NOTES 
 
 ON 
 
 Doctrinal and Spiritual 
 Subjects, 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERICK WILLIA d FABER, D. D. 
 
 PRIEST OF THE OEATOKY OF ST. PHILIP NEKI. 
 
 4 J>6iunctus adLuc loquitur." Heb. zi i. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 MYSTERIES AND FESTIVALS. 
 
 FOURTH THOUSAND. 
 
 JOHN MURPHY COMPANY, 
 
 PUBLISHERS. 
 
 BALTIMORE, MD. : NEW YORK: 
 
 200 W. LOMBARD STREET. 70 FIFTH AVENUE. 
 
 RPH
 
 NOTES 
 
 ON 
 
 DOCTRINAL AND SPIRITUAL SUBJECTS, 
 
 VOL.L
 
 TO 
 
 ANNE, DUCHESS OF ARGYLL, 
 
 ABE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 IN REMEMBRANCE OF HER FRIENDSHIP FOR 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
 AND WITH A GRATEFUL SENSE OF HER MANY KINDNESSES 
 TO THE 
 
 CONGREGATION OF THE ORATORY.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 DURING the two years which have elapsed since Father 
 Faber's death, the question has been frequently asked, 
 whether any manuscripts had been left by him for 
 publication. Although no completed works were found 
 among his papers, it has been thought advisable that a 
 selection should be made from them, and published 
 in continuation of the works which have already 
 appeared. The extensive circulation to which his 
 writings have attained in England, and still more upon 
 the continent, seemed to warrant the hope that the 
 publication of such of his manuscripts as would admit 
 of it would be welcome to those who have found in 
 his former works a source of spiritual profit. 
 
 The contents of these volumes have consequently 
 been selected from a large mass of miscellaneous 
 papers. It is not, however, without some diffidence 
 that the results of the selection are now published, as 
 they consist entirely of notes, which in their present 
 form were not meant to be made public. They have 
 been left for the most part in the unfinished state in 
 
 vii
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 which they were found : as it has been thought better 
 to let them appear incomplete than to give them 
 another form by alterations which might expose the 
 Author's meaning to misinterpretation. They will be 
 judged, not by themselves alone in their fragmentary 
 character, but in connection with the many complete 
 and finished volumes which were published in the 
 Author's lifetime. 
 
 The notes are of two kinds, those which were 
 made by the Author in preparation for his sermons 
 or lectures, and those which contain materials for 
 works intended for publication. With regard to the 
 latter, it was his custom to cast in several forms, each 
 advancing a step nearer to completion, the works which 
 he proposed to publish, and to keep them by him, 
 sometimes for years, before he sent them to the press. 
 The notes of the treatises on the Holy Ghost and 
 Calvary, which are included in the present volume, 
 were prepared six years before his death, but, with the 
 exception of a few pages of Calvary (p. 223), no 
 further progress was made. If they do not present 
 the attractions of a finished work, they give at least 
 the outlines of it, and the form in which he meant to 
 treat it. 
 
 The arrangement of subjects which was adopted by 
 the author in his volume of Hymns has been followed 
 as nearly as was practicable. Of the seven Parts 
 which make up the whole Collection, three are pub-
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 lished in this volume : the first, treating of God, His 
 Attributes, and the Three Persons of the Most Holy 
 Trinity ; the second, of the Sacred Humanity of Jesus, 
 including the Mysteries of the Passion ; and the third, 
 of our Blessed Lady and the Saints. The second 
 volume will contain the fourth and fifth parts, re- 
 lating to the Church, the Sacraments, Controversy, 
 and the Spiritual Life, together with the sixth, which 
 is of a miscellaneous character, concluding with the 
 seventh, which treats of the Four Last Things and 
 Purgatory. 
 
 A column has been added to the table of contents, 
 for the purpose of giving, when it could be ascertained, 
 the date of each sermon. With a few exceptions they 
 were all preached in the Church of the Oratory, at 
 King William Street, Strand, from 1849 to 1853, and 
 at Brompton after that date. 
 
 It only remains to say a few words concerning the 
 object of the present work. It is intended to serve as 
 a collection, wherein may be found considerations in a 
 short form upon the chief Mysteries of the Faith and 
 the Spiritual Life, and from which religious Com- 
 munities and those engaged in missionary labor may 
 draw materials for meditation and instruction. To 
 many it will be interesting as an illustration of the 
 methods of thought and work which were habitual 
 with Father Faber : and it is believed that those who 
 heard his sermons with pleasure and profit, will be
 
 x PREFACE. 
 
 glad to have some record of them, however imperfect ; 
 while those whose privilege it was to live within the 
 circle of his love will rejoice that his words should not 
 be lost, but should continue the work of increasing 
 upon earth the love and honor of Almighty God, our 
 Blessed Lady, and the Saints, which he strove so 
 successfully to promote. 
 
 JOHN E. BOWDEN. 
 
 THE ORATORY, LONDON, 
 
 Feast of the Purification, 
 Eighteenth Annivere"' ? f '? EvqHsh 
 1866.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Ifart I. 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 THE DIVINE ATTRIBTTTb. 
 
 TEAR PAGE 
 
 I. The Three Epochs of the Holy Trinity ... 1858 3 
 
 II. The Spirit of Adoration. Trinity Sunday 1853 5 
 
 III. Devotion to the Omnipotence of God ... 1860 7 
 
 IV. The Delight of the Incomprehensibility of 
 
 God 1860 8 
 
 V. The Preparations of the Divine works. 
 
 Christmas Eve 1854 10 
 
 VI. The Mercy of God 12 
 
 VII. God Who is rich in Mercy. Feast of the 
 
 Precious Blood 1860 14 
 
 VIII. The Mercies of God - 18 
 
 IX. The Divine Forbearance 1856 20 
 
 . X. God's Patience with us ... ... ... 21 
 
 XI. " Knowest thou not that the benignity of 
 God leadeth thee to penance ? " Fourth 
 
 Sunday of Lent 1863 22 
 
 XII. " The bruised reed He shall not break, and 
 
 smoking flax He shall not quench " ... 1861 24 
 
 XIII. God our Father 26 
 
 XIV. The joy of being the property of God ... 1856 28 
 XV. God's love of single souls 30 
 
 XVI. The strangeness of God's love for us ... 31 
 
 XVII. " Be not deceived : God is not mocked " ... 1861 33 
 
 XVIII. God so little loved 35 
 
 xi
 
 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 TEAR PAGE 
 
 XIX. More for God. Low Sunday 1861 37 
 
 XX. Will you come to God now? 39 
 
 XXI. A taste for God 1859 41 
 
 XXII. Our home in God I860 43 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 I. THE HOLY GHOST ... 1857 
 
 Chap. I. The procession of the Holy Ghost ... 
 II. The Holy Ghost and creatures 
 
 III. The Holy Ghost and Jesus 
 
 IV. The Holy Ghost and the Soul 
 
 V. Devotion to the Holy Ghost 
 
 II. Pentecost 1860 
 
 III. God a God of Fire 1858 
 
 IV. Docility to the Holy Ghost 1857 
 
 itfart II. 
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 
 SECTION I. 
 
 OTTR BLESSED LOED. 
 
 I. Advent Meditations 1848 111 
 
 II. Christmas Day 1855 114 
 
 III. Christmas Day. For the children ... ... 1860 116 
 
 IV. New Year's Eve 1849 117 
 
 V. The Epiphany. Arundel 1861 119 
 
 VI. The Epiphany the Feast of Converts ... 1856 120 
 
 VII. The Epiphany 1849 121 
 
 VIII. Feast of the Name of Jesus 1855 123 
 
 IX. Devotions for those who wish to lead an 
 interior life, in honor of the Eighteen 
 
 Hidden Years of Jesus 1852 124 
 
 X. The Person of Jesus Christ. Spanish Place 1848 126 
 
 XI. Our Lord's choice of Poverty 1852 127 
 
 XII. Poverty the choice of Jesus 1849 129 
 
 XIII. Our Lord's Prayer 1857 130
 
 CONTENTS. xni 
 
 TEAR PAGE 
 
 XIV. The Mystery of Jesus being thought mad 1850 131 
 
 XV. The weariness of Jesus at the well ... 133 
 
 XVI. Easter Sunday 1855 134 
 
 XVII. The Victory of the Resurrection ... 1849 135 
 
 XVIII. The Easter joys of Jesus 1860 137 
 
 XIX. " Dies quam fecit Dominus" 1861 139 
 
 XX. The Resurrection a Mystery of calmness 1854 143 
 XXI. Sunday within the Octave of Corpus 
 
 Christ! 1860 145 
 
 XXII. Lent Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 1856 147 
 
 XXIII. The Lent Quarant' Ore 1855 149 
 
 XXIV. The Sacred Heart 1852 150 
 
 XXV. The Sacred Heart. London 1848 151 
 
 XXVI. Perpetual freshness of Jesus 1857 153 
 
 XXVII. The Life of Jesus a Life of Love ... 155 
 
 XXVIII. Our Lord's love of us ... ^ ... 1861 156 
 XXIX. " Come unto Me all ye that are weary." 
 
 Exposition 1856 157 
 
 XXX. The Tears of Jesus 1854 159 
 
 XXXI. Without Jesus in the World. Exposition 1856 160 
 XXXII. " There is now therefore no condemnation 
 
 to them that are in Christ Jesus " ... 1860 162 
 
 XXXIII. First sightof the Face of Jesus.Exposition 1856 163 
 
 SECTION II. 
 THE PASSION. 
 
 I. CALVARY 1857 
 
 Chap. I. The Passion ; its historical, doctri- 
 nal, and mystical character 169 
 II. The Excess of the Passion 172 
 
 III. The Bodily Pains 175 
 
 IV. The Mental Sufferings ... ... 179 
 
 V. The Shame 184 
 
 VI. Outward demeanor and inward Dis- 
 positions 189 
 
 VII. The Solitariness 193 
 
 VIII. The Circle of Evil 197 
 
 IX. His Divinity in the Passion ... 201 
 
 X. The Spectators of the Passion ... 206 
 
 XI. The Shadows of Calvary 211 
 
 XII. The Abyss 216
 
 xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 TEAB I'M.r 
 
 II. Calvary, Chap. I. beginning of 1859 223 
 
 III. Meditations on the Crucifix 232 
 
 IV. Our Lord's Innocence. Lent 1861 241 
 
 V. The Face of Jesus 1859 245 
 
 VI. Desertion of the Apostles. Passion Sunday 1861 246 
 
 VII. Judas 248 
 
 VIII. " His Blood be upon us and upon our chil- 
 dren." Lent 1861 250 
 
 IX. " He saved others : Himself He cannot save." 
 
 Lent ... ' 1861 254 
 
 X. Our Blessed Lord's complaints in His Pas- 
 sion. Lent 1861 256 
 
 XI. Our Blessed Lord bowing His Head upon 
 
 the Cross. Passion Sunday 1863 260 
 
 XII. The Passion our devotion the whole year ... 1854 262 
 
 XIII. The Legacies of Jesus. London 1848 264 
 
 XIV. Setting up the Stations 1854 266 
 
 XV. The Pain of Jesus from our little devotion 
 
 to His Passion. Lent 1861 267 
 
 XVI. The Seven Journeys 269 
 
 XVII. The Five Trials of Jesus 270 
 
 Jfart III. 
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 
 SECTION I. 
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY. 
 
 I. Devotion to Mary the great gift of Jesus. 
 
 May ... 1861 275 
 
 II. Mary the Mother of Sinners ... 277 
 
 III. Mary the safety of souls. Islington 1853 279 
 
 IV. Dependence on Mary. Lent 1856 281 
 
 V. More love of Mary 1860 283 
 
 VI. Mary magnifying God 1859 286 
 
 VII. Mary the likeness of God 1859 288 
 
 VIII. The Delight of God in the Perfections of Mary. 
 
 Octave of the Immaculate Conception ... 1859 290 
 
 IX. Immaculate Conception. Tri&uo and Feast 1854 
 
 1. The Mother and the Son 292 
 
 2. The Mother and her many Sons ... 294 
 
 3. The Mother of the Immaculate Queen 296 
 
 4. The Immaculate Queen 298
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 TEAR PAGE 
 
 X. Praying for Sinners. May 1860 301 
 
 XI. The Assumption 1851 304 
 
 XII. The Assumption 1857 305 
 
 XIII. Rosary Sunday 1851 307 
 
 XIV. "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth 
 
 life." To the Enf ants de Marie. Roehampton 1851 308 
 
 XV. Memorials of Mary and her sixty-three years 309 
 
 XVI. The Joys of our dear Lady 312 
 
 SECTION II. 
 THE SAINTS. 
 
 I. Meditations on the Holy Angels ... ... 315 
 
 II. Motives for a peculiar affection towards our 
 
 own dear Guardian Angel 322 
 
 III. Devotional practices in honor of our Guar- 
 
 dian Angel 325 
 
 IV. St. Joseph 327 
 
 V. Meditations on St. Joseph : 
 
 1. His seven Dolors 331 
 
 2. His seven Joys 332 
 
 3. Other considerations about him ... 333 
 VI. St. John the Baptist ... 1849 335 
 
 VII. The Three Kings 1860 336 
 
 VIII. St. Thomas of Canterbury. Fulham ... 1848 338 
 
 IX. St. Charles. Bayywater 1861 360 
 
 X. Novena of St. Philip. 
 
 1. Sketch of the Saint's Life 1859 363 
 
 2. The look of commonplaceness with 
 
 such a supernatural life 364 
 
 3. His spirit of liberty 366 
 
 4. His reality 369 
 
 5. His sphere 371 
 
 XI. First Vespers of St. Philip 1860 373 
 
 XII. St. Philip's Day 1861 375 
 
 XIII. St. Francis Xavier. Church of the Immacu- 
 
 late Conception, Farm Street 1857 379 
 
 XIV. The Fear of the Saints 380
 
 part ifiret 
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 I. 
 
 THE THREE EPOCHS OF THE HOLY 
 TRINITY. 
 
 I KNOW not whether deep awe or deep tenderness is 
 more excited in us, when we think of the overwhelm- 
 ing mystery of the Holy Trinity. If thought remains 
 thought, then deep awe ; but if thought quickly lights 
 up into prayer, then most exquisite tenderness, and a 
 certain trembling familiarity, which is the most piercing 
 joy in life. 
 We feel 
 
 1. As children born abroad, and told great things of 
 
 our home, and beginning to travel thither when 
 grown up. 
 
 2. As flying with an angel, yet feeling the farther off 
 
 from earth, the nearer home. 
 
 Let us see what we have to do with the Holy Trin- 
 ity : we feel as if we should lie on our faces, and speak 
 low, when we speak of this adorable, transcending Life 
 of the Uncreated and the Eternal. 
 I. First Epoch. The Eternity before Creation. 
 
 1. It is God's immensity which makes Him so inti- 
 
 mate to our littleness. 
 
 2. The loneliness of God. 
 
 3. The Companionship of the Divine Persons. 
 
 3
 
 4 PART I. 
 
 4. We lying clearly in the knowledge of God from 
 
 eternity. 
 
 5. We also, our own secret selves, quickening the 
 
 thrills of His love, before heaven and earth, 
 matter or spirit, light or angel, space or time 
 existed. 
 So it was our old home. 
 
 II. Second Epoch. Our own lifetime. 
 
 1. Daily life of the Most Holy Trinity Generation 
 
 and Procession. 
 
 2. No shadow of mutability has passed over the 
 
 Divine Majesty because of Creation. 
 
 3. Yet the Sacred Humanity of Jesus is in the midst 
 
 Mary's throne Angels and souls. 
 
 4. Momentarily the Will of the Three Divine Per- 
 
 sons concerns itself for us. 
 
 5. Our place there is fixed preparations made 
 
 intense interest taken in it. 
 
 So it is our present home, from which we are absent 
 but for a while. 
 
 III. Third Epoch. Our immortality. 
 
 1. The life of the Most Holy Trinity still going on 
 
 in blissful changeless peace. 
 
 2. Yet we actually beholding it, and drinking our 
 
 own immortal life out of the vision. 
 
 3. Delight of being exclusively engrossed with God : 
 
 and God as it were exclusively with us. 
 
 4. Whether there be new creations or none, we are 
 
 still in glorious rest with Him. 
 
 So it is our future, our only, our unspeakably happy 
 home. 
 
 My brethren ! all this is but a fragment of our Cate- 
 chism ; but if these things be so, oh happy predestinated
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 5 
 
 souls; what have we to do with sin, with self, with 
 worldliness ? 
 
 n. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF ADORATION. 
 
 Fear remains in sceculum sceculi, therefore in Heaven : 
 tremunt potestates : so on earth the substance of religion, 
 the successful avoiding of sin, perseverance and perfec- 
 tion, all consist in the genuine, spirit of adoration. 
 I. The Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity : the worship 
 in heaven. 
 
 1. The angels, hiding their faces with their wings, &c. 
 
 2. Our Blessed Lady : her profound humiliation. 
 
 3. The Sacred Humanity of Jesus, filled with the 
 
 spirit of adoration. 
 
 4. No familiarity in heaven with the unveiled ever 
 
 new majesty of God. 
 
 5. There must be awe, as the mystery is not compre- 
 
 hended, even by Mary. 
 
 6. No intrinsic impossibility of sinning all depends 
 
 on the Vision, not on us. 
 
 7. Awfulness of the coruscations of the Eternal 
 
 what words can tell ? 
 
 8. Height of celestial joy in this very awe : the Vision 
 
 will not harm us : it is our life. 
 
 II. The spirit of adoration what must it be to us 
 unclean on earth? 
 
 1. Examples of it. (1) Old Testament. (2) Jesus. 
 (3) Mary. (4) Apostles. (5) Dying Saints. 
 
 2. Want of it the reason of so little perseverance in 
 
 the devout life.
 
 6 PART 1. 
 
 3. Faults against it. 
 
 (1) Criticism of God's ways. 
 
 (2) Light speeches, such as we might make about 
 Saints. 
 
 (3) Even in prayer 1. want of preparation, 2. 
 posture, 3. petulance. 
 
 4. Ways of practising it. 
 
 (1) Respect for the Name of God ; special com- 
 mandment about it. 
 
 (2) Fear of His judgments : humble views of 1. 
 Death, 2. Judgment, 3. Purgatory, 4. Sin, 5. 
 Security of salvation. 
 
 (3) Doing things slowly. 
 
 5. Evils which the "neglect of it brings, or rather 
 
 blessings which the practice brings. 
 
 (1) It leads to little talk, and so closes a huge 
 river of sins. 
 
 (2) To self-contempt, and so makes the prime law 
 of charity easy. 
 
 (3) It moderates and sobers joy which otherwise 
 would make us childish and giddy. 
 
 (4) The more we realize the dignity and immensity 
 of God, the more we desire Him. 
 
 (5) It gives us greater confidence in Him, as 
 reverence always does; we trust what we 
 revere. 
 
 The awfulness of making free with God : the Eternal 
 Father, the sacredness of His Majesty. His very good- 
 ness causes us to tremble ; the infinite blessing of His 
 not passing us over and ignoring us ! Sometimes in 
 the stillness of the night, in the hush of prayer, it 
 might so seem us if we might come to die and He for- 
 get us. Oh the blessing of being encompassed, girded
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 7 
 
 up, wound round and pressed to Him with His ever- 
 lasting presence, universal knowledge, and illimitable 
 power ! O God, Our God ! how admirable is Thy Name ! 
 
 III. 
 DEVOTION TO THE OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD. 
 
 I. Characteristics of the Attribute. 
 
 1. The result of all the rest of God's Perfections. 
 
 2. And also the means by which they all work and 
 
 magnify themselves. 
 
 3. Its grandeur shown by its very limits (1) It 
 
 cannot do wrong. (2) It cannot give way. (3) 
 It cannot require assistance. 
 
 4. Its peculiar connection with Mercy ; see xi. and 
 
 xii. chaps, of Wisdom. Its connection with de- 
 votion to the Eternal Father, and to the choir 
 of Thrones. 
 
 5. Grandeur of its (1) silence, (2) facility, (3) tran- 
 
 quillity, (4) unobtrusiveness, (5) forbearing ten- 
 derness. 
 
 II. Spirit the devotion will breed. 
 
 1. Immense increase of faith. 
 
 2. Huge courage. 
 
 3. Indomitable cheerfulness. 
 
 4. Familiarities with God ; looking at Omnipotence 
 
 as our ally. 
 
 5. Rest of soul, through submission ; Creation lean- 
 
 ing on Omnipotence, and Omnipotence embrac- 
 ing, fondling it as it leans. 
 
 III. Miscellaneous. 
 
 1. It is very necessary for the time in which we live.
 
 8 PART I. 
 
 2. It makes our way of working more quiet, and also 
 
 more consistent, less vacillating. 
 
 3. It breeds in us a greater habitual idea of the sov- 
 
 ereignty of our most dear God. 
 
 4. It makes us more gentle with others, and more 
 
 humble in exercising influence. 
 
 5. It impregnates our soul with the savor of eternity. 
 IV. Attitudes of the Devotion. 
 
 1. Adoring the beauty of the Attribute. 
 
 2. Submitting to it as a master. 
 
 3. Co-operating with it as a fellow-worker. 
 
 4. Looking at it as a fast friend, who will always be 
 
 interfering for us, when needed. 
 
 5. Regarding it as lending its magnificent self to us 
 
 to use in our own way. 
 
 How it fills us with a glorious overwhelming faith in 
 the final victory of right. 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE DELIGHT OF THE INCOMPREHENSI- 
 BILITY OF GOD. 
 
 I. Delight of it to Himself. 
 
 1. Like the Generation of the Son, it is a kind of 
 
 jubilant consciousness of all His perfections. 
 
 2. It is the outspreading of His peace. 
 
 3. It is the vastness of His liberty, which is the most 
 
 mysterious of ail things in God. 
 
 4. It gratifies His secrecy ; S. Austin calls Him Ens 
 
 secretissimum. 
 
 5. Sole prerogative of being able to comprehend 
 
 Himself!
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 9 
 
 6. Yet not a loneliness. The Three Persons compre- 
 
 hend the Divine Nature and Essence. 
 
 7. Joy in the Sacred Humanity as a visible proof of 
 
 the Divine Incomprehensibility : incommunica- 
 ble even to It. His omnipotence cannot make 
 Him comprehensible. 
 
 8. The secret regions of God probably most full of 
 
 jubilee to Himself, as incommunicable because 
 too high to communicate yet this is, of course, 
 a human way of speaking. 
 
 9. Each attribute has eminences inconceivable ; 
 
 besides that, there are unsuspected incommuni- 
 cable perfections. 
 10. The wonder of His simplicity amidst all this, 
 
 intense jubilee to Him because of His unity. 
 II. Delight to us. 
 
 1. To our love, that He will always be above our 
 
 comprehension, and all comprehension. 
 
 2. It ardently quickens our desires to know and to 
 
 explore Him. 
 
 3. It helps us to measure eternity we can hardly 
 
 believe in the inexhaustible. 
 
 4. It helps us to realize the unsearchable riches of 
 
 His mercy, which His Incomprehensibility con- 
 fers upon Him. 
 
 5. It wins and weans us from all created beauty. 
 
 6. It gives us such intense intellectual peace: silence 
 
 of objections, freedom from temptations. 
 
 7. Joy of faith : the unknown things of God leave 
 
 something like faith in heaven even. 
 
 8. Room for vastness of worship and love : our best 
 
 idea of God is His Incomprehensibility. 
 
 9. Delight that we can wonderfully comprehend so
 
 10 PAET I. 
 
 much and desire to love more that we may 
 comprehend more. Delight of saints in hidden 
 ways of God and Incomprehensibility of judg- 
 ments. (S. Paul, Romans xi.) Our Lord also 
 " hid from wise and prudent." 
 
 10. But we can love Him as incomprehensible, though 
 not know His Incomprehensibility. 
 
 III. What is Incomprehensibility ? 
 
 1. God is incomprehensible by the very force of being 
 
 God. 
 
 2. Lights of nature, grace, and glory. 
 
 3. The blessed see some things they cannot compre- 
 
 hend ; and some they do not see at all ; yet God 
 is seen tolus sed non totaliter. 
 
 4. The least things in God are incomprehensible. 
 
 5. S. Teresa's peculiar devotion to it.* 
 
 IV. The shadow of His Incomprehensibility is our own 
 
 reward, " eye has not seen, nor ear heard," &c. 
 
 V. 
 
 THE PREPARATIONS OF THE DIVINE 
 WORKS.f 
 
 I. In reality, how fearful a thing it is to think that to 
 be Christians we must be like God ! He so high, 
 and we so low ! He with such perfections, we with 
 such miseries! Let us see how God works, e. g., 
 in the Birth of Christ. So unlike what we should 
 have expected is real majesty. 
 
 *Le cose difficili da intendersi mi cagionano divozione, e quanto 
 piu sono incapibili, tan to maggior divozione provo verso di esse. 
 Sentenziario, p. 58, sent. 937. f Christmas Eve.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 11 
 
 1. He waits with patience. 
 
 (1) The world was left in sin for four thousand 
 
 years. 
 
 (2) Yet how He must have yearned to redeem it : 
 
 how different our precipitate zeal. 
 
 (3) He will have Mary His creature to anticipate 
 
 the time : how much we have to do with 
 God's works. 
 
 2. He works with modesty, and a sort of Divine 
 
 Bashfulness : and this for all He is God. 
 
 (1) He seeks silence and obscurity: e.g., the Im- 
 
 maculate Conception, and the Annunciation. 
 
 (2) Few words, and no praise : so all the circum- 
 
 stances of the Nativity. 
 
 (3) He puts things out and leaves men to thwart 
 
 them, as if He were regardless of success. 
 
 3. He works with a spirit of Divine Love. 
 
 (1) He ignores the world, and takes it neither 
 
 into His counsels nor His calculations. 
 
 (2) All for love ; His own glory, the merits of 
 
 Jesus, the favors of Mary, all mean our sal- 
 vation. 
 
 (3) There is a sort of poetry about all the circum- 
 
 stances of His works, because of their exces- 
 sive sweetness and heavenly pathos : not only 
 to win our hearts, but because He is God, as 
 if He could not help being beautiful and 
 sweet and touching. 
 II. So we also should work. 
 
 1. In our daily duties and occupations. 
 
 2. In all the affairs of our spiritual life. 
 
 3. Yet instead, eagerness, self-trust, and human 
 
 respect are our three principles of human life ;
 
 12 PART I. 
 
 its body is self-trust, its soul is human respect, 
 
 its spirit eagerness. 
 
 Look at Mary and Joseph all to-day. 1. Journeying 
 on. 2. Bethlehem. 3. The cave, how quiet, modest, 
 retiring, and uneager: yet the world had not seen 
 Jesus yet. It was without Him. Think of the world 
 without Jesus in all its relations. But so it is with 
 Mary ; still by nature, she is more still by grace ; still 
 by grace, she is more still now that she bears the 
 Fountain of Grace and the Lord of Glory. It is just 
 like the Annunciation : the magnificence of Mary is 
 her tranquillity. 
 
 VI. 
 THE MERCY OF GOD. 
 
 The thought of God the sunshine of the world study 
 of His character and attributes His personality. 
 
 I. What mercy is, especially in God. 
 
 1. Mercy in a human sense involves our suffering 
 
 ourselves, or our liability to suffer, the same or 
 like or some sufferings. 
 
 2. Mystery of it in God, Who (1) can suffer 
 
 nothing, (2) is infinitely just, (3) omnipotent, 
 and (4) omniscient. 
 
 3. Divine gifts to men (1) from justice, (2) from 
 
 liberality, (3) from goodness. 
 
 4. Distinction between goodness and mercy in God. 
 
 II. Works and Manifestations of Divine Mercy. 
 
 1. Attributes of God, as seen by the blessed, or by 
 Saints in eestacy, beautiful, satisfying the im- 
 mortal spirit.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 13 
 
 2. Out of mercy came the mysterious work of crea- 
 
 tion creatures out of nothing, mercy separating 
 them from the mass of possible things. 
 
 3. Manner of creation He made angels and men in 
 
 a supernatural state of grace. , 
 
 4. Gift of immortality, hindering them from falling 
 
 back into the abyss of nothingness, which theo- 
 logians call a perpetual redemption. 
 
 5. Mercy to mankind, going beyond mercy to angels 
 
 (1) Fall. (2) Incarnation. (3) Iteration of 
 Sacrament of Penance. 
 
 6. Mercy to sinners 
 
 (1) Meekness does not let His anger break out, 
 
 is not disgusted. 
 
 (2) Patience waits for sinners, dissembles, tires 
 
 out our passions by longsuffering. 
 
 (3) ( Benignity always ready to receive; no num- 
 ber of sins, or kind, repel Him, yet think 
 what siii is. 
 
 (4) Clemency dtra condignum in hell. 
 
 7. Mercy to the good, whom St. Paul calls vessels of 
 
 mercy. 
 
 (1) Anyhow greater than to sinners. 
 
 (2) Ways 1. Adoption. 2. Protection against 
 
 evil spirits. 3. Affability. 4. Punishments 
 in this life. 5. Magnificence of gifts, conso- 
 lations, and augmentations of grace. 
 
 (3) Unspeakableness of heaven and beatific vision 
 
 at last. 
 III. Special adoration of God's Mercy. 
 
 1. Picture of mercy (1) In hell. (2) In heaven. 
 (3) The whole being of Purgatory. (4) Spread 
 like the waters of an ocean over earth. (5)
 
 14 PART I. 
 
 Gloriousness of it in God Himself, in the depths 
 of the Unspeakable Godhead. 
 
 2. Mary a vessel gleaming full of mercy, without 
 
 judgment, that men might fall in love with its 
 beauty and adore it in her it is apart, not as 
 in the Sacred Heart of Jesus ; her consequent 
 devotion to this attribute. 
 
 3. So take the hint from this, and daily get her to 
 
 worship the mercy of God and bless it for us. 
 Spirits gazing on the Divine attribute of mercy 
 unreckoned centuries of eternity go by still it seems 
 ever new, ever wonderful, ever fresh, as the dilated 
 spirit drinks in the view. Will the time ever come, 
 when we, imprisoned here amid the weariness of life, 
 the captives of our own offensive littleness, the victims 
 of pain, age, and want, shall be ourselves a beauty, a 
 bright spot, a notable magnificence, thus, in the full 
 blaze of the golden heavens, worshipping with the 
 strong thrills of an immortal ecstasy the mercy of the 
 Holy and Everlasting God, the Simple and Undivided 
 Trinity? 
 
 VII. 
 GOD WHO IS RICH IN MERCY* 
 
 We want many things of God : we shall never 
 cease to want many things of Him ; when we possess 
 Him in the incredible happiness of our grand eternity, 
 though we shall possess Him, we shall still want Him. 
 If He were to speak to me now, and I had to say 
 
 * Feast of the Precious Blood, 1860.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 15 
 
 the one thing, only one, which I most wanted of Him, 
 could I hesitate in my answer for one moment ? Father! 
 I want mercy. If I think of the past I want mercy ; 
 of the present, mercy ; of the future, mercy ; of eternity, 
 mercy. St. Paul, prisoner at Rome, writes to the Ephe- 
 sians, and calls God God who is rich in mercy : this 
 name of God is exceedingly sweet ; it sings in my ear 
 like an angel's song : beautiful things came out of that 
 marvellous mind of St. Paul's : none ever more beauti- 
 ful than this God who is rich in mercy. 
 I. What is it for God to be rich. To be rich is to 
 
 have superfluity, more than we want. God more 
 
 than He wants ! What a thought ! 
 
 1. The immensity of His treasures. 
 
 2. The variety of them. 
 
 3. Their delightfulness to creatures. Can God pos- 
 
 sibly create two things more insatiable than the 
 spirit of an angel and the soul of a man ? 
 
 4. His liberality. 
 
 5. But in mercy, St. Paul hints, eminently, unspeak- 
 
 ably, unimaginably rich. 
 
 II. The inside of the treasury of God. 
 
 1. Creation what a vastness it is, what an outpour- 
 
 ing it was ! 
 
 2. Grace, its beauty and abundance. 
 
 3. Mary with her sorrows, joys, glories, and dear 
 
 offices. 
 
 4. Jesus, with His immensities of Bethlehem, Naza- 
 
 reth, and Calvary. 
 
 5. The unsearchable magnificence of His own ever 
 
 blessed Self. 
 
 III. Mercy sweetening life. 
 
 1. Are* we in trouble about our past life? Hark,
 
 1C PARTI. 
 
 how sweet that apostolic voice ! Listen, it is an 
 angel singing, Rich in mercy ! 
 
 2. Trouble about present vileness? The very wild 
 
 flowers from the earth breathe forth the words, 
 the silence tingles into a sound, and articulates, 
 Rich in mercy. It is like one of those beams of 
 God which sometimes fall athwart the darkness 
 of our prayer. 
 
 3. Trouble about those we love, whom we have long 
 
 prayed for, and who seem past prayer ? Rich in 
 mercy ! Blessed be St. Paul for that lucky word, 
 or rather, Blessed be the Holy Ghost for that 
 tender inspiration ! 
 
 4. Trouble about our dead, whose faults come perti- 
 
 naciously to mind ? Rich in mercy ! 
 
 5. A death to die, and a judgment to go through? 
 
 These are panics such as to be almost unbeliev- 
 able yet they are infallible: Rich in mercy. 
 Yes ! in a torture of believing love, we cry, it 
 is the utterance of our human faith, Rich in 
 
 mercy 
 
 IV. We often talk of a thing we know till it strikes us 
 that we do not know it. Familiarity has a way 
 of making things strange to us. What is mercy ? 
 What an unanswerable question ! but let us try 
 to answer it. 
 
 1. It is all the wants of the creature satisfied in one. 
 
 2. It is all his difficulties answered and turned into 
 
 revelations. 
 
 3. It is all the sweetnesses of God put into one. 
 
 4. It is the beautifulness of God to us : (1) Power 
 
 become gentle. (2) Wisdom dissolved into kind- 
 ness. (3) Magnificence made tender. (4) Justice
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 17 
 
 grown indulgent. (5) Love's delight in us, 
 fidelity to us, inability to do without us. 
 5. Oh no ! mercy is far jnore than all this ; look 
 up into God, wait awhile till your eyes get 
 accustomed to the blaze, look up to His highest 
 heights, gaze into His deepest depths there 
 now, you see mercy. Oh, how unutterably 
 beautiful! and you may read the new name 
 God gave to mercy and when He gave it the 
 songs of the angels thundered round the throne 
 as they had never done before Thou shalt call 
 His name Jesus ; for He shall save His people 
 from their sins. 
 
 All this is incredible: it is incredible; but faith 
 manages to believe many incredible things. If all this 
 be true, what becomes of the justice and sanctity of 
 God? I do not know, I cannot think, I must not ques- 
 tion. Sin is encouraged? I hope not ; but if men take 
 scandal with the justice of God, no wonder they take 
 scandal with the mercy of God : for it is more exces- 
 sive, more unexpected, more out of place, more unac- 
 countable. God must see to it. God must provide. 
 I grant it is a difficulty, a miracle, a secret, a mystery ; 
 but to faith one phrase, which St. Peter invented, and 
 which I will put alongside of that word of St. Paul's on 
 which I have been commenting, one phrase unlocks the 
 whole, answers the whole, illuminates the whole, the 
 whole Church is sounding it to-day as through a silver 
 trumpet : The Precious Blood ! 
 
 VoLL
 
 18 PART I. 
 
 VIII. 
 THE MERCIES OF GOD. 
 
 Each one's life is a miracle of mercies : like the lives 
 of the Old Testament Saints and patriarchs. 
 I. The multitude of God's mercies. 
 
 1. God is not distracted by the numbers of His 
 
 creatures. 
 
 2. The continual outpouring of His mercies upon 
 
 them. 
 
 3. What a mercy from God must be like ; think 
 
 then of their multitude. 
 
 II. The variety of God's mercies, like vernal and 
 
 autumnal woods. 
 
 1. Different to different persons. 
 
 2. No two of the same person's mercies are the same. 
 
 3. Varieties, slow and sudden, unasked and long 
 
 prayed for, silent and loud, direct and indirect, 
 secret and public. 
 
 III. The way in which He does them. 
 
 1. As if laying Himself under an obligation instead 
 
 of conferring one. 
 
 2. For the purpose of gaining our love. 
 
 3. In such a way as to make us feel more free with 
 
 Him instead of less free. 
 
 IV. The way they are mingled with sorrows. 
 
 1. They come before sorrows to make us better able 
 
 to bear them. 
 
 2. The sorrow is always less raw than it seemed as if 
 
 it inevitably must be. 
 
 3. They follow like the rain when the lightning has 
 
 come: then be on the watch for His mercies;
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 19 
 
 as the flower which the hot sun has caused to 
 droop, when the rain comes, lifts up its colored 
 eye to heaven, and breathes sweet odors on the 
 air. 
 
 V. Their perseverance. 
 
 1. They do not cease because of our ingratitude and 
 
 sin. 
 
 2. They do not wear out like human kindnesses. 
 
 3. They multiply as we grow older. 
 
 VI. Their sweetness. 
 
 1. Special sweetness in the circumstances and adap- 
 
 tations of each. 
 
 2. Timely sweetness always in season only God's 
 
 kindness is always seasonablehuman kindness 
 is often harsh for want of this. 
 
 3. Extra sweetness, more than needed or promised, 
 
 or than is natural ; every mercy of God is a 
 very supernatural thing. 
 
 VII. Conclusion. 
 
 1. What a picture of God it gives us ! He so loves 
 
 thanks. 
 
 2. Also what a picture of ourselves, yet what a joy 
 
 to have such a God as ours. 
 
 3. Yet all this is only a shadow of the mercies of 
 
 heaven. 
 
 Yet earth's mercies end in heaven's mercies. How 
 many secret mercies of each one of you is but the 
 beginning of a gladness and a glory that shall be 
 eternal. Oh let us go home and think of our good 
 God, and weep secret tears of joy over the beauty and 
 the pleasantness, over the patience and the plenty, 
 over the freedom and the kindliness, of our Father's 
 exceeding goodness.
 
 20 PART L 
 
 IX. 
 THE DIVINE FORBEARANCE. 
 
 The immensity of the Majesty of God, and so the 
 dreadfulness of offending Him, and the unspeakable 
 wonder of His being so patient and still under it all. 
 London at this hour. 
 I. God's forbearance generally. 
 
 1. With individuals, nations, and the world. 
 
 2. His silence. 
 
 3. His continuance of blessings, and so seeming 
 
 approval. 
 
 4. His forbearance lasting even through a quiet 
 
 deathbed. 
 
 5. Then the awakening. 
 
 II. His forbearance with our own selves ; which none 
 
 but we can know, for none else know the depth 
 of our own badness. 
 
 1. The graces heaped upon us. 
 
 2. Our relapses and fresh rebellions. 
 
 3. Continual hourly new forgivenesses. 
 
 4. Negligence in His service. 
 
 5. Poorness and ungenerosity of it. 
 
 III. Our present state. 
 
 1. We on earth many less guilty in hell. 
 
 2. God's present love of us. 
 
 3. The reason of this because He sees us in Christ. 
 
 4. Our resolutions for holiness. 
 
 5. Present practice for the rest of Lent Devotion 
 
 to the Passion. 
 
 Shut out the world from our hearts, even while 
 working for the world with our hands catch His
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 21 
 
 voice hear the dropping of His Precious Blood His 
 low sighs, not so much of suffering as of love by 
 Easter we may kiss His wounded feet. 
 
 X. 
 
 GOD'S PATIENCE WITH US. 
 
 I. His slowness to anger. 
 
 1. Number of our offences. 
 
 2. Increase of graces. 
 
 3. Delay of punishment. 
 
 4. Gentleness of punishment. 
 
 5. Even when punishing He often is not angry. 
 
 II. His disinterested sweetness in His disappointments 
 
 with us. 
 
 1. As if His glory was nothing to Him. 
 
 2. What He cannot get in one way He tries to get 
 
 in another. 
 
 3. If He fails He will not give it up. 
 
 4. He acts as if He had made a mistake in asking 
 
 too much. 
 
 5. He does not make things decisive, as if He said, 
 
 Well, now try this Cross, my child. 
 
 III. His incredible allowances, and the interpretations 
 
 of His wisdom. 
 
 1. His knowledge of us as our Creator, fountain of 
 
 millions of mercies, which would seem foolish 
 to the sharp-eyed blindness of the world. 
 
 2. He sees no fault when we often see much. 
 
 3. What He sees in secret all goes to extenuate our 
 
 faults. 
 
 4. He sees how much are stupidities well meant.
 
 22 PART I. 
 
 5. He sets such a value upon efforts. No mother is 
 so blind as the all-seeing-God. 
 
 IV. His marvellous indulgence. 
 
 1. Evil ways less heavy in His scales than in those 
 
 of man. 
 
 2. While good weighs far more heavily. 
 
 V. His own astonishing placability. 
 
 And all this because He is the Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 XI. 
 
 "KNOWEST THOU NOT THAT THE BENIG- 
 NITY OF GOD LEADETH THEE 
 TO PENANCE?" 
 
 Is there any one present who does not wish to change 
 his life ? However good, he must be in a sad delusion. 
 At this present moment where should we be, if we had 
 our due? In eternal punishment, for sin, and through 
 the absence of grace to which we have had no title. 
 If we could always think this thought, how changed 
 our lives would be ! 
 I. The benignity of God is what has saved us and 
 
 it is the characteristic of His benignity always to 
 
 be leading us to penance. 
 
 1. At last it overcomes our hardness, by its very 
 
 patience and forbearance. 
 
 2. Were there less benignity, penance ever being 
 
 accepted Avould be simply incredible. 
 
 3. It makes the penance not only possible, but even 
 
 sweet, by supernatural aids.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 23 
 
 4. Think of the punishment of resisting such a 
 
 benignity, and the reward of obeying it. 
 
 5. It is because it is benignity that it presses 
 
 penance, because it knows we cannot be saved 
 without it. 
 
 So then penance is necessary to salvation look at it 
 as we will. 
 
 II. Practice. 
 
 1. Have we ever done worthy penance for our sins? 
 
 2. Anything like worthy penance ? 
 
 3. Any penance at all? 
 
 4. Are we going to do any ? 
 
 5. What steps are we going to take ? 
 
 III. That I leave to yourselves: only I would urge 
 
 upon you the three grand helps, and not helps 
 only, but facilities also, of penance. 
 
 1. Continual remembrance of our sins. 
 
 2. Continual remembrance of His Passion. 
 
 3. Continual remembrance of an undoubting faith 
 
 in. hell. The devil's worst and most fatal 
 preparation for the coming of Antichrist is the 
 weakening of men's belief in eternal punish- 
 ment. Were they the last words I might ever 
 say to you, nothing should I wish to say to you 
 with more emphasis than this, that next to the 
 thought of the Precious Blood, there is no 
 thought in all your faith more precious or more 
 needful for you than the thought of Eternal 
 Punishment.* 
 
 * Fourth Sunday in Lent, 1863. This was the last occasion but 
 one on which Father Faber preached.
 
 24 PART I. 
 
 XII. 
 
 "THE BRUISED HEED HE SHALL NOT 
 
 BEEAK, AND SMOKING FLAX HE 
 
 SHALL NOT QUENCH." 
 
 Many things in life are questionable : but this at 
 least is unquestionable : here we are all agreed. 
 
 I. If there be one thing more certain than another 
 
 it is that we must not go into the eternal fires 
 of hell : this is beyond controversy. 
 
 1. No difficulties in religion are to be thought of in 
 
 comparison of this necessity. 
 
 2. No sacrifices are too great to be made to ensure this. 
 
 3. No length of efforts is too long to be sustained in 
 
 order to escape this appalling doom. 
 Hence we must take religion as we find it : we must 
 accept God on His own terms. 
 
 II. The many beautiful descriptions of God and of 
 
 our Saviour in the Bible ; none seems to me 
 so beautiful as that one in Isaias xlii. : The 
 bruised reed He shall not break, and smoking 
 flax He shall not quench. 
 
 1. Observe that the Father says of our Lord's 
 
 Sacred Heart, My soul delighteth in Him: I 
 have given My spirit upon Him ; then after- 
 wards, The bruised reed He shall not break, 
 and smoking flax He shall not quench. 
 
 2. Then our Lord in St. Matthew xii., hurt at their 
 
 wanting to stop His doing good on the Sabbath, 
 tells those that He heals not to make Him known 
 and the Evangelist quotes Isaias, and says our 
 Lord did this to fulfil that prophecy.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 25 
 
 3. The beauty of the Three Years' Ministry comes 
 from this : the woman at the well ; the woman 
 taken in adultery ; the great clear shining love 
 of the great apostles, even that prince of divine 
 lovers, that model of heavenly enthusiasts, St. 
 Peter, once it was only smoking flax ; that con- 
 flagration of love, which has set the Church on 
 fire for centuries, the Heart of Magdalen, once 
 it was only smoking flax ; that furnace in which 
 millions of hearts are for ever being molten, the 
 heart of Paul, once it was flax that smoked so 
 little and so feebly that it needed the Eye of God 
 to see that it smoked at all. 
 III. The ways in which this is true of God. 
 
 1. The immense value He sets on the slightest 
 
 smouldering of piety and love in our souls ; how 
 He nurses beginnings ; how He coaxes fears and 
 entices relapses ; we read of no feast days among 
 the angels, but those to celebrate the return of 
 sinners to their Father and their God. 
 
 2. In falls the huge allowances He makes ; Jesus 
 
 even gave scandal by it ; slow to anger, swift to 
 pardon ; long in leaving, instantaneous in coming 
 back ; nay, effort is always victory in His sense, 
 even when it is defeat. 
 
 3. He sees good where we do not see it ; it is greater 
 
 to Him than it even looks to us, and He makes 
 more of it ; St. Teresa even says that often what 
 seems faults to us are not faults at all to Him. 
 Comfort of this. Surely without offending against 
 humility we may trust we have some bruised pur- 
 poses, ah, sadly bruised, of good, some smoking 
 flax, to the eyes of Jesus visible, of divine love !
 
 26 . PART I. 
 
 Now, look at ourselves, at the kindest amongst us, 
 how different we are: we go about life doing just the 
 reverse, breaking the bruised, quenching the smoking ; 
 our very love is ungainly and unloving, and our charity 
 such a poor miserable shadow of what it is in God ; 
 we are so clumsy, so awkward, so harsh, so dry, so stiff, 
 so pedantic, so unaccommodating, so humiliatingly un- 
 tender and ungraceful. 
 
 And what a miracle the opposite is in God! how 
 the vastness of His immensity can leave us so at ease 
 and at large ! the terrific extremity of His power can 
 be so smooth, so soft, so light the frightening exac- 
 tions of His spotless holiness, so kindly, so forbearing, 
 so easily contented, so sweetly unimperious. Oh what 
 an incredible God ! what must heaven be simply as the 
 place where God's goodness has its own unhindered 
 and eternal way ! See how beautiful this is the ex- 
 treme indulgence of an earthly mother has to come out 
 of the very foolishness of her love ! the far more extreme 
 indulgence of our Heavenly Father would be impossible 
 to anything but the boundless wisdom of a God. Ah 
 Lord ! with such a God as Thee it will not be hard to 
 save our souls. 
 
 XIII. 
 GOD OUR FATHER. 
 
 I. The beauty and consolation of this idea. 
 
 1. It destroys the sense of loneliness in the world ; 
 
 2. Gives a new and consoling view to afflictions and 
 
 chastisements ;
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY.. 27 
 
 3. Makes the sense of weakness more endurable ; 
 
 4. Enables us to trust God for problems we cannot 
 
 solve. 
 
 5. Sense of relationship with all our fellowmen. 
 
 II. How it enters into all spiritual actions. 
 
 1. In sin. 
 
 2. In sacraments. 
 
 3. In aiming at perfection. 
 
 4. In temptations. 
 
 5. In suffering. 
 
 III. How God is our Father, and proves Himself so. 
 
 1. In the ordinary events and course of life. 
 
 2. In protection from evils which we shall only know 
 
 at the day of doom. 
 
 3. In answers to prayer. 
 
 4. In doing good to those we love. 
 
 5. In forbearance, and the continuance of grace. 
 
 IV. How He is our Father. 
 
 1. Not nominally, but really. 
 
 2. This comes out of creation. 
 
 (1) Marvellous sensible love. 
 
 (2) Identity of interests. 
 
 (3) Reflection of Self. 
 
 3. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 4. He has made Himself still more our Father by 
 
 covenant ; and He effects what He promises. 
 
 5. Additional ties of grace and glory. 
 
 Happy sunshine of this thought (1) more trust in 
 Him ; (2) more freedom with Him ; (3) more gene- 
 rosity towards Him.
 
 28 PART I. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE JOY OF BEING THE PROPERTY OF 
 GOD. 
 
 There is one wish ruling over all mankind, and it is 
 a wish which is never in any single instance gratified ; 
 each man wishes to be his own master. It is a boy's 
 beatific vision, and it remains the grown-up man's 
 ruling passion to the last. But the fact is, life is a 
 service ; the only question is, whom we will serve ? 
 I. What it is to become the property of our own selves. 
 
 1. Habits of sin which imperiously rule us even to 
 
 pain and to death. 
 
 2. Misery of many wants, which gnaw us if we do 
 
 not satisfy them. 
 
 3. Continual mortification of not getting our own 
 
 way. 
 
 4. The few ruling passions so as often to upset 
 
 reason. 
 
 5. There is not a vestige of liberty left to us. 
 II. The property of the world. 
 
 1. Success is a perpetual struggle what absence of 
 
 repose. 
 
 2. Unbearable tyranny of human respect. 
 
 3. False promises of worldly pleasures. 
 
 4. Total want of sympathy, and kindliness in the 
 
 world. 
 
 5. Way in which all about us, reputation, privacy, 
 
 time, passes from under our own jurisdiction. 
 Moreover those two services make us in effect the 
 property of Satan.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLT TRINITY. 29 
 
 III. The property of God. "I belong to God what is 
 all else to me ! " Blessing of this indifference to us ; 
 most unhappiness is from want of indifference. 
 
 1. We belong to Him by all titles; but He will 
 
 have us give ourselves to Him of ourselves. 
 
 2. In His service every hardship has its own 
 
 reward, every sorrow its special consolation. 
 
 3. In sorrow the sweetness, 
 
 (1) As coming from our Father. 
 
 (2) As deeply compassionated by Him. 
 
 (3) As eternally rewarded. 
 
 4. In joy, 
 
 (1) That it is pleasing to God. 
 
 (2) Of a heavenly character, and 
 
 (3) Leaves the soul at rest. 
 
 5. In work, 
 
 (1) It is for God. 
 
 (2) No fretfulness about success. 
 
 (3) Full of spirit and courage. 
 
 6. In weariness, 
 
 (1) Sweet sense of fatigue for God. 
 
 (2) How He rests us with beautiful soft thoughts 
 and visitations. 
 
 (3) He is no taskmaster. 
 
 7. In death, 
 
 (1) Full of solemnity but not of terror. 
 
 (2) A beginning, not an end. 
 
 (3) Tremulous joy of increasing nearness to God. 
 And then He takes His property back again, dearest 
 
 of Masters, and we go to Him, and then and not before, 
 and there and not elsewhere, we are at rest; for His 
 bosom is the weary man's own house his very own 
 delightful home!
 
 30 PART I. 
 
 XV. 
 
 GOD'S LOVE OF SINGLE SOULS. 
 
 A soul of mediocrity : its unexciting commonplace- 
 ness to us. 
 I. God's view of it. 
 
 1. Intense interest simply because it is a goul. 
 
 2. Eternal choice of it, and mysterious preference 
 
 of it to other possible souls. 
 
 3. Desire to have its eternal companionship, as if 
 
 an augmentation of His glory. 
 
 4. A certain peculiar glory destined for it. 
 
 5. It represents some definite peculiar beauty and 
 
 excellence in God Himself. 
 
 II. His behavior to it. 
 
 1. Every single perfection exercised for it, and 
 
 livelily interested in it. 
 
 2. The yearning character of His immense love for it. 
 
 3. The way in which He interests all other crea- 
 
 tures in it. 
 
 4. His separate devotion to that one soul. 
 
 5. The devices and condescensions with which He 
 
 makes love to it. 
 
 III. The Three Persons. ' 
 
 1. The Eternal Father 
 
 (1) Is stirred in all the abysses of His Paternity; 
 
 (2) Would give His Son a second time for its 
 salvation ; 
 
 (3) Receives it, as a returning prodigal, again 
 and again. 
 
 2. The Eternal Son.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 31 
 
 (1) The immensity of His wisdom makes Him 
 
 love it all the more. 
 
 (2) Ready to be crucified a second time for that 
 
 one soul alone. 
 
 (3) Continual communication of Himself to it in 
 
 grace and sacraments. 
 3. The Eternal Spirit. 
 
 (1) His immense Will bent on that one soul. 
 
 (2) His faithful, pathetic pleadings with it, as 
 
 if almost there might be some unhappiness 
 in God. 
 
 (3) How tenderly His omnipotence handles that 
 
 single soul. 
 
 So it is as if the Holy Trinity could not bear to part 
 with the creature who had been an eternal idea in His 
 mind, an eternal love in His affections. 
 
 And all this is for my one soul my soul juet as it is 
 now my soul just as I know it to be ! Surely, I must 
 either lose my faith, or die of love. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 THE STRANGENESS OF GOD'S LOVE 
 
 FOR US. 
 
 Many persons go about the world without in the 
 least seeming to see anything strange or preternatural 
 in life ; nay, none of us realize how much is involved 
 in common things and everyday expressions. God's 
 love of us we take it for granted let us look into it. 
 I. How do we know God loves us? 
 1. It is not our own loveliness.
 
 32 PAET I. 
 
 2. Nor the state of the world, with sickness, death, 
 
 &c. 
 
 3. We find a difficulty in religion, from the facility 
 
 of sin, chance of hell, &c. 
 
 4. Yet there is something in our nature which refuses 
 
 to let us believe in the possibility of the Creator 
 not loving His creatures. 
 
 II. Why does He love us ? 
 
 1. Not for our merit's sake. 
 
 2. Not for any dignity or intrinsic worth we have. 
 
 3. Because of His own adorable perfection of infi- 
 
 nite love. 
 
 III. What kind of a love does He love us with ? 
 
 1. The very absence of all worth on our part shows 
 
 that His love is a wonderful thing, quite different 
 from human love. 
 
 2. Hi& love of us as our Creator. 
 
 3. His love of us as our Redeemer. 
 
 4. All the imaginable kinds of human love together 
 
 approach not to this. 
 
 IV. What a support to us this consideration is ! 
 
 1. He will accept our least services. 
 
 2. It is not easy to weary and exhaust His love. 
 
 3. Past blessings and graces are a sort of guarantee 
 
 for future ones. 
 
 4. There must be a loving meaning in all adversity 
 
 and suffering. 
 
 5. How wonderful must be that state in which these 
 
 two wonders, the two loves of Creator and Re- 
 deemer, are satisfied and fulfilled in the creature's 
 glory. 
 
 Importance to ourselves and acceptableness to God 
 in our having a most vivid faith and a bold trust in
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 33 
 
 God's love of us : it is quite a sign of predestination 
 to feel as if we could not be lost, for all we are the 
 miserable perverse sinners that we are. No! God is 
 for us who shall be against us? 
 
 XVII. 
 
 "BE NOT DECEIVED GOD IS NOT 
 MOCKED." 
 
 How the Bible is always startling us ! We children 
 of men are deeply fallen, but are we come to this 
 that we dare to mock God ? It seems incredible. We 
 children of men are indeed far gone in folly : but are 
 we come to such downright madness as this, that we 
 mock God? Yet an apostle thinks it needful to warn 
 us against it. There are few things in the Holy 
 Scriptures stranger than this. 
 I. To mock God. 
 
 1. The scene in Herod's courtyard: what if His 
 
 Divinity had burst forth! 
 
 2. God in Hi# Majesty, amidst the burning angels, 
 
 and the vast fires of heaven. 
 
 3. God with the inexorable pressure of His just 
 
 hand in hell. 
 
 4. But even in hell no one dares to mock. 
 
 5. To mock God ! unspeakable, unimaginable wild- 
 
 ness ! I never heard even of madness that did 
 it. Yet an apostle thinks it a sin we are not 
 unlikely to fall into. 
 
 II. Who mocks God? I fear there is no one of us 
 Vol. I. C
 
 34 PART L 
 
 who has not at some time mocked Him. What if 
 we are mocking Him now? as in Herod's court. 
 What it is to promise to God. 
 
 1. Those who promise to him and do not perform 
 
 perhaps hardly mean to perform when they 
 promise. 
 
 2. Those who perform carelessly and indifferently. 
 
 3. Those who do not take even the trouble to pro- 
 
 mise, like not answering a man when he speaks 
 to you. 
 
 4. Those who delay, trusting to future repentance. 
 
 5. Those who do some things for God, and leave 
 
 other things undone, as if they were His judges 
 and superiors. 
 III. Playing a part with God is a mockery of Him. 
 
 1. Shirking examination of conscience and self, for 
 
 fear of discovering things to change. 
 
 2. Indefinitely adjourning correspondence to grace. 
 
 3. Bargaining with God for reserves. 
 
 4. Praying for what we seriously do not wish. 
 
 Thy will be done, &c. 
 
 5. Trying to outwit Him to have both worlds 
 
 to make him equal to others, not sovereign, &c. 
 Oh, it makes one desperate to see how men go on 
 with God. Do you not see that He is not in the 
 least the God your conduct makes Him out to be? 
 Do you not perceive that everything is mockery of 
 God which is not th j fear of Him, the day-long, the 
 life-long fear of His most holy and everwhelming 
 Majesty? You you who have not the courage to 
 throw God off altogether, but are serving Him with 
 half a heart you who pray at times, who come to 
 church, who give an occasional alms, but to whom
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 35 
 
 fashion, pleasure, frivolity, expensiveness, amusement, 
 are far more sensibly swoet than God do you imagine 
 God does not see through you ? Do you imagine 
 you will succeed ? Do you suppose you will surprise ' 
 God, and slip into a heaven by a stratagem ? Fools ! 
 Fools! Do you not see the enormity of the imper- 
 tinence, which even your very religion is to His 
 unspeakable truthfulness, to His inexorable sanctity ? 
 Oh incredible audacity of human nature, audacious in 
 its levity, audacious in its insincerity ! How a cruel, 
 a very cruel, but strictly just eternity will swallow 
 up souls by millions, because they would neither face 
 this honest truth, nor live upon it that everything 
 is mockery of God except a downright genuine con- 
 version of the heart ! 
 
 XVIII. 
 GOD SO LITTLE LOVED. 
 
 I. Some things are so serious that we say we cannot 
 allow them to go on any longer ; and then it is 
 amazing what the power of our wills can do. 
 Now here is a very serious matter God being so 
 little loved. Can we look on this with indiffer- 
 ence? 
 
 1. The honor of God being so little loved. 
 
 2. His immense majesty. 
 
 3. His own incomparable goodness to us. 
 
 4. What must happen to those who do not love 
 
 Him? 
 
 5. What danger those are in who love Him so little.
 
 36 PART I. 
 
 6. All the miseries of this life are because of God 
 
 not being loved. 
 
 7. Hell is also filling hourly. 
 
 8. And all the while the love of God seems really 
 
 growing less and less. 
 
 II. Do you mean to say that we are indifferent to 
 all this ? No. 
 
 1. Are we doing anything to hinder it? 
 
 2. Does it give us any real sorrow or uneasiness ? 
 
 3. Was life then meant for other things to be 
 
 attended to, and this to be neglected ? 
 
 4. Is religion a private luxury a simple sofa of 
 
 sweet soft thoughts for conscience to lie down 
 upon and take its ease ? 
 
 5. Love is work God must have work from us 
 
 real thorough work. 
 
 6. We can at least begin with ourselves and increase 
 
 our own love of Him ; 
 
 7. And we must begin at once, to-day, this morning ; 
 
 8. And we must begin manfully and in earnest. We 
 
 want conversion nothing short of it look at 
 the past ; it will never do. 
 
 III. But we cannot stop at self. Is our piety to go to 
 sleep while the world is perishing ? 
 
 1. Are all these souls to perish and we not to lift an 
 
 arm? 
 
 2. But what can we do ? Oh ! rather what can we 
 
 not do? 
 
 3. Prayer is pretty well omnipotent, and we can all 
 
 do that. 
 
 4. But have we ever set ourselves to pray down the 
 
 sins of London ? 
 
 5. But I must have something more than prayer
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 37 
 
 God's cause is in fearful case I must have 
 great things. 
 
 6. Can you not send a child to school, or bring a 
 
 sinner to the sacraments ? 
 
 7. Or give more abundant alms to good works ? 
 
 8. Driven to a holy despair by the awful scenes of 
 
 dead and dying souls around you, what sacrifices 
 are you making for Him who sacrificed Himself 
 upon the cross for you ? 
 
 Look the crucifix in the face, and answer these ques- 
 tions, not to me, but to Him. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 MORE" FOR GOD* 
 
 My brethren, I wish you would be more for God 
 than you are ! 
 
 We have been among the. mountains lately, the dark 
 mountains of the Passion, and the illuminated heights 
 of the Resurrection: now let us look at ourselves, at 
 our own height, our place before God, our union with 
 Him, our practice of virtues, our correspondence to 
 grace. 
 I. Easter questions. 
 
 1. Will this do? Is it safe, just as it is? Is it 
 
 satisfactory ? 
 
 2. Is it capable of being improved ? 
 
 3. If so, of what sort of improvement? 
 
 4. Have we actually set about this work ? 
 
 * Low Sunday, 1861.
 
 38 PART I. 
 
 5. If not, why not? For what reason have we de- 
 layed ? Have we decided not to improve ? 
 
 II. More for God. 
 
 1. Do you not need to be so ? 
 
 (1) Is God satisfied ? 
 
 (2) Could you die as you are ? 
 
 (3) Do you look forward to never being more 
 than you are ? If you do, you will not even 
 be saved. 
 
 2. Do you not wish to be so ? 
 
 (1) The marvellous contentment of it. 
 
 (2) The safety of it. 
 
 (3) The immense recompense. 
 
 3. Yet is it not easy ? 
 
 (1) More for God if it were but a little more. 
 
 (2) More for God if it were but gradually 
 more. 
 
 (3) And even were it hard, would it not be 
 
 worth while. 
 
 III. All for God. 
 
 1. This surely is the sweet and glorious thing.* 
 
 2. The wonder that we can be anything else. It is 
 
 the common sense of life. 
 
 3. This alone makes life bright, and death delight- 
 
 ful, and eternity so replenished with glory. 
 
 4. Yet, alas! how little we are for God how in- 
 
 significant His place in our lives. 
 
 5. Then I will be contented to ask you to be more 
 
 for God, somewhat more than now. Nay, I 
 will ask you only this. By His Cross and 
 Passion, and by His glorious Resurrection, to 
 resolve now to be more for God than you are. 
 
 *Eccles. xliii. 32.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 39 
 
 At least deliberate about it at least seriously 
 entertain the idea. 
 
 For your own sake, for God's sake, I cannot bear 
 that you should be so little for God as you are. I do 
 not ask you to be all for God, only to be more for God, 
 more for God than you are. I ask no more than this, 
 because I think I should get no more. Is it want of 
 faith in you or want of love for you ? Oh, not want of 
 love for you, but it is want of faith in you. Ought I 
 to be ashamed of this want of faith, or ought you to 
 be ashamed ? Anyhow, of one thing I am ashamed : I 
 am ashamed to look a thousand Christians in the face 
 at Easter, and yet not dare to ask them to be all for 
 God. But I dare not, and therefore I do not. But 
 will you try to be a little more for Him than you are ? 
 
 XX. 
 
 WILL YOU COME TO GOD NOW? 
 
 I. Years have passed, and each year God called you. 
 He urged you, He begged, He prayed, He entreated, 
 He made great promises. But you would not. The 
 world, youth, riches, honors, above all things, pleas- 
 ures, were tempting. God was put off. Will you 
 come to God now? If we would not then, why 
 should we now ? 
 
 1. Because we have lived longer, and we cannot help 
 
 learning more and more that the salvation of 
 the soul is our grand and only work. Will you 
 come to God now ? 
 
 2. Because, if it was always dangerous to delay, it
 
 40 PART I. 
 
 always grows more dangerous. Will you come 
 to God now ? 
 
 3. Because we have enjoyed our share of the world, 
 
 and it is at least God's turn now. Will you 
 come to God now ? 
 
 4. Because, when we see others who serve God, and 
 
 think it all over, we suspect we magnified both 
 the difficulties and the dulness of being religious. 
 Will you come to God now ? 
 
 5. Because the world, we must confess, has disap- 
 
 pointed us. Will you come to God now ? 
 
 6. Nay more, it has been an exceedingly heavy yoke 
 
 upon us. Will you come to God now? 
 
 7. Because death is advancing very rapidly. Will 
 
 you come to God now ? 
 
 8. Because we cannot face the eternal tortures, and 
 
 repentance grows harder by delay. Will you 
 come to God now ? 
 
 9. Because there is an irresistible sweetness in God's 
 
 very invitation. Will you come to God now ? 
 II. Practical Reflections. 
 
 1. God is waiting to forgive, eager to forgive. 
 
 2. His salvation is abundant, complete, and full of 
 
 delightful pleasantness. 
 
 3. Our past sins will be all obliterated. 
 
 4. We shall get ample supplies of grace for the 
 
 future. 
 
 5. Peace, rest, brightness will gather round our 
 
 remaining years: and all these things will be 
 the greater, the younger we are when we give 
 ourselves to God. 
 
 Can there be a heaven upon earth, a joy that is 
 more than a match for any sorrow? Oh yes! it is
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 41 
 
 the joy of those who have trusted God's goodness, the 
 blessedness of those who have found peace and pardon 
 in Jesus Christ. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 A TASTE FOR GOD. 
 
 We are apt to exaggerate the change which death 
 makes in ourselves, because it makes so tremendous a 
 change in our position. We must not confound these 
 two things : as the tree falls, so shall it lie. 
 I. What will cause our joy in heaven ? 
 
 1. It is a life of prayer, praise, vision, and contem- 
 
 plation. 
 
 2. To an evil spirit or impenitent soul it would be 
 
 the sheerest monotonous misery. 
 
 3. God, and only God, is the direct bliss of heaven. 
 
 4. He is also the joyousness of the indirect joys in 
 
 heaven. 
 
 5. So the best we can take to heaven is a taste for 
 
 God and the things of God : our real tastes are 
 not the best prophecies of our predestination. 
 II. What are our tastes now ? 
 
 1. Distinguish between our tastes and our frailties ; 
 
 as a miser may be led into expense by love of 
 pleasure. 
 
 2. Are prayer, sermons, services, distinctly pleasures 
 
 to us? 
 
 3. Have we a taste for God, and the things of God? 
 
 4. How is our taste for God, alongside of our taste 
 
 for the world ?
 
 42 PART I. 
 
 5. Scripture moreover assures that the two are in- 
 compatible. 
 
 III. A taste for God is a magnificent grace ; it is such 
 
 a security to us ; such a thing to rest upon ; 
 such a proof to us that \ve are drawn into a 
 supernatural world. In what it consists. 
 
 1. Sweetness in the thought of God. 
 
 2. The thought of God quietly making itself the 
 
 center, and righting itself after struggles. We 
 have disturbances, but gravitate back to God 
 when they are past. 
 
 3. Resting in God, even when there is no sensible 
 
 sweetness. 
 
 4. Contentment, coming of this rest. 
 
 5. Something inward which is beyond words. 
 
 6. It does not in itself secure holiness, but it goes 
 
 far towards doing so. 
 
 7. It is a gift of God, yet I incline to think it can 
 
 be acquired. 
 
 IV. How it is to be cultivated and dealt with. 
 
 1. It must be taken care of, and defended against 
 
 dangers. 
 
 2. And even augmented by our own efforts. 
 
 3. We must not presume on it, as if of itself it 
 
 would kill worldliness like some antidote. 
 
 4. We must not be afraid of its manifest encroach- 
 
 ments towards sovereignty. 
 
 5. Its growth is in a life of prayer. 
 
 6. Its health is in sweet patient lovingness to all 
 
 around us. 
 
 7. To ourselves it is our life, the budding of our 
 
 eternity : not a sight or hearing, or an odor, 
 or even a taste, though we call it so: it is a
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 43 
 
 touch of God, yet not a touch outside us, but a 
 touch on our souls within us, and so causing a 
 taste ; a touch in the dark, which often makes 
 us lie still and thrill with love. 
 
 XXII. 
 OUR HOME IN GOD, 
 
 In the Bosom of the Most High God, amid the 
 astounding marvels of the Most Holy Trinity, amid 
 the boundless silences and the uncreated fires of the 
 illimitable majesty of God there is our home there 
 is to be our life there are our interests, our tastes, 
 and our occupations for all eternity ! What an in- 
 credible faith, incredible even from the very exceeding- 
 ness of its simplicity. What grave, broad thoughts it 
 suggests to us, and yet such homely, plain practical 
 truths! The grandeur of the Mystery of the Most 
 Holy Trinity makes us children all at once. 
 I. Description of our Home. 
 
 1. Multitudinous Majesty of God, outlying beyond 
 
 all spaces, full of countless ever-flashing life. 
 
 2. The ravishing loveliness and eternal surprises of 
 
 His Attributes. 
 
 3. The adorable grandeur and sweetness of the 
 
 Three Persons. 
 
 4. The immensity of the revelations of the Vision ; 
 
 and yet, 
 
 5. The jubilee of the incomprehensibility of God. 
 II. The life we lead in that Home. 
 
 1. Beauty beyond all imaginable beauty.
 
 44 PART I. 
 
 2. Interestingness, fascination, and absorption. 
 
 3. Joy that would break the hearts of all .the men 
 
 who ever have been created is not as one drop 
 to our joy in the Bosom of God. 
 
 4. Magnificence of the love with which we can love 
 
 there. 
 
 5. But overwhelming ecstacy of the love with which 
 
 we are loved. 
 III. The life we are now living is at once nothing, 
 
 and yet all in all to that life. 
 Practical Conclusions. 
 
 1. Are our present tastes and interests fitting us 
 
 for it? 
 
 2. Are our present occupations congenial to it, and 
 
 practising for it ? 
 
 3. How immensely we must be changed even to bear, 
 
 let alone enjoy, that other life! 
 
 4. How obviously our spiritual life must be our one 
 
 care here ! 
 
 5. What is it we want? what is it we must cultivate? 
 
 A desire for God ! 
 
 My brethren! is it well with our souls? How 
 shall we know? Each passing year does the sense 
 of exile grow upon us, the feeling that earth is not 
 our home? Do we become less interested in worldly 
 things, and more weary of them, yet with an active, 
 practical, charitable weariness? Does a kind of 
 Christian discontent spread more and more over our 
 souls, and yet grow more peaceful, as we grow more 
 discontented ? All this is well ; but it must pass into 
 something higher, something deeper, something sweeter 
 into a hunger and a thirst for God !
 
 part jflret 
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 45
 
 I. 
 
 THE HOLY GHOST* 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE PROCESSION OF THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 WE are going to dare to mount up into the eternal life 
 of God, to see what we may be able to see regarding 
 the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Undivided 
 Trinity. We must leave far behind us all the ideas 
 and images of earth. Our inquiry must itself be an act 
 of worship, and its end be more holiness and fresh love. 
 We must be content sometimes with words, which seem 
 to have but little meaning, the little meaning being not 
 in the thing signifying, but in their way of signifying 
 it, with momentary glimpses of bright things, which 
 are almost immediately withdrawn again with rev- 
 erent guesses with truths half seen with pictures, 
 which though seen, rather puzzle us than represent 
 anything intelligible. Are we willing to hazard such 
 an enterprise? Let us see. 
 
 I. The effects upon the soal of investigating any 
 portion of the mystery of the Holy Trinity. 
 1. The unworldliness which the inquiry gives. 
 
 *The five following chapters are the sketch of a proposed 
 Treatise. 
 
 47
 
 48 PART I. 
 
 (1) Because the images and ideas are all un- 
 earthly. 
 
 (2) Because we know the intense and transcen- 
 dental truth of it all. 
 
 (3) Because it helps towards either self-oblivion 
 or self-contempt. 
 
 2. There is a reality in everything about God so 
 
 that we cannot come in contact with Him with- 
 out something happening to us: a child amid 
 tools and machines, metals and precious stones, 
 of which he does not know the names or uses, 
 or to whom the names are only hard words, yet 
 has grown in mind by what he has seen : how 
 much more then with the things of God ! 
 
 3. From this reality it comes to pass that some sub- 
 
 stantial effect is wrought by this in our souls. 
 
 (1) Our faith is enriched, and also invigorated by 
 the exercise. 
 
 (2) A celestial standard of beauty, as yet beyond 
 the grasp of our own thoughts, is infused into 
 our souls. 
 
 (3) The powers of the soul probably gain new 
 capabilities by contact with God. 
 
 4. We unconsciously gain, and hereafter find out, a 
 
 better understanding of the mysteries around us, 
 e.g. creation, the permission of evil, the variety 
 of graces in men, the exclusiveness of truth, 
 God's seemingly arbitrary ways with His crea- 
 tures, and other problems, of which each indi- 
 vidual mind has one or more peculiar to itself, 
 haunting and distressing it by its distorted 
 shapes and exaggerated shadows. 
 
 5. The knowledge we obtain by such inquiries
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 49 
 
 gradually dawns into a clearer and quieter view 
 of God. 
 
 6. Love outgrows knowledge, and comes from the 
 
 inquiry, even when there are so few appreciable 
 results ; this is partly because of 
 
 (1) The reality of God. 
 
 (2) The standard of beauty infused into us. 
 
 (3) Our own personal concern with the mystery 
 in question. 
 
 7. It is always to be remembered that it is our own 
 
 eternal home which we are looking at. 
 
 II. The object of our present inquiry is the Holy 
 
 Ghost: Who is He? 
 
 1. True and Eternal God. 
 
 2. One only, however, of the Three Divine Persons. 
 
 3. The last of the Three in order, but All co-equal. 
 
 4. Of Whom many marvellous distinctive things 
 
 have been revealed. 
 
 5. Who manifests a peculiar love of ourselves, 
 
 proper to Himself, and shown in His own 
 way. 
 
 6. Who has been mixed up secretly with all our 
 
 lives since childhood. 
 
 7. Who is actually dwelling in us at this moment 
 
 in a peculiar manner, over and above the 
 omnipresence of God quite different from the 
 dwelling of the Blessed Sacrament within us, 
 yet only to be paralleled by that. 
 
 III. The life of God. 
 
 1. It is the same this hour that it ever was: as it 
 
 never had any beginning, so it has had no past 
 
 history but it is one simple act never begun, 
 
 never finished, never in process from a beginning, 
 
 Vol. I. D
 
 50 PART I. 
 
 never on its progress towards an end, never 
 left incomplete. 
 
 2. All acts in God are necessary ; else God would 
 
 not be perfect, there would be something in 
 Him which need not have been there, which 
 He could do without, and this it would be 
 blasphemy to say. Inside Himself, God has no 
 liberty : to the grandeur of His simplicity liberty 
 would be a feebleness and an imperfection. 
 
 3. Unity of Essence : this unity is so unspeakable 
 
 that the word is below the meaning ; all closest 
 unities are but far-off shadows of it : it consists 
 
 (1) In singularity. 
 
 (2) In indivisibility. 
 
 (3) In simplicity. 
 
 (4) In identity. 
 
 (5) In plenitude. 
 
 4. Trinity of Persons. 
 
 (1) The Unbegotten Father. 
 
 (2) By His knowledge of Himself and all things 
 
 begetting the Word. 
 
 (3) And these Two, as one principle, by Their 
 
 love of each other and of all things, breathing 
 forth the Holy Spirit. 
 
 (4) And the Holy Spirit returning upcm the 
 
 Two, and being their junction, expression, 
 joy, term, and love. 
 
 (5) All co-equal, co-eternal, consubstantial : one 
 
 substance as described above. 
 
 (6) No sort of inequality ; only priority of order 
 
 and emanation. 
 
 (7) Yet with the most extraordinary distinct- 
 
 nesses as Persons.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 51 
 
 5. This is the completion of the life of God, which 
 causes it to result 
 
 (1) In the most stationary immutability. 
 
 (2) In the most vital activity. 
 
 (3) In the most indefinable simplicity of act. 
 
 (4) In the most profound peaceful separateness, 
 yet universality. 
 
 (5) All combining in the most unimaginable 
 abysmal beatitude. 
 
 IV. The Procession of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 1. His procession is not from the Divine Essence 
 
 viewed as apart from the Two Persons, but from 
 the Two Persons as subsisting. 
 
 2. He proceeds from the Two Persons, as one prin- 
 
 ciple.. 
 
 3. He proceeds by the way of the will, as the Son 
 
 by the way of the understanding : hence the 
 Procession is not a generation. 
 
 4. To use a human word, the method is by respira- 
 
 tion : and therefore is 
 
 (1) From the interior. 
 
 (2) From the ardor of love. 
 
 (3) Perpetually, by the, so to call it, identical 
 reciprocity of the love of the Father and the 
 Son. 
 
 (4) Refreshing as it were the inward heat, the 
 necessity in God of this refreshment, if we 
 may dare so to speak. 
 
 5. From the triple love of the Father and the Son. 
 
 (1) Appreciation. 
 
 (2) Benevolence. 
 
 (3) Complacency. 
 
 6. The love of us and of all creatures, entered into
 
 52 PART I. 
 
 the love by which He proceeded, not necessarily, 
 but as a matter of fact, per accidens et concomi- 
 tanter. 
 
 7. This Procession is eternal, and is eternally going 
 
 on every moment, as part of God's life, like the 
 breathing of a living man. 
 
 8. Yet He who thus proceeds is in all respects 
 
 co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial with 
 Those from whom He proceeds. 
 V. Certain eminences of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 1. What He does for the Person of the Father. 
 
 (1) Gives Him an exercise for His unbegotten 
 fecundity. 
 
 (2) Gives Him an expression for His love of the 
 Son. 
 
 (3) Is as it were the terminal ocean to Him as 
 fountain of deity. 
 
 2. What He does for the Person of the Son. 
 
 (1) Gives Him an exercise for the fecundity the 
 Father communicated to Him. 
 
 (2) Gives Him an expression for His love of the 
 Father. 
 
 (3) Illustrates the distinctness of His Person from 
 that of the Father. 
 
 (4) Is the occasion to Him of the grandeur ur' 
 being, with the Father, the principle of ;i 
 Divine Person. 
 
 3. What He does equally for Both of Them. 
 
 (1) Unspeakably sanctifies Them by the exercise 
 of love.* 
 
 (2) Returns to Them Both as an impulse ; 
 
 (3) And is reflected by Them ; 
 
 * Bail, Theologie Affective, 2me. Traite, Med. xii.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 53 
 
 (4) And draws an eternally beautiful life out of 
 
 Them. 
 
 (5) By a procession which is to Them, as well as 
 
 to Him, an infinite beatitude. 
 
 4. He is the bond or chain or kiss of the Father 
 
 and the Son. 
 
 (1) For they have no plurality as the principle 
 
 of Him, but one simple sovereign unity. 
 
 (2) They have but one relation to the Holy 
 
 Spirit, not Each of Them a separate rela- 
 tion ; 
 
 (3) And he has but one relation to them. 
 
 (4) The Father could not be this bond ; for the 
 
 Son and the Holy Ghost have different 
 relations to Him. 
 
 (5) Nor the Son for the same reason ; because the 
 
 Father and the Holy Ghost have different 
 relations to Him. 
 
 (6) Unutterable strength of this uncreated Bond, 
 
 who is a Person. 
 
 (7) The life of God is completed in it not held 
 
 together by it; for that would imply com- 
 position, which is impossible. 
 
 5. He is the term of the interior productions and 
 
 necessary acts in God. 
 
 (1) The last Person produced, as if God would 
 
 mix with creatures unless He has a term, 
 a term to His infinite life ! 
 
 (2) The only Person not Himself producing, but 
 
 returning backwards rather. 
 
 (3) His knowledge of Himself essential and 
 
 speculative, not productive. 
 
 (4) The same is true also of His will.
 
 54 PART I. 
 
 (5) Note then that the fulness of God and the 
 repose of God is not in knowledge but in 
 love: the Holy Ghost is the uncreated 
 sabbath of the life of God ! 
 
 VI. He is the jubilee of the Father and the Son. 
 
 1. Because He is their term and so completeness 
 
 and so beatitude. 
 
 2. Because He is Genitoris Genitique suavitas, as 
 
 St. Austin calls Him. 
 
 3. Because love is akin to joy. 
 
 4. Because the seat of jubilation is in the will, and 
 
 He proceeds by the will. 
 
 5. His procession is itself the endless, everlasting, 
 
 divinely musical, stately-gleaming, unimaginable 
 jubilation of the Holy Trinity, within itself, 
 and also in all creations lying in its external 
 omnipresence. 
 
 VII. He is the fulness of the Father and the Son. 
 
 1. His not producing is not rightly infecundity 
 
 no infirmity; nay, it is His very personal 
 eminence, and characteristic perfection ; for all 
 characteristics of the Divine Persons are per- 
 fection. 
 
 2. He is fulness, which is akin to joy. 
 
 3. He is fecund with the high fecundity of falling 
 
 back upon the Father and. the Son, and, as it 
 were, completing them, and bounding the bound- 
 less Trinity. 
 
 4. He is the crown of fecundity, because He is the 
 
 jubilation of fecundity. 
 
 5. He is fecund, because He has drunk in, and 
 
 possesses in Himself all the power of the God- 
 head to produce by will ; He holds all possible
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 55 
 
 uncreated love, and is the Ocean of the Father's 
 
 unbegotten Fountain. 
 
 Such is the Holy Ghost, all beautiful, all holy, in 
 His unimaginable Procession, and who is condescending 
 at this moment to be wrapping us all round with His 
 eternal love, longing to lead us willing captives to the 
 shores of His jubilant eternal Sea ! 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE HOLY GHOST AND CREATURES. 
 
 THERE was a time, or rather there was a timeless eter- 
 nity, when God was all in all ; no space, no matter, 
 no created spirit, no life out of God : no place where 
 life could be, no conditions under which life was' pos- 
 sible : creation then lay a complete ideal in the mind 
 of God, in the clear soft light of His decrees ; a pro- 
 cession, but not an eternal one, a procession which 
 was one day to be. The date came when time should 
 be born, a certain indiscernible point in unsuccessive 
 eternity, and then creation lay outside of God, though 
 in His lap. 
 
 I. Creation might have been eternal. 
 
 1. The possibility of this throws considerable light 
 
 on the life of God. 
 
 2. We must beware of thinking that the Divine 
 
 life had to be completed before Creation could 
 take place ; the Generation of the Son, and the 
 Procession of the Holy Ghost, are always going 
 on, posterior to Creation as well as prior to it.
 
 56 PART L 
 
 3. The eternity of Creation is possible. 
 
 (1) On God's side, because His power is eternal, 
 and He could at any moment have created. 
 
 (2) On the side of creatures themselves. 
 
 1. Because creatures never began to be possible: 
 
 they were possible from eternity. 
 
 2. Though not capable of being eternal by 
 essence, creatures may be eternal by parti- 
 cipation. 
 
 (3) On the side of the act of creation itself, 
 because 
 
 1. The action of God is instantaneous. 
 
 2. Such an action on His part, as Creation, 
 
 would not be the less free, because it was 
 eternal. 
 
 3. Creation, rightly considered, is not a transi- 
 
 tion from non-being to being, but the produc- 
 tion of a whole thing from no presupposed 
 subject. 
 
 4. Yet even if it were but such a transition, 
 
 non-being need only precede the creature in 
 nature and not in fact. 
 
 4. All this applies more easily to permanent things. 
 
 Billuart* thinks it more probably would not 
 apply to successive things; still even this is 
 not certain ; for our ideas are so welded now 
 to things as they are, we can hardly put 
 ourselves in a position to judge of such a 
 question. 
 
 5. God doubtless could have made a non-successive 
 
 creation. 
 
 6. St. Thomas says that without revelation the 
 
 * De Opere Sex Dierum. Dissert. I, art. vi.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 67 
 
 temporal nature of creation is credible, but not 
 demonstrable. 
 7. As a matter of fact, creation is temporal, and 
 
 that it is so is defide. 
 II. Creation lying outside of God. 
 
 1. The immeasurable quantity of strange inanimate 
 
 matter. 
 
 (1) Of various composition ; 
 
 (2) Of magnificent and subtle properties ; 
 
 (3) Of extreme beauty and variety of form ; 
 
 (4) Reducible to very considerable simplicity, 
 
 perhaps to one element and to one force ; * 
 
 (5) Whose inner life seems unattainable ; 
 
 (6) And is a life of continual protean change. 
 
 (7) Indestructible, and now everlasting. 
 
 (8) It is as it is, for some deep reason unknown 
 
 to us. 
 
 (9) Doubtless bearing on itself the most intimate 
 
 transcript of His perfections, Who made it. 
 
 2. Life is an especially godlike gift. 
 
 (1) To be organic is an approach to life, and is a 
 
 state doubtless full of divine wonders beyond 
 our sciences. 
 
 (2) Life requires peculiar and subtle conditions, 
 
 and varying adaptations. 
 
 (3) It is also inimitable by any marvels of man. 
 
 (4) Countless varieties of life from angels down 
 
 to zoophytes : and all have feelings, character 
 and consciousness of their own. 
 
 (5) It is a secret into whose ultimate recesses it 
 
 seems as if we could never penetrate. 
 
 *See Smee's Monogenesis of Physical Forces, and per contra 
 Faraday's conservation of Forces.
 
 58 PARTI. 
 
 (6) Yet life is always a happiness: the greatest 
 
 of treasures which most creatures have, if 
 not all; indeed it is the greatest, for a 
 martyr is only one who has the courage to 
 change a lower life for a higher. 
 
 (7) It is most plainly an outpouring of God's 
 
 goodness, even in his beatitude. 
 3. Double life, material and spiritual. 
 
 (1) Material life. 
 
 1. Ever changing. 
 
 2. The greater portion of it simply mortal. 
 
 3. Yet capable of supernatural operations, in 
 
 man at least, which immortalize it. 
 
 4. Strange unions of matter and spirit, as in 
 
 sacraments, and certain mental conditions. 
 
 5. Glorified life of matter, without any violence 
 
 done to nature. 
 
 (2) Spiritual life. 
 
 1. Immortal, but not intrinsically so. 
 
 2. Its extreme simplicity is an approach to- 
 
 wards God. 
 
 3. Its changes their peculiarity, as in angels 
 
 when they fell. 
 
 4. Horror of spiritual wickedness, because it 
 
 is seeming to come into such immediate 
 antagonism to God. 
 
 5. Immense capabilities of glory which a spirit 
 
 has. 
 
 (3) All this creation shaped out of the Divine 
 
 mind. 
 
 1. God was never an uncreating God. 
 
 2. No change passed over Him, when he 
 
 realized His idea.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 59 
 
 3. Hence no incompleteness or overlooked 
 
 minuteness is possible in creation. 
 
 4. It was the work of all God's combined 
 
 perfections. 
 
 5. The product therefore quite as much of His 
 
 love as of His wisdom : perhaps more so, 
 inasmuch as His uncreated Love was the 
 Person next to creatures : 
 
 6. And, as we shall see, creation was at least 
 
 let loose through His love ; 
 
 7. And when fallen, brought back neither by 
 
 Wisdom alone, nor by Love alone, but by 
 both together ; and in the case of the 
 individual soul by Love as inclusive of 
 Wisdom. 
 
 4. The Divine Concurrence keeping Creation out of 
 nothingness. 
 
 (1) There is nothing in creation to which God 
 
 has given an independent existence. 
 
 (2) God is, as it were, the life underlying, sus- 
 
 taining, and rendering possible our life. 
 
 (3) If He were to withdraw His concurrence for 
 
 one moment, it would all fall back with 
 hideous relapse into nothingness. 
 
 (4) The Divine Presence is more intimate to us 
 
 than even the principle of life. 
 
 (5) It is threefold 
 
 1. By Essence, His substance embracing and 
 
 penetrating all the extremities of the 
 world. 
 
 2. By presence, eyes, knowledge, light, no 
 
 darkness. 
 
 3. By Power, the activity and vigor of all
 
 60 PART I. 
 
 activities and vigors, the fountain of 
 forces. 
 
 (6) Conservation is the same act as Creation, and 
 
 indivisible from it. 
 
 (7) No effort, no successive attentions, on God's 
 
 part, necessary to this calm concurrence. 
 
 5. His own glory is the end of all creation, and of 
 
 all possible creations. 
 
 (1) God's essential glory is untouched by crea- 
 
 tion which leaves no mark on it. 
 
 (2) He is necessitated by His perfections to seek 
 
 His own glory in all things: self-love is 
 divine holiness. 
 
 (3) We are left free to fulfil this glory 
 
 1. Either by making our happiness identical 
 
 with it, 
 
 2. Or by magnifying His perfections through 
 
 the ill-success of our opposition to them. 
 
 (4) But we are necessitated to fulfil it in one of 
 
 these two ways. 
 
 (5) Hence there is no neutrality possible for 
 
 creatures, with regard to God. 
 
 6. Yet creation is wholly un mingled with God. 
 
 (1) Impossibility of any such mixture. 
 
 1. On the side of God, because of His com- 
 
 pleteness, perfection, and unity of sub- 
 stance. 
 
 2. On the side of creation, because of its 
 
 composition, derivation, and essential de- 
 pendence. 
 
 (2) Concurrence, even with evil actions, is a 
 
 wonderful display of the agency of God's 
 purity.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 61 
 
 (3) Yet extreme awfulness of sin, of which the 
 Divine Concurrence gives such a stupendous 
 view. 
 III. Creation lying outside, yet in the embrace of God. 
 
 1. What is meant by nature. 
 
 (1) That which is due to the shape and capacity 
 
 of a thing as God designed it. 
 
 (2) That which is not out of the reach of its 
 
 acquisition. 
 
 (3) That which is congenial to it, and can blend 
 
 with it, without the infusion of any super- 
 natural principle, i.e. with the common con- 
 currence of God. 
 
 2. Natural unions with God. 
 
 (1) The union of origin, conservation, and last 
 
 end, with the Divine Essence. 
 
 (2) The union of dependence, filial humility, and 
 
 accountableness, which seems to draw us to 
 the Father. 
 
 (3) The union of the light of reason with the light 
 
 of the Word, which joins us to the Son. 
 
 (4) The union of will and love of God, simply as 
 
 the Author of nature, which joins us to the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 3. The order of grace. 
 
 (1) Sanctifying grace a participation of the Divine 
 
 nature a quality of the soul or habit. 
 
 (2) Actual grace an impulse of the Divine Will : 
 
 varieties and powers of it. 
 
 (3) Nature cannot merit the first grace, nor can 
 
 the last grace be merited : so that the world 
 of grace floats separately, as it were, from the 
 world of nature.
 
 62 PART I. 
 
 4. Creation was in a state of grace, to angels and 
 
 men, who alone were capable of grace. 
 
 (1) Unnecessary love of this. 
 
 (2) It was so both to angels and men. 
 
 (3) So that reasonable nature was never tried by 
 
 its sole self: both trials were of creatures in 
 a state of grace. 
 
 (4) This shows the closeness of the Creator's 
 
 embrace of creation. 
 
 (5) And that we, by sin, did no less than struggle 
 
 out of His arms. 
 
 5. Unions of grace. 
 
 (1) A higher knowledge of God. 
 
 (2) Virtues, not only more heroic in degree, but 
 
 different in kind. 
 
 (3) The union of merit, through a supernatural 
 
 principle. 
 
 (4) The substantial indwelling of God far beyond 
 
 concurrence. 
 
 (5) The Father more our Father because we have 
 a supernatural real worship. 
 
 (6) Greater union with the Son is the fountain of 
 
 grace. 
 
 (7) Our wills capable of closer union with the 
 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 (8) The ultimate union of seeking and enjoying 
 
 God for ever. 
 
 6. The Incarnation of the Second Person. 
 
 (1) The Creator still more closely embracing His 
 
 creation. 
 
 (2) Yet it was in -the original idea of creation: 
 nay, the fontal idea of it all. 
 
 (3) The propriety of the Second Person being
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 63 
 
 incarnate, because of the connection between 
 the Word and creatures. 
 
 (4) The Incarnation was efficient by anticipation, 
 
 both for angels and men. 
 
 (5) Yet that previous efficacy, at least so far as 
 
 men are concerned, is not to be compared 
 with the change it has now actually wrought 
 on the earth ; witness the unopeniug of 
 Limbus. 
 
 7. Unions because of the Incarnation. 
 
 (1) Sacramental Unions. 
 
 (2) The unions of grace are now more lofty and 
 
 more entire. 
 
 (3) Mystical unions and likeness to Jesus. 
 
 (4) Unions since the Incarnation differ 
 
 1. In kind. (1.) New Mission. (2.) Sacra- 
 
 ments. (3.) Other uses of matter. 
 
 2. In degree: constantly approaching, and at 
 
 last emanating in transformation. 
 
 3. In method. (1.) Sacred Humanity. (2.) 
 
 Imitation of Jesus. (3.) Christian Voca- 
 tions. 
 
 (5) Union is the special work of the Incarnation, 
 
 itself the greatest of all created unions. 
 
 8. The indwelling of the Third Person. 
 
 (1) Its substantial reality 
 
 (2) By sanctifying grace. 
 
 (3) By His gifts. Vasquez says, non ratione 
 
 augmenti habitus gratice, sed ratione alio- 
 rum donorum. 
 
 (4) By His impulses, pleadings and inspirations. 
 
 (5) By His plenary presence in the Church, which 
 is our enclosure.
 
 64 PART I. 
 
 9. Unions through Him. 
 
 (1) The processes of justification and sanctifica- 
 
 tion the same before Christ as after, so far as 
 they are interior. 
 
 (2) Yet in some sense the Holy Ghost was not 
 
 given until redemption was actually accom- 
 plished. He follows the Word in the order 
 of our salvation, as in the order of the 
 Trinity. 
 
 (3) All unions with Jesus are completed in Him, 
 
 and by Him. 
 
 (4) His own extraordinary intimacy with the 
 
 saints. 
 
 (5) Even within our souls His posture is the same 
 
 as it is in the divine life, a peculiar unitive 
 relation to the Father and the Son. 
 
 10. The order of glory. 
 
 (1) Glory in reality is not an order distinct from 
 
 grace, only a time and place and fixed 
 ultimate condition of it. 
 
 (2) Free will threading its way through the 
 
 superincumbent weight of spiritual helps 
 and appliances. 
 
 (3) In the actual order of Providence nature has 
 
 no end, no natural end ; we cannot see what 
 reasonable nature is to end in ; it has to rise 
 out of itself into a supernatural end. 
 
 (4) Thus glory becomes the normal state of nature 
 
 at the last. 
 
 (5) The creature is meant to look the Creator in 
 
 the face this is its glory. 
 
 11. It is then we have the person of the Eternal 
 
 Father.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 65 
 
 (1) Words of the Apostle St. Philip : Lord ! show 
 
 us the Father, and it is enough. 
 
 (2) We must become likenesses of Christ, and we 
 
 shall be so after the resurrection, and only 
 then shall we be satisfied, and our satisfac- 
 tion will be in being with the Father. 
 
 (3) The Father is to be all in all, when the 
 
 mediatorial kingdom of Christ comes to an 
 end. 
 12. We shall indeed possess the whole Trinity. 
 
 (1) The Three Divine Persons will belong to us 
 
 as an enjoyed possession. 
 
 (2) We shall dwell with Them for evermore, 
 
 intuitively beholding Them as They are. 
 
 (3) Creation rose out of the Incarnation, and by 
 
 the Incarnation the wandering creation is 
 brought home to the Creator. 
 IV. The Threshold of the Uncreated. 
 
 1. The freedom of all divine acts outside God 
 
 importance of this truth, that Creation was 
 free. 
 
 2. The oneness of action in all that the Three Divine 
 
 Persons work outwardly. 
 
 3. The doctrine of Mission, Visible and Invisible. 
 
 (1) Temporal, yet representing the processions in 
 
 the Holy Trinity : the world of grace mirror- 
 ing the Holy Trinity, momentarily and per- 
 petually, as does the world of matter, though 
 less intelligibly.* 
 
 (2) Mission threefold in the individual soul. 
 1. First Justification. 
 
 *See "Creator and Creature," p. 170. "Blessed Sacrament," 
 p. 277, &c. 
 
 Vol. I. E
 
 66 PART I. 
 
 2. Each augmentation of grace. 
 
 3. Eternal beatitude. 
 
 (3) It is to produce an end, and its end is that a 
 
 Divine Person should begin to exist in us in 
 a new manner, as in a temple, and that the 
 soul thereby may possess or enjoy God in a 
 new manner so that Mission touches on 
 heaven, touches on the Beatific Vision. 
 
 (4) Imperfect Missions. 
 
 1. Reason's knowledge and love of God, which 
 
 is not a fresh possession and enjoyment of 
 Him. 
 
 2. Actual graces, which are rather a knocking 
 
 at the door than an indwelling. 
 
 3. Infallibility of the Pope is rather a moving 
 
 of the intellect. 
 
 (5) The Father is not sent, and the Son is sent 
 
 only by the Father. 
 
 (6) The Son and the Spirit are not sent separately. 
 
 (7) But mission is attributed to each separately 
 
 by appropriation. 
 
 (8) The unsent Father is always present in invisi- 
 
 ble Missions. 
 
 (9) The reality of Mission the Persons substan- 
 
 tially present. 
 
 (10) Horror of heresy as impeding Mission : it is 
 like an imprisoning of God's mercy within 
 Himself, and restricting His liberty in His 
 own Creation. 
 
 4. All creation is stamped with the likeness of the 
 
 Uncreated, probably far beyond our powers of 
 perception, 
 
 5. And this is a Trinitarian likeness.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 67 
 
 6. Yet perhaps each Person has some relation of 
 
 His own to creatures, though inexpressible, just 
 as relations constitute the Persons in God. 
 
 7. If we begin with the Father, we travel down to 
 
 the Holy Ghost, and rest in Him as the Thres- 
 hold of the Created. 
 
 8. If we start with matter and zoophytes, and travel 
 
 up to the Holy Ghost, we rest in him as the 
 Threshold of the Uncreated.* 
 
 9. How we get the right view of Him with regard 
 
 to creatures : there is nothing between the created 
 and the Uncreated ; the Uncreated Spirit con- 
 fines on creation, creation confines on Him. 
 10. Thus the shadow of. the Uncreated on the 
 created doubles back like the shadows in a 
 mountain lake: the first choir of angels, the 
 Seraphim, representing the near Term of the 
 Godhead, the Holy Ghost ; the second choir, 
 the Cherubim, the Word and Wisdom of the 
 Father, which is the Son ; and the Thrones in 
 their kingly peace and stability, the Person of 
 the Father. This explains why devotion to 
 the Eternal Father and devotion to the choir 
 of Thrones co-exist by a kind of instinct in so 
 many saints and others, who were probably 
 not conscious of the reason. Yet the personal 
 angels, who stood alone, follow the personal 
 order in the Blessed Trinity : Michael the 
 angel of the Father, Gabriel of the Son, Raphael, 
 with his characteristic mixture of pathos and 
 joy, of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 *Holy Ghost nearest to creatures Henricus de Balbis in Thomas 
 of Jesus. De Orat. Div. lib. iv. cap. ix. p. 388-90, 8vo. ed.
 
 68 PART I. 
 
 V. The Holy Ghost the end of creatures. 
 
 1. Creatures come down to the brink of His sweet- 
 
 watered sea and pass in. 
 
 2. The powers and affections of the Sacred Heart of 
 
 Jesus to return into Him. 
 
 3. The immaculate heart of Mary, with the holi- 
 
 ness of Joseph, the Baptist, the Apostles, and 
 the hierarchy of the Incarnation, pass into 
 Him. 
 
 4. The love of the Seraphim, the science of the 
 
 Cherubim, the peace of the Thrones, the empire 
 of the Dominations, the energy of the Virtues, 
 the force of the Powers, the dignity of the 
 Principalities, the defence of the Archangels, 
 the charity of the Angels, all pass into Him. 
 
 5. So do all hearts of men that are grace-touched 
 
 and virtue-loving. 
 
 6. To flow down into Him is the beautifulness of 
 
 life. 
 
 7. Yet we are not lost in Him, but find there the 
 
 eternal distinctness of eternal life. 
 
 VI. The History of the Holy Ghos-t. 
 
 1. Eternally proceeding from the Father and the 
 
 Son, which He is doing while we are speaking. 
 
 2. Joining in the predestination of Jesus and Mary. 
 
 3. Brooding over Creation. 
 
 4. Immense nameless communications of grace to 
 
 the Angels, through the Seraphim His own 
 choir : some think all the three first choirs 
 receive light immediately, not mediately. 
 
 5. Intense love of the Sacred Humanity of Jesus. 
 
 6. Inspiring patriarchs with desires and prayers to 
 
 hasten His coming.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 69 
 
 7. The poet of the prophecies describing the life and 
 
 passion of Jesus beforehand. 
 
 8. In the heart of David dictating the psalms. 
 
 9. Sanctifying Mary, David's daughter, and His 
 
 own spouse. 
 
 10. Preparing, creating, or fashioning the Body of 
 
 Jesus, by overshadowing Mary. 
 
 11. His share in the Magnificat. 
 
 12. Sanctifying St. Joseph. * 
 
 13. Given immeasurably to Jesus. 
 
 14. Descending at the Baptism of Jesus 
 
 15. Driving Him into the wilderness, and then 
 
 commissioning Him to preach. 
 
 16. His love of the apostles. 
 
 17. His passing with the breath of Christ into them, 
 
 which was an adumbration of His eternal Pro- 
 cession by spiration. 
 
 18. Meeting Jesus in the Ascension Cloud. 
 
 19. Descent on Mary and the Apostles at Pente- 
 
 cost.f 
 
 20. Dwelling in and building up the Infant Church, 
 
 almost visible, so manifest was His agency. J 
 
 21. Punishing Ananias and Sapphira, visible sample 
 
 *The Holy Ghost was Himself the conjugal love of Joseph and 
 Mary, and so the Bond of the Earthly Trinity as of the Heavenly. 
 Raffaello Maria Vita di S. Giuseppe, p. 48, v. Bethlehem, p. 433. 
 
 f Giry says it was revealed that the Holy Ghost rested on Mary 
 in one flame, and thence separated off into tongues. Vies des Saints, 
 vol. i, p. 145. 
 
 J For the Holy Ghost after Pentecost compared with the Holy 
 Ghost before, see Thomas of Jesus, De Orat. Div. lib. iv. cap. viii. 
 
 Visible descents were frequent in the primitive church, because 
 the sins of Christians had not interposed obstacles between them 
 and the effusions of the Holy Spirit. Mistica 6iudad, Lib. vii. 
 cap. ziii. No. 226.
 
 70 PART I. 
 
 of many like invincible providences, or at least 
 indiscernible interferences, so suitable to our 
 Lord's words about the sin against Him. 
 
 22. Welcoming Mary His Spouse at her Assumption, 
 
 and joining in her Coronation. 
 
 23. Inspiring the epistles. 
 
 24. Giving St. John the Apocalypse. 
 
 25. Acting in the Church now as executor of Jesus, 
 
 tutor of the Saints, and teacher of Mary His 
 
 Spouse. * 
 
 Such is a sketch of God's huge creation, and the 
 action of the Holy Ghost in it, and His position with 
 reference to it. It is equally peculiar with His place in 
 the Divine Life of the Holy Trinity. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE HOLY GHOST AND JESUS. 
 
 As creation sprang out of the Incarnation, and the 
 Incarnation embraces and is the reason of creation, 
 the relation between the Holy Ghost and creation 
 leads necessarily to his relation with Jesus: it is in 
 Their mutual relation to creation that we must now 
 bring them together. 
 I. The History of Creation. 
 
 1. The Predestination of Jesus. 
 
 (1) Eternal in the Divine Mind. 
 
 *For the story of the Holy Ghost, electing the Archbishops of 
 Ravenna, beautifully told, see Tut'o, Hist, de Teatini, cap. 88, p. 355. 
 
 For office of Holy Ghost in Purgatory, v. Finetti sopra il Pur- 
 gatorio, cap. 28.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 71 
 
 (2) It was for the same reason as we may suppose 
 
 creation at all, viz., love: only it was the 
 cause of the rest of creation, the nucleus 
 round which creation gathered. 
 
 (3) It was the first externation of the goodness 
 
 of God. 
 
 2. The Date of Creation. 
 
 (1) It took place at a fixed and foreordained 
 
 time. 
 
 (2) A moment which had a vast reasonableness, 
 
 unrevealed, and beyond our powers of dis- 
 covery. 
 
 (3) We may be sure it had to do with the predes- 
 
 tination of Jesus. 
 
 3. The Angels. 
 
 (1) The eldest-born of God's creatures. 
 
 (2) Of a different nature from that which was 
 
 predestined for the Word. 
 
 (3) All their graces were from Him, and because 
 
 of Him Incarnate, though not in the shape 
 of redemption. 
 
 4. The Creation of matter. 
 
 (1) Original matter out of nothing: one atom 
 
 could fill the universe.* 
 
 (2) Gradual cosmogony was perhaps meant as a 
 
 visible Bible to the angels, full of types and 
 prophecies of Jesus, and loud hymns of ma- 
 terial forces which their intelligence could 
 translate. 
 
 (3) Perhaps the angels took part in the cosmogony ; 
 
 certainly in the custody and administration 
 of the finished world. 
 
 * Smee's Monogenesis.
 
 72 PART I. 
 
 5. The Trial of the Angels. 
 
 (1) I am inclined to place this after the creation 
 
 of matter, at least of primary matter ; else 
 their trial would be less significant, regarding 
 the material nature of Jesus. 
 
 (2) The presentation of Jesus to their intellects 
 
 and wills, the Word clad in an inferior 
 nature, to be so worshipped. 
 
 (3) Ample grace was given, yet one-third fell, and 
 
 fell irrevocably. 
 
 6. The epochs of the material world. 
 
 (1) Science would lead us to infer that they have 
 
 been of enormous duration. 
 The glory of God in the evolutions of matter, 
 inorganic, organic, and animated in the 
 lawfulness of uniformity, or the restrained 
 and balanced fury of catastrophes. 
 
 (3) Glory to Him from the activity and contem- 
 plation of the angels ; for though the idea of 
 the predestinated Jesus was not yet fulfilled, 
 their interest in the material world centred 
 round Him as their Incarnate King; it brought 
 them into an affectionate relation with matter. 
 
 7. Preparation for Jesus. 
 
 (1) Sin changes His manner of coming. 
 
 (2) All history of patriarchs and Jews a prepara- 
 
 tion for Him. 
 
 (3) Pagan history, with its outworn and outwear- 
 
 ing mythologies and philosophies, partially 
 a preparation, but also a working out of the 
 proposition of His necessity, from the ram- 
 pant growth of all corruption, and the tyranny 
 of decadence in all its shapes.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 73 
 
 8. He comes. 
 
 (1) Mary's Immaculate Conception, and fifteen 
 
 years. 
 
 (2) The Thirty-three Years, with all their myste- 
 
 ries, living on still as it were in the hearts 
 of men. 
 
 (3) The Passion-death the only terms of redemp- 
 
 tion with the Father. 
 
 9. The Church. 
 
 (1) This is the living and real continuation of the 
 
 Incarnation. 
 
 (2) The earthly dwelling of Jesus in the Blessed 
 
 Sacrament till the day of doom. 
 
 (3) The Church is as it were a part of heaven in 
 
 exile upon earth. 
 10. The place of the Holy Ghost in the Church. 
 
 (1) To carry on the work of Jesus: in pope, 
 
 theology, sacraments, priesthoods the Holy 
 Oils are breathed into in order to consecrate 
 them. 
 
 (2) To fill it with the precise spirit of Jesus, and 
 
 to fill it abundantly : this spirit of Jesus is 
 the practical exorcism of the world and its 
 spirit from the Church. 
 
 (3) It is a sort of Palestine to Him, the sphere of 
 
 His activity, His dispensation, so to speak. 
 II. The devotion of Jesus to the Holy Ghost. 
 
 1. He begins teaching Nicodemus about Him, and 
 
 in connection with the special Christian gift of 
 regeneration. 
 
 2. He establishes His apostolate by the imparting of 
 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 3. He declares sin against Him to be unlike sin
 
 74 PART I. 
 
 against Himself, and some sin unpardonable, as 
 if by the terror of this to defend His affectionate 
 familiarities from profane liberties. 
 
 4. He knew the beau tifuln ess of His own visible 
 
 presence, yet said it was expedient He should 
 go away, in order that the Holy Ghost should 
 come ; so Jesus seems in a certain sense to aban- 
 don the field to Him. 
 
 5. He left His own work incomplete, for the Holy 
 
 Ghost to finish ; He did little more than make 
 a beginning, so far as His ministry went. 
 
 6. He made the office of the Holy Ghost one of love 
 
 to Himself to bring to mind all that He (Jesus) 
 had said. 
 
 7. He let Himself be immensely sanctified by Him. 
 
 8. He possessed Him without measure. 
 
 III. The devotion of the Holy Ghost to Jesus. 
 
 1. His Conception, which is especially appropriated 
 
 to the Holy Ghost* 
 
 2. This devotion disclosed at our Lord's baptism and 
 
 transfiguration. 
 
 3. His munificence to the Mother of Jesus. 
 
 4. No one can profess our Lord's divinity but by the 
 
 Holy Spirit, f 
 
 5. He defends His Person, Natures, Sacramental 
 
 Presence, and Mother from heresies in all ages. 
 
 6. He steps in in confirmation to strengthen the 
 
 wavering loyalty of Christ's soldiers. 
 
 7. In ordination He, as it were, multiplies the sphere 
 
 of Jesus, as Jesus by the Incarnation had already 
 enlarged the sphere of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 8. His way of leading the apostles into all truth 
 
 * Billuart, v. 340. f 1 Cor. xii. 3.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 75 
 
 was by bringing to their minds all the words 
 of Jesus. 
 9. The saints, who are the handiwork of the Holy 
 
 Ghost, are but multiplied likenesses of Jesus. 
 
 IV. The Holy Ghost and Mary. 
 
 1. Mary is inextricably bound up with Jesus, from 
 
 His predestination downwards. 
 
 2. She stood in separate relations to each of the 
 
 Three Divine Persons. 
 
 3. Her relation to the Holy Ghost was that of 
 
 Spouse : what does that imply ? 
 
 (1) That as He was the term of God, the Incar- 
 
 nation took place through His overshadowing 
 Mary. 
 
 (2) That He fashioned the Sacred Humanity of 
 
 Jesus. 
 
 (3) That He did this with her consent. 
 
 4. He overshadowed her at the incarnation as it 
 
 were to shield her, and keep her alive in that 
 mystery, just as she was miraculously kept alive 
 beneath the Cross. 
 
 5. Her different sanctifications were great indescrib- 
 
 able operations of His. 
 
 6. His descent on her at Pentecost, as if more with 
 
 her now that she was childless; 
 
 7. As Spouse, she rightfully occupied His position 
 
 in the earthly Trinity. 
 
 V. The Holy Ghost and the Incarnation. 
 
 1. His connection with the Sacred Humanity, both 
 Soul and Body : Jesus, being full of the Holy 
 Ghost, returned from the Jordan, and was led 
 (driven out, Mark i. 12) by the Spirit into the 
 desert. Luke iv. 1.
 
 76 PART I. 
 
 2. It seemed as if the Incarnation, as it were, let 
 
 Him loose, and gave Him space. 
 
 3. This would be a personal reason for His having 
 
 so much to do with the preliminaries and pre- 
 parations of it. 
 
 4. Pentecost was His advent, as it were, with His 
 
 new Mary; and the apostles were almost as 
 much His as they were our Lord's.* 
 
 5. He has the same end as Jesus, the exaltation 
 
 of the Father: for He is the Spirit of adop- 
 tion, by whom we cry Abba, Father; just as 
 the Father sent Him in the Name of Jesus. 
 John xiv. 26. 
 VI. The Holy Trinity. 
 
 1. All these things were done in the utmost unity 
 
 by the Holy Ghost and by Jesus. 
 
 2. The Sacred Humanity belonging, and infinitely 
 
 dear, to all the Three Persons. 
 
 3. The Holy Trinity absolutely One in its action 
 
 in all these things ; 
 
 4. Yet variously representing its distinctness of 
 
 Persons. 
 
 5. Nevertheless those representations are but ap- 
 
 propriations. 
 
 6. In Mission now One comes forward, now An- 
 
 other: One manifests Himself in the effect, 
 visible or invisible, where all are really present. 
 
 7. Yet by far the greatest amount of Mission is 
 
 appropriated to the Holy Ghost. 
 
 * The operations in the " fond de 1'aine " in high mystical states 
 are a miraculous union of the Holy Ghost parallel to what the 
 Second Person docs in the Blessed Sacrament. Barbancon, Secrets 
 Sentiers, chap. 13, p. 325.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 77 
 
 8. The Father is not sent, but present, and operat- 
 
 ing concomitantly with the others. 
 
 9. Impossibility of our clearly understanding this: 
 
 but so it is in all discourses of the life and action 
 of God, whose unimaginable simplicity falsifies 
 every word we say. 
 
 VII. On what we may reverently conceive the devotion 
 of Jesus to the Holy Ghost was based. 
 
 1. On His love, as a Divine Person Himself, for 
 
 the person of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 2. On the worship which in His Human Nature He 
 
 paid to the Holy Ghost. 
 
 3. On gratitude, as it were, for His Sacred 
 
 Humanity being specially fashioned by the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 4. On His immense love of holiness, and delight in 
 
 the operations of grace. 
 
 5. On His love of Him as the Spouse of His 
 
 Mother. 
 
 6. On His choice of Him as His successor in the 
 
 Church. 
 
 7. On the peculiar sympathy between His Human 
 
 Nature and the Divine Nature of the Holy 
 
 Ghost. 
 
 (1) Because of the Love of His Human Nature 
 for the Holy Ghost in consequence of its 
 exceeding Holiness, which was the work 
 of that Divine Person, and an unparalleled 
 communication of the Divine Nature by 
 sanctifying grace to a created Nature, simi- 
 lar to that in some measure which His 
 own Divine Person communicated to His 
 assumed Nature.
 
 78 PART L 
 
 (2) Because of the substantial indwelling of the 
 Holy Ghost in His Human Nature by 
 Mission, the most magnificent of all His 
 Missions : so that He dwelt in Jesus eternally 
 by the beautiful mystery of Circuminsession, 
 and temporarily by Mission. 
 
 Love of the Holy Ghost is therefore a prominent 
 feature of the spirit of Jesus. Unless we also have 
 a very special love for Him, we are not yet thoroughly 
 penetrated with the spirit of Jesus. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE HOLY GHOST AND THE SOUL. 
 
 THE multitudes of souls which there are in the world 
 their variety and varying circumstances : there is 
 not one with whom the Holy Ghost has not had most 
 numerous, complicated, and persevering relations, if 
 they have come to man's estate. 
 I. His names are illustrations of His work in the 
 
 individual soul. 
 1. Spirit. 
 
 (1) This represents the method of His uncreated 
 
 origin. 
 
 (2) It also expresses His office in the soul. 
 
 (3) He is in the soul the initiative, representative, 
 
 and ally of all immaterial interests. 
 
 (4) The hiddenness of His work is in fact an 
 
 excellence of its spirituality. 
 
 (5) His method of operations is peculiarly subtle, 
 
 delicate, and spiritual.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 79 
 
 2. Love. 
 
 (1) He is Himself an uncreated Love; 
 
 (2) And also the fountain of all holy created love. 
 
 (3) He is wedded indissolubly to a state of grace, 
 
 which is a state of love. 
 
 (4) He never comes to us without augmenting our 
 
 love, and our love is never augmenting with- 
 out His coming to us substantially. 
 
 (5) He breeds in us especially a love of Jesus. 
 
 3. Paraclete. 
 
 (1) This is expressive of the tenderness of His 
 
 office towards us : St. Athanasius notes that 
 the word does not occur in the Old Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 (2) Comforter, inwardly comforting us espe- 
 
 cially 
 
 1. In the uncertainty of our salvation : the 
 
 wonder that this is bearable : He makes it so. 
 
 2. In temptation : we occasionally see how pow- 
 erless we are of ourselves. 
 
 3. In exile from God, continued for so many 
 
 years of mortal life. 
 
 (3) Advocate,* which is comforting us outwardly, 
 
 by getting us aid : mystery of a Divine Person 
 being called an Advocate. 
 
 (4) Both these offices flow from His love. 
 
 (5) The last is the same office as that of the Sacred 
 
 Humanity and the Five Wounds in heaven : 
 only the wounds are silent, the Spirit has 
 unutterable plaints. 
 
 4. Gift. 
 
 (1) All good gifts are from Him ; 
 
 * Corn, a Lapide in Rom. viii. 26.
 
 80 PART L 
 
 (2) Yet all from the Father. 
 
 (3) Because He is Himself the gift of the Father 
 
 and the Son. 
 
 (4) He also gives Himself. 
 
 (5) And with Himself gives Them. 
 
 II. His most ordinary operations in the soul are those 
 
 of grace. 
 
 1. Sanctifying grace is the foundation of everything; 
 
 and -it is His Mission. 
 
 2. His indwelling in the soul substantially by grace. 
 
 3. By each augmentation of grace He dwells there 
 
 in a different manner from what He ever did 
 before. 
 
 4. Then there are the inward pleadings and struggles 
 
 of actual grace. 
 
 5. So that one while He looks like natural conscience, 
 
 another while like Guardian Angel. 
 
 6. His share in the sacraments : ordination conse- 
 
 cration illapsus. 
 
 7. What we call the interior life is the life we lead 
 
 with Him in our souls. 
 
 III. His gifts, which are still higher operations. 
 
 1. He has some very special gifts, seven in number, 
 
 with which he works in souls : they are marvel- 
 lous tools, undreamed possibilities of grandeur 
 of soul, unsurpassed forms of beauty, working 
 miracles with our natures without doing violence 
 to them ; by them we touch, and taste, and relish, 
 what we know by faith. 
 
 2. They are infused habits, enabling us to graceful 
 
 promptitude in the service of God, on which 
 His actual impulses play as on sweet-voiced 
 keys of music: the divine germs of all real
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 81 
 
 human heroicity, foundation of all high prin- 
 ciples, mine of all supernatural instincts, freeing 
 us from the slavery of creatures, and giving us 
 liberty. Isaias arranges them in their mutual 
 connections and attractions.* They also have 
 occult connections with the fruits of the Holy 
 Ghost, and our Lord's Beatitudes. 
 
 3. Wisdom to see the causes and fitnesses, and 
 
 taste the savor, of divine things : the fruit and 
 beatitude 
 
 (1) Fruit : Faith. 
 
 (2) Beatitude. Blessed are the peacemakers : for 
 
 they shall be called the children of God. 
 
 4. Understanding to penetrate more intimately into 
 
 the truths of faith : how much is supernatural 
 in the operations of a Christian intellect ! 
 
 (1) Fruit: Faith. 
 
 (2) Beatitude. Blessed are the clean of heart: 
 
 for they shall see God. 
 
 5. Science to judge correctly of human things, ac- 
 
 cording to God's view and the principles of grace. 
 
 (1) Fruit : Faith. 
 
 (2) Beatitude. Blessed are they that mourn: 
 
 for they shall be comforted. 
 
 6. Counsel to direct the actions of faith : grace 
 
 for details, is my own view of it. 
 
 (1) Fruit 
 
 A. Some say none, because its own operation 
 is its fruit. 
 
 B. On my view, goodness. 
 
 (2) Beatitude. Blessed are the merciful : for 
 
 they shall obtain mercy. 
 
 *Lallement (English Edition), pp. 142, 143. 
 Vol. I. F
 
 82 PART I. 
 
 1. Piety softness to God and to others; giving 
 right instincts. 
 
 (1) Fruit: Benignity and joy. 
 
 (2) Beatitude. Blessed are the meek : for they 
 
 shall possess the land. 
 
 8. Fortitude to suffer, to dare, and to persevere in 
 
 daring ; also to protect us against ourselves. 
 
 (1) Fruits : Longanimity and patience. 
 
 (2) Beatitude. Blessed are they that hunger and 
 
 thirst for justice : for they shall have their 
 fill. 
 
 9. Fear to repress our pride and forwardness, and 
 
 to give us the gift of adoration : in the edifice 
 of the spiritual life, this is the foundation. 
 
 (1) Fruits: Modesty, temperance, and chastity. 
 
 (2) Beatitude. Blessed are the poor in spirit: 
 
 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 10. These gifts, grand thought! can grow, and do 
 
 grow with our fervor and charity : yet there 
 is sometimes, as in tepid priests and mere up- 
 to-the-mark religious, a mere physical growth 
 of them, without any corresponding actual 
 growth, or any proportionate eliciting of them 
 in acts of perfection.* 
 
 11. They are very delicate and are almost instantly 
 
 tied up by the thinnest ligatures of venial sin. 
 
 12. Also they insist on being our masters: we must 
 
 abandon ourselves to them, and give them their 
 fling. 
 
 IV. The fruits of the Holy Ghost, such as are specially 
 named so in Scripture, are the results of the 
 maturity of grace. 
 
 *Lallemaiit (English edition), p. 148.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 83 
 
 1. They are certain holy actions performed. 
 
 (1) With agility. 
 
 (2) With promptitude. 
 
 (3) With sweetness. 
 
 2. There is a maturity about them, which is a fourth 
 
 quality, distinguishing them even more than the 
 other three from common virtuous actions. 
 
 3. They very peculiarly fill the soul with God : this 
 
 also probably results from their maturity. 
 
 4. They represent the Holy Ghost Himself and His 
 
 divine life. 
 
 5. Fruits : Charity because He is the love of the 
 
 Father and the Son. 
 
 6. Joy because He is the jubilee of the Father and 
 
 the Son. 
 
 7. Peace because He is the bond of the Father and 
 
 the Son. 
 
 N.B. These three fruits are the fountains of all the 
 rest : the remaining nine of the twelve are more or less 
 concerned with these three, and more or less subordi- 
 nate to them. 
 
 8. Patience moderate excess of sadness, and secures 
 
 joy- 
 
 9. Meekness allays anger, which disturbs charity, 
 
 joy, and peace. 
 
 10. Goodness an energetic inclination to benefit 
 
 others, which is joyous charity. 
 
 11. Benignity the doing of this cordially and 
 
 genially : geniality is an emanation of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 12. Longanimity against weariness and fatigue,which 
 
 hold charity, joy, and peace under pressure and 
 in dulness. '
 
 84 PART I. 
 
 13. Faith a facility in believing, without repugnance 
 
 or dulness. 
 
 14. Modesty gracefulness of body, manners, and 
 
 speech, so as to be the outward beauty of charity, 
 joy, and peace. 
 
 15. Temperance refraining bodily appetites and 
 
 inordinations by mortification, so as to protect 
 the rights of our spiritual nature, and make 
 room for charity, joy and peace. 
 
 16. Chastity the virtue of purity : a kind of return 
 
 to innocence, or preservation of it so as to 
 make the soul a fair temple of charity, joy and 
 peace. 
 V. His ways, familiarities, and excesses. 
 
 1. Gratuitous gifts, not necessarily sanctifying the 
 receiver, but part of the Holy Ghost's love of 
 the Church.* 
 
 (1) Word of wisdom knowledge of eternal 
 
 things, so as to talk of them pursuasively. 
 
 (2) Word of science intuitive gift of counsel 
 
 about moral and human things. 
 
 (3) Faith eloquence and clearness to teach and 
 
 make plain the hard mysteries of the faith. 
 
 (4) Healing to cure diseases and heal wounds. 
 
 (5) Virtues miracles unconnected with the 
 
 human body. 
 
 (6) Prophecy seeing or making public things 
 
 future or things absent. 
 
 (7) Discernment of spirits seeing into hearts 
 
 and judging of operations in souls. 
 
 (8) Tongues to speak them or to hear them. 
 
 (9) Interpretation of tongues to explain diffi- 
 
 * Tempesti, i. 379.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 85 
 
 culties in Scripture, or hard words in theo- 
 logy, or the tongues which others speak. 
 (10) All these were in Christ habitually ; and of 
 our Lady, Novatus says,* Dico satis credible 
 esse Beatoe Virgini a primo suce conceptionis 
 momenta omnes gratias gratis datas per 
 modum habitus a Deo fuisse collatas. Suaderi 
 potest ex nonnullis Scripturce locis, et rationi- 
 bus : but it was not so with any of the saints ; 
 they possessed them only transiently. 
 
 2. His inspirations. 
 
 (1) Their frequency, like a man talking softly to 
 
 us all the day long, even in crowds. 
 
 (2) Their delicacy, like muffled notes of music, 
 
 or thin leafy whispers of a breeze, or an 
 unseen lark up in white air so short, 
 enigmatic, fragmentary. 
 
 (3) Habit of listening for them this shapes our 
 
 whole life afresh, and gives it a supernatural 
 posture and attitude. 
 
 (4) They multiply by listening, like a bird in 
 
 a wood who is answered by another, or as 
 sounds come in quiet places when we listen ; 
 so we are ever hearing celestial music, broken 
 now and then by higher surges of wind, 
 when the world and life are stormy. 
 
 (5) All perfection consists in docility to them: 
 
 the faults of the saints came from want of 
 this ; it is the subject matter of their faults, 
 as disobedience to the commandments is the 
 subject matter of positive sins. 
 
 3. His caresses. 
 
 * Cap. xix. qu. xiv.
 
 86 PART L 
 
 (1) Sweetnesses in prayer, suffering, and spiri- 
 
 tual occupations : a shred of His jubilee. 
 
 (2) Surprises tears, smiles, holy fear, sudden 
 
 familiarity with God, momentary contacts 
 and senses of His presence. 
 
 (3) Sudden leaps in the road to perfection, out 
 
 of the common laws of slow acquisition, as 
 when all the species of evil thoughts were 
 suddenly destroyed in the mind of St. 
 Ignatius at Manresa. 
 
 (4) Special attractions in the spiritual life, and 
 
 the whole doctrine of vocation ; vocation is 
 His caress ; to go against it is to refuse 
 His kiss. 
 
 (5) Special and peculiar graces, one or more of 
 
 which distinguish nearly every man, such as 
 keeping recollected, and the like. 
 
 (6) Locutions, out loud or in the heart, common 
 
 to all the saints. 
 
 (7) Violent conversions, unlike the gentleness of 
 
 unresisted grace: sometimes also He is 
 violent with the saints, and on the whole 
 masterfulness, like the strong wind at Pen- 
 tecost, is a characteristic of Him. 
 
 (8) Curious states of some holy souls, as if free 
 
 will were almost gone: St. Gertrude could 
 only say what our Lord wished her to say 
 others could only pray as He wished 
 others could not hear when worldly things 
 were talked of; but in all these and similar 
 states the spirit of Jesus is the predominant 
 thing which the Holy Ghost produces. 
 
 (9) Unions with some one attribute of God or
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 87 
 
 one mystery of Jesus or Mary or the 
 Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 (10) Familiarities with simply souls, the Dove nest- 
 ling in human wills for ever, with a predi- 
 lection like that of Jesus : instances from 
 Siniscalchi ; St. Gregory, St. Philip, <fec. 
 Look at a building full of strange machinery so is 
 the soul with all this machinery of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 DEVOTION TO THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 WE have seen now Who the Holy Ghost is, and what 
 He has done, and what He does in our own souls ; we 
 now come to the practical question of the devotion we 
 ought to have for Him. 
 I. What devotion to One of the Divine Persons means. 
 
 1. Each Person is equal altogether to the other Two: 
 
 simple adoration is due to Him, as to the One 
 God. 
 
 2. Indeed one Person cannot be worshipped without 
 
 All being so : so that even when directed to One 
 it falls upon All. 
 
 3. Such devotion as we pay to Mary, angels, and 
 
 saints, is impossible ; although, as with those 
 inferior devotions, our devotion to Divine Per- 
 sons rests both on the imitable and the admir- 
 able : God is almost more imitable than the 
 Saints, because of His inimitable simplicity. 
 
 4. We have a knowledge of the different Persons, 
 
 and the peculiarities of Their relative sub-
 
 88 PART I. 
 
 sistenoe, putting out of view Their absolute 
 Essence. 
 
 5. On this knowledge certain feelings rise, which are 
 
 distinctive. 
 
 6. Devotion to One of the Divine Persons is there- 
 
 fore the simple worship of God, into which these 
 distinctive feelings enter ; and these feelings 
 direct the acts of the mind and heart peculiarly 
 to One of the Persons, as if specifying, or giving 
 a species to, the worship. 
 
 7. Thus it is devotion in the highest sense of devo- 
 
 tion : it is adoration of the Divine Essence, not 
 so much limited to One Person by being directed 
 to Him, but with the feelings excited by the 
 characteristics of One Person rather than the 
 other Two added to it, which makes it a very 
 special act of worship of the other Two, as the 
 Three Divine Persons are Their own mutual 
 love, and joy, and self-sufficiency. 
 II. By what means we arrive at devotion to the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 1. It is founded, first of all, on our knowledge of His 
 
 peculiar place in the Divine Life. 
 
 2. Next on His action in and upon creation, as shown 
 
 in its history. 
 
 3. Next on His connection with Jesus. 
 
 4. Next on His work and method in the individual 
 
 soul. 
 
 5. We must make an idea of Him as we do of 
 
 Jesus. Our devotion to our Blessed Lord is 
 based upon our idea of Him ; we should have 
 had a devotion to Him if we had only known 
 that He was our Incarnate Redeemer: but,
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 89 
 
 having the four Gospels, our idea of Him is more 
 characteristic, intimate, and detailed, and our idea 
 of Him is drawn from them. So must we from 
 Scripture, theology, lives of saints, and our own 
 experience, make an idea of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 6. We must ascertain 
 
 (1) What He is like. 
 
 (2) What He has done. 
 
 (3) What He does. 
 
 (4) How He does it. 
 
 (5) Our own concern with Him, His work, and 
 
 His Method. 
 
 We must then correct our idea by the analogy of 
 faith. 
 
 7. This inquiry, and this correction, have been the 
 
 occupations of the preceding lectures; so we 
 may now build up our devotion, simply recapitu- 
 lating what we have said. It is important to 
 remember that any probable opinion is sufficient 
 to form a principle and foundation for a devotion.* 
 III. The likenesses of the Holy Ghost. 
 1. He has three kinds of likenesses. 
 
 (1) Likeness to the Father, from whom He has 
 
 received the Father's own likeness. 
 
 (2) Likeness to Jesus 
 
 1. From whom He has received the likeness 
 
 of the Son's Divine Nature. 
 
 2. To whose Human Nature He has Himself 
 
 given the likeness of His Divine Nature. 
 
 (3) Likeness to Mary and the Saints, which is 
 
 wholly from Himself, and a reflection of 
 Himself. 
 
 *Lallemant (English edition), p. 180.
 
 90 PART I. 
 
 2. His actual likenesses. 
 
 (1) To the Father. 
 
 1. In His habit of pleading with men, as if 
 
 He were their equal, as with Cain, Job, 
 Jonas, and the Jews. 
 
 2. In His non-incarnation. 
 
 3. In His repairing His ruined projects, like 
 
 a spider its web, as the Fall, vocation of 
 the Jews, Jewish kingdom, &c., and so 
 with each soul. 
 
 4. In His jealousy ; in this he is less like the 
 
 Son than like the Father. 
 
 5. In His sensitiveness ; being so easily 
 
 grieved. 
 
 (2) To Jesus. 
 
 1. In His.gentleness. 
 
 2. In His patience, and His power of waiting ; 
 
 though here, as we shall see hereafter, 
 there is a difference ; but in the forbear- 
 ance the likeness is complete. 
 
 3. In His minuteness of love. 
 
 4. In His prodigality He is spendthrift of 
 
 His inspirations, as the Son was of His 
 Precious Blood. Oh the waste of inspira- 
 tions ! yet each one of Them, rightly consi- 
 dered, is more wonderful than the grandest 
 book ever written, or the finest work of 
 art ever designed, let alone executed. 
 
 5. In unity of spirit with Jesus. 
 
 (3) To Mary. 
 
 1. She has borrowed all from Him, and so 
 
 reflects Him. 
 
 2. In her love of Jesus.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 91 
 
 3. In her share in the Incarnation. 
 
 4. In her union of the deepest pathos with the 
 
 highest joy ever found in a creature. 
 
 5. In her intercessory office. 
 
 6. In the way she teaches Jesus, leads to Him, 
 
 magnifies Him, glorifies Him, hides herself 
 behind Him, so that He may be the more 
 seen. 
 
 7. As in long years people grow like each 
 other by living together, so with Mary 
 and her Spouse the Holy Ghost, in her 
 successive sanctifications : she had become 
 so much more like Jesus upon Calvary, 
 that the Holy Ghost founded on that 
 another indescribable sauctification at 
 Pentecost. 
 
 (4) To Angels. 
 
 1. In invisibility of offices. 
 
 2. In fidelity of unwearied ministrations. 
 
 3. In joyousness, yet pitifulness for men ; as St. 
 
 Raphael, His own angel, so sets forth with 
 all his joy a romance of sympathy with the 
 sorrows of human life. 
 
 4. In the exhibition which they are of countless 
 
 variety of His graces. 
 
 5. In their end, which is to glorify Jesus their 
 
 King. 
 
 (5) To the Saints. 
 
 They are His portrait of Himself: they are 
 saints, because He is the Holy Spirit ; His 
 gifts in them, His fruits in them this is 
 their sanctity. They are His Bible, just 
 as the Old Testament reveals the Father,
 
 92 PART L 
 
 and the New Testament the Son, so the 
 saints of the Church reveal the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 3. The likeness of His created symbols. 
 
 (1) Wind. 
 
 1. Represents His invisibility, with visible 
 
 effects. 
 
 2. His seeming waywardness, as He lists : i. e., 
 
 no law discernible, but some law deep 
 laid in His uncreated love, working up 
 from beneath the depths of His predesti- 
 nation. 
 
 3. His vehemence, as at Pentecost the rushing 
 
 wind ; so the Church in some ages of the 
 world has been visibly shaken by this 
 wind. 
 
 (2) Dove. 
 
 1. The quiet pacific method of His common 
 
 action. 
 
 2. His brooding character, as at creation over 
 
 chaos. 
 
 3. His plaintive pathos, like that shy hidden 
 
 voice of the deep woodland life, that woos 
 and complains, and puts a soul into the 
 summer woods, overruling, yet not by loud- 
 ness, all other songs of birds. 
 
 (3) Fire. 
 
 1. His being the love of the Father and the 
 
 Son. 
 
 2. His intensity : consuming, refining, trans- 
 
 muting all things, especially all created 
 attachments. 
 
 3. His masterfulness : He will reign alone.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 93 
 
 (4) Bright Cloud, as at Transfiguration and 
 
 Ascension. 
 
 1. Light, yet a light that hides a privacy of 
 
 glorious light is Thine breeds love of con- 
 cealment in others : all sanctity is shy. 
 
 2. Jesus hides in Him, and is borne about on 
 
 Him as on a car. 
 
 3. Silent procession of clouds, varying shapes, 
 
 melting off and reappearing, hanging about 
 heights, fantastic mutations in blue sky, 
 making light beautiful : all these pheno- 
 mena are images of Him. 
 
 (5) Shadow, as with Mary. 
 
 1. A shadow from creation's garish light. 
 
 2. A shadow which fertilizes, and preserves 
 
 the dampness, like a wood on the edge of 
 the sandy wilderness. 
 
 3. A shadow which cools nature's heats, and 
 
 inspires a joyous awe as of God's neigh- 
 borhood. 
 
 IV. His peculiarities as exhibited in His action in 
 creation, and the way in which they each and 
 all correspond to what is distinctive about Him 
 in the Divine Life. 
 
 1. Something so very human about Him, rather 
 than angelic: at least as He reveals Himself 
 to men. 
 
 (1) As if, like the Eternal Word, He was more 
 
 drawn to our nature. 
 
 (2) The Scriptures specially attribute creature- 
 like feelings to Him. 
 
 (3) Griefs plaints Abba, Father intercession 
 
 likeness of dove. This answers to His
 
 94 PART I. 
 
 being next to creatures as the Term of the 
 Godhead. 
 
 2. His likeness, in His action in creation, to the 
 
 Father and the Son, as above drawn out. This 
 answers to His Procession from them Both, as 
 one principle. 
 
 3. His tenderness and love, which we have already 
 
 seen. This answers to His proceeding from the 
 Father and the Son by the way of the will, and 
 not by the way of the understanding. 
 
 4. Joy put forward especially in Scripture as 
 
 among His most prominent fruits and constant 
 effects. This answers to His being the Jubilee 
 of the Father and the Son. 
 
 The disciples were filled with joy and with 
 
 the Holy Ghost. Acts xiii. 52. 
 The kingdom of God is not meat and drink : 
 but justice, and peace, and joy in the Holy 
 Ghost. Rom. xiv. 17. 
 The fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, 
 
 &c. Gal. v. 22. 
 
 Receiving the word in much tribulation, with 
 joy of the Holy Ghost. 1 Thess. i. 6. 
 
 5. Thus, His created symbols answer to His un- 
 
 created relative subsistence. 
 
 V. The spirit of devotion to Him ; it is as to Jesus in 
 the Passion, not Jesus Risen. 
 
 1. A spirit of tearful tenderness and pathos. 
 
 2. A spirit of familiarity, from His intimacy, and 
 
 the colloquial nature of His inspirations. 
 
 3. A spirit of docility for He is master. 
 
 4. A spirit of detachment, because He is the end of 
 
 creatures : to us God begins with Him.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY IRINITY. 95 
 
 5. A spirit of holy fear, because, 1. Of what Jesus 
 
 says of Him. 2. Of what we ourselves know 
 of Him. 
 
 6. A spirit of simplicity, as simple souls are His own 
 
 obvious attraction and devotion. 
 
 7. A spirit of truthfulness and reality : e.g. Ananias 
 
 and Sapphira. 
 
 8. A spirit of haired of heresy, as it is a sin espe- 
 
 cially against Him. 
 
 9. A spirit of Humility : He exhibits something in 
 
 God's tenderness so like what would be humility 
 in creatures: there is nothing in the Divine 
 Nature on which God could base humility 
 so He bases a sweet semblance of it upon our 
 necessities, and sorrows, and even our trans- 
 gressions. 
 
 VI. The effects of devotion to Him upon the soul. 
 
 1. It brings us, as it were, into the life of God. 
 
 2. It makes us gradually at home in the mystery of 
 
 the Holy Trinity, which is our eternal home. 
 
 3. It breeds in us the real spirit of Jesus. 
 
 4. It makes us interior, yet outlooking, just in the 
 
 right proportions. 
 
 5. It increases His gifts and multiplies His fruits 
 
 in us. 
 
 6. Its most direct effects are to give us facility in 
 
 believing, and promptitude in serving God. 
 
 7. A spirit of the most irrepressible joy, and exclu- 
 
 sive rejoicing in unworldly things. 
 
 VII. Examples of it. 
 
 1. The apostles, in councils, epistles, &c. 
 
 2. St. Gregory the Great with the dove at his ear. 
 
 3. Blessed Crispin of Viterbo.
 
 96 PART I. 
 
 4. St. Philip's miraculous heart. 
 
 5. It ought to be the spirit of the Oratory. 
 
 (1) Because of its Founder. 
 
 (2) Its occupations preaching, confession , prayer : 
 
 endless reliance on the Holy Ghost. 
 
 (3) Spirit of joy and brightness: sunniness it 
 
 accounts for St. Philip's. 
 
 (4) The institute has charity instead of vow. 
 
 (5) Revelation to the Ven. Serafina di Dio. * 
 
 VIII. How this devotion concerns us, seen by a con- 
 
 trast between hearts with the Holy Ghost, and 
 hearts without Him.f 
 
 1. To have, or not to have Him, makes all the differ- 
 
 ence of the beauty and reality of this life ; 
 
 2. And all the destiny of the life to come. 
 
 3. It means whether we belong to Jesus or not. 
 
 4. Amid Angels the difference is that between 
 
 Michael and Satan. 
 
 5. Among men, between Peter and Judas. 
 
 6. On the quantity of Him, or intimacy with Him, 
 
 or docility to Him, lies based all the huge differ- 
 ence between saints and common believers. 
 
 7. To be without Him is to have been by our own 
 
 fault created for nothing, or worse than nothing, 
 to have missed the end of our creation, to be a 
 part of everlasting darkness, of everlasting 
 unlovingness. 
 
 IX. Contrasts between the Holy Ghost and Jesus. 
 
 * V. note at the end of the chapter, p. 99. 
 
 f The devotion of the Cur6 of Ars to the Holy Ghost ; Spirit of 
 the Cure of Ars, p. 47. See also lives of Grignon de Montfort, 
 Liebermann, and Desplaces, founder of the Seminaire du St. 
 Esprit. St. Gertrude's visions concerning the Holy Ghost are 
 given in her life, lib. iv. cap. 40.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 97 
 
 1. We are speaking of peculiarities, not oppositions, 
 
 in order to clear our view and base our devotion. 
 
 2. He is with us now, like a Second Jesus, only 
 
 without Body, Eyes and Voice. 
 
 3. All life the world over, all Christian life is now 
 
 like the thirty-three years in Palestine, teaching, 
 healing, being beautiful, as the son was then : 
 or rather it is the three years' Ministry prolonged 
 to the Doom not the Infancy or Passion : this 
 is remarkable, as devotion to Him is in spirit so 
 similar to devotion to the Passion : Jesus Him- 
 self continues the Infancy and Passion by means 
 of the Mass and the Blessed Sacrament, while 
 the Holy Ghost continues the Ministry, but con- 
 tinues it in the spirit of Jesus, with peculiarities. 
 
 4. His presence such as to make it expedient Christ 
 
 should go. 
 
 5. Seeming contrasts, or say rather, individual 
 
 features of the Holy Ghost by the side of Jesus. 
 
 (1) He speaks more, is less taciturn. 
 
 (2) More pathetic : it is we ourselves who mostly 
 
 put pathos into the actions of Jesus when we 
 preach: in the narrative of the Gospels 
 there is a peculiar, almost unpathetic, bright- 
 ness and simplicity. 
 
 (3) He takes the initiative more. 
 
 (4) He is more touchy and sensitive, if we may 
 
 venture on such words. 
 
 (5) He seems, with all his devotion to sinners, to 
 
 have a greater devotion to saints: whereas 
 this was less brought out in our Lord. 
 
 (6) He seems to make more haste : St Ambrose's 
 
 neseit tarda molimina Spiritus Sancti gratia. 
 Vol. I. G
 
 98 PAET I. 
 
 (7) He punishes more, as if His justice were more 
 purely divine. 
 
 There is ever before me a dim vision of the beauty 
 of the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the 
 eternally proceeding Love of the Father and the Son. 
 I have tried to image Him, as the dove or tongues of 
 fire ; then as the sound of the mountain-wind high up, 
 while the woods and lakes lay unruffled in the vales ; 
 then as a wondrous shoreless uncreated Sea of Love. 
 But I was discontented. Then I tried to picture His 
 Divine Person, not like the Ancient of Days in Daniel, 
 as the Father, nor like the Lamb slain, as the Incar- 
 nate Son, but as a distinct person veiled in light, and 
 the white resplendency of shadow-casting clouds. But 
 it was not enough. Then I pictured Him as if He 
 were the viewless air, which I breathed, which was 
 my life, as if the air were He, going into me and coming 
 out, and He a Divine Person, sweetly envious of the 
 Son, sweetly coveting the Sacred Humanity which He 
 Himself had fashioned, and coming into the world on 
 beautifullest mission, seeking to be as near incarnate 
 as He could be without an actual incarnation ; and it 
 was so near that he seemed almost human, though 
 unincarnate. And this was the clearest view I ever 
 could see of that Divine Person. 
 
 May He forgive what I have written of Him, and 
 accept it, and bear with me a little longer, till I have 
 drawn my last breath in Him, and breathed it forth 
 again as my first breath of another life, a fresh son 
 newly born at the Feet of the Eternal Father ! 
 
 ST. MARY'S, SYDENHAM, 
 The Annunciation, 1857.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 99 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 REVELATION TO THE YEN. SERAFINA DI DIO, CAKMELITESS 
 AT NAPLES. 
 
 In 1699, on the evening preceding the Nativity of the 
 Blessed Virgin, the special feast of the Oratory at Naples, the 
 servant of God had a revelation which she gave in writing to 
 her director: it is as follows: 
 
 "I should wish to write, not with a pen, bat with the 
 tongue of a Seraph, not with ink, but with my own blood, 
 that this letter might be a flame of fire, to consume the whole 
 Congregation, or I should wish to send the very interior of 
 my heart to explain and make you understand what I heard 
 on the eve of the Nativity from the Blessed Virgin herself, 
 and from our and your Holy Father St. Philip regarding his 
 Congregation. 
 
 " I saw the Saint with the great Mother of God in a flame 
 of fire, and surrounded with light ; I prayed earnestly to him 
 for his Congregation and for each individual of it in particular ; 
 and with a sweet countenance, he said to me many beautiful 
 things, of which I will tell you some briefly. 
 
 " The saint showed me what his sons ought to be and also 
 the dignity of the Congregation, made as it were after the 
 likeness of God and of the Three Divine Persons, especially 
 of the Person of the Holy Ghost: and he told me, that those 
 who belong to the Congregation ought not to be called by any 
 other name than sons of the Holy Ghost, and that the Con- 
 gregation ought to be called the Temple of the Holy Ghost ; 
 he said, it was not my spirit that founded it, but the Holy 
 Spirit, and as such they ought to work and to be all love for 
 God and their neighbor ; I desire nothing of them, but that 
 they burn with that fire, of which they are the sons ; and he 
 made me perceive clearly that this is suitable to this Con- 
 gregation : and I saw the care he has for it, and the many 
 caresses that he bestowed on some of the Fathers and the 
 encouragements he gave them.
 
 100 PART L 
 
 " I also saw that the Blessed Virgin is the Patroness and 
 Protectress of the Congregation, and this consoled me much. 
 Oh why have I not words to express the nobility of the 
 Congregation and its state and high condition, because its 
 members have no other obligation than to love God, who is 
 the summit and perfection of everything; they are children 
 chosen for great heights of spirituality. Oh how noble did 
 it appear to me ! and how great did the last imperfection 
 seem in them, on account of the dignity of their condition 
 and the delights of their state, which I saw to be like a 
 meadow, rejoicing in the sweet breezes of the Holy Ghost, 
 who excites His sons to work nobly and of their own free 
 will. 
 
 " I knew in general, that in proportion to the nobility of 
 this state, a greater and more immaculate correspondence to 
 it is required : and I saw how frightful is the least stain and 
 dust of imperfection in him who professes it. The Saint told 
 me that with great affection he recommended them all to God. 
 All this was in general. May the Lord be ever praised and 
 blessed ! I knew then in the mind of the Holy Father what 
 he wished to say to me and what he meant by showing me 
 so many beautiful things. For without speaking he had 
 explained to me the perfection we must have, in order to be 
 children of light. 
 
 "It would be monstrous, if fire were to produce snow, 
 light darkness, and crystal mud. I do not know how to 
 explain myself better, but I understand the meaning that the 
 Saint wished to convey. It would be wonderful if a sweet 
 tree produced gall ; how much greater a prodigy would it be, 
 if in any sons of St. Philip, who are called sons of the Holy 
 Ghost, any defect were to exist! I saw the sanctity that 
 the state requires and that which he who professes it can 
 easily attain to and ought to possess. I saw the saint caress 
 many of the Fathers and encourage many others. 1 write 
 briefly, for I had a night and a day of such delights as our 
 Lord only knows."
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 10J 
 
 II. 
 PENTECOST. 
 
 I. What can they want who have Jesus ? e.g. Disciples 
 
 in Judea. 
 
 1. Fascination of personal influence : His was beyond 
 
 compare. 
 
 2. Marvellous beauty, variety, novelty, and yet 
 
 familiarity of His kindness and gentleness. 
 
 3. The secret, nameless, supernatural spell which 
 
 breathed out from Him. 
 
 4. The sheathing of His Godhead in His human 
 
 tenderness. 
 
 5. Yet the ever new delight of the knowledge of 
 
 His Godhead. 
 
 II. Yet our Lord Himself said they did want some- 
 
 thing : their want was the Holy Ghost. 
 
 1. A Divine Person who is specially love, and so 
 
 especially to be worshipped by love. 
 
 2. Overshadowing Mary John said Jesus would 
 
 baptize with the Holy Ghost last day of feast 
 (John vii. 37-39). 
 
 3. What Jesus said Himself It is expedient that I 
 
 go away and that blasphemy against the Holy 
 Ghost is not to be forgiven. 
 
 4. His coming made apostles : it was Mary's second 
 
 Pentecost. 
 
 5. So our Lord taught as if the one grand thing He 
 
 had to teach was devotion to the Holy Ghost. 
 He came to kindle that fire, and He yearned to 
 have it kindled.
 
 102 PART I. 
 
 HI. We too are with Jesus not in spirit only, but in 
 literal presence; yet we too need the Holy 
 Ghost ; we need 
 
 1. More love of Jesus Himself. 
 
 2. More putting in mind of what He said. 
 
 3. A more yearning spirit of prayer. 
 
 4. More power against self and worldliness. 
 
 5. More, oh, a thousand times more love of each 
 
 other. This is the grand want of the world just 
 now the want that cries aloud and clamors to 
 be satisfied, -lest the glory of God and the spirit 
 of Jesus should altogether cease from off the 
 earth. Here, then, is the way in which devotion 
 to the Holy Ghost is so acceptable to our Blessed 
 Lady. She sees the earth perishing, not so much 
 because men do not love G"^ ; as because they 
 do not love one another. The heathen said of 
 primitive Christians, not, see how these men love 
 God but, see how they love one another. 
 I seem always to see our dear and blessed God bend- 
 ing over us, yearning to fill our hearts with, oh such 
 graces and such a much more exceeding love and He 
 cannot, because we will not, make our hearts large with 
 love of each other !
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 103 
 
 III. 
 GOD A GOD OF FIRE.* 
 
 I. I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will 
 
 I but that it be kindled ? St. Luke xii. 49. How 
 strange this sounds from Jesus, meek and humble 
 of heart! 
 
 1. Compare the spirit of it with the night of the 
 
 Incarnation and the night of Bethlehem. 
 
 2. Or the quiet fires in the hearts of Mary and Joseph 
 
 in the holy House of Nazareth. 
 
 3. Or with the abysses of the abjection of the 
 
 Passion. 
 
 4. Or with the secret apparitions of the beautiful 
 
 Forty Days after the Resurrection. 
 
 5. Or with the passive, patient stillness of the Blessed 
 
 Sacrament. 
 
 II. Yet the scene at Pentecost. 
 
 1. They wait, Mary in the midst, and the chosen few, 
 
 for Him Who is to be so much to them that it 
 was well that Jesus should go away. 
 
 2. They wait for Him, Who is eminently the Spirit 
 
 of Jesus, and will bring to mind all He said. 
 
 3. For Him with Whom Jesus in His Human Nature 
 
 has now been ten days in heaven ! Oh the mar- 
 vellous occupations of those ten days ! 
 
 4. He comes to them in the vehement majesty of a 
 
 mighty wind, and scatters Himself in showers 
 of fire like cloven tongues. 
 
 * Whitsunday, 1858.
 
 104 PART L 
 
 5. So that Mary and the apostles seemed to the mul- 
 titudes to be drunk with new wine. 
 
 III. God always a God of fire. 
 
 1. He calls Himself so : The Lord thy God is a con- 
 
 suming fire. Deut. iv. 24. 
 
 2. He appeared as such to Isaias ; as a whirlwind 
 
 and enfolding fire to Ezekiel. St. John says 
 (Apoc. i. 14), His eyes were as a flame of fire. 
 
 3. Burning Bush : in the inner folds of the desert, 
 
 and ravines of Horeb, to Moses. 
 
 4. (Daniel vii. 9, 10.) His throne like flames ; the 
 
 wheels of it like burning fire, and a swift stream 
 of fire issued forth from before Him : vision 
 seen in the first year of Baltassar, King of 
 Babylon. 
 
 5. In these sweet fires we are to dwell eternally. 
 
 Isaias (xxxiii. 14) asks, which of you can dwell 
 with devouring fire? which of you shall dwell 
 with everlasting burnings? and the answer is, 
 he that walketh in justices. 
 
 IV. So our religion is a religion of fire. 
 
 1. It was the one will of Jesus to kindle this fire on 
 
 earth. 
 
 2. The Holy Ghost is never otherwise in the heart 
 
 than as fire. 
 
 3. The fires of the Eternal Father are to be our 
 
 everlasting home. 
 
 4. What manner of fire should we have then? 
 
 Fiery love, fiery faith, fire consuming self, fire 
 burning the world out of our hearts, fire likely 
 to make men think us drunk or mad. 
 
 5. What is the case in reality? Do we burn? 
 
 Are we vehement? Do our hearts throb and
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 105 
 
 beat tumultuously with love of God? Do we 
 understand that lifelong broken heart of our 
 great father St. Philip, burst with the ball of 
 fire, which was the Holy Ghost ? Oh if our 
 religion be a moral indifference, a calm bargain- 
 ing with God, a prudential speculation, a dis- 
 creet fear of hell, a frigid propriety, a servile 
 keeping of the letter of God's law it may be 
 a religion but is it the religion written in the 
 Bible? Is it the fire which it was our dearest 
 Lord's one will to kindle ? 
 
 Oh that that Divine Person would come down upon 
 us with His fire to-day, would break our hearts with 
 the magnificent excesses of the love of God, would burn 
 us with the pain of the great pleasure of His fire! 
 Sweet, gentle, plaintive, vehement, fiery, enthusiast 
 Spirit ! Oh that he would so light His flames in our 
 hearts that from this hour our whole life should be 
 nothing but an unbroken Pentecost ! 
 
 . IV. 
 DOCILITY TO THE HOLY GHOST. 
 
 In speaking of the Holy Ghost we can either rise up 
 into the ineffable splendors of the Most Holy Trinity, 
 or go down into the most secret and noiseless centre of 
 our own souls : this last to-day. 
 I. Our union with the Holy Ghost. 
 
 1. He Himself actually dwells in us. 
 
 2. We are more under His care than the disciples
 
 106 PART I. 
 
 were under that of Jesus in the Thirty-three 
 Years. 
 
 3. He dwells in us in a new way with every aug- 
 
 mentation of sanctifying grace. 
 
 4. No words can describe the intimate familiarity 
 
 in which we live with this Third Person of the 
 Most Holy Trinity. 
 
 5. His ceaseless action upon our souls, through His 
 
 love of Jesus and of ourselves. 
 
 6. His gifts, and His fruits as well as His graces. 
 
 7. His inspirations, multitudinous and incessant. 
 
 II. Inspirations. 
 
 1. We are with Him as Adam was with God in 
 
 Eden. 
 
 2. To all good persons He is speaking continually. 
 
 3. Perfection may be defined as consisting simply of 
 
 docility to His inspirations. 
 
 4. He speaks low, and His operations are very 
 
 delicate. 
 
 5. He loves and expects to be consulted. 
 
 6- And furthermore, even when not consulted, a 
 habit of listening to Him is an essential part 
 of the spiritual life; without it, prayer can 
 never be supernatural, or more than a pious 
 habit; not a real familiarity, or union of the 
 soul with God. 
 
 7. This life of perpetual secret colloquy with the 
 Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity is what 
 is meant by an interior life. 
 
 III. Consequences of not listening to inspirations. 
 
 1. Our own spiritual life, and God's designs upon us 
 are nothing but mist, confusion and unmeaning 
 generalities.
 
 GOD AND THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. 107 
 
 2. So we come in outward things to work on impulse, 
 
 or from natural activity, without consulting, or 
 listening for the Holy Ghost. 
 
 3. Hence neither our works nor ourselves have the 
 
 secret of success, or the root of perseverance. 
 Oh the sweetness of an interior life its firmness, its 
 repose, its clear atmosphere, how beautiful it is, ever 
 at the feet of that Third Person of the Most Holy 
 Trinity learning the secrets of heaven, in whispers of a 
 sweet music, which no ear but ours can hear !
 
 part Second 
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 OUR BLESSED LORD. 
 
 109
 
 ADVENT MEDITATIONS. 
 I. 
 
 THE LIFE OF JESUS IN THE BOSOM OF 
 THE ETERNAL FATHER. 
 
 I. His Eternal Generation. 
 
 1. Infinitely noble. 
 
 2. Infinitely pure. 
 
 3. Eternal. 
 
 4. Unspeakable and incomprehensible. 
 
 II. His residence in the Bosom of the Father. 
 
 1. His sojourn there. 
 
 2. His going forth. 
 
 3. His sojourn among men. 
 
 III. His Divinity. 
 
 1. His union with the Father. 
 
 2. His equality. 
 
 3. His independence. 
 
 IV. The mutual love of the Father and the Son. 
 
 1. Their conversation. 
 
 2. Their love. 
 
 3. The fruit of their love, the Holy Ghost. 
 
 V. The eternal plan of the Incarnation. 
 1. The fall foreknown. 
 
 Ill
 
 112 PART II. 
 
 2. The exclusion of the angels from the remedy of 
 
 the Incarnation. 
 
 3. The choice of the Word of His Sacred Humanity. 
 
 VI. His eternal choice of sufferings. 
 
 1. Of the sufferings of His whole life. 
 
 2. Of His Death. 
 
 3. Of the Cross in particular. 
 
 VII. The Predestination of His Mother. 
 
 1. His choice of her. 
 
 2. That choice the source of her greatness. 
 
 3. That choice the source of her graces. 
 
 4. That choice the source of her crosses. 
 
 THE LIFE OP JESUS IN THE WOMB OF MARY, 
 
 VIII. He begins a new life in her womb. 
 
 1. Infinitely precious. 
 
 2. Infinitely pure. 
 
 3. All for us and at our disposal. 
 
 IX. His beatitude from the first moment. 
 
 1. It was from the first moment. 
 
 2. He was the first of all the blessed. 
 
 3. He obtains beatitude for us. 
 
 X. His clear view of God from the first moment. 
 
 1. The first Man who enjoyed it. 
 
 2. The only one in this life. 
 
 3. More clearly than all men and angels. 
 
 XI. His first act of love. 
 
 1. The most perfect act which has been or can be. 
 
 2. Extended to all the works of God. 
 
 3. And ardently to all men. 
 
 XII. Ineffable joy from the first moment. 
 1. His soul's joy in His Divinity.
 
 THE SACEED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 113 
 
 2. His joy in infusing graces into Mary. 
 
 3. His joy in destining graces for each one of us in 
 
 particular. 
 
 XIII. His adoration of the Father from the first 
 
 moment. 
 
 1. Humble submission as to the creator of His 
 
 Sacred Humanity. 
 
 2. Profound reverence from His view of the per- 
 
 fections of the Father. 
 
 3. Worship from a sense of the nothingness of His 
 
 soul. 
 
 XIV. His praise of God from the first moment. 
 
 1. By the affections of His Sacred Heart. 
 
 2. By His works. 
 
 3. By exciting His Mother's Heart to join with 
 
 Him. 
 
 XV. He thanks God from the first moment. 
 
 1. His Soul for the Hypostatic Union. 
 
 2. For all benefits received at that moment. 
 
 3. For all blessings to all creatures, past or to come. 
 
 XVI. His union of Viator and Comprehensor. 
 
 1. The state of Viator a violence to the Son of God. 
 
 2. A voluntary violence. 
 
 3. Love unites these incompatible states. 
 
 XVII. Oblation of Himself to the Eternal Father. 
 
 1. Offers the graces that instant received. 
 
 2. Offers Himself without reserve. 
 
 3. And for everything. 
 
 4. And with purity of oblation. 
 
 XVIII. His compassion for our miseries at that moment. 
 
 1. General pity. 
 
 2. For sin, our greatest misery. 
 
 3. For our sins in particular. 
 
 Vol. I. H
 
 114 PART II. 
 
 XIX. Takes our sins upon Him from that moment. 
 
 1. Takes the burden with love. 
 
 2. Embraces sufferings needful. 
 
 3. Takes the Cross. from His Father's Hands. 
 
 XX. Works for the glory of God and our salvation 
 
 from that moment. 
 
 1. Begins His work that instant. 
 
 2. With fervor. 
 
 3. Continues it with constancy. 
 
 XXI. Begins to merit from that moment. 
 
 1. His perfect freedom. 
 
 2. Infinite merits. 
 
 3. Each action infinitely meritorious. 
 
 XXII. The desires with which He inspired Mary. 
 
 1. To give Him to men. 
 
 2. To see Him with her eyes. 
 
 3. To serve Him as her Son and her God. 
 
 II. 
 CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 Love must be to us instead of mind, and heart, and 
 spirit, in order that we may understand and feel, ana 
 worship the mystery of the cry of the Infant God 
 breaking the silence of the winter's midnight at Beth- 
 lehem. And what was it first of all that the angels 
 sang? Glory to God in the highest. This is the 
 temper in which we must keep our feast. 
 I. God's glory the first thought. 
 1. To look out for it was the habit of their blessed 
 spirits.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 115 
 
 2. So also must it be ours. 
 
 3. We lose half the joy of feasts by thinking only 
 
 of ourselves. 
 
 II. But God's glory is the same as man's happiness. 
 
 1 . How touching and how beautiful is this thought ! 
 
 2. Hew intensely it ought to make us love God, Who 
 
 is so mixed up with His creatures. 
 
 3. What a lesson it teaches of trustful submission to 
 
 His Will. 
 
 III. And God's glory in the*highest is in His humilia- 
 
 tions in the lowest. 
 
 1. This is the grand character of Jesus, and of all 
 
 His mysteries. 
 
 2. The discernment of the angels saw the immense 
 
 glory of His humiliation. 
 
 3. As it was our Master's glory, so is it ours. 
 
 IV. Now enter the cave. 
 
 1. The shepherds, humble men, adoring their new- 
 
 born King in humble simplicity. 
 
 2. Joseph, overwhelmed with pious humility as foster- 
 
 father. 
 
 3. Mary had won the Incarnation by humility ; so 
 
 now who shall tell how she abased herself. 
 
 4. On that wisp of straw the Everlasting God ! 
 
 Oh, my dear Brethren, we think too well of ourselves. 
 We are less happy than we should be, because we are 
 ess humble. We do not advance, because \ve do not 
 keep ourselves down. We do not love God as we 
 desire, because we do not despise ourselves. Oh, it is 
 so delightful a thing to be humble, so full of joy, and 
 peace, and love: let it be our practice now. It is a 
 devotion in which we can make no mistake, in which 
 we can never go too far. Let us keep to the side of
 
 116 PART IT. 
 
 our Infant Lord, and sink with Him out of the sight 
 of men and of self, into those depths of dear humility 
 which will gently leave us at the last, not in the pov- 
 erty of Bethlehem, but in the boundless riches of our 
 Heavenly Father's house above. 
 
 ill. 
 CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 FOR THE CHILDREN. 
 
 Bethlehem is more wonderful than a fairy tale. 
 The persons in the cave. 
 
 I. Jesus. 
 
 1. Eternal God : so disguised. 
 
 2. Beauty of His Body and Soul. 
 
 3. He saw this chapel of His foster-father, and longed 
 
 for our little love. 
 
 II. Mary. 
 
 1. No other of God's creatures is like her. 
 
 2. The uuutterableness of her joy. 
 
 3. She is our own Mother, and it is part of her joy 
 
 to be so. 
 
 III. Joseph. 
 
 1. Joy of God in the love of His Son this was St. 
 
 Joseph's joy. 
 
 2. His familiarities with Jesus. 
 
 3. His love of all children for the sake of Jesus. 
 
 IV. Shepherds. 
 
 1. Simple-hearted and very reverent.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 117 
 
 2. Jesus thought of them first. 
 
 3. What they must have felt when they heard the 
 
 angels sing. 
 V. The Wise Men. 
 
 1. Nobody wise but those who come to Jesus. 
 
 2. We must give Him our best when we come to 
 
 Him. 
 
 3. But, oh ! what will not He give us in return ? 
 Love each other let the houses love each other 
 
 you shall both be together, happy, peaceful, bright, at 
 the feet of our dearest Jesus for ever ! 
 
 IV. 
 NEW YEAR'S EVE. 
 
 I. The view which the saints take of the world as 
 a howling wilderness compared with the view 
 ordinarily good men take of it : the latter view 
 stated. 
 
 1. The pleasure in living, especially if we have 
 
 health. 
 
 2. The pleasure of doing good, and being kind to 
 
 others. 
 
 3. The pleasure of relationship and love. 
 
 4. The pleasure of earth's sunshine, and the world's 
 
 pastimes, especially society. 
 
 5. The pleasure of sorrow, when it is blunted. 
 
 6. The pleasure of past adventures, and of memory. 
 
 7. The pleasure of the dead we possess as ours in 
 
 another state.
 
 118 PART II. 
 
 II. If to ordinarily good men the world is such, 
 
 wherein does it fail ? 
 
 1. In not keeping its promises. 
 
 2. In not coming up to its own standard. 
 
 3. In its continual changing. 
 
 4. In having nothing to satisfy an interior want, 
 
 whose hunger increases as the soul loves God 
 more and more. 
 
 III. The Rest and the Soul. 
 
 1. What we thought last New Year's Eve, and how 
 
 we have been balked. 
 
 2. Have we the heart to ask no more of the coming 
 
 year? 
 
 3. "What our soul is and what its destinies are. 
 
 4. The world at its best estate compared with the 
 
 soul. 
 
 5. What it is to be from home we have never seen 
 
 our home. 
 
 6. Our home is in the Bosom of God, amid the 
 
 assemblage of His Attributes. 
 
 7. The Infant Jesus was at home as soon as He 
 
 was conceived : Mary's lap the Bosom of the 
 
 Eternal Father. 
 
 He starts His Years so let us start ours and 
 with Him and keep close by the side of our Elder 
 Brother: but what of the past? Aye, what of the 
 past? Let us go to Mary, and ask her what we are to 
 do with that. To-morrow our Brother sheds blood for 
 the first time; let us go to the temple, and ask to be 
 touched with it, and like a lightning flash the past is 
 done away !
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 119 
 
 V. 
 THE EPIPHANY. 
 
 No history in the Gospel more strange, more singular, 
 or more apart. 
 
 Lesson. God will lead the most unlikely people in 
 the most unlikely ways to Jesus, rather than that they 
 should miss the salvation of their souls. 
 
 Yet though so singular a mystery, there is none 
 which describes more faithfully what has happened or 
 will happen to every one of ourselves. 
 I. We are to be led to Jesus, the end of our creation : 
 how sweetly our Father cares for each of us. 
 
 II. We were unlikely people; alas! who more un- 
 
 likely ? 
 
 III. We were afar off; oh yes : how very far by sin, 
 
 by coldness, by ignorance, by relapses. 
 
 IV. We were led in unlikely ways look back on 
 
 life how strange is all that God has done and 
 how plain, when we are far enough off to get a 
 good view of it ! Yet all in one way, which is 
 the true faith. 
 
 V. What is all life but stars of Bethlehem ? this is the 
 
 meaning of everything. 
 
 1. Every sorrow is a star to lead us to Jesus. 
 
 2. Every joy is a star to lead us to Jesus. 
 
 3. Every change in life is a star to lead us to Jesus. 
 This is the simple view of life : what is life without 
 
 God, without Jesus? How it passes away in joy; 
 how it lingers in sorrow ; how perilous, how anxious, 
 how doubtful it is when it comes to end in death!
 
 120 PART IL 
 
 Oh ! poor, poor life of man ! it means nothing but one 
 only thing Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the Son 
 of Mary, the Babe of Bethlehem ! 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE EPIPHANY THE FEAST OF 
 CONVERTS. 
 
 The Three Kings the first fruits of the Gentiles 
 glory of the wideness of the Church. Epiphany a time 
 of prayer for the conversion of the whole world ; also 
 a time for those who have had the grace of conversion 
 to reflect upon the past. 
 
 Parallel between the kings and converts. 
 I. The life of the kings before they saw the star, 
 seeking the true God among the starlit rocks 
 of Arabia, and by the shores of its melancholy 
 murmuring sea ; seeking yet uncertain ; trying 
 to attach themselves to their home, and rest 
 there, and yet God would not let them. 
 
 II. The star rises they hardly know why they trust 
 
 it but their heart tells them to follow : it is 
 but a star, and yet so little : a glimmer those 
 who love them blame and wonder, expostu- 
 late and weep yet for them the glimmer is 
 enough. 
 
 III. They lose it in Jerusalem in crowds even 
 
 when so near : yet enquiry is quickened by the 
 very withdrawing of the light. 
 
 IV. They had false counsel given to go back and
 
 THE SACSED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 121 
 
 tell : now, they must first mind their own souls, 
 and go home another way. 
 
 V. The star comes out again, and stands over Bethle- 
 
 hem over Jesus and Mary : they hardly know 
 whether it is the Mother or the Son they saw 
 first. 
 
 VI. They were, for the most part, allowed the kiss of 
 
 Jesus sensible sweetness, or undoubting faith, 
 or heaven awhile made plain. 
 
 VII. They had to offer the costliness of affections, of 
 
 worldly goods, and of sufferings both inward 
 and outward gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 
 
 VIII. Now, what is left but that their lives must be 
 
 lives of faith ? 
 
 The great grace of conversion is enough for them 
 to feed upon : that one first sight of Jesus and Mary 
 is a living vision in their hearts, and onward they go, 
 into the unfading light of that more perfect vision, 
 whose truth and beauty, satisfying joy and deep tran- 
 quillity, abide for evermore. 
 
 VII. 
 THE EPIPHANY. 
 
 The mystery narrated in detail. 
 
 I. The three kings an example of faith in their long 
 journey. How much more sure are we : yet how 
 do we act ? 
 
 1. In coming to mass. 
 
 2. In coming to confession.
 
 122 PART II. 
 
 3. In putting ourselves out of the way in coming to 
 Benediction. 
 
 II. Their journey a pattern of the pilgrimage of life. 
 
 1. In constant change, letting us have no abiding 
 
 home. 
 
 2. In dangers and difficulties. 
 
 3. In disappointments, as when we lose our star. 
 
 4. But our end is the same Jesus. 
 
 5. And we have a better star even Mary. 
 
 III. What did they do all this for, and consider them- 
 
 selves well paid by ? 
 
 One sight of Jesus, one kissing of His little Feet, 
 one look, one conversation with Mary and they waited 
 patiently thirty-three years for baptism, and shed their 
 blood in martyrdom, so deep had the loveliness of the 
 Infant Jesus passed into their souls. We have not 
 kissed His feet once only, but even received His Blood 
 in penance, Himself in communion how many, many 
 times and an eternal vision of Jesus before us ! Ah ! 
 see the difference between those who love, and those 
 who love not, my dearest children ! Oh why will you 
 not love Jesus more? Is life so sweet, is earth so 
 peaceful, that you need no better home, no dearer 
 friends ? You know how you look lovingly, and yearn 
 over your little babes when you rock them to sleep 
 in their little cradles so take the Infant Jesus into 
 your hearts, let every beating of your hearts be like 
 the rocking of His cradle ; let no rude word, no rough 
 oath, no loud immodest word awaken the sleeping 
 Babe ; let no angry tempers, or evil deeds, cause Him 
 to cry with pain when He awakes. Mary will come 
 and teach you how to be a mother to her little Jesus, 
 in sweetness, and humility, and chastity : and oh the
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 123 
 
 thought that He of whom we speak so lightly, and 
 so playfully, this pretty Babe, is none other than our 
 God! 
 
 VIII. 
 . FEAST OF THE NAME OF JESUS. 
 
 The Name of Jesus (1.) the greatest power on 
 earth (2.) the greatest miracle (3.) the greatest 
 happiness (4.) the greatest attraction (5.) the most 
 common of all the Divine Mercies. What the name 
 means : Thou shalt call His Name Jesus, for He shall 
 save His people from their sins. 
 I. Without Him there could be no salvation. 
 
 1. Men could do nothing with all their penances and 
 
 . sufferings. 
 
 2. Nor angels with all their merits and holiness. 
 
 3. God wills to do it only through Him. 
 
 4. The misery of the earth without Jesus. 
 
 II. With Him is " copious redemption." 
 
 1. The faith of the Church. 
 
 2. The abundance of grace. 
 
 3. The abundance of the sacraments. 
 
 III. With Him salvation is easy. 
 
 1 . The little he requires from us. 
 
 2. The facilities of pardon. 
 
 3. His own interests in our salvation. 
 
 IV. The whole is done by Him. 
 
 1. He is beforehand with us in Baptism and in 
 
 grace. 
 
 2. Our merits are all by His grace.
 
 124 PART n. 
 
 3. He gives us His own merits besides. 
 
 4. Our perseverance is His own gift. 
 
 V. How He has been a Saviour to each one of us. 
 
 1. His knowledge and love of us in His thirty-three 
 
 years. 
 
 2. The time past of our lives, full of mercies and 
 
 graces. 
 
 3. The time present all is from Him. 
 
 4. The time of death will be His choosing, and the 
 
 best for us. 
 
 5. All our future glory is from Him. 
 
 And all this is ours for a little generous love : 
 nay, He seems to count Himself as under some 
 obligation to us if we will only accept it. Let His 
 name then be our tower in which we dwell, a safe 
 refuge, a happy home ! 
 
 IX. 
 
 DEVOTIONS FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO 
 LEAD AN INTERIOR LIFE. 
 
 IN HONOR OF THE EIGHTEEN HIDDEN YEARS 
 OF JESUS. 
 
 I. To the silent eternity of bliss which God enjoyed 
 before He created anything, in order to gain 
 detachment from creatures. 
 
 II. To the nine months of Jesus in the womb of 
 Mary, to impetrate a love of the hidden 
 life.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 125 
 
 III. To the agony in the garden, to irapetrate forti- 
 
 tude in interior pains, and in repugnances 
 in prayer. 
 
 IV. To the life of Mary in the house of St. John, 
 
 to impetrate continual recollection of Jesus 
 and union with God. 
 
 V. To the holy Angels, especially our own guar- 
 dian, to impetrate the union of inward recol- 
 lection with outward duties. 
 VI. To the Blessed Sacrament, to impetrate the 
 
 grace of holy abjection. 
 
 VII. To the Holy Ghost, as the minister of the mar- 
 riage of our souls with Jesus. 
 
 VIII. To the souls in purgatory, to impetrate con- 
 formity in suffering. 
 
 IX. To St. Joseph, to impetrate interior peace. 
 X. To St. Philip, for the gift of tears, and tender- 
 ness at mass. 
 
 XI. To St. Ignatius, for the love of concealment. 
 XII. To St. Teresa, for the gift of mental prayer. 
 
 XIII. To the interior life of Jesus, to obtain a thirst 
 
 for the glory of God. 
 
 XIV. To the priesthood of Jesus, to obtain the spirit 
 
 of sacrifice. 
 XV. To the infancy of Jesus, for simplicity and a 
 
 love of helplessness. 
 XVI. To St. Paul, for a special devotion to the 
 
 Eternal Father. 
 XVII. To St. John, fox a devotion to the Sacred 
 
 Heart. 
 
 XVIII. To St. Clare of Montefalco, to obtain a special 
 devotion to the mystery of the most Adorable 
 Trinity.
 
 126 PART II. 
 
 THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 Now this is eternal life : that they may know Thee, 
 the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast 
 sent. St. John xvii. 3. 
 
 I. Beginning of Lent, troubled clouds of past sin, 
 penance, &c. now amid the clouds comes out 
 clearly the person of Jesus Christ, He Whose 
 Passion we are called upon to commemorate. 
 II. No mathematical God idea or form of words 
 but a living Person, two Natures this is the 
 solid of Catholic devotion : all else is from this 
 Blessed Virgin Mary Real Presence feasts 
 of the year. 
 
 III. The one grand object of the Church is to make 
 
 the Person of Jesus Christ better known and 
 better loved 1 in a forgetful world; this in its 
 measure presses upon every Catholic of every 
 age, rank, or ability. 
 
 IV. Now, in Lent, we have also to reconcile ourselves 
 
 to Him, or to engage ourselves more deeply in 
 His service, or to pledge ourselves more solemnly 
 to Him. 
 
 V. What sort of a Person was He? (1.) A Child 
 flying to Egypt. (2.) Sitting at the well of 
 Jacob. (3.) Refusing, to accuse the adulteress. 
 (4.) Defending the Magdalen. (5.) Trying even 
 in the garden to save Judas. (6.) Father, for- 
 give them, for they know not what they do. 
 (7.) Feed My lambs.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 127 
 
 Wonder that men do not love Him ! Look at what 
 He has done for you in past life : we, when we grow 
 old, weary of sin : He wearies not in pardoning. 
 Come then, give Him a Palm-Sunday entry into your 
 hearts and while the thrones of the ancient earth 
 are tottering, enthrone Him more firmly, more honor- 
 ably, aye, and above all, more lovingly than ever, as 
 King over you, over all you are and all you have, and 
 all you can suffer for His sake. Oh, what a day will 
 Easter-day be, if thereon you solemnize the coronation 
 of our dearest Jesus in your hearts ! 
 
 XI. 
 OUR LORD'S CHOICE OF POVERTY. 
 
 The Holy Ghost was called Pater Pauperum: so 
 were the saints also : so was Jesus : love of the poor 
 is a characteristic of true holiness, as well as of the 
 true Church. The poor you have always with you, 
 but Me you have not always. This shows how com- 
 pletely they came to occupy His place, even more than 
 direct texts. 
 I. The choice of Jesus. 
 
 1. He being the Eternal Wisdom, chose poverty. 
 
 (1) As the state fittest for His great end. 
 
 (2) As the one in which He could raise His 
 
 Sacred Humanity to heights of Holiness. 
 
 2. How consistently He kept to His choice through 
 
 the three and thirty years.
 
 128 PART IT. 
 
 3. How it satisfied the longings of His Sacred Heart 
 
 and His Divine Compassion. 
 
 4. The result of this fact that Jesus chose poverty 
 
 is that the poor are made authentically the 
 favorites of God. 
 
 5. Hence in the Church. 
 
 (1) Voluntary poverty, and 
 
 (2) Sacrifice for the poor. 
 
 II. The blessed effects of this choice of Jesus, to all, 
 
 rich as well as poor. 
 
 1. The abundance of holy charity and liberality. 
 
 2. It rebukes the spirit of the world in us, and so 
 
 raises us to perfection. 
 
 3. It likens us to the Sacred Heart, and so makes us 
 
 dear to God. 
 
 III. Consolations of the poor : for there is no dignity 
 
 or poetry about poverty, as about other suffering. 
 
 1. God has been a poor man tried it all scant 
 
 food, hard lying, trust in alms, labor: those 
 that are sick even have no such consolation: 
 many an evening darkened in where was He 
 to lodge ? 
 
 2. Not wrong to feel, and feel keenly, the privations 
 
 of poverty. 
 
 3. New and supernatural motives for patience, sup- 
 
 plied by the choice of Jesus. 
 
 What then is your riches? The Sacred Heart of 
 Jesus. What have you but love of God ? How foolish 
 not to take what is yours! What have you else to 
 make you happy ? O blessed Poverty, if it drives you 
 into the Sacred Heart this is its one blessing, in which 
 are all blessings. Forfeit this, and you are the dull 
 thing the world pronounces you to be.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 129 
 
 XII. 
 
 / ___^_.- 
 
 POVERTY THE CHOICE OF JESUS.*" 
 
 < 
 
 I. Discontent of a poor man his comparison of his 
 fortune with that of the rich and noble the ill 
 temper which results from that comparison the 
 childishness and uselessness of it all. 
 
 II. Let him turn his thoughts another way. 
 
 1. Jesus was God, and might by His power have 
 
 chosen any state yet He chose poverty. 
 
 2. He was infinite wisdom yet He chose poverty. 
 
 3. He came to do His Father's work, as we do : and 
 
 He chose poverty. 
 
 4. He chose it of the hardest and most continual sort. 
 
 Comparison between His poverty, and the com- 
 forts of poor men in general. 
 
 5. The love He bore to the poverty He had chosen. 
 
 III. Privileges of the poor. 
 
 1. Absence of temptation. 
 
 2. Penance for sin. 
 
 3. Special promises of the Gospel. 
 
 4. Easy deathbed so little to part with. 
 
 5. Companionship of Jesus. 
 
 However dark your way may seem, however multi- 
 plied your hardships and your woes, you are what 
 Jesus chose to be, and is not that fortune enough to 
 make you richer than all this poor perishing world 
 can give ? 
 
 VOL. L
 
 130 PART IT. 
 
 XIII. 
 OUK LORD'S PRAYER. 
 
 Many things about our Lord are wonderful none 
 more wonderful than His prayer. 
 I. What prayer was in Him. 
 
 1. It combined all the eminences of His soul. 
 
 2. It was the abundance of the treasures of the 
 
 Sacred Heart. 
 
 3. It met and saluted all the Divine Perfections. 
 
 4. It did to each of those perfections what was 
 
 necessary for us. 
 
 5. Its thanksgiving, intercession, and congratulation 
 
 mysteriously peculiar. 
 
 6. It was the prayer of true Man. 
 
 7. It was by an awful mystery the prayer of true 
 
 God. 
 
 II. Characteristics of His prayer. 
 
 1. Lifelong. 
 
 2. Principle of all He did. 
 
 3. Recorded ways and times. 
 
 4. Its efficacy. 
 
 5. Its lastingness in the Church. . 
 
 6. Its privacy public only once. 
 
 7. Intense reverence of it He was heard because 
 
 He feared. 
 
 III. Our Practice. 
 
 1. The thing most needed to imitate in Jesus. 
 
 2. The thing most perfectly imitable. 
 
 3. The best prophecy of our final perseverance. 
 
 4. The most sure relief from present difficulties.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 131 
 
 5. Prayer brings all other holiness along with it. 
 
 6. It is like nothing else in the world. 
 
 7. But a life of prayer is the only true prayer. 
 
 No prayer is unheard, none is wasted, there is none 
 that we shall not meet again in the world to come. Oh 
 when we die, how bitterly shall we mourn that we have 
 prayed so little, prayed to negligently ; ah ! we shall 
 see then that life was hardly life, when it was not also 
 prayer ! 
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE MYSTERY OF JESUS BEING THOUGHT 
 MAD. 
 
 I. The Mystery of the Eternal Word being thought 
 mad. 
 
 1. As the Passion is a marvellous disclosure of the 
 
 creature's treatment of the Creator, so is this 
 mystery of the look which the Creator when 
 visible had to His creatures. The Passion dis- 
 closes their will, and this mystery their under- 
 standing. 
 
 2. It was a witness borne to His ways being above 
 
 our comprehension. 
 
 3. It was a terrific measurement of the distance which 
 
 the world had drifted from Him. 
 
 4. It should be a continual subject of trembling 
 
 sorrow, and of frequent acts of the most tender 
 and respectful reparation. 
 
 5. And it was, of all the Three Persons the Eternal 
 
 Wisdom who was thought mad !
 
 132 PART II. 
 
 II. The lessons to be learned from this mystery. 
 
 1. The world, even the good and kind .part of it, does 
 
 not comprehend supernatural principles it was 
 His own who laid hands on Him. 
 
 2. It is the cross which the world cannot take into its 
 
 calculations, and so blunders. 
 
 3. How hidden must Jesus have been so then also 
 
 must we be ! 
 
 4. How this mystery is realized in the saints : this is 
 
 half the wisdom of the Gospel we should lay 
 it to heart, and make it thoroughly our own ! 
 
 5. What a contempt it ought to give us for the world 
 
 so foolish in its wisdom that it thought its God 
 mad : one trembles to say the words : surely the 
 very angels invisibly shrink around us. 
 Oh adorable foolishness of God ! how shall we wor- 
 ship our own honor and reputation, when He so anni- 
 hilated Himself, and stripped Himself of His ? So let 
 us be thought mad : 
 
 (1) In our faith by heretics. 
 
 (2) In our holiness, even by our own people. 
 
 O Jesus ! dearest Lord ! give us the heart which was 
 in our father St. Philip, the heart not to be wise with 
 men, but to be mad with Thee ; and of the world too 
 we have one thing to ask which it will not be slow to 
 give, that as it made wild sport with Thee in the court 
 of Herod's house, so it may for Thy dear sake make 
 sanctifying sport of us.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 133 
 
 XV. 
 
 THE WEARINESS OF JESUS AT THE 
 WELL. 
 
 I. The Creature would desire to see to have a long 
 
 steadfast undazzled look at the Creator of all this 
 Universe to look to learn to love to worship : 
 look at Jesus sitting on the broken wall of Jacob's 
 Well : He made that cold sparkling water far 
 down, and now He asks it of His sinful creature : 
 the weariness of God made Man ; awe-spiring yet 
 consoling also. 
 
 II. Weariness of Jesus. 
 
 1. With our sin and ingratitude. 
 
 2. With His own toils for us. 
 
 3. With the fervor of His love, which parched Him 
 
 on the Cross. 
 
 III. Consolation for us. 
 
 1. As sanctifying our toils for Him, even our bodily 
 
 fatigues, and the aching of the sleepless head, 
 the throbbing of the footsore limb. 
 
 2. As showing how he forget Self to save a soul, 
 
 whereas she left her picture and went to the 
 city forgetting His thirst. 
 
 3. As rule and model for us in trying to convert 
 
 others. 
 
 He made, I say, that cold sparkling water far down, 
 and now He asks it of His sinful creature : so it is in 
 all things : He gives us hearts, He gives springs of love 
 to flow there as into a well, He sits and looks down 
 with a sweet thirsty envy, and we will not give Him 
 drink!
 
 134 PART II. 
 
 XVI. 
 EASTER SUNDAY. 
 
 The three points of the world at the midnight of 
 Easter were the Soul of Jesus in Limbus, the Body 
 of Jesus in the tomb, the Mother of Jesus in the house 
 of John. 
 I. The Soul of Jesus in Limbus. 
 
 1. Enjoying as it ever had done the Beatific Vision. 
 
 2. Imparting it to others, and so making Paradise. 
 
 3. Freed from the interior agonies of the Passion. 
 
 4. Delighting in its present conquests of grace. 
 
 5. Still full to overflowing of love for men. 
 
 II. The Body of Jesus in the tomb. 
 
 1. The silence around the tomb. 
 
 2. The angels watching. 
 
 3. The guards sleeping. 
 
 4. The seal set upon the stone. 
 
 5. The adorable Body in its grave-clothes, all seamed 
 
 with wounds. 
 
 III. Mary in the House of John. 
 
 1. Her dolors accomplished, as well as His Passion. 
 
 2. She is supporting the apostles. 
 
 3. She watches in prayer, as at the Annunciation. 
 
 4. Her Heart holds the Faith of the whole Church 
 
 in it. 
 
 5. She keeps adoring the Body and the Soul of 
 
 Jesus in spirit. 
 
 IV. The Mystery of the Resurrection. 
 
 1. The angels collect the Precious Blood, and wor- 
 ship it.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 135 
 
 2. The soul of Jesus comes to the tomb, and enters. 
 
 3. The retinue of angels and Souls that are with 
 
 Him. 
 
 4. He opens the tomb, and discloses His Body, point- 
 
 ing out the Wounds. 
 
 5. Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, David, St. Joseph, 
 
 the Baptist, and the rest adore it. 
 
 6. The grave-clothes are unfastened, and laid in 
 
 order on one side. 
 
 7. Jesus by His power as God, and at the word of 
 
 the Father, resumes His Body with the Blood. 
 
 8. Its instantaneous life and beauty ; yet retention 
 
 of the Five Wounds. 
 
 9. Just as the light dawned upon the hill-tops, He 
 
 with His retinue enters His Mother's room, and 
 strengthening her heart, He shows her His ever- 
 lasting Godhead, the surpassing beauty of the 
 Person of the Eternal Word. 
 
 Thus it was, O beautiful consummation ! that He 
 who died for our sins, rose again for our justification. 
 
 XVII. 
 THE VICTORY OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 The hour of weakness and of suffering was past 
 the triumph come the dawn of the morning was the 
 time to the eyes of Mary first of all the victory was 
 proclaimed. Emancipation proclaimed to a whole 
 nation of slaves, what it would be like ! The resurrec-
 
 136 PART II. 
 
 tion was the emancipation of the world. The slavery 
 of men the slavery of Jesus in His Passion here 
 it ended. Easter dawn is come, and with it man's 
 victory. 
 I. Victory of the Flesh. 
 
 1. Its weakness, pains, ignominies. 
 
 2. The prison house of the soul, almost forcing it to 
 
 sin. 
 
 3. The veil that blinds our eyes, and darkens us. 
 
 4. The glory, beauty, power, brightness, new self of 
 
 the resurrection. 
 
 II. Victory over sin. 
 
 1. Sin has done its worst to Jeeus. 
 
 2. Sin does its worst to us. 
 
 3. Sin separates body and soul. 
 
 4. Resurrection the reunion of the two for glory. 
 
 III. Victory over death. 
 
 1. The empire of death. 
 
 2. The cowardice with which men crouched under it. 
 
 3. How faith comes and sets us free from this das- 
 
 tardly bondage. 
 
 The extreme beauty of a disembodied soul in a state 
 of grace its return as a conqueror to reanimate the 
 body God's care of the precious particles of the body 
 for that great day the entry of the soul into it 
 heralded by angels into the Presence of the Face of 
 God!
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 137 
 
 XVIII. 
 THE EASTER JOY OF JESUS. 
 
 I. There are no marks of the Crown of Thorns upon 
 
 His brow yet He looks more than ever a King ! 
 The placid sunrise is beautiful, but there is not 
 half so much quiet beauty about it as reigns over 
 that incredibly sweet face. What maturity and 
 yet what youth ! Oh look into His eyes, what a 
 depth of love, what a tenderness of love, yet what 
 an overwhelming power of love. That smile upon 
 His lips, so royal and yet so wonderfully familiar, 
 how human it is in its gentle winning gravity. 
 What a light of unspeakable expression shines 
 over His whole face, glows like sunshine on His 
 beautiful Hair, and runs down like an unction 
 into His comely beard ! 
 
 II. But He must not speak : if He speaks our hearts 
 
 will break with love. It is true He will speak to 
 us the very first time we see Him : but He must 
 not speak now. Jesus Risen ! What think you ? 
 Is that beauty the old beauty of dear Bethlehem ? 
 or is it the look of the boy at Nazareth ? or the 
 sweetness of the preacher and miracle-worker of 
 Galilee ? It is all of them and it is none of them. 
 It is something of its own. Somehow the Human 
 Soul fills all the features marvellously with a 
 most human loveliness; and yet His Divinity 
 shines through with a masterful majesty, and 
 with a gladness so bright that it makes us wor- 
 ship to look at it.
 
 138 PART II. 
 
 III. I interpret His Easter look to be an immense joy 
 
 human joy carried to its utmost limit the joy 
 of His Godhead made visible by His Human 
 Soul overflowing His Glorified Body with an 
 incomparable jubilee. 
 
 IV. His Easter joy was one of a constellation of His 
 
 joys let us think of them. 
 
 1. His joy at the moment of the Incarnation. 
 
 (1) His delight in the worship of God at that 
 
 moment. 
 
 (2) His delight in His Body and Soul. 
 
 (3) His delight in the sweet sanctity of His 
 
 Mother. 
 
 2. His joy at His first sight of Mary. 
 
 (1) He gazes, and reads each feature ; rejoices in 
 
 His likeness to Her. 
 
 (2) She was His own creature. 
 
 (3) He exulted in Her ecstatic delight at seeing 
 Him. 
 
 3. His joy at her first Communion. 
 
 (1) Like the Incarnation over again. 
 
 (2) The graces He found in her, and the new 
 
 ones he gave. 
 
 (3) The joy of her joy at this fresh ineffable 
 
 union. 
 
 These three joys met now, were all blended, and 
 were surpassed by the Easter joy. 
 
 4. His joy in seeing her now ; Mary, so familiar with 
 
 all His old beauty, is struck with His Easter 
 brightness and loveliness. 
 
 (1) The joy to His human eyesight, as if long 
 years had parted them, such vast mysteries 
 had they both traversed.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 139 
 
 (2) Her fresh beauty from her dolors. 
 
 (3) His ecstacy in filling each abyss her woes had 
 
 made in her heart, with fresh love and grace. 
 V. Dearest Lord ! He had yet another Easter joy ! He 
 thought of us and of our salvation, of each one of 
 us by name and look : He will have it over again 
 when we see Him first ; it is little, yet nothing is 
 little to Him, nothing little to love, while nothing 
 of His is little to our exceeding littleness to Him 
 and to us it will be like His first apparition to 
 His Mother. 
 
 1. His joy at this particular judgment in passing a 
 
 favorable sentence. 
 
 2. His joy in being our Redeemer. 
 
 3. His joy in His mother's gladness at our salvation. 
 
 4. His joy in the beauty and sweetness of our souls. 
 
 5. His joy in our unutterable joy. 
 
 Oh Easter is a happy day : but I think our true 
 Easter will not be till we look that first time on the 
 beautiful welcome of His Easter Face. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 DIES QUAM FECIT DOMINUS. 
 
 Can there be light after such a darkness? Can 
 there be day after such a night, peace after the death 
 of God, joy after the passion of our dearest Lord ? 
 What is Easter like? Like the beginning of eternity, 
 like the dawn of God's endless day ! Easter has 
 come with its thousand thoughts, its thousand doctrines,
 
 140 PART If. 
 
 its thousand graces : how can the Church express it? 
 With that sublime simplicity, with that artlessness of 
 a child which is close upon the wisdom of an angel, 
 she sums it all up in one word Hcec dies quam fecit 
 Dominus This is the day which the Lord hath made. 
 I. Quam fecit Dominus. 
 
 1. This is the one joy of all things that God 
 
 made them. 
 
 2. It is our joy that we are created by God and by 
 
 such a God. 
 
 3. So we congratulate all creatures that they have 
 
 the happiness of having been made by God. 
 
 4. But He makes some things specially, and keeps 
 
 a special royalty over them. 
 
 5. Easter Sunday is one of these things. 
 
 II. But did He not make all days, and cause all suns 
 
 to shine ? Oh yes ! but never a day like this 
 the sunrise of the Everlasting Saviour ! 
 
 1. Because from it comes the blessing of all days. 
 
 2. Because the glory of Jesus was so infinitely dear 
 
 to the Father. 
 
 3. Because He is the true sunshine of the earth. 
 
 4. And His glorified body the sun and moon of 
 
 Heaven. 
 
 5. And He is a sun who has no setting oh the 
 
 joy of this to us ! He is a day which is all 
 morning, fresh, pure, grateful, full of sweet 
 light and of sweet odors. 
 
 III. The Resurrection. 
 
 1. The sun is not yet above the hills: in the pearly 
 dawn we see St. Mary Magdalen looking down 
 into the sepulchre : why does her face shine so 
 brightly if the sun is not risen? It is from
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 141 
 
 the two angels in white sitting in the sepulchre : 
 how her tears glistened in the light ! 
 
 2. Dear loving Magdalen ! is it the memory of the 
 
 Passion that makes her weep? The angels, 
 beaming with gladness, say, Woman ! why 
 weepest thou ? Who has any right to weep at 
 Easter? Because they have taken away my 
 Lord, and I know not where they have laid 
 Him. Earth without Jesus ! no ! that could 
 not be. So Jesus had said about her brother 
 Lazarus Where have you laid him ? 
 
 3. When she had thus said, she turned herself back, 
 
 and saw Jesus standing, and she knew not that 
 it was Jesus. Did she not feel, or was she so 
 engrossed in seeking Jesus ? Her eye was full 
 of that wounded Body on the Cross. She 
 turned herself back what were even angels 
 when she was seeking Jesus? Jesus, as if to 
 have time to drink in her fond faithful love, as 
 if it was so great an Easter joy to Him, saith to 
 her in a feigned voice, Woman, why weepest 
 thou ? whom seekest thou ? O dearest Lord ! 
 thus to play with her grief and love, to ask 
 Thy servant such a question whom seekest 
 thou, as if Magdalen could seek any but Thee. 
 She, thinking it was the gardener poor Mary ! 
 truly He was the gardener the gardener who 
 had once planted the paradise of old saith to 
 Him, Sir, if thou hast taken Him hence, tell 
 me where thou hast laid Him : and I will take 
 Him away. What! in thine arms like a child, 
 Mary ? as thy great namesake carried Him at 
 Bethlehem and in the Wilderness ? I will take
 
 142 PAET II. 
 
 Him away oh beautiful as if He was hers, as 
 if He should not be a charge to any one but 
 her, as if she was hostess of Jesus by office, now 
 and for ever. Then she seemingly turned her 
 face to the sepulchre. Did not the empty sep- 
 ulchre remind her of His words to Martha, her 
 sister, I am the resurrection and the life ? If 
 any word is like the last trumpet of the arch- 
 angel it is Ego sum resurredio et vita. 
 
 4.. Jesus saith to her, behind her, in that voice, 
 Mary. Does she live, or has that one word 
 broken her heart with the abruptness of its 
 jubilee? She turning, oh with what speed, 
 with what surprise, with what unmanageable 
 ecstasy of love, said, Rabboni, which is to say, 
 Master. Oh in the long history of the world 
 how many sweet surprises has love contrived 
 for love but was there ever any one half so 
 sweet as this ? 
 
 5. Joy says short words and few ones. Her beau- 
 tiful bright face may have told the apostles 
 all when she met them, for her face had been 
 sad enough for days past ; but as for her tongue, 
 she could only say I have seen the Lord ! and 
 these things He said to me. Oh happy, happy 
 Mary ! help us to our Heavenly Easter, to that 
 morning when Jesus our Judge will have spoken 
 a few words to us ; it is only a few years distant 
 now, and then we can come to thee in Heaven, 
 and repeat thy simple but all-sufficient words, 
 I have seen the Lord, and these things He said 
 to me.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 143 
 
 XX. 
 
 THE RESURRECTION A MYSTERY OF 
 
 CALMNESS. 
 
 The peace around the tomb the peace of Mary's 
 desolation : we almost fear lest the notes of holy 
 triumph should break a spell so sweet, so calm,, so 
 heavenly, so beautiful ; for peace is more like God than 
 anything else on earth. 
 I. The Mystery of the Resurrection. 
 
 1. The sunrise a type of its exceeding calm, its 
 
 tranquil glory and effulgence ; light makes no 
 noise. 
 
 2. The soul of Jesus, not fluttered, not elated. 
 
 3. Calm adoration of the souls by which He is 
 
 accompanied. 
 
 4. Calmness of the Adorable Body lying separate 
 
 in the tomb. 
 
 5. Calmness of the Body and Soul in their joyous 
 
 union : witness the grave-clothes, and the rolled 
 stone, and the sleeping guards all un wakened. 
 
 6. Calmness of the bodies of the dead which rose 
 
 and walked the streets. 
 
 7. Calmness of His immense and unperturbed 
 
 Divinity. 
 
 How unlike the world is all this ! 
 II. Peace and calm the gift, the special foremost gift 
 
 of Jesus Risen. 
 1. Exemplified in His apparition to His Mother at 
 
 the dawn.
 
 144 PART II. 
 
 2. To Magdalen He reveals Himself gradually, so 
 
 as to leave her calm, and by His voice, which 
 stilled the seas. 
 
 3. To the disciples going to Emmaus. 
 
 4. On Easter evening to the disciples Pax vobis 
 
 breath, priesthood of peace and calm. 
 
 5. On Low Sunday to St. Thomas Pax vobis 
 
 again. 
 
 6. This peace displayed in the subsequent conduct 
 
 of the apostles. 
 
 7. Persevered in by our dear Lord all the forty days. 
 III. All this because He was God, for God is the God 
 
 of calmness and peace. 
 
 1. The unworldliness of it all in itself is a proof of 
 
 His Divinity. 
 
 2. Calmness is His spirit, and a token to us how far 
 
 that spirit is on us. 
 
 3. Calmness of God in His Incomprehensible Self. 
 
 4. Unutterable calmness round about His throne. 
 
 5. Into that calmness we are day by day being 
 
 drawn, by prayer, by sacraments, by the silent 
 stealing away of life from under our feet. 
 O heavenly Jerusalem, city of light and of the 
 Lamb, our true home, our real country, when will our 
 exiled spirits pass from all this sound and noise and 
 fatiguing distraction, into that joyous, boundless, endless 
 peace of God of which the great apostle himself can 
 only say that it surpasses all our understanding?
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 145 
 
 XXI. 
 
 SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF 
 CORPUS CHRISTI. 
 
 I. One of the greatest surprises at our judgment will 
 
 be the sight of what we might have done for God 
 and have not done. 
 
 1. Natural talents unused. 
 
 2. Graces neglected. 
 
 3. Inspirations slighted or culpably unheard. 
 
 4. Opportunities wasted, and supernatural provi- 
 
 dences unperceived through want of a sense 
 of the presence of God : amazing loss of souls 
 through idleness alone. 
 
 5. Faith not converted into practice. 
 
 II. God the opposite of all this. 
 
 1. Full of the most considerate love of us. 
 
 2. Minute in His legislation and arrangement for us. 
 
 3. Marvellously faithful to His promises. 
 
 4. Economical, even while abundant, in His giving 
 
 of grace. 
 
 5. Setting an immense value Himself on the least 
 
 of His graces, because it cost His Son so 
 much. 
 
 III. Example of all this in the mystery of the Blessed 
 
 Sacrament. 
 
 1. The wonder of the Mass, yet our infrequency and 
 
 indevotion. 
 
 2. The miracles of communion, yet the little change 
 
 they make in us. 
 Vol. I. K
 
 146 PART II. 
 
 3. The potency of Benediction, yet how cold, how 
 
 uninfluenced are our hearts. 
 
 4. The facility and opportunity of His presence in 
 
 the Tabernacle, yet how unused, or how little 
 used, or how badly used. 
 
 5. The reiteration of all these things makes our life 
 
 an almost incomprehensible miracle : and yet we 
 perversely manage to make it trivial, common- 
 place, childish, and undivine. 
 
 Yet Jesus is not a little grace! He is the eternal 
 riches of the Father. He has been His Father's fasci- 
 nation and delight from all eternity. He has been the 
 gladness, the glory, and the most dear treasure of the 
 Holy Ghost, from all eternity, as He is at this hour. 
 His own delight, oh unspeakable, unintelligible taste 
 of a Divine Person ! is to be with the children of men 
 and we treat Him as we do! The Father and the 
 Holy Ghost follow Him to the altars of the Church, 
 while He comes to satisfy His insatiable longing for 
 human love by haunting the company of men. And 
 we meanwhile ? Do we lavish our riches on Him, give 
 Him our time, put Him foremost among our occu- 
 pations? Do we lavish our love even upon Him, our 
 reverence, or our fear ? A Catholic without enthu- 
 siasm for the Blessed Sacrament! Oh what manner 
 of Judas is he? Ah, my brethren, you know, each of 
 you in your hearts, how you treat the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment. Jesus does not look you visibly in the face 
 now ; He shrouds His face in the white veils of His 
 dear Sacrament. But if we saw His look, would it 
 not be a look of reproachful sadness? Oh, can you 
 not picture to yourself the piercing look of tenderest 
 reproof which He will cast upon us, as He reminds us
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 147 
 
 of all this at the judgment ? Truly if we go straight 
 to heaven, it will be no little purgatory to pass into 
 the gates of the Golden City under that dear and 
 intolerable look! 
 
 XXII. 
 
 THE LENT EXPOSITION OF THE 
 BLESSED SACRAMENT. 
 
 The days of pilgrimage and sanctuary, with all their 
 peculiar graces, are renewed in the Exposition of the 
 Blessed Sacrament. But no sanctuary is equal in the 
 spiritual magnificence of a real .presence to the Catholic 
 altar. Let us then prepare for this great gift by 
 renewing our faith in the presence of our dearest Lord. 
 Who is it that comes to us ? Who is the Blessed Sac- 
 rament, who this Guest, upon whose created robes of 
 childlike white we are to gaze ? 
 I. It is our Creator. 
 
 1. The immensity of the world the wisdom required 
 
 to plan it the power to put it into execution. 
 
 2. The end of all creation was His own glory in 
 
 obtaining our love. 
 
 3. He knows our weaknesses He has known us 
 
 from all eternity He seeks our love He 
 values it above ten thousand stars. 
 Think of Him during the seven days think of Him 
 when choosing our souls out of possible souls think 
 of Him burning the world up at the last, and saving 
 not our souls only, but our bodies also, from the con- 
 flagration.
 
 148 PART II. 
 
 II. It is the Son of Mary. 
 
 1. Of like nature with us, not the less the Creator, 
 
 though part of His own creation. 
 
 2. All Bethlehem, and Nazareth, and Calvary, are 
 
 there the memories are in His soul the 
 wounds are in His hands. 
 
 3. We had a place in that Sacred Heart during the 
 
 agony, we have a place there now He woos us 
 to enter more deeply in. 
 
 We are men met together to worship our fellow-man, 
 who is our God as well. 
 III. It is the Eternal. 
 
 1. He is coming who never had any beginning, who 
 
 leans on none, has none to lean upon, unchange- 
 able, and yet unspeakably changed. 
 
 2. He loved us eternally there was never a time 
 
 when we did not exist in His love : how over- 
 whelming is this thought ! He loves each one 
 of us in Church, and changes not, though we 
 have done so much to forfeit His exceeding 
 love. 
 
 3. Now He desires to have us to spend the rest 
 
 of eternity with Him He comes to give graces 
 for the simple end of giving graces He for 
 that object is about to spend forty human hours 
 of His long eternity in a special way with us, to 
 fit us for our eternity with Him. 
 Oh sweet thought ! Oh comforting sustaining truth ! 
 The years, as they go by so quietly and swiftly, are 
 drawing us fast into His eternity, when He will wel- 
 come us to His own home, and press us to His Heart, 
 and put aside His veils, and show us His face, and take 
 the sight of it away from us no more.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 149 
 
 XXIII. 
 THE LENT QUARANT' ORE. 
 
 The business of our sanctification is carried on by 
 two sorts of opportunities, those which we impose 
 upon or make for ourselves, and those which the 
 Church in her office as mother is careful to supply 
 us with ; and these last advance us most because there 
 is no self-will in them, and we have the Benediction 
 of the Church. 
 I. God's choice of times and places. 
 
 1. This is a feature in God's manner which is very 
 
 much to be observed. 
 
 2. Old Testament examples of it. 
 
 3. Christian pilgrimages and seasons. 
 
 4. Miraculous shrines and apparitions. 
 
 5. The end of these is not only to confirm faith, but 
 
 to destroy sin and increase holiness. 
 
 II. Lent is one of God's times. 
 
 1. Apostolic institution : supernatural vigor of the 
 
 Church all the world over. 
 
 2. It is far more than the great feasts of the year. 
 
 3. It is the spiritual rudder of the year. 
 
 4. Fasting is a means, prayer the end. 
 
 5. Those who cannot fast are the more obliged to 
 
 prayer and interior mortification. 
 
 III. Church is one of God's places, especially at the 
 
 time of Exposition. 
 
 1. Exposition is a substantial part of Lent now- 
 
 adays. 
 
 2. More than La Salette, Loreto, or Palestine.
 
 150 PART II. 
 
 3. Angels are amazed at the graces ready, and which 
 
 only need our reverent taking. 
 
 4. What one Exposition could do if fervently cor- 
 
 responded to. 
 
 (1.) For self. (2.) For the Church. (3.) Robbing 
 Hell. (4.) Purgatory. (5.) Glory of heaven. 
 
 5. Oh for fervent persevering prayer ! whether mental 
 
 or vocal, with book or without, what matters ; 
 only let us pour out our whole souls in prayer. 
 
 XXIV. 
 THE SACRED HEART. 
 
 To-day's feast as refreshing as a cool wind in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 Need of consolations in these times : nowhere to be 
 found but in the Sacred Heart. 
 I. The Sacred Heart itself. 
 
 1. It is not a mere emblem. 
 
 2. But lives a human life this day. 
 
 (1) In heaven. 
 
 (2) In the Tabernacle. 
 
 (3) It has been in us at Communion. 
 
 3. Its power, science, love, for He is God. 
 
 4. The touchirigness of the devotion. 
 
 5. And He Himself revealed it. 
 II. What it is to us. 
 
 1. No other real shelter from the world. 
 
 2. Nor consolation in sorrow. 
 
 3. Nor home so kind.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 151 
 
 4. Nor welcome so sure and sweet. 
 
 5. Nor such fulness of satisfaction. 
 
 6. Nor such abounding love. 
 
 7. Nor such assurance of heaven. 
 
 8. Nor such dear mercy when we have fallen. 
 
 9. Its maternal character Mary-like. 
 III. It is so utterly our own. 
 
 1 . The empire we exercise over it is like Mary's. 
 
 2. The place, a particular one, we have always occu- 
 
 pied in it. 
 
 3. Its fidelity, and rewarding of little services. 
 
 4. The identity of its will and interests with our 
 
 own. 
 
 5. Yet it is the cabinet of the treasures of the God- 
 
 head. 
 
 How hidden is this treasure ! Comfort to us that it 
 is hidden ; for the world takes all from us that it can. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 THE SACRED HEART. 
 
 I Have given them Thy word, and the world hath 
 hated them, because they are not of the world. St. 
 John xvii. ] 4. 
 
 Earth is a rehearsing for heaven : yet the world 
 forces us abroad ; it will not let us face God and duty 
 and the thought of eternal things. It is in this very 
 thing that we must beat it down be bold in the love 
 of Jesus and assert our liberty. Yet here is the secret 
 of the Christian life. How shall we be in the world,
 
 152 PART II. 
 
 yet out of it, upon the flood and riding safely on it, in 
 the heat, but under shadow ; in the storm, yet sheltered 
 from it? By living in the Heart of Jesus. Ah ! let 
 us invoke the gentle St. John to get us grace to dwell 
 continually as hermits in that sweet hermitage, as doves 
 in the cleft rock, always in charitable activity, yet 
 always in contemplation. The Sacred Heart of Jesus 
 our model our love our sanctuary. 
 I. Its perpetual intention": to glorify God always 
 speaking of it in St. John's Gospel thirsting after 
 it the first great end of the Sacred Humanity. 
 II. Its interior occupation (1) adoring, (2) annihi- 
 lating self, (3) oblation of self, (4) incessant 
 grieving for sinners and at them. 
 
 III. Its secret suffering : a secret consuming tormenting 
 
 fire caused by love and sin from His Conception 
 to His Cross, only the depths of that profound 
 abyss may be poorly fancied from the few echoes 
 that came up to the surface during the anguish 
 of the Passion. 
 
 IV. Continual unbroken calm, putting away of all 
 
 pleasing of self, and assuagement, as though He 
 were in love with sorrow and interior bitterness. 
 This is the mystery, this the long lesson of the 
 Cross. 
 
 V. Horror of maxims of the world He was Eternal 
 Wisdom. 
 
 World. ' Sacred Heart. 
 
 1. Esteem of greatness Quod altum est hominibus 
 
 and glory. abominatio est ante 
 
 Deum. 
 
 2. Care of reputation. Saturabitur opprobriis.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 153 
 
 3. Spirit of policy and Columbce parvuli. 
 
 management. 
 
 4. Attachment to wills Subditus illis pleaded not 
 
 and ways. Himself. 
 
 5. Pursuit of pleasures. United in itself all body 
 
 and mind most shrink 
 from, and that from 
 choice. 
 
 6. Worship of comfort Stable flight poverty 
 
 and conveniences. hard work house- 
 
 lessness benediction of 
 the poor. 
 
 Ah ! we have much to learn ! but shall we sit down in 
 idle despair? O paradise! bright beautiful eternal 
 how strange sound the words of thy wisdom on this 
 distracted earth : we have but to love to love Him 
 whom it is so hard not to love, so wonderful all men do 
 not love we have but to love, and all that is ours 
 thy brightness, thy beauty, thy eternity. Oh false and 
 miserable and cruel world this day we break faith 
 with thee, solemnly and forever. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 PERPETUAL FRESHNESS OF JESUS. 
 
 A deep changeableness in our nature often against 
 our will making things grow dull to us easily, and 
 making it hard for us to be faithful. 
 I. How even religious things grow wearisome. 
 
 1. Prayer, which was once so sweet.
 
 154 PART II. 
 
 2. Books, which it seemed we could feed upon all 
 
 our life, and never want new ones. 
 
 3. Services, so full of unction to our souls. 
 
 4. Even sacraments, so fresh and exhilarating. 
 
 5. But Jesus Himself never : He is always fresh. 
 
 II. The freshness of Jesus. 
 
 1. He never tires us. 
 
 2. He is always equally loving ; 
 
 3. Or rather each time more loving than before. 
 
 4. Always the same, so far as regards fidelity. 
 
 5. Always new, so far as regards His charms. 
 
 III. Experience of this. 
 
 1. Christmases: He seems really newly come. 
 
 2. Changes in life He suits Himself to them. 
 
 3. Sunshine He makes it passing bright. 
 
 4. Sorrow ! ah, He is a new Jesus, so full of delight- 
 
 fullest consolation. 
 
 5. We have left Him and returned how do we 
 
 find Him ? Quite the same, yet altogether 
 new. 
 
 IV. Experience of all things else. 
 
 1. The world, its promises and its fulfilments. 
 
 2. Our own will, its plans, wishes, enterprises. 
 
 3. Pleasure, its transitory feverish excitement. 
 
 4. Age always looking onward brings nothing 
 
 like Jesus. 
 
 5. Even religious changes nothing satisfactory but 
 
 Jesus. 
 
 And death what think you death will bring ? It 
 has but one alternative, either everlasting darkness, or 
 Jesus to be eternally old, everlastingly new, in His own 
 bright land above.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 155 
 
 XXVII. 
 THE LIFE OF JESUS A LIFE OF LOVE. 
 
 What it is to love ! and what to lead a life of love ! 
 
 I. The life of Jesus a life of love. 
 
 1. Love seemed to be His very life His whole life. 
 
 2. It was unintermitting. 
 
 3. Deeply hidden, yet for ever flashing out. 
 
 4. It swallowed up all other characteristics of His 
 
 life. 
 
 II. His love's characteristics. 
 
 1. Its utter disinterestedness. 
 
 2. Its propensity of self-abasement. 
 
 3. Its excesses, and its being given to excess. 
 
 4. Its mixed character of human and divine. 
 
 5. Yet evidently following some deep laws, not 
 
 appreciated or understood by us: it reveals 
 God to us. For this is the life most like the 
 life of God. 
 
 III. His loves. 
 
 1. Of God. 
 
 2. Of His Mother. 
 
 3. Of sinners. He seems to sacrifice the other two 
 
 to this, as (1.) My God! why hast Thou forsaken 
 Me ? as if He so clung to men and loaded Him- 
 self with their guilt, that the Father was com- 
 pelled to forsake Him. (2.) Our Lady, whom 
 He martyred for our sakes. 
 
 4. It is our joy that we had even then a distinct and 
 
 recognized share of that love. 
 Our lives must be copies of His.
 
 156 PART II. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 OUK LORD'S LOVE OF US. 
 
 As the Father hath loved Me, I also have loved 
 you. St. John xv. 9. 
 
 Is there any sight in all creation we should so much 
 wish to see as the place we occupy at this moment in 
 the Heart of Jesus ? We know that He really loves us, 
 and immensely loves us: but how much, and with what 
 kind of love? His own words quoted above answer 
 this question. He loves us as the Father loved Him. 
 I. Now how did the Father love Him ? 
 
 1. He loved Him eternally, with an untiring love, 
 
 vehement yet peaceful, a love that was an 
 immense joy to Himself, a divine love. Think 
 what it is for us to be loved with a divine love ! 
 
 2. He loved Him with an enormous love, an un- 
 
 imaginable love. It is hard to picture an ocean 
 without a shore, or a world without an end. 
 Yet this is the figure of the Father's love of 
 Jesus, and therefore of the love of Jesus for us. 
 
 3. An eternal love, a ceaseless love, must necessarily 
 
 be a love of undistracted detail ; so that those 
 words of Blosius come true, "He would not even 
 allow a cold wind to blow upon His elect, unless 
 He knew it was expedient for their salvation." * 
 
 4. But the most striking of all the features of the 
 
 Father's love of Jesus, is that He loaded Him 
 with crosses, cares, and sorrows: so will Jesus 
 do to us. 
 
 * Institutio Spiritualis, cap. viii.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 157 
 
 (1) Because His Father did so to Him. 
 
 (2) Because it is His longing to conform us to 
 
 Himself. 
 
 (3) Because it is what is best for our souls. 
 Now, are we prepared for this ? Do we take this 
 
 view of our troubles ? Alas ! to strive against our cross, 
 is to try to make Jesus love us less. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 COME UNTO ME, ALL YE THAT ARE 
 WEARY. 
 
 I. The intense happiness of Jesus in the Blessed 
 
 Sacrament. 
 
 1. Because He is God, Whose life is everlasting joy. 
 
 2. Because of the abounding joys of His vast human 
 
 Soul. 
 
 3. The intense pleasures of the senses of His glorified 
 
 Body. 
 
 4. His joy in His Mother, the angels, the saints, and 
 
 the Church on earth. 
 
 5. His joy in the hiding-place He has invented for 
 
 Himself in the Blessed Sacrament. 
 Why then does He seek sinners as if He needed 
 them ? Can we, or such as we, be a joy to Him ? 
 
 II. The life of sin. Have we not all once lived it ? 
 
 1. All we break through to begin it baptism, grace, 
 
 faith. 
 
 2. Its poorness of pleasure. 
 
 3. Its rapid satiety.
 
 158 PART II. 
 
 4. Its discomfort of remorse. 
 
 5. The chilling prospect of its consequences. 
 
 III. The invitation, Come unto Me, will be some one 
 
 day sounded in our ears. 
 
 1. Can we believe our senses? 
 
 2. But to such great sinners as we are ? 
 
 3. If to Jew or Pagan, still can it be to us who have 
 
 fallen from Him. 
 
 4. His authority to speak, and His power to fulfil 
 
 His promise. 
 
 5. The proofs of His sincerity are in the Blessed 
 
 Sacrament He has not tired these eighteen 
 hundred years. 
 
 IV. The interview: Lord! what wilt Thou that I 
 
 should do? 
 
 1. What penance? only be sorry. 
 
 2. What reproof? absolutely none. 
 
 3. How long a process is forgiveness? momentary. 
 
 4. What forfeit ?i none. 
 
 5. As if He was the obliged person, not we. 
 
 Is not all this incredible except to the strength of 
 faith? Does not it baffle all understanding, and 
 transcend all explanation? It is said of heaven, Eye 
 hath not seen, &c. ; is not the same true of the for- 
 giveness of a sinner? It is the first step to heaven, 
 an earnest that He means to give us heaven, only let 
 us hold fast and persevere. Heaven will soon be 
 here; it will steal upon us almost before we are 
 aware ; and life with all its trials will be like a speck 
 in the distant past, the memory of which will be 
 almost forgotten in the beautiful delights of our 
 celestial home. You and I, brethren, have seen many 
 here in darkness and in struggle, in sin, in repentance,
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 159 
 
 in the fight of poverty, the coolness of the world's neg- 
 lect, and the achings of a comfortless and hard sick-bed, 
 who now are in the Bosom of Jesus in heaven, so bright 
 and glorious, so radiant and beautiful, that we should 
 die if we beheld them. O dearest brethren ! only love 
 Jesus, and what an unspeakable eternity is ours. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 THE TEARS OF JESUS.* 
 
 Man is never so like God as when he is consoling 
 the afflicted ; and this is one of the functions of the 
 Confraternity ; it reaches it by prayer ; so consider 
 I. The tears of Jesus. 
 
 1. Angels beholding with wonder the first tears of 
 
 Adam and Eve. 
 
 2. They look up to the Eternal Word they will one 
 
 day see Him weeping man's tears. 
 
 3. The tears of Bethlehem, for Himself, for sin, for 
 
 sorrow, for us. 
 
 4. At the grave of Lazarus in sympathy with the 
 
 sorrow of the sisters. 
 
 5. On the Mount of Olives over beautiful Jerusalem 
 
 over sin and sin's punishments. 
 II. The lessons of those tears. 
 1. The nature of sorrow. 
 
 (1) It is an angel from God. 
 
 (2) If it is punishment, it is that we may escape 
 
 punishment in another world. 
 
 * After the battle of Inkerman.
 
 160 PART II. 
 
 (3) To make our hearts soft aud gentle to others. 
 
 (4) To conform us to the likeness of Jesus : how 
 
 He loves those in sorrow. 
 
 (5) Grief is no imperfection : tears of resignation 
 
 are sweet to the Eye of God. 
 2. More confidence in Jesus. 
 
 (1) What confidence means, and how little we 
 
 have when proved. 
 
 (2) Sinners, why He loved them most of all. 
 
 (3) Littlenesses and meannesses of spiritual per- 
 
 sons. Oh He knows them so well and feels 
 for them so compassionately. 
 
 (4) We are inclined to despair because of tempta- 
 
 tions why, your own mother will not guide 
 you so gently as Jesus will. 
 
 (5) The Name of Jesus is our trust Thou shalt 
 
 call His name Jesus : for He shall save His 
 people from their sins. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 WITHOUT JESUS IN THE WORLD.* 
 
 I. My dear brethren ! what should we do without Jesus 
 in the world ? We have to live, we have to die, 
 we have to be saved. Oh what should we do 
 without Jesus in the world ? Dearest Lord ! you 
 see I am going to dare to speak of Him to you in 
 His own presence. 
 
 * Lent Exposition of the B. Sacrament, 1856.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 161 
 
 1. In sorrow what should we do without Jesus? 
 
 2. In illness and pain ? 
 
 3. In poverty and hardships ? 
 
 4. In the loss of those we love ? 
 
 5. In the hour of death ? 
 
 II. Jesus because He shall save His people from 
 their sins. 
 
 1. Look at heathen, what if we were like them? 
 
 2. Look at sinners, what if we were like them ? 
 
 3. Those outside the Church, what if we were like 
 
 them? 
 
 4. Ourselves in past years, what if we were like 
 
 them? 
 
 5. Without Jesus, where should we be now ? 
 
 And can we ever spare Him now? in death? in 
 judgment? after that? never, never. 
 III. And the Blessed Sacrament is our wn very Jesus. 
 
 1. The Jesus who loved the poor. 
 
 2. The Jesus who wept over His dead friend. 
 
 3. The Jesus who consorted with sinners. 
 
 4. The Jesus who comforted the sorrowful. 
 
 5. The Jesus who feels more anxious that we should 
 
 be saved than we do ourselves. 
 And what is the Blessed Sacrament a sign of? 
 His unspeakable fidelity. He yearns over us while 
 we stay away : He implores us while we ungraciously 
 refuse His love : He clings to us even in our sins : He 
 longs to take us in His arms, and bear us away to 
 heaven, and to have us with Himself for evermore. 
 Our beloved Brother ! and shall we refuse to go ? Oh 
 no, no ! let us pour out our hearts before Him let 
 us tell Him how deeply, how dearly we love Him 
 let us beg Him to save us in spite of our own selves, 
 Vol. I. I,
 
 162 PART II. 
 
 and to make us love Him more and more a"nd more, 
 and to bear with us a little longer, and we will serve 
 Him better, and die in His arms, and then go with 
 Him to His Father, and be at rest forever. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 THERE IS NOW THEREFORE NO CON- 
 DEMNATION TO THEM THAT 
 ARE IN CHRIST JESUS. 
 
 Many words of wonderful beauty have been uttered 
 in the world which have lived on for generations like 
 music that could not die but few more beautiful than 
 this, which came to St. Paul while making tents at 
 Corinth, and which he wrote to the Romans. 
 I. No condemnation ! Is not this just what we want ? 
 
 1. Feeling of people who are on trial, as we arc: 
 
 it is just our business as creatures to be judged. 
 
 2. Conscience judges us within, and the world 
 
 without : we fear the stern truth of the inward 
 judge, and we chafe under the invariable un- 
 kindliness of the outward one : all happiness 
 and unhappiness depend on these judgments. 
 
 3. But God, Who knows all, understands all, sees 
 
 the secret truth of all, and is unutterably holy. 
 
 4. To be condemned by God ; it is very easy, very 
 
 likely ; all merit it : to know that we should be 
 saved is it not heaven beforehand ? 
 
 5. Well, there is now therefore no condemnation to 
 
 them that are iii Christ Jesus.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 163 
 
 II. But who are in Christ Jesus? 
 
 1. Those who have the true faith and practise it. 
 
 2. Those who have a great sorrow for their sins. 
 
 3. Those who love others for our Lord's sake. 
 
 4. Those who are trying to be holy even if they are 
 
 not so yet. 
 
 5. Those who wish to love Jesus, though they do not 
 
 feel as if they loved Him yet. 
 
 Ah, ray dear brethren, you may have many years to 
 live yet ; many temptations, much unkmdliness, much 
 sorrow, much pain, many unworthy and simple imper- 
 fections ; but through it all you can truly keep saying 
 to yourselves, as men murmur songs they love, those 
 beautiful song-like words of our dear St. Paul : There 
 is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 THE FIRST SIGHT OF THE FACE OF 
 JESUS. 
 
 Seek ye My Face ! Thy Face, Lord, will we seek ! 
 What it is to have Jesus with us ; how it increases our 
 longing to see His face ; what joy and light and life 
 would that veiled Face pour into our very inmost 
 souls ! 
 
 I. Our first sight of Jesus. 
 
 1. We shall actually see Him, and it cannot now be 
 very long.
 
 164 PART II. 
 
 2. But we must go through grave and solemn things 
 
 to reach this sight. 
 
 3. St. Simeon's long years and then his Nunc Dimitti& 
 
 is it a figure of our lives ? 
 
 4. We must die, and are daily nearing the time. 
 
 5. The more we love God, the more real must be our 
 
 fear of death. 
 
 6. The act of death the first moment of the separate 
 
 soul. 
 
 7. First sight of Jesus judgment begins. What 
 
 will our thoughts be? Saints have said they 
 should be almost distracted with the sweet- 
 ness of that first sight of His Face. Alas! I 
 shall tremble, and be first ashamed, and then 
 afraid. 
 II. We lose sight of that Face again. 
 
 1. Judgment is over wherever we go, shall we ever 
 
 forget the beauty of that Face ? 
 
 2. If to Purgatory, it is no light thing to dwell among 
 
 those fires. 
 
 3. The pain of parting with that Face ; for long years 
 
 we may perhaps see it no more. 
 
 4. And yet it will haunt us like a ray of light in our 
 
 punishment. 
 
 5. Yet is Purgatory inevitable ? 
 
 6. No! To avoid venial sin, to break with the 
 
 world, to have an abiding sorrow for sin, to be 
 patient these are ways of avoiding Purgatory 
 altogether. 
 
 7. Perhaps a particular devotion to the presence of 
 
 Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament may have a 
 peculiar power to avoid or shorten Purgatory. 
 Oh let no one be without hope of escaping Purgatory.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 165 
 
 It is less hard than many think. The punishment 
 itself is fearful the delay of being with Jesus is intol- 
 erable to a loving heart. Oh after a weary life, is there 
 still to be another weary waiting for our deliverance 
 and our rest ? If we must burn, let it be with the fire 
 of love now, not with the fires of chastisement here- 
 after!
 
 part Second 
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 THE PASSION. 
 
 1CT
 
 I. 
 
 CALVARY* 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PASSION ; ITS HISTORICAL, 
 DOCTRINAL, AND MYSTICAL CHARACTER. 
 
 I. The darkness of an eclipse it gradually lightens 
 the white towers of a city not far inland at the 
 end of the Mediterranean slowly being disclosed 
 against the darkness is the Body of Jesus hanging 
 on the Cross, facing the grand west, disfigured by 
 suffering; and a broken-hearted mother standing 
 beneath the Cross now wet with blood. 
 
 1. This is the fountain of all supernatural things, 
 
 and flows both before and behind. 
 
 2. Henceforth the history of the world can never 
 
 get from under the influence of this. 
 
 3. The sorrow and happiness of each individual 
 
 soul starts at the foot of the Cross. 
 
 4. It is the only earthly object of any real abiding 
 
 value : all is dross compared to it ; it is the 
 marriage of heaven and earth. 
 
 5. Its effects are eternal and unspeakable. 
 
 * The twelve following chapters are the sketch of a proposed 
 treatise. 
 
 169
 
 170 PART II. 
 
 II. The Passion considered as a history. 
 
 1. The congruous end of the Thirty-three Years of 
 
 the Incarnate Word. 
 
 2. The Supper Room. 
 
 3. The Garden. 
 
 4. The City. 
 
 5. The Mount. 
 
 On earth we can get no higher idea of God than 
 that which the Passion gives us. 
 
 III. Considered as a doctrine. 
 
 1. The two Natures and the one Person. 
 
 2. The accomplishment of Redemption : a different 
 
 idea from the Incarnation (1.) Of glory. (2.) 
 Of suffering. 
 
 3. The Sacraments come out of it. 
 
 4. The daily sacrifice is a continuation of it. 
 
 5. The unnecessary suffering in it an abyss of 
 
 divinest doctrine. It is also remarkable that 
 our Lord's satisfactions were not in voluntary 
 penances, but in things which came on Him 
 through His Father's will this is a characteristic 
 of His sanctity the consolation of it to us. 
 
 IV. Considered as affecting the ritual of the Church. 
 
 1. The Blessed Sacrament the living Lord. 
 
 2. The connection of the Passion with the 
 
 Blessed Sacrament mass, communion, use of 
 the Blessed Sacrament as reparation Holy 
 Sepulchre. 
 
 3. In the Calendar The Church nowhere drama- 
 
 tizes so much then there are memorial feasts 
 all the year round. 
 
 4. As a devotion characterized by (1) Its abiding- 
 
 ness; (2) Universality; (3) Connection with
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 171 
 
 other devotions ; (4) Variety, Stations, Wounds, 
 Words, Trials, Blood, Dolors. 
 
 5. The calm grave endless thought and memory of 
 the Passion by angels and souls even amid the . 
 joys of Heaven. 
 V. Its mystical character. 
 
 1. It produces a whole inward life of its own, on 
 
 peculiar supernatural principles. 
 
 2. To effect this more abundantly God has poured 
 
 abundant revelations of its details into the 
 Church through the contemplative saints. 
 
 3. He has also impressed the Passion on them in 
 
 physical and moral miracles. 
 
 4. He has strewn over the world the instruments 
 
 and relics of the Passion. Just think what it 
 is to be in the same room with a piece of the 
 true Cross. 
 
 5. All holiness, high and low, is imitation of the 
 
 Passion, while the Passion has and communi- 
 cates a substantial virtue which enables us to 
 imitate it, and exercises a mysterious attraction 
 over us. 
 
 The fervor of the primitive Church was owing per- 
 haps to a livelier memory of the Passion. The days 
 of creation their wonders these days were more 
 wonderful, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday : the 
 Triduo of the Passion was the creation of an invisible 
 world.
 
 172 PART II. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE EXCESS OF THE PASSION. 
 
 The beauty of sorrow its poetry, romance, philoso- 
 phy, and literature the pathos of God's world none 
 like to the Passion it is a very world, the flowers of 
 suffering made beautiful by the innocence and also the 
 divinity of Him Who bore it : we must get a view of 
 its extent. 
 
 I. The Thirty-three Years up to the Passion were a 
 Passion in themselves. 
 
 1. Sufferings of the first twelve years poverty, 
 
 weariness, use of reason, prevision of Passion, 
 view of sin. 
 
 2. Sufferings of the Hidden Life the same, with 
 
 toil and Joseph's death. 
 
 3. Sufferings of the three years' Ministry, homeless- 
 
 ness, disciples, persecutions, fatigue, failure. 
 
 4. Steady, incessant, vehement, energetic view of the 
 
 Passion throughout. 
 
 5. His Mother involved in the same law of suffering, 
 
 although exempt from the law of sin. 
 Thus the Passion is not one separate mystery, but 
 
 the blood-stained diadem of all. 
 II. The Mystery of unnecessary suffering in the Passion. 
 
 1. Why it was so long, and not done all at once. 
 
 2. Infinite value of each one of His satisfactions. 
 
 3. Prodigality of everything pains bodily and 
 
 mental, shame, all exhausted it is hard to 
 conceive of more.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 173 
 
 4. It cannot have been really unnecessary this is 
 
 a profound mystery. 
 
 5. Probable reasons, at least on the surface. 
 
 (1) Because being God, He would do all things 
 
 in the most excellent and superabundant 
 way. We do not sufficiently look at the 
 Passion on God's side. It is a many-sided 
 mystery. 
 
 (2) In order to make a more royal satisfaction to 
 
 the justice of God. 
 
 (3) To give us a deeper -and more dread view of 
 
 the horror of sin. 
 
 (4) To exhibit the illimitable excesses of the 
 
 divine mercy. 
 
 (5) Because it was all for love, and of love. 
 
 (6) That God's glory in creation, and that in the 
 
 Sacred Humanity alone, might far surpass 
 the curse of sin. 
 
 (7) To show what manner of service we should 
 
 render to Him, and to take away our hard- 
 ness of heart, which nothing short of omni- 
 potence can soften. 
 III. The Deep Sea. 
 
 1. The number of the sufferings count up from the 
 
 Garden to the Cross. The unknown sufferings, 
 like the unknown perfections of God. There 
 is a sort of secrecy in the Passion : half is not 
 told ; men could not bear the details ; the 
 revelations of saints disclose now and then 
 these secret depths in the Passion. 
 
 2. The variety : every affection of the heart, every 
 
 faculty of the mind, every sense and nerve of 
 the body.
 
 174 PART II. 
 
 3. Intense degree of them in themselves from 
 
 the circumstances and to Him. 
 
 4. Concentration of them in a short time no 
 
 respite to collect self, &c. 
 
 5. Aggravating circumstances of them site, time, 
 
 company, presence of mother, spectators, and 
 their malice. 
 
 6. Inward circumstances mental perturbation and 
 oppression, shame, injustice, view of each kind 
 and class of sin for which He suffered. " 
 
 7. The indifference of those for whom He suffered 
 
 this was unbearable to His Sacred Heart. 
 They were inflicting, and did not know it, a 
 most dreadful outward Passion on One who had 
 already an unspeakable Passion within. 
 
 8. Aggravation from those who afflicted Him 
 
 (1) Rude Romans, (2) His own Jews, (3) Powers 
 of Hell, (4) Mary, (5) Eternal Father think 
 of Him with these five enemies hemming Him 
 in in seeming appalling alliance. 
 
 9. The horror of that for which He suffered, viz., 
 
 sin. 
 
 10. The love with which He suffered was of itself 
 
 an indescribable martyrdom. 
 
 11. Augmentation of suffering from the exquisiteness 
 
 of His Human Nature. 
 
 12. Augmentation of it by His Divine Nature 
 
 (1.) What it withheld, and so contrast. (2.) 
 Strengthening Him to bear. (3.) Adding some- 
 thing peculiar to each torture. 
 IV. Results. 
 
 1. All martyrdoms as nothing to His sufferings 
 (against Suarez).
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 175 
 
 2. All human suffering, inclusive of seven dolors, 
 
 far outstripped by them. 
 
 3. In intensity they exceed all the pains of purga- 
 
 tory because of His Soul. 
 
 4. In sensible pain they possibly exceed in intensity 
 
 all the pain of the lost, and of their bodies after 
 the resurrection. 
 
 5. He Himself could of God's absolute power have 
 
 suffered more this is all we can say. 
 
 6. Only His Divinity without alleviating any ena- 
 
 bled Him to bear all. 
 
 7. We shall perhaps never understand them St. 
 
 Jerome says that what our Lord suffered on the 
 
 Thursday night will not all be known until the 
 
 doom, when the Father will reveal it according 
 
 to the prophecy of Nahum, Revelabo cunctis 
 
 regibus et geiitibus ignominiam tuam. 
 
 What a scene! God out in the darkness of that 
 
 night, amid the mountainous billows of that storm 
 
 where all humanity and all angelic nature would have 
 
 foundered and gone down : God ! God ! the Eternal 
 
 God ! That night, in that dark sea, with that affliction 
 
 and fatigue, my soul was saved ! 
 
 III. 
 THE BODILY PAINS. 
 
 The Ecce Homo ! a worm and no man : His beauty 
 crushed out of Him : the nature almost trodden out of 
 Him ; life held in that mangled wreck by simple power.
 
 176 PART II. 
 
 I. The bitterness of bodily pain. 
 
 1. Our own experienced inability to bear it. 
 
 2. All generations have made their punishments out 
 
 of it. 
 
 3. The way in which it afflicts the soul. 
 
 4. The revolution it works in our characters. 
 
 5. The amazing merits and crowns of martyrdom. 
 
 6. Purgatory and Hell. 
 
 7. By this pain was redemption to be effected. 
 
 II. General view of the Bodily Pains of the Passion. 
 
 1. Their length some eighteen hours but especially 
 
 long to the swift operations of His Soul. 
 
 2. Their variety, and their being constantly inter- 
 
 mingled ; and all over His Body. Revelation 
 to the V. Paola Maria Scalza, that the Wounds 
 and Disfigurements of our Lord's Body were 
 above all that had been said, written, or 
 thought. * 
 
 3. Their keenness, from their severity and rapidity, 
 
 and from His sensitiveness. 
 
 4. Their all being violently contemporaneous one 
 
 with another. 
 
 5. Without respite, or refreshment, or time to collect 
 
 self; save only visit of angel in the garden. 
 
 III. Their kinds. 
 
 1. Stunning, aching bruises, Cedron, up the hill, the 
 
 Via Dolorosa. 
 
 2. Stricture of ropes. 
 
 3. Flesh wounds down to the bone, and all over. 
 
 4. Dislocations, with ropes, of jaws when struck, 
 
 and stretching on the Cross, and hanging 
 from it. 
 
 *Vita, pp. 289, 290.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 177 
 
 5. Excessive bleeding intense anguish caused by 
 
 it, no repose allowed. 
 
 6. Stabbing through nerves with thorns and nails. 
 
 7. Flaying, with the two strippings.- 
 
 8. Tearing flesh off, as martyrs had, at the 
 
 scourging. 
 
 9. Cold, Cedron, the night. 
 
 10. Fatigue to its uttermost limit of throbbing, dull, 
 
 seemingly impossible pain. 
 
 11. Hunger all those hours, and with such nervous 
 
 suffering. 
 
 12. Thirst after the loss of blood. 
 
 N.B. Breaking of bones and fire were the only two 
 
 pains not applied. 
 IV. His Sacred Limbs. 
 
 1. Head blows, hair, crowning. 
 
 2. Eyes filled with clotted blood, inverted lashes 
 
 blows. 
 
 3. Mouth swollen with blows, teeth loosened, lips 
 
 cracked, tongue swollen. 
 
 4. Face blows, spittings, thorns half down the 
 
 brow. 
 
 5. Shoulders raw with scourgings, laid open at 
 
 stripping. 
 
 6. Arms ropes, bruises, scourges, out of joint. 
 
 7. Hands blood from under nails with ropes, nails 
 
 on the Cross. 
 
 8. Breast torn with scourges, painfully distended 
 
 to cracking. 
 
 9. Sides bones laid bare with scourging, bruised 
 
 and livid with blows of staves. 
 10. Knees broken with falls, skin hanging down, as 
 
 in various revelations. 
 Vol. I. M
 
 178 PART II. 
 
 11. Feet bleeding, sore, nailed, dislocated, wrung 
 
 into unnatural positions. 
 
 12. Heart fever, anguish, bursting, fainting, irre- 
 
 gular spasms. 
 
 V. The instruments of His Passion. 
 
 1. Ropes. 
 
 2. Gauntlet. 
 
 3. Scourges. 
 
 4. Thorns. 
 
 5. Reed. 
 
 6. Spears to prick Him with in the Via Crucis. 
 
 7. Hammer and nails. 
 
 VI. His five Blessed Senses mixed bodily and mental 
 
 sufferings. 
 
 1. Hearing. 
 
 Blasphemy denial Mary's sighs awfulness of 
 the cries of a crowd. 
 
 2. Seeing. 
 
 Sin Mother; instruments of Passion absence of 
 apostles wicked faces. 
 
 3. Smelling. 
 
 Odors of sin, which sickened the saints corrup- 
 tion of Golgotha the well on Thursday night. 
 
 4. Tasting. 
 
 Gall, blood, mud, spittle, hunger, thirst. 
 
 5. Touching. 
 
 Scourge, thorns, nails, men's rude hands. 
 
 VII. His death. 
 
 1. Not the gradual failing of power, so as to be 
 
 easy. 
 
 2. The horror of the position to die in. 
 
 3. The combined unity of all the pains mounting to 
 
 one head and crisis.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 179 
 
 4. The loud cry, so unlike Him. 
 
 5. It has been said that the greatest pain in the 
 
 Passion was the act of death, because of the 
 inexplicably perfect union of His Body and 
 Soul. 
 
 Oh the tranquillity of the Dead Christ on Mary's lap; 
 we breathe now, like men just saved from shipwreck, 
 after this roaring sea of horrors, which has stunned and 
 bewildered us, has gone in its great ebb far down the 
 beach. This is that sweet stillness round the tomb, 
 that fatigue in tranquil rest recovering its bruised heart 
 and scattered mind, which makes the peace of Holy 
 Saturday almost a dearer gift than the joy of Easter. 
 
 IV. 
 THE MENTAL SUFFERINGS. 
 
 The feelings of Jesus, when for the last time, whatever 
 day it was, He woke from sleep before His Passion. 
 -I. The mystery of our Lord's sleep. 
 
 1. Not suspending the use of reason, nor the capa- 
 
 bility of meriting. 
 
 2. Peopled with the prevision of His Passion. 
 
 3. Scantily taken through all the Three-and-thirty 
 
 Years. 
 
 4. Yet a real rest to His Sacred Humanity, the more 
 
 so from His sinlessness, and perfection of Body. 
 
 5. But His waking was not a gradual dawning on 
 
 Him when He cast off drowsiness ; clear as an
 
 180 PART II. 
 
 Asiatic landscape, defined as a Greek sea-view, 
 lay His Passion close at hand. 
 
 II. Mental sufferings. 
 
 1. Mind has much greater capabilities of suffering 
 
 than the body, in variety, acuteness, depth, so 
 that there is hardly any limit to mental suffering, 
 except physical death. 
 
 2. And by His divine power that limit in His own 
 
 case was miraculously thrust back. 
 
 3. In purgatory and hell the pains of sense are 
 
 incomparably below those of mind. 
 
 4. The way in which apprehension magnifies coming 
 
 evils, and is a more real suffering than the 
 actual endurance. 
 
 5. But who shall estimate rightly the capabilities of 
 
 His Soul and Heart, or the wonderful torture of 
 wounded feelings and violated sensibilities in 
 Him? 
 
 III. The mental suffering of the Passion considered 
 
 generally. 
 
 1. Fear. Intense pain of it. (1.) Foresight. (2.) 
 
 Faces of multitude. (3.) Their cries. (4.) 
 Being hated. (5.) Eternal Father. He was 
 like a hunted animal, yet was the great God 
 omnipotent. 
 
 2. Horror. (1.) Of the Passion. (2.) From the 
 
 vision of sin. (3.) From the excesses of un- 
 appeased justice. 
 
 3. Feeling of defilement. (1.) Clothed in all sins. 
 
 (2.) Stuck close to Him. (3.) Burnt into His 
 Soul. 
 
 4. Shame, as if He would have hidden Himself in 
 
 nothingness ; Adam's shame was nothing to His.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 181 
 
 5. Sadness for the lost, for all sinners; for all that sin 
 
 should make any of us suffer. 
 
 6. Compassion, for each and all of us in our- lost 
 
 state. St. Bonaventure thinks His Compassion 
 was a greater suffering than His Passion, not 
 only for each soul lost, but for each pain of the 
 elect: it was co-extensive (1.) With the Blessed 
 Virgin Mary's dolors. (2.) All martyrdoms. 
 (3.) All griefs. (4.) All voluntary austerities. 
 (5.) All our own private sorrows and pains. 
 
 7. Love as it were barbed and poisoned every shaft 
 
 that strung Him. 
 
 IV. The Agony was the Crucifixion of His Soul, and 
 may be taken as a specimen of these Mental 
 Sufferings. Look at the process of the Agony, 
 and see how the pains took possession of His 
 Soul progressively for three interminable hours. 
 
 1. Fear, with its alarms, unsettlements, shadows, 
 
 panics, chills. 
 
 2. Disgust, as if it was all so loathsome that He could 
 
 not persevere. 
 
 3. Weariness, so that all power to make head against 
 
 the commonest sorrow was gone. 
 
 4. Drenching bitterness, so that He had no vicis- 
 
 situde, no relief of posture in His mind, no 
 refuge in Himself, no privacy in His own 
 Nature. 
 
 5. Fight in His Human Nature, the novelty of it, 
 
 and the vehemence. 
 
 6. Tightness, or narrowness, and anxiety, as if He 
 
 was pressed in some spiritual instrument of 
 torture. 
 
 7. Desolation, deep darkness, accumulation and
 
 182 PART II. 
 
 acme of interior trials and anguishes, all void 
 and vast around Him, with nothing to lean 
 against. 
 
 8. Crushing oppression, as if all His faculties were 
 
 squeezed into one immense sort of suffering. 
 
 9. Exhaustion, such as would have made death 
 
 sweet, such a mixture of restlessness and the 
 loss of all power of exertion. 
 
 10. Rush of love into this wounded Nature, like 
 
 drenching a wound in spirit or in acid ; it was 
 like goads. St. Bernardine says that the alter- 
 nate charges of fear and love against each other, 
 and with all the power of His Soul, caused the 
 Bloody Sweat. 
 
 11. Loss of blood and consequent increase of all the 
 
 former mental tortures left a complete wreck. 
 
 12. Aggravating circumstances. (1.) Multiplicity of 
 
 the objects which distracted Him. (2.) The 
 vehemence of the impressions they made on His 
 Soul ; angels could not have borne it. So that 
 His Will seemed to totter : one angel, Michael 
 or Gabriel, comes to comfort Him. If Michael, 
 can that be the Word for whom he fought in 
 heaven his grand battle ? if Gabriel, he thinks 
 of Mary on Annunciation night, the same 25th 
 March. 
 
 V. The revelations to Battista Varani are like an 
 insight into the character of our Lord, and his 
 personal feelings as Man ; this is their special 
 beauty. 
 
 1. First Dolor. From the view of those who 
 should be lost eternally : like dislocation of 
 limbs the eternity of the separation, quel mai
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 183 
 
 mi cruciava: but as separate from Him, their 
 torments after death did not enter into this 
 woe. 
 
 2. Second Dolor. From the sins of the elect, and 
 
 all their pains, penances, persecutions, and 
 temptations. As if He had millions of eyes, 
 and each eye in the insupportable agony which 
 the eye can feel. As not separate from Him, 
 the pains of purgatory did enter into this woe. 
 
 3. Third Dolor. From His Mother's sufferings. This 
 
 was the one alleviation, the only one He did 
 crave for, that His Mother should be exempt 
 from suffering. With filial tenderness and many 
 tears did He pray His Father for this. It was 
 like all His Passion a second time on the crushed 
 Soul and sore raw Body. 
 
 4. Fourth Dolor. From the grief of Magdalen. 
 
 Except His Mother, none grieved as she. He 
 had told John secrets which supported him. 
 John would have crucified Him himself to get 
 the good which, when leaning on his Master's 
 Bosom, he learned was to come from the Passion. 
 This upheld him ; but Magdalen knew nothing 
 of this. Heaven and earth seemed gone to her ; 
 as her glorious love wag without order or meas- 
 ure, so was her woe. This was why He appeared 
 to her at the Resurrection. 
 
 5. Fifth Dolor. From the dismay and desolation of 
 
 His Apostles and disciples. His grief in His 
 last sermon to them on Thursday night. 
 
 6. Sixth Dolor. From the treachery of Judas, after 
 
 all He had done for him. "When I bent over 
 to wash his feet, My long hair fell over My face,
 
 184 PART n. 
 
 and when I pressed his foot to My mouth and 
 kissed it, I bathed it a second time with hot 
 tears of love." 
 
 7. Seventh Dolor. From the ingratitude of the 
 
 Jews. All the old history, and -then, Crucify 
 Him, crucify Him ! That Thursday night long 
 centuries ago, the Exodus of the chosen people 
 from Egypt, and now the Exodus of all 
 Humanity through the dry bed of our Lord's 
 Soul out of the darkness of the land of the 
 shadow of death. 
 
 8. Eighth Dolor. The ingratitude of all creatures. 
 
 To each of us He has done what He did to 
 Judas, to each of us what He did for the Jews, 
 and yet we love Him as we do. B. Battista 
 Varani,* when she saw Him in such a "hell of 
 amorous pains," almost doubted His being God : 
 but rather the very excess of the love, ,o far 
 beyond either the reason or romance of earthly 
 love, might have shown her that it could be 
 God alone who could love in such a way. 
 
 V. 
 THE SHAME. 
 
 Look at that figure in the streets of Jerusalem, the 
 unresisting Captive ; men are pulling His beard, spitting 
 in His face, and kicking Him, as if they were driving 
 some stupid ox to slaughter, while then as ever count- 
 
 * See Battista's postscriptum about devotion to interior and to 
 exterior pains, in the French, life of her, p. 155.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 185 
 
 less angels, awe-smitten and in ecstacy with the beauty 
 of His holiness, are singing Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, 
 round His throne! 
 I. The Worship of the beautiful Incarnate Word. 
 
 1. In heaven, since the trial of the angels, and all 
 
 through the Three-and-thirty years. 
 
 2. The dignity of His Sacred Humanity, and the 
 
 inconceivable glory prepared for It. 
 
 3. It was both sun and moon to the whole enormous 
 
 heaven : one spark could lighten all the earth. 
 
 4. To Him belongs the right of judging all men ; 
 
 He has ere now judged the smiters and the 
 spitters. 
 
 5. To see Him is to be happy eternally : it needs no 
 
 more. 
 
 II. Phenomenon of contempt of God. 
 
 1. It is earth's lowest depth of sin the stupidity 
 
 of earth is necessary to it hell is t<5o intelligent 
 to have it. 
 
 2. It combines hatred and indifference about God in 
 
 one act. 
 
 3. It only comes out in great sinners ; and seems 
 
 to rise round saints, as if their exceeding holi- 
 ness drew it out of the most pestilential part of 
 our corruption. 
 
 4. In our degree we all misjudge God ; it is the 
 
 grand grief of those who love Him. 
 
 5. Hell swallows up contempt in fear ; contempt is 
 
 earth's own peculiar affront to God. 
 
 III. Contempts and insults and shame of the Thirty- 
 
 three Years. 
 
 1. His poverty and obscurity and dwelling place. 
 Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ?
 
 186 PART II. 
 
 2. His wisdom. Is a devil and is mad. (John iii.) 
 
 How doth this man know letters, having never 
 learned ? (John vii.) We know God spoke to 
 Moses, but as to this man we know not from 
 whence He is. (John ix. 29.) 
 
 3. His doctrine. Called a Samaritan and a heretic. 
 
 4. His power. His miracles were attributed to the 
 
 devil and to magi'c. 
 
 5. His innocence. Called (1.) A sinner. (2.) Glutton 
 
 and wine-bibber (Matt, xi.) (3.) Seducer of the 
 people (Luke xxiii.) (4.) Prevaricator of the 
 law. (5.) Blasphemer (John ix.) 
 
 IV. Shame and indignities of the Passion. 
 
 1. Words the opprobrious acts doubtless not half 
 
 recorded. 
 
 2. Actions blows, kicks, pulling hair, spitting, 
 
 mock homage, Ecce Homo. 
 
 3. ThougKts cowardice, vile magician, stupid fool. 
 
 4. Manner Annas, Caiphas, Herod, Pilate, all 
 
 others: death by crucifixion, thieves. 
 
 5. Circumstances His triumph on Palm Sunday, 
 
 the feast and multitude. 
 
 6. From whom it all came His Jews, those whom 
 
 He had fed and healed, those who had cried 
 Hosanna. 
 
 7. Sheer barbarities, hell-inspired blasphemies 
 
 scene at Herod's court.* 
 
 V. What was wounded by this shame. 
 
 1. His love contempt is the hardest of all things 
 for love to bear and then it was such love and 
 such contempt. 
 
 * v. page 132.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 187 
 
 2. The gracefulness of His patience He felt how 
 
 this aggravated their sin. 
 
 3. His honor and reputation how nature feels 
 
 this, and His nature most of all, as being most 
 sensitive. 
 
 4. His venerable dignity He had always been so 
 
 mature and grave, and unseemliness was torture 
 to Him. 
 
 5. His intellectual perceptions of what was right, 
 
 and due to Him, and base in them. 
 
 6. His modesty especially in the stripping, both 
 
 for the scourging and the crucifixion. 
 
 7. His holiness by coarseness, rudeness, sin, scur- 
 
 rility, blasphemy, insolence. 
 
 8. His Divine Majesty who can tell the horror of 
 
 this to His Holy Soul ? 
 VI. The mystery of what shame was in His Soul. 
 
 1. In us shame is chiefly the undue revelation of 
 
 our true selves, of that which we most wish to 
 keep concealed. 
 
 2. The intense suffering of shame. 
 
 (1) Its keen penetrativeness into every recess of 
 
 our nature. 
 
 (2) Its nervous raw feeling, becoming unbearable, 
 
 like touching the quick of a wound. 
 
 (3) The way in which it prostrates all our powers. 
 
 (4) It makes everything around us an instrument 
 
 of suffering. 
 
 (5) It drives us from our kind, into a mental 
 
 solitude. 
 
 (6) It surrounds us with darkness, deluding, 
 
 puzzling, bewildering us. 
 
 (7) Its confusion is the painful death of all that
 
 188 PART II. 
 
 is most sensitively alive within us. And 
 yet, for the most part, all this comes from 
 the laying bare of our true selves. 
 
 3. Its office. 
 
 (1) The shame of the Passion is dwelt upon in 
 
 Scripture as an essential element in it. 
 
 (2) Its presence in all holiness : all saints are in 
 
 theirmeasure made by shame. 
 
 (3) What it was in His Soul we can only guess. 
 
 He doubtless had shame from many things 
 which we are too obtuse and coarse to 
 understand. 
 
 4. We may guess that in Him it was. 
 
 (1) A false imputation of what was not due to 
 
 Him, and the mere imputation of which 
 was suffering to His pure Soul. 
 
 (2) It was an accumulation of opprobrious and 
 
 vile and ludicrous positions in which He 
 was placed, which to His keen sensibilities 
 were inconceivably more so than they could 
 be to us. 
 
 (3) It was like the flaying alive of the unimagin- 
 
 able modesty of His Sacred Humanity. 
 
 (4) It was the glare of publicity, to shyness 
 
 which eyes looked through as if they were 
 swords. 
 
 (5) It came upon Him when weakened and 
 
 crushed by tortures both of mind and body. 
 
 (6) It was a violence to the tranquil depths of 
 
 His Humility, digging them deeper all the 
 while by its outrages. 
 
 (7) It was immensely heightened by the sense of 
 
 injustice.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 189 
 
 (8) Glory was as it were the natural life and 
 
 repose of His Soul because of the Hypo- 
 static Union. 
 
 (9) His Divine Person may have been in this 
 
 respect a source of suffering to His Holy 
 
 Soul. 
 
 The shameful Way of the Cross, His Mother bathed 
 in shame: the blasts of the Roman trumpets in the 
 streets reminded Him, if He ever needed His self- 
 collection reminded, of the angelic trumpet of the Day 
 of Doom that day when all creation, even its holiest 
 heights, shall be put to shame, and God's lovely purity 
 gleam unspeakably bright above us, through the holy 
 Soul of our dearest Lord and Judge. 
 
 VI. 
 
 OUTWARD DEMEANOR AND INWARD 
 DISPOSITIONS. 
 
 The rough men of. sequestered Nazareth, when they 
 were sad, used to say, " Let us go and see Mary's Son ! " 
 This was revealed by our Lady to St. Bridget. We 
 have treated of the bodily sufferings and mental suffer- 
 ings, and the shame ; now all these three things affect 
 outward demeanor and inward dispositions : we must 
 bear those three chapters in mind now, and see how He 
 bore up under them. 
 I. The external beauty of our Lord. 
 1. Everything about Jesus was full of living grace: 
 nothing was merely exterior.
 
 190 PART II. 
 
 2. His beauty and venerable appearance, breeding 
 
 holiness, yet attracting sinners. 
 
 3. It was the reflection of His holiness, and even the 
 
 working of His Divine Nature. 
 
 4. This beauty was part of Mary's love of Him. 
 
 5. It is part of the joy of heaven at this hour. 
 
 6. How it added to the pathos of the Passion amid 
 
 those harsh voices and dreadful faces. 
 
 7. While it was defaced, it still remained venerable 
 
 and attractive as a spell. 
 
 II. His manner during the Passion. 
 
 1. His unselfishness, and unobtrusive considerate- 
 
 ness, as Let these go their way ; also His words 
 on the cross. 
 
 2. Voluntary obedience, as in the garden when men 
 
 fell before Him. 
 
 3. Kind words, and grave pitiful tone of voice, never 
 
 changed or quickened or heightened. 
 
 4. His look under the worst indignities was full of 
 
 mild forgiving sorrow. 
 
 5. The beauty of His patience was so imperturbable 
 
 and winning. 
 
 6. His silence was the more wonderful because of His 
 
 eloquence, and His exquisite sense of injustice, 
 which last so rouses our nature, even in reading 
 history. 
 
 7. Yet He was neither stunned nor stupefied, but col- 
 
 lected, sensitive, attentive, observant, prompt to 
 the last. And all this with such natural grace that 
 we hardly come to think of it until we meditate. 
 
 III. His demeanor to those who came near Him. 
 
 1. To St. Peter in the supper room when sleeping 
 after the denial then, as if He carried His
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 191 
 
 loving thoughtfulness unbroken through cross, 
 and death, and limbus, and resurrection, He 
 says, Go and tell Peter. 
 
 2. To St. John on His bosom at supper in the 
 
 garden at the foot of the cross. 
 
 3. Judas making three attempts to soften him, one 
 
 in the supper room, eating out of the same dish ; 
 yet the others were not surprised ; this shows 
 how usual this courtesy was. 
 
 4. Jews He wept over the city from the hilltop 
 
 in the garden His gentleness women in Via 
 Crucis no reproach no anger at the cry of 
 crudfige prayer on the cross. 
 
 5. Pilate sent his wife to Him admission of less 
 
 fault.* 
 
 6. Herod His silence with the excommunicated 
 
 sinner His dignity overawing any but a brutal 
 mind, combined with the sweetness of childlike 
 unresisting humility. 
 
 7. The thief sweet words instant forgiveness. 
 
 8. His mother in the Via Crucis OL, the cross 
 
 with less sweetness, as if He were in full 
 intelligence with her, and treated her on a sort 
 of e'quality. 
 
 9. To us with our sins and waywardness His 
 
 thought for all His Sacred Heart almost 
 smiling on us with encouragement and welcome 
 through the dun eclipse on Calvary. 
 EV. The inward beauty of our Lord. 
 
 1. Interior beauty compared to exterior not the 
 natural gifts of all angels are equal to one poor 
 soul in the lowest state of grace. 
 
 * John xix. 11.
 
 192 PART II. 
 
 2. Not all saints and angels are equal to Mary, nor 
 
 countless Maries to the soul of Jesus. 
 
 3. Wherein it consisted union with God merits 
 
 acquired sublimity of dispositions their in- 
 tensity. 
 
 4. All this was heightened by the illumination of 
 
 His faculties, the capacity of His affections, the 
 order of His appetites, and the serenity of His 
 sensitive nature. 
 
 5. Then there was the glory of His Divinity which 
 
 was shed so sweetly, softly, fittingly over all : 
 the point of contact of His two Natures, riveted 
 together, yet unconfused ; this union, or junction, 
 is itself the most unsurpassed of all created 
 beauties. 
 
 6. To us all this is more beautiful, because it is for us. 
 V. His interior dispositions. 
 
 1. The most unbroken peace. 
 
 2. Unspeakable conformity of will with the Father. 
 
 3. Inconceivable horror of sin. 
 
 4. Incomparable tenderness and allowance to sinners. 
 
 5. Undistracted love of each one of us. 
 
 6. The royalty of His spirit of sacrifice: restraint 
 
 of consolation, &c. 
 
 7. His thirst for suffering. 
 
 8. The keen presence of every natural human feel- 
 
 ing : no insensibility, nor loss of humanness 
 such as perhaps some saints had. 
 
 9. His intense adoration of the justice and sanctity 
 
 of God. 
 
 O my beautiful Lord ! Like the moon on wild 
 nights, the clouds of Thy Passion crowded round Thee, 
 and thou movedst on in Thy heavenly gentleness,
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 193 
 
 softening and silvering all things around, so that Thou 
 art still concealing what Thou hast done for us, Thy 
 very beauty making Thy Passion seem less a Passion 
 than it really was ! 
 
 VII. 
 THE SOLITARINESS. 
 
 In the vastness and crowdedness of Creation there 
 is something overwhelming in the Unity of God. 
 The Trinity seems to save 'the solitude of the Unity 
 so also in the haunted darkness and wild clamors of 
 the Passion, it is terrible to think of the loneliness of 
 Jesus, the one Mediator between God and man. 
 I. Solitude: the solitary saints are the fewest in 
 number the most unknown have the highest 
 vocation. 
 
 1. How it ties our nature down to its deepest depths 
 
 and brings up strange things. 
 
 2. Impossibility of not leaning on things to love, 
 
 and in this life on created things. 
 
 3. Desertion and estrangement are hard to bear, 
 
 because of the loneliness they bring. 
 
 4. The solitude of being misunderstood, and being 
 
 out of sympathy with those around. 
 
 5. The loss of friends desolating and diminishing 
 
 our circle leaving fewer to love us, fewer for 
 us to love. 
 
 6. Old age is a kind of solitude only insensibility 
 
 tempers it, and God is perhaps more with us. 
 
 7. Sickness is a drawing of us into still farther 
 
 solitude yet kind ministries are round. 
 VoL I. N
 
 194 PART 1 1. 
 
 8. Death is a very lonely action yet we have priest 
 
 and sacraments and a personal visit from our 
 Lord. 
 
 9. Judgment is swift, but fearfully lonely, yet even 
 
 there is our Guardian Angel, and the Human 
 Heart of our Judge. 
 
 II. The outward Solitude of the Passion. 
 
 1. His Mother absent during part of the Passion. 
 
 2. His disciple whom He loved was gone. 
 
 3. Of those whom He had fed and healed not one 
 
 came nigh Him. 
 
 4. The usual kindlinesses shown to the worst crim- 
 
 inals were not shown to Him. 
 
 5. In all the steps of His Passion He was alone, in 
 
 the garden, well, guard-room, Herod's court, 
 streets. 
 
 6. The solitude of His silence no one to speak to : 
 
 except the women of Jerusalem. 
 
 7. The angels seemed withdrawn at least so far as 
 
 their presence comforted Him. 
 
 III. The inward Solitude. 
 
 1. None could appreciate His horror of sin, nor the 
 
 multitude of sins He had to bear. 
 
 2. None could understand His pains, not even His 
 
 Mother. 
 
 3. Where the eye looked for consolation, there was 
 
 aggravation, in Mary, John, and the Apostles. 
 
 4. Accumulation of the burden on Him alone. 
 
 5. The abysses He saw before Him of (1) the divine 
 
 anger if one sin deserved hell, what must all 
 the sins of the world have deserved? And it 
 was just that which He suffered. (2) Hungry 
 justice (3) breathless suffering: these were
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 195 
 
 all like so many huge unpeopled creations which 
 He had to traverse alone. 
 
 6. His Human Nature as it were deserted by His 
 
 Divine ; the torture of this, as if Hypostatic 
 Union was going to be broken. 
 
 7. Thus left, It was beset with the usual assailants, 
 
 fear, sadness, wish to escape, fainting, all the 
 wild beasts of our own terrors let loose on His 
 exhausted strength. 
 EV. The presences which deepened His solitude. 
 
 1. The angel comforting Him, as lightning deepens 
 
 the night ; it also showed that the solitude was 
 intolerable, one ray of light had to break in. 
 
 2. Mary : her Immaculate Conception was to be paid 
 
 for then. 
 
 3. John, Avhom He so intensely loved. 
 
 4. The crowd, which always intensifies solitude. He 
 
 had stilled the stormy lake, but as He looked 
 over the wild sea of stormy heads, He was silent 
 and alone ; His power lay by His side like a 
 paralyzed arm, unnoticed or restrained. 
 
 5. The external hurry of being dragged about from 
 
 place to place. 
 
 6. The distractions of trials and questions, each 
 
 making His loneliness more painfully sensible : 
 distracted loneliness is peculiarly painful. 
 
 7. A raining tempest of momentarily diversified 
 
 physical sufferings, attempting to dislodge His 
 self-collection. 
 V. The Dereliction of the Father. 
 
 1. Tearfulness of spiritual trials, evidenced by the 
 
 writhings of manly souls under them. 
 
 2. Horror of even great saints at the temporary
 
 196 PART II. 
 
 hidings of God's countenance, which they can 
 hardly bear. God justified even Job for his 
 words. 
 
 3. Usually solitude from creatures brings to us a 
 
 more intimate presence of God. 
 
 4. No interior trials were like those of the Soul of 
 
 Jesus, because no soul had so enjoyed His pres- 
 ence, and none probably was ever left in an 
 abandonment so nearly total, or so complete. 
 
 5. The Father abandons Him : we have no line to 
 
 fathom this depth of the Passion : as if the Unity 
 of the Trinity were going to break up ; creation 
 opened under Him, and He sank, oh horror! 
 He cried out piteously, and that moment the 
 angelic songs were all thrilled into mute amaze- 
 ment ! it was as if He were slipping out of crea- 
 tion the Creator losing Himself in the depths 
 of a Created Nature, as if He had trusted Him- 
 self to a spell, and was now spellbound, and 
 could not help Himself. 
 
 Let us turn away, or we shall go wild. Look at 
 Him on His lonely Cross : He hangs there as it were 
 till the end of the world : but men fall off from the 
 crucifix, like a crowd at a fair tired of some exciting 
 show : all are busy, in the fields, or on the roads, or 
 keeping the feast at home, or clustered like Sunday 
 idlers at the city gates. Jesus is left upon His mount 
 alone !
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 197 
 
 VIII. 
 THE CIRCLE OF EVIL. 
 
 Those who have a devotion to the Passion must to 
 some extent share in it, especially in its want of repose, 
 and in the irritating presence of repulsive horrors and 
 violent images. We must beware of false delicacies in 
 this respect. 
 I. The presence and overshadowing of evil. 
 
 1. The keen and various suffering which it is to us 
 
 increasing with our holiness. 
 
 2. The fear which great sinners, murderers, and even 
 
 drunkards, inspire into men. 
 
 3. The acute torture of coarseness and vulgarity to 
 
 extreme sensitiveness. 
 
 4. Dread of extreme cruelty joined with great power. 
 
 5. Horror of lawlessness; multitudinous clamor, 
 
 when justice and fairness seem unrealities, or 
 out of reach. 
 
 6. The loathsome presence of the wicked in hell is 
 
 one of its most exceeding tortures to the wicked 
 even. 
 
 7. What all this was to the sensitive and holy Soul 
 
 of our Blessed Lord. 
 
 II. The representative wickedness of all ages gathered 
 round Him. 
 
 1. The High Priests falsehood, injustice, rage, con- 
 
 spiracy, hypocrisy. 
 
 2. Herod loathsome sin, sensual brutality, rude 
 
 blasphemy, daring to tempt to miracles, the base 
 violent pride of mere overbearing power.
 
 198 PART II. 
 
 3. Pilate the cruelty of weakness, contempt of 
 
 worldly indifference, paltering with conscience, 
 which was sacrificed to love of popularity. 
 
 4. The Jews possessed, surges of howling passion, 
 
 natures transfigured, irresponsible fury. 
 
 5. The Roman soldiers debauched ruffians, offscour- 
 
 ing of all nations, sinful hands, stench of sin. 
 
 6. Even women : as the one who made Peter fall : 
 
 children are not named perhaps they kept to 
 their Hosannas: children crying after Him 
 would indeed be earth's rejection of Him. 
 
 7. Judas : treachery, avarice, hardness of heart, 
 
 stupidity in not seeing beauty and truth, con- 
 tempt of great graces, personal dislike of the 
 Saviour, despair, which rightly considered is a 
 sort of personal dislike of God. 
 
 8. Impenitent thief: low base sin, vulgarity and 
 
 meanness consummated in impenitence close to 
 our Blessed Lord's dying bed, so that He is 
 almost in contact with the damned. 
 
 9. Invisible legions of evil spirits each of whose his- 
 
 tory, and the horrible interior foulness of whose 
 spirit, during a long and crowded biography of 
 thousands of years, were known to Him an 
 agony of desolation to His Soul, which was 
 shaken to its centre. 
 
 10. And where was the good ? It had fled, forsaken, 
 denied Him, was ashamed of Him, doubted 
 Him, as at Emmaus the disciples did, or at best 
 followed Him afar off. There was no fidelity 
 anywhere but in His Mother, and she drew 
 John after her to represent us all beneath His 
 Cross, and have His last breath which was to
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 199 
 
 be our new life, breathed upon us in the person 
 of that dear Apostle. 
 
 III. The Creator's visit to His creatures. 
 
 1. He comes with His eternal love, laden with gifts, 
 
 and beautiful exceedingly. 
 
 2. The holy intelligent stupor of the angelic cre- 
 
 ation. 
 
 3. He conies with a created nature on Him, and 
 
 that nature is man's. 
 
 4. With what love will they not receive Him ? for 
 
 they are captives, sick, hungry, thirsty, naked, 
 cold, homeless, condemned criminals runaway 
 slaves with inevitable arrest before them and 
 He is all to them. 
 
 5. The understandings of men not only cannot 
 
 understand Him, but so misunderstand Him 
 that they have a plain view that He is mad. 
 
 6. Their wills are so corrupt that eternal freshness, 
 
 beauty, and truth are to them tiresome, ugly, 
 and unpersuasive. 
 
 7. All that is most divine about Him, viz.. His 
 
 doctrine, patience, absolution, miraclts, and 
 Divinity itself, is just what is most repulsive 
 and hateful to them. 
 
 IV. The phenomenon considered. 
 
 1. He had doubtless mysterious reasons for choosing 
 
 the time and place. 
 
 2. His presence drew out the< evil by some hidden 
 
 law, as good always seems to do. 
 
 3. Every nation and blood was perhaps represented 
 
 there. 
 
 4. The world may possibly have been less wicked 
 
 since, just as Satan has been more bound.
 
 200 PART II. 
 
 5. Satan had now found out the Incarnation, and it 
 
 was the great battle, greater than St. Michael's 
 of old. 
 
 6. The extremity of iniquity hunted and brought to 
 
 bay the extremity of holiness as its prey. Oh, 
 how men hunt in pacKs like winter wolves ! 
 
 7. Human nature, around the Sinless Humanities 
 
 of Jesus and Mary, because half devil and half 
 beast, and was the fittest of all natures, because 
 of its double capability of spiritual and material 
 wickedness, for the awful insurrection of matter 
 and spirit combined against the Incarnate 
 Creator. 
 V. The Creator in the power of His creatures. 
 
 1. The ring of evil drawn closely round Him in one 
 
 city in four-and-twenty hours. 
 
 2. It was made up of, (1) rage, (2) hatred, (3) scorn, 
 
 (4) indifference, (5) disgust, (6) weariness, 
 (7) petty spite, (8) political jealousy, (9) foreign 
 disdain, (God a foreigner!) (10) national fac- 
 tion, (11) persecution of false doctrine, (12) un- 
 reasoning cruelty, (13) malicious cruelty, (14) 
 inventive cruelty, (15) imitative cruelty. 
 
 3. And all this was at once triumphant, and out- 
 
 bursting in barbarities and indignities, which one 
 human life could not have had concentrated in 
 itself without the aid of omnipotence. 
 
 4. The phenomena are inexplicable except on the 
 
 supposition of the heights of human guilt being 
 topped, and its energies reinforced, by the awful- 
 ness of demoniacal possession. This makes the 
 Passion part of the sin of the angels. 
 6. The tempest is at its height, in the streets of
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 201 
 
 Jerusalem awful end of creation, the creatures 
 triumphant, crowding in on their Creator, tread- 
 ing on His heels ; God is in their power, and the 
 wickedness of all generations is charging down 
 upon Him, to trample Him beneath their feet : 
 they will pull Him down as if to worry Him. 
 
 6. God's ordinary control over corruption is appar- 
 
 ently withdrawn : awful unboundedness of the 
 freedom of sinful wills. 
 
 7. In the midst, almost trampled out of existence, 
 
 was a young man of three-and-thirty, well nigh 
 disfigured out of human shape, staggering under 
 a cruel instrument of punishment, and falling 
 with a dull sound upon the street, and a weak 
 woman, the victim's heart-broken mother, flung 
 almost under the feet of the mob and the hoof 
 of the centurion's horse, with her blue mantle 
 stained with mud. That young Man was God ! 
 Has not evil won the battle ? Is there one hope left 
 of triumph for eternal love ? 
 
 IX. 
 
 HIS DIVINITY IN THE PASSION. 
 
 Listen ! the noise of frantic Jerusalem has died away, 
 or sounds faint and far off: and there are the soft 
 strains of celestial music with calmest rapture and 
 most penetrating melodies winding around the throne 
 of the Eternal Word, and dying down into pauses of 
 the most profound und restful silence.
 
 202 PART II, 
 
 I. Devotions to the Incarnation, and especially to the 
 Passion, require a constant remembrance of our 
 Lord's Divinity. 
 
 1. He is Himself that Ecce Homo, the Everlasting 
 
 God, in all things equal to the Father and the 
 Holy Ghost, no faintest shadow of subordination 
 falling on the measureless waters of His Divine 
 Nature. 
 
 2. His Person is the Second Person of the Most 
 
 Holy Trinity, and so the truth, beauty, and 
 wisdom of the Father. 
 
 3. His Advent and Passion are equally the act of 
 
 all the Three Divine Persons. <* 
 
 4. It was His own free will to come, and to be sent 
 
 by the Father, and to rejoice in His Mission, 
 which in no way encroached on His Equality. 
 
 5. No created holiness, singly or collectively, could 
 
 have merited His coming. 
 
 6. It need not have been with such profusion of 
 
 suffering and shame ; that was His choice with 
 a view to our enthusiasm, loyalty and love and 
 perhaps, for other mysterious reasons, to slake 
 the celestial thirsts of His dear Human Nature. 
 
 7. His Sacred Humanity claims fullest divinest 
 
 worship, because of its union with His Person 
 and Divine Nature. 
 [I. How this affects all the mysteries of Jesus. 
 
 1. It even seems to make them more human : as 
 His own Creator, He understands His own 
 created nature, and like one skilled in a perfect 
 but difficult instrument, draws out new and 
 enchanting sounds, in marvellous entrancing 
 combinations.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 203 
 
 2. It gives an unerring beauty to all He said and 
 
 did ; everything is a model, a type, an ideal. 
 
 3. It throws a tenderness over all His mysteries, like 
 
 the revealed love of the Father, not like any 
 thin human love. 
 
 4. But especially it gives the uttermost pathos to the 
 
 Passion. 
 
 5. It is the only true basis for our real intelligent 
 
 horror of Sin, which must always be measured 
 not by the weakness of our nature, but by the 
 Divinity of Him who made the expiation. 
 
 6. It alone gives a light strong enough to reveal the 
 
 depths of His love for us. 
 
 7. It alone can nourish to its gigantic proportions 
 
 our love of Him by infallibly persuading us of 
 the immensity of the value which He sets upon 
 our love. 
 III. What His Divinity conferred in the Passion. 
 
 1. His omnipotence enabled Him to live to suffer 
 
 more. 
 
 2. His wisdom enabled Him to penetrate the revolt- 
 
 ing abominations of sin. 
 
 3. By it He could fathom the anger of the Father, 
 
 and know what it meant to have an angry God, 
 and how beautiful is the imperturbable dread 
 glory of anger in the Divine Nature. 
 
 4. By it He could pierce the darkness of hell, and 
 
 estimate sin's punishments. 
 
 5. By it He could foresee the comparatively few who 
 
 would appreciate His Precious Blood, the low 
 esteem of It in those who should love Him best, 
 and the almost forgetfulness of those whom It 
 would save.
 
 204 PART II. 
 
 6. By it He was enabled to feel all the torments 
 
 there and then unconfusedly, and with indescrib- 
 able reality and vividness, both His own and 
 those of His elect. 
 
 7. It flooded His lower nature with a light, in which 
 
 it grew unspeakably refined and sensitive, and 
 which made shame an unspeakable stabbing, 
 sharp, deep, fiery, to a quick which other men 
 have not. 
 IV. What His Divinity withheld. 
 
 1. It withheld the joy-bringing effects of the Beatific 
 
 Vision from His sensitive nature ; and probably 
 also restrained His intellectual nature from com- 
 forting and illuminating and restoring His sen- 
 sitive nature, at least to some degree. 
 
 2. It froze up all the joys of the human Nature, 
 
 except the point of the Soul, where the Vision 
 was. 
 
 3. It did not alleviate one single pain, or make it 
 
 less intolerable. 
 
 4. Neither did it console one single mental agony. 
 
 5. It did not let loose its omnipotence, which, seeing 
 
 how it loved the suffering nature with which it 
 was so intimately united, was a sort of constraint 
 and loss of liberty. 
 
 6. It doubtless withhekl other mysterious influxes 
 
 of which we know nothing, but which had to do 
 with the living communion of the two blessed 
 Natures. 
 V. The use of His Divinity in the Passion, so far as it 
 
 regarded ourselves. 
 
 1. By it we know that we arc separately and dis- 
 tinctly before Him in all that Passion.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 205 
 
 2. It teaches us not to shrink in thought, as it did 
 
 not shrink in fact, from the distressing horrors 
 of the Passion, as modern weak faith and fastidi- 
 ousness are fain to do. Oh, if it rends our body 
 and soul asunder, let us not be so irreverent as 
 to shrink from fathoming the terrible things into 
 which and through which we ourselves actually 
 thrust Him. 
 
 3. His Divinity teaches us that love alone can repay 
 
 Him, for love alone approximates to the infinite. 
 
 4. It intensifies our spirit of adoration. 
 
 5. It tries, stretches, invigorates, and gives new capa- 
 
 bilities to our faith, like exercise and mountain 
 climbing to the muscles. 
 
 6. It discloses in all its real grandeur the copiousness 
 
 of our redemption, each of those countless pains 
 being simply infinite expiations. 
 
 7. It shows us that part of our own deification must 
 
 be imitation of the Passion, nay, more than 
 imitation, even true participation in it. 
 Oh then let us kneel down before the Divine Nature 
 of the Eternal Word, and feel our thoughts and imagi- 
 nations travelling away far beyond our reach, and the 
 fires of love burning with unconsuming heat our holiest 
 affections, and the deep, deep spirit of dreadest speech- 
 less adoration taking possession with its calm strength 
 of our soul and flesh, and let us so love that illimitable 
 Nature in its pale, bleeding, disfigured, crucified taber- 
 nacle, that we shall cease to pine on earth for heaven, 
 because earth contains what we most desire in heaven : 
 for Calvary is changed to Tabor, because of the Divinity 
 of Him who with sweet tones like His Mother's is 
 speaking His beautiful words upon the Cross.
 
 206 PART II. 
 
 X. 
 
 THE SPECTATORS OF THE PASSION. 
 
 Around that marvellous mystery were gathered such 
 spectators ! The whole universe was there to see ; the 
 angelic creation ; past generations whose eyes had been 
 fixed upon it, and were now in limbus, purgatory, or 
 hell ; and all generations to come ; probably represen- 
 tatives of all peoples were actually on the spot ; and 
 more than that, the Uncreated, God Himself, was there 
 to witness. 
 I. It was a trial 
 
 1. Which decided the greatest interests. 
 
 2. Which exhibited the highest sublimities. 
 
 3. Whose effects were to be for ever. 
 
 4. Which wedded temporal and eternal as never had 
 
 been done before, and up to the limits of what is 
 possible. 
 
 5. Which involved the deepest and most numerous 
 
 mysteries. 
 
 6. Which resolved more of God's secrets. 
 
 1, Which was more wonderful than even the sur- 
 passing pomp of the world's last day. 
 II. The Spectators : what they saw, and how it looked 
 to them. 
 
 1. God. 
 
 (1) The beautiful accomplishment of eternal 
 
 decrees. 
 
 (2) The exhibition of the most surpassing excel- 
 
 lence of created sanctity. 
 
 (3) The completest worship which ever satiated 
 
 His hungry glory.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 207 
 
 (4) The greatest event in the history of creation. 
 
 (5) The furthest stretch of love out of Himself. 
 
 Oh what a mystery that it could not increase 
 His love of the Eternal Word, already im- 
 mutable in its Uncreated Excess ! 
 
 2. Mary. 
 
 (1) She so penetrated each horror, that even the 
 
 prevision of it had taken nothing out of it. 
 
 (2) She saw each as the price of her own graces. 
 
 (3) She saw the redeemed Church in dusky 
 
 shadowy magnificence rising like a grand 
 and endless procession out of the tumult of 
 noise and blood and shame. 
 
 (4) Her heart was in completest union 1. With 
 
 her Son. 2. With the Saviour. 3. With 
 her own martyrdom. 4. With sinners. 5. 
 With the Apostles. 6. With the Eternal 
 Father. 
 
 (5) Even to her it was like a new revelation of her 
 
 Son's beauty and sanctity. 
 
 3. Angels. 
 
 (1) A fountain of heavenly amazement, which 
 
 they looked into with intense desire, yet 
 which even their vast intelligences could 
 not fathom. 
 
 (2) It gave a new character to their devotion. 
 
 (3) Their having to be neutral, being bidden to 
 
 stand back. 
 
 (4) It seemed a new disclosure of God to them, 
 
 far more than the mere foresight of it 
 could be. 
 
 (5) It taught them in a more excellent way the 
 
 science of loving men.
 
 208 PART II. 
 
 4. The Apostles and Disciples. 
 
 (1) It stunned and overwhelmed them. 
 
 (2) They were simply supported by their Master's 
 
 prayer and their Queen's example. 
 
 (3) It explained to them so much of the past. 
 
 (4) Their faith in His Divinity took root in. all 
 this shame. 
 
 (5) They, like the angels, began to learn the true 
 
 science of loving men instinct for souls: 
 souls were in the world of the Passion what 
 bodies and hearts are in the common world. 
 
 5. Evil Spirits. 
 
 (1) A terrible bewildering amazement. 
 
 (2) An intensification of their misery. 
 
 (3) A piercing fear which loosened and made faint 
 
 all the compactness of their strength. 
 
 (4) An excitement of their rage and envy against 
 
 men : increased fury as fighting a losing 
 battle. 
 
 (5) Yet an actual diminution of their power. 
 
 6. The Jews. 
 
 (1) Everything indistinguishable in the first fury 
 
 of their possession. 
 
 (2) A source of aching misgivings when excite- 
 ment evaporated. 
 
 (3) A national shame, and a corporate sin not to 
 
 be retracted. 
 
 (4) The end of their history in a second Exodus, 
 when they would not cross : Titus was only 
 wanted to burn up the ruins. 
 
 (5) Yet a curse, and a living energetic stigma, 
 
 which they had evoked like a spirit out 
 of its awful depths they branded them-
 
 THE SACEED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 209 
 
 selves with the Precious Blood like Cain's, 
 and the world watches them. 
 
 7. Gentiles. 
 
 (1) It lay before them like the great sea before an 
 
 idiot, an unmeaning commonplace expanse. 
 
 (2) Not of more consequence than to be the talk 
 
 of the guard-room for a day or so. 
 
 (3) It was their first actual contact with God since 
 
 the Fall or the Flood. 
 
 (4) The Roman empire really the servant and 
 
 lacquey of the Passion. 
 
 (5) It transferred to the Gentiles the divine 
 
 empire of the world. 
 
 8. The rest of the world at the time. 
 
 (1) A piece of news flying without much excite- 
 
 ment along the Roman roads. 
 
 (2) In some places combined with various fright- 
 
 ening phenomena of nature. 
 
 (3) Like God's great works generally, it did not 
 
 disturb the ordinary current of affairs. 
 
 (4) Yet there was not a nation there, whose 
 
 future light was not to rise out of that 
 darkness. 
 
 (5) For each one apart, and with diversified 
 
 special application, that Passion is suffered. 
 
 9. Subsequent generations. 
 
 (1) A perfect revolution of ideas: strength of 
 
 weakness, wisdom of folly, glory of shame, 
 &c. 
 
 (2) New standards of moral excellence, forgive- 
 
 ness, ' patience, silence, &c. 
 
 (3) The deep imbedding of the supernatural in 
 the natural. 
 
 Vol. J. O
 
 210 PART II. 
 
 (4) The irresistible mould of their future litera< 
 
 ture, history, art, law, and even falsehoods. 
 
 (5) At once the creator and the destroyer of their 
 
 successive civilizations. 
 10. Ourselves. 
 
 (1) The deep in which to drown our past lives. 
 
 (2) The buoyant waters of the harbor where our 
 
 present rides at anchor securely. 
 
 (3) Out of which all hopes and successes for the 
 
 future are to come. 
 
 (4) Its shores are our sole terrestrial home in the 
 
 life of grace, exiled from which we pine and 
 die. 
 
 (5) The literal Red Sea through which must be 
 
 our Exodus to our eternal home. 
 TIL Let us look again. 
 
 1. There is no tranquillity anywhere but in Jesus 
 
 and Mary. 
 
 2. Hurry, precipitation, noise, frenzy, mental dark- 
 
 ness, moral delirium no one thinks or sees what 
 it all means, but He and she. 
 
 3. Oh the unsuspicious impetuosity with which men 
 
 accomplish God's decrees for Him. 
 
 4. Jesus still beautiful in His patience, venerable in 
 
 His sufferings, though sunk almost out of sight 
 in the depths of woe. 
 
 5. The quietness which follows round Calvary, the 
 
 new Sabbath after this second terrible creation 
 of the world. The second Adam has been the 
 Creator, and He lies cold and still in His deso- 
 late garden, and the dark night falls on the 
 second Eve, driven with her broken heart in 
 that desolate wilderness of the cruel city.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 211 
 
 The green hill of Calvary all the ages of the world 
 beat at its foot, and fling their surge over its base ; the 
 ages before our Lord flooded darkly up, and sank back, 
 rolling the stones down the beach with hoarse murmur, 
 like the vain efforts of an ebbing tide. High above all 
 civilizations rises the green hill, with the sun upon its 
 sides, and the beacon of the crucifix, far-seen and radi- 
 ant, and in the dark night giving out unobscured light 
 it is the sole harbor of tempest-tossed humanity, its 
 sole safe anchorage, where anchors never drag, and the 
 rolling billows fall back from its base, as if tamed on 
 the instant by a spell! 
 
 XL 
 
 THE SHADOWS OF CALVARY. 
 
 It is more hard to think of God within us than of 
 God without us, yet it is the best way of practising His 
 Presence : so it is hard to think of the Passion, not as 
 an historical fact or a mystery accomplished, but as a 
 living surviving thing, a power, a presence a divine 
 energy ; yet this last is the true view of it. 
 I. The Passion living on in the Church. 
 
 1. Really in the Mass, which is the continuation or 
 
 renewal of the same sacrifice on ten thousand 
 altars daily ; and thus the abiding presence in 
 the tabernacle is through the continuation and 
 memory of the Passion. 
 
 2. In the sacraments, whose living efficacy in each 
 
 case is the application of the Passion to the soul.
 
 212 PART IT. 
 
 3. Martyrdoms are deep real shadows, nay, true par- 
 
 ticipations of it. 
 
 4. All the sufferings of the elect are sanctified and 
 
 made meritorious by the shadow of the Passion. 
 
 5. All the spiritual realities of inward and outward 
 
 mortification shadow forth the Passion, and they 
 are innumerable daily. 
 
 6. The shadow of the Passion on men and things is 
 
 the badge of Christ's ownership. 
 
 7. The hearts of the saints, like sea-shells, murmur 
 
 of the Passion evermore. 
 
 II. The Passion an attraction. 
 
 1. Our Lord's prophecy that it should be so ; If I be 
 
 lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things 
 to Myself. 
 
 2. Its attraction to sinners from the plentifulness of 
 
 its redemption. 
 
 3. To those who are simply world-wearied, like the 
 
 restful darkness of the welcome night. 
 
 4. To those who love God and are aiming at perfec- 
 
 tion. 
 
 5. Even to little children, who as yet hardly under- 
 
 stand sin. 
 
 6. It satisfies the doubts and cravings of all hearts 
 
 by reassuring them. 
 
 7. There is something quite supernatural in this 
 
 attraction over and above the beauty of the 
 mysteries. 
 
 III. The Passion in the active life. 
 
 1. The grand fountain of unworldliness, and super- 
 
 natural principles. 
 
 2. The daily works of mercy endlessly flowing out 
 
 of it, all over the Church.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 213 
 
 3. Holy Week a sort of universal retreat to the 
 
 whole world ; one use of the functions is to 
 make it unlike all other times. 
 
 4. The stimulus of missionaries, and the converting 
 
 persuasion of nations and sinners. 
 
 5. Power of endurance of the calamities of life. 
 
 6. Excessive sweetness and mutual forbearance all 
 
 over society. 
 
 7. The constant occupation of the mind of Chris- 
 
 tendom. 
 
 IV. The Passion in the contemplative life. 
 
 1. With most contemplative orders the Passion is 
 
 the chief thing, and expiation the basis : some 
 are founded on the Passion. 
 
 2. Individual contemplative souls are brought by 
 
 attrait into some peculiar relation to the 
 Passion. 
 
 3. The way in which it out-tops with them all other 
 
 mysteries. 
 
 4. How it fixes the gaze of the contemplative 
 
 soul. 
 
 5. It becomes at last a kind of sacred possession. 
 
 6. It is life-long, and runs the year round, deepen- 
 
 ing in Passiontide. 
 
 7. Its process is firstly compassion, then imitation, 
 
 then actual participation in the Passion. 
 
 V. The Passion working inward similitude. 
 
 1. The spirit of sacrifice and expiation. 
 
 2. Love of suffering independent of the idea of 
 
 expiation: thirst for it increasing with the 
 amount of it. 
 
 3. Supernatural horror and sadness, because of tha 
 
 sins of others.
 
 214 PART II. 
 
 4. Efficacious desire to expiate the sin of others, 
 
 thus passing beyond the sins of self. 
 
 5. Suffering in silence, and abandoning with un- 
 
 earthly discretion all self-defence. 
 
 6. Inward trials distantly resembling our Lord's 
 
 with mysterious operations of grace in the 
 soul, mixed up of deep joy and intense suf- 
 fering. 
 
 7. Transformation of the whole man, intellect and 
 
 will, who views and feels towards all things as 
 He did then : the world gone out of sight, 
 hardly realizable even to the imagination in 
 strange thick oblivion, so that the powers of 
 thought cannot advance in that direction. 
 VI. The Passion working outward similitude. 
 
 1. Revelations : constant increase of knowledge 
 
 poured into the Church through contempla- 
 tives. 
 
 2. Visions, both intellectual and imaginary ; hardly 
 
 a saint is without them. 
 
 3. Pilgrimages either outward like St. Bridget's, 
 
 or inward like St. Lidwine's. 
 
 4. Inwardly feeling the actual pains of the different 
 
 mysteries, sometimes of the whole Passion suc- 
 cessively. 
 
 5. Stigmatisation partial complete visible in- 
 
 visible gradual instantaneous transient 
 perpetual recurring. 
 
 6. Postures of body, acting out in ecstacy a real 
 
 drama of the Passion, called Mystical Sta- 
 tions. 
 
 7. Supernatural states, having reference to the 
 
 Passion either habitual, or in sympathy with
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 215 
 
 the Christian calendar; even martyrdoms of 
 saints shine forth through other souls.* 
 VII. Conclusion of all this. 
 
 1. The greatness of the Passion, and so the duty of 
 
 steadfastly contemplating it all. 
 
 2. Its ever-living power, fresh as the first day and 
 
 multitudinously reduplicated. 
 
 3. The mysterious way in which it works in soul 
 
 and body, like plants and flowers shaping, 
 coloring, and scenting themselves by hidden 
 chemistry. 
 
 4. How Jesus clings to it, thus renewing it in the 
 
 Mass and the saints, and keeping His Five 
 Wounds in heaven. 
 
 5. How it is a great deep world underlying all 
 
 common holiness, which is overarched above it, 
 with saints perpetually working through it, and 
 all perhaps doing so in their death agonies. 
 
 6. It is not therefore an historical fact done and 
 
 over. 
 
 7. It is a perfectly furnished world, with creatures 
 
 of its own, and a way of life, and standards of 
 practice, and ideals of beauty, quite unearthly, 
 not formed on earth's life, but as if creatures 
 and life of some other planet. 
 
 Thus everywhere is the vast Church resounding 
 with the Passion ; over its rich and populous lowlands 
 lies forever the Shadow of Mount Calvary, and all 
 things good grow beneath its cool defence: in its 
 highest mountains its mystical echoes sound strangely, 
 from noon to midnight, and from midnight back to 
 noon, fearful and beautiful for us dwellers on the plain 
 
 *Gorres, Mystik. 1. iv. c. 20.
 
 216 PART II. 
 
 to hear, while its rivers that wind everywhere amid 
 the close woods and peaceful fields, and through great 
 cities, bring down the plentiful Blood that was shed on 
 Calvary, from altars where the real Sacrifice, the very 
 Calvary, is transfiguring earth with its transcendent 
 truthfulness in the daily mass ; so that our sights and 
 sounds, the supernatural odors on our river banks, 
 what we touch and taste, and feed upon, feeding with 
 mouth no less truly than with mind, is all from Calvary 
 where those rivers rise and the mouths of those rivers 
 are the harbors of eternity ! 
 
 XII. 
 
 THE ABYSS. 
 
 O Tabor ! Calvary is far better than thou art, for all 
 thou didst catch such a flush of glory once from the 
 open heavens. It is far better to be with John on Cal- 
 vary than with our great father St. Peter upon Tabor ; 
 and Peter thinks so too now, and thought so upon 
 his inverted cross at Rome, Avhen he found his Calvary 
 so near the Vatican. But now is the great three hours 
 on Calvary. 
 
 I. The Seven Words. St. John's word about silence 
 in heaven for half an hour: so now is there 
 silence and a beautiful darkening of the world 
 in the hearts of millions of God's creatures. 
 The whole Church is as it were gathered on the 
 top of the platform of Calvary, to receive into 
 its heart the last words of its dying Lord.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 217 
 
 1. First word. Father ! forgive them, for they know 
 
 not what they do. Its circumstances. Eleva- 
 tion of the cross, blast of trumpets from the 
 temple below, insults, many minutes as if dead, 
 then the voice of the Creator heard. 
 
 (1) The beauty of its being the first thought. 
 
 (2) It sums up all the Passion He breaks the 
 
 silence in behalf of sinners. 
 
 (3) The power of that word going on to this very 
 
 day. 
 
 2. Second word. Amen, I say to thee, This day thou 
 
 shalt be with Me in Paradise. Dismas and 
 Gesmas, the two thieves darkness grows birds 
 and beasts hushed by the eclipse men whis- 
 pered only Mary prayed for the thief then 
 came the word of the Incarnate Word. 
 
 (1) No single soul was forgotten in the multitude ; 
 
 but the thief was a happy type of multitudi- 
 nous souls. 
 
 (2) Exulting abundance of omnipotent grace, 
 
 going beyond the thief. 
 
 (3) Oh ! when we come to die how that word will 
 
 make music in our ears. 
 
 3. Third word. Woman, behold" thy son ; behold 
 
 thy Mother. Not Me, but thy new son He 
 looks at her, as if to thank her for her prayer 
 for Dismas the whole history of the world in 
 His look, and oh ! the love of it. 
 
 (1) This is her second Annunciation.* 
 
 (2) How He sanctifies thereby the holy solicitudes 
 
 of domestic love. 
 
 *v. Foot of the Cross, p. 302. (in the Fourth Edition, p. 321.)
 
 218 PART II. 
 
 (3) The grandeur and sweetness of the legacy He 
 left us. 
 
 4. Fourth word. My God ! My God ! why hast Thou 
 
 forsaken Me ? There is trouble in the city He 
 is like God in the cloud of Sinai. 
 
 (1) He has given away His Mother: now His 
 
 Heavenly Father leaves Him. 
 
 (2) Momentary revelation of the depth to which 
 
 our sins had sunk Him. 
 
 (3) Yet He will approach His Father rather than 
 
 us : not one word against us was wrung from 
 Him. 
 
 5. Fifth word. I thirst. Light glimmers His white- 
 
 ness red -streaked His voice beautiful, but 
 faint. 
 
 (1) Revelation of His true Human Nature. 
 
 (2) He thirsts for more suffering. 
 
 (3) He thirsts for more souls, and is disappointed 
 
 with the scanty draught ; so few, and those 
 so ungenerous. 
 
 6. Sixth word. It is finished. Vinegar and gall 
 
 the sweat St. John wipes His feet coming of 
 death voice very faint. 
 
 (1) We repay His love with vinegar and gall, and 
 
 thus our malice is finished. 
 
 (2) The work His Father gave Him is finished ; 
 
 think of Him in the temple at twelve years 
 old. 
 
 (3) Our redemption is finished : oh ! the joy of 
 
 this as in His Sacred Heart He saw each 
 one of us. 
 
 7. Seventh word. Father, into Thy hands I com- 
 
 mend My Spirit. Silence His Wounds grow
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 219 
 
 red He lifts His weary head earth quakes, 
 rocks are rent, air is darkened, and in the midst 
 of all that the great God's loud cry. 
 
 (1) He is going home it is to His Father so 
 
 creation after all is no home for the Creator; 
 yes, there is still the Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 (2) He is the more homeless, as He has just given 
 
 His Mother away to us. 
 
 (3) The model of deathbeds : trust in God is the 
 
 last of all things, and the whole of all things. 
 
 II. Death is drawing nigh ; watch 
 
 1. The fountain of salvation bleeding away in human 
 
 blood. 
 
 2. The eternal ending, Life unbeginning succumbing 
 
 now to death. 
 
 3. Omnipotence engulfed in the weakness of the last 
 
 faint of mortality. 
 
 4. The King of kings the slave, with all men and all 
 
 things for His rightful owners. 
 
 5. The Creator held to die by His creatures, by nails 
 
 through Hands and Feet. 
 
 6. The perfection of beautiful love pressed and tor- 
 
 tured to death by unmitigated diversified hatred. 
 
 7. The All-holy indistinguishably confounded among 
 
 sinners it is hard to identify Him. 
 
 III. Death lays hands upon Him. 
 
 1. Creation is first silent, then broken up ; its mate- 
 
 rial horror ; what was it among angels in the 
 depths of their intelligences ? 
 
 2. Angels are withheld, yet their forms are gleaming 
 
 like bristling silver as they lean eagerly out of 
 the gloom towards the cross ; but the dead burst 
 out of their tombs.
 
 220 PART II. 
 
 3. God all signs of Him are absolutely invisible , 
 
 the world was never so left to itself. 
 
 4. The sweet patience and excessive love of Jesus 
 
 His Heart all on fire that moment : oh ! 
 those flames shall one day burn up the 
 world. 
 
 5. The depths of Mary's martyr heart, firm to 
 
 receive the blow of the last faint breath. 
 
 6. Time and eternity come to take their law from 
 
 His lips in death. 
 
 7- Actual separation of Soul and Body. He bowed 
 His Head, His Feet turned slightly on the nail 
 that fastened them. Mary ! thou art childless : 
 the Babe of Bethlehem is dead, thy beauty, thy 
 wonder, thy love. He is dead. The earthquake 
 passed away, the darkness rolled off; there arose 
 a cool fresh wind, which blew over the face of 
 the earth, and round the cross, and stirred His 
 harr. See ! it lifts the few locks not matted 
 with blood, and gives a momentary look of life 
 to His Face. But the rocks of Calvary, the 
 ears of John, the Heart of Mary, nay, the very 
 silence of the air, still rung with the Creator's 
 cry ; nay, at this moment the world over many 
 a Christian deathbed is faintly, sweetly echoing 
 back that word, Father ! into Thy hands I com- 
 mend My Spirit! 
 
 IV. The thought which at the foot jof the Cross over- 
 whelms the individual soul. 
 
 1. A God is dead for me : the occupation of all holy 
 
 souls on earth. 
 
 2. A God is dead for me: the ravishment of the 
 
 angels in heaven.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 221 
 
 3. A God is dead for me : the endless despair of the 
 
 lost. 
 
 4. A God is dead for me : and ready to die for me 
 
 again, and as many times in number as my sins 
 are numerous, rather than that I should be lost. 
 
 5. A God is dead for me : and I know myself to be 
 
 what I am. 
 
 6. A God is dead for me: and He knows what 
 
 I am in His sight, so much more than what 
 I am in my own. 
 
 7. A God is dead for me : and for this was needed 
 
 (1.) A God's wisdom to plan it. (2.) A God's 
 power to execute it. (3.) A God's love to suffer 
 it. (4.) An incarnate God's mind to conceive it. 
 (5.) A supernatural gift of faith to be able to 
 believe it. (6.) An inability on the part of all 
 creation to repay it. (7.) The hardness of a re- 
 probate heart not to be touched by it. He was the 
 Man of Sorrows because He was the God of Love ! 
 V. Forthwith the soul under the pressure of that 
 thought, a God dead for me, begins to sink out 
 of its depth the seven descents of the soul in 
 the deeps of the Passion. 
 
 1. Wonder which is part of contemplation and of 
 
 the Beatific Vision, arising from the thought of 
 Who suffered, what He suffered, how He suffered, 
 for whom He suffered. 
 
 2. Exultation that it is so divine a work, so much 
 
 our concern, so abundant, oh ! such a grand 
 glory of God. 
 
 3. Liquefaction all dispositions running into one, 
 
 barriers melting down it was all with such in- 
 tense love of us, and so pathetically, so beauti-
 
 222 PART II. 
 
 fully done, so unparalleled, and simply like 
 Himself. 
 
 4. Conflagration heart growing hot, each affection 
 
 ready to ignite, each faculty of mind getting hot 
 as if it were an affection, in an outburst of fire, 
 consuming world, sin, self, and even imperfect 
 goodness. 
 
 5. Foolishness of love fire like wine, wine too 
 
 strong for the soul, half involuntary gestures 
 and exclamations, holy indiscretions, yet wis- 
 dom of much of the seeming folly like foreign 
 ways which men laugh at, heaven the foreign 
 country from which they come. 
 
 6. Contemplative Union annealed, steadfast, fixed 
 
 gaze, supernatural tranquillity of will, close union, 
 real contact with Christ calms weak trans- 
 ports, and effaces previous signs of mortal want 
 of self-collection, and of inebriation, strong 
 efficacious languor, like the weakness out of 
 which His loud cry came. 
 
 7. Possession the Passion wholly possessing mind, 
 
 heart, will, even body ; Jesus possessing the soul, 
 the soul in another sense possessing Jesus, 
 espousals, mystical marriage, the boundary of 
 heaven and earth worn indistinguishable by 
 fretting flames of love. 
 
 Each of these seven descents has been like a fall 
 from the starry heights of heaven, and yet far down 
 and down and down I see angels in the darkness, just 
 visible by the light they shake from off their wings, and 
 as they rise, they tell me they are faint with their long 
 breathless fathoming, and they have seen no end, they 
 verily believe there is none, to the ABYSS.
 
 IL 
 CALVARY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE PASSION: 
 
 ITS HISTORICAL, DOCTRINAL, AND 
 MYSTICAL CHARACTER. 
 
 JESUS CHRIST and Him Crucified this is the object of 
 our present contemplations. In an age of abounding 
 knowledge, this is the knowledge which concerns us 
 most of all. It was the one sufficient science which 
 St. Paul desired to know. We grow older ; and, as age 
 comes upon us, it seems as if the very years as they 
 passed drew us closer to the Cross. Life extinguishes 
 its own lights one after the other, until the darkness 
 of Calvary is brighter than the obscurity of a world, 
 which has first played us false, and is now deserting 
 us. As we grow older, we set a greater price upon 
 fidelity ; and where is there such faithfulness as in the 
 Cross ? Devotion to the Passion is at once the surest 
 sign of predestination, and the shortest road to heaven. 
 Happy are they whom the cruelty and treachery 
 of life have driven to the Cross! But happier far 
 are they the chivalry of whose youth drew them there 
 
 223
 
 224 PART II. 
 
 in early days, and who have spent their lives in its 
 mysterious sanctuary ! In the cloister and in the 
 world, to young and old, to rich and poor, for clergy 
 and for laity, the Passion is the grand object of devo- 
 tion. Its intensity was the characteristic of primitive 
 times. All that was beautiful in the Middle Ages 
 shaped itself pre-eminently upon the Passion. It has 
 been the especial work of modern saints to propagate 
 and heighten this devotion. The Church herself is 
 perpetually adding feast, and song, and pensive com- 
 memoration, although it seemed long since as if she 
 had left herself no fuller means of honoring the 
 Passion of her Spouse. All this is a warrant for 
 another devotional treatise on the Passion. There is 
 nothing new to be said of it ; but every man has his 
 own way of saying old things, by which he reaches 
 unexpected places in the hearts of men, and kindles 
 fresh varieties of love. Let us ask St. Mary Magdalen 
 to lend us her heart, while we wade as far as we dare 
 into the depths of the Passion. Let us study the 
 science of Jesus Crucified with her for our mistress, 
 whose name and memory perfume the whole Church 
 with the balm of the Blessed Passion. It is a science 
 wherein we learn by prayer, and in whose deep places 
 our hearts see further than our eyes. It will give 
 us what in these days we want most of all, the 
 old simplicity of faith. What is progress but an en- 
 tanglement? What is the breadth of literature but a 
 distraction from God? What are the endlessly suc- 
 cessive theories, each in its turn claiming to be final, 
 but a weariness, under which we grow reasonably 
 impatient? What are the vaunted discoveries of 
 science, but either lights which blind by night, or
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 225 
 
 heights from which the horizon of our ignorance is for 
 ever widening ? What are material prosperities, but 
 a slavery of increasing wants increasingly dissatisfied ? 
 There is no grandeur in our work, there is no heavenli- 
 ness in our repose, except through the old simplicity 
 of faith. 
 
 There are many ways in which we may treat of the 
 Passion. The majority of books lead us through the 
 mysteries in detail, from the Last Supper or the Agony 
 in the Garden to the Burial of Jesus or His Resur- 
 rection. Upon the whole, this is the best way to 
 consider the Passion, because it is the most necessary 
 to the devotion of the faithful. Every mystery has 
 its own lesson to teach, and contains its own treasures 
 of prayer and contemplation. We can never under- 
 stand the Passion, unless by repeated meditation we 
 have mastered it in detail. If then this successive 
 consideration of each mystery is not the only way of 
 handling the Passion, it is at least the method which 
 is most indispensable. We can do without other 
 methods; we cannot do without this. But there are 
 so many books which follow this method, that it is not 
 my intention to add to them by this treatise. I pro- 
 pose to treat of Calvary after the same fashion in 
 which I have treated of Bethlehem. The Passion, like 
 the Sacred Infancy, is not only an assemblage of divine 
 mysteries, united to each other by a similitude of 
 spirit as well as by the order of time. It has also a 
 unity of its own as a whole. Like the Hidden Life 
 at Nazareth, or the Three Years' Ministry, it admits of 
 being regarded as a constellation apart. It sometimes 
 happens that, by exclusive meditation on separate 
 mysteries, we lose sight of many important truths. 
 Vol. I. P
 
 226 PART IT. 
 
 We have a less distinct understanding of our Lord's 
 Three-and-thirty Years. We do not appreciate, even 
 so far as we might, the magnificence and the loveliness 
 of the divine works. Nay, we do not even do such 
 justice, as it is in our power to do, to the separate 
 individual mysteries, because their connection with 
 other mysteries, or their position in the constellation 
 to which they belong, assist us in no slight degree to 
 the right understanding of themselves. 
 
 The way, then, in which it is proposed to treat the 
 Passion in this volume, is to look at it as a whole, not 
 to follow it in order of time, nor to break it up into 
 its component mysteries, such as the Scourging, the 
 Crowning, and the like, but rather to break it up into 
 its characteristics, characteristics which enter as in- 
 gredients into each of its separate mysteries. For 
 instance, we shall have to consider the Excess of the 
 Passion, its Bodily Pains, its Mental Pains, its Shame, 
 our Lord's Outward Demeanor and Inward Disposi- 
 tions, His Solitariness, the Circle of Evil which sur- 
 rounded Him, His Divinity in the Passion, the 
 Spectators of the Passion, the Shadows of Calvary 
 which are cast over the world at this hour, and the 
 Abyss which the Death of God opens to Contemplative 
 Souls. These eleven subjects will furnish us with as 
 many chapters, as soon as we have considered in this 
 preliminary chapter the Passion generally, in its 
 historical, doctrinal, and mystical bearings. By this 
 means we shall get a different view of the Passion from 
 that furnished us by meditation on its separate details, 
 and at the same time a view which will give to our 
 subsequent meditations a light, a force, and a touch- 
 ingness beyond what they had before.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 227 
 
 Let us begin by making a simple picture of the 
 Passion for ourselves, one which shall not distract us 
 by any multiplicity of detail. We stand upon the low 
 top of Calvary, that Calvary which in so many senses 
 is the highest mountain in the world. There is a 
 preternatural darkness, like the lumiiious gloom of an 
 eclipse, all round us. But it is preternatural, no mere 
 eclipse. There is silence there, only mingled with a 
 few sounds, there were some people in the darkness 
 stirring, yet only stirring as if afruid to move. It 
 gradually grows lighter. The white roofs of a city, not 
 far inland at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, 
 become visible. As the light waxes clearer, sounds 
 increase both in number and in loudness. Slowly 
 disclosed against the darkness is the bloodless Body of 
 the Son of God, indescribably venerable in the excess 
 of its disfigurements, hanging on the Cross, facing the 
 west as if in prophecy of its grand Christian future. 
 Standing beneath the Cross, now wet with blood, is the 
 broken-hearted Mother, Mother of God, and now also 
 Mother of men. There also is the Virgin apostle John, 
 with such impassioned calm upon his woe-worn features 
 as his knowledge of the secrets of the Sacred Heart would 
 be certain to imprint upon them. Among all the sons 
 of men there are few so great, so holy, so privileged as 
 he who by his beauty took captive the Human Heart 
 of his Creator. There also is the glorious Magdalen, 
 the brightest trophy of God's love, which men take 
 heart when they look upon, a very picture of the utter- 
 most forlornness of human sorrow transfigured by the 
 radiance of adoration into more than angelic beauty. 
 O Magdalen ! thou art there to tell how the hopes of all 
 men may be so bold as to take refuge upon Calvary.
 
 228 PART II. 
 
 This is the Passion, the Passion consummated. 
 This is the grand event in the world's history, giving 
 the law to all other events whatever. This is the 
 visible impression made on the decrees of the Creator 
 by the free will of the creature. This is the incredible 
 revelation of the Divine Perfections, which an angel's 
 intelligence could never have imagined, and even now 
 is unable to fathom. Incredible, even when revealed, 
 unless also a supernatural gift be given with the 
 knowledge, whereby we may be strengthened to believe 
 it. That mystery on the hill-top, which we express by 
 the name of Calvary, is the fountain of all supernatural 
 things, flowing both before and behind. That darkness 
 has illuminated forty centuries of time already, before 
 it actually overspread the green sward of the suburban 
 hill. That blood has inundated all the children of those 
 centuries, with innumerable graces, while it tvas still 
 unshed itself. There has not been a grace in any 
 human soul from Adam onwards, but it came from the 
 foresight of that Calvary. In all those dark, dreary, 
 lagging ages, there has been no lightening of any human 
 burden, no brightness in any human destiny, no 
 possibility of virtue, no struggle of manful hearts 
 against overwhelming evil, no birth of infancy, no deatli 
 of age, which have not been full of anticipations- and 
 prophecies of Calvary. Even the inanimate creation 
 had i-ome sort of consciousness that Calvary was the 
 centre of the world, when, as old tradition held, the 
 waters of the Deluge drifted thither the body of Adam, 
 and entombed it in the yielding soil. 
 
 But if the whole history of the world previous to the 
 Passion is filled with presentiments of it, nay, is wholly 
 unintelligible except by the light of it, much greater is
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 229 
 
 the influence of the Passion upon the history which 
 follows. Henceforth the annals of the world are little 
 more than the chronicles of the Passion. It has im- 
 planted new ideas in men's minds. It has worn deep 
 traces upon their language. It has renovated their 
 philosophy. It has given another form and a different 
 spirit to their literature. It has enlarged their moral 
 instincts, while it has also refined and quickened them. 
 The victory of defeat, the triumph of self-abasement, 
 the divinity of suffering, the magnificence of shame, the 
 power of silence, all these are ideas from the world 
 of the Incarnation ; and they have supplied men with 
 weights and measures, which, if not in all respects 
 literally new, are practically new from that irresistible 
 authentication which the Passion has conferred upon 
 them. As time goes on, the Passion will give out from 
 itself, as its own creation, a peculiar civilization. Great 
 social institutions shall be based upon it. Govern- 
 ments shall acknowledge it as their authoritative guid- 
 ance. Peace and war shall often become questions of 
 the Passion. It shall shape and fashion private life. 
 Henceforth, from the day on which the mystery is 
 accomplished, the world shall never get from under 
 the influence of Calvary. Civil history shall more and 
 more tend to merge itself in ecclesiastical. Even when 
 the outward monarchy of the Holy See shall appear to 
 have passed away, or rather to have cast aside its 
 mediaeval insignia, when the days of Concordats shall 
 have come, and it shall be the ambition of states, 
 especially of those which are destitute of ennobling 
 traditions, to stand apart from the Church, when the 
 empire shall dream that it is glorifying itself anew by 
 working itself clear from the priesthood, when diplo-
 
 230 PART II. 
 
 macy shall have had most cause to congratulate itself 
 on the unity which the balance of power, its own in- 
 vention, has brought about, when earth shall seem 
 more visibly man's because it is less visibly God's 
 even then, more than ever, shall civil history become 
 religious. Alliances, instincts, sympathies, literatures, 
 philosophies, the temper of cabinets, all these shall 
 grow not only more religious but even positively theo- 
 logical. Christ has been crucified ; and every event in 
 the world shall draw from this fact more or less of its 
 significence. The world, as it gets further from Calvary, 
 shall become more personal in its hostility to Christ. 
 The dominance of heresy is but Satan's protest against 
 Calvary ; and when the world comes to its worst, and 
 to its end, it shall be so influenced by Christ that it 
 shall instinctively concentrate itself into an Antichrist. 
 It is travelling thither daily, and in this day it would 
 appear to be attaining its end with more than usual 
 celerity. 
 
 But from the great outward world let us come to 
 our own secret selves. The sorrow and happiness of 
 each individual soul starts at the foot of the Cross. 
 However remote our generation may be from the era 
 of the mystery, whatever our lot may be among the 
 seemingly inexhaustible diversities of human fortune, 
 however far off from Judea our home may lie, and 
 however deeply hidden we may be in the indistinguish- 
 able obscurities of private life, our darkness and our 
 light come from the top of Calvary. It is well or ill 
 .us according as we are in harmony with the 
 'assion jvvhich was accomplished there. To that hill- 
 top centuries ago came every grief and joy of ours, 
 every word and work and thought, every sin and every
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 231 
 
 temptation, every secret shame and every undisclosed 
 design. They came there clearer than objects in the 
 noonday. They were seen by the inward eye of 
 our dying Lord. They Avere understood as a whole, 
 as composing one consecutive biography. They were 
 weighed in detail. Nothing escaped Him. Grace was 
 apportioned to each of them. His Precious Blood 
 was offered and accepted for each. Sorrows were 
 sanctified beforehand, and joys came out of the pure 
 superfluous mercies of the Passion. Every excess of 
 His torments was bidden to do its part, as a motive of 
 more fervent love within our hearts : and there were 
 colloquies between the Son and His Eternal Father, as 
 if our single soul were the exclusive cause of all that 
 happened upon Calvary, the one engrossing interest 
 regarding which the Divine Perfections came to recon- 
 cile themselves upon that mountain-top. Our eternity 
 was negotiated there, if we may use of these divine 
 things those figures of vulgar commerce which God 
 Himself by His apostle has condescended to make use 
 of. Thus it comes to pass, that, even when our life is 
 thickest and widest, there is no earthly object of any 
 real abiding value to us compared with the Passion of 
 our dearest Lord. All is dross compared with it ; nay, 
 all is dross compared with the knowledge of it. It is 
 an earthly object and yet a heavenly one as well. It 
 is the peacemaking, or rather the nuptials, of heaven 
 and earth. In the uttermost distances of our eternal 
 life, where in truth there are no distances, it is the 
 Passion which will still support us, the Passion which 
 will still keep the Vision open, the Passion out of 
 which the inebriating torrents of God's splendors will 
 still renew our souls.
 
 232 PART II. 
 
 Thus the Passion rules the history of the world, 
 the history of the world before the Flood, of the world 
 of the patriarchs, of the Israelites, of the heathen, 
 before the coining of our Lord, and in a still stricter 
 sense is it almost itself the history of the world from 
 the Crucifixion to the Doom. Thus it is also the 
 secret of all biographies of individual souls. All their 
 ruin comes from their disloyalty to the Passion. All 
 their holiness in time, and their glory in eternity, are 
 the consequences of their loyalty to the Passion. 
 
 III. 
 
 MEDITATIONS ON THE CRUCIFIX. 
 1. 
 
 THE HEAD AND EYES. 
 
 Introduction. Jesus All in All. The crucifix is 
 a revelation. Our Lord said to St. Gertrude, that as 
 often as a man looks tenderly on the crucifix, Jesus 
 looks tenderly on him. Blessed Bernard of Caroline 
 wanted to learn to read it. St. Philip Benizi called 
 it his book, kissed it and died. Consider St. Alphonso 
 at seventy-seven looking at his crucifix, and writing 
 his meditations. "Why should earthly lovers have the 
 poetry and romance all on their side ? Now come, let 
 us learn Jesus. Mary will help us how well she 
 knew His blessed Features. St. Peter too, with his 
 devotion to our Lord's Face. Seek ye My Face ; Thy 
 Face, Lord, will we seek.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 233 
 
 1. 
 
 THE HEAD. 
 
 The voice of my Beloved knocking: open to me, 
 my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my 
 head is full of dew, and 'my locks of the drops of the 
 night. His head is as the finest gold : his locks as 
 branches of palm trees, black as a raven.* 
 I. No golden crown ! how is this ? He is King of 
 
 the world. 
 
 II. Crown of thorns mud blood handfuls of hair 
 gone Head swollen bruised aching. 
 
 III. Our hearts the garden where those thorns were 
 
 grown blame not the innocent earth or its 
 guiltless fields. 
 
 IV. That head which Mary nursed, the hair she 
 
 smoothed, the brow she washed, and then dared 
 to kiss. 
 
 V. Watch Him ! He droops His head to die He 
 droops it to us as a father to his children, that 
 we may kiss Him. 
 
 VI. Look upon Him once again, and now with the 
 eye of faith, and not of sight bright upon His 
 throne, flashing in the light ; Mary is wrapt 
 in exultation, wondering angels worship, saints 
 rejoice: Jesus, dear Jesus! we would see that: 
 we would go thither : ah ! sweetest Lord ! Thou 
 canst do this for us, and Thou wilt ! 
 
 *Cant. v. 2, 11.
 
 234 PAET II. 
 
 2. 
 
 THE EYES. 
 
 I. Once the joy of Mary, and the wonder of 
 Joseph ; the sunshine of Bethlehem and Naza- 
 reth, the light across the wilderness ; the rev- 
 elations their looks made of the joyous secrets 
 of His Sacred Heart. 
 II. The vigils they kept for us. 
 
 III. The tears they shed in infancy, for Lazarus, and 
 
 over Jerusalem. 
 
 IV. The looks upturned to Him in prayer. 
 
 V. The wistful look on the young man, and the 
 
 converting look on Peter. 
 VI. The scene before Him on Calvary. 
 VII. The blows, spittle, and blood : yet it is He who 
 
 gave sight to others. 
 
 VIII. Sun and moon darken as His eyes fade. 
 IX. His eyes turned to Mary on Easter morning ; 
 
 in heaven now, they are turned on us. 
 Oh shall we one day see them, and live and love in 
 their sweet light? Mine eyes have failed with weep- 
 ing* His eyes are as doves upon brooks of waters 
 which are washed with milk and sit beside the 
 plentiful streams. f Oh my Jesus, give us the gift of 
 tears, affectionate tears, holy tears. Dearest Lord ! we 
 have not loved Thee ; no ! hitherto we have not loved 
 Thee, but we will love Thee now : make us love Thee, 
 make us love Thee more and more. Thy servants 
 sometimes ask many things of Thee, but we will ask 
 but one Love, Lord, love, love, and then more, and 
 then eternal love ! 
 
 * Lament, ii. 11. t Cant. v. 12.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 235 
 3. 
 
 THE LIPS, AND MOUTH, AND CHEEKS. 
 
 I. Filled with earth and blood in the garden : once 
 
 with the breasts and milk of 'Mary. 
 II. The spittle of the soldiers mingling with His own. 
 
 III. The blows breaking His lips, and making them 
 
 deformed and swollen : sweet lips that spoke 
 words of peace and love divine: His cheeks 
 which Mary fondled. 
 
 IV. The kiss of Judas : the kisses of Mary. 
 
 V. The sighs that come from that sacred mouth upon 
 
 the cross. 
 VI. The white parched lips, once red and plump at 
 
 Bethlehem. 
 VII. The burning thirst, the vinegar and gall. 
 
 Evil words, detractions, impurities, oaths, &c. 
 
 4. 
 
 THE TONGUE. 
 
 I. A hidden member, sheltered from the assaults of 
 
 blows, &c., and our teacher. 
 
 II. Why He kept it without suffering till the last, 
 except His Heart (and that too was wounded 
 inwardly) : that He might with it penetrate the 
 ear and heart of the Eternal Father, to pray for 
 His murderers, to absolve the thief, to bequeath 
 His Mother, to show the greatness of His woes, 
 to proclaim His dear thirst of souls, to teach us 
 what to say when we too come to die. Oh what 
 love ! For our sake He keeps it, not for His 
 own.
 
 236 PART II. 
 
 III. His thirst the bloody sweat the night before 
 
 jaws dry tongue swells no- drop of water 
 Mary cannot reach see a dying man, when his 
 tongue is dried up! Ah! what suffering was 
 the drink they gave Jesus. 
 
 IV. Our tongues how are they employed ? they are 
 
 Mary's lap on which Jesus lies at Holy Com- 
 munion Oh awful sins of the tongues of men ! 
 V. What is the tongue of Jesus doing now? what 
 will it say to us when the last day comes ? 
 
 5. 
 
 THE FACE. 
 
 I. The appearance of It. (1) The forehead, (2) the 
 eyebrows, (3) the eyes and eyelids, (4) the 
 cheeks, (5) the lips, (6) the nostrils, (7) the 
 chin, (8) the beard, (9) the long flowing hair : the 
 horror of this to the angels, who knew that Face 
 to be the beauty, joy, and brightness of eternity. 
 II. How Mary looked upon that face when it was 
 small and infantine. Will she forgive me who 
 have now covered that Face with such a fearful 
 veil of shame and of confusion ? 
 
 III. Implore the Eternal Father to look upon the dis- 
 
 figured Face of His only begotten Son. Jesus 
 offers it for our sins, offers it to obtain pardon 
 and grace for us. 
 
 IV. But see ! the Face moves, the eyes close, it is no 
 
 longer uplifted heavenwards, it droops, it sinks 
 upon the breast, oh awfullest of all awful things
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 237 
 
 that ever were on earth ! Jesus breathes his last 
 God is dead ! 
 
 V. Now I will think of my deathbed Oh may I see 
 that Face then, shining, beaming, smiling on me ! 
 Say for ejaculation Blessed be the beautiful 
 Face of my Jesus to all eternity ! 
 
 6. 
 
 THE EARS. 
 
 I. The delicacy and tenderness of them. The misery 
 of noise to the sick and dying. The roar of 
 the blaspheming multitude, like a pack of cruel 
 howling wolves in the ears of Jesus. Noise, 
 cruelty, hatred, sin, all so many causes of pain. 
 
 II. The names they call Him : 
 
 1. Malefactor He who has done all things well. 
 
 2. Imposter He who was eternal truth, and kind 
 
 teacher of truth to all. 
 
 3. Guilty of death He was life, and gives life to 
 
 us, and was that hour giving His dear life 
 
 for us. 
 
 So the streets, the judgment-hall, and Calvary 
 resounded and how do we bear one word of just 
 reproof? Think too of the sins committed with our 
 ears. 
 
 III. There is a heart breaking at the foot of the Cross ! 
 
 Oh the deep sighs, the stifled sobs that come from 
 it; they are darts of fire entering in at the ears 
 of Jesus, and piercing His Sacred Heart. Think 
 of the sighs of the poor in our ears.
 
 238 " PART n: 
 
 IV. Where are the ears of Jesus now? (1) in heaven, 
 hearing what we ask, and what Mary is asking 
 for us, (2) in the tabernacle, drinking in the acts 
 of love that we may make. 
 
 7. 
 
 THE ARMS. 
 
 I. What they suffered in the garden with the 
 thick ropes tied in front of Him, then at the 
 scourging behind Him swollen torn bleeding 
 weakened. 
 
 II. He opens them to embrace the Cross, while He 
 kisses it most tenderly, and then takes it on His 
 shoulders. 
 
 III. Those arms bound in swaddling clothes twined 
 
 round Mary's neck, as the ivy twines round a 
 tree. 
 
 IV. Dislocated on the Cross the whole weary weight 
 
 of His Body hanging upon them with agony 
 .unspeakable. 
 
 V. Look well at those arms, omnipotence is in them : 
 they are the arms of Him who made the world, 
 and could move it from its place at this moment 
 they could loosen themselves from the Cross 
 if they pleased. 
 
 VI. How those arms embraced Mary at her Assump- 
 tion : us too He will perhaps raise up when we 
 run and fall adoring at His feet at our first entry 
 into heaven.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 239 
 8. 
 
 THE HANDS. 
 
 I. The sweetness and the beauty of those Hands 
 little in infancy, working in St. Joseph's shop, 
 all the beneficent miracles and works of the 
 thirty -three years, lifted up in prayer for us, laid 
 on little children's heads. 
 
 II. Handcuffed, struck with lashes, broken and 
 wounded with falls, swollen fingers, bleeding : so 
 they grasp the mock sceptre, and so the cruel 
 Cross. 
 
 III. The nailing to the Cross, the agony of the re- 
 doubled blows, the dislodging of the nerves, the 
 jostling of the Cross into its place, the burning 
 wounds. 
 
 'IV. Those Hands created me; those Hands elevated 
 the Host at the first Mass ; those Hands are 
 above me in the confessional, though I see them 
 not. 
 
 V. Those Hands how beautiful and bright in heaven 
 now, angels adore them, they put the crown on 
 Mary's Head, oh ravishing sight ! 
 
 VI. To be at the Right Hand is all our joy, our bliss. 
 Ah ! may we be allowed to kiss the shining 
 wound on that Right Hand, when we are admitted 
 to the peace and joy of Heaven !
 
 240 PART II. 
 
 9. 
 
 THE BREAST. 
 
 I. The Breast of the infant Jesus, rising and falling 
 
 Mary's love of it. 
 
 II. St. John reclining on it, the heat he felt in it; 
 St. Philip, the beatings of the Sacred Heart. 
 
 III. Howwe look at the blue sky, and think of heaven 
 
 behind it ; so at the white breast of Jesus the 
 Eternal God there as in a treasure-house how 
 frail a wall ! yet who would dare to break it 
 through ? 
 
 IV. The Breast of Jesus as it was seen upon the Cross 
 
 outrages in the garden stamping on it 
 lashes of scourging distention from outstretched 
 arms. 
 
 V. The Breast of Jesus dead on Mary's lap. 
 VI. The Breast of Jesus now in glory the Sacred 
 Heart beats there once more rises and falls 
 with love of Mary and love of us. 
 
 10. 
 
 THE FEET. 
 
 I. Feet of the Infant Jesus return from Egypt 
 
 three days' loss in Jerusalem. 
 II. Feet of the Boy in Joseph's shop, or fetching 
 
 water from the well. 
 
 III. Feet of the Man weary, sore, throbbing, cold, 
 hot.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 241 
 
 IV. Feet of Jesus with Magdalen kissing them, &c. 
 V. Feet of Jesus on the Cross dragged down with 
 ropes, broken, wounded, nailed, the weight of 
 the Body resting on them. 
 
 VI. Feet of Jesus ascending, leaving prints behind. 
 VII. Feet of Jesus in glory shall we one day print a 
 kiss of burning love upon them ? 
 
 IV. 
 OUR LORD'S INNOCENCE. 
 
 Do we not feel how the love of Jesus is growing 
 into us with our meditations on His Passion ? If our 
 hearts do not burn, there is something like burning 
 beginning in them. That woe-worn Face is getting so 
 worn into our hearts that we shall hardly love His 
 Easter beauty. 
 
 I. Manifold views of the Passion enough to distract 
 the contemplations of an angel. 
 
 1. The awful profane wickedness and diabolical in- 
 
 spiration of it. 
 
 2. Its crowded and multiform cruelty. 
 
 3. The venerable glory of His everlasting Divinity. 
 
 4. The extreme human sweetness of His demeanor. 
 
 5. But there is. another point, which I venture to 
 
 think was exceedingly foremost in our Lady's 
 mind, almost jealously prominent His inno- 
 cence. Rightly considered, it is the most heart- 
 breaking thing about the Passion. 
 Vol. I. Q
 
 242 PART II. 
 
 II. Innocence on earth. 
 
 1. Its look of strangeness and of wonderfulness, 
 
 We never saw any one who was quite innocent 
 except the Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 2. Its look of exile there is something heavenly in 
 
 slavery detained on earth. 
 
 3. Its look of peril, yet of helplessness. 
 
 4. Its look of exquisite reproachfully unreproachful 
 
 pleading. There is some hidden sympathy 
 between innocence and silence. It ought to be 
 eloquent as an angel, but it is silent as God. 
 And yet there is a look of guilt about its silence 
 which is in reality the artlessness of its sim- 
 plicity or the holy trouble of its humility. 
 
 5. The way in which Jesus and Mary loved it in 
 
 each other, because it was their exclusive wealth 
 on earth. 
 
 III. Innocence suffering. 
 
 1. Horror of innocence suffering at all: e.g. a child, 
 
 a baby in its agony. 
 
 2. Innocence treated as guilt, yet it was the very 
 
 artifice of love in his Passion to clothe the 
 innocent with guilt. 
 
 3. Innocence enveloped in rudest, maddest violence. 
 
 4. Innocence tortured with cruelty. 
 
 5. The peculiar agony of injustice to the delicate 
 
 sense of innocence. Innocence is so gentle, so 
 un-sel fdefend ing. 
 
 IV. Quid mali fecit? Pilate certainly was not blinded 
 
 by hatred as the Jews were: but yet what 
 spiritual discernment had he? imagine it 
 dream it and yet he discerned His innocence. 
 1. -His face was piteous then, yet not wholly dis-
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 243 
 
 figured. Yes truly : what evil lias F^ done ? 
 name it. 
 
 2. The mis(rable Pilate saw all His spotlessness in 
 
 the silent face. Pilate forsooth falls in love 
 with innocence, and says, Innocens ego sum. 
 St. Matt, xxvii. Oh, if we could but see that 
 face in vision for one moment, could we ever 
 sin again, or ever cease to love ? 
 
 3. They chose Barabbas: I was going to say this 
 
 was a wickedness without name but we had 
 best say little about it : alas ! our choices have 
 been the worst features of our life. Dear Jesus ! 
 how many Barabbases have we preferred to 
 Thee! 
 
 4. Why does He not speak ! One word, a tone, a 
 
 sound, would have made that beauty irresistible: 
 it would have calmed that raging sea of hatred, 
 it would have cowed the multitude into adoring 
 love. There were mothers in the crowd, yet 
 no one saw what to Mary was so infinitely 
 beautiful. 
 
 5. Yet, oh ! do not speak, lest Thou shouldst clear 
 
 Thyself and then what should we do? oh, it is 
 almost a relief to us, a joyous deliverance from 
 our suspense, to hear that discordant crucifige ! 
 As in the agony in the garden, our salvation 
 seemed for a moment to tremble in the balance 
 for they might have let Him off: but if His 
 Father would not hear Him then, will He hear 
 the Jews now ? 
 
 V. Nullam causam invenio. A third time Pilate said, 
 Quid mail fecit ? Then, I find no cause. A third 
 time he could not believe the Jews would still
 
 244 PART II. 
 
 pp.r<5ist to him the face was such conviction. Yes, 
 the oeauty of that face gave a kind of obstinacy 
 even to that weak and vacillating judge. 
 
 1. Are we getting frightened at the innocence of 
 
 Jesus ? at least we are eager to tell Pilate that 
 he is wrong with his nullam causam. O Pilate, 
 thou art blinded by His beauty ! 
 
 2. All the sins of the world are on Him is not that 
 
 guilt f 
 
 3. He alone can expiate them is not that cause? 
 
 and cause of death also, for so only can He 
 expiate them. Now again we are uncertain: 
 will Pilate give way against his own conviction 
 of His innocence? But they were instant with 
 loud voices requiring that He might be cruci- 
 fied. And their voices prevailed, and Pilate 
 gave sentence that it should be as they required 
 (St. Luke xxiii. 23, 4), and as we require, oh, 
 yes ! and as we require. Ah ! if there is a neces- 
 sity on earth, it is salvation. 
 
 4. Dearest Jesus! Yet His innocence so works in 
 
 us, that in hot times of prayer, we feel as if we 
 could almost sacrifice ourselves to save Him. 
 But, no ! O Mother Mary ! be content. Jesus 
 has made it a greater love in us to let ourselves 
 be saved by Him than that we should save Him 
 from the cross.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 245 
 
 V. 
 THE FACE OF JESUS. 
 
 Passiontide veils the face of the crucifix, only that 
 it may be more vivid in our hearts. 
 I. The face of Jesus in the Thirty-three Years. 
 
 1. The most beautiful of all the beauties earth has 
 
 ever seen. 
 
 2. As predestined by God, and the model of all 
 
 beauty. 
 
 3. The devotion of Mary and Joseph to it. 
 
 4. The devotion of Peter and the apostles. 
 
 5. In Infancy, Boyhood and Manhood. 
 
 II. His face during the Passion. 
 
 1. In the agony in the garden. 
 
 2. Before His various judges. 
 
 3. When He met His Mother. 
 
 4. On the cross. 
 
 5. In death, on Mary's lap. 
 
 III. What thoughts this gives us. 
 
 1. Hatred of our own sins which caused it. 
 
 2. A truer idea of the Father's anger with sin. 
 
 3. Intense love of our Blessed Lord. 
 
 4. Deepest compassion with His Mother. 
 
 5. A yearning to be more holy. 
 
 IV. His face now. 
 
 1. It is being seen in numerous particular judgments 
 
 momentarily. 
 
 2. The saints have sometimes seen it as it is, and 
 
 nearly died of ravishment. 
 
 3. It is the bliss and ecstacy of Heaven.
 
 246 PART IL 
 
 4. It is the most beautiful sight God sees outside 
 
 Himself, and yet in so strange and wonderful a 
 sense hardly outside Himself. 
 
 5. It is there in the Blessed Sacrament, with the 
 
 eyes, the mouth, the brow : most thrilling, most 
 
 hushing mystery. 
 
 Oh, to look upon that face eternally, how sweet a 
 destiny ! A humble, reverent, familiar, affectionate 
 devotion to the Passion is one chief sign of our pre- 
 destination to see the face of Jesus for evermore ! 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE DESERTION OF THE APOSTLES. 
 
 It is Passion Sunday ; we must take our lesson from 
 the Passion. 
 
 We have a great deal to do to be saved : and God 
 does not save us without ourselves, i.e. we must do our 
 part, we must correspond to grace. Now here comes 
 a most important question : to what amount can we 
 trust ourselves, and what can we trust ourselves for ? 
 I. Our salvation looks safer the longer we persevere 
 in the spiritual life. Does this come from any 
 change in ourselves ; any change which we may 
 safely trust ? Grounds of trust are 
 
 1. Strength of character, which may be partly 
 
 natural and partly acquired. 
 
 2. Habits of virtue, which certainly maice the exer- 
 
 cise of virtue easier. 
 
 3. Great graces, which are not only signs of pre- 
 
 destination, but inward revolutions.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 247 
 
 4. Perseverance in good, up to the silencing of temp- 
 
 tations. 
 
 5. Amount of actual sincere love of God, which even 
 
 humility must admit. 
 
 All this is true ; but what I want to bring out is 
 that it is not our own but God's, and more than this, 
 that it is not a gift of God which we hold in our own 
 dominion it is not so much something done and over, 
 as a present grace, depending upon grace and there- 
 fore, while it is an immense reason for infinitely trust- 
 ing God, it is no just reason at all for trusting ourselves. 
 II. I infer this from that most painful mystery of the 
 Passion, the desertion of Jesus by His own 
 Apostles. 
 
 1. It is probable, from what we know of the usual 
 
 customs of divine grace, that they had beautiful 
 natural characters to start with, and had led 
 pure lives. 
 
 2. The grandeur of their vocations, next to the 
 
 Divine Maternity. 
 
 3. Their novitiate with Jesus, its inexhaustible 
 
 benedictions. 
 
 4. The bewildering amount of love He had lavished 
 
 on them. 
 
 5. The immense enthusiastic love they had for Him 
 
 no saints have attained it. 
 
 III. Yet the most melancholy incredibility we have 
 ever been called upon to believe they fell 
 
 1. Fell after all those repeated miracles, after two 
 
 in the garden itself, namely, the falling back, 
 and the healing of Malchus' ear. 
 
 2. Fell at a small danger for they were not aimed 
 
 at and at the first danger.
 
 248 PART II. 
 
 3. Fell just when common love and loyalty would 
 
 have called them forward, especially as it was 
 all done through the treachery of one of their 
 own body. 
 
 4. Fell after solemn reiterated warnings and solemn 
 
 reiterated protestations of all. And in like 
 manner .said all the disciples (Matt. xxvi. 35). 
 
 5. Fell just after first Communion and that the 
 
 first Communion in the world, just as the first 
 
 man fell, and the first among the angels fell. 
 
 Merciful God ! what then have we to trust to 
 
 but His mercy ? 
 
 Hence I infer that we can trust ourselves for nothing. 
 O dear Brethren ! that I could write this single truth 
 so deep in your hearts that no length of years nor 
 adventurousness of life should ever efface it, that in 
 order to secure our salvation, life must be one long, 
 unsuspended, unforgetting dependence upon grace 1 
 
 VII. 
 JUDAS. 
 
 I. Jesus had a secret sorrow Judas He never 
 alluded to the cross but often said, one of you 
 shall betray Me. 
 II. Judas in childhood. 
 
 1. Winning ways. 
 
 2. A mother's love. 
 
 3. A promise dear to his mother. 
 
 4. Little faults may have preluded his great ones. 
 
 5. Unsuspectingness of his future doom.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 249 
 
 III. Jesus with Judas. 
 
 1. His first love of Judas. 
 
 2. The fall of Judas began with taking scandal, i.e. 
 
 at St. Mary Magdalen. 
 
 3. How Jesus spares him at the supper, not naming 
 
 him openly. Dear Jesus ! 
 
 4. Washes his feet. 
 
 5. Communicates him. 
 
 6. That which thou dost do quickly. 
 
 7. Then in the garden horror of the words of 
 
 Judas tenete Eum. 
 
 IV. Judas' despair ah, where is Jesus? He takes 
 
 the money back, and they jeer him how un- 
 like Jesus, who would have so soothed him 
 where is Jesus? (No soul so needed Him 
 because of the thought of Him no soul was so 
 despairing as Judas was then.} Gone to death 
 by treachery. 
 Does not all this give me comfort ? Will He bear 
 
 with me ? I don't know : I am worse than Judas, I 
 
 fear. 
 
 Jesus was troubled in spirit, and the disciples looked 
 
 one upon another. (St. John xiii. 21, 22.) 
 
 V. If we love Jesus we hate Judas. We should like 
 
 to know what his character was like, whether it 
 was like ours. At least we have resemblances 
 to him. 
 
 1. He had a sweet and potent call from Jesus 
 
 so we. 
 
 2. He once loved Jesus perhaps so we. 
 
 3. He got to know Him on familiar terms so we. 
 
 4. He began with venial sins and self-seeking 
 
 BO we.
 
 250 PART II. 
 
 5. He did not know how hard his heart was getting 
 
 so we. 
 
 VI. See life of St. Joseph of Cupertino, which says 
 that the loss of Judas was the worst pain of the 
 Passion. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 HIS BLOOD BE UPON US AND UPON OUR 
 CHILDREN. 
 
 Night over the valley of the Nile destroying angel 
 doorposts stained with blood so now it is night 
 this life is a night incessant flight of the destroying 
 angel in company with the angel of death souls 
 stained with blood. If the Blood of Jesus is not on us 
 then, we are lost to all eternity. But how was this 
 mystery of the Precious Blood proclaimed in the 
 Passion ? 
 I. The mystery. 
 
 1. Pilate washing his hands with water: the Jews 
 
 were wiser who took blood. An act of the 
 greatest human childishness done by the side of 
 and in the face of Divine Wisdom Jesus look- 
 ing on, listening, silent as usual ; His eyes look 
 on the crowd, not with the piercing dignity of a 
 judge, nor even the meek reproachfulness of a 
 sufferer, but with the clear beaming of un- 
 mingled, unaccusing love. 
 
 2. They saw Blood on Him, and thirsted for it like 
 
 beasts, yet did not know what It really was. 
 
 3. They had reached now the height of the sin of
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 251 
 
 putting the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 
 to death universes populus yes ! universus ! 
 what a sweet prophecy. 
 
 4. They were ready to be victims themselves, if only 
 
 they can make Him a victim : oh, what wise 
 theology, what Christian science in all this mad 
 blind sin. They threw their hearts wide open, 
 turned God's grandest blessing into a curse, and 
 took it in, and made it from that time forth 
 their life, a chained life, a life of most horrible 
 chaining and enchantment. 
 
 5. The cry so wild, so thrilling, so enormous, so 
 
 unanimous ! like the cry from a ship going down, 
 or the cries at the deluge till Noe heard them 
 no more. 
 
 6. The silence after the cry, like the silence which 
 
 Noe felt, nay, heard above the turbid waters, for 
 there are silences which are so silent that they 
 can be heard more the city so silent, their own 
 hearts so hushed by the panic of their own cry, 
 Pilate so astounded it was a wonder that an 
 angel did not speak, if only to break the intoler- 
 able silence. Perhaps the angels thought God 
 would speak, as over the Jordan, and when the 
 multitude said it thundered. 
 
 7. Jesus in that silence and the Holy Trinity. 
 
 God even then was silent : Oh that inveterate 
 silence of God ! what an endless revelation it is ! 
 II. The Saviour! We look on that furious crowd 
 on the blue vault of sky filled with the noiseless 
 shining of the sun on the silent buildings how 
 dumb they look in their brightness, on the cower- 
 ing Pilate, on the blue mantle of Mary then on
 
 252 PART II. 
 
 THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD with the morning 
 sun sinning whitely on Him. 
 
 1. His look how could anguish be so beautiful 
 
 when it was visibly so bitter ? lips goldened as 
 it were by the heavenly words He had for 
 years been uttering. 
 
 2. His silence He had not sentenced them, it was 
 
 themselves. He had thought of this hour, when 
 He was weeping over Jerusalem ! 
 
 3. His thoughts angels adored His wisdom, could 
 
 come nearer to fathoming that than to fathoming 
 the bitterness and yet the sweetness of His 
 thoughts. 
 
 4. His Heart its love, its exultation, its faintness, 
 
 its pang, its augmentation of love for them. It 
 rushed out upon this crowd in augmentations of 
 love which were like new creations for im- 
 petuosity and magnificence. 
 
 5. It was a wonder they did not see He was God. 
 
 Aye, see with the very eyes in their heads that 
 He was God! 
 III. The pain of that cry. 
 
 1. As an immense sin and to Him a gigantic in- 
 
 gratitude. How ingratitude crushes tender and 
 affectionate natures. 
 
 2. As coming from those He so specially loved 
 
 and the love of whom was communicated to 
 His Human Nature by His Divinity. 
 
 3. As a true prophecy of their future misery 
 
 another wandering than that glorious one in 
 the wilderness, and with quite another sort of 
 melancholy miracle about it. Homeless, un- 
 sanctuaried people !
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 253 
 
 4. The foreseen sacrilegious use of His Precious 
 
 Blood nay, was it not a torture to Him that 
 the first use of His Precious Blood should be a 
 sacrilege? of His Precious Blood which He 
 loved so amazingly, just as He was turbatus 
 spiritu (St. John xiii. 21), from foresight of 
 Judas' Communion? 
 
 5. As an intense sorrow to His Mother, because she 
 
 loved her people, and because it was always an 
 incredible surprise to her to see Him not loved. 
 Dear Mother ! she had been used to it from early 
 days, and yet could not get used to it. 
 IV. The joy of that cry. 
 
 1. Because the last obstacle to His Passion was now 
 
 removed. 
 
 2. Because all allusion to the shedding of His Blood 
 
 was a delight to Him, just as a generous man 
 rejoices in the abundance he has to give away. 
 The cry roused Him as the trumpet rouses the 
 warhorse. 
 
 3. Because of the conversion of the Jews at last 
 
 and of many now, e. g., three thousand by the 
 sermon of St. Peter, who is now hiding away for 
 fear and shame. 
 
 4. Because of the fulness of the Gentiles: He 
 
 saw the crowd of all men : He saw us with His 
 Blood upon us; the thrones of some of us in 
 heaven : nay, why should I say some, why not 
 all ? it is my want of faith. 
 
 5. Exultation at. the immensity, continuity, complete- 
 
 ness, and magnificence of His redemption. 
 There are two prayers which never cease from off the 
 earth ; one the Lord's prayer, taught on a grassy hill of
 
 254 PART II. 
 
 Galilee notable for the thick tuftings of its grass, over- 
 looking the quiet lake, the other by a whole people in 
 the frenzy of their sin in the streets of the Holy City ; 
 the blasphemy and curse have turned into a blessing 
 and a worship, and a wild, wild prayer for the Precious 
 Blood ! ' All the day and all the night throughout the 
 whole earth the silent eloquence of Christian faith, 
 and the speechless song of Christian hope, and the 
 endless wistful sigh of Christian humility are for ever 
 rising to the throne of our Heavenly Father, beauti- 
 fully and adoringly prolonging the cry of that dark 
 day of poor Jerusalem : His Blood be upon us and 
 upon our children. 
 
 IX. 
 
 HE SAVED OTHERS ; HIMSELF HE CANNOT 
 SAVE. 
 
 Is it not strange that such wicked works can be so 
 beautiful ? Yet are they not beautiful ? Oh, beautiful 
 as some fragment of an angel's song ! He saved others : 
 Himself He cannot save. 
 
 I. What He looked like to those who saw Him on the 
 cross. 
 
 1. Description of Him all disfigured. 
 
 2. So changed from what they had seen Him in the 
 
 temple, or on Palm Sunday. He was not an 
 object of horror. Suffering can beautify with 
 a pitiable beauty. It can make reverend. 
 Even death can beautify. Its rigid repose can
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 255 
 
 even be a more graceful thing than the supple 
 grace of life. 
 
 3. At the least He was an object of pity : horror of 
 gibing the pitiable, and in the hearing of His 
 Mother! What a dreadful thing hatred is! and 
 such a hatred ! 
 II. What He looks like to us. 
 
 1. The Godhead shining through the disfigurement. 
 
 2. His love of men beautifying the very disfigure- 
 
 ment itself. 
 
 3. Oh to us such an object of love, of pity also, yet 
 
 much more of love and of adoration. 
 IH. He saved others. 
 
 1. What ! did they hate Him for saving men ? 
 
 2. But the fact, how true it is ! He did indeed save 
 
 others, He saved us, perhaps them ; some who 
 jeered, e.g. the good thief, are now with Him in 
 heaven. 
 
 3. He did not care to save Himself, so long as He 
 
 saved us. He never thought of Himself: this 
 was His human character, Pie pleased not Him- 
 self: it was this which so touched St. Paul. 
 
 IV. Himself He cannot save. 
 
 1. Can this be true? He is the omnipotent God; 
 
 angels are waiting His sign. 
 
 2. Yet this is true. He is helpless ; He cannot save 
 
 Himself; He cannot come down from the Cross. 
 
 3. But what hinders ? Oh such a might of love, of 
 
 love only, of love for us. 
 
 V. We. 
 
 1. Did we then seem so beautiful? oh no! how far 
 
 from that ! 
 
 2. But we did seem so pitiable! He lost all pity
 
 256 PART IT. 
 
 for Himself and for His Mother, because we 
 
 did look so infinitely pitiable. 
 3. And yet, even after it all, we can scarcely force 
 
 ourselves to pity Him ; we can hardly strain a 
 
 tear, or force a sigh, because of the pains of our 
 
 dear crucified Love ! 
 
 How much the Passion has saved us from ! Out of 
 what a depth it has rescued us ! Truly we can now 
 use those merciless words of the Jews in quite another 
 sense. We can take up our crucifix, and kiss the Five 
 Wounds with at least so much love as to grieve we 
 have not more love, and then looking at our Saviour's 
 Face we can say, Yes, my Jesus, my Lord and my Ged : 
 Thou savest others, Thyself Thou canst not save ! 
 
 X. 
 
 OUR LORD'S COMPLAINTS IN HIS PASSION. 
 
 If one you loved lay dying, would you rather he 
 were silent or complained ? ' Sorrow has many ingenious 
 questions to settle, but hardly any more interesting 
 than this. 
 I. The Doubt. 
 
 1. How much from one point of view silence on their 
 
 part enables us to bear the sufferings of those we 
 love ! Our heart is less wounded, and our mind 
 estimates the suffering less. 
 
 2. One of the ends of the silence of Jesus was to 
 
 spare us. Had He complained we should have 
 sickened with sorrow over His Passion, with too 
 much sorrow to have left room for love.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 257 
 
 3. Yet somehow we love the pain complaint gives 
 
 us ; if not a solace, it is a pain such as sorrow 
 covets. 
 
 4. There is something graceful in the complaining 
 
 of those who suffer : something which discloses 
 the inward beauty of their souls : to me it seems 
 of all human sounds not only the most beautiful 
 but the most dignified and the most religious. 
 
 5. It is often an index of great conformity to God's 
 
 Will ; complaint is the voice of patience. 
 
 6. We cannot bear for long the silence of those we 
 
 love: looks speak, and sighs speak, nay the 
 silence speaks, but love craves words. 
 
 7. In memory how precious, like far off music, are 
 
 the complaints of those we have lost. 
 II. Jesus complaining. 
 
 1. The mystery of God complaining : how this would 
 
 strike a heathen in the Old Testament ; it reveals 
 God so marvellously as a God of love, as the 
 God who out of love made us free, that He might 
 want our love the more, and then is endlessly, 
 pathetically, almost humbly complaining that 
 He does not get our love. 
 
 2. The special mystery of the complaints of the 
 
 uncomplaining Jesus; His whole life was so 
 uncomplaining. 
 
 3. The taciturnity of the Word makes His words 
 
 so precious, especially in the silent Passion. 
 
 4. The inexhaustible beauty of His complaints, so 
 
 like Him and yet so unlike ; somehow they 
 increase our devotion to His silence by making 
 us feel it to be so Godlike. 
 
 5. The extreme unexpected simplicity of His com- 
 Vol. I. R
 
 258 PART II. 
 
 plaints; unexpected because of their plain, 
 artless, spontaneous humanness. The Human 
 Nature united to the Divine must have 
 had a singularly simple, translucent, guileless 
 character. 
 
 III. The Five complaints ; all of personal things and 
 to persons. Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst thou 
 not watch one hour f 
 
 1. What! Could you not watch one hour with Mef 
 
 (1) Said to Peter by name as the next was to Judas 
 
 by name. 
 
 (2) As if Peter had only just finished his protest- 
 
 ations. 
 
 (3) Surprise. What I as if He had believed the 
 
 protestations. 
 
 (4) Disappointment. 
 
 (5) Pain, but un-upbraiding. One hour / it was 
 
 such a small thing to do to keep awake for 
 an hour. 
 
 2. Judas ! Dost thou betray the Son of Man with a 
 
 kiss? 
 
 (1) Judas by name. 
 
 (2) The tone of the voice. 
 
 (3) Its sweet gentleness, as if not angry but lov- 
 
 ingly incredulous. 
 
 (4) The word betray. 
 
 (5) With a kiss had the apostles ever kissed Him 
 
 before, and on the mouth f if so, how terrible 
 were Judas' memories, if not, how terrible 
 was the familiarity ! 
 
 3. Are you come out as against a thief with swords 
 
 and clubs? 
 (1) Said to His dear Jews.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 259 
 
 (2) A thief as if the disgrace affected Him, and 
 
 the sense of dishonor. 
 
 (3) Still more that His people should not have 
 
 recognized His Godhead, Who thought it not 
 robbery to be equal with God. 
 
 (4) With swords and clubs, when He had always 
 
 been so gentle, and said, Look at Me, I am 
 gentle and meek. 
 
 (5) As if it was pain to think that they imagined 
 
 He was not ready to die for them without 
 any violence; this last was the worst 
 wound. 
 
 4. If well, why smitest thou Me? these words are 
 
 naturally in St. John's Gospel, because of His 
 devotion to the Word, who for words is now 
 smitten. 
 
 (1) Said in the house of Annas. 
 
 (2) His sense of injustice. 
 
 (3) He remembers all His kind and beautiful 
 
 words ; now it is for His words that He is 
 struck. 
 
 (4) Sense of inhumanity, the first out of the way 
 
 violence. 
 
 (5) His sense of innocence if evil, give testimony 
 
 of the evil. He was being judged, and He 
 thought of the justice and the indulgence of 
 His own court of justice. 
 
 5. My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? 
 
 (1) Speaking no longer to creatures, but to His 
 
 Father. 
 
 (2) In a loud voice, as if His Father was so far 
 
 off, or was getting deaf to Him, as creatures 
 were.
 
 260 PART IT. 
 
 (3) Amazement. Forsake! 
 
 (4) Sense of intolerableness. 
 
 (5) Yet somehow this is the most uncomplaining 
 
 of the complaints, though the most heartrend- 
 ing, because there is such adoration in it. 
 
 Note that all the complaints are questions not 
 upbraidings but pleadings, unwillingness to believe 
 evil, the surprises of love at being wronged their un- 
 rhetorical simplicity quite divine. 
 
 O dearest Lord ! how sweet to us are Thy beautiful 
 complaints, the five wounds of Thy feelings ! for we 
 seem to get nearer to Thee, or Thou to come nearer to 
 us, when Thou condescendest to complain ! 
 
 XI. 
 
 OUR BLESSED LORD BOWING HIS HEAD 
 UPON THE CROSS * 
 
 Passage from mere Lent to Passiontide from ex- 
 amining sejf to contemplating Him. Look at Him on 
 the cross, feature by feature. The drooping of a man's 
 head, when he dies sitting up ; it is as if He were 
 pondering some difficult question, yet untroubled and 
 unperplexed. 
 
 The bowing of His head, His head crowned with 
 that cruel crown of thorns. 
 
 I. As if He was weary and would fain rest and 
 did He not grievously want rest? and what a 
 
 *The last sermon which Fatker Faber preached, Passion 
 Sunday, 1863.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 261 
 
 comfortless deathbed we had given ? Compared 
 with this, there was luxury in the ashes on which 
 saints have died. The Passion was more fatigue 
 than creation. How His head must hvae ached ! 
 How the angels longed to hold it up ! 
 
 II. As if He yearned to lean it on His Mother's ap. 
 
 1. How sweet it had rested there at Bethlehem and 
 
 in the wilderness ! What she felt when she saw^ 
 it move and droop. 
 
 2. How it said to her (Cant, v.), Open to me, my 
 
 love, my dove, my undefiled ; for my head is 
 full of dew, and my locks of the drops of the 
 night. 
 
 3. How afterwards she touched, and pressed, and 
 
 kissed the dead Head beneath the cross. 
 
 III. In token of respect to His Father. 
 
 1. As if His Father had spoken, and accepted the 
 
 cross just then. 
 
 2. As if now all was consummated what an All! 
 
 what a consummation ! 
 
 3. To give death leave to touch Him, Who was 
 
 eternal Life. 
 
 IV. As though to welcome us and give us leave to kiss 
 
 Him. 
 
 1. The love He had for each of us at that moment. 
 
 2. What is our love for Him ? What our delighted 
 
 worship of His Passion ? 
 
 Dearest Lord ! Why do we ever think of any one 
 but Him? How can we manage to love any one but 
 Him ? Oh, may we come to feel and to know that we 
 have but one faith, one hope, one love, one consolation 
 in weary, painful time, and one reward in the grand, 
 jubilant eternity Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
 
 262 PART II. 
 
 XII. 
 
 THE PASSION OUR DEVOTION THE WHOLE 
 YEAR ROUND. 
 
 Seeming strangeness of speaking of the Passion at 
 Eastertide. 
 I. The Passion is an abiding devotion. 
 
 1. Because in it redemption was accomplished. 
 
 2. Because the Sacraments come out of it. 
 
 3. Because Mass is a continuation of it. 
 
 4. Because it most safely suits our condition on 
 
 earth. 
 
 5. Because it is a special antidote to hardness of 
 
 heart. Examine this. 
 
 II. All holiness depends upon our hearts not being 
 hardened ; yet this is the great difficulty of life. 
 
 1. Because all that is seen (world so bright, people so 
 
 kind and good), hardens the heart, while what 
 softens it is unseen and supernatural. 
 
 2. Sin breeds sin, and so habits are formed which 
 
 obscure the mind and harden the heart. 
 
 3. Low views of sin from the world's favorite notion 
 
 that all duty to God is fulfilled in duty to our 
 neighbor. 
 
 4. The very easiness of forgiveness helps to harden a 
 
 wilful heart. 
 
 5. Natural corruption inclines that way, just as water 
 
 gets cold if taken from the fire. 
 
 6. Because we pay so little attention to sins of 
 
 thought. 
 
 7. Becanse we are so careless about venial sins, espe- 
 
 cially those of the tongue and untruths.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 263 
 
 8. We have so little striving after perfection, and 
 
 consequently little knowledge of our own vile- 
 ness. 
 
 9. Because even good people act commonly from the 
 
 sole motive of duty, without that of love. 
 III. Reasons why the Passion is so touching and heart- 
 softening. 
 
 1. Because of the atrocity of the sufferings both 
 
 mental and bodily. 
 
 2. The unparalleled heartlessness of the inflicters 
 
 there was every reason against their doing it. 
 
 3. The enchanting sweetness and patience of the 
 
 Sufferer. 
 
 4. The thought that He was God. 
 
 5. That all these sufferings were for our sake. 
 
 6. That we have felt this a hundred times, and yet 
 
 have so ill requited Him. 
 
 7. The fear that we might have acted as His execu- 
 
 tioners did, had we been there. 
 
 8. All the other circumstances of the Passion are so 
 
 exquisitely pathetic. (1.) The betrayal. (2.) The 
 Blessed Virgin Mary. (3.) The Last Words. 
 (4.) The* Centurian. (5.) Pilate's admission of 
 His innocence. 
 
 9. Because from His Passion, as from a treasure- 
 
 house of Divine Love, come 
 
 (1) All our hopes for the future. 
 
 (2) All our security about the forgiveness of the 
 
 past. 
 
 (3) All the grace of our present life. 
 
 (4) The Presence of the Blessed Sacrament. 
 Hence the Passion is the daily bread of Christian 
 
 souls.
 
 264 PART II. 
 
 XIII. 
 THE LEGACIES OF JESUS. 
 
 If sons, heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with 
 Christ. (Rom. viii. 17.) 
 
 Jesus, the poorest of earth's poor, leaves His legacies 
 to His lovers: come to Calvary, come to the foot of 
 the Cross : they are dicing for His seamless garment : 
 we too must be there at that deathbed, to catch, if 
 nothing else, the Seven last Words of wise and burning 
 love that fall from His ever-blessed lips. 
 I. His peace : 
 
 1. Interior mastery over self. 
 
 2. Satisfyingness of our love for Him. 
 
 3. Quiet certainty of our holy faith. 
 
 4. Sweet inclination to judge well of and do good 
 
 to all men. 
 
 II. His Cross : 
 
 1. To make us carpenters for ourselves. 
 
 2. To carry for Him, like Simon of Cyrene. 
 
 3. To be nailed to, like Peter and Himself: and 
 
 this 
 
 1. In heart. 
 
 2. In soul. 
 
 3. In body. 
 
 Ah ! who that has a loving heart will be cast down 
 at such a legacy as this ? 
 
 III. His Mother : as to St. John. 
 
 1. Talk to her. 
 
 2. Listen to what she shall tell us of Jesus: 
 
 devotion to her opens mysteries.
 
 THE SA CRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 265 
 
 3. Defend her honor. 
 
 4. Beg her blessing as if she was in our house as 
 
 she was in St. John's. 
 IV. Himself: 
 
 1. As the sweet Burden of Joseph's arms. 
 
 2. As on Mary's lap to make our hearts tender. 
 
 3. As in spices for sepulture in Communion. 
 
 Oh now with riches like to these that we would take 
 heart and give ourselves utterly up to God. If life be 
 bright and smiling, Jesus is the brightness and the 
 smile and how will He enhance that brightness. If 
 our road lie through sorrow and through clouds, what a 
 light ever shining is He. If our measure of life be 
 wellnigh spent, ah what reparation have we not to 
 make, and love alone can catch up lost time. If we be 
 young, just leaving port in the gallant trim of youth 
 with the bright flags of a hundred hopes flying at our 
 masts, then with Jesus on board we shall be secure 
 against wreck, and reach at once the haven where we 
 would be. Oh that the mighty and Eternal Wisdom, 
 the Eloquence of the Father, and yet the humblest of 
 loving friends to poor venturesome sinners Oh that He 
 for the sake of these sorrowful mysteries and deep 
 humiliations which we are all thinking of at this sacred 
 season of Lent Oh that He would speak one of His 
 never-failing words in the hearts of each of us, and 
 make us by a real conversion and a heavenly love His 
 own, His Heritage for ever !
 
 266 PART II, 
 
 XIV. 
 SETTING UP THE STATIONS. 
 
 We are about to engage in an act to which the Church 
 attaches great importance is strict about and enriches 
 with quite unusual indulgences. 
 I. Devotions of the Jews to holy places Jacob at 
 Bethel, &c. Also the heathen. 
 
 1. It implies that we are in a state of exile, and that 
 
 heaven is our real country. 
 
 2. It is a means of reverence and adoration of God. 
 
 3. It is an act of love and softens the heart. 
 
 4. It is a touching and eloquent witness to the 
 
 world. 
 
 5. Unusual grace and supernatural gifts often go 
 
 with sanctity of place. 
 
 II. Devotion of the Stations. 
 
 1. Beauty and naturalness of it considered in itself. 
 
 2. Our Lady began it herself on Good Friday. 
 
 3. How she continued it in after years in Jerusalem. 
 
 4. Pilgrimages in the early and middle ages. 
 
 5. The ardent love of Christians as it were invoked 
 
 the holy places to their own homes, as St. Paula 
 (so St. Jerome says), Blessed Columba of Rieti, 
 and St. Lidwine of Schiedam visited the Holy 
 Land bodily in ecstasy. 
 
 III. Fruits and benedictions of this devotion. 
 
 1. It is an act of faith, of hope, and of charity. 
 
 2. A thanksgiving to the Most Holy Trinity. 
 
 3. An exercise most fruitful to contrition, penance, 
 
 and humility.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 267 
 
 4. Most acceptable to Jesus and Mary. 
 
 5. Most supernatural in its effects on Purgatory. 
 The best way of making the Stations is to unite 
 
 ourselves to the interior dispositions of Mary. 
 
 XV. 
 
 THE PAIN OF JESUS FROM OUR LITTLE 
 DEVOTION TO HIS PASSION. 
 
 I. Have you ever been in great sorrow ? Then you 
 
 know how much harder to bear is want of sympathy 
 than want of kindness. Kindness is a want with- 
 out, sympathy a want within. JNow with that 
 thought come up Calvary. 
 
 1. Did you ever see any beauty like the beauty of 
 
 that dying Face ? 
 
 2. But is there not a look of surprise upon it ? not 
 
 that death is so hard ; no ! not that ! 
 
 3. And a look of being pained not by physical pain, 
 
 not by nails or crown ; oh no ! 
 
 4. We each see that expression for ourselves others 
 
 do not see quite what we see. 
 
 5. It is our Lord's pain at our want of devotion to 
 
 the Passion : it is a pain we each of us have 
 caused, apart from our causing the Passion 
 altogether. 
 
 II. His pain at our Avant of devotion to His Passion. 
 
 1. It was a separate pain for each one of us ; for 
 
 wounded love never repeats itself or its pangs. 
 
 2. It was a very great pain, for love was just what
 
 268 PART II. 
 
 He was craving, and it was just the one possible 
 consolation. We are too coarse to do justice 
 to the mystery of the Passion ; our lives are not 
 sufficiently purified by penance. 
 
 3. It was a peculiar pain ; and all peculiarity in 
 
 pain is especially sensible. 
 
 4. It was a heightening of each and all of His other 
 
 pains want, ache, absence, feeling of wasted, 
 unappreciated tenderness. 
 
 5. It was a separate thing for Him to forgive yet 
 
 not a sin exactly, and somehow this made it 
 more intolerable to bear. 
 
 III. What we may reverently conceive to have been 
 
 His dispositions about it. 
 
 1. Almost surprise or what in any other human 
 
 heart would have been surprise ; we are surprised, 
 indeed we cannot explain our own insensibility. 
 
 2. Intense sorrow I had almost dared to say 
 
 disappointment. The more intense because 
 His own exceeding love made it altogether 
 un reproachful. 
 
 3. An increased yearning for our devotion, as if its 
 
 absence made Him hunger. 
 
 4. An increased passion to suffer, as if that might 
 
 move us, and so get Him what He craves. 
 
 5. The pitiful pleading of His silence: in the garden 
 
 He complained, what ! could ye not watch ? 
 Yet on the Cross not one of His seven words 
 was about it. But oh ! how He intended that 
 silence to speak, to speak in the hearts of His 
 servants ! 
 
 IV. What He thought, or rather what His silence said. 
 1. He had made His passion so various in order to
 
 TEE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 269 
 
 wound all hearts: I believe He meant some 
 one touchingness of it for each heart. 
 
 2. He had run into all manner of excesses and enthu- 
 
 siasms, what could He do more ? 
 
 3. Then He gave it all to each of us : He made what 
 
 belonged to the whole world personal to each 
 one of us. 
 
 4. His behavior and manner had all been so beautiful 
 
 and gentle : angels even felt the sweet piteous- 
 ness of His courteous love. 
 
 5. Then He had plunged His Mother in it, to break 
 
 our hard hearts, because He knew with what 
 intensity we should love her. Who can resist 
 the piteousness of innocence suffering? and such 
 dear innocence as hers ? 
 I cannot go on multiplying thoughts: it is getting 
 
 more than we can bear. O my Saviour! my Saviour! 
 
 how I wish I could think He had had some consolation 
 
 from knowing that I should be devoted to His Passion 
 
 before I died ! 
 
 XVI. 
 THE SEVEN JOURNEYS. 
 
 I. From the supper-room to Gethsemane. 
 
 1. The departure of Judas on his accursed work. 
 
 2. The presentiments of the disciples. 
 
 3. The unspeakable calmness of Jesus. 
 
 II. From Gethsemane to the house of Annas. 
 
 1. The violence of those who drag Him. 
 
 2. The plunging Him in the brook Cedron.
 
 270 PARI II. 
 
 3. His entry amid shame and abjection into the house 
 of Annas. 
 
 III. From the house of Annas to the house of Caiphas. 
 
 1. The insults of His enraged enemies. 
 
 2. The disturbance in the dark streets. 
 
 3. The interior occupations of Jesus. 
 
 IV. From the house of Caiphas to the hall of Pilate. 
 
 1. The weariness and faintness of Jesus. 
 
 2. His confusion at being made over to the heathen 
 
 governor. 
 
 3. The mingled feelings of those who see Him pass. 
 V. From the hall of Pilate to the court of Herod. 
 
 1. Increased faintness of Jesus. 
 
 2. His sweetness in suffering. 
 
 3. His patient charity. 
 
 VI. From the court of Herod to the hall of Pilate. 
 
 1. His submission to rude hands. 
 
 2. His acceptance of the humiliation. 
 
 3. His generous facing of death. 
 
 VII. From the hall of Pilate to Calvary. 
 
 1. His meeting His Blessed Mother. 
 
 2. His three falls. 
 
 3. His arrival at Calvary. 
 
 XVII. 
 THE FIVE TRIALS OF JESUS. 
 
 I. Before Annas. 
 
 1. Jesus justifies Himself. 
 
 2. He receives a blow. 
 
 3. His sweet patience and defence of Himself.
 
 THE SACRED HUMANITY OF JESUS. 271 
 
 II. Before Caiphas. 
 
 1. The silence of Jesus. 
 
 2. The false witnesses. 
 
 3. The adjuration. 
 
 III. Before Pilate and acquitted. 
 
 1. The reluctance of Pilate. 
 
 2. The modest defence of Jesus. 
 
 3. Pilate's acquittal of Him and unlawful cruelty. 
 
 IV. Before Herod. 
 
 1. Solemnity and severity of the silence of Jesus. 
 
 2. His refusal to work a miracle. 
 
 3. His being derided as a fool. 
 
 V. Before Pilate and found guilty. 
 
 1. Pilate's human respect. 
 
 2. The proposal of Barabbas. 
 
 3. Jesus receives sentence.
 
 part 
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 OUR BLESSED LADY. 
 
 Vol. I.
 
 DEVOTION TO MARY THE GREAT GIFT 
 OF JESUS. 
 
 There is much in the world to make us sad, the present 
 sorrows of the Church, and our own little love of God. 
 Yet can we help a certain jubilee of heart in thinking 
 that the Month of God's Mother has now begun, that 
 each day of it is bringing more and more glory to God, 
 and more and more help to the Church, because millions 
 upon millions of souls, in every clime and of every blood, 
 are daily growing in the deep reverence and the deeper 
 love of the Immaculate Mother of God ? Oh that the 
 days were longer, and would pass more slowly, that we 
 might fill them fuller of that sweet enthusiasm for Jesus, 
 whose natural outburst is devotion to His dearest 
 Mother ! 
 I. The gifts of God. 
 
 1. The pleasure of receiving gifts huge pleasure to 
 
 the generous gifts from those we love. 
 
 2. What then must be the pleasure of receiving them 
 
 from God ? yet all life is this. 
 
 3. But our Lord says it is more blessed to give than 
 
 to receive. 
 
 4. How immense then the pleasure of God, and so 
 
 in proportion His love. 
 
 5. The wonderfulness of our receiving gifts from God . 
 
 275
 
 276 PART HI. 
 
 the way it makes us love Him and humble 
 ourselves. 
 
 II. The gifts of Jesus. 
 
 1. A peculiar sweetness in receiving gifts from 
 
 Jesus. 
 
 2. He has one gift, an immense gift, of huge im- 
 
 portance for time, and still more for eternity. 
 
 3. Not only an immense gift, but a choice one, one 
 
 that He gives most of to His dearest saints. 
 
 4. One that was and is part of His own Heart 
 
 and Character and one which He is not so 
 much ready to give us, as intensely burning to 
 give us. 
 
 5. The gift is the grace to love 1 His Mother ! Oh if 
 
 we did but prize and value this grace as we 
 ought to prize it, as He Himself prizes it, we 
 should be already half-way to heaven, because we 
 should have half ensured our final perseverance. 
 
 III. It is the characteristic grace of Jesus : because 
 
 He would give us such a gift. 
 
 1. As would make us love Himself most. 
 
 2. As would make us most like Him. 
 
 3. As would most honor His Mother. 
 
 4. As would be most advantageous to ourselves. 
 
 5. As would make Him love us most. 
 
 All these things are combined in the love of Mary. 
 
 What an intense joy it is in any way to resemble 
 Jesus? How then ought we to cultivate and multiply 
 this queenly grace of loving Mary ! Oh, happy you 
 who have it, happier you who greatly prize it, happiest 
 you who are all on fire with it, for it is a fire which 
 Jesus Himself has kindled in your hearts! The fair 
 light of eternity, the sensible touch of God, the golden
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 277 
 
 prophecies of a happy death, the cheerful securities of 
 a joyous judgment are upon you. Happy, happy you ! 
 God be praised for your abounding happiness. 
 
 But oh unhappy souls, most unfortunate of men, 
 most unfortunate at least of all men who are not yet 
 the victims of the eternal prison, you who have not 
 this devotion ! There is much on earth, which bears, 
 and rightly, the title of misfortune, but of all God's 
 creatures upon earth, they are the most unfortunate 
 who have no devotion to God's Mother ! 
 
 Dearest brethren, there can be no repentance in 
 heaven else when we see Mary we shall wish we had 
 known her better, prayed to her oftener, and loved her 
 more ; for we shall see brighter places than our own, 
 further forward in the glory of heaven, where we might 
 have been had we loved her more ! 
 
 II. 
 MARY THE MOTHER OF SINNERS. 
 
 I. The dreadful condition of a man not in a state of 
 grace. . 
 
 1. Cut off from God. 
 
 2. Having no part in the redemption of Jesus. 
 
 3. The sport of demons. 
 
 4. Having already hell begun in itself. 
 
 5. Chance of sudden death, and then eternal fire. 
 
 6. Horror of the angels, and hatred of God, exem- 
 
 plified in the brand of Cain. 
 II. One thing is still left to him the motherly
 
 278 PART III. 
 
 solicitude of Mary. This is his hope his trea- 
 sure his last resource. He goes about the 
 world linked to Heaven by this one thing. 
 
 1. Because she is the Mother of Mercy, not of 
 
 Justice. 
 
 2. Because God has willed it so, in love to her and 
 
 love to us. 
 
 3. Because experience shows that many who through 
 
 a sinful life have hung on to her by some little 
 devotion get grace at last. 
 
 III. How it is that, when she so approaches God in 
 His hatred of sin, she so perseveringly loves 
 sinners. 
 
 1. Because of the glory of God. 
 
 2. From a thirst to extend the harvest of Christ's 
 
 Passion. 
 
 3. Because all souls are the brothers of Jesus. 
 
 4. Because of her vehement enmity with the devil. 
 
 5. Because of her very hatred of sin. 
 
 6. Because she knows that Jesus saw each of us in 
 
 His sufferings, and specially suffered for each. 
 
 7. Because of her intense joy in beholding the 
 
 triumph of grace. 
 
 8. Because of her desire to exercise that peculiar 
 
 empire of mercy which God has entrusted to 
 her. 
 
 9. Because of the unspeakable tenderness of her 
 
 Maternal heart. 
 
 Address the hardhearted or the despairing, to have 
 unbounded confidence in Mary. You cannot better 
 magnify the love of God or show more welcome trust 
 in His mercy than by unlimited confidence in the 
 Heart of Mary !
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 279 
 
 IIL 
 MAKY THE SAFETY OF SOULS. 
 
 I. The opposite views which God and the world take 
 of men. 
 
 1. The world's view according to science, or politics, 
 
 or intellect, or wealth, or friendship. 
 
 2. God's view, simply and exclusively as souls with 
 
 one work to do. 
 
 3. The difficulty of learning God's view and keeping 
 
 to it : yet this is the very science of a Chris- 
 tian. 
 
 II. God's love of souls. 
 
 1. The only treasure of His own creation He 
 
 vouchsafes to set value on. 
 
 2. The immense love of Jesus for souls. 
 
 3. The whole Church simply a contrivance for souls. 
 
 4. The way all heaven is engrossed day and night 
 
 on behalf of souls. 
 
 5. The characteristic of the saints is unforgetting 
 
 enthusiastic zeal for souls. 
 
 6. The value of the soul itself death being better 
 
 than sin its unutterable penalties, its incon- 
 ceivable rewards. Nay, God Himself is its only 
 sufficient reward. 
 
 7. The interests of the soul eminently unite the 
 
 glory of God and the honor of Jesus. 
 
 III. What Mary does for souls. 
 
 1. By what she suffered. 
 
 2. By her example ; the model of all ages, and 
 
 simply a creature, simply imitable.
 
 280 PART III. 
 
 3. By the conversion of sinners by missions, 
 
 scapulars, medals, &c. 
 
 4. By the perfection of the saints. 
 
 5. By the religious orders she has founded either 
 
 by vision or by love : and all they are doing at 
 all hours all the world over, whether in the 
 active or contemplative life. 
 
 6. By her peculiar winningness and familiarity as 
 
 Mother of Mercy. 
 
 7. All she does for the Church and the Faith by her 
 
 prayers is so much work for souls, as the peace 
 of the Church is the salvation of the souls of 
 the masses and multitudes. 
 
 8. The way she uses her angels on behalf of souls, 
 
 and pursues them into Purgatory. 
 
 9. As the neck of the mystical body of Christ all 
 
 graces pass through her. 
 IV. Conclusions to be drawn. 
 
 1. The little we can do for souls. 
 
 2. The immense privilege of being allowed to do 
 
 that little. 
 
 3. The joy at the immensity which Mary does ; this 
 
 is another reason for loving her. 
 
 4. Also by our devotion we may continually get her 
 
 to do more. 
 
 Thus devotion to our Blessed Lady is an essential 
 part of true zeal for souls.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 281 
 
 IV. 
 DEPENDENCE ON MARY. 
 
 I. Our Lord is our example as well as our Redeemer. 
 
 1. Hence the necessity of studying the four Gospels 
 
 as our rule of life. 
 
 2. In these things which seem the least fitted to His 
 
 Divinity, He would seem also to be most our 
 example ; 
 
 3. And these things are chiefly under the heads 
 
 either of humiliation or submission. 
 
 4. Instances : The Forty Days' Fast His remaining 
 
 in the Temple at twelve years old. I select 
 these instances as on the surface least likely to 
 be imitable. 
 
 5. But above all, so much of the thirty-three years 
 
 given to Mary, thirty out of thirty-three wholly, 
 the other three very much. 
 
 II. His dependence on Mary. 
 
 1. He waited her consent for His Incarnation, and 
 
 fixed the time because of her. 
 
 2. His infancy with use of reason, yet dependent 
 
 on her. 
 
 3. He seems to leave His Father's business and 
 
 returns from the temple to Nazareth. 
 
 4. The eighteen years He was simply subject to 
 
 her. 
 
 5. The tradition that He asked her leave to go on 
 
 His Ministry, and again to His Passion. 
 
 6. At her word He anticipated His time for working 
 
 miracles.
 
 282 PART III. 
 
 7. He perpetuated this dependence in the Church 
 
 by transferring her to us through St. John. 
 III. Our dependence on Mary. 
 
 1. Her position to us is thus simply what it was 
 
 to Him. 
 
 2. All true devotion to her is nothing but dependence 
 
 upon her. 
 
 3. This dependence is based on 
 
 (1) Belief in her power. 
 
 (2) Confidence in her love. 
 
 4. All good things which fail, fail because they have 
 
 not enough of Mary in them. 
 
 5. We must put things in her hands, and look to 
 
 her for results. 
 
 6. She must be imbedded in our lives, as she is 
 
 imbedded in the oifice of the Church. 
 
 7. Holiness is impossible for us without Mary for 
 
 God has made it one consistent system, and she 
 
 is part of it ordained by Him. 
 Oh if we would but throw ourselves more upon Mary 
 than we do, with the whole weight of our love, with 
 the whole weight of our necessities. She is loving 
 each one of us at this moment with a surpassing love. 
 No friend, no parent, no saint, no angel has ever been 
 to us what she has been. It is wonderful what she 
 has done for us without our asking, more wonderful 
 still what she has done for our little asking, but most 
 wonderful of all is what she can do and will do, if we 
 will ask more, believe more, and trust more. Oh we 
 who call earth our exile, and heaven our home, and 
 Mary the Queen of Heaven, how is it we do not see 
 that there can be no heavenly-mindedness which is 
 not full of loyalty to heaven's great Queen ?
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 283 
 
 x 
 
 V. 
 MORE LOVE OF MARY. 
 
 Time goes differently with different people; and 
 differently in different years even with the same 
 person. Sometimes we live slowly ; sometimes we 
 live quickly. But the years are always speeding, a 
 quiet speed, but an incessant one. Are we speeding 
 on the way to heaven? Speeding! yes! are we 
 speeding on the way to heaven? It is a road on 
 which nothing is safe but speed ; nothing is prudent 
 but impetuosity; nothing is cautious but bravery. 
 What is age to the Christian eye? only this more 
 work, and less time to do it in. O Christians, how 
 we dream I It was thus that I reproached myself the 
 other day, and I awoke with a start, as if from sleep 
 or from forgetfulness. More work and less time to do 
 it in. This must be looked to ; life must be put in 
 order; I must be converted again, and at once, not 
 to-morrow, but to-day,, this very hour. Here is another 
 year running round, the days are beginning to shorten 
 again, we must quicken our speed both onward and 
 upward. I thought I was getting hourly into God's 
 debt ; I sat down to teach myself a lesson, to preach 
 myself a sermon, and reason with my own laziness and 
 cowardice; and somehow it all went the other way, 
 all my thoughts went into love. This was how it 
 was; let us think the train of thought over again 
 together. 
 
 I. The weight of our obligations to Jesus: what a 
 delightfully hopeless debt it is.
 
 284 PART HI. 
 
 1. All that He has suffered and done ; let Him 
 
 stand before us and show us His Wounds. 
 
 2. All His sweet patience lately, and at the pres-' 
 
 ent hour. 
 
 3. All the secret Love He has shown each of us, and 
 
 which we alone know. 
 
 4. The intolerable misery of the little love we have 
 
 for Him, and which we feel most when we love 
 Him most. 
 
 5. We get hot; we rouse ourselves; we are deter- 
 
 mined to love Him more, and to go and do 
 some great thing for Him immediately. Worldly 
 things are best done coolly, things for God are 
 best done in a heat. 
 
 II, What is our great thing to be? We must do Him 
 some imrftense service but how ? 
 
 1. He is God : we must adore His Divine Person ; 
 
 our adoration must grow more prostrate and 
 more exulting every day. 
 
 2. But we want something special ; just as His 
 
 Incarnation was specially for us. 
 
 3. We must worship and love His created Nature, 
 
 which He so intensely loves Himself, and which 
 makes Him Jesus. 
 
 4. Prayer, austerities, work for Him : how little we 
 
 can do in this way ! No ! He wants imitation : 
 we must copy Him : we must copy His Sacred 
 Heart. This, if I mistake not, is the work of all 
 Christian life, and of Christians' lives, to widen 
 the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to give it more room, 
 to multiply its powers and faculties, its worships 
 and its lives, and as it were add to it and broaden 
 it by giving Him our own hearts to add to His
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 285 
 
 own and make it larger. Now what represents 
 His Sacred Heart most both as God and man ? 
 5. Then it dawns upon us like a revelation, like 
 one of those almost frightening sunrises at sea, 
 when the whole round sun leaps all at once out 
 of the waters with a silvery suddenness. We 
 must immediately love Mary with an entirely 
 new love with such a love as we never loved 
 her with before, with such a love as nobody 
 ever loved her with before this is what we will 
 do for Jesus. Dearest Saviour ! Dearest God, 
 how He will delight in this. Oh this is a sweet 
 discovery a most happy inspiration ? 
 
 III. Measures of the love of Mary. 
 
 1. Our own greatest love, or all our love together? 
 
 No! 
 
 2. All the Saints' love of her, e.g. Joseph, Peter, 
 
 John, and her particular friendship with St. 
 James ? No. 
 
 3. Her own beauty, goodness, and manifold dear 
 
 offices ? No. 
 
 4. Her own love of me ? No ! not even that. 
 
 5. The love of Jesus for her. Yes that, precisely 
 
 that, only that. 
 
 6. Alas ! it is not enough ; for we have more grounds 
 
 for loving her than Jesus had : but we must be 
 content with this measure. 
 
 IV. But I said to myself, it is impossible. Impossible ! 
 
 what does impossible mean ? Does grace know 
 of any such word? Impossible! Then I said, 
 I will spend my life, and oh what a happy life 
 it will be, in trying to accomplish this dear 
 impossibility !
 
 286 PART III. 
 
 VI. 
 MARY MAGNIFYING GOD. 
 
 Is heaven far off, or near ? We do not know : its 
 songs are not heard, unless it be by the dying, or by 
 saints as they are rapt in ecstacy. But then the soul's 
 ear can hear far off. Still upon the whole we incline 
 to think that heaven is near. 
 
 I. What is Heaven ? It is the beautifulness of the 
 outspread God. 
 
 1. What angels think of this, and our own dear 
 
 dead ; it is all in all to them. 
 
 2. Our want of appreciation intellectually, and the 
 
 unmovedness of our affections. 
 
 3. God is to us one of many things ; hence our 
 
 intolerably low views of God. 
 
 4. Yet how stupid any low views of God must be : 
 
 our own vexation with ourselves. 
 
 5. To raise ourselves higher in this matter should 
 
 be the one end of life. 
 II. Loving contemplation of Mary is the way to learn 
 
 better adoration of God. 
 
 Blessed art thou by thy God in every tabernacle of 
 Jacob : for in every nation which shall hear thy name, 
 the God of Israel shall be magnified on occasion of 
 thee.* 
 
 1. This is her office. My soul doth magnify the 
 
 Lord. 
 
 2. She is the highest person in all God's creation, 
 
 and nearest to the Divine Three. 
 
 * Judith xiii. 31.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 287 
 
 3. God has most incredibly communicated to her 
 
 the splendors of His Perfections. 
 
 4. She has led the most wonderful life, and fulfils 
 
 the most wonderful office, among creatures. 
 
 5. She has been more mixed up with God than all 
 
 creation besides. 
 III. What she has been and is to God. 
 
 1. In His Eternity before Creation. 
 
 (1) Of all created persons, dearest and first. 
 
 (2) His unutterable immense complacence in her, 
 
 and endless desire of her. 
 
 (3) He designed her as seemingly necessary to 
 
 Him in creation, as the Mother of the Word. 
 
 2. In the Kingdom of Nature. 
 
 (1) Her perfections as a person the greatest in 
 
 all creation. 
 
 (2) Creation created subordinately to Jesus and 
 
 herself. 
 
 (3) The natural gifts of her body and her soul. 
 
 3. In the Kingdom of Grace. 
 
 (1) The highest sanctity of created persons is 
 
 hers. 
 
 (2) The Divine Maternity. 
 
 (3) The Queenship of the Church on earth. 
 
 4. In the Kingdom of Glory. 
 
 (1) Her incomparable throne and exaltation. 
 
 (2) The Queenship of the angels. 
 
 (3) She beautifies even the unspeakable life of 
 
 God by her exceeding glorious loveliness. 
 
 Oh Majesty of God, most dear, most mysterious, 
 
 and yet so infinitely desirable ! How shall we learn 
 
 it more worthily, and worship it with more delighted 
 
 awe, than by the contemplation of Mary ? It will
 
 288 PART IIL 
 
 be well for us in time and in eternity to spend this 
 month in intensest efforts to worship Mary with a 
 more noble, more tender, more reverent worship. It 
 is a matter in which there can be no excess; we 
 cannot do too much : our most must be sorrowfully 
 too little. God will leave us far behind in His love 
 and admiration and complacency in her. Oh then, 
 my brethren, let us worship the grand mother of God 
 with every faculty of our minds : let us worship her 
 with every affection of our hearts : let us worship her 
 with a magnificent worship and so shall there grow 
 in our hearts the grand, broad, invigorating, exclusive, 
 exulting, impassioned love of God ! 
 
 VII. 
 MARY THE LIKENESS OF GOD. 
 
 How it would sweeten death, if when we came to 
 die, we could feel that God had allowed us to increase 
 in one single heart the love of our dearest Lady. I 
 believe it would be a special joy for all eternity. Let 
 us try now again to-day to inflame each other's hearts 
 with this sweet love. 
 I. Astonishment is one of the cKief joys of heaven. 
 
 1. Caused by the immense incomprehensible beauty 
 
 of God ; 
 
 2. And also by the inconceivable jubilee of all there. 
 
 3. Always new, always as it were increasing. 
 
 4. In saints on earth touches and glimpses of heaven 
 
 bring ecstacy and rapture ; but this is because
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 289 
 
 of their mortal weakness: it is not so in 
 heaven. 
 
 5. The exquisite joy of astonishment, in mind, in 
 heart, in glorified senses. 
 
 II. The likeness of God. 
 
 1. It is difficult for us on earth to conceive what it 
 
 is to have God all in all. 
 
 2. He is so completely the one Object that all 
 
 blessedness tends to become more and more one 
 with Him, with an amazing oneness which will 
 not be put into words. 
 
 3. Our joy is that we remain separate selves, yet 
 
 one with Him, and so can feel and enjoy our 
 unity with Him. 
 
 4. This union with Him is by becoming transformed 
 
 into His likeness. 
 
 5. All beauty therefore in creatures, and all joy, is 
 
 in their likeness to God. 
 
 III. All creation is the likeness of God. 
 
 1. Inanimate nature in beauty of form proper- 
 
 ties, &c. 
 
 2. Animalcules in life fecundity beauty 
 
 strangeness. 
 
 3. Men like God. 
 
 4. Angels like God. 
 
 5. But Mary most of all. 
 
 (1) Like the Father in being the Mother of the 
 
 Son, truly and naturally. What unimagin- 
 able likenesses to that dear and Blessed 
 First Person does not this suggest ? 
 
 (2) Like the Son. 
 
 1. In form and features, and human disposi- 
 tion. 
 Vol. I. T
 
 290 PART III. 
 
 2. In the character of her Immaculate Heart. 
 
 3. In mortal sufferings. 
 (3) Like the Holy Ghost. 
 
 1. In being His Spouse. 
 
 2. In her love of Jesus. 
 
 3. Through the action of her repeated sauctifi- 
 
 tions. 
 
 There are cold, shallow controversies on earth about 
 our Lady's greatness, while at this hour the great St. 
 Michael is gazing on her throne with a rapture of 
 astonishment, a delighted rapture which will grow to 
 all eternity ! 
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE DELIGHT OF GOD IN THE PER- 
 FECTIONS OF MARY* 
 
 There has been only one thing from eternity there 
 is only one thing now there will never to all eternity 
 be but one thing the glory of God. 
 I. The Glory of God. 
 
 1. What it is, and His delight in it. 
 
 2. Its universal empire, and our own concern 
 
 with it. 
 
 3. The glorious sovereignty of God. 
 
 4. The glorious sweetness of God. 
 
 5. The glorious exclusiveness of God. 
 
 II. Mary an immense glory of God ; and God's delight. 
 1. In her Predestination. 
 
 * Octave of the Immaculate Conception, 1859.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 291 
 
 2. In her Office as Mother of God. 
 
 3. In her Graces. 
 
 4. In her Prerogatives. 
 
 5. In the work she does in creation. 
 III. The reasons of His delight. 
 
 1 . Because He sees Himself reflected in her. 
 
 2. Because He is enabled for her sake to love His 
 
 creation more. 
 
 3. Because through her a greater number of souls 
 
 are saved. 
 
 4. Because all in her is His own gift. 
 
 5. Because the distance from her to Himself is simply 
 
 infinite. 
 
 This night in heaven : Mary is on her throne, 
 clothed with the sun, twelve stars around her head, 
 sighs of earth coming up to her, and the joys of earth 
 as well. Baptized children, saints, angels, the Sacred 
 Humanity, the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, are 
 all drinking joy and jubilee out of that one fountain, 
 that dearest of all God's dear glories, the Immaculate 
 Heart of Mary. 
 
 We too have, we trust, a place kept there, in what 
 part of all that boundless realm of grandeur and ecstasy 
 we cannot know, but it is very beautiful, strangely 
 suited to us, and full of unimaginable delights. Though 
 it is a land of immense distances every one is near to 
 God, every one is near to Mary. Let us think of that 
 dear unseen home, and let us hold on in virtue ; let 
 us pray hard ; let us love hotly ; let us sorrow holily ; 
 let us delight in God ; and so, dearest children of Mary, 
 shall our whole lives become one long and beautiful 
 Procession of the Immaculate Conception !
 
 292 PART III. 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, 
 i. 
 
 THE MOTHER AND THE SON. 
 
 The history of the Predestination of Jesus and Mary 
 hence their unity and inseparability. The Immac- 
 ulate Conception is a mystery belonging to both, and 
 the first mystery of both. 
 
 I. The peculiar force and majesty of the mystery of 
 the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 1. It is the first dawn of the world's redemption. 
 
 2. The fountain of all the other mysteries of Jesus 
 
 and Mary, and of the seven sacraments, and of 
 the Church. 
 
 3. It interprets as nothing else does the character 
 
 of God, and illuminates His eternal decrees. 
 
 4. It illustrates and unriddles the wonderfulness of 
 
 creation. 
 
 5. It beautifies the Church, her doctrines, and her 
 
 ceremonial, and crowns the desires of holy hearts 
 through many generations. 
 
 II. Chiefly, it is the primary revelation of Mary's simil- 
 itude to Jesus-. Points of likeness. 
 
 1. She was exempt from original sin, which none ever 
 
 were before in their conception. 
 
 2. The gift of actual sinlessness. 
 
 3. She could not be tempted inwardly the devil had 
 
 no such power because of her innocence. 
 
 4. Her'hiddenness and marvellous infancy.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 293 
 
 5. A prodigy of suffering, yet not for her own sake. 
 
 6. The resurrection of her body. 
 
 7. Her Assumption answers to His Ascension. 
 
 8. She is treated in the world now as the Blessed 
 
 Sacrament is, unknown, unrealized, shorn of 
 glory. 
 
 9. Her interior possessing the spirit of Jesus in 
 
 unknown measure, far beyond her outward 
 resemblance. 
 
 10. Her share in the victories the saints have won 
 
 before and after Christ. 
 
 11. In her degree she is the light of the Church 
 
 He the Sun, she the Moon. 
 
 12. As God communicates Himself through Jesus, so 
 
 Jesus communicates His gifts through her. 
 
 13. Her Queendom, like His Headship, is over angels 
 
 as well as men. 
 
 14. The similarity of her features to His how won- 
 
 derful this resemblance must be to the angels, 
 who know God, and gaze on Him Incarnate, a 
 living copy of His creature. 
 
 III. It was the grand work of the Most Holy Trinity 
 in power, in wisdom, and in joy ; and so love 
 of Mary is, as it were, the signet of the Most 
 Holy Trinity set upon our souls. 
 
 1. Love of Mary a power with God, with her, with 
 
 others, over devils, and over self. 
 
 2. Love of Mary a wisdom beyond art and science, 
 
 literature and philosophy, giving a knowledge 
 of God, grace, sin, creation, Jesus, eternal and 
 invisible things. 
 
 3. Love of Mary a joy not temporal, but eternal, 
 
 and so a shadow of our predestination.
 
 294 PART III. 
 
 To know Mary is to love her. How we should bless 
 God for this enchanting knowledge ! The ills of life 
 are many, achings of body, pangs of heart, remorse of 
 conscience, peril of salvation, yet it is worth while to 
 have risked all this, and a thousand times more than 
 this, to have gazed on her sweet life, lisped in prayer 
 her most beautiful of names, to have known her, to 
 have loved her, and to be her child ; yes, to be as Jesus 
 was, the spotless Mother's Child. 
 
 2. 
 
 THE MOTHER AND HER MANY SONS. 
 
 I. The beauty of Mary is shown by the fact that the 
 Word elected her out of His infinite ideals. 
 She was His mother by choice : she is ours by 
 the appointment of her Son, who shares her 
 with us. 
 
 1. She was no choice of ours, but the merciful 
 
 ordinance of God; just as He made the privi- 
 lege of our loving Him into a precept. 
 
 2. We cannot do without her, as the Gospel now 
 
 stands. 
 
 3. She was given to us from the Cross, to Him 
 
 at Nazareth : to both of us in the Immaculate 
 
 Conception. 
 2. She has been the ruling power of all the good of 
 
 our past lives. 
 5. That she is our Mother is the great fact of 
 
 our lives: eke we are not of our Brother's 
 
 family.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS, 295 
 
 II. The Immaculate Conception as it regards us is a 
 mystery of grace. 
 
 1. It is the second greatest mercy human nature could 
 
 have ; the Hypostatic Union being the first. 
 
 2. It is the diadem of graces overtopping all that 
 
 angels and men have ever received. 
 
 3. A grace more for the glory of God and the honor 
 
 of Jesus than any other. 
 
 4. A source of perpetual joy in heaven, and bound- 
 
 less confidence on earth. 
 
 The five graces involved in the Immaculate Concep- 
 tion. (1) Immunity from all venial sins collectively ; 
 (2) Extinction of fomes ; (3) Ceaseless light of grace ; 
 (4) Endless love of God in act. 
 
 I know not whether very great saints or very great 
 sinners should most love this mystery : extremes meet : 
 it truly can be no devotion of the commonplace or 
 lukewarm. 
 
 III. The exercise of our Lady's Maternal office shadows 
 forth the Holy Trinity. 
 
 1. Her immense participation in the power of the 
 
 Father, the wisdom of the Son, and the love of 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 2. It is carried on even when we neglect or offend 
 
 her. 
 
 3. Capable of almost numberless degrees, as grace 
 
 itself is. 
 
 4. Desirous of being more and more exactingly called 
 
 on, just as God loves prayer. 
 
 5. On the whole her maternal solicitude is propor- 
 
 tioned to our devotion, just as God is gentle with 
 the gentle, liberal with the liberal, and perverse 
 with the perverse.
 
 296 PART ni. 
 
 More confidence ! Ask more ! Ask greater things ! 
 It is no dream: the hour is to come when we shall 
 see her. We shall hear her voice and be delighted 
 by her beauty, and kiss those hands which have sent 
 us so many graces ; and then, and not till then, shall 
 we know to the full the abounding joy and exultation 
 with which all heaven and its angels are overflowing 
 because the Queen of paradise, the dear Empress of 
 angels and of men, your Mother and mine, Avas through 
 the omnipotence of unutterable love, conceived without 
 stain of sin ! 
 
 3. 
 
 THE MOTHER OF THE IMMACULATE QUEEN. 
 
 God vouchsafes to make preparations for His great 
 works, as men do, and for our sake : they are full of 
 beauty, wisdom, and winningness. Thus predestination 
 preluded creation. 
 I. Preparations for the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 1. On earth. 
 
 (1) The yearnings of Eve and of all generations 
 
 for the Mother of the Deliverer. 
 
 (2) The burden of this desire upon the hearts of 
 
 the good and holy. 
 
 (3) The weary sighs and tears of the patriarchs 
 
 and prophets. Elias and Carmel. 
 
 (4) The needs of the sin-desolated world coming 
 
 to a head. 
 
 (5) The tremulous supernatural expectation dif- 
 
 fused over the earth. 
 
 2. In Heaven.
 
 OUE BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 297 
 
 (1) Her predestination. 
 
 (2) Her not being included in the decree which 
 
 regarded sin. 
 
 (3) The Divine Persons concur in electing her to 
 
 be the Mother of the Incarnate Word. 
 
 (4) The Eternal Son in His wisdom conceives the 
 
 idea of her glorious soul. 
 
 (5) The angels behold the idea of their Queen 
 
 in Him. Where their sanctity ends, hers 
 begins. 
 II. The theatre of the actual mystery. 
 
 1. Again God chooses, as He chose Mary ; His choice 
 
 must be a great saint, full of the peculiar spirit 
 of Jesus. 
 
 2. She must be an image of the suffering and abase- 
 
 ment of Jesus and Mary. 
 
 3. St. Anne her life, and that of St. Joachim. 
 
 4. The mystery accomplished : announced by an- 
 
 gels, hidden like Incarnation, the crown of 
 humility. 
 
 5. From that moment St. Anne was the queen of 
 
 earth ; God's gifts to her, retinue of angels, 
 inward holiness and joy. 
 
 6. St. Anne begins the devotion to the Immaculate 
 
 Conception, which the Church now grounds upon 
 an article of faith. 
 III. The mysteries of St. Anne. 
 
 1. To her God's beautiful eternal secret is con- 
 
 fided. 
 
 2. Her joy in Mary's infancy, and her wonder at her 
 
 childish actions. 
 
 3. Her heroic sacrifice of her in the temple, like 
 
 Mary's at the Presentation.
 
 298 PART III. 
 
 4. Her death she receives from the Soul of Jesus 
 
 the beatific vision she is with Mary during the 
 forty days ascends with Jesus. 
 
 5. Her joy at Mary's Assumption and Coronation. 
 IV. The prerogatives of St. Anne. 
 
 1. Prerogatives of the saints of the Hypostatic 
 
 Union. 
 
 2. Power with Joseph, as Mary's husband. 
 
 3. Power with Mary, as her mother, like Mary's power 
 
 with Jesus. 
 
 4. Power with Jesus, because of the Immaculate 
 
 Conception. 
 
 5. Power with the angels, as a sort of queen-mother. 
 
 6. Power with the apostles, on the same ground. 
 
 7. Power with the Holy Trinity, as the elect vessel 
 
 and theatre of their greatest grace. 
 Let all who have a devotion to the Immaculate 
 Conception put themselves in a special way under 
 St. Anne. It was St. Anne, who opened in the secret 
 solemnities of that ever-blessed mystery the everlasting 
 jubilee of Jesus, and it was within her womb that God 
 granted the first and the completest plenary indulgence 
 in the world ! 
 
 4. 
 
 THE IMMACULATE QUEEN. 
 
 I. Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 1. We have to speak of the Mother in the Presence 
 
 of the Son. 
 
 2. He is present as God, with a peculiar presence of 
 
 the Most Holy Trinity.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 299 
 
 3. As man. (1) Prophet of the world. (2) Priest. 
 
 (3) King. (4) Owner of all temporal things. 
 (5) Judge. 
 
 4. To Mary He is in addition (1) Her God. 
 
 (2) Her Creator. (3) Her Redeemer. (4) Her 
 Son. 
 
 5. He is come, we have dared to bring Him to 
 
 keep the feast, just as we call her to come 
 and worship Him for us in the Litany at 
 Benediction. 
 
 II. The three kingdoms of Jesus the King: Mary's 
 place in them all. 
 
 1. Nature. 
 
 (1) Below the angels. 1. Joy of this to us. 
 
 2. Her gifts greater than theirs. 3. Her 
 exaltation greater. 
 
 (2) The same as that of saints, and sinners. 
 
 (3) The same as the nature, by which Jesus is 
 
 Blessed Sacrament, prophet, priest, king and 
 judge. 
 
 (4) Both the spiritual and material world were 
 
 created because of Jesus and herself. 
 
 2. Grace. 
 
 (1) All creation, angelic and human, resulted in 
 
 a state of grace. 
 
 (2) Grace in baptism, of release from original sin. 
 
 (3) Preservation from actual mortal sin. 
 
 (4) Exemption from venial sin. 
 
 (5) Sanctifying in the womb. 
 
 (6) Solitary grace of Immaculate Conception. 
 
 1. From decree 2. From momentary touch 
 3. From root of sin 4. Highest act of 
 redeeming grace 5. So she needed redemp-
 
 300 PART III. 
 
 tion most, and Jesus was more truly and 
 highly a glorious Redeemer by this mystery 
 than by the redemption of all the world 
 beside. 
 3. Glory. 
 
 (1) Baptized infants. 
 
 (2) Multitudes of unplaced saints. 
 
 (3) Angels. 
 
 (4) Hierarchy of the Incarnation. 
 
 (5) Herself. 
 
 (6) The Sacred Humanity, THEN the blaze of the 
 
 Unspeakable and Incomprehensible glory. 
 III. Her great unlikeness to Jesus was her growth 
 in grace. Hence her growth in the Church. 
 Scripture authority. 
 
 1. Growth in heaven. 
 
 (1) Empty throne filled. (2) Accumulated inter- 
 cession. (3) Love of the angels. (4) Mul- 
 titude of the daily saved. 
 
 2. Growth on earth. 
 
 (1) By doctrines. (2) By feasts. (3) By reli- 
 gious orders. (4) By saints. (5) By coun- 
 cils. (6) By popes. (7.) By devout people. 
 
 3. Growth in our hearts. 
 
 (1) Love. (2) Faith. (3) Reverence. (4) 
 Confidence. (5) Thanksgiving to the Most 
 Holy Trinity. 
 
 Oh how the spirit of the coming Christmas leaps 
 forward into our hearts to teach us to keep this feast. 
 Angels rejoice and triumph! Oh men, rejoice and 
 ble.-s the abundance of redeeming grace. To-day a 
 Queen is created for you of the House of David, good 
 tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people a
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 301 
 
 Mother is given to us, and the government is on her 
 shoulder, and her name shall be called Wonderful, 
 Counsellor, the most high Lady, the Mother of the 
 Lord to come, the Princess of Peace. Her empire 
 shall be multiplied, of her peace there shall be no end. 
 Blessed be the Most High God, above all things blessed 
 for the Immaculate Soul of Mary which He this day 
 so gloriously created, and in the same moment so 
 gloriously redeemed. 
 
 Oh Blessed Sacrament, my Lord and my God, ray 
 Saviour and my Judge, true Man and Son of Mary, I 
 a sinner have dared to speak of Thy sinless Mother; 
 forgive me and be indulgent to me for every word 
 which has fallen short of her immense dignity and 
 incomparable majesty, and for the sake of her Immac- 
 ulate Conception grant to every soul here to-night the 
 grace to love Thy Mother according to Thy command- 
 ment, and after the measure of Thy Sacred Heart, so 
 that not one among us shall be lost ! 
 
 X. 
 
 PRAYING FOR SINNERS. 
 
 The world has a great many wants, and good Chris- 
 tians have a great many wants also ; but it so happens 
 that the world's great want is the same as a good Chris- 
 tian's great want a right appreciation of spiritual 
 things. This want is the source of all mischief. 
 I. One of the spiritual things in question is the favor 
 of Mary.
 
 302 PART III. 
 
 1. Intellectually what is there you would not sac- 
 
 rifice for it. 
 
 2. Except the grace and love of God, what can come 
 
 near it ? 
 
 3. Yet we do not appreciate it as we ought. 
 
 4. And this from want of faith in her power, and 
 
 want of experience of her goodness. 
 
 5. This month we are going to offer devotions to her, 
 
 and likely to secure her favor: and to-day I 
 will speak of praying for those who are in sin. 
 
 II. The world of sinners. 
 
 1. The dreadfulness of their state in the sight of the 
 
 angels. 
 
 2. Their multitude, and daily increase. 
 
 3. Their secrecy such unlikely persons. 
 
 4. The grace they have resisted. 
 
 5. Their immense power against God. 
 Yet on the other side 
 
 1. The good and sweetness there is amongst them. 
 
 2. How much also to pity, and often to extenuate. 
 
 3. How much struggle also, although inefficacious. 
 
 4. What immense capabilities many of them have 
 
 for glorifying God. 
 
 5. How much work one real conversion does, and 
 
 how many miracles it involves. 
 
 III. This is Mary's world. 
 
 1. It is given over to her in a special and official 
 
 manner. 
 
 2. She knows how Jesus yearns over it. 
 
 3. Hence those have almost a claim upon her mercy, 
 
 who are so sadly in need of it. 
 
 4. How much love of her there is even in that dark 
 
 multitude.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINT& 303 
 
 5. Yet iu a great measure she has to work through 
 us: just as God vouchsafes to depend on us 
 Himself. 
 IV. The devotion of praying for sinners. 
 
 1 . Almost the favorite devotion of the saints. 
 
 2. How it cultivates union with Jesus, and fosters 
 
 love of Mary. 
 
 3. Praying for particular sinners, or classes of 
 
 sinners, or places. 
 
 4. Praying, as in the case of the Holy Souls, for 
 
 those God wills, and leaving all to Him. 
 
 Might I speak of the shape of this devotion, which 
 is sweetest to myself? Pool of Bethsaida * the man 
 who was there for thirty-eight years so let us pray 
 for the soul which is close to conversion, has been 
 waiting longest, and has none near to put him in. I 
 do not think it would be out of the way to expect to 
 convert one soul a day, and give it to Mary to offer. 
 We should not see our work it might be by the burning 
 rivers of Africa, or on the icy shores near the Pole, or 
 in the great city, or in the quiet country it might be 
 one of our own kith and kin, or a stranger and a 
 foreigner it might be a king or a laborer, a child at 
 school who has just committed his first mortal sin, or 
 an old man in his agony with thousands of them. But 
 these would be among the delightful secrets which we 
 should learn in heaven, and perhaps from Mary's lips. 
 
 We should know that we were working for God 
 we should be sure we were working with success it 
 would almost be sweeter because it is all in the dark, 
 in that darkness of faith which will one day change so 
 sweetly into light. 
 
 * St. John v.
 
 304 PAET III. 
 
 XL 
 THE ASSUMPTION. 
 
 To-day is the feast of the beautiful mystery the 
 first function of the Church triumphant in heaven, the 
 end for which God created the world coming into view ; 
 let us see in what light it puts the character of God 
 before us. 
 
 I. Humility. The Assumption is God's coming to 
 crown His own creation. 
 
 1. It is the proper virtue of a creature. 
 
 2. It was so of the angels, and saved them. 
 
 3. It is so of the Church, and is marked in all her 
 
 worship. 
 
 4. The want of humility in the world is just the 
 
 evidence of its having fallen from God. 
 
 II. God cannot be humble ; yet there is a characteristic 
 
 of the Divine operations answering to that 
 virtue : we cannot name it ; it is shewn 
 
 1. In the unostentatiousness of creation. 
 
 2. In the renewal and conservation of creation. 
 
 3. In His omnipresence. 
 
 4. In the delay of judgment, and in silence under 
 
 outrage. 
 
 5. In his quiet hidden way of imparting grace. 
 
 III. God came to practise humility by the Incarnation. 
 
 1. In His choice of poverty and suffering. 
 
 2. In what followed from the Incarnation the 
 
 obedience of the Omnipotent, the poverty of the 
 Lord of All, the hiddenness of the Omnipresent, 
 the toil of the Creator. 
 
 3. In the Blessed Sacrament daily.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 305 
 
 4. In the humiliations of His dear Spouse the 
 
 Church. 
 IV. Mary the humblest of creatures. 
 
 1. With the angel. 2. With St. Elizabeth. 3. With 
 St. Joseph. 4. Her purification and obedience 
 to other laws. 5. The silence of the Evange- 
 lists. 
 
 Thus the Assumption was a consistent manifestation 
 of the Creator's character, a revelation of His taste, a 
 merciful disclosure of His genius. 
 
 Oh let us fall in love with sweet humility, let us keep 
 ourselves low, and nestle in the thought of our own 
 unworthiness ; let us wonder God should bear with us 
 at all, and so learn sweet manners to bear with the way- 
 wardness of others, and this night from the depths of 
 the fallen earth let us look at this grand action of our 
 Creator, and worshipping His ways, use our mother's 
 words unto Him: Magnificat anima mea Dominum, et 
 exultavit spirUus meus in Deo salutari meo : and why ? 
 Quia respexit humilitatem andllce suce. Deposuit potentes 
 de sede et exaltavit humiles : He cast Lucifer from his 
 throne, and set Mary nigh unto Himself. 
 
 XII. 
 THE ASSUMPTION. 
 
 World-wearied, sin-stained, earth-bound ! What have 
 we to do with this great glory ? Yet it has lessons for 
 all, besides the wonder and the beauty and the joy of 
 our mother's glory, and the vision of a mighty work of 
 God. 
 
 Vol. I. U
 
 306 PART III. 
 
 I. How great nature can be with grace. 
 
 1. She has not outstepped or outstripped her nature. 
 
 2. It would be hard to put a limit to what nature 
 
 can be. 
 
 3. Yet we are always fancying we have got to our 
 
 own limit. 
 
 II. How little without grace. 
 
 1. For what is Mary's nature in itself? 
 
 2. What has she from nature independent of grace ? 
 
 3. Her nature is only visible in the fires of grace as 
 
 the three children were in the furnace. 
 
 III. The abundance of grace. 
 
 1. See what she had in number and in kind. 
 
 2. Yet she has not nearly exhausted the possibilities 
 
 of grace. 
 
 3. Nay, what abundance have we not had ourselves? 
 
 IV. Correspondence to grace is of itself the whole work. 
 
 1. Her correspondence is the nearest interpretation 
 
 of the mystery of her greatness. 
 
 2. What correspondence is in detail, and how it mul- 
 
 tiplies grace. 
 
 3. Oh, the room our graces leave us, and our lost 
 
 opportunities. 
 
 Mary is the manifestation of the kingdom of grace, 
 and the type of God's way with all our souls ; singular, 
 yet not singular ; admirable, yet imitable also ; standing 
 alone, yet in the midst of us ; moved up to God as His 
 sinless Mother, yet removed from us no further than a 
 mother from her children !
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 307 
 
 XIII. 
 ROSARY SUNDAY. 
 
 I. The position which the Rosary occupies in the 
 
 Church. 
 
 1. It is not a special devotion, but unites all 
 
 devotions. 
 
 2. It distinguishes no order, but all orders. 
 
 3. It is to the laity almost what office is to the clergy. 
 
 4. A true Catholic mind can hardly now be formed 
 
 without it. 
 
 5. It is distinguished above all other devotions by 
 
 the approbations of the Church. 
 
 II. The Rosary viewed as an instrument of power in 
 
 itself. 
 
 1. Its peculiar power on earth in forming character. 
 
 so that it is a Catholic touchstone. 
 
 2. Its influence in heaven shewn from its being 
 
 revealed. 
 
 2. Its influence in Purgatory from the immensity of 
 its indulgences. 
 
 4. As a profession of faith also. 
 
 5. As a shield against many temptations. 
 
 III. It is also an instrument of power as a teacher. 
 
 1. It illustrates the position of our Lady to our 
 
 Lord, and is another way of looking at their 
 Mysteries. 
 
 2. It teaches also how she is a way to Him. 
 
 3. Also it is what she did all her life herself: she 
 
 rose to great heights by incessant meditation of 
 Jesus.
 
 308 PART III. 
 
 4. Therefore it shows us what she wishes us to do ; 
 
 it is her testament, as the Holy Eucharist is 
 the testament of Jesus. 
 
 5. Hence it is the truest means of loving her ; for 
 
 love consists, (1) in obedience ; and (2) in 
 
 imitation. 
 
 In consequence of all these blessings the devil makes 
 the Rosary a special subject of temptations, weariness, 
 contempt, and the like. Persevere in it, and it will 
 itself be the chain of your own final perseverance. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE LETTER KILLETH, BUT THE SPIRIT 
 GIVETH LIFE* 
 
 People who aim at doing their duty, are divisionable 
 into two classes, (1) they who follow the letter, and 
 (2) they who take the spirit. 
 
 I. Our Blessed Lady an exemplification of the spirit, 
 not the letter. 
 
 1. She got from the Scriptures a true notion of the 
 
 Messias and His kingdom. 
 
 2. Her conduct to St. Joseph, secrecy, marriage, &c. 
 
 3. With our Lord, especially in the marriage at 
 
 Cana. 
 
 4. Her receiving St. John, and us with him. 
 
 5. Thus the letter of our Lord's words hurt her not. 
 II. Conduct of those who take the spirii> with re- 
 gard to 
 
 * Preached to the Enfants de Marie at Roehampton.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 309 
 
 1. Genius, and spirit, and movement of the Church, 
 
 as well as her doctrines. 
 
 2. Way of holding doctrines. 
 
 3. View of the spiritual life. 
 
 4. Promptness of obedience. 
 
 5. Intercourse with the world. 
 
 6. Supernatural tendency. 
 
 7. The Child of Mary ever divining the high and 
 
 right path. 
 
 III. What happens to the mere disciples of the letter. 
 They 
 
 1. Often miss real duty, and get gradually entangled 
 
 in a positively wrong course of conduct. 
 
 2. Do no great works for God or the Church. 
 
 3. Are less winning and attractive. 
 
 The power of high principle and noble purpose and 
 lofty aim, wherein lies the sphere and mission of the 
 Enfants de Marie. 
 
 XV. 
 
 MEMORIALS OF MARY AND HER SIXTY- 
 THREE YEARS. 
 
 1. Her eternal predestination. 
 
 2. Her Immaculate Conception. 
 
 3. Her first use of reason. 
 
 4. Her first act of Divine love. 
 
 5. Her pure nativity. 
 
 6. Her obedience to SS. Joachim and Anne. 
 
 7. Her receiving her beautiful name.
 
 310 PART III. 
 
 8. Her presentation in the temple when three years 
 
 old. 
 
 9. Her holy sojourn and retreat there. 
 
 10. Her preservation from all actual sin. 
 
 11. Her pure nuptials. 
 
 12. The Annunciation. 
 
 13. Her humble answer to St. Gabriel. 
 
 14. The Incarnation. 
 
 15. The perplexity of St. Joseph. 
 
 16. The visitation and sanctifi cation of St. John the 
 
 Baptist. 
 
 17. Her innocence declared by the angel and hon- 
 
 ored by St. Joseph. 
 
 18. Her expectation of her delivery. 
 
 19. The rebuff from the people of Bethlehem. 
 
 20. The entry into the stable. 
 
 21. Her ecstatic contemplation of the Incarnation. 
 
 22. The birth of her Jesus. 
 
 23. The joy of her first services to Him. 
 
 24. Her first suckling of Him. 
 
 25. The devotion of the shepherds. 
 
 26. The adoration of the Kings. 
 
 27. The circumcision and naming of Jesus. 
 
 28. Her purification, and presentation of Jesus. 
 
 29. The joy of Simeon and his prophecies. 
 
 30. The flight into Egypt. 
 
 31. The return to Nazareth. 
 
 32. The loss of Jesus for three days. 
 
 33. The finding Him in the temple. 
 
 34. Her maternal authority over Him at Nazareth. 
 
 35. Her sorrow at the death of St. Joseph and St. Anne. 
 
 36. Her joy in following Jesus and hearing His 
 
 sermons.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 311 
 
 37. Her success in obtaining the first miracle at Cana. 
 
 38. Her farewell to Jesus when He went to His 
 
 Passion. 
 
 39. Her meeting Him on the road to Calvary. 
 
 40. The nailing to the cross and the elevation of it 
 
 in her presence. 
 
 41. Her receiving St. John as her legacy. 
 
 42. The death of Jesus. 
 
 43. The piercing of His side. 
 
 44. The descent from the cross. 
 
 45. Her receiving His body on her lap. 
 
 46. Her helping to bury Him. 
 
 47. Her tears during Saturday's solitude. 
 
 48. Her first visit from Jesus risen. 
 
 49. Her witnessing the Ascension. 
 
 50. Her receiving the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. 
 
 51. Her first Communion from the hands of St. John 
 
 52. Her solicitude for the infant Church.] 
 
 53. Her desire for death. 
 
 54. Her dying of love. 
 
 55. Her burial by the Apostles. 
 
 56. The resurrection of her body. 
 
 57. Her rising through the air. 
 
 58. Her entry into Heaven. 
 
 59. Her reception by the Eternal Father. 
 
 60. Her Coronation. 
 
 61. Her sweet empire over the Angels. 
 
 62. Her diligent love of the Souls in Purgatory. 
 
 63. Her protection of us poor sinners upon earth.
 
 312 PART IIL 
 
 XVI. 
 THE JOYS OF OUR DEAR LADY. 
 
 I. Her seven earthly Joys. 
 
 1. The Annunciation. 
 
 2. The Nativity. 
 
 3. The adoration of the Three Kings. 
 
 4. The Resurrection. 
 
 5. The Ascension. 
 
 6. The coming of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 7. The Assumption. 
 
 II. Her Seven heavenly joys, revealed by her to St 
 Thomas of Canterbury. 
 
 1. Her exaltation above the Angels. 
 
 2. Her seat at the right hand of Jesus. 
 
 3. The obedience of the Blessed to her. 
 
 4. Her being the new Ornament of Paradise. 
 
 5. Her conformity to the Will of God. 
 
 6. Her being the channel of all grace. 
 
 7. The increase of her joys up to the day of Judg- 
 
 ment, and their eternity.
 
 part 
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 
 
 ^ SECTION II. 
 
 THE SAINTS. 
 
 813
 
 I 
 
 MEDITATIONS ON THE HOLY ANGELS. 
 
 I. The silence of God before the creation of the Holy 
 Angels. 
 
 1. His infinite happiness without creatures. 
 
 2. His independence of all relation to them. 
 
 3. The immensity and variety of possible worlds and 
 
 creatures. 
 II. The Creation. 
 
 1. God's choice of this world out of all possible 
 
 worlds. 
 
 2. The utter dependence of creatures on Him. 
 
 3. The eternal silence broken by the beautiful crea- 
 
 tion of Angels. 
 
 III. The existence of the Angels. 
 
 1. Spiritual substances possible. 
 
 2. Suitable for God's glory and the good of the 
 
 world. 
 
 3. Belief of all ages in the existence of Angels. 
 
 IV. The spirituality of the Angels. 
 
 1. The substance of the Angels the most subtle in 
 
 the world. 
 
 2. They are more spiritual than the soul of man. 
 
 3. Yet gross, and as it were material, compared with 
 
 God. 
 
 315
 
 316 PART III. 
 
 V. The great number of the Angels. 
 
 1. The ninth choir contains, according to a common 
 
 opinion, as many guardians as there are, have 
 been, or will be souls of men. 
 
 2. Eight choirs remain unnumbered. 
 
 3. The great glory of God from the multitude of His 
 
 courtiers. 
 
 VI. The distinction of the Angels. 
 
 1. They might have been all of one species. 
 
 2. Probably they are of twenty-seven species, three 
 
 in each choir. 
 
 3. Glory of the Creator in this distinction. 
 
 VII. The order of the Angels. 
 
 1. St. Paul, ravished to the third heaven, classes them 
 
 in three hierarchies. 
 
 2. These subdivided into three choirs. 
 
 3. The choirs into three ranks of different species. 
 
 VIII. The understanding of the Angels (1). 
 
 1. Their substance the most noble after that of God, 
 
 and so their understanding the most subtle. 
 
 2. Their knowledge of the secrets of nature. 
 
 3. Their knowledge of theology and the attributes of 
 
 God. 
 
 IX. The understanding of the' Angels (2). 
 
 1. They receive their ideas and images immediately 
 
 from God. 
 
 2. Their knowledge is intuitive. 
 
 3. Their understanding is always in action. 
 
 X. The things which the Angels do not know by their 
 
 natural science. 
 
 1. Things future. 
 
 2. The secrets of hearts. 
 
 3. The Incarnation and its mysteries.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 317 
 
 XI. The will of the Angels. 
 
 1. The freedom of it. 
 
 2. The marvellous power of it as regards God. 
 
 3. Their love of each other. 
 
 XII. The movement of the Angels. 
 
 1. The perfection of it. 
 
 2. They move all at once, as being indivisible 
 
 substances. 
 
 3. Their great power in moving other substances, 
 
 whether spiritual or material. 
 
 XIII. The time, place, and end of their creation. 
 
 1. The time when God said, let there be light, or 
 
 when He created the heavens. 
 
 2. The place in the heavens. 
 
 3. The end to adorn and beautify the heavens for 
 
 the greater glory of God. 
 
 XIV. The supernatural gifts received by the Angels" 
 at the moment of their creation. 
 
 1. Sanctifying grace, with faith, hope, charity, and 
 
 other infused virtues. 
 
 2. Revelations, as of the Most Holy Trinity, In- 
 
 carnation, guardianship of men, future events, 
 fires of hell, &c. 
 
 3. Actual grace to elicit supernatural acts and merit. 
 
 XV. The different orders of Angels. 
 
 1. They have received different graces and ex- 
 
 cellences. 
 
 2. They have each distinguishing and special virtues. 
 
 3. All other virtues are, however, included in the 
 
 case of each, in their own special eminence. 
 
 XVI. The first hierarchy. 
 
 1. The Seraphim, inflamed with love. 
 
 2. The Cherubim, glorious for supernatural science.
 
 318 PART III. 
 
 3. The Thrones, eminent for special submission to 
 the Divine Will. 
 
 XVII. The second hierarchy. 
 
 1. The Dominations, filled with zeal for the king- 
 
 dom of God. 
 
 2. The Virtues, replete with invincible force in the 
 
 service of God. 
 
 3. The Powers, possessed of marvellous benignity. 
 
 XVIII. The third hierarchy. 
 
 1. The Principalities, eminent for purity of in- 
 
 tention. 
 
 2. The Archangels, lovely for their peculiar parti- 
 
 cipation in the virtues both of their superiors 
 and inferiors. 
 
 3. The Angels, delightful to God from the humility 
 
 with which they govern the world. 
 
 XIX. The probation of the Angels. 
 
 1. The time of their temptation was very short. 
 
 2. Two-thirds persevered in their peculiar graces. 
 
 3. The battle in heaven. 
 
 XX. The sinning Angels. 
 
 1. There were some of all the orders. 
 
 2. Their sin was pride. 
 
 3. Especially, St. Thomas thinks, complacency in 
 
 their own exceeding beauty. 
 
 XXI. The judgment of the Angels. 
 
 1. They had a particular judgment, though they 
 
 will have to appear again at the general judg- 
 ment. 
 
 2. God gave those who had persevered a third 
 
 beatitude, in addition to their natural and super- 
 natural baauty; it consisted in the Beatific 
 Vision of Himself.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 319 
 
 3. The awfulness of His justice upon the evil Angels, 
 though He foresaw all their hatred of Him, and 
 the misery they would cause. 
 
 XXII. The principal pains of the fallen Angels. 
 
 1. The pain of loss. 
 
 2. The pain of sense, although they are spirits. 
 
 3. The knowledge that it is all irrevocable. 
 
 XXIII. The occupations of the fallen Angels against 
 
 the souls of men. 
 
 1. They tempt man, because they envy him and hate 
 
 God. 
 
 2. They cannot hurt man against his will by these 
 
 temptations. 
 
 3. The means of resisting evil angels are prayer, 
 
 humility, and the flight of occasions. 
 
 XXIV. The possession of men's bodies by the fallen 
 
 Angels. 
 
 1. It is through envy of man, and a blasphemous 
 
 desire of imitating the Incarnation. 
 
 2. This possession is subject to the exorcisms of the 
 
 Church, though, as it grows more infrequent, it 
 seems more difficult to cure. 
 
 3. The misery of possession far less than that of 
 
 wilful sin. 
 
 XXV. The language and light of Angels. 
 
 1. They speak to each other by their wills. 
 
 2. They ask light of those above them and commu- 
 
 nicate it to those below them. 
 
 3. The words of the superior Angels purify, enlighten, 
 
 and make perfect those below them. 
 
 XXVI. The commissions of the Angels in the world. 
 1. To move and rule the earth and heavenly 
 
 bodies.
 
 320 PART IIL 
 
 2. To undertake the protection of kingdoms and 
 
 empires. 
 
 3. To guard each particular soul. 
 
 XXVII. The Guardian Angels ; of what order they are. 
 
 1. Some say they are from the ninth choir only. 
 
 2. St. Thomas thinks that the angels of the first four 
 
 choirs never go from the presence of God ; and 
 that the Guardian Angels are from the other 
 five choirs. 
 
 3. Others, taking St. Paul* literally, think that some 
 
 of all the choirs are deputed to guard the souls 
 of men. 
 
 XXVIII. The Guardian Angels ; at what time they 
 
 guard us. 
 
 1. They begin as soon as the body is joined by the 
 
 soul in the womb. 
 
 2. They do so till death, and at the general judgment. 
 
 3. The Guardian Angel of Judas did not desert him 
 
 so long as breath was in him. 
 
 XXIX. The Guardian Angels ; how they guard us. 
 
 1. With most affectionate condescendance. 
 
 2. With inexpressible zeal. 
 
 3. With perpetual joy. 
 
 XXX. Comparison of men and Angels (1). 
 
 1. Men are inferior to the Angels in natural gifts. 
 
 2. The Angels are a simpler image of the Divine per- 
 
 fections. 
 
 3. Yet the souls of Jesus and Mary surpassed them 
 
 in dignity and grace. 
 
 XXXI. Comparison of men and Angels (2). They 
 
 are equal 
 
 1. In having God for their Creator. 
 *Heb. i, 14.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 321 
 
 2. In sharing eternal life. 
 
 3. In inhabiting the same blessed city. 
 
 XXXII. Comparison of men and Angels. (3) Men 
 are superior to Angels 
 
 1. In the Elevation of the Sacred Humanity of 
 
 Jesus. 
 
 2. In that they undergo a ruder probation. 
 
 3. In that they rise by repentance when they have 
 
 fallen. 
 
 XXXIII. The worship of the Angels. 
 
 1. Because of their eminent sanctity, power, and 
 
 beauty. 
 
 2. By frequent meditation on them, acts of love, 
 
 prayers, imitations of their perfections, and 
 sweet modesty. 
 
 3. Of those Angels particularly of the churches we 
 pass by, of our friends, of our enemies, of our superiors, 
 our own Guardian, the seven that stand before the 
 throne, and especially SS. Michael, Gabriel, and 
 Raphael, whom the Church honors by name with 
 special offices. 
 
 XXXIV. The worship of St. Michael. 
 
 1. As Guardian Angel of the Sacred Humanity. 
 
 2. As Guardian Angel of the Catholic Church. 
 
 3. As the slayer of Antichrist. 
 
 4. As the sounder of the trumpet at the Resurrection. 
 
 5. As the bearer of the cross at the last judgment. 
 
 XXXV. The worship of St. Gabriel. 
 
 1. As promising the Messias to Daniel. 
 
 2. As appearing to Zacharias. 
 
 3. As Guardian Angel to our Blessed Lady. 
 
 4. As bringing the Hail Mary to earth. 
 
 Vol. I. X
 
 322 PAET III. 
 
 XXXVT. The worship of St. Raphael. 
 
 1. As the physician of the soul. 
 
 2. As restoring sight to the blind. 
 
 3. As knowing the secret powers of nature. 
 
 4. As troubling the waters of Bethsaida. 
 
 5. As binding Satan in the desert. 
 
 6. As guide to man in the pilgrimage of life. 
 
 7. As one of the great and chief seven of the Angels 
 
 II. 
 
 MOTIVES FOR A PECULIAR AFFECTION 
 
 TOWARDS OUR OWN DEAR 
 
 GUARDIAN ANGEL. 
 
 I. Because although he is a most noble and pure spirit, 
 
 and filled with the love of God, the Almighty 
 has deputed him to assist continually a creature 
 so vile and abject as man, and takes pleasure in 
 communicating to us all manner of good through 
 him. 
 
 II. Because from the first moment of our life our 
 
 Angel has taken charge of us with a most tender 
 love, beyond that of brother, father, or mother, 
 and that without any end or advantage of his 
 own ; and he employs his entire energies simply 
 for our greater good. 
 
 III. Because he never abandons us for so much as a 
 
 single moment, although we may totally forget 
 him, be ungrateful for his kindnesses, reject his 
 lights and inspirations, and live in habits of sin.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 323 
 
 IV. Because he has taken a most particular care of 
 us when we were children, protecting us and 
 defending us from many dangers to which we 
 were exposed at that age. 
 
 V, Because he acts continually as our master, 
 illuminating our understanding with the know- 
 ledge of God, and of eternal truths ; from him 
 come all good thoughts, inspirations, lights and 
 hints which help us on the way of salvation. 
 
 VI. Because he is always endeavoring to incline our 
 will to good works, instilling into our hearts 
 holy affections, kindling heavenly desires in us, 
 and inflaming our love towards God and our 
 neighbor. 
 
 VII. Because by his power he is always removing the 
 obstacles which stand in the way of perfection, 
 and dexterously setting aside occasions of sin 
 from before us. 
 
 VIII. Because in those occasions of sin, which meet us 
 without any fault of our own, he assists us, 
 gives us interior warnings, or sometimes exterior 
 signs, and animates us to overcome the sin. 
 
 IX. Because he bridles the force of the devils, that 
 they may not tempt us beyond our powers, 
 and gives us fortitude in dealing with tempta- 
 tions. 
 
 X. Because in troubles of spirit and sufferings of 
 body, he comforts us to suffer patiently, animates 
 our hope, and keeps before us the thought of 
 merit and reward. 
 
 XI. Because, when we invoke him in our doubts, he 
 always gives us counsel, and lets us know which 
 are the safest resolutions.
 
 324 PART III. 
 
 XII. Because he prays continually for us, and offers 
 our prayers to God, and obtains graces for us, 
 and other favors which are not contrary to 
 the Divine Will and to the good of our souls: 
 he also presents all our good works to God, and 
 keeps an affectionately strict remembrajce of 
 them himself, against the judgment day. 
 
 XIII. Because he advances and promotes our tem- 
 
 poral affairs, our fortunes, and the health of 
 our bodies, and is God's secondary cause in 
 all these things. 
 
 XIV. Because he is never disturbed, neither does he 
 
 abandon us when we fall into sin ; but he 
 compassionates us with tender love, and stim- 
 ulates us to penance, and is skilful in de- 
 vising methods of winning us back to God. 
 XV. Because when we resist his sweet goads of love, 
 he corrects us, frightens us, punishes us with 
 accidents and sicknesses, persecutions and 
 disappointments. 
 
 XVI. Because he sometimes assumes an aerial body 
 and appears in various forms, either for the 
 good of the person he guards, or for the 
 instruction and utility of others. 
 XVII. Because in our sickness he vouchsafes to 
 humble himself to the most abject ministries 
 for our consolation and repose. 
 
 XVIII. Because he assists us at our death with a most 
 diligent solicitude, procures for our souls all 
 external spiritual aids, invisibly defends us 
 from Satan, and comforts us in that tremen- 
 dous passage. 
 
 XIX. Because he does not abandon us in the parti- 
 cular judgment, but conducts the soul to pur-
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 325 
 
 gatory , consoles it there, and takes solicitous pains 
 
 to procure our deliverance. 
 
 XX. Because when the soul has been cleansed, he 
 introduces it into the glory of heaven, and 
 places it in the place prepared for it among 
 the angelic choirs. 
 
 III. 
 
 DEVOTIONAL PRACTICES IN HONOR OF 
 OUR GUARDIAN ANGEL. 
 
 I. To keep his continual presence in a lively man- 
 ner before our minds. 
 
 II. To preserve careful modesty of external de- 
 meanor, so as not to offend the purity of his 
 eye. 
 
 III. To get a habit, either in the house or walking 
 
 out, of spending part of each day in company 
 with our Guardian Angel alone. 
 
 IV. To make an act of loving thanksgiving to him 
 
 morning and evening. 
 V. To recite nine Paters, Aves, and Glorias in 
 
 honor of the nine choirs. 
 VI. To say the little office or chaplet of the Guardian 
 
 Angel. 
 
 VII. To have near our bed, or in our room, a picture 
 of him, and to salute it when we go out or 
 come in. 
 VIII. On some fixed day in the week to pay him some 
 
 special tribute of devotion. 
 
 IX. To enrol ourselves in some confraternity in honor 
 of the Holy Angels.
 
 326 PART III. 
 
 X. To propagate devotion to the Guardian Angels 
 
 among our friends. 
 XI. To practice custody of the eyes in honor of our 
 
 Guardian Angel. 
 
 XII. To forgive injuries promptly and to restrain 
 the sallies of anger in honor of him. 
 
 XIII. To have an especial love of chastity, the virtue 
 
 most dear to the Holy Angels. 
 
 XIV. To practice some particular devotion to the 
 
 the Queen of Angels in the name of our 
 Guardian Angel. 
 XV. To select some one of our Guardian Angel's 
 
 virtues for imitation for a definite time. 
 XVI. To keep the feast of the Guardian Angels, and 
 also our own birthday, as a feast of our own 
 Angel, who then began his ministry. 
 XVII. To give alms in honor of the Guardian Angel 
 
 of the beggar. 
 
 XVIII. To salute the Guardian Angels of those whom 
 we meet in thestreets, of villages, &c., all which 
 is most acceptable to our own Guardian Angel. 
 XIX. In entering a church to unite our intention 
 with that of our Guardian Angel to adore the 
 Blessed Sacrament, and then to honor the 
 Angels of the different altars, and the other 
 Angels worshipping there. 
 
 XX. To invoke our Guardian Angel at the begin- 
 ning of all our separate works and duties. 
 
 Those who from the circumstances of the times and 
 the self-will of the world, or from a strong interior
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 327 
 
 attrait of the Holy Ghost, are drawn to a special devo- 
 tion to the adorable "Will of God, may obtain astonish- 
 ing graces and favors by showing special reverence and 
 particular love to the third choir of the first hierarchy 
 the Blessed Thrones, on whom the Will of God rests 
 in its might, reposing with inexplicable complacency 
 in the perfectness of their submission. 
 
 IV. 
 ST. JOSEPH. 
 
 I. God blessing the world after Creation how much 
 more was there for Him to love when Mary was 
 born yet she was a weak damsel whom any one 
 might insult whom does He choose to protect 
 her? St. Joseph. 
 
 II. There was a Babe in the world, and that Babe 
 was the world's God any one may slay Him, 
 wound Him, trample on Him. God's treasures 
 are now rather on earth than in Heaven who 
 shall protect them? St. Joseph. 
 
 III. There can be no humility in God, but this great 
 
 mystery was to be in God made Man, obedient 
 to His own creature who was born to be the 
 lawful superior of God, and to sanctify himself 
 by thus awfully commanding ? St. Joseph. 
 
 IV. How the Eternal Father seems withdrawn from 
 
 gaze ! the elect are sons of God, and so represent 
 Jesus: the Spirit acts in us; St. Joseph has 
 imparted to him a shadow, nay a reality, of the 
 Eternal Father's ever-blessed Fatherhood.
 
 328 PART III. 
 
 V. Brief sketch of his life suspicion grief charity 
 
 Bethlehem Flight into Egypt Nazareth 
 Three Days' Loss rules Jesus and Mary dies 
 between them. 
 
 VI. The love of Jesus and Mary meet in him : he was 
 
 spared the Passion : his office is daily represen- 
 ted in mass, procession, and benediction : devo- 
 tion to him is a short road to the Sacred Hearts 
 of Jesus and Mary. 
 
 VII. His death. How sweet was the happy solitude 
 
 of the House of Nazareth no secret bower in 
 the shades of Eden was more sweet than that 
 sinless house, that heaven upon earth Would 
 death dare to come where the Lord of life was 
 living ? It durst not come nigh His Cross until 
 He bowed His Head in sign that it might come. 
 Yes ! death dared to cross the threshold of the 
 House of Nazareth. Joseph was now seventy 
 . years of age, Mary forty-five and Jesus twenty- 
 nine. He was not ill, but his love of God shook 
 him in his old age, as it did St. Philip, that 
 second St. Joseph, after him. The hour came: 
 he laid himself down to die ; and what a death ! 
 
 VIII. Jesus is on one side of his bed, Mary on the 
 other : he holds the right hand of Mary in his 
 left hand in token of his fidelity, and in his 
 right hand the left hand of Jesus, that with 
 His right Jesus may give him benediction. 
 Mary thought of Bethlehem, and of the desert 
 as they fled to Egypt. She loved him wonder- 
 fully : deep thoughts were in her sinless soul 
 as she watched the coming on of death; she 
 looked with love on Joseph, and then she
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 329 
 
 looked over him at Jesus her obedient Son, and 
 she remembered how He was the Lord of Life 
 He had created and sanctified St. Joseph's 
 beautiful soul He it was Who was now bid- 
 ding death come and fetch it. Oh mystery of 
 wonder and of love ! Joseph need not die, if 
 Jesus would but will that he should not. Mary 
 pressed Joseph's hand she did not pray that 
 he might live but looked at Jesus and adored 
 Him, adored her own Son, who was her God as 
 well. O death ! thou hast travelled the world 
 over, yet never surely didst thou come on such 
 a scene as this. God in flesh and blood has 
 fast hold of the hand of him whom thou hast 
 come to seek and to strike. Wilt thou dare? 
 Jesus held the right hand of Joseph He 
 whispered in his ear sweet words of thanks- 
 giving for all his care of Him. St. Joseph 
 looked up into the face of Jesus his weak 
 eyes went all over it the hair, the brow, the 
 eyes, the moving lips: yes, bold man, thou wilt 
 see that face once more, Oh how bright and 
 beautiful ! And thou wilt be spared the sight 
 of it as Mary will see it, covered with blood and 
 wounds, and mud and filthy spittle. Oh what 
 a strait to choose in ! To die for us is to go to 
 Jesus; for Joseph it was to leave Jesus for 
 awhile. He looked up into the face of Jesus 
 he thought how he had dressed Him, washed 
 Him, kissed Him as a little one, protected Him, 
 commanded Him in his poor shop, and he 
 pressed His Sacred Hand and smiled with love ; 
 and God Almighty, the obedient Son, stooped
 
 330 PART III. 
 
 down and reverently kissed -St. Joseph's hand. 
 St. Joseph looked to Mary : then to Jesus 
 then back to Mary then to Jesus again. He 
 looked up into His face ; the smile passed 
 away there came a look, most awful, most 
 heavenly, most wonderful he saw the Godhead 
 shine out in the face of Jesus the most pro- 
 found and abashed humility passed into his look 
 he made an act of fear, because he was 'a 
 creature, and an act of love- because he was the 
 foster father both shook his dying frame. 
 He adored Jesus his Creator and his Judge 
 the dying Saint's guardian angel prostrated 
 himself adoringly St. Joseph needed no guar- 
 dian God was there. Jesus raised His Right 
 Hand as Judge and blessed Him ; thus He 
 judged His dying servant even before His death 
 that raised Right Hand of Jesus had blessed 
 St. Joseph the dying creature whispered softly, 
 Jesus, Mary, the Creator's ear was close and 
 caught the words He stooped and kissed the 
 lips as they pronounced the name of Mary in 
 that kiss of peace the mystery was done the 
 soul of Joseph fled away to rest in Abraham's 
 bosom, to wait till Jesus should have ended four 
 more years, and be ready to carry it with Him 
 through the blue skies on Ascension day into 
 the everlasting joys of heaven. 
 Oh greatest ! Oh dearest of all the saints of God ! 
 
 may we die the death of the just, and may our last end 
 
 be like to thine !
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAIXTS. 331 
 
 V. 
 MEDITATIONS ON ST. JOSEPH. 
 
 Gustos Amabilis, ora pro nobis. 
 HIS SEVEN DOLORS. 
 
 I. His grief in thinking he must put away our Blessed 
 Lady. 
 
 1. His horror of impurity, and zeal for the love of 
 
 God. 
 
 2. His refraining from judging her. 
 
 3. His discreet and charitable deliberation and delay. 
 II. His seeing the Infant Jesus in poverty and distress. 
 
 1. Seeing Him shiver with cold. 
 
 2. Hearing Him cry. 
 
 3. The hardness of the manger and poverty of the 
 
 cave. 
 
 III. His seeing His Blood flow at the circumcision. 
 
 1. His hatred of sin. 
 
 2. He adores the love of Jesus in shedding It. 
 
 3. He adores His obedience to the law. 
 
 IV. St. Simeon's prophecy. 
 
 1. His sympathy with our Blessed Lady. 
 
 2. His sorrowful meditation on St. Simeon's words. 
 
 3. His continual remembrance of them. 
 V. The flight into Egypt. 
 
 1. The fears, perils, and fatigues of the journey. 
 
 2. His watching the sufferings of Jesus. 
 
 3. His inability to protect our Blessed Lady. 
 VI. His hearing that Archelaus was reigning. 
 
 1. It dashed the joy of His return from Egypt.
 
 332 PART III. 
 
 2. His new fears for Jesus and our Lady. 
 
 3. His having to live so far from the temple. 
 VII. His loss of Jesus for three days. 
 
 1. The anxiety of the weary search. 
 
 2. His self-reproach as being the cause. 
 
 3. His misery at seeing our Blessed Lady suffer. 
 
 HIS SEVEN JOYS. 
 
 I. The angel telling him to take Mary for his wife. 
 
 1. His delight at her innocence. 
 
 2. The honor he pays to her virtue. 
 
 3. Joyous expectations of Jesus. 
 
 II. The Ave Maria and Nativity. 
 
 1. His hearing the Ave Maria. 
 
 2. Seeing the adoration of the shepherds. 
 
 3. The homage of the three kings. 
 
 III. The holy name of Jesus. 
 
 1. His having to give it to the Child. 
 
 2. His first pronouncing of it. 
 
 3. His pondering with Mary over the mystery of it. 
 
 IV. St. Simeon's words about our Lord : that He 
 
 should be 
 
 1. A light to the Gentiles. 
 
 2. The glory of Israel. 
 
 3. The resurrection of many. 
 
 V. The falling down of the idols of Egypt before 
 
 Jesus. 
 
 1. His adoration of the power of the Son of God. 
 
 2. His sympathy with Mary's exceeding joy. 
 
 3. His delight at the glory thus accruing to God. 
 
 VI. The command of the angel to return home. 
 
 1. His joy at returning to the land of the true 
 Church.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 333 
 
 2. To better accommodations for Jesus and Mary. 
 
 3. At carrying their Messias to the Jews. 
 VII. Finding Jesus in the temple. 
 
 1. Delight at finding Him. 
 
 2. Joy at Mary's joy. 
 
 3. Adoration, of the wisdom of Jesus. 
 
 OTHER CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT HIM. 
 
 The .ove of God the Father for St. Joseph. 
 
 1. [u imparting to him His paternal character. 
 
 2. [n trusting His elect daughter Mary to him. 
 
 3. In predestinating him to these two offices. 
 The .ove of God the Son for him. 
 
 1. As His father. 
 
 2. As the careful and kind protector of Mary. 
 
 3. [n allowing him to kiss, wash, dress, carry Him, 
 
 &c. 
 The ove of God the Holy Ghost for him. 
 
 1. As a singular vessel of most fragrant continence. 
 
 2. As guardian of the Sacred Humanity. 
 
 3. As earthly husband of His own Spouse. 
 The love of our Blessed Lady for Him. 
 
 1. As chosen for her by God. 
 
 2. As guardian of her purity. 
 
 3. As guardian of Jesus. 
 The love of the angels for him. 
 
 1. As so humbly commanding their Lord. 
 
 2. As protecting their Queen. 
 
 3. In their embassies to him. 
 
 St. Joseph model of the Interior Life and Patron of 
 
 Mental Prayer. 
 1. Silence,
 
 334 PART III. 
 
 2. Recollection. 
 
 3. Shunning publicity. 
 St. Joseph model for priests. 
 
 1. In chastity. 
 
 2. Devotion to our Blessed Lady. 
 
 3. In handling the Blessed Sacrament. 
 St. Joseph model for the dying. 
 
 1. Quiet resignation. 
 
 2. On the lap of Jesus. 
 
 3. Mary at his side. 
 
 St. Joseph model for all the faithful. 
 
 1. In ministering to Jesus. 
 
 2. In protecting Mary's honor. 
 
 3. As a pilgrim with Jesus and Mary in the wilder- 
 
 ness. 
 What our Lady told St. Bridget of him. 
 
 1. He was affable, not rude. 
 
 2. Defended the absent. 
 
 3. Took notice of God's wonderful works. 
 Also, 
 
 1. He constantly prayed for the accomplishment of 
 
 God's promises. 
 
 2. Avoided publicity. 
 
 3. Longed for death. 
 Also, 
 
 1. He was very contented in poverty. 
 
 2. Very patient. 
 
 3. Continued devotion to the will of God. 
 Devotion to him. 
 
 1. Late gift to the Church. 
 
 2. Acceptableness of it to Jesus and Mary. 
 
 3. Specially extolled by St. Teresa. 
 
 Besides these meditations, many more may be made of
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 335 
 
 the events of St. Joseph's life, especially the eighteen 
 years at Nazareth, when he saw Joseph working, eating, 
 sleeping, praying, &c. ; also of the sojourn in Egypt, the 
 two journeys, his accompanying our Blessed Lady at 
 the Visitation, and many more. 
 
 VI. 
 ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 I. State of the Jews. 
 
 1. Voluptuousness of higher orders. 
 
 2. Spirit of disputation and doubt amid the learned. 
 
 3. Unsettlement among the people. 
 II. Appearance of St. John. 
 
 1. His wild appearance. 
 
 2. His ignorance of human learning. 
 
 3. His preaching unfashionable penance. 
 
 4. His rude rebuking of the noble. 
 
 5. His making no distinction between high and low, 
 
 simple and learned. 
 
 6. His marvellous power and attractiveness. 
 
 III. The causes of his power. 
 
 1. His truckling to no human respects. 
 
 2. His preaching to the heart. 
 
 3. His supernatural austerities. 
 
 4. His interior union with God. 
 
 IV. Similarity between England now, and Judea then. 
 
 St. John a model for us. 
 
 1. In high principles. 
 
 2. In cultivating purity of heart.
 
 336 PART in. 
 
 3. In supernatural faith and perfection, realizing the 
 
 invisible world. 
 
 4. In leading lives of prayer and union with God. 
 
 The day of controversy is wellnigh past. The calm- 
 ness of Catholics in the late troubles excites wonder 
 now for power with God, and the day is ours ; the time 
 will be when men will talk of Protestantism as they do 
 of the old heresies, as a curse which once was and is 
 now no more ! 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE THREE KINGS; OR, ALL GRACES 
 COME OF FAITH. 
 
 If the Bible discloses melancholy possibilities of the 
 sinfulness of man, k also discloses magnificences, which 
 perhaps the kingdom of angels can hardly surpass e.g. 
 the Three Kings. 
 
 I. The Three Kings. What immense saints they were 
 shown 
 
 1 . From the singularity of their election. 
 
 2. From the special graces they received. 
 
 3. From the mystery for which they were used God 
 
 opening His Church to the Gentiles. 
 
 4. From the virtues they practised. 
 
 5. From the huge devotion of the Church to them. 
 II. Their characteristics. 
 
 1. They are instances of men who reveal their whole 
 selves in one action : such men are mostly very 
 divine characters; their simplicity is a great 
 power.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 337 
 
 2. Moreover they are saints whose characters are so 
 
 mast3red by their one grace as to lose almost 
 their individuality yet their offerings bespeak 
 variety of character. 
 
 3. They belong to that little class of God's own 
 
 private saints, the unknown vastness cf whose 
 sanctity He irradiates by only one or two gleams, 
 such as St. Joseph, the Baptist, some of the 
 apostles, and SS. Joachim and Anne. These 
 are the Mary-like saints; for this is also her 
 characteristic. 
 
 4. Their virtues were (1) alacrity, (2) courage, 
 
 especially against human respect, (3) generosity, 
 (4) entireness of heart with God, (5) singular 
 docility, (6) exceeding great joy, as the un- 
 exaggerating Bible calls it. 
 
 5. But all these six graces came out of one as out 
 
 of a fountain, namely, out of faith. 
 III. Lessons to learn. 
 
 1. Faith is God's greatest gift on earth, and is neces- 
 
 sary for charity. 
 
 2. Of all graces it is the one most capable of increase. 
 
 3. It is the most prolific of all graces : and gives us 
 
 most momentum. 
 
 4. It is the source of all spiritual sweetness, and of 
 
 all joy and consolation in religion. 
 
 5. How we can best increase it. 
 
 (1.) By cherishing the thought of God, and culti- 
 vating His fear. 
 (2) By a filial and reverential devotion to the 
 
 Church. 
 
 The hidden magnificence of the Babe of Bethlehem 
 compared with the hidden magnificence of the Church. 
 Vol. I. Y
 
 338 PART in. 
 
 As we lose ourselves, our own likings and dislikings, 
 our own judgments and criticisms and all the follies of 
 our littleness, in the thought and presence of God, so 
 must we lose them also in the thought and presence 
 of His Church. The grand lesson which He sent the 
 Three Kings to teach the Gentiles was devotion to the 
 Church ! 
 
 VIII. 
 ST. THOMAS OF CANTERBURY .* 
 
 What a strange providence it is, my dear Brethren 
 in Jesus Christ, that we in this poor faithless land of 
 ours, this poor uncatholic England, should be gathered 
 together quietly this day beneath the shadow of our 
 own blessed and glorious martyr St. Thomas of Canter- 
 bury, while the Holy City of Catholics, the home of 
 our affections, the threshold of the apostles, the pilgrim- 
 age place of Christendom, is lying waste and desolate 
 and in darkness! How strange, passing strange, it 
 seems that we in this fallen land should be met 
 together to-day to do honor to a name which has 
 been a by-word of scorn and a proverb of reproach in 
 the mouths of generations of our deluded countrymen, 
 while the Holy City is lying waste, because the visible 
 Presence of God passed from it, when His dear and 
 blessed Vicar fled a fugitive along those Pontine 
 Marches through which St. Paul journeyed in his 
 bonds to preach Christ Crucified in the streets of 
 
 Preached in the Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury at 
 Fulham, Dec. 29, 1848.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 339 
 
 beautiful Rome! How much is there in this con- 
 sideration which leads us, almost in spite of ourselves, 
 to meditate with trembling awe upon the fortunes of 
 God's Church and her most holy faith, and to watch 
 with fearful interest the ebb and flow of that empire 
 of our faith, which, while it loses ground or seems to 
 lose it in one place, gains it in another, until its wearied 
 and baffled foes throw down their arms, cease their 
 calculations, and become stupefied at these repeated 
 signs of its hopeless and undecayed vitality. But, 
 my dear Brethren, because things look dark abroad, 
 because there seems to have come down this night 
 upon the Church, a night of storm and of eclipse, the 
 shadow of God's wrath and judgment on the sons of 
 men, even in the most Holy Place, even where the 
 bodies of countless saints and nameless martyrs lie, 
 ought we therefore to lose heart or slacken our endeav- 
 ors in the cause of God's Church, in other lands or in 
 our own? God forbid! God forbid that we should 
 have so little faith in God, or that we should so distrust 
 the power and heavenly virtue of our blessed faith ! 
 No ! we lose not heart, our purposes are not unnerved, 
 our spirits do not faint or flag, because we know 
 Whose faith it is, and Whom we have on board while 
 we are in Peter's bark : and though that bark be now 
 storm-tossed and in apparent peril, yet when the hour 
 comes, when our faith has been sufficiently tried and 
 our sins sufficiently chastised, He will rise from out 
 His seeming slumber, and with one word will bid the 
 winds and waves be still. 
 
 But while we regard with awe, not unintermingled 
 with hope, and without one shadow of distrust, the 
 scenes that are enacting in the Holy Place, how
 
 340 PAST III. 
 
 beautiful, how cheering, how elating is the prospect 
 around us in this our own dear native land ! If the 
 faith seems faint and feeble and overcast, it is after all 
 but seemingly so ; if it appear to be losing ground, and 
 to be ebbing from foreign shores, how fast and freely 
 the tide is flowing in upon our own, and flowing where 
 it ought to flow, not so much upon the palace steps of 
 the noble and the rich, upon the change of the busy 
 trafficker or the hall of the self-wise scholar, as upon 
 the dense untended multitude of Christ's predestined 
 poor, upon the friendless, the fallen, the ignorant, 
 the grief-smitten ! How fast is the faith encroaching ! 
 How is it sapping the very citadels of prejudice and 
 bigotry : how are the hearts of sinners coming into 
 the fold by scores and hundreds, like the miraculous 
 draught of old into Peter's net, which at his Master's 
 word he cast forth into the dark unpromising deep! 
 Surely we cannot but feel that God has in these days 
 granted to every one of us, in our own appointed place 
 and fitting way, without distinction of age or sex, a 
 kind of universal commission, whereby every English 
 Catholic is constituted, in his and her place and sphere, 
 a sort of missionary apostolic to spread the faith ; and 
 the question, the practical question, for all of us to 
 consider is the manner in which we are to do our work. 
 It is impossible to look forth on the face of the land, 
 and not to see that the fields are white for the harvest. 
 It is impossible to love Almighty God, and not pour 
 out our souls in secret prayer to the great Master of 
 the harvest, that He will send forth laborers there- 
 unto, men of apostolic zeal and apostolic boldness and 
 apostolic mortification, which alone is the source of 
 prayer and priestly charity. It is impossible to avoid
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 341 
 
 seeing that wheresoever the adorable Sacrifice and the 
 rightful priest are to be found in this land of ours, 
 there is the Gospel prophecy fulfilled, that where the 
 body is the eagles will be gathered together. 
 
 Yes ! the practical question for all of us is how we 
 are to do our work; and surely this feast should be 
 suggestive to every one of us in what way we are to 
 fight the fight : we are to fight it as St. Thoin s did 
 of old. Adverse as the times may seem in outward 
 appearance, there never was an age of the Church 
 when circumstances, both within and without, both at 
 home and abroad, more loudly called upon us to take 
 the blessed St. Thomas of Canterbury for our pattern, 
 our model, nay our liviug, powerful, and helpful guide, 
 and fight the good fight as he fought it in bygone times, 
 even to the shedding of his blood, or to what men find 
 harder to give than blood, the shedding of their good 
 name by pouring it out to waste upon the earth. Let 
 me then ask you this morning to meditate awhile 
 upon the life of St. Thomas of Canterbury, to put him 
 before yourselves as the great exemplar of those grand 
 characteristics of which he is the special Saint, the 
 special Apostle. He is the Apostle of high principle, 
 the Saint whose every word and work was a con- 
 demnation of cowardice, of time-serving, of timidity, 
 of pusillanimity, of all unworthy concession, of all 
 trembling in the face of power, of all bartering of 
 principle for peace or gain, of all circuitous roads to a 
 rightful and a godly end ; in a word, of every profane 
 weakness that ever afflicted the Church from within 
 or without, from her children or her foes, he was the 
 unflinching enemy and the pertinacious opponent from 
 first to last. It is on this account that I call upon
 
 342 PART in. 
 
 you to study his life, and ponder on every word, to 
 meditate on every action of this most dear and blessed 
 martyr, whom England gave to the Church of God, 
 and to put him before us, each of course discreetly, in 
 his own appointed sphere, and under the obedience of 
 his spiritual guide, as our model and our patron in the 
 terrible scandal-breeding strife which seems too pro- 
 bably at hand. If ever there was a time or place 
 when and where high, obstinate, clear-sighted, and 
 unflinching principle was the sheet-anchor of the 
 Church, that time is now, and that place the land in 
 which it is our lot to live and work. 
 
 Let us then look at St. Thomas in three different 
 states in which his romantic life, so full of wisest 
 teaching in its minutest details, presents him to us 
 St. Thomas in the court, St. Thomas in strife, and St. 
 Thomas in exile. 
 
 First of all, let us look at St. Thomas in the court; 
 let us look at him after he became archbishop, but, for 
 his Church's sake, still mingled with the king and the 
 rude barons and fawning courtiers round him. - What 
 above all things strikes us in the conduct of this 
 magnificence-loving man, is the evidence of calm 
 austerity and of repulsive penance which, amid all the 
 glory and the brilliance that distinguished the court of 
 Henry, broke from time to time through that conceal- 
 ment with which Catholic sanctity is wont to shroud 
 itself. It was said of him, even during his lifetime, 
 that he degraded and sullied the splendor that was 
 round him by the dreadful and unsightly austerities 
 he practised. And is not St. Thomas an example to 
 us even in this very respect, if at least we desire in 
 our heart of hearts to see our beloved country brought
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 343 
 
 back again to God, brought as a modest yet rejoicing 
 wanderer into the one only fold of the One True 
 Shepherd? Oh! it is not a work that is nigh at 
 hand, at least the accomplishment thereof; it is not 
 a work that is light and easy, neither is it a light or 
 a little thing to ask of God. But if we do yearn after 
 this great ennobling end, then must we imitate St. 
 Thomas in the very matter now before us. Do you 
 believe that we shall ever convert England, if we are 
 simply common Catholics, common, good, practical 
 Catholics, \\ith no aim beyond a state of grace or an 
 absence of permitted venial sin, moving in the routine 
 of the far-off feasts and distant indulgences as though 
 it was a grove out of which our spiritual life would 
 run to nought and perish ? Do you in good faith 
 believe that this is the material God will use to upraise 
 a fallen land ? Is there here a power of expiation to 
 thrust aside those tremendous arrears of wrath and 
 judgment which have accumulated against the land 
 for three hundred years of augmenting impurity, pro- 
 faneness, and unbelief? Is this a furnace of love 
 strong enough to burn away all that needs consuming 
 among us? Oh how weak and wild would it be to 
 suppose that we can do great things, that we have the 
 faith which can remove mountains, and the love which 
 can cast out fear, and the austerity which can exorcise 
 the spirits of evil* if we aim not at far higher things 
 than these. No, my Brethren, it must be something 
 more than the tameness of a common virtue, something 
 higher than the level of ordinary attainments, which 
 will do so great a work for God. We must aim at 
 perfection ; we must strive after the arduous heights 
 of Christian holiness ; we must endeavor to imitate
 
 344 PART TIT. 
 
 the saints of God ; we must put before ourselves as 
 possible, aye, and as hopeful aims, their devoted and 
 heroic deeds. We must break down all false and 
 puny standards of virtue which would stunt our 
 spiritual growth, and abjuring whatever may seem to 
 have caught by contagion the dominant evil spirit 
 which surrounds us in this heretic land, we must 
 throw ourselves heart and soul into the models which 
 come to us from times which had not lost the faith, 
 or from lauds where amid many hindrances it still 
 reigns supreme. Depend upon it there is a host of 
 sin, a host of God's wrath in arrear, through which 
 we must press our way before we can come to our 
 glorious end ; and it is not by coldness, by lukewarm- 
 ness, by indifference, or even by mediocre virtue that 
 we shall accomplish our purpose, still less by a paltry, 
 bargaining spirit, that would go to market as it were 
 with God, and grant him little more than the precepts 
 of the Church lay upon the conduct and the conscience. 
 Oh no ! it must be a nobler inclination, a more generous 
 spirit, a spirit that must throw itself fervently and 
 confidingly into the arms of God Himself, and must 
 lead us to dedicate ourselves body and soul and spirit 
 to the trampling the world under our feet as the 
 canonized saints of God have done, not only in times 
 of yore, but up to the threshold of these times of ours. 
 We i.uist be more, ten thousand times more, than com- 
 mon easy-going practical Catholics, if we would convert 
 for God this deluded and benighted land. 
 
 This surely is the very first thing we must look to, 
 each one of us to his own practice, each one of us to 
 his own progress in holiness, and to his own advance- 
 ment along the road of Christian perfection. And
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 345 
 
 why is this? Why is it that I put the austerity of 
 St. Thomas, not ouly among the examples which that 
 blessed Saint sets us, but the very first and foremost of 
 them all? For these reasons amongst others : because 
 austerity and perfection give us power with God. Oh 
 how useless it is for man or woman to go forth into the 
 world, into the social or domestic circle, and hope to 
 influence their fellow-men for good, if they have not 
 influence first of all in the great court and before the 
 great throne which are on high, if they are not known 
 there as persons of constant prayer, of self-denying lives, 
 of generous sacrifice for the Church and faith of God ; 
 and how weak, how powerless, how utterly imbecile will 
 all their most arduous efforts prove to be. Yes! my 
 dear Brethren, we may toil till health of body gives way 
 beneath the burden ; but if we have not influence with 
 God, if we are not habitually with Him in the im- 
 plorings and wrestlings of prayer, in meditation and in 
 secret penance, how powerless, how unpre vailing will 
 all our labors be ! Our hands will be unnerved, our 
 arms will drop from them, when the hour of victory 
 seems nighest, because we seek to have commanding 
 influence over men, before self-humiliation has earned 
 for us influence with God, 
 
 Further, we must strive after these heights of 
 Christian perfection, not only because austerity has 
 power with God, but because it seems on that very 
 account to give a mysterious and disproportionate 
 power to all our actions, even those which are trivial 
 themselves. Common words and common things, 
 when they come from one whose soul is in union with 
 God, oh ! they are like miracles, compared with the 
 selfsame words and the selfsame deeds, when they come
 
 346 PART III. 
 
 from one who is living an ordinary life. There seems 
 to be a power in them which emanates from on high, 
 an abiding presence and unction of the Blessed Spirit 
 in them. The missionary of hidden austerity may 
 look outwardly like any other man ; he may not 
 perhaps have human talent, human eloquence, or 
 human influence ; and yet there is something in him, 
 something that goes from him, which bows the hearts 
 of men, as the wind bows the reeds when it blows, 
 and they feel the sovereign influence, acknowledge its 
 sovereignty, and bend before the words and deeds 
 which are, as it were, the vessels wherein it is 
 contained. 
 
 There is still another truth to be remarked ; austerity, 
 like other Christian things, is blamed even by those 
 who are themselves at the moment beneath its in- 
 fluence. While the men of St. Thomas's day found 
 fault with his want of discretion, and blamed him 
 because he allowed his rude, uncouth, grotesque 
 austerities to appear amid the splendors of Henry's 
 court ; yet all the while they were allured and attracted 
 by it. There is a marvellous power in a holy life; 
 there is a marvellous influence in austerity, a super- 
 natural power to attract and allure the most alien things 
 towards itself. Look at the great preacher of penance 
 in the days of old ; look at that unearthly apparition, 
 that came up from the wilderness after years of in- 
 human solitude, and the companionship of wild beasts, 
 and stood before the eyes of men upon the banks of 
 Jordan. He appeared, in the aspect of his outward 
 seeming, to have been made only to offend, to disgust, 
 and to repel. Yet to the Baptist's preaching there 
 came, wiled as though by an influence they could neither
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 347 
 
 resist nor divine, the pleasure- loving and sensual officers 
 of the legions from the gay and sinful city ; while the 
 cold and sceptic scholars, with their sparkling wit, 
 sarcastic sophistry, and unearnest investigation, were 
 attracted in spite of themselves by this sight of St. 
 John coming up from the wilderness to Jordan's bank, 
 and their eyes were riveted upon him with inquiring 
 awe, although he had no human influence, no show of 
 intellect, nought but the preaching of the most abject 
 penance and undignified humiliation. If there was at 
 that time one object on which their eyes were more 
 anxiously and intensely fixed than another, it was 
 upon this rude forerunner of our Lord, and they stopped 
 to question him, who he was, and what the proofs of 
 his mission were. So will it always be : men will 
 talk to you, criticise you, condemn you, seem to destroy 
 your influence by affixing the slur of indiscretion to 
 your name; but after all, things work round, because 
 there is in an austere life, in one whose soul is in union 
 with God, a secret power of attraction which no other 
 power on earth can give, and which imparts to him 
 who lives that life an empire over the consciences of 
 men beyond the reach of all human calculation. 
 
 Let this then, Brethren, be the first lesson that we 
 learn from St. Thomas the necessity of girding our- 
 selves up to a more holy life, to a more severe penance, 
 and to a closer union with God. 
 
 Let us now turn from St. Thomas in the court, with 
 his uncouth austerities, to St. Thomas in his strife. If 
 we look at the accounts given of him even by his own 
 contemporaries, how he was misunderstood, how he was 
 misjudged, how he was described as of a foreign race 
 whose lauguage worldly men could not understand!
 
 318 PART III. 
 
 No, it requires some hundreds of years to intervene 
 before we are far enough off from the glory of St. 
 Thomas to cast our eyes up to the altitude that was in 
 his noble and sacred character. And what was it, my 
 Brethren, what was it in the manner of his strife, 
 whether with the crowned king upon the throne, or the 
 rude barons, or even, which was harder still, with his 
 courtly brother bishops, what was it that so offended 
 men ? It was the seeming hypocrisy, it was the appar- 
 ent double-facedness of all that he did, it was that 
 holy double spirit which the Church has in her, and 
 wh ch all the saints of God possessed ; that he was 
 humble, with what the world called an affectedly servile 
 humility, to the poor and lonely and fallen and little 
 ones of Jesus ; but in the face of the rude king, and in 
 the face of human power and intellect, he seemed proud 
 and arrogant and presumptuous, drawing himself up 
 within himself, and not stooging to make the slightest 
 concession. And here it is that the lesson is for us. 
 We too must be humble ten thousand times more 
 humble now than St. Thomas was then ; our humility 
 must be manly, at the same time that it is meek, to the 
 the little ones of Jesus ; but in the face of power, in the 
 face of pride, in the face of unbelieving science, in the 
 face of distasteful and conspiring politics, we must be 
 what St. Thomas was, we must be apparently proud, 
 presumptuous, and arrogant. 
 
 It may seem that there is no practical lesson for us 
 in this particular matter ; but indeed, if we look closer 
 into it, there is a lesson for us every way. For instance, 
 how many of us, in the private, social, and domestic 
 circle, long with our heart's best affection for conversion 
 to the faith of God of those who are near and dear to
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 349 
 
 us both by blood and by love. Yes, Brethren, how 
 many of us are there who must entertain such a feeling 
 even in our own hearts, and what a temptation is there 
 here to play false to the faith of God what a tempta- 
 tion is there here to do the very opposite of what St. 
 Thomas did of old. Beware, in your conversation with 
 others, how you represent the Church of God to those 
 whom you desire to allure within her pale ; beware of 
 representing her for one moment as though she were 
 different from what she was in days of old ; beware 
 of representing her as abating one jot or tittle of the 
 greatest of those pretensions which seemed most arro- 
 gant and most preposterous even in the Middle Ages ; 
 beware of representing her as changed one atom in this 
 her temper and her spirit ; no, we must adhere strictly 
 and zealously to high principle, disregarding everything 
 that present or temporary advantage may appear to 
 put within our reach. Truth, remember and this is 
 one great distinction between Catholics and heretics 
 truth is not ours, but God's. Truth is not ours to bate 
 and pare down. Truth is God's ; it has God's majesty 
 inherent within it, and it will convert the souls of men, 
 even when it seems rudest and most repelling ; and it 
 will do so for this one reason because it is God's truth, 
 and because we through the grace of God have bold- 
 ness and faith to put our trust in it. And again, be- 
 ware of another evil, that of trying to throw aside or 
 to pare down what seems most faithful and warm in 
 the devotions of foreign lands ; do not tell that cruel 
 falsehood, do not tell it to those whom you love, and 
 are longing and yearning to have within the Church, do 
 not tell them that the faith is other here than what it 
 is elsewhere ; do not throw aside devotion and sweet-
 
 350 PART in: 
 
 ness, and worship and affection, as though they were 
 not fit for us, as though God's Church were not one ; 
 for this is nothing less in reality than to deny the 
 unity of God's Church. Tell them not this. Take not 
 the bread from between their teeth, to bring them within 
 the pale of God's Church, to find that they themselves 
 have been deceived, and that you, while you wished to 
 attract and allure, have only so much the more effec- 
 tually repelled them, and have taken from them that 
 which, in a moment of faith and love, they would have 
 most generously embraced. This is, indeed, doing a 
 cruel work, and it is in this very respect that St. Thomas 
 is to us so bright an example. Believe me, dear 
 Brethren, if there be a land if there be a people in 
 which high principle is acceptable from its own in- 
 trinsic value, or alluring from the national character of 
 those around us, it is this dear land of ours. Let us 
 have faith, firm, vigorous, unfaltering faith; and, trust 
 me, there is in high principle something which humbles 
 those who hold it. They are never humble who have 
 not high principle. They may be courtly, they may 
 be pusillanimous, but humble they cannot be; for 
 there is in high principles, and high principles alone, 
 that which humbles those who hold them, that which 
 wins those to whom those high principles are put 
 forward ; and above all there is in these high principles, 
 and in none other, the plenitude of that heavenly bless- 
 ing which Jesus has lodged in the bosom of His people. 
 
 Let this then be the second lesson that we learn 
 from the life of St. Thomas of Canterbury. 
 
 And now let us turn to one more scene in his life ; 
 let us turn to the blessed martyr in his exile; let us 
 turn to his bedabbling the floor of his cell at the
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS, 351 
 
 monastery of Pontigny with his own blood, from the 
 strife of his own chastisement ; let us turn to him in 
 his Cistercian Abbey, and let us imitate him in his 
 exile. Yes, Brethren, and let us remember that we 
 are exiles here in the holy faith ; that we are pilgrims, 
 exiles and strangers in this very land of ours ; and we 
 have a lesson to learn a lesson of cheerfulness and 
 of hard-working diligence, to learn from St. Thomas in 
 his exile. We have to learn and to lay to heart what 
 we know already : that weakness is the strength of 
 Christians. Look at the Church of God at this 
 moment. Look how dark, how dismal in many ways 
 the prospect seems ; how much evil there seems to be 
 at work, how much conspiring to overthrow her : and 
 then again, look at home, and see what arduous toil is 
 there, and what disadvantages must daily be encoun- 
 tered. Yes, we are weak, but not so weak as some 
 may think we are. They see but the outward seeming 
 and hear but the outward voice, and they think us 
 weaker than we are : but our weakness is our strength ; 
 and the weakness which is strength is humility and 
 love ; love, suffering love, is the Christian's only victory; 
 Brethren, be not cast down by all that you see and 
 hear around you. Be not troubled by the rumors 
 that come floating across the sea to us, day after day ; 
 be not troubled, or cast down, or have your faith 
 fluttered within you. No, but remember that there 
 was a time when Jesus was scorned by His enemies, 
 when He seemed weakest, in the Garden of Gethsemane, 
 when the pale Easter moon was shining down upon the 
 olive-trees, and a band of traitors was round about Him. 
 See how spent He is with His bloody sweat; see how 
 His three hours of agony seem to have exhausted the
 
 352 PART III. 
 
 very strength of His Divine Nature ; and there pale, 
 pale exceedingly, with these enemies around Him, He 
 stands as it were betrayed, detected, and surprised. 
 His disciples have fled from Him, and it seems as 
 though He did but remain there that they might lay their 
 rude hands upon their God, and the victory of sin and 
 evil is complete; and one gentle word from the lips 
 of Jesus one sound of those sweet accents, mild, and 
 gentle, and passionate, and overpowering, caused the 
 rude Roman, and the ruder Jews, to fall backwards in 
 wonder and amazement. And wherefore was this, 
 dear Brethren, but to teach us that in our weakness 
 is our strength, and that meekness, gentleness, and love 
 are mightier weapons than all else that the world can 
 know beside? 
 
 But you may ask me what suffering, what trials, 
 what meekness we shall be called upon to practise or 
 endure in our warfare in the private or domestic circle? 
 We shall have to meet with unkindness and cold looks 
 where we ought to find bright and warm ones ; we 
 shall have to come in contact with cold and freezing 
 hearts that ought to be beating with the pure fervor 
 of affection ; we shall have to be exiled from the love 
 of those who are bound most of all to love us. We 
 shall be misunderstood if we act on high principles, 
 and scandals must come ; remember this is the law of 
 God's Church ; it is the law which distinguished the 
 life of St. Thomas, and not his life alone, but the whole 
 history of the Church, from the day when St. Ambrose 
 humbled Theodosius at his feet, from the day when the 
 blessed Gregory the Seventh humbled his enemies; 
 and as in St. Thomas's day, and even now, they who 
 act from high principle, must not perhaps give scandal,
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 353 
 
 but be prepared to find that others will take scandal 
 from them : but this must not divert you from the 
 clear path of duty that lies before you. It is the very 
 character of high principles, that the very men who 
 hold them see their way right to the end, they see 
 that their way lies athwart hills and dales, stony 
 places and dreadful deserts, but they turn not either 
 to the right or to the left, they travel steadfastly 
 throughout. Yes, Brethren, and this is the very thing 
 we must do, even if we be exposed to the condemna- 
 tion of the good, even if those who are in the bosom 
 of our families, and whom we love and treasure most, 
 think it too arrogant, too enthusiastic, unreal or indis- 
 creet; still we have the good cause entrusted to us, 
 and we cling to it with a holy obedience under the 
 advice and guidance of our spiritual guides. Let us 
 beware how we betray it. What was the charac- 
 teristic of St. Thomas ? It was that he set at nought 
 the judgment of men ; it was that God grew upon him 
 in his contemplation ; that God grew upon his soul 
 more and more, until God filled his soul, and there was 
 no room for man, no room for human respect, no room 
 for love for the creature. Wherever he turned, there 
 was God in the great and in the small, and therefore he 
 set at nought the judgment of men and exhibited to 
 the world that special characteristic of greatness, that 
 he fought for little things as diligently as he had 
 fought for great ones ; and why ? Because he was a 
 saint of the Most High; and as in the eye of God 
 there is neither great nor small, so in the eye of God's 
 saints nothing is small that contains one tittle or 
 fraction of high principle ; and so it was with St 
 Thomas. There were little things, there were scruples 
 Vol. I. - Z
 
 354 PART HI. 
 
 that might seem matters of etiquette or indifference, 
 that might be waived, especially when a king and his 
 nobles demanded it ; but St. Thomas believed that in 
 these little things there was a portion of the same 
 mighty principle, and he clung to them with as much 
 blessed obstinacy, with as much holy pertinacity, as 
 though the very tiara of the Sovereign Pontiff had 
 been at stake. It is this very thing that is the special 
 note of greatness ; and in it lies the power which God 
 has of not dividing things great and small. This must 
 be our example. If we doubt for a moment, that our 
 weakness is strength ; if we doubt whether or not this 
 lesson could be read to us in these days, look not 
 alone to the picture of St. Thomas in his exile ; but 
 look to another dear and blessed exile now ; look to 
 our Holy Father the Pope, exiled from his sacred city, 
 driven to the frontiers of another land, or seeking the 
 refuge of a foreign shelter in a seaport of his own 
 rightful states. Look at him, and in your heart of 
 hearts do you not believe that there is strength in our 
 weakness. Was there ever a time when the throne of 
 Peter was more firmly rooted in the affections of the 
 faithful throughout the world ? was there ever a time 
 when thoughtful men, even outside the Church, looked 
 on the Vicar of God, and trembled with more intelli- 
 gent awe than they do at the present moment? aye, 
 when the rebels gathered round him, even as the 
 rebels of Nazareth gathered round our blessed Lord, 
 and pursued Him to the very cliff on which their town 
 was built, behold, God's Vicar passed through the 
 midst of them, and their eyes were holdeu that they 
 could not see him. They knew not how or where he 
 vent, because God was with him; and in his exile
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 355 
 
 there went with him all his strength, and all his 
 holiness. And at the present moment, who, among the 
 enlightened and intelligent of our holy faith, does not 
 see that the sword of Peter is keener and sharper in 
 the ever-blessed exile's hands than when he reigned 
 within the walls of the vast Vatican at Rome? This 
 is the same lesson that St. Thomas's exile of old gives 
 to us. Wait, Brethren, but a few weeks, or months, 
 or, if God wills it, it may be years, and then see how 
 woe will come to them ; how bitter and dark their end 
 will be; how shameful and ignominious the life of 
 those, whether of us, or not of us, who dare to raise 
 the whispered voice, or the stealthy hand, against the 
 majesty of Rome in this her hour of eclipse. Wait 
 and see if this comes true. His word is law now more 
 than ever it was before ; and the whisper of his exiled 
 voice speaks now more powerfully to every loving and 
 loyal heart, than all the bulls and briefs, and rescripts, 
 that he issued in the days of his glory and his power. 
 And should there, as amid the apostles, be a Judas, who 
 could raise the whispered voice or the stealthy hand, 
 how dark and bitter will be his end, how dark and 
 ignominious his fate ! 
 
 No, Brethren, in this way weakness is strength. 
 Be not cast down because ye see many things against 
 us. Look, for instance, at that twin-spirit that 
 brother-saint of St. Thomas, the sainted Hildebrand. 
 Look at Gregory the Seventh passing down the sunny 
 shore where the Vicar of God, in his exile, has now 
 passed down visit the city of Salerno where the blue 
 waves beat so gently against the shore, and where all 
 the beauties of nature are gathered together to make a 
 very paradise of peace, a very Eden of delights ; and
 
 356 PART III. 
 
 go and see that lowly tomb, the tomb of Gregory, who 
 fell trampled under foot in exile, but whose enemies 
 died in the very hour of victory, in the flush of triumph, 
 so broken and discomfited, that the empire of sin and 
 darkness never rose again. 
 
 Yes, my Brethren, so it ever is ; weakness is strength. 
 The strength of Christians is in the cross, and the cross 
 was a weakness and a shame to Him who hung thereon ; 
 and yet the great apostle of the Gentiles cried, " God 
 forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." Oh, it was not when St. Thomas 
 was in his magnificence it was not when he was in 
 his glory and his power it was not when he rode 
 through France as the chancellor and ambassador of 
 England, and astonished men with his unheard-of- 
 splendor it was not then that he had power that 
 power which lasts to this moment that power which, 
 to this very day, is thrilling and trembling through 
 every nerve and vein of God's universal Church 
 throughout the world : it was not then that that 
 power was the mightiest ; but rather when he sank 
 down as his blood flowed on the hallowed pavement 
 of Canterbury, and when in gentle words he com- 
 mended his blessed soul to God, our Lady, and St. 
 Denis. 
 
 Yes, my Brethren, all these lessons are for us. We 
 ought to work hard, and yet not to look for results. 
 It is not God's way ; it is not the fashion of God's 
 doing. Think how many times the trumpets of God 
 were sounded round the walls of Jericho ere they fell. 
 We ought to work as though the conversion of our 
 native land was at our very doors, and yet as expecting 
 nothing. It is said that they that sow shall reap ; but
 
 . OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 357 
 
 .blessed, aye, blessed we, even if we never live to see 
 that day of splendor and majesty in God's Church. 
 The conversion of the people is as the wind blowing 
 where it will ; it comes and goes wheresoever it will. 
 In the days of spring, it woos out the green leaves here 
 and there in wanton ways, and seems to have no ruling 
 operation : so is the working of God's Spirit. The two 
 things that we have to lay to heart are gentleness and 
 kindness. Forbearance and forgivingness, gentle and 
 loving words and affectionate treatment, and above all, 
 a secret aiming at perfection in our own lives : these 
 are our missionary weapons, and for conversion we may 
 be content to wait. 
 
 If we bear this in mind we shall not lose heart. If 
 to look out upon this empire in its unbelief, its sin, its 
 poor deserted priestless multitude, make the heart sink 
 within us, surely it is not a scene one half so dark as 
 that which the Queen of the apostles saw when she 
 looked from her window over Jerusalem, and over the 
 whole expanse of heathenism that Jesus had given her 
 to convert unto Him. When she and the apostles 
 looked forth on that scene, it was as Noe looked forth 
 from the windows of the ark on the wild and angry 
 waste of waters, and on a tempest-tossed world ; on its 
 green things, on its brightness, on its sunshine. 
 
 So will it be with us, if we only try, from this day 
 forth, to cultivate a spirit of love and devotion to that 
 blessed Saint whose feast we this day celebrate. It is 
 said, and it is to me a matter of love and interest, that 
 my own blessed father St. Philip Neri, whenever he met 
 in the streets of Rome the English students who were 
 gathered together beneath the shadow of St. Thomas 
 of England, always saluted them in his own playful
 
 358 PART III. 
 
 way, with the words of the Church's hymn "Salvete 
 flores martyrum." And think you that he, whose every 
 word was pregnant with meaning, did not intend to 
 commend to them the imitation of that blessed martyr, 
 under whose shadow they were gathered together? 
 
 Yes, Brethren, we must have devotion to St. 
 Thomas, because he is the apostle of high principle. 
 Devotion to St. Thomas must be an instinct with us, 
 even as hatred of Him was an instinct with the wicked 
 men in the wild and evil days of English apostasy. 
 Why did they hate the name of St. Thomas? Why 
 did they tear down his blessed relics? Why did they 
 erase his name from the calendar? Why did they 
 trample his sacred memory underfoot, and leave the 
 other saints of God to go free? Why but because he 
 was the apostle of high principle? because the devil 
 inspired them with a hatred of him as with an instinct, 
 because he knew that the Church was built on a rock, 
 and that all the power of evil should not prevail 
 against it. And even as the ashes that Moses threw 
 upon the banks of the river Nile, brought down the 
 hateful and degrading plague of blains and boils on 
 the children of men in the land of Egypt, so have the 
 ashes of St. Thomas, scattered to the winds far and 
 wide, brought down God's curse upon the land. They 
 have brought down the curse of littleness, of pusil- 
 lanimity, a curse, the very characteristic of which is 
 lowering and degrading, even as the curse that came 
 down on the Egyptians' land. We must cultivate a 
 special devotion to this mighty saint of God. We 
 must strive as he strove, in all gentleness, in all love. 
 We must grasp his principles, and grasp them firmly, 
 even as the soldier grasps the weapons with which he
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 359 
 
 charges in the fight. We must take St. Thomas as 
 our model and our pattern ; and if it be that, in the 
 intervals of his weariness and strife he beheld visions 
 of a fair land of peace, beaming with tranquillity and 
 with all those beauteous and gentle things spoken of in 
 the pages of the Gospel; if there be a time when 
 Heaven seems opened, and we behold a land where all 
 is love and peace no warfare, no bickering, no chilling 
 separation a land where all are crowned kings around 
 the throne of God, singing sweet songs of everlasting 
 praise ; while we remember that there is such a land of 
 peace, we must also remember it is not here, that it is 
 not now. Think you that St. Thomas loved not peace? 
 Think you that he sighed not for repose as much as 
 we can do? Think you that, in the recesses of his 
 sacred cell, he did not many times see Heaven opened, 
 and behold, more clearly than we can do, bright visions 
 of this land of peace? But he knew it was not here; 
 he knew it was not now ; and so he fought his way. 
 Let us fight our way as he fought his. Let us fight 
 our way, and we shall be one day where he is now. 
 Oh, it is sweet, it is passing sweet to the spirit to think 
 of all St. Thomas passed through ; it is sweet to think 
 upon the change that came upon his fortunes ; the 
 change between the great archbishop striving with the 
 powers of darkness, and the saint at this hour, prostrate 
 in ineffable transports of contemplation, before the 
 majesty of the most High, Holy, and Adorable Trinity. 
 Yes, my Brethren, so it is. His peace-loving spirit is 
 now at rest. The haughty, imperious, and indignant 
 word has been subdued into a song of Heaven. The 
 saint needed it no more ; God needed it no more. 
 Strife has passed away from him, even as a thing that
 
 360 PART III. 
 
 never was, and he is now canonized throughout the 
 land. Strife has passed away from him like a dream 
 of Calvary, and the scorn of misjudging men like a 
 little shadow of Gethsemane. 
 
 IX. 
 ST. CHARLES. 
 
 Men's spirituality depends on the view they take 
 of God. Now the" saints seem all of them to have 
 concurred in taking one and the same view of him as 
 the God of the Church. We find this in St. Paul's 
 epistles, and even in the writings of cloistered mystics. 
 There were others whose life was part of the life of the 
 Church. 
 I. So St. Charles. 
 
 1. He was part of the life of the Church. 
 
 (1) He was a saint of fewer peculiarities than 
 
 most saints. 
 
 (2) His personality was almost merged in the 
 
 Church: he had nothing new to teach, no 
 peculiar spirit to communicate. 
 
 (3) He left fewer things said than most saints of 
 
 whom so much is known. 
 
 2. He was a reformer : one of God's reformers, and 
 
 so his example is full of lessons to all men in 
 different times. 
 II. In these two things we find his fitness for our times 
 
 and for our present troubles. 
 1. The state of the Church makes it needful for
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 361 
 
 the lives of all of us to be in their measure 
 part of the Church's life. The state of the 
 Church must give us the character of our piety : 
 it must be in us the cause of most that is 
 spiritual about us. It is not a question, of 
 politics, of historical sympathies, or of interest- 
 ing opinion. It is part of our relation towards 
 God, of our duties to Him, and of our worship 
 of Him. 
 
 2. When God punishes us, He is calling upon us 
 
 to reform. 
 
 3. Now let St. Charles teach us what manner of 
 
 reform we must aim at. 
 
 (1) It must be one of personal holiness, and St. 
 
 Charles would have it turn especially upon 
 our ordinary actions. 
 
 (2) It must be a growth in profound, universal 
 
 humility, a constant wonder that God 
 should bear with us for what good have 
 we done, and what good have we not 
 spoiled ? Our own want of inward purity 
 and of generous holiness how may it not 
 explain many of the misfortunes of the 
 Church ? 
 
 (3) It must be a special cultivation of simplicity, 
 
 the only gift which God seems to be bless- 
 sing now, from the Sovereign Pontiff down- 
 wards. This simplicity will lead to childlike 
 obedience of the intellect, for that alone 
 is the possible or practical obedience of 
 most men and to self-denial, and so will 
 set us against expensiveness and enable us 
 to give more alms to the poor which is a
 
 362 PART III. 
 
 special thing to do in dark and difficult 
 times. 
 III. The spirit of St. Charles should be our spirit. 
 
 1. Eminently a spirit of faith, believing nothing 
 
 impossible, with hatred of heresy, and with 
 kindness to heretics, which is mostly in pro- 
 portion to a man's hatred of heresy. 
 
 2. From this spirit of faith came his two char- 
 
 acteristic graces, fortitude and calmness. His 
 fortitude seemed to go beyond prudence, yet 
 was the real prudence of the Gospel, because of 
 his faith. 
 
 3. Calmness a wonderful feature of this was that 
 
 he seemed hardly even to deliberate. He was 
 so master of his principles, that all the excite- 
 ment of plans was gone from him : how like in 
 this to our Lord in the Gospels, how like to 
 God in the adorable simplicity of His action. 
 What is the end of it all ? intense filial love of the 
 Church, and more and more hungry pining after God, 
 and yet a most patient cheerfulness, a most serene 
 confidence, nay, even a modest elation of heart and 
 soul, as if Jesus was for ever saying in our ears, with 
 the piteous sweetness His Blessed Voice must have 
 had that last Thursday night In mundo pressurdm 
 habebitis : sed confidite, ego vici mundum. In the world 
 you shall have distress ; but be confident, I have over- 
 come the world. (St. John xvi. 33.)
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 363 
 
 X. 
 
 NOVENA OF ST. PHILIP. 
 1. 
 
 SKETCH OF THE SAINT'S LIFE. 
 
 All lives of men are beautiful in their changes and 
 vicissitudes, all full of romance and poetry : or like 
 various music, a quiet pastoral, a stirring march, a 
 pathetic drama, a touching elegy, or strains of mutable, 
 fitful sweetness. Such is man's life as outward Provi- 
 dence ordains it : sin mars it. We are concerned now 
 with a life lived in the sixteenth century in the great 
 city of Rome, which with manifold vibrations is working 
 still on earth. 
 I. St. Philip's Picture. 
 
 1. The aged priest for the most part ashy pale, not 
 
 foreign-looking to us. 
 
 2. With a soft mellow sweetness as of one to be 
 
 familiar with, yet with a sternness underneath 
 as of one not to take liberties with. 
 
 3. Very simple and childlike, yet with a depth as of 
 
 one who knew secrets and had seen visions. We 
 do not exactly know why, but as we look on him 
 we think of St. Joseph. 
 II. The Boyhood. 
 
 1. He was born in beautiful Florence on the eve of 
 
 St. Mary Magdalen. The gravity and sweetness 
 of his childhood, which yet was not without 
 traits of humor and fun and geniality. 
 
 2. Gaeta the cleft mountain the inheritance re- 
 
 nounced.
 
 364 PART III. 
 
 III. The beginnings at Rome. 
 
 1. He was drawn there by instinct, and lived there 
 
 at first as a tutor in poverty and silence. 
 
 2. In catacombs, and studying in moonlit porticoes. 
 
 3. Receiving pilgrims and visiting hospitals. 
 
 4. Priesthood St. Girolamo the Seven Churches 
 
 beginnings of the Oratory his penitents. 
 
 5. The Vallicella and the Congregation founded. 
 
 IV. The sort of life. 
 
 1. Absence of all singularity. 
 
 2. Miracles daily, and ecstasies almost continually. 
 
 3. Apostolate of conversation and supernatural out- 
 
 breaks of devotion. 
 
 4. He silently took possession of all Rome as a per- 
 
 fume fills a room. 
 
 5. After eighty years he dies. And this life so 
 
 beautiful on earth was quietly translated to 
 heaven, to be continued still more beautifully 
 and on earth houses rose up all over the 
 world to catch the image of that life, and to 
 try to live it over again, and everywhere loving 
 hearts gather round these houses and feel instinct- 
 ively a joy and a security in belonging to St. 
 Philip. 
 
 2. 
 
 THK LOOK OF COMMONPLACENESS WITH SUCH A 
 SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 
 
 Let us go as foreigners to Rome in the sixteenth 
 century ; it is full enough of associations, and of relics, 
 and of shrines, and of the Sovereign Pontiff, to hide in 
 the beauty of its spiritual brightness a thousand living
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 365 
 
 saints as completely as if they were shrouded in the 
 earthly gloom of the catacombs. We hear talk of 
 Father Philip, and listen, and go to see him. We 
 write home what we have seen and heard. We see 
 him in his room the vineyard the street. 
 I. The look of his life. 
 
 1. A kindhearted priest with much zeal, yet some- 
 
 what irregular and eccentric in his zeal 
 otherwise commonplace enough. 
 
 2. He has joined no religious order, and seems to 
 
 have formed no extensive plans. 
 
 3. He is shy and has rather to be sought than comes 
 
 forward. 
 
 4. There is no look of austerity about him he is 
 
 rather free and easy and jocund. 
 
 5. Surely it is an exaggeration to speak of him as 
 
 a saint ; for there are no secrets about him ; 
 we see the whole of him, perhaps a man to 
 love rather than revere. Yet we left him 
 with our hearts softened and heated and gently 
 filled with God undoubtedly a good man, a 
 very good man. 
 
 II. The reality of his life. 
 
 1. His heart miraculously filled with the Holy 
 
 Ghost: his ribs broken. 
 
 2. His Mass of five hours daily. 
 
 3. His constant reading of the secrets of hearts. 
 
 4. Surrounded with light, and distilling strange 
 
 perfumes of some aromatic heaven. 
 
 5. Miracles going out from him almost like ordinary 
 
 actions, and his living without food. 
 
 III. This contrast is the type of his holiness: the 
 
 there hidden lives of Jesus, divine eclipsed by
 
 366 PART III. 
 
 human, glorious by passible, holy by unaffected- 
 ness such was St. Joseph's holiness, and such 
 St. Philip's. 
 
 1. St. Philip's studious pursuit of secrecy he risked 
 
 scandal rather than be found out. 
 
 2. His looking only to ends and not to means, to 
 
 God, not to devotions, &c. 
 
 3. His finding God equally or even preferably in 
 
 very little things. 
 
 4. His meekness, though he knew he was going to 
 
 be canonized. 
 
 5. Yet it was the very wonderfuluess of his sanctity 
 
 which caused him to look so commonplace. 
 Should we know a saint if we met one? I doubt 
 it. This is sad to think, but very profitable. How 
 we might have left St. Philip, and turned down 
 the Banchi toward St. Peter's, and thought how 
 commonplace he was, how he talked on ordinary 
 subjects, how careless about giving edification, what 
 light odd things he said for a grave old priest, and 
 what a sly look of mischief there was in his eye when 
 we parted. And while we walked and thus criticised, 
 behold ! lie in the secret of his room is floating in the 
 air, waving to and fro like a branch in the summer 
 wind, girdled with a golden light, hearing unutterable 
 words and seeing unutterable things down deep in 
 God! 
 
 3. 
 
 HIS SPIRIT OF LIBERTY AND ABSENCE OP METHOD. 
 
 I. All saints seem to have given scandal in their day, 
 St. Philip is no exception.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 367 
 
 1. This taking scandal at saints is an evidence of 
 
 corruption. 
 
 2. It was the same with our Blessed Lord. And the 
 
 world never learns ; it would take the same 
 ' amount of scandal, both in amount and kind, 
 if He came again. 
 
 3. That in which each saint gives scandal, is his char- 
 
 acteristic peculiarity ; and in that will be found 
 to consist the eminence of his holiness and sanc- 
 tity in its earlier stages, not very easily distin- 
 guishable from eccentricity. 
 II. What people took and take exception to in St. 
 
 Philip is his liberty of spirit and absence of 
 
 method. 
 
 1. As a saint in his own life. 
 
 (1) He was long years in Rome and yet joined no 
 
 religious order. 
 
 (2) He took all his steps, as direction and obedience 
 
 suggested, but even then formed no great or 
 definite plans. 
 
 (3) He was ready to give up his works at any 
 
 moment. 
 
 (4) His own spirituality was singularly free, and 
 
 left to God's action on him day by day. 
 
 2. As a founder and superior. 
 
 (1) The way his Congregation grew up piecemeal. 
 
 (2) He would not let his subjects have their time 
 
 to themselves. 
 
 (3) He would not have vows in it. 
 
 (4) He made the separation of each house essential, 
 
 that they might not band together for any 
 common end, or to forward any definite 
 views.
 
 368 PART III. 
 
 (5) His dislike of attachment to their work in his 
 
 subjects. 
 3. As a master of the spiritual life. 
 
 (1) Absence of set rules and methods ; each day 
 
 was to supply its own materials. 
 
 (2) His penitents were to keep in their own spheres 
 
 and at their social duties. 
 
 (3) His little interference with their external 
 
 things. 
 
 (4) His spirit of prayer so full of liberty as to 
 
 method. 
 
 (5) His variety of direction without any recogniz- 
 
 able technical peculiarity of his own. 
 III. Two schools of holiness in the Church, the school 
 of captivity and the school of liberty. St. Philip, 
 like St. Francis of Sales, singularly of the latter. 
 
 1. It came from his immense devotion to the Person 
 
 of the Holy Ghost. . Docility to inspirations was 
 to him instead of rule. 
 
 2. This made him immensely interior. God was his 
 
 one demand in himself and in others. 
 
 3. His horror of mere formality and habit, or 
 
 woodenness, or anything cut and dry. This 
 made him negligent, sometimes startlingly so, of 
 externals. 
 
 Both systems are holy ; I do not say that one is in 
 itself better than the other ; both are from God. But 
 I bless God that He has given to His Church the system 
 of liberty as well as that of holy captivity ; because 
 I feel for myself that I never could be spiritual 
 on the captivity system, whereas I hope that I may 
 some day or other attain to spirituality on the other 
 system.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 369 
 
 TV. ] Diving with St. Philip daily. 
 
 1. Meeting his clear quiet eye every morning, 
 
 feeling that we were seen through, that nothing 
 was unnoticed, nothing unremerabered. 
 
 2. Feeling how easily and also how deeply pained 
 
 he could be, how he revolted from all insincerity 
 and pretences. 
 
 3. Made uncomfortable by feeling that we had 
 
 weaknesses, he had not. 
 
 4. In good times we should enjoy it, in bad chafe 
 
 under it. 
 
 5. His sternness would grow on our notice and 
 
 yet his sweetness be ever gaining more empire. 
 
 6. Why should such a man attract? Because we 
 
 have all a distrust of self at bottom we do not 
 like standing alone life is a grave thing we 
 like to lean on some one of whom we are sure 
 and in sorrow and such like times he was all 
 sweetness and support. 
 
 4. 
 
 HIS REALITY. 
 
 I do not think that any devout person can look 
 long on St. Philip's picture without growing somewhat 
 afraid of him. He is the apostle of liberty, and yet 
 somehow not a man to take liberties with. 
 I. We meet with men in the world 
 1. Whom we admire and love yet are not at ease 
 with feel untruthful with. We have an in- 
 stinctive fear of their influence, and are rest- 
 less when we have to do with them. 
 Vol. I. 2A
 
 370 PART III. 
 
 2. There is something in them which we wish away : 
 
 and yet if it was away they would not be the 
 same men, nor should we ourselves love and 
 admire them so much. 
 
 3. It is their reality their genuineness their truth 
 
 not so much their truthfulness as their truth. 
 
 II. Keality. 
 
 1. A real man is a man without secrets or diplomacy. 
 
 2. His extreme simplicity, and his singleness of 
 
 purpose, invest him with a kind of sternness, 
 so that we feel rebuked in his presence. 
 
 3. Yet his heart is always full of gushing sympathies 
 
 and kindness. 
 
 4. He has a sort of impatience with foolishness, 
 
 insincerity, and circuitousness. 
 
 5. He sometimes tries us by the way he keeps to 
 
 the one point, and slips off disguises, and walks 
 on such a very straight road. 
 
 III. To live with such a mail is an education in itself, 
 
 and this is just what St. Philip was. I dare say 
 sometimes men thought him even wooden, because 
 he was so pertinaciously real, never unbending 
 from his simplicity, never giving his genuineness 
 a holiday. 
 
 . 1. His common sense in plans, in government, in 
 direction : his dislike of changes, and of non- 
 sense talked in the confessional. 
 
 2. His sternness which flashed out when any 
 
 insincerity came in his way, or any making of 
 difficulties. 
 
 3. The stress lie laid on perseverance, by which he 
 
 prevented liberty of spirit from degenerating 
 into off-handness and free-and-easiness.
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 371 
 
 4. His crusade against human respect the queer 
 
 things he did himself and made his people do. 
 All meant nothing more or less than this. 
 
 5. His mortification of the judgment also made men 
 
 real, while it hindered liberty from becoming 
 
 license. 
 
 Of all the things which I admire in our Holy Father 
 I admire none so much as his reality. It is the great 
 want of the times. It is the grace of all graces which 
 we every one of us stand most in need of. 
 
 5. 
 ST. PHILIP'S SPHERE. 
 
 While all saints do all the good they can find to do, 
 each has a sphere peculiarly his own, a work which 
 peculiarly belongs to him, and by which more especially 
 all after ages will know him in the Church. Now what 
 was St. Philip's sphere? 
 I. The spheres of saints. 
 
 1. There are aggressive saints like St. Ignatius : there 
 
 are also inventive saints. 
 
 2. There are revolutionary saints like St. Francis. 
 
 3. Historical saints like St. Athanasius raised up to 
 
 save an epoch. 
 
 4. There are reforming saints like St. Charles. 
 
 5. There are saints who perfume the Church like 
 
 sufferers and contemplatives. 
 
 6. How St. Philip had an element of all these saints 
 
 in him. 
 II. His choice of a sphere. 
 
 1. He was not allowed a foreign missionary field.
 
 372 PART III. 
 
 2. He sent many into religion, but did not enter it 
 
 himself. 
 
 3. His associations and instincts were all for prim- 
 
 itive times ; not for mediaeval saints, who would 
 hardly allow salvation out of the cloister ; nor 
 for modern ideas, which refused perfection out 
 of convents. 
 
 4. St. Philip took the world; took pity on it, and 
 
 taught that men and women might live in the 
 world, and be as perfect as the highest saints. 
 
 III. How he exemplified this. 
 
 1. In his dislike of change home is not the world, as 
 
 convent people say it is. 
 
 2. In his stress laid on the heart so like a thorough 
 
 Scriptural saint! 
 
 3. In founding his Congregation for the help of those 
 
 in the world. 
 
 4. In his wideness of spirit admitting all varieties 
 
 and even opposites of goodness. 
 
 5. In his choice of great cities for his sons to work 
 
 in. 
 
 IV. His peculiar attraction. 
 
 I observe that those who have a devotion to him 
 mostly have an enthusiastic devotion. Yet they can 
 hardly say on what it rests : it is rather some nameless 
 attraction than any specific grace or sweetness. Also 
 it is not to his work, or to his grace, but to himself 
 it is not to anything of St. Philip's but to St. Philip. 
 This nameless attraction is fitted for a sphere consisting 
 of such diversified materials. It is justly called an 
 attraction, an instinct, a spell : it draws us to him, 
 quietly moulds us quietly heats us quietly changes 
 us- -quietly makes us all for God. I have often
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 373 
 
 wondered what precisely it is, this nameless charm, 
 but I do not know. We feel it and are silent, and 
 our hearts fill with it, and we are happy in being his 
 children and at his feet : and somehow all he does 
 for us, and all he does in us, and all he makes us do, 
 and all the liberty he gives us, and his loving of us, 
 mid his frightening of us all somehow brings us round 
 to God ! 
 
 XI. 
 FIRST VESPERS OF ST. PHILIP. 
 
 All God's works come to an end, and for the most 
 part their end is more beautiful than their beginning; 
 and the end is often the beginning of a more heavenly 
 and eternal beauty. How true this is of the deaths of 
 the saints. 
 
 The feeling in the morning all through the house, 
 and then all through Rome, when St. Philip's death 
 was known. What it must have been to have lived 
 with a saint ! 
 
 I. As if the end of the world was come ; what next? 
 there is no next ! He had grown into the habits 
 of men's lives ; and yet, though warned in every 
 way, they found themselves unprepared. 
 II. His ways, his words, his looks, his haunts, all grow 
 vivid and into a unity to them ; they begin to 
 understand him. 
 
 [II. Hence they want him most, now that he is gone ; 
 to whom are they to go to confession? How 
 are they to do without his room, now become
 
 374 PART III. 
 
 like a sacrament to them? He has been so 
 quietly necessary to them, that it is incredible 
 he should be gone. They feel as if they also 
 should have died with him, for how can they 
 go on? 
 
 IV. Yet, strange to say, a growing joy makes itself 
 
 felt in their hearts. The joy comes from within, 
 and without any apparent natural cause. 
 
 V. They see him on his bier in church, and as he gave 
 
 light and perfume in his life, so he gives light and 
 sheds sweet odors down on the souls of those who 
 kneel there. It is the light of God, the sweet 
 odor of Jesus Christ. 
 
 VI. Spiritually he will continue to give this light and 
 
 to shed this perfume in our souls in an especial 
 manner on his feast-day year by year until Jesus 
 comes to Judge the world. 
 
 He has many places to look to this evening, many 
 Oratories to bless with his paternal benediction ; many 
 hearts to touch with his love, many benefactors of his 
 Congregations to enrich with especial graces ; many 
 souls to fill with his light and perfume : but the 
 Blessed can do all these things quietly in God. I 
 feel that his light and perfume are coming to us here. 
 By the light we see God and the shores of the Eternal 
 Land more plainly. By the perfume we lose more 
 and more of our relish for earthly things and are 
 secretly drawn to Jesus. O St. Philip, St. Philip! 
 my Father and my Master ! how fair is that light, and 
 how peculiar is the fragrance of that perfume! Sweet 
 light of St. Philip ! oh that we may always walk by it ! 
 Sweet perfume of St. Philip! oh that it may always 
 cling about our souls like a sensible presence of our
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 375 
 
 Blessed Lord ! Father, be not afraid, do not doubt we 
 will come to thee in Paradise ! 
 
 XII. 
 ST. PHILIP'S DAY. 
 
 I. For two hundred and sixty-six years St. Philip 
 has been looking upon the Face of God : he has 
 never wearied. It is ever new ; the years have 
 sped silently away ; they have not been like 
 years ; no springs or autumns, no winters or 
 summers; there has been the calmness of eternity. 
 
 1 . How much the world has gone through since, and 
 
 his own favorite Rome. 
 
 2. His own work, how it has lasted and spread and 
 
 to how many souls it has gone ! 
 
 3. Does not the thought of him, and of his calm 
 
 looking upon the Face of the Most Holy Trinity 
 
 this day, make us long for heaven. The times 
 
 are evil that makes us long for heaven. We 
 
 are evil ourselves, we are wearied of our own 
 
 foolishness oh how we long for the security, 
 
 the peace, the truth, the charity of heaven ! Oh 
 
 yes ! most of all for the charity of heaven. 
 
 II. But there are lives on earth which have a look, a 
 
 feeling, a fragrance of eternity about them. This 
 
 was quite a distinguishable characteristic of St. 
 
 Philip's life. 
 
 1. How his years were like eternal years so still, 
 so swift, so calm, so like each other.
 
 376 PART III. 
 
 2. Full of crosses, yet no ripples, no rufflings, no 
 
 sounds at all it was too deep. 
 
 3. He was called an apostle think o'f Roman roads 
 
 and hurrying toil he in his room for the most 
 part, or in quiet churches, or leisurely pacing 
 the streets of Rome: he stationary, and Rome 
 flowed by him, touched at him as at a harbor, 
 and went on all controlled by him. 
 
 4. Yet he was like an apostle in his love of the 
 
 primitive times, and early Christian life ; hence 
 his simplicity, his unity he kept aloof from 
 the world, yet exercised an almost ubiquitous 
 influence, through his simplicity and his love. 
 People told him he might influence it more by 
 leading a more public life. No ! he knew his 
 place ; he had ascertained his calling : he was 
 stationary, like eternity. 
 
 5. His unity was like eternity. He had only one 
 
 thought, only one secret, only one way, only 
 one work : to make God dearer to men, and 
 that in direct ways, not in indirect, however 
 excellent. Hence his success, hence that re- 
 markable, and it would have seemed so unlikely, 
 oracle of the Church, which authoritatively 
 conferred upon him the title of Apostle of 
 Rome. Is it not strange ? An apostle shy and 
 hidden, keeping out of people's way, shunning 
 every kind and shape of notoriety; a light 
 whose power was in its being wellnigh in- 
 visible. 
 
 III. How did he work upon his times? What did 
 he tell people to do? His times were bad, as 
 ours are : and he was raised up, remember, to
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 377 
 
 be the apostle of his times in the centre and 
 capital of all Christendom. 
 
 1. The things he did not do ; yet other saints had 
 
 done them. 
 
 (1) He never went the world's way, nor bor- 
 
 rowed its methods, however good or pro- 
 mising or lawful they might be. 
 
 (2) He preached no reforms, but the secret re- 
 forms of single souls. 
 
 (3) He founded no intellectual school of phi- 
 
 losophy or theology. 
 
 (4) He stood aloof from all political movements, 
 
 or views, as things not to his purpose. In- 
 deed I cannot fancy St. Philip having any 
 views; his whole soul was in the Church; 
 his views were not views, they were faiths, 
 principles, obediences. 
 
 (5) He attacked nothing, unless indeed it were 
 
 sin, frivolity, worldliness, and the reluctance 
 of rich people to give large alms ; not even 
 did he attack dress or expensiveness, in- 
 tensely as he hated both the one and the 
 ather. 
 
 2. What did he tell people to do? Oh strange 
 
 foolish wisdom of the Gospel ! 
 
 (1) To keep in their own places, and attend to 
 
 their ordinary actions, avoiding change, 
 avoiding excitement. 
 
 (2) To be exceedingly simple, and "not to mind 
 
 criticisms and talk. If you are devout to 
 St. Philip, he will give you the grace not to 
 care what people say of you and is not 
 that perfect happiness?
 
 378 PART III. 
 
 (3) To be always reading the lives of the saints, 
 
 because that makes an atmosphere, and 
 excludes worldliness without trouble. 
 
 (4) To pray, frequent the sacraments, and hear a 
 
 great many sermons. 
 
 (5) To love everybody, to praise everybody, and 
 
 to find good in everybody. And all this 
 because of the one mastering thought and 
 sovereign love of God. 
 
 What was there wonderful in all this? Was it not 
 strangely commonplace, for a saint in whose broken 
 heart the Holy Ghost dwelt supernaturally, and who 
 was the recognized Apostle of great Rome? Yes ! this 
 was wonderful, that he kept to it, that he mixed 
 nothing else with it, that he added nothing else to it, 
 that he persevered in this bare singleness of purpose. 
 This is in my eyes a greater miracle than we read in 
 any of the lives of the saints. 
 
 See then, brethren, to what a conclusion we have 
 come! The saint, who had the Holy Ghost in his 
 miraculously dilated heart, is the most commonplace 
 of saints; yet he is also the most peculiar and in- 
 dividual of saints, because of the persevering simplicity 
 of his commonplaceness. Oh how much there is to 
 learn, how much to learn of God and Jesus Christ in 
 this one fact that St. Philip became the Apostle of 
 Rome, a second Peter and a second Paul in his one 
 self, through the mere perseverance of his enthusiastic, 
 unadventurous simplicity !
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 379 
 
 XIII. 
 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER* 
 
 Work your work before the time, and He will give 
 your reward in His time. (Ecclus. li. 38.) 
 
 No scene in history is more significant than the few 
 apostles with the world before them. 
 I. Character of our own age. 
 
 1. It is an age of enthusiasms; partly material, and 
 
 partly intellectual : concern ing science, commerce, 
 discovery. 
 
 2. The impossible seems almost fading out of view ; 
 
 what a lesson the world is reading to us. 
 
 3. Why not an enthusiasm all for God? a sober, 
 
 steady, business-like enthusiasm, like the mate- 
 rial one we see around us. 
 
 II. Lesson of St. Francis Xavier's life. 
 
 1. What one man can do, who is all for God, 
 
 2. Who has begun with sanctifying himself, 
 
 3. And who then keeps within his own appointed 
 
 sphere. 
 
 4. The" sobriety of his enthusiasm kindling, not 
 
 stifling, his fervor is the wonder. 
 
 5. It is a characteristic of true enthusiasm to neglect 
 
 no means of grace. 
 
 6. Now living in an unbelieving country is a means 
 
 of grace both to ourselves and others. 
 
 III. We are all missioners, and England is our Japan. 
 
 Let us convert it. 
 1. By example. 
 
 * Preached at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm 
 Street.
 
 380 PART III. 
 
 2. By sweetness, yet by gravity in our sweetness. 
 
 3. By incessant prayer. 
 
 4. By works of mercy to others. 
 
 5. By union and absence of jealousy among our- 
 
 selves; for what the world envies is our 
 union. 
 
 6. By holiness, which is a power and an attraction 
 
 beyond all others. 
 
 When we look at the map of the world, and see the 
 countries which St. Francis overran, when we think of 
 the thousands and hundreds of thousands of those whom 
 he baptized, when we weigh up his difficulties, count 
 up his failures, follow him in his toils and learn sympa- 
 thetically to estimate his disappointments, we are 
 amazed, and humbled and gladdened also while we are 
 amazed, to think how much one man can do, to whom 
 nature gives an enthusiastic loving heart, and grace 
 the magnificent gift of being simply, always, and only 
 All for God ! 
 
 XIV. 
 THE FEAR OF THE SAINTS. 
 
 Meddle not with the names of saints. (Ecclus. 
 xxiii. 10.) 
 
 The reason of unanswered prayer and of inefficacious 
 devotions is the want of more fear. This applies very 
 much to our devotion to the saints. 
 
 Our view too often is that they lived holy lives, 
 worked miracles, have gone to God, are crowned kings 
 in heaven, and are now conveniences to us as additional
 
 OUR BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. 381 
 
 means of grace, and doubtless are fresh ornaments of 
 heaven. We do not fear them. 
 
 But there are motives for other devotion than 
 this. 
 
 I. How majestic a saint is in himself. Great holiness 
 
 is a thing to fear. 
 
 II. The greatness of his power and glory in heaven. 
 
 III. The honor of God, which is deeply implicated in 
 
 the worship paid to the saint. 
 
 IV. In some sense He is more jealous of it than of 
 
 His own ; less patient of levity with them than 
 with Himself, and frequently punishes persons 
 for this. 
 
 V. The saints themselves have also entered into 
 
 the dispositions of God, and, with a sort of 
 vindictive holiness, hard for us in our present 
 state to understand, resent familiarities and 
 impertinences. We regard them too much 
 as on our side, to get things from God for us. 
 Some saints have shown this vindictiveness 
 more than others. 
 
 VI. Faith is the chief ingredient in a true devotion to 
 
 the saints ; faith in the reality of their power, 
 and of their relationship towards us. It is a 
 great sign of a man being supernatural when 
 he fears to offend a saint. 
 
 VII. The favors of the saints form a great department 
 
 of the Divine mercies, and play an important 
 part in the sanctification of holy men. Often 
 the punishments of the saints do this last also ; 
 and this is especially the case with founders 
 of orders, both to their children and to the 
 enemies of their orders.
 
 382 PART III. 
 
 VIII. Weakness of prayer is one of the feeblenesses 
 of our times, through want of faith and fear : 
 this is one way to set them right. We always 
 fear those in whom we have confidence. We 
 cannot ever put confidence in those whom we 
 do not in some way fear. 
 
 The Church expresses the old-fashioned devotion to 
 the saints by threatening disobedience to Bulls, &c , with 
 the anger of the holy Apostles SS. Peter and Paul.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Acts in God, 50 
 
 Adoration, spirit of, 5 of God's 
 mercy, 14 
 
 Age, old, loneliness of, 193 
 
 Agony, the, 181, 351 
 
 All for God, 38 
 
 Alphonso, St., 232 
 
 Ambrose, St., 352 
 
 Angel Guardian, affection for 
 our, 322 
 
 Angels, creation of, 315 the 
 Guardian, 320 
 
 Angels, the, 67 eldest of crea- 
 tures, 71 trialof, 72 behold- 
 ing the Passion, 207 
 
 Anne, St., 297 
 
 Annas, 257 
 
 Apostle of Rome, 376 
 
 Apostles, the, during the Pas- 
 sion, 208 ^desert our Lord, 
 246 vocations of, 247 
 
 Arrears of the wrath of God, 
 343 
 
 Ashes of St. Thomas, 358 
 
 Assumption, the, 304, 305 
 
 Astonishment, one of the chief 
 joys of heaven, 288 
 
 Athanasius, St., 371 on the 
 word Paraclete, 79 
 
 Attraction of St. Philip, 372 
 
 Attributes of God, 7 have emi- 
 nences inconceivable, 9 as 
 seen by the blessed, 12 mar- 
 vellous, 43 
 
 Austerity, power of with God, 
 345, 347 
 
 Barabbas, 243 
 
 Beauty, exterior, of Jesus, 190 
 interior, 191 of the dying 
 Face of Jesus, 267 all, is the 
 likeness to God, 289 
 
 Benediction, 146 
 
 Benignity of God, 22 
 
 Bernard, B., of Corlione, 230 
 
 Bernardine, St., 182 
 
 Bethlehem, 115 star of, 119 
 
 Bethsaida, pool of, 303, 322 
 
 Billuart, 56 
 
 Blood, the Precious, a phrase 
 which St. Peter invented, 17 
 necessity of remembering 
 the, 23 mystery of, 250 
 
 Blosius, 156 
 
 Bonaventure, St., on the Pas- 
 sion, 281 
 
 Bosom of God, 29, 43 our 
 home, 119 
 
 Boyhood of St. Philip, 363 
 
 Calmness, 143 of the Sacred 
 Heart, 152 
 
 Calvary, 169, 211, 215 shadows 
 of, 211 of St. Peter, 216 
 
 Charity, the great want, 102 
 
 Charles, St., 360, 370 reform 
 of, 361 simplicity of, 361 
 spirit of, 362 
 
 Christmas day, 114, 116 
 
 Church, the, 73 spirit of the, 
 309 troubles of, 339 cau- 
 tions against representing her 
 to be what she is not, 349 
 
 Columba, B., of Rieti, 266 
 
 Comforter, the Holy Ghost the, 
 79 
 
 383
 
 384 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Coming to God, 39 
 Compassion of Jesus, 181 
 Complaining, the, of Jesus, 256 
 Conception, the Immaculate, 
 292 devotion to, 295 pre- 
 parations for, 296 
 Concurrence, the divine, 59 
 Condemnation, none for those 
 
 in Christ, 162 
 Conservation, 60 
 Contempt of God, 185 
 Converts, 120 
 Creator, the, in the power of 
 
 His creatures, 200 
 Creation, 13 might have been 
 eternal, 56 but is temporal, 
 57 in a state of grace, 62 
 sprang out of the Incarna- 
 tion, 70 of matter, 71 
 Creatures, eternally possible, 56 
 rebellion of, at the Passion, 
 200 
 
 Crispin, B., of Viterbo, 95 
 Cross, shame of the, 184, 187 
 stations of the, 266 the 
 strength of Christians, 357 
 Crucifix, the, meditations on, 
 232 
 
 Delight, the, of God in the per- 
 fections of Mary, 290 
 
 Descents, seven, of the soul in 
 the deeps of the Passion, 221 
 
 Death, a great change, 41 lone- 
 liness of, 194 of Jesus, 218_ 
 
 Dereliction of the Father, 195 
 
 Devotion, a, may be grounded ' 
 on a probable opinion, 89 to 
 the Passion the surest sign of | 
 predestination, 223 of the ' 
 Stations of the Cross, 266 to | 
 St.Th'omas of Canterbury, 358 
 to St. Philip, 377 
 
 Devotion to the omnipotence of 
 God, 7 makes us more gen- 
 tle, 8 
 
 Devotion to the Holy Ghost, 87 
 of Jesus, 77 how attaina- 
 ble, 88 effects of. 95 
 
 Devotion to Mary the great gift 
 of Jesus, 275 
 
 Devotions for an interior life, 
 124 
 
 Disappointments of God, 21 
 Discontent, Christian, 44 
 Dismas and Gesmas, 217 
 Divinity of Jesus in the Pas- 
 sion, 201 
 
 Docility to the Holy Ghost, 105 
 Dolors of the Passion, 182 
 
 seven, of St. Joseph, 331 
 Dove, a symbol of the Holy 
 Ghost, 92 
 
 Easter, 137 
 
 Ecce Homo, 175, 186, 202 
 Eminences of the HolyGhost,52 
 Enfants de Marie, 308 
 England and Judaea, 335 
 Epiphany, the, 119 feast of 
 
 converts, 120 mystery of, 
 
 121 
 Epochs, the three of the Holy 
 
 Trinity, 3, 4 of the natural 
 
 world, 72 
 
 Evil, the circle of, 197 
 Excess of the Passion, 172 
 Exile of St. Thomas, 350 of 
 
 Pius IX., 354 
 
 Face of Jesus, 163, 245 during 
 
 the Passion, 245 
 Faith believes incredible things, 
 
 17, 84 strength of, 339 
 Fall of the Apostles, 248 
 Father, God our, 27 
 Faults in our prayer, 6 
 Fear of the Saints, 380 
 Fire, God a God of, 103 
 Flax, the smoking, 28 
 Foolishness, the, of God, 132 
 Forbearance, the Divine, 20 
 Francis, St., 368 
 Francis Xavier, St., 379 
 Freshness of Jesus, 153 
 Fruits of the Holy Ghost, 82 
 
 Gabriel, St., 321 
 
 Gertrude, St., 86 
 
 Ghost, the Holy, 47 dwelling 
 in us, 49, 63 End of crea- 
 tures^S in the Church, 73 
 sin against, 73 devotion of, 
 to Jesus,- 74 Spouse of, 75 
 the soul, and, 78 in the Sac- 
 raments, 80 Inspirations of,
 
 INDEX. 
 
 385 
 
 85, 105 Devotion to, 87 
 seeming waywardness of, 92 
 contrasts between the, and 
 Jesus, 96 Docility to, 105 
 
 Gifts, of the Holy Ghost, 80 
 arrangement of, by Isaias, 81 
 growth of, 82 gratuitous, 
 84 of God, 275 of Jesus, 
 276 
 
 Glory, order of, 64 
 
 Goodness, 83 
 
 Grace, sanctifying, 6 1 order of, 
 61 
 
 Graces, gratis datce, 85 
 
 Gregory, St., the Great, 95 
 
 Gregory VII., St., 352, 354 
 
 Harvest of the Gospel, 340 
 
 Hatred, horrible, 255 
 
 Heart, the Sacred, 148, 150, 284 
 
 Heart, the Immaculate, 291 
 
 Heaven, what is, 286 
 
 Hell, belief in, 23 all want to 
 
 escape, 24 
 Heresy, 66 as a sin against the 
 
 Holy Ghost, 94 a protest 
 
 against the Cross, 230 
 Hierarchy, the angelic, 317, 318 
 History of theTIoly Ghost, 68 
 Holiness, impossible without 
 
 Mary, 282 two schools of, 
 
 in the Church, 368 
 Home, our, in God, 43 
 Humility, of God, 304 of St. 
 
 Thomas of Canterbury, 347 
 
 Ignatius, St., at Manresa, 86 
 an aggressive saint, 371 
 
 Imitation of Jesus, 284 
 
 Incarnation, the, 62 how affect- 
 ed by sin, 72 eternal plan of, 
 111 specially for us, 284 
 
 Incomprehensibility of God, 8 , 
 what it is, 10 St. Teresa's 
 devotion to the, 10 
 
 Indiscretion, slur of, 347 
 
 Indulgence of God, 26 
 
 Indwelling of the Holy Ghost, 
 63,78 
 
 Innocence of our Lord, 241 
 
 Inspirations, 85 the waste of , 
 90 consequence of not listen- 
 ing to, 106 
 Vol. I. 
 
 Investigations, theological, 47 
 
 effects of, 48 
 Instruments of the Passion, 178 
 
 Jacob's well, 133 
 
 Jerome, St., on the Passion, 175 
 
 Jesus, predestination of, 70 
 devotion of, to the Holy Ghost, 
 73 life of, in the Bosom of 
 the Father, 111 His choice 
 of poverty,129 prayerof, 130 
 Mystery of His being 
 thought inad, 131 at the 
 well, 133 in Limbus, 134 
 Easter joy of, 137 perpetual 
 freshness of, 153 tears of, 159 
 first sight of the face of, 163 
 beauty of, 189 before Her- 
 od, 191 Death of, 218 Inno- 
 cence of, 242 silence of, 243, 
 251 Face of, 245 complain- 
 ings of, 257 legacies of, 264 
 journeys of, 269 Trials of, 
 270 gifts of, 276 depend- 
 ence of, on Mary, 280 seem- 
 ing weakness of, 351 present 
 in the B. Sacrament, 298 
 
 Jews, the, during the Passion, 
 208, 251 the cry of Blood, 
 252 the state of, 335 
 
 Joachim, St., 297 
 
 Joseph, St., 116, 327 death of, 
 328 meditations on, 330 
 joys of, 332 a model, 334 
 
 Joseph of Cupertino, St., on the 
 loss of Judas, 250 
 
 Journeys, the seven, of Jesus, 
 269 
 
 Joy in Heaven, wherein it con- 
 sists, 41 
 
 Joys of Mary, 312 of St. Jo- 
 seph, 332 
 
 Judas, 248, 258 
 
 John the Baptist, St., 335, 346 
 
 Kingdoms, the three, of Jesus, 
 299 
 
 Kings, the three, 120 charac- 
 teristics of, 336 virtues of,337 
 
 Legacies, the, of Jesus, 264 
 Lent, 149 
 
 Lidwine, St., of Schiedam, 266 
 SB
 
 386 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Life, a service, 28 a Godlike 
 gift, 57 always a happiness, 
 58 of Jesus, a'life of love, 155 
 St. Philip's, 363 
 
 Likeness of God, Mary the, 288 
 
 Limbus 63, 134 
 
 Longanimity, 83 
 
 Love, so little given to God, 35 
 is work, 36 
 
 Love of God for our souls, 30 
 strangeness of the, 31 not 
 easily wearied, 32 of Jesus, 
 
 lOt} 
 
 Love of Mary, 293 
 Lucifer, 305 
 
 Madness attributed to God, 132 
 Majesty of God, 20 
 Martyrdom, what it is, 58 
 Mary, tranquillity of, 12 full 
 of mercy, 13 bound up with 
 Jesus, 75 sanctifications of, 
 91 Predestination of, 112 
 beauty of, 139 during the 
 Passion, 207 the mother of 
 sinners, 277 the safety of 
 souls,279 dependence on, 281 
 measures of the love of, 285 
 magnifying God, 286 of- 
 fice of, 286 God's delight in 
 the perfections of, 290 Im- 
 maculate Conception of, 292, 
 205 Assumption of, 293 
 love of, 294 humility of, 304 
 the manifestation of the 
 kingdom of grace, 306 an ex- 
 emplification of the spirit, 
 not the letter, 308 joys of, 
 312 
 
 Mary Magdalene, St., 140 
 Mass, the first, 239 of St. Phil- 
 ip, 366 
 
 Maternity, the Divine, 295 
 Matter, creation of, 71 
 Mediocrity, a soul of, 30 
 Meditation on the Angels, 315 
 Men, judgment of, despised by 
 
 St. Thomas, 353 
 Mercies of God, 18 
 Mercy, of God, 12 ways of, 13 
 God, rich in, 14 a mystery, 
 17 
 Michael, St., worship of, 321 
 
 Mind suffers more than the 
 
 body, 179 
 
 Miracles of St. Philip, 365 
 Mission, doctrine of, 65, 76 
 Mocking God, 33 what it is, 34 
 
 everything except a true 
 
 conversion, 35 
 Modesty, 84 
 More for God. 37 
 Mother, the, and her many sons, 
 
 294 
 Mysteries of God's ways, 48 
 
 of the Passion, 225 
 
 Name, the Holy, feast of, 123 
 our trust, 160 
 
 Nativity, the, 114 
 
 Nature, 61 Mary in the king- 
 dom of, 287 inanimate, 289 
 and grace, 305 
 
 Nazareth, the men of, 189 
 
 Neutrality impossible for crea- 
 tures with regard to God, 60 
 
 Nicodemus, 73 
 
 Novatus, 85 
 
 Novena of St. Philip, 363 
 
 Obligations, our, to Jesus, 283 
 Oils, the holy, 73" 
 Omnipotence of God, devotion 
 
 to, 7 
 Opinion, probable, a ground for 
 
 a devotion, 89 
 Oratory, spirit of the, 96, 99 
 
 beginnings of, 364 
 Ordinations, 74 
 
 Paganism, 72 
 
 Paraclete, the, 79 
 
 Passion,the,169 mystical char- 
 acter of, 171 bodily pains of, 
 175 instruments of, 178 
 mental sufferings of, 180 
 shame of, 184, 187 solitari- 
 ness of, 193 spectators of, 197 
 ever living in the Church, 
 211 an attraction, 212 in 
 the active and contemplative 
 life, 212, 213 the grand ob- 
 ject of devotion, 224 effects 
 of, in the world, 228 our de- 
 votion through the year, 262 
 
 Pater Paupcrum, 127
 
 INDEX. 
 
 387 
 
 Pater Noster, the, 130 
 Patience of God, 11,20 
 Penance, necessity of, 22 for 
 
 devotion to the Passion, 268 
 Pentecost, 76, 101 
 Person of Jesus Christ, 126 
 Philip, St., 87 heart of, 105, 
 
 125, 378 Novena of, 363 
 Philip Benizi, St., 232 
 Pilate, 242, 250 
 Pilgrimages, 266 
 Poor, the favorites of God, 127 
 
 consolations of, 128 
 Pontigny, 351 
 
 Pope, infallibility of the, 66 
 Poverty, the choice of Jesus, 129 
 Practices, devotional, in honor 
 
 of our Guardian Angel, 325 
 Prayer for sinners, 301 
 Predestination, of Jesus, 71 of 
 
 Mary, 292 
 Principles, the three, of human 
 
 life, 11 strength of high, 350 
 Procession of the Holy Ghost, 
 
 47, 51 eternal, 52 
 Protestantism, 336 
 Punishment, eternal, 23 
 Purgatory, 164 
 
 Quarant' Ore, the, 149 
 Queen, the Immaculate, 298 
 
 Raphael, St., 322 
 
 Heed, the bruised, 24 
 
 Religion must be taken as God 
 has revealed it, 24 what ours 
 ought to be, 104 
 
 Repentance grows harder by de- 
 lay, 40 
 
 Respect, human, a tyranny, 28 
 
 Resurrection, the, 134, 140 
 victory of, 135 a mystery of 
 calmness, 143 
 
 Rome, laid waste, 338, 339 
 
 Rosary, the, 307 the testament 
 of "Mary, 308 
 
 Sacrament, the Blessed, 147 
 happiness of Jesus in, 157 
 is Jesus Himself, 161 con- 
 nection of, with the Passion, 
 170 
 
 Saints, aggressive, 371 
 
 Salerno, 355 
 
 Sanctifications of Mary, 75, 91 
 Salvation, 246 
 Salvete flares martyrum, 358 
 Satan, how men become his 
 
 property, 28 
 
 Scalza, Ven., Paola Maria, 176 
 Scandal, 367 
 Scourgings, the, 177 
 Secrecy, of God, 9 object of St. 
 
 Philip, 366 
 
 Serafina de Dio, Ven., 96, 99 
 Service, life a, 28 
 Shame of the Cross, 184 
 Silence at the Passion, 251 of 
 
 our Lord, 256 
 Sinners, praying for, 301 
 Sins, 262 
 
 Sleep of Jesus, 179 
 Solitude, 193 of the Passion, 
 
 194, 195 
 
 Sorrow, nature of, 159, 160 
 Sorrows, the Man of, 221 
 Soul, each, separately loved by 
 God, 31 beauty of, in a state 
 of grace, 136 of Jesus, trials 
 of, 196 
 Souls, perishing, 38 Mary the 
 
 safety of, 279 
 
 Spectators of the Passion, 206 
 Spouse of the Holy Ghost, 75, 77 
 Stations of the Cross, 266 
 Stigmatization, 214 
 Stupidities well meant, 21 
 Success, a perpetual struggle, 28 
 Sufferings, unknown, of the Pas- 
 sion, 173 
 Sword of Peter, 355 
 
 Talking a source of sin, 6 
 
 Taste for God, 41 a magnifi- 
 cent grace, 42 
 
 Tears of Jesus, 159 
 
 Temperance, 84 
 
 Teresa, St., devotion to the in- 
 comprehensibility of God, 10 
 on seeming faults, 26 -de- 
 votion of, to St. Joseph, 334 
 
 Thomas, St., of Canterbury, 312 
 his hatred of meanness, 341 
 in the court, 342 in strife, 
 347 humility of, 348-- in ex- 
 ile, 350 despised men's judg- 
 ment, 353 devotion to, 358
 
 388 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Tongue, sins of the, 236 
 Touch of God, 42 
 Thief, the impenitent, 198 
 Thomas, St., 318 on creation, 
 
 56 
 
 Thorns, the Crown of, 260 
 Transformation of the whole 
 
 man, the work of the Passion, 
 
 214 
 
 Trinity, the Holy, 3, 50, 76 
 Truth, not men's but God's, 349 
 
 Uncreated, threshold of the, 65 
 Union with God, in the order 
 of nature, 61 of grace, 61 
 because of the Incarnation, 
 62 special work of the In- 
 carnation, 63 
 
 Varani, B., Battista, 182, 184 
 Via Dolorosa, 176, 189, 191 
 Victory of the Resurrection, 135 
 Vision, the Beatific, the cause 
 
 of our not sinning in heaven, 
 5 during the Passion, 204 
 Vocation of the Apostles, 247 
 
 Ways of mercy, 13 
 
 Weakness.the strength of Chris- 
 tians, 351, 354 
 
 Weariness, 153 
 
 Well, Jacob's, 133 
 
 Will of God, 327 
 
 Words, the Seven, 216 
 
 Works, the divine, 12 
 
 World, the, how viewed by 
 saints, 117 
 
 Worship of Mary, 287 
 
 Wounds, the Five, 256 
 
 Years, the thirty-three, 73 all 
 Christian life like, 97 were 
 a passion, 172 Face of Jesus 
 in, 245 
 
 Years, the sixty-three, of Mary, 
 309
 
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