¡ ^ ^ H B H H H H k S j ' 7 / V / 

•••Seeking 

only God 
A C A L L T O P R I E S T S 

T O T H E I N T E R I O R L I F E 

By A t h a n a s i u s B ierbaum, O.F.M. 

AMERICAN EDITION 

By Bruno H a g s p i e l , S.V.D.-

ST. A N T H O N Y G U I L D PRESS 
Franciscan Monastery, Paterson, N. J. 

* * 









•••Seeking 

only God 
A C A L L T O P R I E S T S 

T O T H E I N T E R I O R LIFE 

B y A t h a n a s i u s B i e r b a u m , O.F.M. 

AMERICAN EDITION 

By Bruno Hagspiel, S.V.D. 

Revised Edition 

MCMXXXIX ^ ' 

ST. ANTHONY GUILD PRESS 
Franciscan Monastery, Paterson, N. J. 



COPYRIGHT 1938 

COPYRIGHT 1939 

BY ST. A N T H O N Y ' S G U I L D 

FRANCISCAN MONASTERY 

PATERSON, NEW JERSBY 

First published, November, 1938 

Second Edition, February, 1939 

Imprimi potest. 
Hugo Aubry, S. V. D. 

Provincial. 

Techny, HI., Oct. 10, 1938. 

Nihil obstat. 
Arthur J. Scanlan, S. T. D., 

Censor. 

Imprimatur. 
Stephen J. Donahue, D. D., 

Administrator. 

New York, N. Y., Nov. É 1938. 

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

O e s c ' Ä ö 



C O N T E N T S 

Page 

I . T H E INTERIOR L I F E A NECESSITY FOR 

PRIESTS 1 

I I . CHARACTERISTICS OF T H E INTERIOR L I F E 2 2 

I I I , REQUISITES OF T H E INTERIOR L I F E 3 7 

I V . CULTIVATION OF THE INTERIOR L I F E . . . . 4 7 

V . J O Y IN T H E INTERIOR L I F E 6 1 

I N CONCLUSION 6 8 





II 

THE INTERIOR LIFE 

A NECESSITY FOR PRIESTS 

T H E interior life, inwardness — these are con-
-*• cepts that have become foreign to many mod-

erns. Cast into the whirlpool of modernity that 
relentlessly sucks us downward, we lack the time 
and the peace necessary for the interior life. Or 
we no longer recognize its supreme importance, 
and blinded by the glittering externals of our day, 
with an air of superiority, we attribute it to the 
so-called ingenuousness of an age that retained 
an understanding and appreciation for true interior 
piety. Or — and in this we have the real reason 
for the aversion to and misunderstanding of the 
interior life — faltering faith has weakened the 
understanding and appreciation of interior reflec-
tion. Hence the complaint Father Menge, O.F.M., 
raises in "The Way to Interior Life": "We 
moderns become daily more poverty-stricken 
in the interior life. Unbelief has robbed millions 

1 



2 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

of peace in God and focused their attention on 
creatures. This is why there is so much groveling 
materialism in science, so much repellent natural-
ism in art, so much inordinate love of pleasure 
and sensuality." 

As children of our times we priests come in 
for some share of this bitter criticism. Clerical 
life, and particularly the religious life, suffers in-
creasingly in true inwardness. How else explain 
the disinclination for the outward expressions of 
the religious life, for solemn church services, for 
pilgrimages, processions and age-old customs that 
are rooted deep in religion? In an attempt to 
justify ourselves we call these things wearying or 
childish: forgetful that a full interior life pushes 
upward and outward for expression, just as the 
tree with roots deep in rich soil raises aloft a 
luxuriant crown; forgetful too that our forebears 
of the Middle Ages, steeped in the inner life, gave 
evidence to the world of a deep inward spirituality 
in magnificent piles of masonry, incomparable 
religious art, literature that breathes true mysticism 
and homely folk customs that are the poetic ex-
pression of a deeply religious spirit. 

At any rate, the blight of superficiality has 
spread to the point where a reaction has already 



A Necessity for Priests 3 

set in. This is true even in non-Catholic circles. 
The anxious strife and fretful labor in the service 
of Mammon have awakened a realization of in-
terior emptiness, and a belated consciousness of 
the truth uttered by the great Doctor of Hippo: 
Fecisti nos, Domine, ad te, et inquietum est cor 
nostrum, donee requiescat in te. 

But in every reaction there is danger of going 
to the other extreme. And so it is in this. There 
are those who wish a complete divorce from ex-
ternals, such as sermons, sacraments and services, 
taking the indefensible and unreasonable position 
that religion is something purely internal. There 
are those too who deride the Church, particularly 
the Catholic Church, as an obstacle to the interior 
life, alleging that she smothers it with her many 
externals. 

Virtus in medio! And this golden mean is 
expressed for us by the God-Man Who in the 
sphere of the interior life too is our Teacher and 
Exemplar. Christ, Who prayed in the dark hours 
of the night and labored in the bright hours of 
the day, Who through His Church presents this 
ideal in the lives of Martha and Mary, thereby 
condemns this over-emphasis on the interior life, 
as well as these unqualified attacks on His Bride 
as given too much ad exteriora. 



4 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

Let us give thanks to the Lord if we still 
remain what the Apostle declares us to be: Vos 
autem in carne non estis, sed in spiritu (Rom. 
vm, 9). If, however, we have been infected by 
the poison of the time, if our spiritual lives have 
suffered, if the interior man is suffocating under 
an avalanche of external labors, then let us reso-
lutely and confidently start work anew on the re-
modeling and expansion of the inner life; rejoicing 
in the thought that out of it will spring a noble 
humanity, a zealous priestly life and a fruitful 
shepherding of souls. 

Ennobled Human Nature the Fruit of the In-
terior Life. 

We children of men — and we priests are 
and remain human beings, even though the All-
Highest has chosen us, and the bishop's hands 
have consecrated us — cling to this earth. Con-
sciously or unconsciously we recognize full well 
the maxim: Domine, bonum est nos hie esse! The 
cry resounds from lip to lip: Venite ergo et fruamur 
bonis, quae sunt, et utamur creatura... quoniam 
haec est pars nostra, et haec est sors (Wis. n, 6, 9). 
Eating, drinking, entertainments and amusements, 
play and sport — these are the centers about which 



A Necessity for Priests 5 

men's thoughts revolve. Alban Stolz once re-
marked of a worthy representative of this class 
that "he is fettered to the earth, and heaven is to 
him as incomprehensible as to a dumb animal. His 
world revolves around food, money, the feminine, 
and something to sate his curiosity." 

In this, lamentation is futile. Our lips are 
closed and silent for the spiritual, the eternal, 
because our nature is corrupted by original sin. 
Corpus enim, quod corrumpitur, aggravat animam, 
et terrena inbabitatio deprimit sensum . . . (Wis. 
ix, 15). Man's mortal flesh is a dead weight tied 
to his spirit preventing it from taking flight to 
God and things divine. Adhaesit in terra venter 
noster. We bury ourselves in our labor for days 
without end; we are such slaves to it that we are 
prevented from returning to our true selves. The 
evils that flow from this condition are inevitable. 
The vineyard of the soul, submerged in earthly 
things, as strikingly pictured for us in the book 
of Proverbs (xxiv, 30), is laid waste with the 
thistles of sin and the thorns of passion, et ma-
ceria lapidum destructa erat: the wall of grace, 
about which we so little concern ourselves, has 
fallen in ruins. 

We may be inclined to characterize this cling-
ing to the earthly, with all its sad consequences, 



6 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

as human; but unfortunately it is not worthy of a 
human being. Through the din of the earthly 
and the fleshly pierce the voices, the insistent voices 
of another world. Fecisti nos, Domine, ad te! cries 
out Saint Augustine. Quae sursum sunt, quaerite, 
non quae super terram! cries out Saint Paul. Quae-
rite primum regnum Dei! cries out the Wisdom 
of the Word made Flesh. Ad majora natus sum! 
comes from those who have risen above an earth-
bound horizon. And the Church sums up these 
calls in her daily cry: Sursum corda! Raise aloft 
your hearts, and souls, and minds! 

If then this clinging to the earth is neither ac-
cording to the mind of God, nor worthy of our 
human nature; if man ascends only with his 
vision fixed on the spiritual; if noble souls inhabit-
only the higher sphere — what then is the way 
to this life? Hettinger answers in his "Timotheus": 
"Just as the sparkling water springs from the 
depths and not from the sandy surface, so also 
in the spiritual life. Every great person, in all the 
fields of human endeavor, in literature and art, 
was characterized by a true interior spirit." And 
he closes with this significant sentence: "In fact, 
the life of the spirit is our only real life; life as 
it appears in the externals is only its echo." 



A Necessity for Priests 7 

"Renowned men, recollected men: 
Interior life, true life" 

— an aphorism worthy of remembrance. 
Hettinger is supported by Alban Stolz whose 

works may be called without hesitation texts of 
the interior life. In his delineation of the spiritual, 
Stolz remarks: "Man's activities appear at times 
as a drama, unconsciously presented The spring 
that motivates these marionettes is the stomach 
and, in general, the demands of the body. The 
moment that men's actions are in accord with 
God's will, they cease to be a drama and become 
real. And the players are not wooden marionettes 
but human beings, who are aware of what they do 
and why they do it." 

And so it must be. The interior life, in the 
final analysis, consists in nothing less than an 
adbaerere Deo, and the inner man will, to a 
greater or lesser degree, be characterized by the 
words of the Apostle: Mihi vivere Christus est! 
God and the Divine do not occupy the last place 
in his heart. For the sapientia terrena, animalis, 
diabolica of which Saint James speaks (m, 15) 
there is scarcely any room; the dead load of sen-
suality, if not entirely removed, has been reduced 
to a minimum; and if the law of the flesh, striving 



8 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

against the law of the spirit, continues as the 
inescapable consequence of original sin, nevertheless 
it is spent in the fury of the battle. God reigns 
in the soul and transfigures the whole man: Vivo, 
jam non ego, vivit vero in me Christus! 

On the feast of one of the most renowned 
masters of the spiritual life, Saint Peter of Al-
cantara, the Church sings, in the words of the 
breviary of the Seraphic Order: O virum ineffa-
bilem, qui vivens in came, spiritu ambulavit, et 
nihil in terris desiderans, conversationem suam 
semper in coelis habebat — "O wondrous man, 
who living in the flesh walked in the spirit, and 
desiring nothing of earthly things, had his mind 
always set on heavenly things " 

Such are the best among the truly good, and 
they achieved the coveted goal by assiduously cul-
tivating the interior life. Noble humanity springs 
from this soil. 

Priestly Piety the Fruit of the Interior Life. 

What are we priests? The chosen from among 
the many. According to Numbers (vm, 14) we 
are the Separati, according to John (xv, 16) the 
Electi, according to the Acts (xm, 2) the Segre-
gati; in short, the chosen of the people. For this 



A Necessity for Priests 9 

very reason the words of Saint Ambrose are ap-
plicable in all their brevity to us: Nihil in sacer-
dote commune cum multitudine. 

Hence the Apostle of the Gentiles remarks of 
the many: Terrena sapiunt — "Of earth are their 
thoughts" — and we can forgive them because of 
their multitudinous earthly cares and their super-
ficial training. But far different demands are made 
of us priests, who have been lifted out of these 
material cares and who can look back upon a 
training that constantly directed our thoughts 
heavenward and enlightened and compelled our 
hearts, according to the words of Saint Augustine: 
Tene Deum, quia numquam vilescit, quia pulchrius 
nihil est. 

Cui multum datum est, multum quaeretur ab 
eo, the Master tells us in the words of Saint Luke 
(xn, 48). Though the religion of the many be 
terrena sapere, our program must ever be: Nostra 
autem conversatio in coelis est — our activities 
are supra-natural, heavenly, divine (Phil, m, 20). 
The very idea and essence of the spiritual life de-
mand it. But if we, the chosen of the Lord, we 
who are schooled at length in the science of God, 
were to be strangers to the life of the spirit, then 
the same dear Lord Who chose us out of His in-
effable love, and these years of study in the science 



10 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

of the Divine, would bitterly reproach us with the 
pertinent question: Cui bono?... 

What are we priests? The dispensatores myste-
riorum Dei. 

It is illuminating that among the divine mys-
teries, the mysteria tremenda super altare Dei are 
particularly referred to. Then would we officiate 
at this tremendous mystery, transfused with the 
love of an Omnipotent God, as cold functionaries, 
robots, or stupid piece-workers at a machine — 
without soul, without spirit, without heart? Dare 
we do so? Have we done so? 

What was it that struck our attentive ear at 
ordination? In the words of God and His Church 
the bishop admonished us: Agnosce quod agis! 
Seek to penetrate into those sacred precincts that 
are delegated to you! Draw lovingly closer to the 
holy things that you daily hold in your hands! 
Penetrate into that mystery of the Divinity that 
you are privileged to transact every morning on the 
altar! Agnosce quod agis! 

Does it not come to this: hold to the spiritual, 
the interior life, without which our labors become 
a corpse devoid of all life, the sacred mysteries 
are profaned, and that which is consecrated to the 
service of God becomes a source of scandal? Is it 



A Necessity for Priests 11 

not clear that every movement of the priest at the 
altar or the communion rail or in the sacristy is 
thus subjected to a critical estimate; that he is 
either a man of God or a hired laborer? . . . 

What are we priests? The praecones Altissimi. 
To us is delegated the sublime task of singing and 
proclaiming the praises of the Almighty in behalf 
of the people who are all too prone to forget this 
obligation. Pro hominibus constituitur. This we 
accomplish in our breviary prayers, a chorus of 
praise that continues undiminished with the cir-
cling of the sun about the globe, a chorus that is 
echoed by the "Holy! Holy! Holy!" of the blessed 
in heaven. 

The breviary, however, must not degenerate 
into a dead mechanism for turning out prayers; it 
must not consist in that cold and heartless mum-
bling of which the words of Holy Scripture are 
an apt condemnation: Appropinquat populus iste 
ore suo, et labiis suis glorificat me, cor autem eius 
longe est a me (Isa. xxix, 13). Naught remains 
then but to enter into the spirit of the psalms, 
the hymns and the canticles, not so much with 
the dissecting knife of the critic as with the long-
ing of a heart devoted to God. This, however, pre-
supposes a certain measure of the interior spirit, 
of joy in a life of spiritual recollection. Only the 



12 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

priest who is interiorly recollected is conscious of 
the fact, when taking the breviary in hand, that 
he is coming into the presence of God; that accord-
ing to God's own economy, he is the representative 
of the world in singing the praises due the Creator 
— thoughts that demand an abiding recollection, 
love and fervor at the recital of the breviary. He 
who is a stranger to the interior life will discharge 
the divine office because he cannot do otherwise; 
his eye is fixed impatiently on the end rather than 
calmly on the matter; he sees the words rather 
than the spirit and meaning, the depressing burden 
than the sublime end, the discharge of the duty 
rather than the prayer itself. 

How much more acceptable to God would the 
hours of breviary prayers be if they were ap-
proached with a true interior spirit! 

Success in Pastoral Labors the Fruit of the In-
terior Life. 

As pastors of souls we must lead the people 
toward heaven. Daily we cry out to the world, 
Sursum corda; every sermon, every instruction, 
every admonition is nothing other than a new 
call: Quae sursum sunt, quaerite, non quae super 
terram. Sunday after Sunday we preach to the 
people the word of God, that may be summed 



A Necessity for Priests 13 

up in one sentence, Quaerite Deum, et vivet anima 
vestra (Ps. Lxvra, 33). And we would cling to 
the earth in the face of this Sursum corda — 
rather than fix our eyes on the heavenly objectives, 
we would grovel in the dirt — we would rather 
love the contemptible world than an all-loving 
God — we would be pathfinders for others to God 
but for ourselves poachers in other preserves.... 

Alas, we can understand why so many sermons 
fail in results among the faithful: Sermo multus et 
fructus nullus, in the words of Saint Bernard. The 
smoothness of marble, but also its coldness! How 
could it be otherwise? Did it not issue from a 
heart cold and closed to God? Nemo dat quod 
non habet. The heart that is without the fire of 
divine love can impart no warmth and fervor. 

Yes, the success of such laborers of the Middle 
Ages as Bernardine of Siena, Vincent Ferrer, John 
of Capistran, Berthold of Regensburg and many 
others, who effected such incredible transforma-
tions of whole peoples and nations, is understand-
able. Saint Robert Bellarmine has said that their 
sermons were so simple and unpretentious that 
they were considered hardly worth the trouble 
to read. But these were the utterances of men 
of God, men of the interior life, men burning 
with supernatural love. This is the secret of their 



14 "... Seeking Only God" 

glorious successes. Pectus est quod disertum jacit. 
If we today lack the results, Saint Robert Bel-
larmine has provided the diagnosis: Deest anima, 
deest vita, deest ignis; breviter, magna ilia charitas 
deest, quae sola potest verba dicentium animare et 
accendere et corda audientium inflammare et 
commutare.... 

Our labor of preaching, if it is to be blessed 
by God with results, cries out for the spirit of the 
interior life — a submersion in the Divine that 
will enkindle in us a fire of zeal and love, and 
thus inflame our utterances with a fervor that 
makes them irresistible. It is an indisputable fun-
damental of all pastoral activity — such as at the 
altar or in the pulpit, in the confessional and at the 
communion-rail, in school and at meetings, when-
visiting the sick and in all private relations with 
people — that the priest imbued with the spirit 
of the interior life is blessed with entirely dif-
ferent results than he for whom the life of the 
spirit is hardly more than a name. Moreover, did 
not the Apostle proclaim: Vos, qui spirituales estis, 
. . . instruite (Gal. vi, 1) ? Does not this rule con-
tain the demand that only those who are truly 
spiritual, truly of the interior life, rise up as 
teachers of Israel? . . . 



A Necessity for Priests 15 

As shepherds of souls we dare not, in spite of 
external activity, languish in spirit. 

Our life and our strength belong to our people. 
Today this means untold care and labor, particu-
larly since our priestly labors must be performed 
in the midst of a generatio mala et adultera. We 
must strive unceasingly in church and school, in 
family and society circles, lest we suffer the same 
tragic lot as some of our European brethren, of 
whom a certain bishop bitterly complained in a 
gathering of clerics: "Forty thousand priests in 
the country, and yet the faith here wavers and 
is faint! What a mystery!" 

Alas, poor country! this is no mystery. The 
fault lies with your pastors who, however blame-
less in their private lives, have kept themselves 
aloof from public life, and immersed in the cleri-
cal otium cum dignitatey have forgotten the com-
mand of the Lord: "Go out into the highways 
and hedges"; forgetful, too, of what was written 
of the Master Himself: Pertransiit! Here we can-
not speak of a mystery, rather: Perditio tua ex 
te, Israel!... 

Among us also there are those who look upon 
social labors as something to be shunned by the 
priest or at least considered as a necessary evil. 
For these the words of Cardinal Faulhaber should 



16 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

be written in bright letters: "Social and charitable 
activities of priests in organizations are necessities 
of the times, hence the will of God." Hence if 
we would be shepherds of souls who understand 
the times in which we labor, then we who for the 
most part carry on our activities in urban parishes, 
are forced to lead an active life in the world and 
importune, opportune to hurl ourselves into the 
raging stream of modern life. 

But we are, for that very reason, bound to be 
on our guard, according to well-defined rules, par-
ticularly that one expressed by Saint Paul: Attende 
tibi (1 Tim. iv, 16). Else the raging stream that 
longs for its victims will draw us imperceptibly 
into the depths. Woe to the priest who, because 
he labors in the service of others, forgets himself 
or can no longer return into himself. Woe if 
from ceaseless activity comes distraction, abandon-
ment to a deadly routine, and from this latter, at 
the very next deception or temptation — and they 
surround him on all sides — the fall! Diabolus 
tamquam leo rugiens circuit — the devil knows 
no rest in pursuit of priests.... 

The Pauline recipe, Attende tibi, can well be 
turned in our own words: If we as priests in our 
endless labors for others would not languish in 
spirit, if in our anxiety for the souls of others we 



A Necessity for Priests 17 

would not endanger our own souls, then let us give 
thought to the interior life. At any sacrifice, I 
beg of you! He who would look deep into the 
heart of a priest would make this apostolic exhor-
tation one of obligation, in the face of almost 
daily experience. Who has not known him who 
shone in the glory of an admiring world, who 
was a ceaseless laborer in the Lord's vineyard, a 
tireless and effective social worker, a renowned 
orator, a popular demi-god — until of a sudden 
we hear the whispered question: "What — he?" 
A clerical scandal was before us. Ulula, abies, the 
Prophet Zachary cries out warning and admonish-
ing (xi, 2) to the careless, the superficial and the 
self-reliant in clerical garb, ulula, abies, quia ceci-
dit cedrus. Beware, thou slender tree, I have seen 
the cedars of Lebanon crash 

We dare not censure these external activities 
that are in accord with the will of God, but rather 
the priest who neglects the necessary cultivation 
of the interior life that God demands of us. The 
interior life provides an anchor in the Divine, 
prevents the priest from meeting with ruin in ex-
ternals and permits him to return to God. Hoc 
enim faciens, et teipsum salvum fades, et eos, 
qui te audiunt (1 Tim. iv, 16). 

As priests we are in need of internal support. 



18 "... Seeking Only God" 

Our lot is one of suffering. "If they persecuted 
Me, they will persecute you also," our Lord re-
minds us. Bitterness and deception will always 
be the portion of our reward as we extend and 
multiply our labors. Who does not know the 
well-intentioned pastor who is misunderstood by 
his own children! How many sharp criticisms are 
directed at him by his own confreres! What disil-
lusionments come to him from his duly appointed 
superiors, who perhaps unconsciously exercise au-
thority with official reserve rather than sympathetic 
participation in a subject's joys and sorrows! 

And the result? We are cast forth from every 
haven, lie crushed under our broken ideals, are 
dejected, relinquish our zeal, become sullen and 
unhappy and at a loss as to what to do . . . . 

Must it come to this? 
No, indeed, to this it must never come. 
The psychological explanation for this occur-

rence is presented in a striking manner in "Custos," 
xvn, 320. A certain Pancratius was given the fol-
lowing answer: "Your dejection arises principally 
from your neglect of the interior life. Some of 
us disregard the interior life out of sloth, others 
for lack of time, as they claim. A multitude of 
duties so lay hands upon them that there is pre-
cious little, or no time at all, left over for cultiva-



A Necessity for Priests 19 

tion of the interior life. Along with this an almost 
imperceptible lessening of appreciation for the in-
terior life is creeping upon them. Tor such things 
I have little or no time; that is for those in the 
cloister or in the small parishes who have little 
else to occupy them. But I . . . . ' Hold, please! If 
then such persons meet with failure, there is no 
restraining them. They are too much engaged 
with externals; the blessing of God is lacking in 
their endeavors, and the accusation of neglecting 
the interior life makes them doubly and trebly 
sad!" Weigh each word. The interior life is the 
rock upon which, according to our Lord, the wise 
man built his home: Et descendit pluvia, et vene-
runt flumina et flaverunt venti, et irruerunt in 
domum illam, et non cecidit: fundata enim erat 
super petram (Matt, vn, 25). 

The storms of failure, disappointment, disillu-
sionment and opposition scarcely affect the man 
of God who has cultivated the interior life; he 
remains upright because he is supported by God. 
But he who lacks the foundation of the interior 
life is like to the man who builds his home on 
sand. Scarcely have the first rains fallen when it 
crashes ...et fuit ruina illius magna. 

If we priests would have a spiritual support 
to help us meet the inevitable vexations of the 



20 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

pastoral life with strength and fortitude, and to 
rise above them, we must anchor ourselves on the 
bed-rock of a truly spiritual, interior life. A deep 
inwardness will never fail. 

If we shepherds of souls lack this foundation 
of an internal spirit, then in our boredom, most 
certainly in our trials and tribulations, we will 
seek our own recreation and relaxation where the 
harassed men of the world seek theirs: at best 
in purely worldly enjoyments — but more usually 
in the siliquae quas porci manducabant.... 

Priests of the interior life — men of true no-
bility, men who have overcome and subdued their 
all-too-human traits and who, in full consciousness 
of their high calling, refuse to grovel in the dirt; 
men in short, whose lives are regulated by th^ 
Divine. 

Priests of the interior life — priests as they 
should be: rising above the crowd, cultivating a 
familiar intercourse with God, truly spiritual 
dispensatores mysteriorum Dei, zealously and de-
voutly reciting the prayers of the Officium 
divinum. 

Priests of the interior life — pastors according 
to God's pleasure and with God's blessing: fer-
vent and zealous leaders to the heavenly Jeru-



A Necessity for Priests 21 

salem, never languishing interiorly regardless of 
the multitude of their external labors, never losing 
a divine balance in spite of all the difficulties in 
die service of the Lord. 

Omnis gloria ejus ab intus! Who then will say 
that there are no rewards for inserting a zealous 
cultivation of the interior life into our daily 
programs? 

Just a few more strokes in the picture of the 
priestly interior life. Behold the holy Saint Francis 
of Sales. Of him his disciple, the great Saint 
Frances de Chantal, declared: "It seemed that our 
Lord again appeared in human form. The spirit 
of his soul was constantly elevated over all nature, 
the harmony of his life was other-worldly. Con-
formity to the will of God was the motive of his 
every act, love of God the soul of his soul, so 
that he could cry out with David: 'Lord, Thou 
art my portion and my inheritance forever!' 
Thus he was, thus he spoke, thus he lived, yet 
not he but Christ in him." 

Et anima mea illi vivet — God and not the 
world! 



II 

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 

INTERIOR LIFE 

QHALL we priests not determine to be each 
^ one of us what God, the Church and the 
world — if not our own souls — demand of us, 
namely, a homo Dei as man, as priest and as 
pastor of souls? The cultivation of the interior 
life can and will bring us to these divine heights. 

We are, in a consideration of this objective, 
first of all confronted with the question: What is 
the interior life? 

An easy question, to which however a more or 
less laborious answer must be given. In a single, 
thought-provoking phrase it could well be turned 
by the expression, Adhaerere Deo. For the recol-
lected man who has cultivated the interior life, 
God and things of God take first place in his 
heart. He seeks nothing but God. We will tread 
a surer path if we proceed ex effectibus ad rem. 
Hence we must meditate on the characteristics of 

22 



Characteristics of the Interior Life 23 

the interior life, which, by the way, will disclose 
to us its beauty as well as its necessity. 

Here we are at the threshold of the misunder-
stood, because so little known, sphere of mysticism. 
Many are inclined to shudder even at the mention 
of the word. And yet it has nothing in common 
with exaggeration, queerness, visions or hysterical 
sentimentality. In the final analysis, it means noth-
ing more than the cultivation of the love of God, 
such as the more intimate friends of God in the 
Middle Ages were wont to foster. 

The love of God has nothing singular about 
it. How then can we refuse using measures that 
further it? Indeed, we can say that in the same 
measure as the love of God is demanded of us, 
we must take to heart and make use of the proper 
form of mysticism: who more than we priests, 
upon whom an immeasurable amount of love of 
God was showered! 

And now ad rem. 

First Characteristic: Consciously Working for God. 

If God is the Deus cordis nostri, if the adhaerere 
Deo has penetrated into the marrow of our bones, 
then it will be our pride and our pleasure to do, 
think and act all for God. God is constantly 



24 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

present to the inner man, He lives in his con-
sciousness, to the end that the will be directed 
solely by the one norm, Omnia pro Deo! 

The theological question whether a good inten-
tion is necessary to make meritorious a good work, 
or whether the state of grace suffices, does not con-
cern the inner man. Mihi adhaerere Deo bonum 
est! Firmly anchored in God, there is a sweet 
compulsion before every labor, and frequently dur-
ing its course, to raise the heart and soul to God 
Who is her all, and again and again to cry out: 
Omnia pro Deo! 

A deep spiritual desire leads the soul to the 
recital of the divine office: discharging this duty 
at one time only in case of necessity, and otherwise 
rejoicing in the Lord to come before the Throne 
of God seven times in the day to cry out lovingly 
and longingly: Domine, in unione illius divinae 
intentionis.... 

The praise and eulogy of the world leave the 
priest who is devoted to the interior life unmoved. 
Though grateful to the well-wisher, he is all the 
while recalling in his innermost heart: Lord, Thou 
knowest all, Thou knowest also that I love only 
Thee and hence that I have labored for Thee alone. 
His lively consciousness that all his labor has been 



Characteristics of the Interior Life 25 

consecrated solely to the service of God and His 
glory prevents both excessive self-praise in success 
and despondency in failure. 

Seeking only God! 

Second Characteristic: Intercourse with God. 

Thomas a Kempis, the most popular of the 
mystics, admonishes us: Apud Altissimum sit cogi-
tatio tua (n, 1). And the Seraphic Doctor de-
mands in his Nineteenth petition: Continue men-
tern tuarn ita habeas ordinatam cum Deo, quod 
omne opus tuum atque exercitium tarn mentis 
quam corporis sit oratio. To live the interior life 
demands a mind constantly anchored in God. 
Never to lose sight of God, never to leave His 
side, always to move in His presence — these are 
necessities, as well as joys, for the soul steeped in 
the interior life. Nor will such a one ever be di-
verted from this path. Whether alone or in com-
pany, in school or at a public gathering, whether 
among pleasant companions or in the study, this 
soul never leaves His presence, and is repeatedly 
finding ways and means to raise the heart to Him. 

God so lives in the heart of the man devoted 
to the interior life that He is its first thought on 
arising, its last at night; and every society, enter-



26 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

tainment or lecture is insipid, empty and inane un-
less it reminds him of God. In this regard there is 
full agreement with Saint Bernard: Si scribas, non 
sapit mihi, nisi legero ibi Jesum. Si disputes aut 
conféras, non sapit mihi, nisi sonuerit ibi Jesus. 

Inconspicuously and without effort he leads 
his thoughts back to God, now by a glance at a 
picture, now by the striking of the hour, again at 
recreation and the lecture, and indeed, raptim et 
furtim, as the Seraphic Doctor in his treatise, 
"De sex alis Seraphim" (vn, 11), so aptly says. 
Thus the man of interior life is ever concentrated 
on God, he walks in and with God, and to him 
are applicable the words of the "Imitation of 
Christ" (n, 1.) : Homo internus cito se recolligit, 
quia numquam se totum ad exteriora effundit. 
Upon one who has such intercourse with God, 
whose days are filled with pious aspirations, no 
amount of external labors — and this is of im-
portance for us priests — will leave their impress; 
he uses the world as though he used it not, he con-
ducts his conversatio in coelis, conforming to the 
command of the Apostle. But he who fails in 
this intercourse, particularly the priest for whom 
hours and days pass without a thought of God — 
he dare not claim the adhaerere Deo; for him the 
interior life is far removed, for him the program 



Characteristics of the Interior Life 27 

of Dominus pars, chosen at ordination, is more a 
lip service and lip mockery than a life work. 

Seeking only God! 

Third Characteristic: To Refer All Things to God. 

I may be pardoned at this point for relat-
ing a harmless yet significant experience in my 
youth. I once visited a saintly priest, since de-
ceased. A snowstorm had somewhat exhausted 
me, and in youthful irritation I railed at the abom-
inable weather. He heard me out to the end, 
and then with a certain calm solemnity asked: 
"Young man, why cry out against the weather? 
Is it not God's weather?" This is the voice of 
one who thinks and judges in terms of the inner 
life. For such a one all things — weather, achieve-
ments, misfortunes, visitations, wars — are to be 
referred to God, in the firm conviction that "Noth-
ing happens aimlessly, everything comes from a 
benign Providence." And since this is so — they 
logically conclude — everything must have some-
thing of God's goodness in it. Hence they merit 
the praise of the Apostle: Spiritualis judicat om-
nia; the spiritual man of the inner life, with his 
advantage of a watch-tower viewpoint, judges with 



28 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

unerring accuracy. Ipse vero a nemine judicatur; 
on the other hand, he never lowers himself to an 
earthly level for all things are judged in terms 
of the divine (1 Cor. xi, 15). Yet we read in 
the daily papers of, or are perhaps witnesses to, 
tragedies and catastrophes which yet scarcely 
arouse in us the faintest thought of God and His 
Providence. Sterile in thoughts of God and His 
love, we cling dumbly to things of earth.... 

Alas! when will we become seekers of the 
divine? 

Fourth Characteristic: Zeal for God. 

Once the heart has anchored itself in God, 
once the adhaerere Deo has become second nature, 
once the man has become a true alter Christus, a 
friend of God, then he is constrained to labor for 
the love of his heart. Frequently ejaculations will 
wing from his lips: "With God"; "God willing"; 
"Deo volente"; "May God reward you"; "All for 
God"; "In nomine Domini"; "In God's name"; 
"Thanks be to God" — and similar cries of the 
heart at every turn in the day's labors: not so much 
consciously fashioned and executed as spontane-
ously coming from a heart filled with love and 



Characteristics of the Interior Life 29 

zeal. Uni omnia — as a great soul once noted in 
his diary on the day of his first Mass. 

Such zeal illumines especially sermons and the 
teaching of Christian doctrine. The audience in-
stinctively realizes that the priest does not preach 
of himself, that the love of God consumes him. 
Inspired with this zeal for God, the priest who is 
devoted to the interior life is constantly striving 
to win new zealots for God. It is a pleasure for 
him to follow the counsel of Alban Stolz: "When-
ever you converse with anyone, make use of the 
opportunity by so speaking that his thoughts will 
be turned to God or his soul elevated." How 
much can be accomplished in this unostentatious 
manner! But where there is an interior vacuum, 
little of spiritual conversations can be expected. 
Ex abundantia cordis loquitur os — and con-
versely. 

Seeking only God! 

Fifth Characteristic: Joy in God. 

Cor meum et caro mea exultaverunt in Deum 
vivum (Ps. Lxxxra, 3). And this is applicable to 
the true man of God. Why not rejoice, then, when 
it can be said: "God and I are friends — we know 
and love one another"? Peace and joy are the 



30 "... Seeking Only God" 

rewards of the interior life, for they are specifically 
characterized by the Apostle as fructus spiritus. 
Thus it is that interior souls bear the mark of 
joy on their countenance and they spread its bless-
ings whithersoever they go. Thus it is, too, that 
interior souls find joy and peace in everything that 
lies to hand: walks in the great out-of-doors, ele-
vating music, the vision of the starry heavens, the 
sight of an innocent child, and thus through all 
life's contacts and experiences. God shines forth 
in all things for them; they are constantly using 
creatures as stepping stones to the majesty of the 
Creator. 

Would that we had such God-loving people 
in our joyless midst today! People like Saint Fran-
cis of Assisi, who as Brother Joyful has for seven 
hundred years filled the world with envy of his 
pure joy; like Saint Gertrude, who was in ecstasy 
at the sight of a lowly flower; like Alban Stolz, 
who everywhere — in the hills of the Black Forest, 
the streets of the metropolis, the museums of 
Munich and Dresden, or the company of unkempt 
shepherds — could rise to God, and who "could 
direct his thoughts with joy and recollection to 
God": an apt characterization of the inner spirit 
that he made during his journeys in the year 1847. 



Characteristics of the Interior Life 31 

The present demands for more joy can only 
be satisfied by a greater devotion to the interior 
life. Et fructus ejus dulcis gutturi meo. 

Seeking only God! 

Sixth Characteristic: Relying upon God. 

True interior spirit is of its nature humble. 
The adhaerere Deo springs from the consciousness 
of its own impotence coupled with the firm be-
lief: Sufficientia nostra ex Deo est (2 Cor. ra, 5). 
God must find a way — thus thinks and speaks 
the man of the interior spirit. And it is in this 
spirit that his work is carried on. Instead of 
placing all reliance upon human counsel and as-
sistance, every labor, sermon, instruction, is pre-
ceded by a humble prayer to God: Deus in adju-
torium meum intende. 

And he continues: Adjutorium nostrum in no-
mine Domini. GOD will do it — et ipse faciet! 
Thus he shrinks from no task, no difficulty: Omnia 
possum in eo, qui me confortat. He assumes, if 
necessary, a kind of foolhardiness: In Deo facie-
mus virtutem. 

But God, of Whom it is said, Prope est omni-
bus invocantibus eum (Ps. CXLIV, 18), blesses the 
labors of His faithful, often with unsuspected fruits. 



32 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

Let us priests turn in these things to our Exemplar, 
Christ. Did He not, in crucial moments, withdraw 
Himself into the world of the interior spirit, thus 
to commune with His heavenly Father? Before 
He chose His Apostles He meditated throughout 
the night. Before calling the dead to life, before 
the institution of the Blessed Sacrament, before 
His Passion, He held intimate communion with 
His Father — not merely interiorly, but as the 
Scriptures have it, by raising His eyes to heaven: 
elevatis sursum oculis (John xi, 41; xvn, 1). 

And how intimate a part of our liturgy is this 
simple though meaningful action! Munda cor 
meum..., we pray before the Gospel and turn 
our eyes to heaven. Suscipe, sancte Pater. . . . 
Offerimus tibi Domine. ... Veni Sanctificator. .. . 
Suscipe, sancta Trinitas. . . . Gratias agamus 
Domino Deo nostro. .. . Te igitur. . . . And each 
time our vision is directed upward. We look heav-
enward when about to consecrate bread: elevatis 
oculis ; we look heavenward when about to bless 
our children in the Faith: Benedicat et custo-
dial vos.... 

Shall we priests not take our cue from these 
indications? Shall we not, as is befitting an alter 
Christus, lift our countenance and spirit from the 
sordid earth toward God, particularly in important 



Characteristics of the Interior Life 33 

matters and as an introduction to crowded hours? 
For him who has achieved the spirit of the interior 
life, this elevatis oculis, this communing with God 
— and (what comes to the same thing) with His 
saints, particularly His beloved Mother — is not 
only a loving concern and care, but a deep-seated 
necessity and joy. 

Seeking only God! 

Seventh Characteristic: Peace in God. 

Those interior souls who have made the adhae-
rere Deo an accomplishment in their lives, are 
anchored in God and have erected their edifice 
upon a rock. The thought of God explains every-
thing for them; the thought of God, without 
Whom not one sparrow falls to the ground, sup-
ports them at all times and permits them to main-
tain an interior calm and an imperturbable peace in 
the face of every sorrow and disaster. Permanent 
immobiles! In them the words of the "Imitation 
of Christ" are fulfilled: Converte te ex toto corde 
ad Dominum et relinque hunc miserum mundum, 
et inveniet anima tua requiem.... Frequens illi 
visitatio cum homine interno, grata consolatio, 
multa pax. 



34 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

Yes, indeed, mult a pax: but a peace far re-
moved from fatalistic resignation; a peace quae 
exsuperat omnem sensum, that interior souls con-
stantly enjoy. 

The well-known mystic Tauler, so the story runs, 
once met a beggar clothed in rags and covered 
with pitiable sores, and wished him a pleasant day. 
"Why," responded the derelict, "I have never had 
an evil day." Astounded at these words the other 
was curious to know how that could be possible 
under the circumstances. "I am perfectly certain," 
was the answer, "that the good God sends me 
every bit of poverty, every suffering, every painful 
incident as a manifestation of His love, for He 
knows that these are all within my power to bear. 
Hence I rejoice and praise God in all things that 
make up my life; everything is a gift and hence 
every day for me is a good day." What wisdom 
hidden beneath those rags! We immediately recog-
nize in this the efficacy of a virile, living faith and 
an intimate union with God, a union that revolu-
tionizes our outlook on life and in whose light, as 
Alban Stolz remarks, the lofty appears lowly, 
pleasure bitter, suffering agreeable, the rich poor, 
poverty estimable, the world a shadow, heaven 
within reach and — God in the soul! Memor fui 
Dei et delectatus sum. 



Characteristics of the Interior Life 35 

How insignificant we are alongside such souls, 
we who complain and lose our composure at every 
disagreeable trifle. The interior life of the spirit 
is so foreign to us — and also we have compre-
hended only faintly that suffering does not always 
come in the wake of sin, but is rather sent to 
purify the life of the inner spirit, to strengthen 
us in the service of souls, to deepen our spirituality 
and to sharpen our appreciation of the spiritual 
and interior life. This is the norm and example of 
the Apostle of the Gentiles, who in the midst of a 
tidal wave of suffering cried out: Licet is, qui foris 
est, noster homo corrumpatur; tamen is, qui intus 
est, renovatur de die in diem (2 Cor. iv, 16). 
Exteriorly crushed, interiorly waxing strong in 
God's love. Protegar in velamento alarum tuarum. 

Seeking only God! 
* * $ * * 

With these seven characteristics of the life of 
the spirit as our guide, we can make a close exam-
ination of the condition of our own interior life. 

Everything, particularly the science of the 
saints, as the interior life has been aptly character-
ized, must be learned, but not as one of the op-
tional accomplishments of life. Priestly life must 
be a perpetual attendance in the school of the 



36 "... Seeking Only God" 

interior life — else we priests are no different 
from those who live ad exteriora; we are homo Dei 
in name only, not in any real and actual sense. 
Would that, like a great contemporary disciple of 
the interior life, we could cry out in all humility: 
"God, Thou sweet Word, Thou blessed Thought, 
Who art so near to me and I so far from Thee — 
draw me to Thee, press me close to Thy divine 
Heart! . . . Renew me at least for the battle of life 
and labor for Thee." 

Let us meditate on the century-old prayer of 
another master of the spiritual life: 

"Eternal Father, I beg of Thee with all my 
heart and all the powers of my soul, that Thou 
vouchsafe to me, in the innermost recesses of Thy 
paternal Heart, a constant and deeply interior 
spirit, in word, thought and deed. Also, that in 
all spiritual exercises I may not be distracted by 
externals, but may be and remain wholly absorbed 
in Thee, a bright image of Thy most divine will, 
before the eyes of Thy Majesty, in which Thou 
art ever clearly mirrored and dost behold the 
sublimity of Thy divine nature. Amen." 



I l l 

REQUISITES OF T H E 

INTERIOR LIFE 

QUIDQUID recipitur, per modum recipients , recipitur. This axiom of philosophy is appli-
cable to the subject in hand. Only after the soil 
has been prepared can the interior life grow and 
develop in our hearts. If this seed is strewn on 
stony ground or among thorns, if our hearts are 
hard through lack of self-knowledge, if we permit 
ourselves to be tied to the treadmill of labors and 
cares without respite for returning to ourselves, 
the interior life will wither and die. 

Self-knowledge is the first step in the direction 
of the interior life. The greater our conviction 
that we, above all, stand in need of the interior 
life, of an ever-increasing permeation of externals 
with the interior spirit, and to this end, an ever-
increasing strengthening of our spiritual life and 
its advancement, the smoother will become our 
path to the interior life. 

37 



38 "... Seeking Only God" 

First Requisite: Clerical Knowledge. 

Truth and goodness, science and the love of 
God, mind and heart, philosophy and mysticism, 
must never be separated. "If theology is merely an 
achievement of the intellect, it will be anaemic, lack 
warmth and vitality. Mysticism wanders off into 
dangerous bypaths of ecstasy and pantheism if 
there is turbidity of concept and dullness of in-
tellect. The most renowned theologians of the 
Middle Ages were eminent both in philosophy and 
mysticism, even though they excelled in one or 
the other" (Luedtke, "Church History"). The 
same thought is also well expressed in the axiom: 
Scientia sine pietate inflat. Pietas sine scientia 
aberrat. Scientia cum pietate aedificat. 

The practical conclusion to be drawn is this: 
We must not permit our dogmatic theology to be-
come but a dim memory; and if with the passing 
of years since our studies, it seems to recede farther 
and farther into indistinctness, we can at least scan 
the summaries and theological periodicals that are 
available to us. A recent issue of one of these 
journals rightly declared that one of the first req-
uisites of the interior life is a thorough training 
in the science of religion, the acquisition of definite 



Requisites of the Interior Life 39 

religious knowledge, so that we not merely know 
what must be believed, but can justify such belief 
and also, insofar as it is possible, can achieve a 
deeper understanding of the truths of the Faith. 
Study and study-table must be a part of the equip-
ment and arrangement of every priest who is striv-
ing to make himself an expert in the interior life. 
Devotion to study, however, must flow not from 
ambition and the mere love of knowledge, but 
rather from a yearning to vision more of the maj-
esty of God, and to unite one's soul more closely 
with God. Rather, a thousand times, a heart in-
flamed with love of God than a mind illumined 
with the cold light of knowledge. Here we can 
best imitate Saint Bonaventure, "who constantly 
strove to transform the light of knowledge into the 
flame of love and a zealous life, and who sought 
to develop in his readers a relish for the truth." 

Second Requisite: Deep Appreciation of Our 
Priestly Vocation. 

We must recall again and again the nature of 
our vocation. Ignoti nulla cupido! He who does 
not come to a clear and full appreciation of his 
sublime calling will never achieve the transforma-
tion to a homo interior. 



40 "... Seeking Only God" 

What then is our vocation? Dominus pars. 
How quickly these words are uttered and yet what 
unfathomable depths they contain! Would that 
we took to heart the pointed admonition of a well-
known spiritual writer: "Dominus pars hereditatis 
meae.... Does not this recall to your mind those 
solemn hours when, on bended knee before the 
bishop, you uttered the following words: 'The 
Lord is my inheritance and my portion; Thou it is 
Who wilt return to me my inheritance'? Glorious 
words! On that very day God was your inheri-
tance; you forsook worldly pleasures and posses-
sions thus more fully to consecrate yourself to 
God, and to rejoice in Him, and to find in Him 
your highest bliss. These days have, perhaps, long 
since passed, but has this holy zeal that permeated 
your spirit retained its vigor? Is God still your 
only inheritance? Or have you meanwhile found 
pleasure in worldly things and possessions? Is your 
labor consecrated wholly to God, or to the vain-
glorious esteem of the world? Or, indeed, even to 
the accumulation of money? Dominus pars heredi-
tatis meae...!" 

How much more closely would we cling to 
God, how much more wholly and solely, if the 
consciousness of our holy vocation burned more 
brightly in our souls! Quis mihi tribuat ut sim 



Requisites of the Interior Life 41 

juxta menses prístinos... sicut fui in diebus ado-
lescentiae meae, quando secreto Deus erat in taber-
náculo meo?... Would that even today we pushed 
forward to the interior Ufe in and with God, and 
cried out with Alban Stolz: "As the plants rever-
ence and reach out for their god, the sun, receiving 
light and heat in return for color and perfume, so 
may Jesus be my Sun, and I a drop of dew in 
which the Sun is reflected." 

What is our office? God and the Divine. 
The task imposed on us by God is expressed in 

the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles: Consti-
tuitur in iis quae sunt ad Deum (Hebr. v, 1). The 
discharge of our duties partakes of the Divine, as 
is evident in the distribution of the sacraments and 
the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the altar; 
divine, too, are the teaching and preaching offices, 
that would lead souls to God; divine the office of 
mediator inter Deum et hominem, by which we 
are ambassadors of oppressed mankind before the 
curia coelestis. Et? €>sóv! We must lose ourselves 
entirely in God, consecrate ourselves wholly to 
Him! Ei? @sóv! What a motive for every move-
ment of our souls, for every thought, act and word. 

"This presupposes that he [the priest] associ-
ates with God, stands in intimate relationship with 
Him, knows God better than men, and is capable 



42 "... Seeking Only God" 

of effecting more before God than the man in the 
world. He must find his consolation in God, draw 
upon God for courage and strength, find his peace 
and joy in God. He must be cujus pars Dominus. 
Such a one is a spiritual person." This is an 
apt definition of the interior spirit in a priest and 
no less an argument for its unqualified necessity. 
Our vocation, office, name—omnia clamant Deum! 
All demand the interior life in the cleric. But we 
will only be led to this spirit if we arouse within 
ourselves a lively consciousness of the divine nature 
of our office and vocation. 

Third Requisite: A Priestly Heart. 

Even the most vigorous plant will fail to take 
root in impoverished soil. So, too, the spirit of the 
interior life will wax and grow strong only in a 
priestly heart. 

Those priests of whom the words of the Apos-
tle are apposite — Terrena sapiunt — who cling to 
things of earth, and are inmates of a world pov-
erty-stricken in spirit and joy, can never attain 
to that interior life in God. Amicitia hujus mundi 
inimica est Dei, Saint James tells us (iv, 4). Dagon 
and Jahwe can never be associates. They are dia-
metrically opposed to each other. ...De mundo 
non estis (John xv, 19). 



Requisites of the Interior Life 43 

Those tragic ones, unhappily in clerical garb, 
who in life represent the condition expressed in 
the words, Ego carnalis sum — alas, how can they 
be men of the interior life? In malevolam animam, 
according to the words of the Holy Spirit in the 
Book of Wisdom (i, 4); non introibit sapientia 
nec habitabit in corpore subdito peccatis. Not only 
non introibit, alas! — we are here dealing with a 
most lamentable impotentia. For it is written: 
Animalis homo non percipit ea quae sunt Spiritus 
Dei. Stultitia enim est illi (1 Cor. h, 14). Who 
has ears to hear will hear; and who would make his 
own observations need not search far 

A requisite for the true interior life is a heart 
that is far removed from the giddy whirl of the 
world, a heart that has irrevocably rejected every-
thing of the flesh, animal and evil spirit — a heart 
that, as the heliotrope turns to the sun, the mag-
netic needle to the north pole, is always directed 
toward God, faithful to the divine admonition: 
In terra eorum nihil possidebitis, nec habebitis 
partem inter eos; ego pars et hereditas tua in medio 
filiorum Israel (Num. xvm, 20); a heart whose 
thought of God is the first, the most loving and 
most joyful thought of all the hours; a heart, too, 
that deserves the praise of the Lord: Beati mundo 
corde! For only the clean of heart are close to God. 



44 "... Seeking Only God" 

Fourth Requisite: Clerical Prayer. 

The glories of the interior life are revealed in 
their fulness only in communion with God, in 
prayer. Christ Himself said: Pater vester de coelo 
dabit spiritum bonum — the interior spirit is, truly, 
no evil spirit!—petentibus se (Luke xi, 13). As 
the fledglings in their nests are ravenously looking 
out for food, so we through much prayer must 
manifest to God our hunger for the bread of 
the interior spirit. He, the infinitely Good, will hand 
us neither a stone nor a scorpion. Let us proceed 
then to the source of the interior spirit, the Holy 
Ghost, Whom we priests honor, alas! too little, 
but from Whom we receive the spirit of the in-
terior life, and Who leads us into the science of 
the saints, to make us men of the Spirit. Father 
Weiss, the well-known Dominican, declares in his 
"Apologia" (Vol. V): "The Holy Spirit is the 
heart, the center, the source, of all supernatural 
thought and activity. He who would really pene-
trate into the supernatural realm will keep it in 
mind at every step of the way. And only he who 
seeks to become intimate with this mode of life, 
finds his way to this sublime life " Devotion 
to the Holy Spirit must be a permanent part of 
the daily activity of a priest. Let us go to the 



Requisites of the Interior Life 45 

Immaculate Spouse of the Holy Spirit, ever mind-
ful of the important fact that she is as much the 
Protectress of the interior life as she is its model 
and exemplar. Did any human being ever live the 
life of recollection and interior devotion, of con-
stant intercourse with God, in a more profound 
and sincere manner than the ever-blessed Virgin? 
She who thus began her childhood in the shadow 
of the Temple walls, and continued unremittingly 
through the years in the little house at Nazareth 
where the angel surprised her in prayer, enclosed 
the Pearl of Heaven in the unspotted folds of her 
heart, after she had (to use the words of Leo the 
Great), in the school of the interior life, conceived 
God in the spirit rather than the flesh, and passed 
her subsequent days conferens in corde suo (Luke 
n, 19) the mysteries of God, consecrating herself 
to an ever deeper and more profound spirit of the 
interior life. O glorious Patroness of the interior 
life, teach us priests of thy Son to live in God and 
to grow and wax daily stronger in the interior life! 
lnterveni pro clero! 

Finally, let us proceed to the Patron of the 
spiritual life, to silent Saint Joseph. Let us inquire 
of all who have succeeded in any measure in ac-
quiring the interior spirit, of the great masters of 
the spiritual life, of Peter of Alcantara, of Francis 



46 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

of Sales, of Alphonsus Liguori, of Saint Teresa, 
of a thousand others, how they taught and di-
rected souls over the treacherous way of the spirit. 
They will all answer us: lte ad Joseph et quidquid 
ipse vobis dixerit, facile! With confidence let us 
frequendy petition him: Great Saint Joseph, lover 
and teacher of the inner and hidden life in God, 
teach us to pray, to meditate and to walk in the 
presence of God! Be our leader in the spiritual life, 
and we will be prevented from false paths! 
Petite et accipietis, ut gaudium vestrum sit plenum 

(John xvi, 24). 
Clerical knowledge, a consciousness of our high 

vocation, a priestly heart consecrated to God, and 
the cultivation of clerical prayer — these are the 
requisites of the interior life, the stepping stones 
that lead us eventually to the heights of the homo 
Dei, and to the innermost recesses of the presence 
of God. 

Separavit vos Deus Israel ab omni populo et 
junxit sibi, ut serviretis ei (Num. xvi, 9). 

Seeking only God! 



II 

CULTIVATION OF THE 

INTERIOR LIFE 

A ^ U C H has already been said, more still re-
mains, in this connection. This at any rate 

is certain: the interior life demands a meticulous 
and persevering cultivation. It must be learned, 
but constantly and persistently, without inter-
mission. Insta opportune, importune. 

I 

What, then, does cultivation of the interior life 
imply? First, that a habitation for the interior life 
be founded. The concept "habitation" denotes that 
the various practices which serve to promote the 
interior life are there at home, and are a part of 
the daily order of that home. At the very head of 
these must be enumerated meditation, the visitatio 
Sanctissimi, and the recitation of the breviary. 

47 



48 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

1. If you are really sincere about becoming a 
"homo interior," you will be most serious about 
your daily meditation. Whether you make your 
meditation in the early morning hours, or in the 
evening, before or after Mass, is of no conse-
quence. Spiritus ubi vult, spiral! If you desire to 
make your meditation in the somewhat wooden 
fashion (as it seems to me) which requires a prel-
ude, three points, and approximately one-half hour 
of time, or whether, meditando et applicando, you 
read suitable material (and in this connection the 
Missal should not be slighted), is of no moment. 
Verbum Dei non est alligatum! Of the greatest 
moment is this: Set aside one-half hour for what-
ever manner of meditation each and every day. 
Insist upon taking this time; indeed, if necessary, 
steal it! Daily meditation is to the interior life 
what dew is to plants. To meditate is to grow 
interiorly. But before approaching the holy task 
of meditation — and this is an unchangeable rule 
— collect your thoughts and recite a preparatory 
prayer similar to the following: 

"In the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. 

"O my God, in deepest humility and reverence 
I cast myself before Thy divine Majesty and adore 



Cultivation of the Interior Life 49 

Thee as my Lord and my God and my omnipotent 
Creator. 

"Thou, O my God, dost see me; Thou dost 
behold me as though I were alone on this earth; 
Thou dost behold me as though I alone were to 
be dealt with. 

"Thou, O my God, dost hear me; Thou dost 
listen to the beatings of my heart, whether they 
be for love of Thee. 

"And Thou, O my God, wilt one day judge 
me for this hour of meditation. 

"Yet, how dare I, miserable creature that I am, 
approach Thee in holy meditation? 

"Alas, my God, I realize that because of my 
sins I am not worthy to receive the grace of making 
a good meditation; and yet through the merits of 
Thy divine Son, in the Names of Jesus, Mary and 
Joseph, I beg of Thee, vouchsafe to me and all 
priests the grace of a fruitful and blessed medita-
tion, for Thy honor and our salvation, for time and 
for eternity. 

"O Mary, conceived without stain of sin, inter-
cede for us who have recourse to thee, and show 
thyself in this holy hour of meditation to be the 
Mother of Good Counsel and the Patroness of 
the interior life. 



50 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

"Saint Joseph, ardent disciple and teacher of 
prayer, of meditation and of life in God, teach us 
to pray, to meditate, and to walk in the presence 
of God. 

"All ye saints, particularly our patron saints 
and guardian angels, assist us at prayer and at 
meditation; help us always to walk in the pres-
ence of God. 

"Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? 
"Speak, Lord, Thy servant heareth! 

"Veni, Creator Spiritus, 
Mentes tuorum visita, 
Imple superna gratia 
Quae tu creasti pectora." 

2. Do you desire to become a "homo interior"? 
Then pay your daily visits to Him in the taber-
nacle, the quiet-flowing Source of the interior 
life! Hour after hour, without ceasing, the little 
red lamps burn in our churches telling us: Magis-
ter adest — "The Master is here." Yet how few 
of us take this really to heart! Simple folk, yes — 
the Lord has them with Him at all times; but of 
priests He must utter this complaint: "In your 
midst stands One Whom you know not." Yet, 
how our hearts would grow in warmth and light, 



Cultivation of the Interior Life 51 

how this divine life would unfold within us, if 
only we went more frequently to the Via, Veritas 
et Vita in the tabernacle! Can we delay this im-
portant action any longer? 

Let our love live in the tabernacle! Let us un-
failingly make our daily Visitatio Sanctissimi. If 
you live at a distance from the church, or if for any 
other reason you are hindered from making the 
visit, then add to your daily order: "Morning and 
afternoon — about the midday — Adoratio!" 
At the appointed time, whether it be at study or 
wherever else, interrupt your occupation, place 
yourself in spirit before the tabernacle, adore, love 
and make an act of spiritual communion, beseech 
our Lord for the graces you stand in need of, and 
renew your good intention: "All for Thee, O 
Jesus!" How simple and yet how beautiful! After 
a time it will become a labor of love, and you will 
be conscious of growth in your interior life, the 
life of the spirit. Vac, et vives! It is a simple plan, 
and one quickly executed. All that is necessary 
is to direct the eyes of the spirit to the tabernacle 
and to repeat with interior recollection: 

"My Saviour, I adore Thee in the Most Blessed 
Sacrament of the altar. I give Thee thanks for 
the institution of this profound mystery of Thy 



52 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

love, for my vocation to the priesthood, for the 
many holy Masses that I have celebrated, and for 
the many holy Communions that have been vouch-
safed me. Out of love for Thee I am truly sorry 
for my sins and my indifference in Thy holy 
service, and I beseech Thee through the interven-
tion of Thy Blessed Mother to take possession of 
my wretched heart. I want to be completely 
united to Thee, I yearn for Thee, I love Thee! 
I unite myself in spirit with Thee, O my Jesus, 
my God and my All! Permit me never to be 
separated from thee, but remain with me by 
Thy grace and permit me to live and die as Thy 
good priest. 

"Holy Mary, lovable protectress and helper 
of priests, permit me, with thy help, to be and 
to remain ever more intimately united with the 
loving, suffering, meek and humble Heart of Thy 
Son, Jesus. Amen." 

3. Would you become a "homo interior"? 
Recite your office in an orderly manner. Say it 
digne, attente ac devote: have conscious intercourse 
with God. Never — at least ordinarie — read your 
breviary at one sitting, but rather according to the 
hours of the day; after rising, Lauds; after the 
holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Prime; at the begin-



Cultivation of the Interior Life 53 

ning of the day's labors, Tierce; before the noon 
meal, Sext; before the beginning of the afternoon 
labors, None; about four o'clock, Vespers; before 
the evening meal, Compline; and before retiring, 
Matins. This is to continue the ancient Christian 
tradition, and to fulfil this important duty in a 
manner consonant with the characteristics of the 
hours. Do this, and there is little danger of your 
becoming exhausted, nor will your reading degen-
erate into an insult. The seven times that we are 
called upon to come into the presence of God con-
stitute a worthy school of life in God. The ex-
cuses that we love to proffer for disorderly reading 
of the breviary are, as a matter of fact, just so 
many excuses for self: I have no relish for fre-
quent and intimate intercourse with God! 

Utter it with a heart that consciously rejoices 
in God, in order again and again to repeat at the 
beginning: Domine, in unione illius divinae inten-
tionis — for higher and deeper it will never go — 
has tibi horas persolvo: these hours of the Office, 
the hours of labor or recreation that follow.... 
The clock is again regulated according to God. 
And if this is done seven times in the day, how 
many priestly days, in the truest sense of that 
word, there will be; how many days of seeking and 
finding God; how many dies pleni! 



54 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

Novit recte — in truly priestly fashion — 
vivere, qui novit rede orare. 

4. Priest of God, if you desire to become a 
"homo interior," value the practice of private 
devotions. The little prayers that your mother 
taught you — the practices that you cherished as 
a college student — the special devotions that at-
tracted you as a seminarian and of which you were 
so fond in the first few years of your priestly 
career: hold them close and do not let them 
escape you! 

Do not permit yourself to be counted a disciple 
of "mass Christianity," praying only what others 
pray or what the rules make obligatory. In the 
voluntary offering of private devotions, that nat-
urally go beyond but cannot stand in the way of 
obligation, lies a rich well-spring of the interior 
life. If at Christmas time you kneel before the 
crib of Bethlehem, thus to speak most intimately 
to the Infant Christ; if during Lent you practise 
your private mortifications for your crucified 
Saviour; if you hold a novena before the 
great feasts of the Blessed Mother or the anni-
versary of your ordination; if your night prayers 
are varied to suit the season or the occasion — 



Cultivation of the Interior Life 55 

then, you may be sure, these are all sources of the 
interior life. Do not relinquish one jot or tittle 
of them. 

II 

What does the cultivation of the interior life 
imply? Secondly, that we participate in the regular 
course of training for the interior life. I refer to 
the spiritual exercises, or retreats. 

Each year the call of the Master goes out to us 
priests: Venite seorsum — beyond our daily sur-
roundings, daily labors, daily cares and trials — 
in desertum locum — hid away from the world, 
alone with God — et requiescite pusillum — to 
enjoy spiritual peace in God and thus store up 
new energy for our labors in His service (Mark 
vi, 31). Let us never fail to participate in these 
yearly retreats. These hours on Tabor deliver us 
from the treadmill of daily labor and permit us 
to return to ourselves again. They bring God into 
the proper light once more and permit us to find 
the path to our chosen goal: Et? ©sov! 

And if we would give the retreat its greatest 
efficacy, then for several days preceding it we 
should petition the Father of Light ut det vobis 
secundum divitas gloriae suae virtute corroborari 



56 "... Seeking Only God" 

per Spiritum ejus in interiorem hominem (Eph. 
m, 16). 

Ill 

What does cultivation of the interior life im-
ply? Thirdly, that we retreat to the harbor of 
the interior spirit. 

This is the Recollectio menstrua, the exercise 
that is so much desired by the Church, recom-
mended by the bishops and increasingly employed 
in our own day. The Recollectio menstrua is a 
monthly renewal of spirit. Of this exercise it is 
written: 

"In the stillness of these hours a new light 
falls across our priestly lives and activities by 
means of the imposed exercises, the self-examina-
tions and meditations. Our vision passes from 
the surface to the depths, from appearances to 
realities. The plummet of our thoughts plunges 
to the depths. The Recollection hours are periods 
of recharging and accumulation of new energy. 
If we have found ourselves in the Recollection and 
strengthened ourselves, we step forward renewed 
in courage and daring to new battles — and vic-
tories." 



Cultivation of the Interior Life 57 

IV 

What does the cultivation of the interior life 
imply? Fourthly, that we seek out the pastures 
that feed this life. 

This means spiritual reading. Quite generally 
in clerical circles there is all too little of such read-
ing — let us admit it before God. And yet the 
spirit of God speaks from such pages — indeed, 
the spirit of God comes out from such pages. 
Hence they are the pastures in which the soul of 
the priest can find nourishment and sustenance 
for the interior life. 

Let us, therefore, devote more time to spiritual 
reading, particularly in the quiet of the evening. 
Let us take up the Holy Scriptures, the Book of 
the priest. Reviews, publications and ecclesiastical 
magazines that serve various fields must also be 
given their place in our reading program; but true 
spiritual reading should serve first of all to deepen 
the stream of the interior life. Secular writings 
should have second choice, and the ordinary run 
of literature should be despised to the end that 
more time will be available for a diet worthy of a 
priestly soul. And we will grow interiorly, far 
more than we suspect. Bonus est Dominus animae 
quaerenti ilium. 



« "...Seeking Only God" 

What more? Something extremely important; 
deserving our entire attention. 

It is not at all unlikely that in the reading of 
these pages the following objection has formulated 
itself in our minds: "That is all very well, but 
what of my labors? I am lucky to come through 
at all. How can I add to this meditation, ordered 
reading of the breviary, spiritual reading and so 
on? It is simply impossible!" 

I take it for granted, dear confrere, that this 
statement actually represents your situation, and 
that furthermore you are not among those who add 
job upon job for themselves, forgetful of the ad-
monition of the Lord: Nolite transire de domo in 
domum (Luke x, 7). Permit me then to call your 
attention to the words of the saintly Abbot of 
Clairvaux: "If you devote all your time and energy 
to labor only, and nothing to meditation, shall I 
praise you? In hoc non laudo.... If you desire to 
follow in the footsteps of him who became all 
things to all men, I praise your love, sed si plena 
sit — but only if it is all-embracing. But how 
can it be all-embracing if you exclude yourself? 
Alas, you are human! Of what avail, the Lord 
asks, if you gain all but perish yourself? It is not 
the better part of wisdom to exclude yourself. 
Sapiens sibi sapiens erit et bibet de fonte puiei sui 



Cultivation of the Interior Life 59 

primus — it is a characteristic of the truly wise to 
be wise in his own behalf and to be the first to 
drink deep of his own well-spring." 

Entirely apart from the fact that priestly 
labors unsupported by a strong spirit of the in-
terior life are barren of fruit, we must unquali-
fiedly refuse to be a slave to our labors, particu-
larly under the hypocritical pretense that we 
are forsaking God for God's sake. A priest's life-
plan, to be worthy of the name, worthy of a man 
of God, can only be: Never be a slave of your 
work! If then times and occasions arise when, even 
with the best will, it is impossible to devote your-
self to your customary exercises of the interior 
life, you can well follow the wise counsel of Saint 
Bonaventure, that then the priest saltern interdum, 
cum opportune valet, quasi furtim et raptim, ad 
orationis studium se conferat — why? Above all, 
ne Deo alienus efficiatur ("De sex alis Seraphim," 
vn, xi). Obviously this master of the spiritual life 
has in mind ejaculatory prayers, the piae aspira-
tiones, frequent renewal of the good intention that, 
though harassed and hurried, we raise our hearts 
and minds to God with the fleeting thought: All 
for God! All for Jesus! 

Note the expression, ne Deo alienus efficiatur. 
We must cultivate the life of prayer in order not 



60 "... Seeking Only God" 

to be separated from God, or, what comes to the 
same thing, not to have the interior life endan-
gered. Alban Stolz develops this important thought 
further in his own original manner: 

"The many admonitions to prayer and even 
the consequent reward of fulfilment, as contained 
in the Sacred Scriptures, appear to me to rest 
finally on the abiding presence of and intercourse 
with God. It pleases God to see Himself mirrored 
in our consciousness, if only because He loves us 
and in turn wishes to be loved by us. Even the 
promised answers to our prayers should serve only 
as an inspiration and a reward for prayer. The 
highest aspect of all is the practice of prayer itself, 
and it is therefore the highest reward, even if no 
answer is forthcoming. It is the life of the soul 
in God, the entrance and the expansion of the soul 
in God's presence." A justification for a life of 
prayer as the most certain method of attaining 
to the interior life. 

Seeking only God! 



II 

JOY IN THE INTERIOR LIFE 

T~"\ ISCE exteriora contemnere, et ad interiora 
te dare, et videbis regnum Dei in te venire. 

Regnum Dei intra vos est, dicit Dominus. 
Converte te ex toto corde ad Dominum: et re-

linque hunc miserum mundum, et inveniet anima 
tua requiem. Would that a joyless and restless 
world took courage in these words! 

Est enim regnum Dei pax et gaudium in Spiritu 
Sancto, quod non datur impiis. Peace and joy — 
thrice blessed gifts from heaven for the interior life! 

Veniet ad te Christus, ostendens tibi consola• 
tionem suam: si dignam illi ab intus paraveris man-
sionem. And what is superior to Christ's con-
solation? 

Omnis gloria ejus et decor ab intra est et ibi 
complacet sibi. 

Frequens illi visitatio cum homine interno, dul-
cís sermocinatio, grata consolatio, multa pax, fa-
miliaritas stupenda nimis. Enough, enough, O God, 

61 



62 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

of beauty, of greatness and of love that you give 
to the souls devoted to the interior life. 

Da ergo Christo locum, et ceteris omnibus nega 
introitum. Is this invitation necessary? 

... Verus internus potest se ad Deum libere 
convertere et elevare supra se ipsum in spiritu ac 
fruitive quiescere. 

These words of the "Imitation of Christ" 
(n, 1), which in their lapidary brevity are doubly 
effective, should inspire each of us to consecrate 
himself with a joyful heart, fully and wholly, to 
the spiritual life. And the joy and peace that 
flows from the spiritual life is the most powerful 
means to achieve this objective. Trahit sua quem-
que voluptas! 

We could in all truth be satisfied with the 
glorious prospects that Thomas a Kempis opens up 
for us. And yet may I be permitted to examine 
more closely the reasons for joy in the interior life 
and to add to those already presented? 

Religious Grounds. 

Flavius Josephus expresses his opinion of his 
people when he writes: "All of our transactions 
and conversations are associated with God." This 
was only natural in view of the fact that the Jew-



Joy in the Interior Life 63 

ish ceremonial law, with its innumerable regula-
tions, made the life of the Israelites a continual 
service in honor of God. What a challenge lies 
in this fact for us who are the standard-bearers of 
the New Covenant! They knew God only in umbra 
et figura, only in His severity and His solemnity, 
only as the thunderous Lawgiver and the awful 
Avenger of the law. We, on the contrary, know 
the God of love, of grace, of human friendship, the 
God of the crib, of the cross and of the altar... . 

A Mohammedan, speaking of the daily routine 
of the Moslems, gives us something for humble 
consideration when he remarks that their customs 
call for a visible recognition of God before each ac-
tivity of the day: eating, going out, returning, writ-
ing a document. Even the taking off of a father's 
shoes at night has a religious significance; the 
floors are covered with beautiful carpets in honor 
of Allah, and hence the shoes are removed lest 
Allah be dishonored. The Moslems are convinced 
that God's blessing is necessary for success, and 
that for His blessing, prayer is required. "Thus we 
fill the day and its work with the name and mem-
ory of Allah." 

Shall we, the priests of the All-Highest, the 
anointed of God, in the face of such customs, fail 
to fill our days with the joy, the memory and the 



64 "... Seeking Only God" 

Presence, not of an Allah, but of the Triune God? 
Or shall we await the bitter reproach of the Sav-
iour: Et venient ab oriente et occidente et aquilone 
et austro, et accumbent in regno Dei. ...Et ecce 
sunt novissimi qui erunt primi, et sunt primi, qui 
erunt novissimi (Luke xm, 29, 30) ? 

Reasons of Utility. 

Here, as a matter of fact, a holy egoism is 
proper. The advantages and benefits of the in-
terior life are so obvious that it is scarcely neces-
sary to utter another word. Blessed peace in God, 
blessed sufficiency in God, blessed joy in God, 
blessed rest in God — these, in very truth, are 
the precious fruits with which the tree of the in-
terior life is richly laden. The souls devoted to 
the interior life are aware of these benefits: Gustate 
et videte, quoniam suavis est Dominus! They real-
ize full well the truth of the Psalmist's words: 
Mihi autem adhaerere Deo bonum est. 

Interior souls always live a truly fascinating 
life, as is patent from their diaries and writings. 
They act on the motto, "Leave all, and you will 
find all," and they become rich and free, ever 
rejoicing in God Who permits some of the joys 
of paradise to descend upon their souls. They ap-



Joy in the Interior Life 65 

predate the wisdom of the words: Philosophia 
quaerit veritatem, Theologia invenit, Religio possi-
det, Mystica sapit. They never fear the tasks and 
burdens of the day, or even its sorrows and an-
guishes. For in these very sorrows they find God, 
and with nearness to God, His riches of consola-
tion: Secundum multitudinem dolorum meorum in 
corde meo consolationes tuae laetificaverunt ani-
mam meam. So the singer of the Old Testament 
assures us in the Ninety-third Psalm; and the heart 
of Paul inseparably united to his God cries out: 
Superabundo gaudio in omni tribulations nostra 
(2 Cor. vn, 4). 

Such peace of spirit in the midst of suffering 
as fruit of the interior life should alone suffice 
to make us devote ourselves to it wholeheartedly 
and cheerfully, to pronounce the pledge: Quid 
enim mihi est in coelo et a te quid volui super 
terram? ... Deus cordis met et pars mea, Deus in 
aeternum (Ps. Lxxn, 25, 26). 

And one more thing remains to be considered. 
The most precious gift of the Lord to His 
loved ones is that daily growing confidence in His 
goodness and mercy. From the interior life in God 
there grows the already referred to familiaritas 
stupenda nimis with Him and a kind of childlike 
candor toward Him. Though others may cling to 



66 "... Seeking Only God" 

their rigoristic views and verdicts, the interior 
man knows how, if necessary, to utter with the 
divinely inspired singer: Quoniam in aeternum 
misericordia ejus — "For His mercy is everlasting" 
(Ps. cxxxv). Though others see sin everywhere, 
and everywhere the Judge and the Avenger, those 
of the interior spirit praise the God of mercy and 
the God of all consolation, qui propter nos homines 
et propter nostrum salutem came from heaven; 
Who mingled with sinners and even ate with 
them. From a heart rejoicing in God wells forth 
their song: Quam bonus Israel Deus! Though 
others, among them unfortunately priests from 
whom the world should learn confidence in God, 
find a tragic satisfaction in surrendering a wretched 
mankind to hell, these find in their trust and faith 
a thousand and more ways by means of which 
souls can be snatched from the embrace of Satan 
and delivered to a loving God in heaven. This 
tender reliance upon the goodness of God accom-
panies them to the very portals of death, which 
they greet, like Francis of Assisi, as a brother to 
accompany them, or rejoice to encounter, like 
Thomas of Celano: Mortem cantando suscepit. 

And now the excerpt snatched by Bardo from 
the oblivion of an ancient manuscript will be in-
telligible and acceptable: "The highest perfection 



Joy in the Interior Life 67 

of a pure and sincere life depends upon this: Man 
must out of true love for God, willingly and fully 
commit himself to His Providence, and without 
exception subject his own will to the Divine, fre-
quently and often. Also, with a deep and burning 
desire he must constantly elevate his heart to God 
and repeat the words: 'My loving God and Father, 
when will I love Thee with all my heart and all my 
soul and all my mind as Thou hast commanded me? 
When will I, being wretchedly dependent, fulfil 
Thy divine will, be wholly subject to it, and think, 
speak and desire nothing but what pleases Thy 
divine Majesty? May Thy holy Name be honored 
and Thy glory be sung now and in all eternity.' 

"What grace and true interior joy and peace 
will be the portion of him who is filled with such 
desires and who practises such complete subjection 
of spirit to God, no one can know, much less 
declare, except him who has experienced it." 

Surely we priests, more than any others, can 
attempt to dip from the well of the interior life a 
full measure of such joy and peace and divine grace. 

Funes ceciderunt mihi in praeclaris Sicut 
laetantium omnium habitatio est in te 

Seeking only God! 



IN CONCLUSION 

I 'HE interior life," in the words of that re-
nowned ascetical writer, Father Meschler, 

S. J., "is so important, so sublime and withal of 
such value, that every step forward in it must be 
counted as a great gain, even if it is a late harvest 
fruit in our lives. We must labor without ceasing 
and without wearying, even if the fruit of our 
efforts is slow in maturing. Nature and grace 
operate almost imperceptibly, quietly, slowly, and 
constantly. In the final analysis, the result de-
pends upon the grace of God and our co-operation." 

It is for us to be serious about this matter of 
co-operating with God's grace, not only for the 
sake of ourselves but for the times in which we 
live as well. 

Dearly beloved co-workers in Christ! You are 
well aware of the fact that today we strive and 
hope for a spiritual rebirth of our sorely pressed 
people. It is for us, the pathfinders, their salt 

68 



In Conclusion 69 

and their light, to make a beginning with ourselves. 

Nor should this consist in a great variety of ex-

ternals, no matter how attractive, nor of organ-

izations, of whatever import and necessity, but 

rather in a descent into the depths. To quote the 

words of the Apostle, Renovamini spiritu mentis 

vestrae. Deeply interior and spiritualty zealous 

priests will rear a truly pious generation of people. 

And one thing more: does not the present de-

mand a full measure of priestly labors and com-

bats? We are at a great turning point in history. 

Whatever comes, may we be found fully prepared! 

If the tree's marrow is sound, then storms 

will attack it in vain. If we priests are an-

chored in God and permeated with His spirit, we 

need not fear the future, no matter what it brings. 

We are then, in very truth, the leaven of which 

the Gospels speak, and the axiom, Sicut sacerdos 

ltd populus, will inevitably find its application in 

us — to the blessing of Church, State and people, 

but above all of ourselves. 



70 " . . . Seeking Only God" 

I 'HESE poor words are addressed to you, qui 
spirituales estis (Gal. vi, 1). May the Holy 

Spirit, at the behest of His Immaculate Spouse, 
as well as that of Saint Joseph, raise us up to be 
men of the interior life. May the spirit of the 
interior life permeate our entire being. We have 
taken a mighty step forward if, conscious of the 
duty to strive for a life in God, we storm heaven 
with our prayers for this most precious gift. Let 
us never cease striving until our lives revolve about 
Him as about a center, and we can truthfully say, 
in the fullest meaning of the words: In ipso vivi-
mus, movemur et sumus. Then there will be no 
place for opera carnis, but only for fructus Spiritus 
(Gal. v, 19, 22). 

No — let us not rest until our heart belongs 
wholly and entirely to God, until it is motivated 
by God as its informing principle. Let us not 
cease striving until our spirit, purified and trans-
formed, rests wholly in His, according to the Apos-
tle's words: Qui autem adhaeret Domino, unus spiri-
tus est (1 Cor. vi, 17). Let us not cease until we, 
the ministri Christi, living a life of the interior 
spirit in, with and for God, can cry out: Nos autem 
sensum Christi habemus (1 Cor. n, 16). 



In Conclusion 71 

MY God, would that I could do as I desire! 
^ In Thee I would submerge myself; in thought 
and word I would dedicate myself and others to 
Thee; in Thee, my God and my All, I would 
center all my activities and my sufferings, in Thee 
I would reside. Thee I would set on the throne 
of my heart. As Thy priest I am drawn with a 
sweet compulsion to Thee, to come closer to Thee, 
to live wholly in and through Thee. My God and 
my Father, one halting step toward Thee, and 
Thou wilt come to me in sweet friendship to 
scatter the rich fruits of an ineffable sweetness in 
my soul. Grant that I may ever know myself 
better, and constantly direct my thoughts and anx-
ieties to find Thee, O God of my heart and my 
portion forever! Grant that all the love and mercy 
Thou hast lavished upon me through Thy holy 
priesthood may become active within me, and ris-
ing up, overflow upon those entrusted to my care. 
Be Thou my sun, and I Thy moon; thus, through 
me, may Thy light be reflected to the dark places 
of this world. Live ever in me, my God and my 
AH, and grant that my poor life may be a life of 
love for Thee and Thy people, seeking nothing but 
Thee, in joy and sorrow, in life and death, in time 
and eternity. 



feaccrbotfe ©ef imt io 

O sacerdos, quia es tu? 

Non es a te, quia de nihilo; 

Non es ad te, quia mediator ad Deum; 

Non es tibi, quia sponsus Ecclesiae; 

Non es tui, quia servus omnium; 

Non es tu, quia Deus es! 

Quid ergo es? 

N I H I L . E T O M N I A 

O sacerdos! 

72 



S p e c u l u m ^ a é t o r u m 

Pastor 

Sit vlr probatus, non probandus, 
Sanctus sancta sancte tractans; 
Actu sit severus, vultu serenus, verbo gravis. 

Pascat gregem 
Esemplo aediflcationis, verbo praedicationis, 

fructu orationis; 
Habeat erudltlonem, sed multo magis unc-

tlonem. 

In omni re plus fldat orationi, quam suo labori. 

Caveat 
Ne alios ìuvando se deserat, 
Ne alios elevando cadat. 

UNO VERBO SIT 
C 1 a m o r e — Joannes Baptista 
L a b o r e — Paulus 
A m o r e — Petrus 
M o r e <1— Elias 
O r e —Nathan 
R e — Carolus Borromaeus 

73