules. Let us be fully determined henceforth to give to all a good example inthe regular observance and to do all in our power to repair the injury we have done by our past misconduct. IV. Taking scandal, or following bad example, is almost as bad as giving it. We should never allow ourselves to be led into committing faults, whether we are tempted by the devil, our own evil propensities or the bad example of our companions. The bad example of others is no excuse for our sins, for we have a free-will, which not even God can coerce, and we are well acquainted with all that duty requires of us. "Keep your rules strictly," says St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi; "if others fail to keep them, endeavor to supply their deficiency by greater regularity on your part." Far from imitating the imperfect and the tepid, we should grieve over them, consider their example as dangerous to us, and avoid too great familiarity with them and their notions. Let us prudently, but firmly, oppose their false maxims and their lax conduct; but also let us, at the same time, refrain from judging and condemning them, for this belongs, not to us, but to God; and, more-over, let us humble ourselves before God, since without His special assistance, we would become worse than the most wicked of mankind!

Mary, the Mother of Jesus (G)

I. Let us first consider the union established between Jesus and Mary by her divine Maternity. 1. As the Mother of the Son of God, Mary is united to Jesus first, in the eternal divine decrees and in the promises of the Saviour made in the beginning of the world. It was by her that the serpent's head was to be crushed (Gen. 3.15). She is the branch of Jesse that is to bear the blessed fruit (Is. 11. 1). She is the virgin-mother and the Emmanuel, "God with 362

us," is her Son (Is. 7. 14). She is the Mother of the Perfect Man (Jer. 31. 22). She is the Queen seated at the right of the King (Ps. 44.10). She is the wonderful temple, the dwelling of Wisdom (Wisd. 9.) 2. Secondly, in the figures of the Old Testament. Eve is, by opposition or contrast, a figure of Mary. Eve was drawn forth from Adam's side; Mary draws all her merits (spiritual life) from her divine Son. Eve, seduced by an angel of darkness, was the first cause of our ruin; Mary, hearkening to the words of the angel from heaven, began the work of our redemption in the Incarnation of the Son of God. Other figures of Mary: Esther obtaining the safety of her people; Judith victorious over Holofernes; the burning bush, a figure of her Immaculate Conception and virginity; the fleece of Gideon is likewise a figure of the same. 3. Mary at the moment of the Incarnation is united to God in a special and most intimate manner: "He that made me, rested in my tabernacle" (Eccli. 24.12). Mary's blood was the matter from which was formed the body of Jesus; He was in her and entirely of her, living by her life! "The Lord is with thee;" "Behold the Mother of my Lord" (Luke 1.28, 44). She is truly the Mother of God! 4. Mary's soul was united to Jesus in a special manner. St. Bernard says that she conceived Him in her heart before conceiving Him in her womb. She was united to Him by the most lively faith, the most ardent charity, by her consent which is thrice daily venerated in the Church in the Angelus. Mary was everywhere with Jesus: at Bethlehem, in Jerusalem, in Egypt, at Nazareth, and particularly on Calvary. 5. In heaven Mary is on His right hand, associated with His glory and His powerful action in the salvation of the world; she is united with t God far more intimately than all the saints. 6. On earth she is united with Jesus in the praises of the Fathers, in the prayers of the liturgy, in the definitions of Councils, in the celebration of the mysteries and feasts of the Church and in the love, affection, confidence and invocation of the faithful. Jesus and Mary are inseparable. II. No one resembles Jesus more than Mary. The law of nature ordains that the son should physically resemble his mother; the law of grace requires that the Mother of the Son of God should be in all things worthy of such a Son. This is apparent in her wonderful privileges: Her Immaculate Conception, a privilege shared by no other creature; her wonderful and unexampled virginity; her profound humility, unequaled by any other creature; her divine Maternity; her perfect charity, the nearest in perfection to that of the Redeemer. It made her prompt in visiting St. Elizabeth, faithful in preserving in her heart the words of eternal life, 363

attentive to the wants of her neighbor at Cana, heroic, devoted and selfsacrificing during her divine Son's ministry and passion, so useful to the apostles and so dear to the infant Church. III. How great an authority does not her divine Maternity impart to her! For thirty years the Son of God honored and obeyed her. Jesus, when dying on the cross, gave her to us as our Mother. Hence the Mother of God is our Mother also in all its meaning and extent. In heaven Jesus glorifies her by graciously granting all her re-quests, which are allpowerful with Him. She is the dispensatrix of divine grace, the help of Christians, the defense of the Church against heresy and unbelief. St. Bernard truly says: "We receive all from her who gave us Jesus." How fortunate, how secure are those she loves and protects! IV. No one has greater reasons and obligations to honor, love and invoke Mary as the most tender of mothers, or has stronger claims to her protection than we religious. She is, in a special manner, our Mother. All the extraordinary graces we have received from her divine Son, such as our religious vocation and the countless graces since our entrance into the convent; she has preserved us from numberless dangers and falls. It is through her hands that we expect the graces we need to sanctify ourselves and that of final perseverance. She looks upon us with special love as consecrated and espoused to her divine Son. Let us, then, honor, serve and love her as the most loving of mothers; and let us do all we can to cause others to love, honor, serve and invoke her with confidence. Let us in all our temptations, crosses and trials invoke her help with child-like confidence, and she will be to us the Mother of Perpetual Help!

Mary, Our Mother (G)

I. Jesus Christ gave us Mary, His own Mother, as our Mother, saying: "Behold thy Mother." Let us consider all the circumstances of this gift. 1. She has been given to us as our Mother by Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the sovereign Lord of all creatures, from whom emanates all grace and power; by Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind who had already sacrificed the body and lavished the blood He had received from Mary. Having already given us Himself, and with Himself all things, He bestows His Mother on us as the complement of all His gifts. 2. Jesus gives her to us in the clearest, most precise and strongest terms, to enable us to realize their full meaning: "Behold thy Mother." When showing the bread at the Last Supper, Jesus said: "This is My 364

body," and the bread thereby became His true body. Pointing to His Mother, He said: "Behold thy Mother," and Mary at once became our Mother. 3. Mary was given us as our Mother under the most solemn circumstances. Jesus, when dying, signified His last will. The beloved John was the only one of His disciples present to receive in the name of all Christians the last gift their divine Master wished to bestow on them, His own Mother! 4. Jesus gave Mary to us as "our Mother." Man does not live by bread, or corporal food, alone; his soul has likewise a spiritual life to receive and support. Mary has been made our spiritual or supernatural Mother, that we may live through her by grace. The principle of the supernatural life is in Jesus; but in this spiritual or supernatural life Mary's is the bosom that bore us, the milk that nourished us, the maternal heart that always loves her children, even when they prove ungrateful. 5. Why did Jesus give us a Mother according to grace? And why was this Mother His own Mother? Jesus wished to become our Brother, that all should be in common between Him and us, that, if the infinite height of His divine nature terrified us, a creature, His own Mother, should become ours and serve as our advocate, our refuge, our Mediatress with Him, and thereby encourage the most timid, open the hearts of the most oppressed by fear, and inspire all men with the sweetest motives of confidence, always well founded and never too great, for a mother always loves her child, and Jesus, the Son of Mary, will always love and honor His Mother. II. Mary has always shown herself our Mother. 1. In the first place, she received us to her heart, when Jesus gave us to her as her children. Holy Scripture calls Jesus her first-born; and we should after Him, be born in her, by her. 2. Mary, as our Mother, has nourished us not only with the graces her prayers have obtained for us, but also with the body and blood of her divine Son which we receive in holy Communion. 3. Mary has forestalled us, cared for us, loaded us with favors. All the graces we have received from the Lord have been solicited and obtained for us by her, such as: our call to the true faith, the graces of a Christian education, our religious vocation, the numberless favors we have received since our entrance into religion and which we still receive daily notwithstanding our ingratitude and want of cooperation. All these great graces have come to us from Jesus through Mary. 365

4. Whenever necessary, Mary obtains for the defense and salvation of her children extraordinary graces and even astounding miracles. What prodigies have awakened, sustained and spread everywhere confidence in Mary! What striking proofs of her protection the Church recalls to her children by solemn feasts, pious practices and precious indulgences! What titles does she give Mary, in order to testify the gratitude of her children! Such as: Help of Christians, Health of the weak; Comfort of the afflicted, Refuge of sinners, Mother of mercy, Gate of heaven, our Life, our Sweetness and our Hope, Mother of Good Counsel, Mother of Perpetual Help. What great con-courses of people flock every year, to the placeswhere she is most honored, where she obtains numerous favors for those who invoke her! What prayers and acts of thanksgiving for favors obtained are made at her altars and shrines! 5. Mary's protection preserves her children from dangers, secures to them victory over temptations, and is an assured pledge of predestination, for St. Alphonsus says, "A true servant of Mary cannot be lost!" III. We owe to Mary, first, love, for she is the most perfect of creatures, the Beloved of God. Secondly, gratitude, for she has lavished benefits upon us; thirdly, filial affection, for she is our Mother; fourthly, confidence, for her power and her title of our Mother have been conferred on her, that we should always be certain that she is ever able and willing to help us; fifthly, imitation of her virtues, for she expects from our love that we shall endeavor to resemble her spiritually. We children of the purest of virgins should be pure! We children of the Mother of sorrows should be faithful to Jesus by bearing our cross and trials faithfully, as she did. Finally, we should zealously endeavor to spread love and devotion to her, and confidence in her intercession among all over whom we may possess any influence. Let us always prepare well for Mary's feasts and celebrate them to the best of our ability! THE END

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From Saint Pius X Press

The Religious State by Saint Alphonsus Ligouri $11.95 Vocations by Fr. William Doyle S.J. $9.95 Readings For Each Sunday In The Year: The Catholic Mother To Her Children by the Countess de Flavigny $9.95 History of the Church, Formation of the Apostles of the Latter Times by Phil Friedl $9.95 Night Adoration in the Home $6.95 Note we are preparing a simpler presentation a lower cost. This will be available for bulk ordering. Please contact us for details. Guide to General Confession with Examination of Conscience $9.95 Bernadette or Lourdes: The Only-Complete Account of Her Life Ever Published $25 The Present Crisis of the Holy See, Henry Cardinal Manning $15 Saint Pius X Press Box 74 Delia KS 66418 www.stpiusxpress.com Our thanks to www.divineprovidenceweb.com for cover design and formatting this book.

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